Basic Lessons on India's Wisdom

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This book is written with the intention of educating the young generation of Indians living abroad. People who have migrated from India to other cou s such as Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Mouritius, African Countries are cut off from the mainstream of their spiritual growth. Even the youngsters of India, in pursuit of modern education, have lost their essential touch with the mainstream of Indian spirituality. This book tries to fill this gap.
It serves the following purposes in a lucid way in the format of a dialogue:
1. It answers almost all the questions the youngsters are likely to ask about their religion and culture.
2. It brings home the essence of India's Wisdom.
3. One of the major Upanişads (Isa Upanisad) is made familiar with.
4. The message of oneness of all religions is laid bare.
The lessons in this book are not meant to be read at one stretch. One lesson a day is recommended.

My life in the Geeta Ashram in the tiny Island of Fiji from 1989 to 1991 was that of a recluse. The only happening moments were the lively discussions I had with the teenagers of the Indian community which were replete with questions on Indian culture and spirituality. This book originally was written as an answer to the numerous doubts raised by them. It was first serialised in a local weekly newspaper. It took its book form with the noble intention of reaching out to the high school studen in the Island. Soon after its release I had to leave for America.
On reaching America, my talks with the youngsters of Indian origin, gave me the feeling that the book would be of use to them too. I readily distributed the copies I had with me. Later, it dawned on me that this book could be of use not only for the Indians abroad, but even for those in India, as Indians seem to have lesser or, sadly enough, no proper understanding of the Wisdom heritage of India.
Two editions of the book have already come up. Though the book is much in demand, we have been trying to refine it to be perfect both languagewise and ideawise. Some areas have been rewritten and the editing has been done promptly and effectively by Dr. S. Rani. We publish this revised edition with more satisfaction with regard to its content and quality.
This book I fervently hope, will shed light on the basic tenets of Indian Spirituality in the readers who make use of it for bettering themselves.
I feel the Grace of the eternal Guru in everything behind this book.

Basic Lessons on India's Wisdom is one of the latest books of Swami Muni Narayana Prasad written with the intention of educating youngsters, especially those who live in countries abroad. People who have migrated from India to other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, United States, United Kingdom, Canada and African nations, are cut off from the mainstream of their spiritual growth and the astounding volume of Indian spiritual literature that has come into vouge during the past one hundred years. Even the youngsters in India, in their pursuit of modern education, have lost essential touch with the mainstream of Indian spirituality. Thus there is an existing lacuna of bona fide interpretation of India's Wisdom, particularly as enshrined in the Vedas. Upanisads, ep ics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana and books of Perennial Wisdom like the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Vasistha Ramayana.
Swami Muni Narayana Prasad, who comes in the wisdom heritage of Narayana Guru as a direct disciple of Nataraja Guru, has had a thorough-going training under the personal supervision of Nataraja Guru and he has a perfect mastery of Vedanta. Instead of bigotedly confining himself to the monistic school of Advaita, he has studied Sri Sankara's interpretations of the ten Upanisads and the Vedanta Sutras, critically comparing them with the works of Sri Ramanuja and Madhva.
Nataraja Guru was interested in making a positive link between religion and science, particularly between physics and metaphysics. Continuing the same tradition, the Swami has studied the impact of quantum physics on the minds of contempo rary philosophers. He has made himself fully acquainted with the latest literary developments in both modern science and phi losophy. His penetrative insight into the Upanisads makes him a reliable authority in teaching the basics of Upanisadic lore and the secrets of the Bhagavad Gita in a lucid and convincing manner.
The style adopted in this book is very much of a dialogue, like we see in classical books of dialectical wisdom, such as the Chandogya Upanişad or Bhagavad Gita and Western classics. This is a very ideal format that can bring home the lessons in a very telling manner.
I went through the whole text with deep interest and found it correct in its presentation, and valuable in the contribution it makes. I can safely recommend this book to any interested aspirant to study it both as a source book of the basics of Indian Wisdom and to ponder over it to be benefited by its treasured hidden blessings. May the divine teacher in each one of us bring home to every one of us the irresistible joy of Self-realization.

The majority of the young people these days believe that religion is an archaic irrelevance. The life-style of many reflects scant regard to moral and religious traditions. Many have yet to come around to investigate the nature of the rout they have themselves inflicted on their own thinking and way of life. In this context Swami Muni Narayana Prasad's book is timely and relevant. From the pages of this book come the thoughts and reflections of a remarkable Swami. He looks across the realm of Vedantic philosophy, being the wisdom of India, and its relevance in our daily life. He focuses on various issues from the standpoint of this wisdom, which shapes and gives meaning to our spiritual and daily life.
This book is presented to the general public in a lucid and non-technical language. Though the book is generally intended for the Hindu community, since the learned Swami's approach to the subject is universal, it is relevant to the believers and non-believers alike.
Though the learned Swami actually deals with Isavasya Upanisad in this book, the reader will easily understand without much difficulty the wealth of information stored up in this book. The questions asked in this book lead to answers which are given in a clear and comprehensive way. This style is similar to the one followed by Socrates, the Greek philosopher who engaged Athenians in self-examination through questions and answers, regarding ethics, justice, love, virtue and self knowledge. Swami Muniji has also adopted this method to guide his students to attain a higher level of self-expression through sincere and honest self-analysis guided by discussions and reasoning.