The Great Reformers and Religious Teachers of India - Paperback USED Like New

Most religious movements in India have come about as a reaction to meaningless traditions and stifling rituals that are the inevitable result when a prescribed way of life as set down by a great thinker is left to be carried on by his followers, who have the faith but seldom the brilliance or intellect to take the movement to its logical conclusion.  As they say, a convert is always more fanatic than the prophet himself.  So it was in India too.  When Hinduism go entangled in rituals sand ceremonies that were the purview of only a chosen few, we saw Gautama Buddha propound the much simpler Buddhism and, soon after, Vardhamana Mahavira lay forth the so much easier to understand principles of Jainism.  But after these two great men died, these two religious movements got shrouded in meaningless ritual and decadence. The common man no longer felt at ease with them, which is why he turned with relief to the teachings of Sri Sankaracharya and Ramanuja.  Similarly, when the tyrannies of the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, were at their height, the 10th Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, showed Hindus a way to maintain their self-respect and fight back against the atrocities inflicted upon them.  Religion has always been an integral part of daily life in India.  The Great Reformers and Religious Teachers of India looks at the men who shaped the various religious of India, and helped to give ordinary men and women deep insights into the fathomless mystery that is life.