Renowned lecturer from The Teaching Company, Mark W. Muesse brings readers into an encounter with the world's oldest living religious tradition, known as Hinduism. Muesse's brief survey, challenges the perception of Hinduism as one religious tradition, showing how wonderfully rich and diverse this 5,000-year old story truly is. He traces the vast history and practices of classic and diverse traditions, moving from the origins in the Indus Valley up through classic and contemporary periods. Muesse exhibits a keen sense of the myriad spiritualities associated with Hinduism, demonstrating how the religious tradition is both monotheistic and polytheistic.

"Indian nationalists have a great project in hand. Their work-in-progress is the recovery of India's proud past and it's rightful place at the centre of human civilization. In pursuit of this, history must be rewritten regardless of the facts and they will make sure the world acknowledges India's pre-eminence by direct action at home and abroad." "Claiming to take a leaf out of the Islamic book, they are no longer prepared to suffer insult, denigration or offence, past and present, in silence. And offence is found everywhere - in art galleries, schools and universities, books, films, music and online. Hindu nationalists have targeted all these, attacking art galleries and driving artists into exile, tearing down posters they consider obscene, demanding bans on books that don't conform to their version of history, vandalizing research institutes and threatening its academics, forcing film studios to change scripts or musicians to alter lyrics, destroying mosques and abusing Muslims. In the process,they have plunged India into chaos and alienated many sectors of this multicultural society. Most seriously, they threaten the secular India of its founding fathers." --Book Jacket.

This book, compiled from basic Hindu writings, is an exploration of the essential meaning of the Hindu tradition, the way of thinking and acting that has dominated life in India for the last three thousand years. Selections from religious, literary and philosophic works are preceded by introductory material that summarizes historical developments and cultural movements. While much attention is given to religion, many selections deal with social life, political relationships, and the Indian attitude to human love and passion. The arrangement of the material suggests the growth and development of Indian life through the centuries, and makes clear that Indian culture has never been static, but rather has been characterized at all times by a remarkable vitality and creativity. The selections range in time from the Rig Veda, composed around 1000 B.C., to the writings of Radhakrishnan, formerly the President of India. They illustrate both the continuity of the Hindu tradition and its vitality, for Hinduism is probably more vibrant and alive at the present time than it has been for many centuries. The ideals and values, the unquestioned assumptions and the persistent doubts that are presented here from the literature of the past are the fundamental ingredients of the life of modern India.