Shankara, without any doubt, is one of the greatest minds India has ever produced: a seminal and creative thinker with a sharp intellect and keen mind. Besides, he is a dynamic person: with the power of his spirit coupled with his missionary zeal he awakened and renewed Hinduism from its spiritual slumber. Shankara was unhappy about the deplorable condition to which Hindu society had sink. At his time, the practice of Hinduism was reduced to mere ritualism and the caste system dominated every aspect of the Hindu society. Shankara saw the need to transform Hinduism, both in its philosophy and practice. By proposing the Advaita Vedaanta, he attempted to make Hinduism a true path to the experience of the Divine. Shankara's effort to do this forms the theme of this work, entitled Self-Realization: The Advaitic Perspective of Shankara.

Having come to the end of this project, I gratefully acknowledge persons and institutions who have stood by me in accomplishing this task. In a special way I acknowledge the support and encouragement I received in conceiving and accomplishing this work from Dr. George F. McLean, Ph.D., once a student of T.M.P. Mahadevan and R. Balasubramaniam at Radhakrishnan Institute for Advanced Study in Philosophy, the University of Madras, and now Professor Emeritus of Philosophy. At the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., he directed my first explorations of the metaphysics of Shankara and due to his constant support I have been able to complete this work. I am grateful to the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, for publishing my earlier works (The Authentic Human Destiny: The Paths of Shankara and Heidegger and The Experience of Being: The Heideggerian Perspective) and consenting to publish the present work.

With gratitude I remember the staff and the students of Pallotti Institute of Philosophy and Religion, Goa, India, where I teach Philosophy, for all the support and encouragement I have been receiving from them ever since working on this book.Finally I thank the Pallottine Community of the Prabhu Prakash Province and its Provincial, Very Rev. Fr. Mathew Panakal SAC, for leaving me sufficiently free for study and research, which made it possible for me to complete this book within a short time.

Vensus A. George SAC