Book Description

One of the most stupendous manifestations of the Spirit is undoubtedly that which has been handed down to us under the generic name of the Vedas. The Vedas are still too much neglected not only in the world at large but also in their country of origin. this Vedic anthology will make direct and fruitful knowledge of the Vedas available to a wider range of people than the small elite of pandits and Indologists. This anthology collects the most crucial texts of the Indian Sacred Scriptures--in all more than 500--newly translated into contemporary English. Dr. Panikkar`s principle has been to select and place together texts so as to offer a selection of texts that cover the full range of `The Vedic Experience` and at the same time to show how they manifest the universal rhythms of nature, history, and Man. Excerpts are taken from the oldest hymns, such as the Rig Veda; from the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas, or Forest Treatises, and finally the Upanishads, which represent the mystical and philosophical culmination of the Vedas. This is a book for meditation, for reading, public and private, as well as for thorough study at this wellspring of human wisdom. It should, moreover, facilitate that meeting of East and West so long desired and delayed, and now so imperative.