"Here, collected together for the first time, are the universally applicable teaching stories of His Holiness Shantanand Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math in Northern India from 1953 until his retirement in 1980. His Holiness comes from the ancient Advaita or nondualist tradition of knowledge meditation and is one of India's greatest living saints. He continues the work of his predecessor. His Holiness Brahmananda Saraswati (Gurudeva), in making mantra meditation available to people of many religious traditions." "As His Holiness Shantanand Saraswati explains the meaning of each story with appealing simplicity, he makes clear how practical his teaching is and how what he has to say about birth and death, desire and attachment, illusion and discrimination, and meditation and prayer can be immediately applied to every moment of our lives."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved