This is rather sad but it does appear to be a fact in the modern age where everything Western is looked upon as better, even things like spirituality that the Western world has not given much importance to. Hindu friends in India requested such a book for the sake of Western educated Hindus for whom it is fashionable to denigrate their own tradition, without having really examined it. Hindu friends in the United States requested it for their children, particularly those in college, to help them preserve their spiritual heritage in a materialistic world.

Fortunately I have been able to visit with people in India from all backgrounds, including swamis, yogis, traditional Brahmin priests, Hindu social activists and political leaders, Ayurvedic doctors, Vedic astrologers, Hindu musicians, and modern Westernized Hindus of all types, including writers and journalists. I have also made it a point to study the Hindu tradition from its Vedic and Puranic roots including Vedanta, Sankhya, Yoga, Buddhism, and Tantra, examining the original Sanskrit texts when I have been able.

In this process I discovered that a tremendous gap exists between what the Hindu tradition is and how it is understood in the modern world. Hopefully the work I have done in explaining the tradition in a more appropriate light can be useful for others. I hope that it will encourage similar studies. Naturally much of this great tradition cannot be dealt with in a single book. This book does not attempt to discuss the main teachings of Hinduism, its teachers, scriptures and so on. This has been examined in my book FROM THE RIVER OF HEAVEN: HINDU AND VEDIC KNOWLEDGE FOR THE MODERN AGE.

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