Madras: Ganesh & Co., 1929. First edition. 24x17cm, 239, [1]pp. Modern Indian binding of red morocco tooled in black with gray spine label lettered in gilt. Spine toned, few scuffs to boards. Internally clean with some light toning to page block. Near fine. Housed in a pink silk covered slipcase.

Scarce first edition of this text from British Tantra scholar, Sir John Woodroffe (1865-1936) who wrote extensively under the pseudonym Arthur Avalon.  Woodroffe, through his writings, helped stimulate and spread interest in Hindu philosophy and Yoga in the West.  This is the third text cowritten by Woodroffe and Mukhyopadhyaya in the World as Power series.  From Woodroffe's preface:

"A comparison is made between Shakta-vada and the better known Vedanta system called Mayavada. Both systems speak of Maya but understand them differently as explained in the ten chapters of this book. Its object is not to prove the truth of this or any other system, but to give an exposition of Consciousness as conceived in the doctrine of Power and in such exposition to show that it is not a mere fossil in a museum of antique thought but has practical utility today. It offers to Western philosophy a new conception of Consciousness and Mind and brings to the controversies within the Vedantic schools a profoundly conceived contri-bution, in its theory of power and in its doctrine of the unity of conditioned and unconditioned being, of the state of worldly experience which is Samsara and that super-worldly experience which is Moksha."

Price: $250.00