Vedanta Treatise - The Eternities by Swami Parthasarathy - Book Review

I bought this book quite some time back but each time I picked it up to read, I felt I was not mentally prepared for its tenets :) But now after reading it ......to say it is inspirational and profound sounds very tame !! It is much beyond that.

First of all - don't read this book unless you are ready to have your religious , spiritual beliefs questioned ! :) The author calls a spade a space and how ! :)) Secondly it starts dry - more like a textbook - and includes examples with logic, maths, poems , stories etc.

Some insights in the book -

• Vedanta - The author says that Vedanta is to be approached like a science. Vedanta elucidates truth in an analytical manner akin to how math theorems are approached. Its truth is its authority and needs no person to give it credence. It belongs to everybody and in fact needs organized study just like a professional course.

• God - The author claims that God is a concept like the unknown quantity in an algebraic equation. One needs to resolve the equation to get to the real value !! Also compares God to fuel in a vehicle ; says while the vehicle cannot move without the fuel - still the vehicle holds responsibility for where it travels and hence the responsibility of our lives lies with us !

• Religion -  The soul of religion has been killed and people are clinging on to the remains ! A most sagacious statement and so true ! Today - religion seems to mere following of rote conventions / meaningless rites / forced thoughts / inflexible beliefs without any value or emphasis being given to contemplation and reflection on any spiritual maxims or discourses.  Religious education seems to have become an acceptance and compliance of past thoughts and actions. Says thinking is a skilled activity !! :) Most consider it a natural ability !

• Who are you ? - We do not know who we are because when in dreams we think we are the person in the dreams and it is very real to us , just as the person we become when we wake up is very real to us too !!!!

• Bhagvad Gita - Says it is ironical that while the Gita is a actually a book that is a kindle towards action ( after all it galvanized Arjuna to fight !! ) most people in India seem to consider it as a retirement activity and is only for the elderly !!

• Renunciation - Renunciation does not mean abstaining from your essential duties. In fact it means that you should perform your duties and yet be a detached witness to all that happens in your life. True renunciation means you should be able to life life even enjoy life and yet know it is but transient and momentary.

• Meditation - The author's views on meditation was startling and perhaps contentious too !!! Meditation is the last step of religious procedure and not the first. Says a mind full of desires is an agitating mind and cannot truly meditate. Something like bags of stones weighting a bird down - it just cannot soar. With all the hype surrounding meditation and the blithe assumption that meditation is the first thing to do when needing to be calm - this confounded me !!

The main goal in any-one's life should be self-realization. The world dissolves on attaining this !