This work is written by one of the finest Indian minds of our times. Matilal took great care to avoid using technical language as the readers he wished to address are not limited to the circle of professional philosophers. In this book, he tries to portray a belief that we can discover, the deep structure, so to say, of each great religious tradition, an awareness of the fundamental unity of man may emerge out of this discovery, which would be extremely valuable today, in fact, priceless in a world where we have frequent cases of Moradabad, Middle-East and Northern Island. Needless to say, in our world today the agenda, so clearly articulated by Matilal remains relevant. The distinctive feature of this work is that the author was consciously motivated by contemporary historical experience; the frequent conflict between communities which have coalesed around different religious beliefs.