In line with that last concept, how to verify beliefs, one of the ideas I took from this book is that we need to step aside from what we believe to be true, and wonder why nobody else has caught on, to see if it makes any sense to anybody else. How do you know that sugar is sweet, because it's sweet to you? Not all people find sugar to be sweet. How can we make our truth sensible to others? How can others help us to find the truth?

Dr. Sharma makes many references to three books in his study here, so I would recommend before starting this book to first make yourself acquainted with them. Those books are "A Buddhist Critique of the Christian Concept of God" by Gunapala Dharmasiri, "Philosophy of Religion" by John Hick, and "The Message of the Buddha" by K. N. Jayatilleke.

Please note: this is a scholarly book in the area of religious studies, if that wasn't obvious already.

The Advaita Vedanta is of particular interest to me because, of all philosophies and religions, it comes the closest to that which I espouse in my own book, "The Road to Damascus."

Although I arrived at similar conclusions experientially and independently, it was refreshing to find that the Hindus (of which the Advaita Vedanta is one school) had beat me to it by, perhaps, a couple of thousand years and indeed had developed their philosophy in some detail.

The word 'Vedanta,' literally translated, means the last of the Vedas, or the culmination of the Vedas. And, the Vedas are the Hindu 'scripture.'

Advaita is a school of thought which was elucidated by a man named Shankara (usually spelled Sankara with a dot over the initial 's') who was a renowned Hindu scholar. Simply put, the philosophy states that there is only one 'soul' in existence ("One without a second") which plays all of the roles, or 'parts' in the universe, past, present and future--you, me, a cow, an ant, a tree...

This book talks about the experiential dimension of the philosophy of the Advaita: What is normal experience? The Advaitan experience and its relationship to normal experience,and the reconciliation of the two.

The language the author uses is plain and easily understandable, without a great deal of reliance upon Hindi terms (Hindi is the main language of India.)

For those with an ionterest in this subject matter, I recommend this book. I also recommend Elliot Deutsch's book, "The Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction."

Joseph Pierre,
Author of THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS: Our Journey Through Eternity