I believe that freedom, although it has been attained by some, in society is more of an ideal than a reality, in general and in traditional societies. However, India and the Hindu world has often gotten its people closer to freedom than most societies of the West, in most places and times, even this isn’t saying that much really, both in the specific sense (tyranny is common in the West) and the general sense (tyranny is common everywhere).

Anyway, it’s a broad topic I’m not an expert in, so you can’t expect much more than that. However, like most For Dummies books, this book on Hinduism provides a great, and a thorough introduction. It’s nice to see most or perhaps even all overview topics covered, and not just the particular view of one teacher or school, or whatever points of the lore fit into the web woven by some particular author. (Although obviously many of those books are good too.) For a solid intro to Hinduism, whether its scriptures and philosophies or how it weaves its way into everyday life, this book is great.

…. I mean, I didn’t want to thrust this in their face, you know—the old way of the classically educated man vs everyone else—but since I already kinda touched on that, let me qualify that by saying I don’t think that the answer is to just chug lots and lots of high-caffeine Indian soda, you know!

Realistically, foolishness does happen when the flaws of an old system cause it to break down. But it’s not a long-term solution, you know.

…. Mostly I just thought about how much more I’d like to know.

…. I don’t know if this will really make sense, but I’m both more interested in Hinduism now that I’m not a Christian as both a fellow spiritual tradition of human freedom and a parallel path of unknown consciousness, and not just something to tolerate/box to check to prove you’re not Hitler or whatever; and also I think it’s a mistake and not a compliment to assume that Hindus or whoever necessary have something that We don’t have, whoever We are—really the average Hindu or Indian person you meet is just living their family life and is very once-born, you know. The majority of people you meet are very once-born, especially the people you meet at holiday parties, and if they were ever to seem twice-born, it probably wouldn’t be in front of you. But they probably don’t have it to flaunt it, you know. Intentionally ironic language lol. I mean, really we’re all the same: but we don’t all rest at the same depth within the One Self, you know…..

Read both this and Hinduism for Idiots. ( )