Author Description

For me the ultimate questions of man s being are appropriate questions to be asked, subject to real answers, and have a fundamental bearing on man s practical conduct of life... Far from being the weakling s escape from life s harsh realities, the path of the Spirit is the most rigorous trial of manhood that ever challenged the adventurer. And far from being the preserve of a few eccentrics and recluses, the pursuit of the Spirit is not only the highest but also the most natural human activity, for it is in pursuit of the Spirit that man becomes most truly human. For anyone who has wondered What is life all about? Why are we born? And does it all just end with death? the essays in this anthology provide profound answers. The author, Sri Madhava Ashish, was for many years the head of a remote and rather unconventional ashram in the Himalayan foothills of northern India. The ashram drew visitors from India and all over the world people driven by just such questions about ultimate meaning and purpose. The distilled teaching that Ashishda, as he was fondly known, offered freely and that forms the core of these essays, is intensely relevant to our lives today. It has little to do with conventional religions, but can be called secular spirituality. It points out the folly of viewing the cosmos in material terms alone, encouraging us to open our minds and see that our lives are not restricted to the closed box of purely physical existence. Sri Madhava Ashish urges us to set out on the most urgent of all quests: the path of self-knowledge that integrates timeless inner practices such as meditation with a meaningful and active outer life. Using methods that include intelligent inquiry, psychological self-examination and dream analysis, his unorthodox teaching provides a road-map for the emotions, the intellect and the soul to develop in harmony so that both individuals and society can free themselves from egoism, violence and greed, and begin to base their values on the r