Customer Reviews

Philosophy and Religion of Sri Caitanya

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Precise, accurate, consistent, systematic, thorough, comprehensive, comparative, eloquent, elegant, philosophical, deep, inspirational, enlightening.

O. B. L. Kapoor, the author of this book, has two major qualifications for presenting his subject excellently: (1) he is a serious and authentic initiate into the tradition, and (2) he is a talented and highly trained academic.

The next three paragraphs are paraphrased from a website's bio of Dr. Kapoor.

In 1931, when he was working as a research scholar at the University of Allahabad, he met his guru, B. P. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada. On his guru's advice and under his guru's close supervision, he wrote a thesis on the philosophy of Sri Caitanya. The thesis was approved by the University of Allahabad for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Kapoor has the unique distinction of becoming the first Doctor of Philosophy of this prestigious university.

He worked as (1) Research Fellow, Indian Institute of Philosophy; (2) D. Litt. Scholar, University of Allahabad; (3) Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy, B.R. College, Agra; (4) Head of the Department of Philosophy, K.N. Government College, Jnanapura (Varanasi); and (5) Principal, Govt. College, Jnanapura/Ramapura. He retired in 1967.

In 1967, he settled in Vrndavana to write books and articles in Hindi and English on spiritual topics. He wrote more than thirty books and a large number of articles, published in different journals. His writings have been widely appreciated.

He eventually took another initiation within the Caitanyite tradition, from Srila Gauranga Dasa Babaji. [Edit:] He passed away on April 9, 2001.

If you have *extensive* background in Hindu thought and terminology, this book is perhaps the best one for you quickly (1) to learn the details of this school of thought highly influentual within the sphere of Hindu theologies and (2) to obtain an overview of the life of Sri Caitanya.

If you are less familiar with Hindu thought and terminology, I would recommend that you read _The Teachings of Lord Caitanya_, by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, before reading this book--but still, by all means, read this book.

Sample paragraph:

"If, therefore, the infinite is to retain its infinitude or perfection, it must as necessarily transcend the law of contradiction as the finite must conform to it. It would be a contradiction in terms to say that, because a particular quality or thing is included in the infinite, its contrary must be excluded from it, for it would mean that the absolute is not the absolute. Anything that we can speak or think of must in some way be a manifested part of the infinite (_CC_, Madhya, XXIV, 56). And to say in an unqualified manner that the infinite excludes 'this' or 'that' would be equivalent to saying that the whole excludes the part, and to violate the law of contradiction in the very attempt to conform to it. Thus, although the infinite, in one sense, transcends the law of contradiction, in another sense, and in a higher sense, it most truly conforms to it; and paradoxical as it may seem, it would not be inconsistent with its nature to say that in the very act of its transcendence or repudiation of the law of contradiction it also conforms to it."

Warning: as in many books printed in India with far less than state-of-the-art equipment, more typographical errors are present than one would expect if familiar only with printing standards common in the USA.