This book is a special kind of autobiography, dealing with the events and episodes of life that led to greater spiritual awareness in somebody who is one of the foremost writers in matters spiritual today. She is also in an elite group of at best five members when it comes to interpreting the Hindu tradition. Such a person's views are always interesting and understanding their evolution does a lot to better appreciate one's own. The book does not disappoint in any way, because Eck has a quality unusual in writers about matters spiritual, she is a good writer to begin with! There is none of the usual turgid and superlatively naïve belief in a benevolent disposition of the universe. This is a book written by a person who is grounded as much in reality as in her faith, the two not being always the same thing.

Let it be said right at the outset that all her striving has only deepened her Christian faith. She is not a proto-Hindu, not by a long shot, though I feel any Hindu would claim her as one of their own instantly. Nor is this book a display of erudition so that one's chosen faith can be triumphantly vindicated at the end. She has learnt and practiced many paths, seeking any thing that would make her faith come alive. She is a rare bird in being a scholar whose faith is vibrantly real. Most eggheads know so much that they really cannot believe in anything. I do not presume to critique her theology, or her understanding of Hindu myths. The first is impeccable, if you have a turn of mind that way, and the second is a matter of personality determining taste. She does not find, for instance, anything but the tedium of constant bloodshed in the Avatar of Parashurama, whereas in our myths section I have demonstrated its great psychological importance in Indian notions. The fact that she has engaged with other aspects of the tradition and made seminal contributions there is more than enough. See our reviews section for her book, Banaras, City of Light

What is most important in the book however is not the fact of Eck's faith or its evolution but her ceaseless quest to find meaning in the spirit of turbulence and seeking that characterizes most genuine seeking today. Why is there so much cross fertilization, so much borrowing - acknowledged, unconscious, unknown - between those who would like to avoid organized religion but thirst for a faith of their own? She tries to provide a universal perspective to these questions, and her own journey is in a sense only illustrative narrative to these vital questions. Her words in the preface set this out clearly. "My encounters with Hindus has enabled me to understand my own faith more clearly and required that I understand my own faith differently. It would only be honest to say my faith as a Christian has been shaped by several religious traditions. This book is an attempt to articulate the ways in which this has been so. While I use my own experiences as illustrative, I am convinced there are a great many people, Christians and others, who have similar experiences and who share these concerns - in their own ways, in their own keys, and in their own lives."

While I would not like to single out any section of the book as being more important in any way than any other, Chapter 7 deals with a larger issue, the challenge of religious diversity. She analyses the three main responses to it and the chapter is worth perusing many times over. The exclusivist is the face we are all familiar with, the one who believes he and his kind have the sole truth, with the others languishing in outer darkness. The inclusivist sees his tradition as including all others and possibly being the most sensible option available. The pluralist should actually have been called the realist, for he accepts that where religion is concerned an infinite variety of views are inevitable. He seeks dialogue and trust in interfaith encounters so that we can learn more about each other as well as deepen our own faith. It would seem to be the only sane way forward, but belief has always been a form of temporary insanity.

The other sections of the book (especially Chapter 8) which try to offer some sort of resolution to all these issues are equally worth perusing. This book is recommended not only without reserve but also with extravagant enthusiasm.

Reviewed by Rohit Arya

• Title: Encountering God
• Author: Diana L. Eck
• Publisher: Penguin Publishers