Rupa Publications India Spiritual Secrets from Hinduism: Essence of the Vedic Scriptures

The author has provided a well-packed, all-encompassing view into the concepts of Hindu spirituality: starting at the very beginning with the quintessential question about who we really are, moving on to the purpose of life, the nature of God, Hindu scriptures and Guru. The author also goes into greater detail in areas of Vedic psychology and secrets of the human mind. There is a lot of explanation around the very esoteric concept of Surrender, which provides a lot of clarity around a subject that can be difficult to wrap one's head around. Rounding out this foundational layout are explanations to the different paths available to people who want to put these spiritual secrets into practice. The author Swami Mukundananda has placed great emphasis on the path of Bhakti (devotion) and goes into the depth of its meaning and how to actually practice it. There tends to be a lot of confusion around the monotheistic/polytheistic nature and forms of God in Hinduism. The author has very lucidly provided an easy-to-understand explanation around this and the different manifestations of God.The topics of seva and selfless love were quite new to me and helped with rounding out my own understanding of the other nuggets of wisdom that can be extracted from Hindu scriptural philosophy. For someone like me who was raised during childhood with a daily ritual of aarti and puja, we are usually taught to include in our prayers a list of things to ask God for - good health, happiness, help with passing exams, a good job, a good family. This book provided to me a novel way of rethinking this by presenting the idea that real praying or devotion to God is free from self-seeking. Swami Mukundananda says in the book “True devotees desire the happiness of God”. They love Shree Krishna for His happiness alone. And to make Him happy, they wish to serve Him with everything they have. The following explanation also gave me a lot of food for thought since it is a new way for me to look at things: what can we offer to God? We can offer our wealth (by donating a portion of our income to causes that will put it towards God), through our Mind (by cultivating thoughts and sentiments that will make God happy) and through our Body (by doing and providing service towards God).The other section of the book I resonated with was around meditation practice. I have been practicing various types of meditation over the years, including mindfulness, Zen, breath focused meditation etc. The author does mention these different types of meditations including focusing between the eyebrows, meditating on a light etc. However, the key difference between what I have been practicing all along, and what Swami Mukundananda has outlined here is the object of meditation. The author advises that mechanical meditation will definitely improve the focus and concentration of the mind, but that it will not help improve the condition of the mind in terms of negative qualities like anger, greed and envy. Instead, he advises meditating upon the forms and activities of God since the mind needs something to latch onto to stem its incessant flow of thoughts. Most importantly he says, focusing on the all-pure Divine God will help remove impurities of negative qualities from our Minds as well. He goes on to detail the different ways to meditate upon God, including Roopdhyan i.e. meditating on the form of God, His virtues like divinity, serenity, mercy etc. He suggests we can also meditate upon Divine Pastimes by thinking about the various leelas performed by God during hide scents in different avatars. The author ties a bow on these techniques providing detailed instructions on how to practice sadhana on a daily basis. This was the best part of the book for me, because it outlines those instructions in a very easy to understand manner. It filled me with the motivation and inspiration to build upon my meditation habit by layering in the practice of meditation upon God using the various techniques described in the book.As a person who was not only looking for a down to earth, clear view into Hindu spiritual teachings, but also looking to apply those teachings in their daily life, I found this book highly educational, informative and practical and the one I will keep going back to for revision!

If one is curious about sanatan dharma, the ancient sacred wisdom given by the sages of Bharat, one cannot miss Swami Mukundananda’s latest book Spiritual Secrets From Hinduism.The book delves into profound concepts of Sanatan Dharma while weaving its essence through a riveting narrative flowing across 19 chapters. The narrative systematically answers significant philosophical questions like: Who Am I? What is the purpose of my life? What is the Nature of my Soul and how is it related to God? What is the Nature of God and how to know Him? The oft-raised questions of Destiny v/s Self-Effort, Suffering, Surrender and Divine Love have also been addressed comprehensively. As a beginner in the spiritual path, these questions have always baffled me. I have tried to grasp these principles by tapping into various spiritual texts. Despite reading their commentaries, the concepts were still muddled. Swami Mukundananda delineates these esoteric ideas with so much clarity that it seems that one is reading a concise textbook on Sanatan Dharma! The language is lucid, tone, conversational, yet it exudes a deep spiritual wisdom. A rare combination indeed! The book has deeply impacted my mind and will go a long way in shaping my intellect in accordance with this ancient wisdom.The fluid style marked by the explanation and illustration of precepts with relatable real-life examples drives home the essence of Sanatan Dharma with impeccable adroitness. For example, there is an analogy drawn between the soul and a passenger sitting at the back of a chariot. The chariot is to be understood as the body, the five horses pulling the chariot are identified as the five senses, the reins in the mouth of the horses is the mind and the charioteer represents the intellect. Ideally, the passenger(soul) should direct the charioteer to go in the right direction but here, the passenger is sleeping and hence is being controlled by the charioteer(intellect) and the horses(senses). Such a chariot is directionless. So is the passenger. This is the condition of the human soul at present and the purpose of life is to awaken the sleeping soul. This analogy employs a strong kinaesthetic imagery which rivets the positions of the philosophical categories of the mind, senses, body and soul in our intellect with crystal-clear vision. One cannot miss the import of the nature, function and interrelations of these categories in our life.The book also elucidates techniques of maintaining a healthy balance among these categories in order to enhance the quality of life. Chapters such as ‘Secrets of the Mind’ and ‘Vedic Psychology’ present important doctrines of Mind Management with excerpts from scriptural texts. This is appended with practical implementation tools given in the last two chapters: ‘The Art of Meditation’ and ‘How to do Sadhana Daily’.The book achieves a commendable feat. It facilitates our consciousness, ie, the ‘I’ , to step out and witness its mind, body, senses and intellect with an objective lens. With his noble mission to awaken our ‘I’, the author equips the passenger of the chariot with Sanatan wisdom and enables one to take the reins in one’s hands to guide the charioteer in the right direction.

In my spiritual journey, I've encountered various perspectives on seeking meaningful answers to life's big questions. Recently, I came across a book offering a holistic view of our connection to God and the inner workings of our minds and emotions, drawing from ageless Hindu scriptures. The book presents its ideas and teachings in a logical, structured, and succinct manner, making it an easy read. The relatable analogies and examples from daily life provided newfound clarity in my understanding of God, previously an abstract concept to me. The author anchors to the wisdom of the Vedas to answer questions regarding some of these polarizing questions by reinforcing using scriptural verses that there indeed is only one Supreme Entity and that all religions worship this same all-powerful God. The other oft-misunderstood idea that the author dispels is that of various forms of God: again, he explains using scriptural references that although God is all-pervading, He can manifest in a personal form. He goes on to shed further light by clarifying that God all the different representations of God whether male or female are all forms of the same one God. This typical style of backing up ideas presented in this book with solid, undeniable scriptural quotations is a hallmark of this book, one that I enjoyed following. The one very interesting and informative part surrounding the discussion of the nature of God was realizing that celestial gods are in fact, not God but souls like us! Yet again, the author gives a great example to understand this structure, by suggesting that the celestial gods are like God's administration for the functioning of the world. I drew a lot of personal learning from the book "Spiritual Secrets from Hinduism ".

This book is like a supermarket of Hindu scriptural takeaways, there is something in it for everyone! It covers quite a vast array of topics across the spiritual spectrum: human life purpose, the soul, the mind, Guru, God, his forms, paths of Yog, method of practicing bhakti and meditation. Even though the list of topics is long, Swami Mukundananda does way more than merely scratch the surface of the subject. There is enough depth in each section to provide clarity and understanding around some of these mystifying concepts. In fact, the simplicity of this book can be deceptive: The language and flow is easy to follow, but one gets the sense that there is deep wisdom packed within the profound paragraphs and analogies.Some of my takeaways from the nature of the soul and its surrounding concepts which I found fascinating was around why we do not remember past lives. The chariot analogy is very useful in understanding the ideal position of the soul and the unintended result arising from ignorance, and the duality we suffer due to that. I also took a lot of inspiration from the commentary on the importance of human birth. I have heard of the term sat chit anand in relation to God before, but this book really clarifies that idea and also how it relates to us.The chapter on Vedas is good from a theoretical perspective to give us a sense of the plethora of Vedic scriptures available to us. It was eye-opening for me to learn about the Vedangas and Shad-darshan. My main takeaway from this chapter and the next is that it is difficult for us to interpret scriptures on our own, so there is a need for a learned and realized Guru. The next part of the book focuses on the nature and forms of God and goes into detail about some of the contradictory qualities of the divine entity. I was surprised to learn that gods like Indra, Vayu, Kuber are souls like us, but are not God themselves.The other thought-provoking section is around destiny vs self-effort. Swami Mukundananda gives an excellent example of power station providing electricity (God) and us using the electricity for the appliances of our choosing (free will). In terms of destiny, it makes logical sense that our actions from the past create our destiny in the present. The different types of karma are also explained succinctly. The six aspects of surrender I found to be very useful as practical tools to practice sharanagati to God. Emphasis is placed on the state of the mind, rather than what actions we are performing physically. The whole section on mind gives lot of insight from Vedic psychology perspective. Negative qualities like anger and greed are described, tracing back to the cause behind them: desire.I have many takeaways from the latter part of the book that describes actual practical spiritual practice including the paths of Yog available to different practitioners. A chapter each is dedicated to all of these paths, which makes it an in depth compare and contrast, with special emphasis on the ingredient of bhakti. The pages dedicated to Bhakti are very enlightening. It made me contemplate on how easy it can be to practice bhakti before it barely has any limitations or pre-requisites. The chapter on meditation was excellent, which lots of tips on how to practice it correctly. Overall, this book offered many learnings for me both from a technical and practical perspective. I can see myself going back to re-read and absorb some of the chapters in greater detail.

Spirituality can mean so many different things to different people. I too have learned varied things during my spiritual journey and formed perspectives regarding multiple aspects of seeking meaningful answers to life's big questions. This is one book that provides a holistic view of our connection to God, the inner workings of our mind and emotions, all from the lens of ageless Hindu scriptures. The ideas and teachings in this book are conveyed in a logical, streamlined, structured and succinct manner that makes for an easy read. I was able to relate to many of the simple analogies and examples because they are drawn from daily life. Never before have I encountered such clarity in my conceptual understanding of God. This can be a very abstract concept, which like many people, I too had several queries about: how was the Universe created, is there really one true God? The author anchors to the wisdom of the Vedas to answer questions regarding some of these polarizing questions by reinforcing using scriptural verses that there indeed is only one Supreme Entity and that all religions worship this same one all-powerful God. The other oft-misunderstood idea that the author dispel is that of various forms of God: again, he explains using scriptural references that although God is all-pervading, He can manifest in a personal form. He goes on to shed further light by clarifying that God all the different representations of God whether male or female are all forms of the same one God. This typical style of backing up ideas presented in this book with solid, undeniable scriptural quotations is a hall mark of this book, one that I enjoyed following. The one very interesting and informative part surrounding the discussion of the nature of God, was realizing that celestial gods are in fact, not God but souls like us! Yet again, the author gives a great example to understand this structure, by suggesting that the celestial gods are like God's administration for the functioning of the world. I drew a lot of personal learning from the chapter "How to know God." Since the spiritual journey of seeking is a journey of going within, this is the ultimate question that can appear to be very daunting and esoteric. Again, the author presents a logical step by step way of gaining knowledge, which leads to developing faith, which leads to love for God. This chapter left me feeling very inspired to keep seeking divine knowledge. This segways really well into the next chapter which emphasizes the need for self-effort on the path of spirituality. I found this to be very enlightening to take my spiritual practice to the next level. It is a great reminder that we should not chalk down our entire life to destiny, but use our free will wisely. I enjoyed reading about some of the technicalities of types of karma and how they affect our experiences in our present lifetime. Swami Mukundananda sagely advises on the balance required between our self-effort and God's grace: both are important on our spiritual journey. The other section of the book I learned a lot from was the different paths that can be taken to reach our destination of attaining God. The author has provided a wonderful analogy of the way education branches out further and further as a student progresses, so that diverse education needs can be taken care of. Similarly, the author says, thedifferent spiritual paths cater to the different predispositions and sanskars of seekers. The three paths elucidated in this book by the author are karm, jnana and bhakti. So many times the question of one's true duty/ dharm can be a perplexing or overwhelming one. It was truly eye-opening for me to learn about the difference between one's spiritual and social duty. There is also interesting information provided on ritualistic practices which most of us do in a mechanical manner, but we don't generally give much thought to the origins and the reasons behind them. For busy professionals like me, I really gravitated to the description of Karm Yoga, which the author describes really well as a method to continue doing our work, but keep our mind engaged in God's devotion simultaneously. The jnana path is also described very well, with special emphasis on the importance of realized or practical knowledge, as opposed to just theoretical or bookish knowledge. Ashtanga Yog was something I was familiar with, but did learn some more about that too in terms of the need for bhakti to take it to the next level. Swami Mukundananda, being a Bhakti saint does immense justice to the chapter Path of Bhakti. My takeaways from this chapter were that Bhakti means to serve, and that there are practically no barriers to practicing bhakti because it is not limited to the temple - we can engage in it any place, any time of day, through any activity! The other part of the book that made an impact on me was regarding selfless love. The author makes a compelling argument that selfish love keeps fluctuating depending on whether our self-interest gets fulfilled or not. It is a very thought provoking section of the book indeed!Overall, this book has been a great addition to my spiritual journey in terms of the many nuggets of wisdom I have been able to take away from it. It has served as clarification to some of the questions I've had, and it has given me some practical tools to start applying to my daily life to take my spiritual journey several steps forward!