Krishna Chaitanya’s book is the first of a series on different aspects of Indian cul¬ture being put out by the India Library. The book is a broad survey that includes material from our religions, literature and the arts. It can be considered a book of ideas; each idea is examined for its contribution to the meaning and texture of our life-style and world-view. These ideas, though propounded by indi-viduals, are nevertheless part of the collective consciousness. The original thought in them is part of the matrix which has given them birth. Such perceptions continued to be the nourishment of later ages, as each has been recognized and interpreted, lived and sung by succeeding gene¬rations who have made them their own. The author redis¬covers for us the living mean¬ing of ancient ideas which were relevant and not only valid for the periods that produced them, but continue to be so for our times. The passions and foibles, the greed and selfishness of the human family being still with us, he finds in our past the answers to our many weaknesses, if we would but heed the small voices of ancient wisdom .
January 1983, volume 8, No 4