My Favourite Books
These is my list of favourite books on Hinduism:
1. Lectures from Columbo to Almora, by Swami Vivekananda. Wonderful set of lectures filled with ideals of nationalism and spirituality. If I had power, I would have made this book compulsory in all schools. Online link of the book.
2. Jnana Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. An in-depth introduction to philosophy. Online link of the book.
3. Bhakti Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. Deals with the concept of Bhakti, unselfish devotion etc. Online link of the book.
4. Karma Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. The Yoga of Action and unattached work. Online link of the book.
5. Raja Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. About the principle behind pranayama, meditation, patanjali yoga sutras. Online link of the book.
6. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, translated by Swami Nikhilananda. I always feel that studying/seeing the life of a Saint has thousand times more powerful impact than hundreds of theories. They don’t “preach” religion, they live it. They are the standing testimonies of the truth of the scriptures. For people with more sincere spiritual orientation. Online link of the book.
All the above six books are also available in book form in any of the Sri Ramakrishna Mission or their outlets in many Railway stations. They are also very very cheap. If you study the above 6 books, I am confident that you will cover more than 95% of Hinduism (of course that’s only the theory part, practice is an individual initiative, which no amount of book reading can give you)
Apart from the above, the following are some nice books, worth reading:
7. India’s Rebirth, by Sri Aurobindo. A wonderful book on spiritual-nationalism. It may be available at some Indological book stores or Motilalbanarasidas publishers. It is slightly costly (around 300). The same book is also available online here.
8. Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahamsa Yogananda. Very nice book, and perfect introduction to Indian mysticism for westerners and urban Indians. Conveys things more through real life experiences of the author than in terms of Author. Is a very famous book and will be available in any major book store. It is also available online here.
9. For the Hindutva case against Missionaries, Marxists, Mullahs (the 3 M’s), I find Arun Shourie’s books best. His writing style, facts he presents and his arguments are too good and compelling. He has written a LOT of books, but the must reads in them are:
(i) Harvesting Our Souls
(ii) Missionaries in India
(iii) Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud
(iv) The World of Fatwas, Or, the Shariah in Action
(v) Only Fatherland : Communists, 'Quit India,' and the Soviet Union
Unfortunately, all of them are published by usual publishing houses and hence costly. But they will be easily available in any major book store.
10. There are a LOT of more very good books, which is not possible for me to list them all. I will just give links to websites which host a lot of good books.
(i) Complete works of Swami Vivekananda: http://ramakrishnavivekananda.info/
(ii) Most books of Sri Ramana Maharshi, downloadable at: http://www.ramana-maharshi.org/downloads/downloads.htm
(iii) Works of Swami Sivananda of Divine life society available at: http://www.dlshq.org/download/download.htm
(iv) Good English translations to Upanishads and other important books: http://shastras.com/
(v) Collection of various translations and commentaries of Gita, along with audio of verses: http://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/
(vi) Best site for Hindutva related stuff. No rhetorics… presents the case in a perfectly logical manner:
http://voi.org/
1. Lectures from Columbo to Almora, by Swami Vivekananda. Wonderful set of lectures filled with ideals of nationalism and spirituality. If I had power, I would have made this book compulsory in all schools. Online link of the book.
2. Jnana Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. An in-depth introduction to philosophy. Online link of the book.
3. Bhakti Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. Deals with the concept of Bhakti, unselfish devotion etc. Online link of the book.
4. Karma Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. The Yoga of Action and unattached work. Online link of the book.
5. Raja Yoga, by Swami Vivekananda. About the principle behind pranayama, meditation, patanjali yoga sutras. Online link of the book.
6. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, translated by Swami Nikhilananda. I always feel that studying/seeing the life of a Saint has thousand times more powerful impact than hundreds of theories. They don’t “preach” religion, they live it. They are the standing testimonies of the truth of the scriptures. For people with more sincere spiritual orientation. Online link of the book.
All the above six books are also available in book form in any of the Sri Ramakrishna Mission or their outlets in many Railway stations. They are also very very cheap. If you study the above 6 books, I am confident that you will cover more than 95% of Hinduism (of course that’s only the theory part, practice is an individual initiative, which no amount of book reading can give you)
Apart from the above, the following are some nice books, worth reading:
7. India’s Rebirth, by Sri Aurobindo. A wonderful book on spiritual-nationalism. It may be available at some Indological book stores or Motilalbanarasidas publishers. It is slightly costly (around 300). The same book is also available online here.
8. Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahamsa Yogananda. Very nice book, and perfect introduction to Indian mysticism for westerners and urban Indians. Conveys things more through real life experiences of the author than in terms of Author. Is a very famous book and will be available in any major book store. It is also available online here.
9. For the Hindutva case against Missionaries, Marxists, Mullahs (the 3 M’s), I find Arun Shourie’s books best. His writing style, facts he presents and his arguments are too good and compelling. He has written a LOT of books, but the must reads in them are:
(i) Harvesting Our Souls
(ii) Missionaries in India
(iii) Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud
(iv) The World of Fatwas, Or, the Shariah in Action
(v) Only Fatherland : Communists, 'Quit India,' and the Soviet Union
Unfortunately, all of them are published by usual publishing houses and hence costly. But they will be easily available in any major book store.
10. There are a LOT of more very good books, which is not possible for me to list them all. I will just give links to websites which host a lot of good books.
(i) Complete works of Swami Vivekananda: http://ramakrishnavivekananda.info/
(ii) Most books of Sri Ramana Maharshi, downloadable at: http://www.ramana-maharshi.org/downloads/downloads.htm
(iii) Works of Swami Sivananda of Divine life society available at: http://www.dlshq.org/download/download.htm
(iv) Good English translations to Upanishads and other important books: http://shastras.com/
(v) Collection of various translations and commentaries of Gita, along with audio of verses: http://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/
(vi) Best site for Hindutva related stuff. No rhetorics… presents the case in a perfectly logical manner:
http://voi.org/
posted by S at 11:39 PM
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