Myth, Symbol and Language : A Modern Perspective with Reference to India and Her Religions (Including Mythologem and Mythologene)/Ananda. 1998, xi, 404 p., $48.
Contents: 1. Myth, symboland language. 2. Sri Ramakrishna--a mythological view. 3. A Vivekananda view of mythology. 4. A study of Indian mythology by Sister Nivedita. Appendices. Select bibliography. Index.
"The present book is a study of symbol and language and their progressive development in one of the most ancient mystic cultures, i.e. Indian Culture. The book studies how the mythical traditions of Hindu Religion are connected with symbol and language and is so deeply involved in all its expression.
"It has been shown by all great philosophers and saints including Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sister Nivedita, that with the help of suggestive and symbolic language a lot could be conveyed which normally lies beyond what can be said definitely. They succeeded to communicate the incommunicable, to speak about what lies on the fringe of silence and beyond.
"However imperfect our language may be, it is very powerful and useful means--perhaps the only handy means we have of approaching reality, and the culture in all its depths.
"The book is a hitherto unknown interpretation of our mythic culture which was often misunderstood and misinterpreted by the missionaries and western psychologists and scholars. It is an academic encounter so to say of an ancient culture with both its mythologem and mythologene characters in most recent past." (jacket)
[Ananda's books include A Critique of Some Recent Thinking in India, Hindu View of Judaism and Contemporary Work Philosophy and Action Culture.]