Book reviews

SHAMANISM, ARCHAIC TECHNIQUE OF ECSTASY: By Mircea Eliade. (Routledge and Kegan Paul, Pp. 610, Price 45s.)

Shamanism is an initiation and technique for attaining at will states of ecstasy which involve experiences of higher and lower worlds. It also confers powers of defence against sickness and psychic and spirit attacks, so that the shaman is the spiritual defender of his community. It is not a religion, being only a mode of training for an elite, like yogic or tantric paths in India. It can therefore coexist with a religion for the whole community. It must be considered less far-reaching than the type of path that aims at Moksha, since it stops short at increasing the powers of the individual and does not in general envisage the Supreme Identity. On the other hand, it goes farther than those modern versions of religion which consist of mere belief, for its adepts go beyond belief to experience.

Shamanism has been mainly observed in Siberia and North Central Asia, but in his compendious and fascinating study of it Mircea Eliade shows unmistakable signs of its present or former prevalence over most parts of the world - the Arctic, North and South America, Australia, Germanic Europe, with considerable vestiges in India, Tibet and China. Moreover he shows it to go back to remote, prehistoric antiquity, at least to the people who made the Palaeolithic rock paintings of some 25,000 years ago and possibly much farther. "It is indubitable that the celestial ascent of the shaman ... is a survival, profoundly modified and sometimes degenerated, of the archaic religious ideology centred on faith in a celestial Supreme Being and belief in concrete communications between heaven and earth." (p.505)

The words "sometimes degenerated" are significant, and indeed the "sometimes" could well be discarded. Historians of religion have long abandoned the idea, based on a blind belief in progress and evolution, that monotheism was a late growth from an earlier animism and polytheism and found the opposite to be true: that an original belief in a single Supreme Being later gets overgrown by the cult of gods or spirits who seem more accessible for the answering of prayers. While showing this to have occurred in shamanistic doctrine also, Mircea Eliade goes farther and tells us that in practice as well as theory all shamanistic traditions admit degeneracy and recognise the greater potency of the ancients. For instance, the use of intoxicants for producing a trance-like state is everywhere admitted to be a late degeneracy.

Altogether this scholarly and attractive work builds up a very different and far more authentic picture of ancient man than the savage whom an earlier generation of materialistic theorists had imagined in their own likeness.

DOCTRINE AND ARGUMENT IN INDIAN PHILOSOPHY: By Ninian Smart. (Allen and Unwin, Pp. 255, Price 37s. 6d.)

Indian philosophical systems are theoretical base for spiritual training. To study them apart from this, as mere academic theory, would be like trying to portray a man by describing the clothes he is wearing. Ninian Smart sees this more clearly than most Western commentators. He explains the traditional philosophical systems, both orthodox and heterodox, in association with the systems of training they sponsor. This makes his presentation more living than most such attempts by Western scholars. Added to that, he obviously has immense erudition without ever displaying it or becoming clogged by it. Instead he sets forth his subject with remarkable lucidity.

This lucidity, however, is greatly impaired by his abstention from the use of Sanskrit words. Technical terms in any language have overtones of meaning which are lost in translation. For instance, the implications of the word 'Purusha' meaning literally 'man', 'person' or 'Spirit' (as contrasted with 'nature' or 'substance') are quite different from those of the word 'soul', by which he renders it. And the implication of exile and hardship in the word 'samsara' is completely lost in 'cycle'. And as for 'guna', the translation 'strand-substance' is downright misleading, even mote so than 'stress' or 'tendency' would be, though neither of these would be adequate. Indeed the reader is put to greater effort in remembering what each such word is supposed to imply than he would be in recognising the Sanskrit words they misrepresent.

The greatest weakness of the work, however, is that although it links up the philosophical systems with the spiritual disciplines, it shows no understanding or appreciation of the states or experiences to which these disciplines lead. It therefore fails really to come to life. While providing a useful guide for the academic student (except for the faulty terminology it employs), it is of no use to the spiritual aspirant.

THE TIGER'S CAVE: By Trevor Leggett. (Rider Co., London, Pp. 191, Price 25s.)

"If you want a tiger's cub you must go into a tiger's cave" goes a Zen saying. Most of this book is a commentary on the 'Heart Sutra' by a Japanese Zen abbot who has clearly not acquired the tiger's cub. It is sound and sensible nevertheless, but without the sparkle and paradox so many Zen writers indulge in.

Next follows an autobiographical study by 'Hakuin', the 18th Century Zen Master whose Song of Meditation, as translated by Gary Snyder, we published in our issue of April 1964. It is concerned with Taoist technicalities which are almost meaningless in any other tradition. Pure Zen, like pure Advaita, is an open secret for those who can understand; but the technical paths, Hermetic, Tantric and other, are in code and have to be deciphered. Hakuin is by no means the only Master who has attained the simple by way of the intricate.

A few other short translations at the end are more accessible. Obviously true Zen. The best item is the story of a samurai in the time of the civil war who occupied a Zen monastery that was thought to be favouring the other side. Finding the abbot sitting calmly in meditation, he flourished his sword and proclaimed: "Do you realize that you have to do with a man who could run you through without batting an eyelid?" To which the abbot quietly replied: "And do you realize that you have to do with a man who could be run through without batting an eyelid?" The samurai put up his sword and departed crestfallen.

KUMBHA, INDIA'S AGELESS FESTIVAL: By Dilip Kumar Roy and Indira Devi. (Bhavan's Book University, Chowpatty, Bombay-7, Pp. 204, Price Rs. 2.50.)

India's Kumbha Mela is a festival that occurs only once in twelve years, drawing a vast concourse of pilgrims to Prayag to bathe on the auspicious days at the confluence of the Ganga, the Yamuna and the third river, now subterranean or invisible, the Saraswati. Apart from lay pilgrims, crowds of sadhus gather there to meet one another and exchange views and experiences, to worship and to be worshipped. Many of them are failures who have derailed on the path, many frauds who have never set foot on it; but who is to say that some few among them are not genuine and capable of disseminating light and grace? That is what Dilip Kumar Roy, the renowned singer and mystic, and his disciple Indira Devi set out to investigate at the last Kumbha Mela, which took place in 1954; and among the enormous but regulated crowds of some six millions they did indeed find some such.

Their book about it was written earlier than The Flute Calls Still, reviewed in an earlier issue, but has reached us later. Writing separate chapters, they give a vivid impression of this tremendous gathering, the sea of heads wading out into the river, the varied types, the important visitors, the babel of tongues, the sadhus' colony, the many craving to worship or be worshipped. There are also convincing account of their meetings and discussions with a sadhu of regal simplicity in whom they detected true achievement.

Dilip Kumar Roy is perhaps overly concerned with meeting the objections of the rationalistic cynic. Indeed a large part of the book is taken up with such a dialogue, in which one feels that one tendency of his mind is perhaps confronting another. What convinces him is not argument but experience - direct experience of the transcendental and human experience of those radiant souls who are in touch with the transcendental.

THE SAINTS OF INDIA: By Swami Tattwananda. (Oxford Book Co., Park St., Calcutta-16, Pp. 288, Price Rs. 10.50.)

Swami Tattwananda gives brief biographies of 40 Indian saints, all Hindus and mostly Vaishnavites, that is bhaktas, although the book opens with the founder of Jainism and closes with Sri Ramana Maharshi, both of whom could rather be called Jnanis and Advaitins. Incidentally, in writing of Sri Ramana Maharshi he makes the grave mistake of saying that he left home at the age of 16 in quest of Realization. Actually, young as he was, he had already attained Realization.

From Tirthankar, about the 5th Century BC the book jumps to Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, in the 15th Century AD. From here on the Vaishnava saints are described in geographical rather than chronological order. The omissions are remarkable. For instance, neither Sri Chaitanya nor Sri Ramakrishna is included, although they are two of the most famous Bengali bhaktas,

This is the sort of book that many will like to dip into. To read it through as a whole is to see with what powerful continuity the current of Hindu spirituality flowed on beneath the surface turmoil of Muslim and British conquest and internal strife.

VEDANTA DICTIONARY: By Ernest Wood. (Peter Owen, Pp. 225, Price 25S.)

Ernest Wood follows up his dictionaries of Zen and Yoga with another efficient one on Vedanta. Certain philosophical questions are inevitably raised and not all will agree with his handling of some of them. For instance, his definition of 'samadhi' does not cover all possibilities. Nevertheless it is a painstaking and useful work. The basic standpoint of Vedanta is excellently defined under the heading 'ambition'. "No one could be more ambitious, probably, than the Vedantist, who aims at union with Brahman or God, the one and only, one and absolute being. Yet it is not personal ambition, for John Smith or Kamala Devi will never attain that union. It is the consciousness that they are and really know themselves to be - did they but give proper attention to the matter - who will attain. The erroneous temporary conception of oneself will then be seen to be only a temporary tool or instrument for worldly (vyavaharika) living."

A SOUL'S BLOSSOMS: By Pranav. (The Book World, Beach, Trivandrum-7, Pp. 27, Price Rs. 4.)

Nearly all poems written in English by Indian writers are far too facile both in metre and rhyme. Some of those in the present little volume are quite exceptional in their restraint and their mastery of genuine English rhythms. Many of them are songs of praise and homage to Bhagavan, as is the following:

I KNEW OF THEE
Not in the crowd
I saw Thee,
But in the hush
Of my heart.
Not from men
Of great learning
I heard of Thee,
But from the whisper
Of the voice from
A profound
Depth in me.
I got a glimpse of Thee
Or a solitary hill-top
Crowned by the gold
Of the setting sun.
Whenever I sat mute
And my thoughts
Made their adieu,
My Lord, I knew
Thou wert within me.

- ARTHUR OSBORNE.

FOUNDATIONS OF TIBETAN MYSTICISM: By Lama Anagarika Govinda. (Rider & Co., London, Pp. 310, Price 30s.)

"While my eyes were immersed in the golden depths of the Maharshi's eyes, something happened which I dare describe only with the greatest reticence and humility, in the shortest and simplest words, according to truth. The dark complexion of his body transformed itself slowly into white. This white body became more and more luminous, as if lit up from within, and began to radiate. This experience was so astonishing that, while trying to grasp it consciously and with clear thought, I immediately thought of suggestion, hypnosis, etc. I therefore made certain 'controls', like looking at my watch, taking out my diary and reading in it, for which purpose I had first to put on my spectacles, etc. Then I looked at the Maharshi, who had not diverted his glance from me; and with the same eyes, which a moment ago were able to read some notes in my diary, I saw him sitting on the tiger-skin as a luminous form.

It is not easy to explain this state, because it was so simple, so natural, so unproblematic. How I would wish to remember it with full clarity in the hour of my death!"

Quoting this entry from the Asian Diaries of Baron Dr. von Veltheim-Ostrau, the author of this notable book describes the radiation that emanates from a body that has undergone spiritual transformation, a feature that is characteristic of the Tibetan Yoga on which this work is an exhaustive exposition.

Lama Anagarika Govinda has had first-hand experience of the practical side of this Yoga and his extensive studies in the original works on the subject have combined to place his writings in a class apart from the others that have been appearing, during the last five decades and more. The present work, particularly, is a classic and his treatment of some of the essentials of this tradition, viz., Mantra, Mandala, Chakras, Inner Fire, etc. is not only brilliant but unique inasmuch as he brings out certain practical truths that are lost sight of in most expositions of this type.

Discussing the question whether the Buddhist Tantras derive from the Indian or the Indian Tantras have been influenced by the Buddhist, the writer expresses his view that, by and large, the two pursued their independent lines, the Indian Tantra emphasising the Shakti (Power) aspect and the Buddhist (in Tibet) concentrating upon the Prajna (Knowledge) aspect of the Divine. He is inclined to agree with the scholars who hold that the Buddhist Tantras are older and their practices did influence the developments in Indian Tantrism.

He makes it a point to underline a commonly neglected feature of the practical teaching of the Buddha: that Yoga as it has developed from the original Teaching does not turn its face away from life, from form, into some Nothingness but includes in its scheme of Illumination the physical body and seeks to embrace all Life in its vision.

His chapters on the Five Dhyani Buddhas and their role in the spiritual transformation of every man on earth are breath-taking.

Half of the book is devoted to an exposition of the key Mantra of this Yoga-discipline, Om Mani Padme Hum, and in the process, the fundamentals of the science of Mantra are expounded most rationally. Incidentally, he warns against a materialistic interpretation of the principle of mantric vibrations and points out how it is the spiritual attitude and tapas-shakti (instinct in the initiation) that are really decisive in the matter. The precise manner of projecting oneself into the universal consciousness through the syllables of this Mantra is sketched out in profound terms; so too the graded visualisation of the Deities while dwelling upon the Mantra.

This is a work of basic importance in the study of the Tantras - of whatever religion - and deserves to be more widely known and studied than it has been so far. The writing here proceeds from living and hence its peculiar power and spell.

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE MANDALA: By Prof. Giuseppe Tucci. (Rider & Co., London, Pp. 147, Price 25s.)

If the Foundations gives the Tibetan approach to the Reality through Sound, the present book by Dr. Tucci traces the Way through Form. The problem is the same: how is the individual to win back his lost identity with the Divine? Or as the author puts it, how best to arrive at reintegration?

Dr. Tucci is well conversant with both branches of the Tantra, the Indian and the Buddhist, and draws parallels between the two at every stage in his study. He describes how from the Absolute issued this Creation through the Five intermediary self-formulations - whether we call them the Five Buddhas or the Five Great Tattvas, Shiva, Shakti, Sadasiva, etc., the truth is the same - and organised itself in groups of Five, five elements, five airs, five directions, etc., etc. but around One centre existing in each creature. Having arrived at the nadir of fragmentation, the disintegration, the individual sets its way back to its Source, to reintegrate itself. And towards this end the Tibetan adepts have perfected the institution of the Mandala. What exactly is a Mandala?

A Mandala is a diagrammatic representation of the configuration of the subtle forces in Creation which keep the Universe going. Each detail of it stands for a nodal point in the constitution of the Cosmos and by appropriate steps of concentration, meditation and evocation on it, it is possible for man to project himself in the determinative scheme of the creative Forces and register a transition from his ordinary human state to a divine status and, if he would, gain complete identity with the Absolute that over-tops the Creation figuratively rendered in the Mandala.

The learned writer his had personal experience of this tradition and leaves no point untouched in the course of his terse exposition of the subject. His analysis of the symbolism of the Mandala, its various parts, the method of forming one and the very interesting means adopted by the teachers in Tibet to determine the nature of the Mandala suited to the aspirant, are highly instructive. The last chapter describing how the Mandala can be visualised in one's own body, to the last detail, and how it can be used to train and convert one's consciousness into its divine counterpart is very valuable.

The processes of ascent and descent, the importance of personal effort in sadhana, the futility of suppression of tendencies in one's nature, the necessity of transfiguration, the indispensability of a sound physical base in the body, the limitations of the intellect vis a vis the soul; these are some of the topics touched upon in a manner that could be helpful to any sadhaka of whatever persuasion. For after all is said, the Quest is the same for everyone. And rightly understood, the Mandala has a universal significance. As the writer concludes:

"When, then, the Indian or Tibetan artist designs a mandala, he is not obeying the arbitrary command of caprice. He is following a definite tradition which teaches him how to represent, in a particular manner, the very drama of his soul. He does not depict on a mandala the cold images of an iconographical text... He gives form to that world he feels surging within him and he sees it spread out before his eyes, no longer the invisible and unrestrainable master of his soul, but a serene symbolic representation which reveals to him the secret of things and of himself. This complicated juxtaposition of images, their symmetrical arrangement, this alternation of calm and of menacing figures, is the open book of the world and of Man's own spirit!"

THE SERPENT POWER: By Sir John Woodroffe. Seventh edition. (Ganesh & Co., Madras-17, Price Rs. 30))

That The Serpent Power is again available will be glad tidings to many in India and abroad who have been waiting for it, like a friend who bitterly complained that in the whole of Israel he could find only one old tattered copy of the book and asked why it could not be made available more freely. This demand for the book is not surprising for it is the most mature and finished work of Sir John Woodroffe who introduced the West - and even the intelligentsia of the India of today - to the ancient tradition and lore of the Tantra and brought to the fore the great Truths of God, Nature and Man it enshrines. Till the advent of this scholar-judge on the scene, all that was known of Indian spirituality to the modern mind was the Vedanta and a wrong perspective of the Vedas. No one admitted the Tantras into this field of study as they were held to be remnants of a superstitious and ignorant - if not perverted past. It was given to Sir John to clear this mist of misunderstanding and neglect and to reclaim the treasure that lay concealed under the debris of overgrown ritualist practices and ill-understood formulae. With the collaboration of indigenous scholarship and help of genuine practitioners in the line, he unearthed and brought out a number of editions of old Sanskrit texts. He wrote introductions, translated the texts, annotated them, lectured on their contents and devoted his whole life to the resuscitation of this great Science. And if today it is widely recognised that the Tantra has a philosophy and a discipline which is more catholic and understanding of human nature and its possibilities than the Vedanta, that it is the one system which is free from dogma and offers itself for verification at every step, that it is unique inasmuch as it harmonises the claims of both father Heaven and mother Earth on man and therefore the most acceptable in the modern context, the credit for being the pioneer should go to Sir John Woodroffe.

And of all the large number of books he wrote and edited, The Serpent Power stands out as the most important, a worthy monument to the industry, perceptive intelligence, wisdom and maturity of the soul of Sir John. The work is built round two Sanskrit texts: (1) shat-chakra-nirupana, which forms the sixth chapter of the Tattva chintamani of Purnanandaswami who lived four hundred years ago in Bengal; and (2) paduka-panchaka of unknown authorship. Both of them deal with the organisation of the Chakras or Lotuses which are the Centres of vital dynamism in the human system and which are activated and utilised in the path of Yoga that is the soul of the Tantra.

Apart from the Sanskrit text and the commentary thereon by another authority on the subject, Kalicharana, the volume contains the full translation in English of both the text and the commentary by Sir John Woodroffe, his elaborate notes based on other commentaries on the works, and - what is more important - a magnificent Introduction running into 300 pages giving a lucid and detailed account of the philosophy and practice of the Kundalini Yoga that is the subject-matter of the text.

The Supreme Consciousness as it is, the Consciousness in its embodiment in the universe and the individual, the centres of connection between the individual and the Universal Consciousness, the means to activise them, the process of developing the individual human consciousness into the cosmic and transcendent divine Consciousness - are the fundamental topics that are dwelt upon. There is much else of interest: differences between the location of the Chakras according to the old tradition of the Tantra and the visualisation of the Theosophists; the famous correspondence between Sir John and his Indian collaborator and friend Prof. Pramathanatha Mukherji (now Swami Pratyagatmananda) on the question whether when the Kundalini is awakened and rises up, she leaves the base entirely or only partially, etc., etc.

Enriched by the addition of eight colour-plates illustrating the different lotuses and nine half-tone blocks showing the asanas and mudras mentioned in the book, this Volume is a capital production.

- M. P. PANDIT.

KULARNAVA TANTRA: Annotated translation by M. P. Pandit, with an introduction by Sir John Woodroffe. (Ganesh & Co., Madras, Pp. 357, Price Rs. 25.)

The Kularnava Tantra is one of the authoritative texts of the much traduced Kaula school of sadhana. It is said to have originally contained a hundred thousand verses, although only some two thousand verses arranged in seventeen chapters now survive. There have been other translations but the present one is pre-eminent for its free, clear translation and excellent selection from textual variants as well as for its admirable printing and get-up. It is further improved by a valuable introduction taken from the writings of Sir John Woodroffe. A valuable appendix gives a clear explanation of the many technical terms used in the book, thereby making the text more intelligible.

The Kaula sadhana has had many detractors through the ages. Even apart from modern Western-educated Hindus, many pandits from the time of Shankara onwards have inveighed against this path without taking the trouble to make careful study of it or of the texts on which it is based. However, its goal is unexceptionable: that is realization of one's identity with Being in its aspect of Becoming. The path also is in no way objectionable if rightly understood. The strict advaitin rejects the objective world as illusion, but the tantric accepts it as a means of sadhana, enjoying it not as an objective reality in itself but as a manifestation of the Divine and a path to the Divine. On the Kaula path the sakta approaches his goal like a veera or hero by enjoying creation in its three modes or gunas of satva, rajas and tamas. But while enjoying it he remains aloof from. it, as only a hero can. He holds fast to the understanding that everything seen is in Truth a manifestation of the seer of it. But the adoption of this sadhana is only for the few, the real heroes who can use and enjoy the beauties of nature without becoming enslaved by them. Indeed a perusal of the qualifications required of the initiate and the restrictions imposed on the ritual of enjoyment will show that few are capable of the Kaula sadhana and remove any prejudice against those who are.

Unfortunately the spirit of the age is against this kind of sadhana. Still the publisher must be congratulated for the spirit of true culture which alone could induce him to bring out this account of a lost method of seeking realization.

- KRISHNA BHIKSHU.

STUDIES IN THE TANTRAS AND THE VEDA: By M. P. Pandit. (Ganesh & Co., Madras, Pp, 146, Price Rs. 6.)

The book reviews by the learned writer M. P. Pandit collected together in this volume are worth preserving in their own right. One of them, for instance, brings out clearly the Vedic origin of the Tantras. It explains the theory of the Yoga of cosmic energy which Tantra is. Tantric yoga, indeed, comprises a wide range of techniques including asanas, pranayama, bandha, mudra, meditation, japa, shakti upasana, etc. Its distinctive feature is that it rejects the escapist asceticism of some forms of yoga, preferring to face Nature whole and master it. The author further brings out clearly the significance of Tantric rituals such as pancha makara and shadchakra.

Among varied and interesting chapters, it is very good that the author has one on Raurava Agama, for that is the very mainspring of Siva Jnana Bodham and Divya Tantra which leads to a polarity of life in Siva-Shakti consciousness. We also have to thank the author for much valuable information on the Gayatri and Purusha Suktas and Nivida from the Rig Veda with the original text in Devanagari. Altogether this collection of studies is a very welcome addition to the growing body of literature on Tantrism.

- YOGI SHUDDHARANDA BHARATI.

GURU PREMAMRIT: By Swami Muktananda. (Shree Gurudev Ashram, P.O. Vajreswari, District Thana, Maharashtra. Pp. 23. Price 60 Paise.)

Guru Bhakti is one of the recognised forms of bhakti marga. Swami Muktananda, successor to the late Swami Nityananda, gives an eloquent exposition of it in this little booklet.

Writing in simple language which obviously springs from his own deep experience, he shows how the devotee by first concentrating all his heart and mind on the beloved Guru, gradually comes to see him in all living beings and pervading the whole universe, until he is led through love and surrender to the experience of absolute non-duality.

Lest we should be tempted to regard this as an easy shortcut for those who have little inclination to subject themselves to the rigorous discipline imposed by other paths, the author reminds us that whole-hearted concentration on the Guru automatically imposes its own discipline requiring constant effort and is not gained in a day. Guru Bhakti is not 'roses all the way' but the true devotee, accepting all as by the Grace of Gurudev, delights in the thorns no less than the fragrant petals. He may think that the stern practice of vairagya is not for him but he achieves it all the same.

Western readers who may be predisposed to consider this form of sadhana strange and perhaps even open to question are particularly recommended to read this simple, warm-hearted little exposition of it. It is well translated from the original Hindi by Dr. Kokila.

- R. ROSE.

FROM LITERATURE TO RELIGION: An Autobiography. By D. S. Sarma (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay-7, Pp. 232, Price Rs. 6.)

For many years a highly respected Professor in Presidency College, Madras, then at the height of its glory, Prof. D. S. Sarma counted among his friends and colleagues Mark Hunter, R. M. Statham, H. C. Papworth, S. E. Runganatham and S. Radhakrishnan (all of whom became Knights later), not to mention two Mahamahopadhyayas. Later, as Principal of a Government College and of two private colleges, he set a much-needed example of rectitude in administration. On the teaching of English, especially through written work, on the responsibilities of Hostel Wardens, and on the relationship of principals to management, he has much of value to say.

But our primary interest in this work relates to his persistent and, on the whole, successful efforts through lectures and books to spread among students and the general public a sound knowledge of Hinduism, its scriptures and philosophy, its saints and sages, its history and development. True to Indian tradition, he would base religion on reason as well as authority and experience and he would welcome and utilise modern knowledge and progress in science. He has no patience with J. Krishnamurti's summary dismissal of all institutional. In fact, he holds that religion is the continuation and fulfilment of our everyday life, of artistic experience, scientific discovery and social service. The result of the spiritual experiences of prophets and seers, who belong to the present as well as the past and who reveal the unity behind the multiplicity of phenomenal existence, religion is a social art and a spiritual science which can transform individuals and society by making them grow in a vertical dimension towards the infinite.

The interview with Bhagavan which gave rise to Professor Sarma's well-known essay on 'A Great Jnana-Yogin of Modern India" (The Hindu Standpoint, M. L. J. Press, Madras-4) is reported at pp. 148-50 of the book under review and it contains the declaration:

"Sadhana implies an object to be gained, and the means of gaining it. What is there to be gained which we do not already possess? .... The self is realized not by one's doing something, but by one's refraining from doing anything, by remaining still and being simply what one really is."

- PROFESSOR. K. SWAMINATHAN.

HIDDEN RICHES, TRADITIONAL SYMBOLISM FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO BLAKE: By Desiree Hirst. (Eyre and Spottiswoode, Pp, 348, Price 42s.)

The neo-paganism of the Renaissance that has been so much written about is far from being the whole picture. Miss Hirst shows in this fascinating study that there was also a strong wave of 'mysticism' based largely on neo-Platonic, Pythagorean and Cabbalistic symbolism. Profuse illustrations of the complex symbolism used add still further to the value of the book. There was even a suspicion that behind the philosophy of Grace lay the deeper profundity of Egypt and India and a readiness to recognise the basic truth of all religions. "This movement was pursued as much by churchmen as by anyone else. Its whole impulse was Christian piety. Though the speculations of a Pico or a Giorgio, a Nicholas of Cusa or Egidio, were daring, they were put forward in a spirit of complete loyalty to the Church." (p.41). In Catholic Europe the movement was smothered (although the author overlooks this fact) by the Counter-reformation. It reached its greatest profundity in the German Protestant mystic Jacob Boehme; and in Protestant England it continued right through the 17th and 18th Centuries with Robert Fludd, the Cambridge Platonists, William Law and many others, to have a final flowering in the early 19th Century in the symbolical poems and art of William Blake. To any interested in the long struggle of mysticism against encroaching Western materialism this is a most informative book. It is marred unfortunately by a glib 'Conclusion' in which the author plays the school-ma'am, putting the neo-Platonists and mystics in their places, but in spite of that it is well worth its price.

SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE: By Joel S. Goldsmith. (Allen and Unwin, Pp. 235. Price 15s.)

"Christ may be born a thousand times in Bethlehem, but if he be not born anew within your own heart, you remain eternally forlorn," said the German mystic Angelus Silesius. Similarly Joel Goldsmith, in this illumined work, expounds the symbolical meaning of Biblical stories and sayings from both Old and New Testament. This symbolism does not exclude their historical truth but, as he says, is of profounder importance. "The stories of Moses, Jesus, Paul and John are only of value to you when you discover their relationship to your life." (p.18). In fact he goes still further to point out the symbolical value not only of scriptural stories but of the events and circumstances of your own life, as reflections of your inner state. "There is no external change without an internal development." (p.52). And conversely: "Whatever we take into our consciousness and make a part of our Consciousness becomes externalised in some form of human experienece." (p.111-112).

Like all Joel Goldsmith's books, this one also proclaims the simple universal truth of Advaita, that "I and my Father are One" in ordinary language, avoiding philosophical complexities. It is a profound and beautiful book with a scriptural quality about it.

- SAGITTARIUS

OBJECTIONS TO ROMAN CATHOLICISM: Edited with an introduction by M de la Bedoyere. (Constable, London. Pp. 184, Price 18s.)

Most people are aware that important changes are taking place in the Roman Catholic Church, but few probably realise how profound and far-reaching they are. When Pope John summoned the Vatican Council he said that his purpose was 'to give back to the face of the Church of Jesus Christ the splendour and the pure and simple lines of its birth and to present it as the divine Founder made it'. It is this drama of the renewal of the inner life of the Church, of its interior spirit, which is being enacted in the Vatican Council today and if it still falls short of its objective, it cannot be denied that an astonishing transformation is taking place.

One way of expressing what is taking place is to say that the Vatican Council marks the end of the 'Constantinian era' in the Church. When the Emperor Constantine became a Christian and Christianity instead of being a persecuted sect became the established religion of the Roman Empire, it undoubtedly brought with it great advantages; the Church entered into an alliance with the world, and was largely responsible for moulding the civilisation of Europe which came into being in the next thousand years. But it also brought great disadvantages: it meant that every kind of credulity and superstition began to find a place in Christianity and what was perhaps more serious, the lust for power and wealth began to invade the Church. Movements of Reform which attempted to purify the Church have taken place constantly - the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth century were but the culmination of many similar movements - but the need for reform is always present, and this is what the Vatican Council is now attempting.

One of the most significant signs of this new spirit in the Church is the spirit of self-criticism which is awakening everywhere. A good example of this is the book Objections to Roman Catholicism by a group of English lay people, which has already had a sensational effect in England. The book is not outstandingly good, but it is valuable as a sign of the kind of criticism which is being levelled at the Church by loyal and devoted members of it and not, as so often in the past, by hostile critics. The charges against the Church are basically three; the encouragement of credulity and superstition - defined as 'any belief or practice inspired by an unworthy view of God' - which is the subject of the first chapter; Worldliness, the subject of the second chapter; and Authoritarianism, the subject of the third, which manifests itself in the practice of Censorship - perhaps the best study in the book - and in lack of respect for the freedom of the individual, which is studied in the fifth chapter.

The sixth chapter opens fresh ground in an attack on Scholasticism - especially the system of St. Thomas Aquinas, who holds a position as the criterion of Orthodoxy in the Catholic Church, akin to that of Sankara in Vedanta. This is rather a weak and unbalanced attack, but it is significant as showing the freedom of criticism which is now tolerated and also as showing some of the real weaknesses in the Scholastic system. Finally, Archbishop Roberts - the only non-layman in the group, of whom it should be noticed two are women - writes on Contraception and War, two subjects on which Catholic thought is seriously engaged in re-thinking its attitude at present.

This book is not only of interest to Roman Catholics; it marks rather the opening of the Catholic Church on the world, its honest attempt to reassess its faith and practice in the face of the modern world. This is something which all religions have to face today. Baron von Hugel once said that in every religion there are four elements, a sacramental, a social, an intellectual and a mystical. Basically all religion is mystical; it is man's endeavour to relate himself to that ultimate reality, which alone gives meaning to life. But because we are not pure spirits, but embodied souls, this aspiration normally finds expression in bodily acts and gestures, and so gives rise to rites and sacraments. Again because we are not isolated individuals but 'members of one another', sharing a common destiny, religion normally takes a social form, involving some kind of organisation. Finally because we are rational beings, our religious faith demands some kind of rational formulation and so finds expression in creeds and systems. These elements are present not only in Christianity but in Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, and in each religion there is the same tendency to corruption. An overemphasis on sacramentalism gives rise to superstition, on religious organisation to casteism and communalism, on theology to a barren dogmatism. It is the mystical life which is the core of religion and the inspiration of all these external forms. What we need today, and what to a large extent we are witnessing, is a renewal of this inner life of religion. This alone can recover the purity of true religion and at the same time bring the different religious traditions closer to one another. This is what may be ultimately hoped from the present reform in the Roman Church.

- Don Bede GRIFFITHS.

SUFISM

THE SUFIS: By Idries Shah. With an Introduction by Robert Graves. (W. H. Allen, Pp. XXVI and 404, Price 45s.)
DIVINE DWELLERS IN THE DESERT: By Gurdial Mallik. (Grambhawana Prakashan, Karnal, Pp. 113, Price Rs. 1.25.)

An authoritative account of the Sufis and their teachings is long overdue. Obviously writing from the inside, Syed Idries Shah is most informative about the tradition, even expounding Sufi methods of training so far as is possible in a book intended for the general public. He also has chapters on a number of the most famous Sufi poets, saints and philosophers, such as Al Ghazali, Jalaluddin Rumi and Ibn Arabi. Not the least interesting of these is that on the traditional Sufi humorist Mulla Nasruddin. It makes delightful reading because he really is very funny and, what is more important, it illustrates the use of humour, shock and surprise in Sufi training.

If the author had only stuck to his subject this would have been an altogether excellent book. Unfortunately, however, he is forever trying to prove the ascendency of Sufism over other traditions and their dependence on it. While it is impossible to deny the great influence which Sufism has had on the theory, practice and, literary expression of esoterism in the West, the author spoils his case by overstating it and completely ignoring the very real indigenous spiritual heritage of Judaeism and Christianity. Turning to the East, he is even more crude, and in fact downright absurd, in trying to assign an Islamic origin to Hindu and Buddhist spirituality. Rival claims for pre-eminence are to be expected from the exoteric exponents of the various religions, but one has a right to expect greater understanding from an author who has penetrated to the spiritual essence of any one of them.

The introduction, echoed in the blurb, further increases the crudity, referring to the author as the Grand Sheikh of the Sufis and as being in the senior male line of descent from the Prophet Mohammed. Actually there is no Grand Sheikh of the Sufis, each order having its own sheikh or head, and there is no male line of descent from Mohammed, his only descendants being through his daughter Fatima.

Despite the narrow and quarrelsome tone in which this book is written, it remains a valuable and informative work on a subject about which few have written with comparable authority. However regrettable its approach, there is at present no replacement for it.

Gurdial Mallik's little book on the Sufis of Sindh also speaks of the universality of Sufism but in a gracious and tolerant manner, unlike the other. It is verbose rather than informative but makes pleasant reading. It is depressing, however, to read the author's conclusion that little if anything of this glorious heritage remains in Sindh today.

- A. QUTBUDDIN.

GOD: By Mrs. Dinshaw S. Paowalla. (Published by Framroj Dhanbhoora, Bulsar, pp. 130, Price not stated.)

Mrs. Paowalla has sent us from Hong Kong a little, booklet recommending love and service as a discipline for people in general and self-enquiry for those who seek spiritual life culminating in Divine Union.

GLIMPSES OF GOD: By M. D. Japheth. (The author, 24-B, Hamam St., Bombay-1, Pp. 72, Price Rs. 3.75, 6s., $1.00.)

Fifteen selected sermons delivered by the author in a Bombay synagogue touch on various religious and sociological problems. They are idealistic and high-minded but completely exoteric, with no glimpse of the Knowledge that is Being.