Before Religion

I have always believed the wisdom of the Vedas to be universal and timeless. Nitesh Gor shares and distills their essence in a practical, accessible and relevant way to our modern lives.’ - Jay Shetty Author of Think Like a Monk.‘In his book, Nitesh Gor reflects deeply, philosophically and practically, on ancient wisdom traditions of India, while seeking universal, self-evident, and undeniable truths. The reader can expect to move along Gor’s exploration of ideas that seek very core understandings that constitute the underpinnings of religion, what is “before religion”, as it were, and will undoubtedly inspire any reader’s thinking to consider further the nature of the human situation and spiritual meaning.’ - Graham M. Schweig, PhD – Author-Translator of Bhagavad Gītā: The Beloved Lord’s Secret Love Song, and Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Christopher Newport University. ‘Nitesh Gor mines two great treasures of Hindu spirituality – the Bhagavad-gita and the Bhagavata Purana – and lucidly presents their teaching of selfless love as the pathway to human fulfilment. Across twenty-two chapters, Nitesh unfolds the notion of “nondual consciousness” as a synthetic vision which can enfold various types of religious questing. This is a deeply insightful exercise of translating ancient Hindu debates regarding reality, language, and self into contemporary language, so that the reader who asks, “but what does it all mean for me?” would find much in it that gives them food for thought as well as nourishment for the heart.’ - Ankur Barua, PhD – Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge

Nitesh Gor (Navina Krsna das) is founder and CEO of Avanti Schools Trust and a trustee of Bhaktivedanta Manor. He founded the youth group Pandava Sena and has helped establish several other ground-breaking charitable start-up projects, such as OMNOM and The Vedanta retreat centre.