Old lessons for a new age
November 2010
Human urge of peace; Author: Swami Veda Bharati; Published by: Ahymsin Publishers; Pages : 313
The author makes good his promise on the cover of this book to share ‘what is right with the world’ by listing the shared ideas, ideals and realisations common to spiritual traditions across the globe. The work underlines with some success how in a world where a lot of things are going wrong there is much in the earth’s folk, oral and classical traditions that can pave the way for sustainable peace. The book opens with the ‘Perennial in the Millennium’, which the author says was composed in Johannesburg, South Africa, to welcome the new millennium. In it, says the author, is ‘a manifesto for total holism’. The manifesto reminds one of Chief Seattle’s celebrated letter (now understood to be the work of fiction writer Ted Perry), to the ‘Great Chief in Washington’. The president of the United States wants the Native Americans to sell the sacred land of their ancestors. Chief Seattle’s wise response to the suggestion continues to move thousands on the Internet. The manifesto, however, is regrettably less inspired.The really good bit about the book is that every other page holds some surprising bit of information on world spiritual heritage. However, the wealth of ideas, anecdotes, parallels from mythology could have benefited from tight editing. The layout and printing too could definitely have been improved upon.
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