"This important book fills a gap in our knowledge.... Highly recommended."Â -- Library Journal "... highly recommended... " -- Choice "With admirable clarity and remarkable brevity, Jackson surveys the history of the movement and raises... important issues... " -- The Journal of American History An important history of the Ramakrishna movement, the very first and in many ways the most important Asian religious group to appear in the United States.

Based on the spiritual classic Vedanta for the Western World. Included are articles by some of this century's finest writers on spirituality: Huston Smith, Fr. Thomas Keating, Pico Iyer, Rabbi Asher Block. A fresh and timeless contribution to the literature of spiritual inquiry.

The encounter between the West and India in the modern period has also been an encounter between Western modernity and the traditions of classical Indian thought. This book is the study of one aspect this encounter, that between Western scholasticism and one classical Indian tradition of religious thought and practice: the Vedānta. In the modern period there have been many attempts to relate Western theistic traditions to classical Indian accounts of ultimate reality and the world. Parallels have usually been drawn with modern forms of Western philosophy or modern trends in theism. Modern Indological studies have continued to make substantial use of Western terms and concepts to describe and analyse Indian thought. A much-neglected area of study has been the relationship between Western scholastic theology and classical Indian thought. This book challenges existing parallels with modern philosophy of religion and forms of theism. It argues instead that there is an affinity between scholasticism and classical Indian traditions. It considers the thought of Rāmānuja (traditional dates 1017-1137 CE), who developed an influential theist and realist form of Vedānta, and considers how this relates to that of the most influential of Western scholastics, Thomas Aquinas (1224/5-1274 CE). Within what remain very different traditions we can see similar methods of enquiry, as well as common questions and concerns in their accounts of ultimate reality and of the world. Arguing that there is indeed an affinity between the Western scholastic tradition and that of classical Indian thought, and suggesting a reversal of the tendencies of earlier interpretations, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian religion, Hinduism and Indian philosophy.

This is a powerful lecture delivered by Swami Vivekananda in San Francisco in 1900. Published by Advaita Ashrama, a publication house of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, India , it is one of the best books delineating, in brief, the fundamentals of Vedanta in a lucid, authoritative and candid tone.