Publication of Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha's Path to Enlightenment
By Editor on Monday, November 17Theosophy Trust Books is delighted to announce the publication of our latest work, Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha's Path to Enlightenment.
Students of Professor Raghavan Iyer - and there are many thousands scattered around the world - will need no further explanation regarding his HERMES essays on Mahatma Gandhi's thought and life other than noting that all of those remarkable essays are gathered together here in one place for the first time, along with his HERMES essays on Buddha and the Path to Enlightenment. As far we understand his intent, these articles were never meant to be an exhaustive explication of the thought of Gandhi, in the way in which it is treated in his The Moral and Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi (MPTMG). Rather, the articles were meant to clarify the central concepts and ideals in Gandhi's thought and to deepen the understanding of students of Gandhi and the wider public about those concepts, which are the titles of the core articles in this work: Truth and Non-Violence, Gandhian Socialism; Non-Violent Resistance and Social Transformation: Satyagraha, Swaraj and Sarvodaya; Gandhian Trusteeship in Theory and Practice; Buddhi Yoga and Svadharma; Civilization, Politics and Religion; Sat and Sattva; Truth; Love; and The Seven Deadly Sins.
In these essays, Prof. Iyer returns again and again to a central theme found in many of his writings, that the recognition of those Beings who have far transcended the neophyte stages of Buddhi Yoga is a powerful purifier for the minds and hearts of the neophyte, that there are men and women who are perfected in the power of Buddhi Yoga, ceaselessly ideating and meditating, yoked to the good of the whole of Humanity. These beings comprise the sacred Fraternity of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, who exemplify above all else perfection in mental devotion and skill in action. The sacrificial work of these beings makes it possible for those caught in the realm of Samsara to purify themselves. Like the Himalayas, they are immovable in relation to their devotion to the Self of All.