Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines (Collected Works of Rene Guenon)

Rene Guenon’s first book, Introduction to the Study of Hindu Doctrines, came (in the words of the eminent scholar S. H. Nasr) ‘like a sudden burst of lightning, an abrupt intrusion into the modern world of a body of knowledge and a perspective utterly alien to the prevalent climate and world view.’ In this book Guenon establishes the criteria which formed the basis of his later works and set the tone for the Traditionalist School that came after him: the meaning of Tradition, the relationship between ‘religion’, ‘theology’, ‘metaphysics etc.-all leading up to an exhaustive definition and comprehensive overview of Hinduism, which Guenon saw as the most ancient and most complete spiritual tradition on earth, embracing the most profound and explicit metaphysics. The West is now overrun with many brands of compromised Hinduism, whose ‘gurus’ are considered charlatans by traditional Hindu authorities. For anyone drawn to the Hindu tradition, searching for a way to separate the wheat from the chaff and dedicated to gaining an understanding of the universe that is Hinduism in its own terms and not those imposed by modernist Western assumptions, this book is indispensable.