Table of Contents

 Table of Contents 

Introduction 1
#1: Embodied Knowing versus History-centrism 5
#2: Integral Unity versus Synthetic Unity 7
#3: Anxiety over Chaos versus Comfort with Complexity and Ambiguity 8
#4: Cultural Digestion versus Sanskrit Non-translatables 9
1. The Audacity of Difference 11
Piercing the Pretense of Pluralism 15
Difference: Anxiety or Mutual Respect? 25
Digestion and Assimilation 36
False Resolutions of Difference Anxiety 39
Purva Paksha: Reversing the Gaze 48
2. Yoga: Freedom from History 54
Two Ways of Knowing the Divine 55
Explaining Dharma to a Western Audience 60
Itihasa Combines History, Myth and More 63
How Embodied Knowing Works 70
How History-centrism Works 83
Authority in the Prophetic Traditions 87
3. Integral Unity and Synthetic Unity 101
Integral Unity and Synthetic Unity Defined 105
Comparison of Cosmologies 111
Indra’s Net 114
Time, Flux and Non-linear Causation 119
Views and Relative Knowledge 126
Freedom and Pluralism 131
The Synthetic Unity of the West 140
The Templeton Project to Re-invent the West 141
The Birth of the West: Inherent Problems 144
Incompatible: Christian Dogma and Greek Reason 149
Five Synthetic Movements in the West 154
4. Order and Chaos 167
Indian ‘Chaos’ and Western Anxiety 170
Indian Comfort with Chaos 178
Sacred Stories 183
Contextual Ethics 191
Aesthetics, Morality and Truth 203
Dharmic Forest and Judeo-Christian Desert 212
Western Joker and Indian Clown 216
5. Non-translatable Sanskrit versus Digestion 220
Integral Unity as Vibration 222
Discovery of Sanskrit 228
Sanskriti, the Dharma Civilization 239
Sanskriti and Pan-Asian Civilization 244
Non-translatable Categories 249
6. Contesting Western Universalism 307
Germany as a Case Study inn Western Digestion
and Synthesis
310
Common Responses to Western Universalism 325
Conclusion: Purva Paksha and the Way Forward 337
Purva Paksha and Sapeksa-Dharma 338
Anticipated Western Responses 342
Challenging the Leaders of Dharma 345
Gandhi’s Sva-dharma and Purva Paksha 347
Appendix A: The Integral Unity of Dharma 354
Hinduism’s Integral Unity of God-Cosmos-Human 355
Buddhism’s Approach to Integral Unity 362
Notions of Self in Hinduism and Buddhism 369
Jainism: Multiple Perspectives and Mutual Respect 369
Appendix B: A Systems Model of Dharma
and Abrahamic Traditions
371
Notes 375
Index 441
Bibliography 459
Acknowledgements 473