Swami Adiswarananda is the Minister and Leader of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York and author of Meditation and Its Practices: A Definitive Guide to Techniques and Traditions of Meditation in Yoga and Vendanta. In his excellent and succinct overview of the Vedanta way of Hinduism, he makes it clear that this path has much to offer contemporary men and women who are looking for peace and happiness in the midst of a world convulsed by fear, violence, speed, and anxiety.

Vedanta, the final teaching of the Vedas, is based on a set of universal principles that are explored in the beginning of the book: ultimate reality, the human individual, the creation, sufferings of life, the validity of spiritual truth, human destiny, the values of life, existence, and harmony of faiths. The author states that this tradition has made three primary contributions to world religious thought: spiritual democracy which ensures freedom of worship, spiritual humanism which calls for serving all, and seeing the divine presence in every being.

Human beings are fallen angels not civilized animals. Their innate nature is divine, and their primal urge is freedom of the soul. Good and evil are a pair of opposites which depend on each other. The goal of all prayer, meditation, and performance of rituals is the purification of the mind. The oneness of all leads to ethics and morality. The way a person demonstrates personal transformation is by a change in his or her character.

In one of the most interesting sections, Swami Adiswarananda discusses the signs of a mature ego. Many in the West are familiar with the negative slant given to egotism by the Christian tradition where it is viewed as a blend of pride, selfishness, and will to power. In the Vedanta way, the mature ego is described as "integrated, purposeful, self-controlled, neither aggressive nor defensive, realistic as opposed to pessimistic or optimistic, temperate in everything and free from dependency." Mature living can be achieved through the spiritual practice of dispassion, which is something akin to the Buddhist practice of equanimity. The author describes it as the middle road in everything. In the following paragraph, we see the cumulative results of the Vedanta way:

"If you want happiness, reduce your dependencies. If you want joy, reduce your desires. If you want peace, reduce your ego. If you want security, keep the instincts of sex and palate under control. If you hope for the best, be prepared for the worst. Face the fact that there is no life without suffering. Face the problems by overcoming them. Face the challenges of life by falling back on the changeless. Face death by knowing the deathless in yourself; face the uncertainties of life by making them a part of your life. Face the past by acting on the living present. Face the nightmares by waking up. Face the sufferings by developing immunity against them."

Another beauty of this path is the respect given to the elderly who are seen as truth tellers because they are not caught up in proving themselves or wielding power over others. Swami Adiswarananda notes that a person in this stage of life is more integrated, whole, and self-satisfied. The old have no fear of death since they know that the cessation of life has no power to wipe out the soul. The old also are able to travel lightly since they have learned the value of no attachments. The Vedanta Way to Peace and Happiness contains usable wisdom and helpful practices from a rich Indian spiritual tradition.