The Yogi and the Devotee The Interplay between the Upanishad and Catholic Theology
Date
1968
Authors
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Publisher
George Allen & Unwin Ltd
Abstract
The present book is an expansion of lectures which I gave at
St Stephen's College, in the University of Delhi, in December,
1964. A shortened version of these lectures was delivered at
Bishop's College, Calcutta, towards Christmas of that year.
The lectures were the Westcott Lectures for 1964 under the
Teape Foundation. I am deeply grateful for the honour given
to me in being elected to do this. I am also deeply grateful to a
number of people for their hospitality and helpfulness.
At the time when I went to Delhi, the Principal of St
Stephen's College was recovering from a major illness, and was
unable to come to the lectures. For this reason they were
recorded, so that he could listen to them in his home. Thus he
is the main cause of their publication, for a transcript of them
was sent to me, and from this transcript I have derived the
substance of the book. However, it should be made clear that
I have considerably added to and revised what I said, so that
those who were good enough to attend the lectures would
probably find that the material is very different from what
they heard. Nevertheless, everything that is written here is in
essence an expression of the thoughts which I attempted to
convey then. I am, then, grateful to Dr Sircar, the Principal:
though I would have wished that it were not his illness which
gave occasion to the present book.
The then Acting Principal and Mrs Shankland kindly invited
me to stay in their house during my period in Delhi, and
I look back with pleasure to the excellence and goodness with
which they looked after me. There were many others too on
the staff of St Stephen's who welcomed me, and kept me busy
with friendly disputation. I would like also to mention
Professor N. V. Banerjee, retired from the Philosophy Department
at Delhi University, who discussed many things with me
at the time, and whose cheerful acumen made me see the
inadequacy of so much that I said.
In Calcutta, I was the guest of Canon Sambayya. He and his
wife, together with the rest of the staff of Bishop's College,
were most kind. Less so, the brother-in-law of one of the staff,
whose bowling in the nets was far too good for me.
Description
Heritage
Keywords
Yogi, Devotee, Theology