A Practical Indian Philosophy
		Author's Note On arriving in the United States of America after my retirement, I found that newspapers raised matters of values, culture and identity in a multi cultural society of people of at least eighty five nations. Their children read in my grandchildren's school. I felt my ignorance about my ancient cultural heritage. The heritage is the oneness of humanity following eight religions in their core. It is Advaita of Vedanta. No school or college in India teaches it from 1835 for over a century and a half to today. So, we remain ignorant of the instant use of the secret of our advancement and prosperity through harmony of two to eight religions in the lanes and by-lanes of India from the fourth century before the Christian era to the days before the British interruption. Born in a family of Urdu culture in Delhi and ignorant of Sanskrit, I could at best reach Tulsidas' Ramayana. To grasp the depth of his message in some couplets I had to read the Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna and a little of Swami Vivekananda. I found the basics of Advaitic Sanaatana Dharma in the discourses by Bhagwan Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparti, Andhra Pradesh, India. A few questions arising from our Sanaatana heritage gnawed into me. What made Tulsidas so endearingly popular for nearly five centuries? What was so basic and practical in our heritage that the illiterate could understand  to live by it to make it their second nature? A few gurus could not bring about that prosperity to the Indian subcontinent that led the world for unknown millenniums from before the Christian era till the beginning of the nineteenth century.  What was the secret of that prosperity? What was the benefit from this heritage that every illiterate received to hold on to it to keep it vibrant till today? Even with loot as invaders and association for over a millennium with Muslims, Muslims did not make the subcontinent less rich by even a fraction to affect its leadership of the world in material prosperity. Muslims added to the diversity of our culture.  What cause other than something in our heritage can explain our ancient advance in sciences, medicine and richness of our culture in its diversity and variety besides leadership in prosperity? What was so sophisticated about that heritage that it withstood questioning by millenniums of highly advanced native and alien intellects? Why could it withstand Islam for over a thousand years when Islam could overrun from Medina to the border of Mongolia in just one hundred years after the Prophet? What was in the heritage that pervaded India that made Muslims forsake their sword and live for centuries in peace in the lanes and by lanes of close neighbourhoods in India for at least four centuries from Akbar if not earlier. Why is India called the Empire of the spirit by some knowledgeable Westerners? Of what use is that spirituality? What gave the uneducated eighty percent of the uneducated Indians that power that allowed their small piece of land to be auctioned by the British for refusal to pay land revenue because Mahatma Gandhi told them to do so? Was not the source of Mahatma Gandhi's unbelievable power to break up the British Empire our heritage of Sanaatana principles of Advaita by which he lived daily? Can all of us receive power by simple day-to-day practices? Why did we become poor in just over a century under the British hegemony? Why is there so much in India today that we cannot defend? Why was our country divided in 1947 in spite of our heritage of unity and amity between followers of eight communities for centuries?  Why is the nation on the verge of a second partition of communities today as if the first of the country did not satisfy the leaders? What is there so practical and beneficial in our heritage that we can use today to regain leadership for India in science, technology and in the art of living in amity or oneness among the followers of eight religions in India that was our nature for centuries? One may wonder at the relevance of the Tulsi Ramayana that is a treatise on Bhakti (devotion to God) to all these questions. Tulsidas is a great reformer who weans us from smritic and divisive Hinduism with its avoidable rituals and some obnoxious practices particularly that of the superiority of the Brahmin and the inferiority of the untouchable castes, surviving from before Tulsidas' times to today. Tulsidas takes us back to Sanaatana Dharma of Advaita of Vedanta through jnaanabhakti (devotion resting on Knowledge of our reality or Advaita.) He articulates for our daily practice Advaita that was the greatest discovery that man could ever make. It is that our reality is one with that of the Almighty limitless God in His substance, nature, capacity and power. A mind empowered to its limitlessness is an inescapable corollary from this ancient discovery of Advaita. It is a truth proved by Indian masses by experience of living in this oneness that secured material and spiritual prosperity for millenniums. The last to display to some extent this empowered mind was Mahatma Gandhi. He was a votary of the Gita and Tulsidas’ Ramayan. By his knowledge of and living in the Advaitic universal in Sanaatana Dharma, Christianity and Islam, he received unknowingly the mind of unimaginable powers. Through tips in couplets, Tulsidas teaches us this ancient science for receiving an empowered mind. One way to find these tips is to read the Ramayan as many have been doing in the manner of this Selection. To facilitate understanding, topics in this Selection are made self-contained suffering a little repetition. Many readers of and listeners to Tulsi Ramayana develop from it self confidence that rests on their firm faith that God protects and nourishes them if they live in virtue. They experience increasingly congenial situations that strengthens their faith to persist in virtue.  The way our mind performs as empowered or weak according to this science explains the rise and fall of India, respectively. It answers all questions by the application of the test of Advaita. It shows us how to receive by all followers through their own religions an empowered mind to secure empowered oneness and freedom from misery, from today's problems, eliminate the causes that create problems and advance rapidly to world leadership. Western theology or philosophy till date has not developed the science for receiving the power of the mind to its full potential for the benefit of humanity otherwise all colleges would have had a compulsory course for its teaching  I have written this as a 'must read' book for my grandchildren and their parents. It is a handy 'how to do' book for them because they have not read any scripture. It has the minimum about our heritage for their daily practice for personal benefit. It is not an authority but a truth for examination.  It is for those who trust the valuable lessons from experiences of the respected to test by experiment and learn from them for their benefit. It is for intellects in harmony with the heart that bestows virtue to it for gaining wisdom. It is for those who need the practical in our heritage.  It is for the inquisitive patriot. It is for those who want to put across in a few words what India stands for, the minimum it needs today and what we can do to get it.  An exhaustive Content and Index, a Glossary, introduction to Names and a Search for Couplets in the book will facilitate its selective reading and occasional consultation. A ghazal at the end sums up my understanding of our heritage. Index of and Search for Couplets are for lovers of Ramayan. I publish the book as a token of gratitude to my motherland and as a service to interested readers. Author  P.S. 1     I wish that when I joined St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, in 1933, I knew the freedom from anxiety and fears and the science of empowered mind for success that Advaita secured us. I could be free from many painful past situations that I vividly recall today.  P.S. 2.   I shall be grateful if an error of fact or in presentation of a concept in this Selection is pointed out to me. P.S. 3.  This book will be on the Internet as for informed exchange of thought and experience. It is to make particularly for educated Indians eight religions, the single spirituality in all that is Dharma, for oneness of followers of eight religions and their philosophy, and politics as topics for conversation in polite society and to make every conversation a seminar of wisdom for our advancement by an empowered mind and a creative path.  To learn more about the author, Prakash Narain, please Click Here.

Home

Dedication

Reviews

An Appeal

Author's Note

Arrangement of Book

Hindi Spellings

Table of Contents

Tribute to Gandhi

Introduction

The Raama Story

Philosophy

Baalakaandda

Ayodhyakaandda

Aranyakaandda

Kishkindhaakaandda

Sundarakaandda

Lankaakaandda

Uttarakaandda

Index

Glossary

Proper Names

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Appendices

Ghazal

A-D

E-H

I-O

P-Z

A-L

M-Z

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4