In Search of Immortality : An Introduction to Indic World-Views

Where did the world come from? Who created it? What happens to a person after death?-Thoughts on such questions are found in the Rig Veda, the oldest extant Indo-European text, dating back to circa 1500 BCE. It provides insights into the world-view of the Aryans who migrated and settled in India approximately 4000 years ago. Many of the concepts and ideas that comprise the present day Indian world-views descend from the Vedas and the Upanishads. However, couched in such mythological and religious forms, these concepts are prone to give a lopsided impression that Indian philosophy is theistic in nature. But teasing them out from such literature leads to a loss of the context within which they developed and evolved over time. In Search of Immortality seeks to recontextualize Indian world views by tracing them from their origin in the Rig Vedic hymns to their evolution into various orthodox philosophical systems, and illuminates the cluster of quintessential ideas that have moulded the Indian psyche over several millennia.…