The Secret Teachings of the Vedas is a great book to look into the lofty spiritual insights of the Vedic literature. I rarely write any such reviews, but I've been reading Knapp's books for some years now and have always found them easy to read and understand the uplifting nature of the Vedic philosophy. I also wanted to say that I don't understand how Henry Booth wrote in to say he was disappointed. It's as if he took a few points he had problems with and forgot all the other significant things in the book.
Like he says Knapp believes you only go from one physical birth to another. This is absolutely untrue since the book spends many pages dealing with the spiritual realm, along with heaven, hell, subtle realms and subtle beings. If that is not life between physical births then what is? Maybe he just didn't get that. Or did he really read the whole book? He also says that Knapp doesn't buy the Big Bang theory, which he says is a proven premise. But that depends on who you talk to. Some scientists are already saying that the Big Bang theory does not uphold the law of matter and energy, and does not properly explain how various elements could have been created. Others feel that the superclusters in space are not what would be expected from an explosive model like the Big Bang, nor would the smooth nature of the background microwave radiation that is detected. So these and other factors point out that there has to be some other explanation. So maybe there is good reason why the Vedic literature does not support what some think is the Big Bang.
So these theories are changing, as is always the case in science. But the Vedic literature does say that the universe is expanding, which is the premise from whcih the Big Bang theory was developed. So it perturbs me when someone writes a review of something based on their own lack of information. So let me conclude that this book on the Vedic viewpoint remains a great source of spiritual wisdom and insight. There are a lot of other points that this book deals with. No one will go wrong with buying this book.
