Hindu View of Judaism

by Ananda

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First and foremost of all, it is a fact that there was a great dearth for books of this type. As such this publication tries to fill up the long felt want specially, from the Indian point of view. It is a good addition also to the religious series of the Ramakrishna Mission publications (which incidently includes books on Buddha and Buddhism, Christ and Christianity, even Mohammed and Islam) but uptil now not a single writing on Judaism. This publication no doubt nicely harmonises with the series like the 'Hindu view of Christianity' etc.

Since Judaism is an ancient religion it should be studied with interest in ones attempt to have a complete knowledge about the world religions, side by side, in a comparative manner so to say. The author has done this successfully without being either bias or partial in his study. Secondly, as an ancient culture and religion, Judaism is not extinct. If it is not living in the cascades of the past, it is still responding to the world situation, growing strong and healthy, inspite of its being a very minor religion of the world and having gone through centuries of suffering-and devastations. Perhaps no other religion has such vast experience of trials and tribulations both in favour and against its faith. Since Judaism itself is a deep study in faith culture, India has to learn from its courageous confrontation with several attacks from all sides and its lasting faith in its convictions and beliefs.

Naturally, the book is a deep study of faith culture as well as a cultural analysis in as much as it is possible to contain in a single volume. It is also a study of the Jewish ethics, which happens to be the main core of a Jew's religion and life itself. Again when it comes to countering religious and political fundamentalism with fundamentalism-Judaism is next to none. So obviously it may have some relevance and interest to the student of the present-day Hindutva Movement in India, Of course, Hindu religion and philosophy can never be racial, particularistic and narrow in its views, mainly because of its synthesis outlook and universalism since the time of its origin. Yet, our Gurucult, Avatara-vada etc. has the same attitude of the Messiah culture or prophetic type-of structure being deeply hyper-personalistic in character.

Finally, such a comparative study of Judaism is very significant since it is the hub of two other most important religions of the world viz., Christianity and Islam. Without some study of Judaism-no study about these other religions could be rightly accepted as complete, atleast historically. This publication is a pointer to this fact also.

About the Author:

Before joining the order of monks, Ananda did his, M.A. in Philosophy (Mental & Moral Science) and also Political Science. Besides, he studied Law and Modern History upto M.A. Final, though not completed. As a young monk he had the privilege and experience of working in the midst of Naga Tribes in the remote North East India for about 5-6 years. His interest in the cultural and social trends of the different people and countries, especially in India, is not only keen, but deep. And most of his attempts in exploring any subject or themes are multi-disciplinary and naturally path-breaking. Besides, several other titles by him are der preparation. He also contributes to different journals on variety of subjects.