Virtue, Success, Pleasure and Liberation.

Thanks to its caste-based social system, permitting the coexistence of different races, cultures and religions, India has been a refuge for all persecuted peoples. Here we meet the oldest Jewish and Christian communities, animist tribes alongside Parsi refugees from Iran, and even the Tibetans of the Dalai Lama. In “The Four Senses of Life”, Alain Daniélou explains some of the very modern aspects of this social caste system and how, paradoxically, this archaic institution can provide answers to contemporary problems: in a multiracial and multicultural society, the Hindu art of living demands the right to be different and permits the social, sexual and spiritual realization of the individual. This individual fulfillment cannot be envisaged outside the social structures of caste, which are an integral part of it. Alain Daniélou sets out to explain to Western readers the conceptual foundations for an understanding of this Hindu worldview. A stimulating book that enables Western readers to nuance their judgment of India’s traditional caste system.

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