Methods of Knowledge: According to Advaita Vedanta

About the Book:

The simple question, 'How we know?" is one of the toughest problems that have confronted the human mind. Methods of Knowledge presents to modern thinkers the Vedantic approach to this universal problem. It dwells on different types of knowledge from sensory experience, which man shares with the lowest living beings, up to the transcendental perception of ultimate Reality claimed by great mystics and seers of the world. The commonest of all cognitions has proved to be no less enigmatic than the rarest of them all. Modern epistemologists-the idealists, the realists and the mediators-have grappled with the former without reaching a satisfactory solution, while they have hardly recognized the letter. The present treatise includes a comprehensive and consistent treatment of both these types of experience.

Besides the interpretation of different forms on non-existence, to which Western epistemology has paid scanty attention. True to the Advaita position the book tackles the problems of knowledge with reference to its source, the self within, with is undeniable, although unnoticed. Though ancient, the process is ever new, being applicable in all cases of cognition. The author has tried to present the Advaita views in relations to those of other Indian and Western systems of thought. The book is suited to thinkers in general within and without the academic circle.

Swami Satprakashananda, the author of the book, is the founder-head of the Vedanta Society of St. Louis, Mo., U.S.A., and a senior member of the Ramakrishna Order. He has worked in United States as a spiritual teacher for over three decades.

About the Author:

Swami Satprakashananda was born in April 1988 at Dhaka. He has the good fortune of meting Swami Vivekananda in person in 1901, when the letter visited Dhaka on his pilgrimage to a great extent in building up the Ramakrishna math and the Ramakrishana Mission Center at Dhaka in their initial stages.

He came into close contact with Swami Brahamananda, first President of the Ramakrishna Order, in 1908, and was initiated by him. A graduate of the University of Calcutta, he renounced the world and joined the Order at the Dhaka Centre in 1924. He was formally ordained as a Sannyasin in 1927 by Swami Shivananda, second President of the Order at Varanasi. Later, he was closely associated with the publication of Prabuddha Bharata for three years, after which he was asked to take charge of the Ramakrishana Mission Centre at New Delhi.

Swami Satprakashananda established a permanent Vedanta Society at St. Louis (205 Sough Skinker Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri-63105, U.S.A.) in 1938 and became the Minister-in-charge of the Society, in which position he remained until the last. He passed away in 1979.

A well-versed scholar in Sanskrit scriptures, and through student of philosophy, he is the author of several books, such as How Is A Man Reborn? Hinduism & Christianity, Sri Ramakrishna's Life and Massage in Present Age etc. His books are noted for their depth of understanding and lucidity of presenting a difficult subject.

Genial by temperament and gentle by nature, the Swami spontaneously won the hearts of those who came in contact with him and sought his guidance in matters spiritual. He had a benevolent heart. He has left behind a number of disciples, both men and women, in the U.S.A. Who cherish his memory with great respect and reverence.