Hinduism is not just a religious belief, it is also a philosophy based upon certain key concepts. Modern Hindu Thought: An Introduction is devoted to the analysis of the concepts of modern Hindu thought, where modern is understood to begin by c. 1800 by when major changes in the political, social, and religious life of India had begun to occur as a result of the European presence in India. This volume offers readers an excellent grounding in the rich and diverse traditions of Hindu thought and is an essential reading for anyone interested in Hinduism, Indian philosophy, and religion

This book, compiled from basic Hindu writings, is an exploration of the essential meaning of the Hindu tradition, the way of thinking and acting that has dominated life in India for the last three thousand years. Selections from religious, literary and philosophic works are preceded by introductory material that summarizes historical developments and cultural movements. While much attention is given to religion, many selections deal with social life, political relationships, and the Indian attitude to human love and passion. The arrangement of the material suggests the growth and development of Indian life through the centuries, and makes clear that Indian culture has never been static, but rather has been characterized at all times by a remarkable vitality and creativity. The selections range in time from the Rig Veda, composed around 1000 B.C., to the writings of Radhakrishnan, formerly the President of India. They illustrate both the continuity of the Hindu tradition and its vitality, for Hinduism is probably more vibrant and alive at the present time than it has been for many centuries. The ideals and values, the unquestioned assumptions and the persistent doubts that are presented here from the literature of the past are the fundamental ingredients of the life of modern India.

The advent of Hindu Studies coincides with the emergence of modern hermeneutics. Despite this co-emergence and rich possibilities inherent in dialectical encounters between theories of modern and post-modern hermeneutics, and those of Hindu hermeneutical traditions, such an enterprise has not been widely endeavored. The aim of this volume is to initiate such an interface. Essays in this volume reflect one or more of the following categories: (1) Examination of challenges and possibilities inherent in applying Western hermeneutics to Hindu traditions. (2) Critiques of certain heuristics used, historically, to “understand” Hindu traditions. (3) Elicitation of new hermeneutical paradigms from Hindu thought, to develop cross-cultural or dialogical hermeneutics. Applications of interpretive methodologies conditioned by Western culture to classify Indian thought have had important impacts. Essays by Sharma, Bilimoria, Sugirtharajah, and Tilak examine these impacts, offering alternate interpretive models for understanding Hindu concepts in particular and the Indian religious context in general. Several essays offer original insights regarding potential applications of traditional Hindu philosophical principles to cross-cultural hermeneutics (Long, Bilimoria, Klostermaier, Adarkar, and Taneja). Others engage Hindu texts philosophically to elicit deeper interpretations (Phillips, and Rukmani). In presenting essays that are both critical and constructive, we seek to uncover intellectual space for creative dialectical engagement that, we hope, will catalyze a reciprocal hermeneutics.

This book is about the state of embodied perfection often called enlightenment, self-realization, liberation, or jivanmukti. It examines the types, degrees, and stages of liberation that are possible, with and without a body.

Some postcolonial theorists argue that the idea of a single system of belief known as "Hinduism" is a creation of nineteenth-century British imperialists. Andrew J. Nicholson introduces another perspective: although a unified Hindu identity is not as ancient as some Hindus claim, it has its roots in innovations within South Asian philosophy from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. During this time, thinkers treated the philosophies of Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga, along with the worshippers of Visnu, Siva, and Sakti, as belonging to a single system of belief and practice. Instead of seeing such groups as separate and contradictory, they re-envisioned them as separate rivers leading to the ocean of Brahman, the ultimate reality. Drawing on the writings of philosophers from late medieval and early modern traditions, including Vijnanabhiksu, Madhava, and Madhusudana Sarasvati, Nicholson shows how influential thinkers portrayed Vedanta philosophy as the ultimate unifier of diverse belief systems. This project paved the way for the work of later Hindu reformers, such as Vivekananda, Radhakrishnan, and Gandhi, whose teachings promoted the notion that all world religions belong to a single spiritual unity. In his study, Nicholson also critiques the way in which Eurocentric concepts—like monism and dualism, idealism and realism, theism and atheism, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy—have come to dominate modern discourses on Indian philosophy.

Introduces the texts and ideas of Hinduism, crystallized during the 4th to the 10th century BCE. This book explains their contemporary relevance and deals with the key concepts, the main gods and goddesses, and texts such as the Purusarthas. It also examines the different systems of yoga.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

Hindu thought has undergone a major reconfiguration in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, in response to its encounter with the forces of modernity. A key element in this reconfiguration is the perception of Hinduism itself as a universal religion; or, as a catalyst promoting the emergence of a universal religion, or, at the very least, as promoting religious universalism. This book examines the views of several major Hindu thinkers of this period, Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi prominent among them, on this potent theme of modern Hinduism.

"This study in comparative mysticism (originally given as lectures at the Sorbonne) explores the relationship between Hindu mystics (notably Shankara and Sri Ramakrishna) and Christian Carmelite mystics (notably St. John of the Cross), using jnana, bhakti, and raja yogas as a basis for comparison as well as the sacred scriptures of both traditions."-- Publisher.