Hindu life and practice Books

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Book SynopsisThe late Indian scholar and tantra practitioner Harish Johari introduces the classical principles of the chakras as well as their practical application for today.Trade Review"A beautifully crafted book. Johari skillfully takes us into the machinery of Hindu metaphysics, a nerve system vehicle that navigates the invisible frontiers of consciousness...compressed with detail." * Hinduism Today *"For Harish Johari--artist, composer, teacher, tantric devotee--desire is the brush and the five senses are the palette." * Yoga Journal *"Johari shows us the mysteries of these subtle centers of transformation with visualization techniques essential to a fully realized tantric practice." * Share Guide, March/April 2001 *"Unlike other books in its field, Chakras provides the tools to activate . . . and elevate one's intellectual knowledge to an experience of spiritual growth. Nowhere else will the Western reader find so much valuable information on this ancient tradition in one place." * Branches of Light, Spring into Summer 2001 *"Among the best of Western explications, combining traditional, visionary, and practical views...illustrated, detailed, and accessible to the neophyte." * East West *Table of ContentsChakras Energy Centers of Transformation Acknowledgments 1. Principles of Tantra Yoga 2. Kundalini and Yoga 3. The Essentials of the Chakras 4. Chakras, Rebirth, and Spirituality Appendix: Extracts from Hindu Scriptures on the Various Stages of Yoga Glossary Index

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Book SynopsisThe first book to cover Krishna’s entire life, from his childhood pranks to his final powerful acts in the Mahabharata war • Draws from the Bhagavad Purana, the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, and India’s sacred oral tradition • Shows how the stories of Krishna’s life are expressed with such simplicity and humor that they enable anyone--man, woman, or child--to see the wisdom of his teachings • Provides a valuable meditative tool that allows the lessons of these stories to illuminate from within Krishna, one of the most beloved characters of the Hindu pantheon, has been portrayed in many lights: a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero, an exemplary ruler, and the Supreme Being. In The Complete Life of Krishna, Vanamali, a leading Krishna expert from a long line of prominent Krishna devotees, provides the first book in English or Sanskrit to cover the complete range of the avatar’s life. Drawing from the Bhagavad Purana, the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, and India’s sacred oral tradition, Vanamali shares stories from Krishna’s birth in a dungeon and early days as a merry trickster in Vrindavana, through his time as divine ruler at Dwaraka, to his final powerful acts as the hero Arjuna’s charioteer and guru in the Kurukshetra war. She explains how Krishna became a mahayogi, the greatest of all yogis, and attained complete mastery over himself and nature. By integrating the hero-child with the mahayogi, the playful lover with the divine ruler, Vanamali shows how the stories of Krishna’s life are expressed with such simplicity and humor that they enable anyone--man, woman, or child--to see the wisdom of his teachings. This complete biography of the man who was also a god provides a valuable meditative tool allowing Krishna’s lessons to illuminate from within.Trade Review“Scholarly and insightful on the meanings of these legends, The Complete Life of Krishna is a strongly recommended pick for religious history collections focusing on Hinduism and eastern religions.” * Midwest Book Review, August 2012 *“Drawing from the Bhagavad Gita and other sacred texts, the author explains how Krishna became a mahayogi, the greatest of all yogis, with complete mastery over himself and nature. On whatever level you receive these stories, they are a valuable meditative tool, full of delight and wisdom.” * Whole Life Times, August 2012 *“Vanamali’s new book will entrance readers as a first introduction to the immortal Lord of Love, or as a cherished opportunity to once again dip into the nectar of the Lord’s lila, his play on earth.” * Light of Consciousness, October 2012 *“Recommended for new age and spirituality collections alike, this draws from a range of sources, from India’s oral tradition to the Bhagavata Purana, Gita, Mahabharata and more, exploring Krishna’s life, how he became the greatest of all yogis, and how he evolved to the position of a divine ruler. Any collection strong in Indian spirituality needs this in-depth coverage.” * Midwest Book Review, November 2012 *Table of Contents Foreword by Swami Krishnananda Preface: The Historical Krishna Introduction: Krishna the Supreme Incarnation Part One Bala-Lila--The Play of the Child 1 The Advent 2 The Birth of the Unborn 3 The Divine Infant 4 The Butter Thief 5 Bondage of the Boundless 6 Brahma Bemused 7 The Enchanting Flute 8 Krishna Lifts the Mountain 9 The Divine Lover 10 The Lord of Vraja Part Two Raja-Lila--The Royal Game 11 The Prophecy Fulfilled 12 Uddhava at Gokula 13 Lord of Dwaraka 14 Abduction of Rukmini 15 The Cursed Gem 16 The Pandavas 17 The Divine Husband 18 The Sons of Krishna 19 The Divine Ruler 20 The Rajasuya Sacrifice Part Three Uttama-Lila--The Game Supreme 21 The Gambling Match 22 The Exile 23 The Lord as Ambassador 24 Declaration of War 25 Srimad Bhagavad Gita 26 The Mahabharata War 27 The End of the War 28 The Advice of Bhishma 29 The Story of Sudama 30 Dharma Rules Supreme 31 The Curse of the Sages 32 Advice to Uddhava 33 The Death of the Deathless Epilogue: Lila--The Cosmic Play Appendix One. Alphabetical List of Mantras Appendix Two. List of Characters Glossary of Sanskrit Terms Index

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Book SynopsisSensual is a guide to understanding the inner spark we are all born with, why and how we lose it, and how to reclaim our power to live the life we truly want.Sensuality is about more than just pleasure. Sensuality is an innate power that can help you to tune in to your body, mind, and spirit. To be sensual is to know yourself so intimately that you can move through life with confidence and clarity, deeply connected to the fire within.In this book, Henika Patel invites you on a journey of expansion to find your unapologetic, unashamed, fully expressed sensual spirit. Blending Eastern philosophy and Western psychology with practices, rituals, and stories from her own life, Henika will empower you to: Overcome blocks, shame, and numbness Unleash and express your authentic desires Discover your inner spark and confidence Find sensuality, connection, and freedom in all areas of your life, from love and creativity to work and rel

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Book SynopsisHinduism is one of the world's oldest and greatest religious traditions. In captivating prose, Shashi Tharoor untangles its origins, its key philosophical concepts and texts. He explores everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste, and touchingly reflects on his personal beliefs and relationship with the religion. Not one to shy from controversy, Tharoor is unsparing in his criticism of 'Hindutva', an extremist, nationalist Hinduism endorsed by India's current government. He argues urgently and persuasively that it is precisely because of Hinduism's rich diversity that India has survived and thrived as a plural, secular nation. If narrow fundamentalism wins out, Indian democracy itself is in peril.Trade Review'A profound book on one of the world's oldest and greatest religions.' -- The Hindustan Times'An influential and thought-provoking book, shedding light on many of the contradictions and anomalies of this ancient religion and its chequered history.''Tharoor's book is essential for fostering a more varied political dialogue on nationalism, secularism, and democracy.' -- Eurasia Review'Shashi Tharoor is the most charming and persuasive writer in India. His new book is a brave and characteristically articulate attempt to save a great and wonderfully elusive religion from the certainties of the fundamentalists and the politicisation of the bigots.' -- William Dalrymple

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Book SynopsisA multi-faceted portrait of Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity. It includes translations of verses used to invoke this goddess.

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Book SynopsisThe Guru & Disciple Book examines the guru-disciple relationship, its evolution from India to the West, and its impact on spiritual communities. It covers the roles, struggles, pastoral care, and controversies surrounding gurus, emphasizing both enlightenment and scandal.

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Book SynopsisTulasi Srinivas uses the concept of wonder—feelings of amazement at being overcome by the unexpected and sublime—to examine how residents of Banglore, India pursue wonder by practicing Hindu religious rituals as a way to accept and resist neoliberal capitalism.Trade Review"[The Cow in the Elevator] teased me into questioning what Srinivas has so beautifully and chillingly thought through for decades—wonder as an ethical practice." -- Dhruv Ramnath * The Citizen *"Srinivas provides a lively lesson in religious originality with applications and implications far beyond Bangalore or India." -- Jack David Eller * Reading Religion *"The central contribution of this book is its presentation of wonder as a new category of anthropological inquiry, and its interdisciplinary approach of parsing wonder from the vantage points of ritual and liturgical lives, socioeconomics, and aesthetic and creative spheres. Srinivas’s deployment of these specific categories by no means limits its readers; on the contrary, the book inspires readers to revisit their own field experiences, and look for the moments of wonder." -- Arthi Devarajan * Anthropology News *"Tulasi Srinivas does us a service in identifying important insights arising from her study of ritual practice that will help us to better understand wonder. Hopefully, her work will prompt other scholars to use an anthropological approach to better understand the dynamics of wonder from the perspective of the interlocutors they study." -- Steve Derné * Asian Anthropology *"The Cow in the Elevator captures in lovely detail and theory-rich rumination, the evolution and dynamism of Hindu ritualism in modern Bangalore, calling attention to the unstable and creative dimensions of ritual, and the ethical possibilities and challenges it opens up within this rapidly changing city. Scholars of Hinduism and South Asian urbanism will find much to ponder in this book, as will anthropologists interested in ritual theory and practice." -- Andrew C. Willford * Pacific Affairs *"I treasure The Cow in the Elevator for its sparkle and its positive news about hope and creativity in often bleak circumstances. Rich in original analytic insights, this book is not a tidy package but a cornucopia from which all kinds of sweet and bitter products may be extracted, tasted, consumed, and transformed: high-powered caloric fuel for interpretive intellectual energies. . . . Daring, insightful, and highly engaging, The Cow in the Elevator offers so much that its capacity to provoke unanswered questions in no way detracts from its invaluable qualities. Certainly, no other book on religion in urban India so effectively conveys the ways that ritual excess works wonders." -- Ann Grodzins Gold * American Ethnologist *"In this intriguing and richly-textured book, Tulasi Srinivas immerses us in the world of contemporary Hindu ritual practice in Malleshwaram, a suburb of the South Indian city of Bangalore. . . . The Cow in the Elevator is a deeply insightful work that offers us a glimpse of the creativity and wonder that sustain Hindu ritual life in the concrete jungles of modern, neoliberal India." -- Tracy Pintchman * Anthropos *"I found much of value in this book. . . . The writing displays a lively sense of wonder. The autoethnography is deft, and the homage to M. N. Srinivas, as father and anthropologist, very moving." -- Soumhya Venkatesan * Anthropological Quarterly *"A stunning and provocative book.… Srinivas's experienced and eloquent prose gives this book a rare combination of provocativeness and accessibility.… The Cow in the Elevator provides an intensely real and nuanced account of urban life in the twenty-first century." -- Deonni Moodie * The Revealer *Table of ContentsA Note on Translation xi Acknowledgments xiii O Wonderful! xix Introduction. Wonder, Creativity, and Ethical Life in Bangalore 1 Cranes in the Sky 1 Wondering about Wonder 6 Modern Fractures 9 Of Bangalore's Boomtown Bourgeoisie 13 My Guides into Wonder 16 Going Forward 31 1. Adventures in Modern Dwelling 34 A Cow in an Elevator 34 Grounded Wonder 37 And Ungrounded Wonder 39 Back to Earth 41 Memorialized Cartography 43 "Dead-Endu" Ganesha 45 Earthen Prayers and Black Money 48 Moving Marble 51 Building Wonder 56 Interlude: Into the Abyss 58 2. Passionate Journeys: From Aesthetics to Ethics 60 The Wandering Gods 60 Waiting . . . 65 Moral Mobility 69 Gliding Swans and Bucking Horses 70 The Pain of Cleaving 74 And the Angry God 80 Full Tension! 84 Adjustments 86 Life and . . . 91 Ethical Wonders 92 Interlude. Up in the Skyye 95 3. In God We Trust: Economies of Wonder and Philosophies of Debt 99 A Treasure Trove 99 Twinkling Excess 107 The Golden Calf 111 A Promise of Plenitude 114 "Mintingu" and "Minchingu" 119 "Cash-a-carda?" Philosophies of Debt 128 Soiled Money and the Makings of Distrust 131 The Limits of Wonder 133 4. Technologies of Wonder 138 Animatronic Devi 138 Deus Ex Machina 140 The New in Bangalore 142 The Mythical Garuda-Helicopter 143 Drums of Contention 152 Capturing Divine Biometrics 157 Archiving the Divine 159 Technologies of Capture 162 FaceTiming God 164 Wonder of Wonders 169 5. Timeless Imperatives, Obsolescence, and Salvage 172 "Times have Changed" 172 The Untimeliness of Modernity 175 Avelle and Ritu 178 Slipping Away 181 When Wonder Falls 183 Time Lords 187 Dripping Time 188 The Future, The Past, and the Immortal Present 204 Conclusion. A Place for Radical Hope 206 Radical Hope 206 Amazement in Turmeric 210 The Need for Wonder 213 Afterword. The Tenacity of Hope 216 Notes 219 References 247 Index 265

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Book SynopsisAn inspiring meditation on living a purposeful life by the director of the Institute for Extraordinary Living at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health draws on the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita to present the spiritually relevant story of a young warrior in crisis and God in disguise.

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Book Synopsis'In this jewel-like volume, the venerable Tirtha Maharaja recounts the nectarean activities of the associates of Lord Gauranga and the acharyas of the Gaudiya Vaishnava religion.' ––Swami B.P. Puri,  Founder Acharya, Gopinath Gaudiya Math  Srila Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Goswami Maharaja has gathered a great deal of information about the lives of the devotees from numerous sources, and has made this information more relishable by virtue of his own insight. These biographies of Mahaprabhu's devotees should be read on their appearance and disappearance days, for this will bring great joy to both those who hear and those who read them. In this English translation, it will be possible for devotees around the world to enjoy them. Herein, the author delights in the life stories of Jagannath Mishra, Madhavendra Puri, Ishvara Puri, Advaita Acharya, Srivas Pandit, Chandrasekhar Acharya, Pundarika Vidyanidhi, Gadadhar Pandit, Vakresvara Pandit, Gadadhar Das, Shivananda Sen, Paramananda Puri, Murari Gupta, and many others. Every letter of these accounts is drenched with the nectar of devotion. The sincere seeker will never be able to enter the transcendental kingdom nor to advance in the devotional life unless they also discover this delight.  

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Book SynopsisIn literature and popular imagination, the Bauls of India and Bangladesh are characterized as musical mystics: orange-clad nomads of both Hindu and Muslim backgrounds who wander the countryside and entertain with their passionate singing and unusual behavior. Although Bauls claim to value women over men, little is known about the individual views and experiences of Baul women. Based on ethnographic research, this book explores the everyday lives of Baul women. Knight demonstrates that Baul women respond to the conflicting expectations imposed on them in various ways, sometimes adopting and other times subverting local gendered norms to craft meaningful lives. More so than their male counterparts, Baul women feel encumbered by norms. But rather than seeing Baul women''s normative behavior as indicative of their conformity to gendered roles (and, therefore, failures as Bauls), Knight argues that these women creatively draw on societal expectations to transcend their social limits and create new paths.Trade ReviewThe dominant tropes imagined for the Baul tradition of eastern India and Bangladesh are constructed around male models: the wandering mistrel carrying his ektara instrument who engages in esoteric ritual practices. Lisa Knight's sensitive ethnography, however, fills in the significant lacunae of the lives and practices of Baul women. She artfully analyzes the ways in which these women bridge the contradictory expectations of Baul traditions as 'wanderers' and those of the non-Baul communities as respectable, settled Bengali householders. This study will significantly impact the ways in which readers understand Baul traditions, asceticism, boundaries of religious identities, and women's agency and performance in South Asia. * Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, author of In Amma's Healing Room: Gender & Vernacular Islam in South India. *Table of ContentsNote on Diacritics, Transliteration, and Names ; List of Maps and Figures ; Part 1: Multiple Sites ; 1. Finding Baul Women ; 2. "Real Bauls Live under Trees:" Imaginings and the Marginalization of Baul Women ; 3. "I've Done Nothing Wrong:" Feminine Respectibility and Baul Expectations ; Part 2: Negotiations ; 4. Negotiating between Paradigms of the Good Baul and the Good Woman ; 5. "Do Not Neglect This Golden Body of Yours:" Personal and Social Transformation through Baul Songs ; 6. Renouncing Expectations ; Concluding Thoughts ; Glossry ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisJames McHugh offers the first comprehensive examination of the concepts and practices related to smell in pre-modern India. Drawing on a wide range of textual sources, from poetry to medical texts, he shows the deeply significant religious and cultural role of smell in India throughout the first millennium CE.McHugh describes sophisticated arts of perfumery, developed in temples, monasteries, and courts, which resulted in worldwide ocean trade. He shows that various religious discourses on the purpose of life emphasized the pleasures of the senses, including olfactory experience, as a valid end in themselves. Fragrances and stenches were analogous to certain values, aesthetic or ethical, and in a system where karmic results often had a sensory impact-where evil literally stank-the ethical and aesthetic became difficult to distinguish.Sandalwood and Carrion explores smell in pre-modern India from many perspectives, covering such topics as philosophical accounts of smell perception, odorTrade Reviewa book that will long stand out for bringing the text back in after the embodied turn in the history of religion, and doing so with the utmost erudition and nuance, like a fine perfume. * David Howes, Journal of the American Academy of Religion *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Preface ; Part One: Smells in Theory ; 1 INTRODUCTION ; 2 EARTH, WIND, FOUL & FRAGRANT: THE THEORY OF SMELLING & ODORS IN MEDIEVAL SOUTH ASIA ; Part Two: Smells in the World ; 3 LOTUS, FISH, & COWS: THE SMELL-SCAPE OF TRADITIONAL SOUTH ASIA ; 4 FLOWERS & FISH IN THE MAH?BH?RATA ; Part Three: Smells in Practice ; 5 MOON JUICE & UPROAR: PERFUMERY TEXTS ; 6 ALLIES, ENEMIES, & YAK?A MUD: PERFUMES ; Part Four: Aromatic Materials ; 7 THE INCENSE TREES OF THE LAND OF EMERALDS: EXOTIC AROMATICS IN MEDIEVAL SOUTH ASIA ; 8 SANDALWOOD: MERCHANTS, EXPERTISE & PROFIT ; Part Five: Smell and Religion ; 9 BOIS DES ISLES ; 10 THE TOILETTE OF THE GODS ; Epilogue ; Appendix SANSKRIT & PRAKRIT TEXTS ON PERFUME BLENDING & PERFUMERY ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewRupa Viswanath has carried out an extraordinary feat of historical scholarship in the new field of Dalit studies. Skillfully negotiating two different archives-the official and the missionary-she grounds the cultural struggles of the untouchable castes of Tamil Nadu in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the political economy of land and labor. Viswanath powerfully argues that there was a government-missionary nexus that sought to turn the pariah from traditional forms of slavery to modern forms of dispossessed labor. Most remarkably, she shows that the initiative for conversion to Christianity came not from missionaries but from Dalits who were motivated not by abstract ideas of emancipation but by strategic considerations of material advantage in their daily struggles. The Pariah Problem is a breakthrough in modern South Asian studies. -- Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University and the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta The combination of historical depth and theoretical nuance makes The Pariah Problem both a brilliant scholarly achievement and a major political intervention. Taking the agrarian unfreedom that marked rural life in Madras Presidency as her starting point, Viswanath reconstructs with meticulous precision the problem of the 'Pariah'-hereditarily unfree Dalit laborers-that by the late nineteenth century compelled the reluctant attention of the colonial state and the elite indigenous public sphere. The Pariah Problem is most far-reaching in its implications, and at its devastating best, in documenting the 'caste-state nexus' that developed to contain-rather than to solve-this problem and continue to thwart genuine solutions today. This book will take its place justifiably among the best on the Dalit struggle for equality in India. -- Mrinalini Sinha, University of Michigan Essential... The volume is meticulous in its scholarship and written with great care and precision. A must read for South Asian specialists and general educated readers. CHOICE A remarkable feat in historical scholarship and a nuanced theoretical intervention in the new field of Dalit Studies. American Historical Review In this brilliant study, Viswanath traces the origins of the many myths that the social elite continue to spread...This book would be a valuable reference to those engaged in the study of colonial India as well as those interested in the study of modern missions. -- James Taneti Mission Studies Rupa Viswanath's The Pariah Problem is an important, insightful, and very likely lasting contribution to the burgeoning field of Dalit studies, and more broadly the study of Indian religion, caste, and the colonial state... Ground-breaking. Journal of Hindu Studies An outstanding work of historical scholarship. Pacific Affairs Journal An absorbing combination of scholarly erudition, analytical force, and lucid exposition. -- Arvind Sharma International Journal of Dharma StudiesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1. Land Tenure or Labor Control? The Agrarian Mise-en-Scene 2. Conceptualizing Pariah Conversion: Caste 3. The Pariah-Missionary Alliance: Agrarian Contestation and the Local State 4. The State and the Ceri 5. Settling Land 6. The Marriage of Sacred and Secular Authority: New Liberalism 7. Giving the Panchama a Home: Creating a Friction Where None Exists 8. Everyday Warfare: Caste 9. The Depressed Classes Conclusion: The Pariah Problem's Enduring Legacies Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A ground-breaking contribution to the emerging field of eco–art history, the book examines architecture, paintings, photography, and prints created in Braj alongside theological treatises and devotional poetry to foreground seepages between the natural ecosystem and cultural production. The paintings of deified rivers, temples that emulate fragrant groves, and talismanic bleeding rocks that Ray discusses will captivate readers interested in environmental humanities and South Asian art history." * South Asia Research Note *"A wonderfully imaginative addition to the growing body of literature on the Little Ice Age. Sugata Ray traces the influence of climatic variations on South Asian art, architecture and devotional practices with extraordinary interpretive skill. This book is a must read for everyone with an interest in human responses to climate variability." -- Amitav Ghosh * author blog *"By opening art history to questions about how humans have thought about the earth, and how art and religion have been shaped by human changes and natural disruptions to the earth, Ray’s brilliant book guides us to new problems, and to new ways of thinking about art" * H-Asia (H-Net) *"This is an excellent book that is well worth reading. Sugata Ray is a very good writer, and Climate Change and the Art of Devotion was impressively researched." * Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR) / Reading Religion *"This is a thought-provoking work whose greatest contribution is that it carves a path for new studies that may extend our understanding of the deep and complex interrelationships among geoaesthetics, ecology, spiritual practice, and the built environment in early modern India." * Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians *"[E]nchanting and compelling. Ray musters visual and textual evidence for an original approach to representations of the natural environment in art and temple architecture devoted to the god Krishna during a three-hundred-year time span, 1550-1850." * The Middle Ground *"[T]he methodologies entailed in geoaesthetics and eco art history open up new avenues for understanding the history of Braj religion and art in particular, and the cultural dynamics of climate change more broadly. As we enter ever more deeply into the Anthropocene, scholarship such as Ray’s will be increasingly important." * Journal of Religion *"To call the methodology of this book transdisciplinary does not do justice to this well-constructed and beautiful masterpiece...Climate Change and the Art of Devotion is a must-read for all who care about religion and ecology, religion and art history, Indian philosophy and religion, Asian art, art history, and geoaesthetics." * Reading Religion *

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Book SynopsisThis volume is a systematic and comprehensive introduction to one of the most read texts in South Asia, the Bhagavad-gÄtÄ. The Bhagavad-gÄtÄ is at its core a religious text, a philosophical treatise and a literary work, which has occupied an authoritative position within Hinduism for the past millennium.This book brings together themes central to the study of the GÄtÄ, as it is popularly known â such as the Bhagavad-gÄtÄâs structure, the history of its exegesis, its acceptance by different traditions within Hinduism and its national and global relevance. It highlights the richness of the GÄtÄâs interpretations, examines its great interpretive flexibility and at the same time offers a conceptual structure based on a traditional commentarial tradition.With contributions from major scholars across the world, this book will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of religious studies, especially Hinduism, Indian philosophy, Asian philosophy, Indian history, literature and South Asian studies.Table of Contents1. The Bhagavad-gītā and its contents 2. The structure of the Bhagavad-gītā 3. Bhagavad-gītā: its philosophy and interpretation 4. Śaṅkara’s deconstruction of the Bhagavad-gītā grounded in his preunderstanding 5. The soteriology of devotion, divine grace, and teaching: Bhagavad-gītā and the Śrīvaiṣṇavas 6. Karma in the Bhagavad-gītā: Caitanya Vaiṣṇava views 7. The greatness of the Gītā, as icon and mantra 8. The Bhagavad-gītā and Indian nationalist movement: Tilak, Gandhi, and Aurobindo 9. The Gītā of the gurus: the Bhagavad-gītā since Indian independence 10. Arjuna and Acyuta: the import of epithets in the Bhagavad-gītā

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Book SynopsisThe study of Hinduism is fragmented among many disciplines. Early academic study of Hinduism was overwhelmingly a study of texts, and while a strong philological tradition continues to characterise much work on Hinduism (in particular in Indology), very different materials and questions animate debates among anthropologists, sociologists, historians, philosophers, and others. The result is that Hindu institutions such as temples are understood quite differently by those who focus on their political, economic, religious, or aesthetic dimensions. Valuable contributions are also beginning to appear in emergent fields as diverse as cognitive science and constructive Hindu theology. While many works in these fields are published in Europe or North America, significant work appears in journals and books published in India which remain hard to access elsewhere. The collection is fully indexed and supplemented with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the gathered materials in their historical and intellectual context.

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Book SynopsisThe timeless leadership wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita explained Although it was written well over two thousand years ago, the Bhagavad Gita ("Song of God"), a revered Hindu religious text, contains an immense wealth of ageless wisdom that speaks directly to the needs of today's business leaders.Table of ContentsA Note about the Text xv Acknowledgments xix Introduction: The Context of the Gita xxi SUTRA 1 The Warrior’s Journey Leaders Embrace Discontinuity and Death 1 All Wars Are First Fought in the Mind 3 The Mind Is a Mob 5 The Ego Is a Disposable Idea 8 Leaders Embrace Discontinuity by Dispossessing the Ego 10 The Secret of Invincibility: The Conquest of the Binary Mind 12 Self Is the Cause; Self Is the Effect 13 Hunting for the I 15 SUTRA 2 Invincible Wisdom Leaders Create Alternative Reality 17 Grief, Pity, and Shame: The Mind’s GPS System 18 Creating Alternative Reality 20 Motivation and the Monkey Mind 22 The Leader’s Inspiration Comes from Unselfish Work 23 Unselfish Work Leads to Evenness of Mind 26 Applying Invincible Wisdom: Powered by the Intellect and Driven by Unselfishness 29 SUTRA 3 Karma Yoga Leaders Enter the Timeless Cycle of Action 33 Arjuna’s Dilemma: The Warrior as Worrier 34 Work and Its Secret: Action, Inaction, and Effortless Action 35 Karma Yoga: Work as Worship 38 The Yajna Spirit: Discovering the Timeless Cycle of Work 40 Swadharma: The Case for Righteous Action 42 Work as a Means of Realizing Who We Are 44 SUTRA 4 Timeless Leaders Pursue Purpose as the Source of Supreme Power 47 Rajarshi: The Leader as Sage 48 The Many Faces of the Supreme Power 50 Twenty-Four-Hour Leadership 53 The Return of the Rishi 55 SUTRA 5 Leadership Is the Art of Undoing The State of Detached Engagement 59 How Anchors of the Past Hinder Performance 60 The Art of Detached Involvement 62 Evolving to the Equality of Vision 63 The Art of Undoing 66 SUTRA 6 Leaders Are Masters of Their Minds The Art and Practice of Meditation 69 Separating the Self Image from the Real Self 70 Mastery of the Mind 73 Disciplines of Mastery: Concentration, Detachment, and Transcendence 76 The Power of Stillness 77 SUTRA 7 Leaders Are Integrators The Freedom of “I Am” 81 Context 81 Arjuna’s Journey from Ignorance to Wisdom 82 Timeless Leaders Integrate People and Processes 84 The Leader’s World: A Reflection of Unmanifest Dharma 85 From Ego-Centered to Spirit-Centered Leadership 87 Leaders Liberate Themselves and Others from Suffering 89 SUTRA 8 Timeless Leadership Decoding the Meaning of Life 93 Timeless Leaders Explore the Ultimate Meaning of Life 94 The Multidimensional Meaning of Life 95 Creation Is Sacrificing the Smaller for the Sake of the Greater 97 The Real Meaning of Life Is Contained in Life Itself 98 Meaningful Work: A Synthesis ofReflection and Action 100 SUTRA 9 The Sovereign Secret Timeless Leaders Live in a Self-Organizing Universe 103 Sovereign Self and the Path of Unity 104 The Governance of the Ego: The Path of Disintegration 105 Self-Organization: When Organization Becomes Community 107 The Law of Giving: Being and Becoming 110 SUTRA 10 Leadership Is an Adventure of Consciousness 113 Leading Consciously 113 Silence: The Language of Timeless Leadership 115 The Dynamism of Indivisibility 118 The Pursuit of Excellence 121 SUTRA 11 Timeless Leaders Have Integral Vision 125 Integral Vision 126 Sight and Insight 128 The Pangs of Plurality 130 The Leader as Servant: Being an Instrument of the Whole 132 SUTRA 12 Love Is the Leader’s Essence; Love is the Leader’s Presence 135 Leadership Is Love Made Visible 136 Devotion: The Art and Practice of Leadership 138 Attributes of the Leader as Devotee 142 SUTRA 13 Leaders Command Their Field with the Eye of Wisdom 145 The Leader as a Knower in the Field of Knowledge 146 The Dimensions of the Field and the Knower of the Field 149 Seeing with the Eye of Wisdom 151 SUTRA 14 Leaders Harness the Dynamic Forces of Nature 155 Nature’s Manuscript: The Three Forces 156 How Leaders Harness the Three Forces of Nature 158 Transcending the Dynamics of Nature 162 SUTRA 15 Timeless Leaders Discover Their Invisible Source The Tree of Life 165 The Tree of Life 166 The Invisible Leader 169 From the Perishable to the Imperishable: Quest for the Supreme Self 172 SUTRA 16 Leaders Negotiate the Crossroads The Divine and the Devilish 175 The Crossroads of Leadership: The Divine and the Devilish 176 Toxic Leadership 180 The Return Journey 182 SUTRA 17 Leaders Follow Their Faith The Journey of Self-Giving 185 Faith: The Deep Structure of Leadership 186 Three Kinds of Faith 187 The Art and Science of Self-Giving 191 SUTRA 18 Leadership Is Transcendence The Unity of Two Wills 195 The Source and Resource 196 The Algebra of Attachment 198 Renunciation and Regeneration of the Leader 201 The Path of Transcendence 203 The Unity of Two Wills: The Fighter and the Warrior 207 CONCLUSION Arjuna’s Awakening Practical Wisdom for Timeless Leaders 211 Quiet Leadership: The Practice of Handling Information Overload 212 Leaders Must First Solve Their Most Persistent Problem 214 Wisdom in Times of Uncertainty: Leaders Deal with Discontinuities in Life and Work 215 Leaders Triumph by Merging Their Individual Will with Life’s Purpose 216 References 219 About the Author 223 Index 225

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Book SynopsisLearn more at www.luminosoa.org. Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance centers on an insular community of Smarta Brahmin men from the Kuchipudi village in Telugu-speaking South India who are required to don stri-vesam (woman's guise) and impersonate female characters from Hindu religious narratives. Impersonation is not simply a gender performance circumscribed to the Kuchipudi stage, but a practice of power that enables the construction of hegemonic Brahmin masculinity in everyday village life. However, the power of the Brahmin male body instri-vesamis highly contingent, particularly on account of the expansion of Kuchipudi in the latter half of the twentieth century from a localized village performance to a transnational Indian dance form. This book analyzes the practice of impersonation across a series of boundariesvillage to urban, Brahmin to non-Brahmin, hegemonic to non-normativeto explore the artifice of Brahmin masculinity in contemporary South Indian dance.Trade Review"In her excellent analysis of the arrival of the Indian classical dance Kuchipudi on the transnational stage, Kamath charts transformations in Kuchipudi narrative and performance. . . .Kamath cogently articulates these subversive possibilities through ideas of impersonation. Her work adds to the growing body of scholarly work on classical Indian dances that re-examines the cultural and gender politics of classicism as these forms are nationalized and globalized, and, in the current climate, increasingly integrated with the politics of Hindutva." * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables Preface Acknowledgments Part One. The Spectacle of Fire 1. Burning Issues 2. Colonial Necro-Politics and the Polysemic Corpse Part Two. Questing Fire 3. The City and Its Dead 4. Consuming Fire 5. The Global Dead Part Three. The Fire Triumphant 6. The Rebirth of Cremation 7. Cremation and the Nation Epilogue: Rethinking the Hindu Pyre A Note on Weights and Currency List of Abbreviations Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA Treatise on Dharma, written in the fourth or fifth century, illuminates major innovations in religious, civil, and criminal law, and informed Indian life for a thousand years. This new critical edition, presented alongside the Sanskrit original in the Devanagari script, opens the classical age of ancient Indian law to modern readers.

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Book SynopsisThe Bhagavad Gita, or ''Song of the Spirit'', is the best known book of India''s national epic The Mahabharata. Based on a dialogue between Bhagavan Krishna and Prince Arjuna on the eve of a great battle, it is held to be the essence of Hindu spirituality, sacred literature and yoga, as well as exploring the great universal themes of courage, honour, death, love, virtue and fulfilment. Of interest to the large number of contemporary spiritual seekers - of any faith and none - who want to read the world''s most important sacred texts, and to learn from their wisdom. Also useful for scholars of Vedic literature and students.

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Book SynopsisTulasi Srinivas uses the concept of wonder—feelings of amazement at being overcome by the unexpected and sublime—to examine how residents of Banglore, India pursue wonder by practicing Hindu religious rituals as a way to accept and resist neoliberal capitalism.Trade Review"[The Cow in the Elevator] teased me into questioning what Srinivas has so beautifully and chillingly thought through for decades—wonder as an ethical practice." -- Dhruv Ramnath * The Citizen *"Srinivas provides a lively lesson in religious originality with applications and implications far beyond Bangalore or India." -- Jack David Eller * Reading Religion *"The central contribution of this book is its presentation of wonder as a new category of anthropological inquiry, and its interdisciplinary approach of parsing wonder from the vantage points of ritual and liturgical lives, socioeconomics, and aesthetic and creative spheres. Srinivas’s deployment of these specific categories by no means limits its readers; on the contrary, the book inspires readers to revisit their own field experiences, and look for the moments of wonder." -- Arthi Devarajan * Anthropology News *"Tulasi Srinivas does us a service in identifying important insights arising from her study of ritual practice that will help us to better understand wonder. Hopefully, her work will prompt other scholars to use an anthropological approach to better understand the dynamics of wonder from the perspective of the interlocutors they study." -- Steve Derné * Asian Anthropology *"The Cow in the Elevator captures in lovely detail and theory-rich rumination, the evolution and dynamism of Hindu ritualism in modern Bangalore, calling attention to the unstable and creative dimensions of ritual, and the ethical possibilities and challenges it opens up within this rapidly changing city. Scholars of Hinduism and South Asian urbanism will find much to ponder in this book, as will anthropologists interested in ritual theory and practice." -- Andrew C. Willford * Pacific Affairs *"I treasure The Cow in the Elevator for its sparkle and its positive news about hope and creativity in often bleak circumstances. Rich in original analytic insights, this book is not a tidy package but a cornucopia from which all kinds of sweet and bitter products may be extracted, tasted, consumed, and transformed: high-powered caloric fuel for interpretive intellectual energies. . . . Daring, insightful, and highly engaging, The Cow in the Elevator offers so much that its capacity to provoke unanswered questions in no way detracts from its invaluable qualities. Certainly, no other book on religion in urban India so effectively conveys the ways that ritual excess works wonders." -- Ann Grodzins Gold * American Ethnologist *"In this intriguing and richly-textured book, Tulasi Srinivas immerses us in the world of contemporary Hindu ritual practice in Malleshwaram, a suburb of the South Indian city of Bangalore. . . . The Cow in the Elevator is a deeply insightful work that offers us a glimpse of the creativity and wonder that sustain Hindu ritual life in the concrete jungles of modern, neoliberal India." -- Tracy Pintchman * Anthropos *"I found much of value in this book. . . . The writing displays a lively sense of wonder. The autoethnography is deft, and the homage to M. N. Srinivas, as father and anthropologist, very moving." -- Soumhya Venkatesan * Anthropological Quarterly *"A stunning and provocative book.… Srinivas's experienced and eloquent prose gives this book a rare combination of provocativeness and accessibility.… The Cow in the Elevator provides an intensely real and nuanced account of urban life in the twenty-first century." -- Deonni Moodie * The Revealer *Table of ContentsA Note on Translation xi Acknowledgments xiii O Wonderful! xix Introduction. Wonder, Creativity, and Ethical Life in Bangalore 1 Cranes in the Sky 1 Wondering about Wonder 6 Modern Fractures 9 Of Bangalore's Boomtown Bourgeoisie 13 My Guides into Wonder 16 Going Forward 31 1. Adventures in Modern Dwelling 34 A Cow in an Elevator 34 Grounded Wonder 37 And Ungrounded Wonder 39 Back to Earth 41 Memorialized Cartography 43 "Dead-Endu" Ganesha 45 Earthen Prayers and Black Money 48 Moving Marble 51 Building Wonder 56 Interlude: Into the Abyss 58 2. Passionate Journeys: From Aesthetics to Ethics 60 The Wandering Gods 60 Waiting . . . 65 Moral Mobility 69 Gliding Swans and Bucking Horses 70 The Pain of Cleaving 74 And the Angry God 80 Full Tension! 84 Adjustments 86 Life and . . . 91 Ethical Wonders 92 Interlude. Up in the Skyye 95 3. In God We Trust: Economies of Wonder and Philosophies of Debt 99 A Treasure Trove 99 Twinkling Excess 107 The Golden Calf 111 A Promise of Plenitude 114 "Mintingu" and "Minchingu" 119 "Cash-a-carda?" Philosophies of Debt 128 Soiled Money and the Makings of Distrust 131 The Limits of Wonder 133 4. Technologies of Wonder 138 Animatronic Devi 138 Deus Ex Machina 140 The New in Bangalore 142 The Mythical Garuda-Helicopter 143 Drums of Contention 152 Capturing Divine Biometrics 157 Archiving the Divine 159 Technologies of Capture 162 FaceTiming God 164 Wonder of Wonders 169 5. Timeless Imperatives, Obsolescence, and Salvage 172 "Times have Changed" 172 The Untimeliness of Modernity 175 Avelle and Ritu 178 Slipping Away 181 When Wonder Falls 183 Time Lords 187 Dripping Time 188 The Future, The Past, and the Immortal Present 204 Conclusion. A Place for Radical Hope 206 Radical Hope 206 Amazement in Turmeric 210 The Need for Wonder 213 Afterword. The Tenacity of Hope 216 Notes 219 References 247 Index 265

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Book SynopsisPracticing Caste attempts a break from the tradition of caste studies, using versions of phenomenology, structuralism and post-structuralism; and gives a description of touchability and untouchability in terms of a rhetoric and semantics of touch.Table of ContentsForeword by Anupama Rao vii Introduction 1 1. Touch and Its Elements and Kinds 11 2. Touch—An A Priori Approach 37 3. Touch in Its Social and Historical Aspects I 61 4. Touch in Its Social and Historical Aspects II 93 5. Touch and Texts: Ancient and Modern 119 6. (Un)touchability of Things and People 148 7. Society, Sociality, Sociability 170 8. Recapitulation with Variations 190 Coda 205 Notes 209 Bibliography 223 Index 233

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Book SynopsisFirst Published in 1959, Hinduism written specifically for the modern readers describes and interprets one of the world's chief religions. For thousands of years Indian sages have speculated on man, creation, and the universe. One result has been an astonishing amount of myth and ritual, of art, asceticism, and philosophy. Swami Nikhilananda provides a brief account of Hinduism in both its theoretical and its practical aspects. It is written mainly from the point of view of non-dualism which the author argues is the highest achievement of India's mystical insights and philosophical speculation, and her real contribution to world culture. The volume deals with themes like Hindu Ethics; Karma-Yoga; Bhakti-Yoga; Jnana- Yoga; Raja-Yoga; and Tantra. This complete survey of Hindu beliefs and customs is indispensable for scholars and researchers of Hinduism, religion, Indian philosophy, Indian culture, and heritage. Table of ContentsWorld Perspectives What This Series Means Acknowledgements Foreword 1. The Spirit of Hinduism 2. The Godhead and Creation 3. The Soul and Its Destiny 4. Hindu Ethics 5. Spiritual Disciplines I (Karma-Yoga) 6. Spiritual Disciplines II (Bhakti-Yoga) 7. Spiritual Disciplines III (Jnana- Yoga) 8. Spiritual Disciplines IV (Raja- Yoga) 9. Tantra: A Way of Realization 10. Hinduism in Practice 11. Interreligious Relations: A Hindu Attitude

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting âmagicalâ and âshamanicâ practices associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia. With a chronological frame going from the mediaeval Indic period up to the present, a wide geographical framework, and through the dialogue between various disciplines, it presents a coherent enquiry shedding light on practices and practitioners that have been frequently alienated in the elitist discourse of mainstream Indic religions and equally overlooked by modern scholarship.The book addresses three desiderata in the field of Tantric Studies: it fills a gap in the historical modelling of Tantra; it extends the geographical parameters of Tantra to the vast, yet culturally interlinked, socio-geographical construct of Monsoon Asia; it explores Tantra as an interface between the Sanskritic elite and the folk, the vernacular, the magical, and the shamanic, thereby revisiting the intellectual and

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This book provides a rigorously researched, critically comparative introduction to yoga. Is This Yoga? Concepts, Histories, and the Complexities of Contemporary Practice recognizes the importance of contemporary understandings of yoga and, at the same time, provides historical context and complexity to modern and pre-modern definitions of yogic ideas and practices. Approaching yoga as a vast web of concepts, traditions, social interests, and embodied practices, it raises questions of knowledge, identity, and power across time and space, including the dynamics of East and West. The text is divided into three main sections: thematic concepts; histories; and topics in modern practice.This accessible guide is essential reading for undergraduate students approaching the topic for the first time, as well as yoga teachers, teacher training programs, casual and devoted practitioners, and interested non-practitioners.

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of the history, religion, and folklore of the Naths, a Hindu lineage known for Hatha yoga practice.

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Book SynopsisExplores how objects shape the worlds of religious participants across a range of South Asian traditions.Sacred Matters explores the lives of material objects in South Asian religions. Spanning a range of traditions including Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism, and Christianity, the book demonstrates how sacred items influence and enliven the worlds of religious participants across South Asia and into the diaspora. Contributors examine a variety of objects to describe the ways sacred materials derive and confer meaning and efficacy, emerging from and giving shape to religious and nonreligious realms alike. Material forms of deity and divine power are considered along with commonplace ritual items, including images, clay pots, and camphor. The work also attends to materiality''s complex role within the "materially suspicious" contexts of Islam, Theravada Buddhism, and Roman Catholicism. This engaging collection presents new frameworks for contemplating the ways in which historical, social, and sacred processes intertwine and collectively shape human and divine activity.

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Book SynopsisExamines how embodiment is conceived and experienced in South Asian religions.Refiguring the Body provides a sustained interrogation of categories and models of the body grounded in the distinctive idioms of South Asian religions, particularly Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The contributors engage prevailing theories of the body in the Western academy that derive from philosophy, social theory, and feminist and gender studies. At the same time, they recognize the limitations of applying Western theoretical models as the default epistemological framework for understanding notions of embodiment that derive from non-Western cultures. Divided into three sections, this collection of essays explores material bodies, embodied selves, and perfected forms of embodiment; divine bodies and devotional bodies; and gendered logics defining male and female bodies. The contributors seek to establish theory parity in scholarly investigations and to re-figure body theories by taking seriously the contributions of South Asian discourses to theorizing the body.

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Book SynopsisDesigned to help readers deepen their understanding of Hinduism, and reflecting themes central to the study of religion and culture, Jessica Frazier explores classical Hindu theories of self, the body, the cosmos, and human action. Case studies from Hindu texts provide readers with direct access to primary sources in translation, ranging from ancient cosmology to philosophical teachings and modern ritual practices.Hinduism is often depicted as being so diverse that it is the most difficult of all of the world religions to understand or explain. Hindu Worldviews explains core ideas about the human mind and body, showing how they fit into concepts of the Self, and practices of embodiment in Hinduism. It draws on western theoretical concepts as a point of entry, connecting contemporary Hindu culture directly with both western and classical Hindu theories.Through the theme of the Self in classical Hindu sources, the chapters provide an interpretative framework for understanding clasTrade ReviewThis well written and interesting book is an important contribution that offers a fresh reading of Hindu thinking and practice, showing us that a Hindu history of ideas is relevant to contemporary intellectual concerns. This is a book that should widely read not only within Hindu Studies but in broader context of philosophical and religious history. * Professor Gavin Flood FBA, Yap Kim Hao Professor of Comparative Religious Studies, Yale-NUS College, Singapore *In this far-reaching work, Jessica Frazier explodes the myth - and it still needs exploding - that the foundations of Hindu thought encourage the agent to recoil from world and body in the realization that illusion is the true mark of reality. In this magisterial overview, she displays with penetrating insight the impressive range of options and explorations for constructive engagement with the worlds in which we live that characterises the Hindu intellectual heritage. An achievement of wonderful scholarship and understanding. * Professor Julius Lipner, Fellow of the British Academy, Professor emeritus of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion, University of Cambridge *Hindu Worldviews stands strong in a field that has been reinvestigating methodologies, bridging the sometimes overlooked aspects of religions and cultures as missed by the colonizing gaze. Frazier does careful work in engaging the classical Hindu worldviews towards her second goal of finding a more global theory of everything, as well as adeptly focusing on her first stated goal of exploring the classical worldviews of a multiform Hinduism. * Reading Religion *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Note on Translations 1. Introduction: Hindu Worldviews and Global Theory Part One - The Art of Embodiment: The Self Made of Matter 2. Theories of Self in Classical Hinduism 3. Bodies Made of Elements and Structures 4. Bodies Made of Substances and Modes 5. Agency and the Art of the Self Part Two - Becoming the World: The Self Made of Thought 6. Theories of Reason in Classical Hinduism 7. Becoming the World through Reason 8. Theories of Everything Part Three - Shaping the World: Classical Embodiment in Practice 9. Theories of Ritual and Practice in Hindu Culture 10. Practices of Materiality: Structuring and Transformative Rituals 11. Interactive Practices and the Community of Selves 12. Speculative Practices and the Reality of Ideas 13. Conclusion: The Art of Being Human in the Hindu Cosmos References Index

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Book SynopsisWe often feel powerless in our lives. We have many desires, but are limited in our ability to transform those wishes into tangible results. We are confused about our desires and unsure of what will really make us happy. ETERNAL DHARMA distils the essence of 5,000 years of spiritual wisdom, teaching us about the very nature of reality and how we can live powerful, effective and fulfilled lives. It teaches and inspires us to take powerful action and reach enlightenment and pure, transcendental love. Vishnu Swami, who became the youngest Swami in Vedic monasticism at the extraordinary age of 23, takes the ancient Eastern knowledge of Veda and guides you through a journey of understanding, empowering you to maximise your power and effectiveness and manifest your fullest spiritual potential in everything you do. ETERNAL DHARMA clearly shows you how to align yourself with the natural flow of existence and gives you powerful ways to:Gain clarity on all spiritual and religious pathsAccess Universal Power for maximum effectivenessLearn about the subtle and physical domains to achieve a totally new relationship with realityLearn to become enlightened - free from all the pain and suffering of this world

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