Review of Klaus K. Klostermaier's A Short Introduction to #Hinduism

Namaste,

A Short Introduction To Hinduism by Klaus K. Klostermaier
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read Klaus K. Klostermaier's A Short Introduction to Hinduism after reading Kim Knott's Hinduism A Very Short Introduction. Klostermaier's book is far superior to Knott's book.

The book introduces the main topics about Hinduism and is dense in content. It provides the most sympathetic treatment of Hindutva and the aspirations of Hindu nationalists that I've read.

The book introduces many Sanskrit terms that I didn't know. A glossary (complete with Devanagari and transliteration) would have been helpful. I take exception to Klostermaier's definition of samadhi as "trance." This definition is too simplistic for a state that's properly reached through discipline. "Trance" is often something a person stumbles upon.

Despite these quibbles, Klostermaier's A Short Introduction to Hinduism is a great survey of topics related to Hinduism. I want to buy this book for my collection.

Both Knott's and Klostermaier's books are listed as "for further reading" for the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies's online course Introduction to Hinduism: History, Text, Philosophy.




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The Vedanta of Adi Sankara

Sankaracharya

In the second part of the July 19 lecture, Dr. Hebbar began discussing Vedanta as expounded by Adi Shankara (आदि शङ्कर). He spoke about the rope-snake illusion (rajju-ahi bhrama), in which one mistakenly perceives a rope as a snake in the dark. The way to correct this illusion is by shining a lamp onto the object.

The metaphysical interpretation of the rope-snake illusion is as follows:

The rope represents God
The "snake" represents gods, souls, and matter, that is, mulitiplicity
The illusion itself is Maya (माया)
The lamp represents spiritual discernment, or viveka (विवेका)

Maya and ignorance, that is, avidya conceal the real (the rope), project the false (the snake), and confuse the real and false (the person stumbling around in the dark).

Purva-Mimamsa

I attended Dr. Hebbar's lecture on Indian philosophy last Saturday, July 20.

In the previous lecture on Saturday, July 13, Dr. Hebbar began talking about the (Purva-)Mimamsa system in terms of epistemology, or the study of knowledge. Last Saturday, he talked about Mimamsa ontology (the study of construction of reality), theology (the study of God), psychology (in its original sense as the study of the psyche), and soteriology (the study of salvation or liberation). He compared and contrasted the philosophies of Prabhakara and Kumarila, the two principal exponents of Mimamsa.

Where I've been, what I've been doing

Hard to believe that it's been two months since I last blogged, which does NOT mean that I have been oblivious to hot button issues such as the aborted land transfer to the Amarnath shrine board or the Centre's lining up new support for the US-India nuclear agreement.

For the last month, I've been attending lectures on Indian philosophy presented by Professor B.N. Hebbar at Durga Temple here in Fairfax County. How I found out about the lecture series was something of a fluke. I subscribe to mailing lists from the local temples, even though I am not affiliated with a temple. A month ago, I received an email from Durga Temple announcing this series, and the lecture series was to begin that very day! I called one of the contacts listed, and he told me to just come on down, I could still get the second half of the lecture.

To date, Dr. Hebbar has covered Vedic Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Now he is undertaking a discussion of the six darshanas of Classical Hinduism: today, he covered Nyaya-Vaishesika and Sankhya-Yoga and began discussion of (Purva-)Mimamsa (as opposed to Uttara-Mimamsa, or Vedanta).

I'm going to be on vacation beginning tomorrow, but plan to blog on the lecture series when I return.