The Hindu View of Life (Mandala Books) [Paperback]

S. Radhakrishnan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mandala Books | Publication Date: September 1998

Religion in India can appear to be a confusing tangle of myths, with many different gods and goddesses worshipped in countless forms. This complexity stems from a love of story-telling, as much as anything else, but it is only the surface expression of Indian faith. Beneath can be found a system of unifying beliefs that have guided the lives of ordinary families for generations. Here, one of the most profound philosophers of India explains these and other related concepts intrinsic to the Hindu philosophy of life.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

An enduring introduction to Hindu life and culture by the prominent scholar and former president of India, S. Radhakrishnan: A perfect companion volume to Radhakrishnan's classic translation of The Bhagavadgita.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 2 edition (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0042941156
• ISBN-13: 978-0042941158
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,248,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hindu View of Life - An introduction, July 5, 2008

By 

Anders Jonsson "Global Sociology" (Örebro, SWEDEN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hindu View of Life (Mandala Books) (Paperback)

The Hindu View of Life, written as early as 1927, by one of the most outstanding Indian philosophers of the 20th century, professor Radhakrishnan is one of the best books on Hinduism I have ever read (and mind you, being a sociologist of religion, specializing in Hinduism and Islam I have read many...) It is learned and yet easy to grasp and understand, it shows you the multifaceted world of Hinduism, with an emphasis on Hinduism being there as monotheistic although God has many different names and appearences, it harbours a lot of references to different Western philosophers as well as politicians, it is (as opposed to so many other books I have read) short but extremely comprehensive and packed with substance and it is written in a beautiful language. Hence I fully recommend this book, whether it would be for studying Hinduism or for the pure satisfaction of reading good literature with a good content!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My personal experiance, September 4, 2011

By 

Manu - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hindu View of Life (Mandala Books) (Paperback)

Around eight years ago I discovered a worn out copy of this book in my grandfather's house. The book was at least 50 years old, with it's pages yellow, back cover missing and most of the pages holed or eaten away by book worms. Normally I would have thrown it out with the rest of the stuff I was cleaning out, but the author's name caught my eye. Although I didn't know much about him then, I knew that Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had been the President of India in the 60's.
But what started as idle flipping through the pages turned out to be such an engaging experience that it did not end until I reached the last pages where the pages were too badly damaged to read.

Unlike other English books on Hinduism I had browsed through, this one did not deal with the multitude of deities and rituals or any of the other shiny but actually superfluous part of Hinduism. This book is about the thought system which forms the core, but often misunderstood part of Hinduism. Hinduism is an old religion, which has evolved several layers over the thousands of years it has existed in the melting pot of cultures which is India. It is easy to get derailed by it's free wheeling spiritualism or dazzled by one of it's numerous sects and branches.
Radhakrishnan was not spiritual leader, he was a scholar and a philosopher, his birthday, September 5, is celebrated as Teachers day in India. His book reflects this, it feels like a teacher bringing out the fundamentals of a subject and equipping the reader with the tools to explore further.

When I first read this book I was 21 years old, and a rabid atheist, even now hard core religious dogma leaves me feeling queasy. But this was one of the books which first induced me to build bridges with faith and slowly come to understand and appreciate the Hindu culture.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MARVELOUS PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF HINDUISM BY A GREAT INDIAN LEADER, August 16, 2011

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hindu View of Life (Mandala Books) (Paperback)

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) was an Indian philosopher and statesman (he was the second President of India, for example) and was also an influential scholar of comparative religion and philosophy. The material in this book was originally delivered in 1926 as a series of lectures at Manchester College, Oxford.

Here are some quotations from the book:

"To say that our ideas of God are not true is not to deny the reality of God to which our ideas refer. Refined definitions of God as moral personality, and holy love may contradict cruder ones which look upon him as a primitive despot, a sort of sultan in the sky, but they all intend the same reality." (Pg. 20)
"It is, however, unfortunately the case that the majority of the Hindus ... acquiesce in admittedly unsatisfactory conceptions of God. The cultivated tolerate popular notions as inadequate signs and shadows of the incomprehensible, but the people at large believe them to be justified and authorized... It is necessary for the Hindu leaders to hold aloft the highest conception of God and work steadily on the minds of the worshippers so as to effect an improvement in their conceptions." (Pg. 25)
"Many sects professing many different beliefs live within the Hindu fold. Heresy-hunting, the favorite game of many religions, is singularly absent from Hinduism." (Pg. 28)
"We cannot have religious unity and peace so long as we assert that we are in possession of the light and all others are groping in the darkness... The political ideal of the world is not so much a single empire with a homogeneous civilization and a single communal will, but a brotherhood of free nations differing profoundly in life and mind, habits and institutions, existing side by side in peace and order, harmony and cooperation, and each contributing to the world its own unique and specific best, which is irreducible to the terms of the others." (Pg. 42)
"The different theistic systems adopted by the large majority of the Hindus do not advocate the doctrine of maya ("illusion"). The theory is held by Sankara, who is regarded often as representing the standard type of Hindu thought." (Pg. 45)
"The history of philosophy in India as well as Europe has been one long illustration of the inability of the human mind to solve the mystery of the relation of God to the world." (Pg. 49)
"In ancient India the highest kind of work, that of preserving the treasures of spiritual knowledge, was the least paid. The Brahmin had no political power or material wealth. I think there is some justice in this arrangement, which shows greater sympathy for those whose work is soul-deadening." (Pg. 82)