For those not born to it, Hinduism is not an easy religion to understand, much less to warm up to. And it has not been well served by exegetists—both Indian and non-Indian—who been have swept off their feet by the epistemological and ontological absolutism of Adwaita Vedanta and have therefore tended to overemphasize the ‘other-worldliness’ of the Hindu view of life. This has meant undeserved neglect of alternative theories, of knowledge and the nature of the universe, that assert the reality of the world around us and a value-system flowing from this assertion. Consequently, false stereotypes hold the field. A good example is Albert Schweitzer’s off-hand judgement that Hinduism is a life-denying religion, unlike certain others that are life-affirming.
May-June 1988, volume 12, No 3