Synopses & Reviews
Review
Splendidly organized, incorporating the best of translations, this collection presents the educated layman with a concise but noble spectrum of Indian philosophy from 2000 B.C. to the present.
Included are Vedic hymns and excerpts from the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. There are generous portions from the Laws of Manu and the teachings of modern mystics Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, and Krishnamurti. Gandhis writings on nonviolence and Tagores on soul-consciousness are represented. The volume concludes with twentieth-century theories of value, the self, and God, by philosophers Radhakrishnan and Coomaraswamy, among others.
Each section begins with a succinct explanation of that particular philosophys place in Indian history, and short biographies of the philosophers. Eighteen of the most significant and recurring theses are outlined in the introduction. There is a chronology and bibliography.
Gerber, lecturer in philosophy at the University of Maryland, has produced a rare ambassador of a bookan anthology for which both East and West will be grateful.”Leona B. Bagai, Books Abroad