Book Review 2024.07: The Essentials of Hinduism -A Comprehensive Overview of the World’s Oldest Religion, 194 pages, Paperback, 1998
Over the last few days, I had been listening to the informative lectures by Swami Sarvapriyanandaji of the Ramakrishna Mission on various aspects of Consciousness, Time and Space and the convergence of Vedanta with the modern science on the You Tube in my evening walks. These talks on specific topics made me curious to have an overview of Hinduism, and on browsing through my library, I found this book by Swami Bhaskarananda, also of Ramakrishna Mission, that is short and concise, and ideal to provide me with the birds’ eye view.
True to its title, the book is comprehensive and covered most of the prominent aspects of Hinduism in its twenty-two chapters covering amongst others the primary sources of knowledge like the Vedas, Samhitas, Brahmanas, Upanishads, the two epics and puranas, the doctrine of Karma and Reincarnation, the four Yogas- Bhakti, Jnana, Raja, and Karma yoga, the three Gunas, and the theories of creation found in the six philosophical schools of Hinduism. The brief chapters were informative and touched upon the basic concepts and the central ideas without getting too much into details.
The author’s deep and wide knowledge provides the reader with insights and information to connect different concepts like Karma and Reincarnation or the three Gunas and its effects. The interesting and memorable anecdotes from daily life scattered through the book is a great means of communicating abstract spiritual concepts to people less spiritually inclined, like me, to understand them. The views of different schools in Hinduism are also explained by providing the different perspective from which the seemingly conflicting views emerge. The only dissonance I felt while reading this book was in the few parts that try to explain the traditional logic used in the past for some outdated views on the position of women and widow remarriage which is in conflict with what is acceptable to a rational mind born in the second half of the twentieth century.
I feel this book is a valuable source to anyone interested in getting an overview of the various concepts and ideas that form the essence of Hinduism without getting too much into details but at the same time not ignoring any basic concept.
Happy reading to anyone trying to understand Hinduism better..
