Meaning of India The : Essays

First published in 1996 when he was eighty-eight years old this selection of nearly six decades of Raja Rao's non-fiction is an audacious contemplation on the deeper significance of India. A combination of fables journeys discussions and meditations The Meaning of India advances the view that India is not just a geographical entity or even a civilization-state. India is above all a metaphysic a way of being and regarding the self and the world.Drawing on a wide range of sources-including the Vedas the Upanishads the Ramayana the Mahabharata the Gita the Buddha Sankara Bhartrihari Kalidasa Dostoevsky Valéry Rilke Mann and Mallarmé-as also meetings with Gandhi Nehru Forster and Malraux Rao teases out the implications of Advaita or non-dualism which he regards as India's unique contribution to the world.