Using Psychology: Principles of Behavior and Your Life - Morris K. Holland - Paperback Book

This book, written by a monk of the Ramkrishna Order, explains the details of what religion in India actually is. It starts from the Vedas, explains the ritualistic portion of the Vedas as well as the philosophy portion. The philosophy portion is better known as the Upanishads. After that, it then goes on to the Bhagawad Gita and then the various Puranas. The book, due to space constraints gives a 30,000 feet overview, however, Prabhavananda manages to elucidate much of the finer points.

After the scriptures, the 6 major schools of thought - Nyaya, Vaisesika, Purva Mimamsa, Uttara Mimamsa, Yoga, Sankhya - and their philosophies are briefly explained. Of these, he greatly expands on Yoga and Uttar Mimamsa which is commonly known as the Vedanta. Here, he goes into great detail about Vedanta, both dualistic and non-dualistic.

The last part of the book is about the great monks and teachers that India has produced. Each and everyone mentioned in the book has attained spirtual enlightenment. Along with their teaching, Prabhavananda also mentions where they find consensus among each other. He has devoted a great deal of space to Sri Chaitanya, Shankara and Sri Ramkrishna, no doubt due to the importance of these three in today's world, as well as helping real religion get to the masses.

On the whole, this book can be regarded as a very short history of philosophy of India. It gives the reader a high level overview and also mentions reading material that for further exploration.