In the common perception, faith and reason or religion and science are mutually exclusive, if not actually contradictory. But it is also commonly felt that the greatest challenge before mankind is how to bring about a happy marriage between the two – both being part and parcel of man’s eternal search for the truth. The inherent conflict between faith and reason is more actually felt in the Jewish-Christian-Islamic tradition of historical religions. Hence, that tradition has, from its very inception, been full of holy crusades and bloody clashes, bringing in their wake endless misery and pain for the world as a whole. But the present-day man can ill-afford the luxury of another such conflict. For, it can very well destroy the entire edifice of this magnificent civilization, built over thousands of years. However, the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ that is considered implicit in that tradition is too dangerous to live with. In actuality, it is already upon us in all its ugliness. The most immediate question, therefore, is: How to ward it off and, if possible, forever. It is this need of the hour that makes it imperative that man turns to the Indic tradition of Dharma that admirably combines in it the best of both faith and reason. That’s why, there is utmost urgency to understand it. For, the sages and Rishis of yore who could scan all the three dimensions of time and laid the basis of an eternal and universal Dharma or order through their Yogic insights were also committed to the welfare of entire humanity and not just a segment of it, call it flock or congregation. This book is a father-and-son effort to explain what the Dharmaic Hindu tradition is. Let us understand why this effort.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amit Kapoor
Son, Amit Kapoor, (34) is a high-class creative Adman. He has served with distinction some of the leading Ad. Agencies of India during the last decade. Now he is in Dubai, persuing his career in the international Ad-world. As a doubting Hindu, he has not hesitated to voice his concerns to his father in the form of questions, othering him and his generation of the young Hindus. He wants all the Hindus in diaspora to be proud of their mother creed and humanistic Hindu roots.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Purushottam Nijhaawan
Father, Purushottam Nijhaawan, (77) generally introduces himself as a maverick of love, life and literature. He got recognition as a Hindi poet rather quite early in life. At 26-27, some of his early poems found their way into the Panjab University anthologies. Careerwise, he rose to be the Chief Editor of the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. As a Family Planning communication expert, he was the first UN Population Year fellow in 1972. The high watermark of his official career was reached when he contributed the keynote address to the 40-day UNESCO workshop - cum - seminar in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi in 1973, before a cream of media experts, Indian and foreign. He also edited the JRD Tata's FP speeches and addresses to be distributed at the United Nations headquarters when Mr. Tata received the World Population Award in 1992. In 1975-76, he wrote "Hinduism Redefined." Three of its chapters were published in the Statesman Calcutta even before its publication. After its publication, the Illustrated Weekly of India reproduced its opeing chapter, the editor Kumud Khanna describing the book as "A seminal work on Hinduism." Others who lauded this work, Included: Nani A. Palkhiwala, Dr. P.N. Kirpal, Girilal Jain, Dr. Daya Krishna, Dr. Amrik Singh, to name a few. He has a deep and abiding interest in the civilizational issues of the age and finds Hinduism as uniquely answering the future needs of mankind.
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