The Upanishads are a great mine of strength for leading a tension-free and peaceful life. Today, most of us feel a lot of turmoil and tensions due to an overemphasis by leading a materialistic style of living. Meditation (Upasana) and looking into our pure consciousness and the Divine sitting inside us, has been forgotten altogether. Hence, the need for 'going back to Upanishads' has become quite relevant to be imbibed. There is also a growing urge in us to realize your 'true self,'' keenly feeling the need to make our knowledge flow into wisdom, and a yearning to know about the infinite and the eternal inspires us. The Upanishads form the core of Indian philosophy - a fantastic collection of writings, aptly described by Shri Aurobindo as "the supreme work of the Indian mind". The Upanishads are summits of thought on humanity and the universe. The Upanishads asks a man to cultivate righteousness (dharma) and to enjoy wealth (artha) and seek pleasures (kama), but with a sense of detachment. Meditation on OM and enquiry into our inner divine Self are some of the essentials of the Upanisads. Eleven Major Upanisads have been covered by Mr. Ved Bhatia in a lucid easy comprehensible style.

The book is journey through 5000 years of evolution of Hinduism, and is outcome of seven years of study to understand the roots of Hinduism. Tracing the genesis of Hinduism to pre-Indus Valley period, the book explains Hindu, Hinduism and Sanatana Dharma, before it takes one through Hinduism’s oldest scriptures - the four Vedas, the four components of each Veda, and what they contain. How all original translations of Vedic texts were done by Western Sanskrit scholars, and why their works have left scope for doubt about the fidelity of translations. The yajnas (yagya) like Ashvamedha, Rajsooya, Vajpeya, etc., about which we only hear on TV serials and talk shows, have been demystified. The reader will be taken aback reading the sheer size and scale of Soma yajna, described step by step, in great detail. Hinduism’s journey to the Age of Reason, the Upanishads, its encounter with Buddhism, and its transformation into idol worshipping society with many gods and a multitude of stories about its millions of gods is lucidly explained. Puranas, what they contain and what was the reason they were created, has been described and explained next. Hinduism's journey to its modern form - idol worship, the modern puja, detailed description of puja and Sanskaras like Vivaha, their detailed description, the meaning of each action and how they are conducted, the gift to the priest, types of idols, their consecration, all are explained to help a reader understand the why and the how of what we do as a Hindu. The book concludes with a discussion of - Do mantras have power? & Do rituals have meaning?

What happens as we grow spiritually? Is there a step-by-step process that everyone goes through—all spiritual seekers, including those of any or no religious persuasion—as they gradually work their way upward, until they achieve the highest state of Self-realization? About 2200 years ago, a great spiritual master of India named Patanjali described this process, and presented humanity with a clear-cut, step-by-step outline of how all truth seekers and saints achieve divine union. He called this universal inner experience and process “yoga” or “union.” His collection of profound aphorisms—a true world scripture—has been dubbed Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Unfortunately, since that time many scholarly translators with little or no spiritual realization have written commentaries on Patanjali's writings that have succeeded only in burying his pithy insights in convoluted phrases like “becomes assimilated with transformations” and “the object alone shines without deliberation.” How can any reader understand Patanjali's original meaning when he or she has to wade through such bewildering terminology? Thankfully, a great modern yoga master—Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi—has cut through the scholarly debris and resurrected Patanjali's original teachings and revelations. Now, in Demystifying Patanjali, Swami Kriyananda, a direct disciple of Yogananda, shares his guru's crystal clear and easy-to-grasp explanations of Patanjali's aphorisms. As Kriyananda writes in his introduction, “My Guru personally shared with me some of his most important insights into these sutras. During the three and a half years I lived with him, he also went with me at great length into the basic teachings of yoga. “I was able, moreover, to ask my Guru personally about many of the subjects covered by Patanjali. His explanations have lingered with me, and have been a priceless help in the [writing of this book].”

Three thousand years ago, deep inside the forests of India, a great 'thought revolution' was brewing. In those forest labs, the brightest thinker–philosophers contemplated the universe, reflected on ancient texts called the Vedas and came up with startling insights into questions we still don't have final answers to, like: • What is the universe made of? • How do I know I'm looking at a tree when I see one? • Who am I? And where did they put those explosive findings? In a sprawling body of goosebumpy and fascinating oral literature called the Upanishads! Intimidated? Don't be! For this joyful, fun guide to some of India's longest-lasting secular wisdoms, reinterpreted for first-time explorers by Roopa Pai, is guaranteed to keep you turning the pages.

Bhakti is a remarkable feature and tendency of human existence having to do with one's devoted involvement with a person, object, deity, or a creative project. Bhakti and Philosophy aims to trace the larger meanings and roles of bhakti as it historically emerged in some of the well-known thought systems of India, such as Vedanta and Buddhism.

‘Religion is a tool in the hands of the oppressor against the oppressed solely because he frames the commandments and calls them the God’s’, is an apt description of the Hindu social order. The book rips open the raw nerve of Hinduism—its invidious castes, positioned as a ‘God-ordained’ institution, commandeered by its freebooter priestly class while clandestinely establishing its religious, social and political hegemony through interpolation of its pristine and effulgent scriptures. The author boldly analyses this imbroglio through a microscopic analysis of these and more related issues: • How priests controlled the Hindu religious, social, educational and political apparatus? • How the dominant priestly class fractured the society into mutually antagonistic subordinated hierarchical segments, and ruled it by reserving all elite jobs for itself? • How the fiendish priesthood emasculated shudras by depriving them of the ‘shaastra and shastra’ (education and arms) and made them permanent ‘village servant classes’? • How the pretensions of attaining siddhis through 'meditation and penances' established priests as the ‘gods on earth’ for their assertions of ‘purity and effulgence’? • How ‘karma’, ‘reincarnation’ and ‘84-lakhs births’ theories were devised to justify fatalism and hierarchical gradation of varnas? • Can India be rightfully called the ‘vishvaguru’ and the mother of all civilisations? • How Buddhism effeminated Hindus and made them the doormats for the ruthless? • Why Hindus had to abandon their own, to adop foreign institutions of governance? • Why Hinduism should become a universal and proselytising faith and fight demographic challenges posed by Islam and Christianity?