Vedanta for the Western World is a collection of sixty-eight articles appeared in a magazine having the same title during 1938-45 by eminent scholars of international repute such as Aldous Huxley, Allan Hunter, Gerald Heard and Swami Prabhavananda reflecting on the varied aspects and universal reflections of Vedanta, with an Introduction by Christopher Isherwood. Vedanta, the Vedic philosophy per se, and not time-specific, focuses on three fundamental propositions that man’s real nature is divine; aim of human life is to realize this divine nature; and all religions are essentially in agreement as far as this divine concept is concerned. The essays featured in this volume imbibe and exude the same philosophy being best suited to the understanding of new generation audience, especially the one that belongs to the Western world. This unique volume stands out in its genera of works due to a wide gamut of topics featured in it under the umbrella banner Vedanta. It enables every student of Vedanta know the essence of the Vedic philosophies from the perspectives of both Indian and Western scholars and men of merit. CONTENTS Introduction — Christopher Isherwood Is Mysticism Escapism? — Gerald Heard The Minimum Working Hypothesis — Aldous Huxley Hypothesis and Belief — Christopher Isherwood What Yoga Is — Swami Prabhavananda The Goal of Yoga — Swami Prabhavananda Vedanta as the Scientific Approach to Religion — Gerald Heard Dedication Ode — Frederick Manchester My Discoveries in Vedanta — Gerald Heard Divine Grace — Swami Prabhavananda Towards Meditation — Swami Yatiswarananda The Yoga of Meditation — Swami Prabhavananda The Return to Ritual — Gerald Heard Religion and Temperament — Aldous Huxley Religion and Time — Aldous Huxley The Problem of Evil — Swami Prabhavananda The Magical and the Spiritual — Aldous Huxley How to Integrate Our Personality — Swami Yatiswarananda Distractions — Aldous Huxley Dryness and Dark Night — Gerald Heard Realize the Truth — Swami Yatiswarananda The Mystic Word OM — Swami Prabhavananda Power of the Word — Swami Adbhutananda Meditation — Swami Adbhutananda Brahman and Maya — Swami Adbhutananda Seven Meditations — Aldous Huxley Spiritual Maxims — Swami Shivananda Control of the Subconscious Mind — Swami Prabhavananda Thoughts by a Stream — Allan Hunter Prayer — John van Druten From a Notebook — Aldous Huxley Thoughts — George Fitts Warnings and Hints to the Spiritual Aspirant — Swami Yatiswarananda Renunciation and Austerity — Swami Prabhavananda On a Sentence from Shakespeare — Aldous Huxley I Am Where I Have Always Been — John van Druten Samadhi — Swami Prabhavananda Chant the Name of the Lord — Sri Chaitanya An Unpublished Lecture — Swami Vivekananda Sri Ramakrishna, Modern Spirit and Religion — Swami Prabhavananda St. Francis and Sri Ramakrishna — Guido Ferrando Marriage of Sarada Devi — Amiya Corbin The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna — Christopher Wood Vivekananda and Sarah Bernhardt — Christopher Isherwood Man and Reality — Aldous Huxley Words and Reality — Aldous Huxley Some Aspects of Buddha’s Thought —Swami Prabhavananda Buddha and Bergson — Swami Prabhavananda The Philosophia Perennis — Gerald Heard Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer — Aldous Huxley Sermon on the Mount — Swami Prabhavananda Maya and Mortal Mind — John van Druten Martha — Amiya Corbin The Gita and War — Christopher Isherwood Action and Contemplation — Aldous Huxley Unknown Indian Influences — Gerald Heard Readings in Mysticism — Aldous Huxley Mysticism in the Theologia Germanica — Gerald Heard The Spiritual Message of Dante — Guido Ferrando Notes on Brother Lawrence — Gerald Heard Self-Surrender — Swami Prabhavananda The Churches, Humanism, Spirituality — Gerald Heard Idolatry — Aldous Huxley Is there Progress? — Gerald Heard God in Everything — Swami Prabhavananda The Future of Mankind’s Religion — Gerald Heard The Yellow Mustard — Aldous Huxley The Wishing Tree — Christopher Isherwood Lines — Aldous Huxley