Hindu life and practice Books

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Book SynopsisAt first sight the lives of hermits, living in solitude and committed to a life of prayer and contemplation seems to be a world apart of the active practice of interfaith dialogue. Yet, there is a long tradition of seeking the divine together and thus making a contribution to better mutual understanding and an active contribution to peace between Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism in India.Drawing on his experience of travelling to some of India's holy places, the life and work of writers like Thomas Merton, Charles de Foucauld and Abishaktanda and being himself a Benedictine hermit and Professor of Divinity at the University of St Andrews, Mario Aguilar opens up new possibilities for dialogue between three of the world's major religions in today's world. He shows how his own experience of an eremitic life has brought him into deep communion with pilgrims of other faiths, be it through shared silence or listening to each other's experience, through reading sacred scriptures together, through poetry or interfaith worship that draws on practices and texts from Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity.This is a book for all engaged in interfaith dialogue and seeking to explore how spiritualities of silence, contemplation and prayer can make a contribution to peace and harmony in the world today.Trade ReviewIn a culture characterised by incessant noise, Mario Aguilar's celebration of the sound of silence could not be more welcome. This book will not only engage your mind with its thoughtful insights - its prayerfulness and beauty will touch your soul. -- Right Reverend Dr Russell Barr, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of ScotlandIn this heartfelt and personal account, Professor Aguilar takes the reader on a journey into the practice and ideas of the hermit across traditions and his or her understanding of life as a journey to a fulfillment in a higher reality. This is an engaging and highly readable account. -- Professor Gavin Flood FBA, Senior Research Fellow, Campion Hall, Oxford UniversityProfessor Aguilar's book moves across continents and religious traditions with the ease and grace that comes from the depth and empathy of a lifetime's familiarity and study. Whether meeting Buddhists in Chile, Sikhs in India, or Hindus in Scotland we feel the personal friendships and experiences which have inspired him. However, its particular strength and uniqueness is the way he explores the places of the hermit's life as a site of meaning and sacred connectedness. Both those fresh to interreligious dialogue and lifelong practitioners and scholars in the discipline will find fresh insights and perspectives in the pages of this work. -- Paul Hedges, Associate Professor of Interreligious Studies at RSIS, NTU, Singapore and author of Towards Better Disagreement: Religion and Atheism in DialogueIn a world awash with chatter and superficial talk-fests, the choice of solitude and silence is spiritually challenging. Memory lives in silence. God is found there. With a deep and movingly autobiographical thread, The Way of the Hermit creatively probes the contribution of the eremitic life to Christian interfaith encounter. -- Professor Douglas Pratt, University of Waikato & University of BernDigging deep and drawing generously from the wells of experience and expertise, Professor Aguilar throws open the richness of dialogue that happens in the depths of silence and solitude that characterise a life of hermitage. Theologically imaginative and spiritually inspiring, the book recovers the potential of presence, poetry and prayer for dialogue in fresh and fascinating ways. -- The Reverend Dr Peniel Jesudason Rufus Rajkumar, Programme Executive, Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, World Council of Churches, SwitzerlandMario Aguilar's personal homage to silence is eloquent, lucid, and simple. Not so much an argument for silence or against words which remain fundamental in every tradition, his meditations witness to his own instinct for silence and his growing solitude as a hermit in the world. The story of a soul, The Way of the Hermit joins the canon of spiritual autobiographies, akin to the monastic journeys of Thomas Merton, Henri Le Saux, and Bede Griffiths. It mirrors the broad interreligious wisdom of Raimon Panikkar, and stands in harmony with a multitude of Hindu and Buddhist experiences in today's world. A contemplative gift, The Way of the Hermit aids us in recovering quiet in today's noisy world. -- Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Director, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University'How great the multitude of truths which the garment of words can never contain!' ~ Baha'u'llahDialogue in silence; speaking without words; this complex book explores the possibility of connection between faiths in the sacred space that silence allows and is a useful addition to the growing literature on interfaith dialogue. -- Dr Maureen Sier, Director of Interfaith ScotlandThis is Aguilar's first book on the eremitic life and how it relates to/enhances his own interfaith encounters, be they virtual or in situ. The broad range of topics he addresses and the variety of literary styles he uses-at times reflective, at times descriptive-can demand patience of the reader, but a patience that is well worth the effort. ..I found his work to be enlightening, informative, reflective, and provocative. He is a true seeker and peacemaker. -- Angela Del Greco, a lay consecrated hermit in the Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud and an Oblate of Saint Benedict * Monastic Interreligious Dialogue *The reader who has had experience of interfaith encounter will delight in this book. The reader whose experience of other traditions is more limited would find it a valuable introduction. Those of us who may feel oppressed by the noise and tumult of the world will find an invitation to an inner silence and an opportunity to explore our own cave of the heart, and the God who dwells therein. In this most valuable volume we may discover clues to intimacy with All in solitariness and the Voice of God in silence. -- Kevin Tingay * The Christian Parapsychologist *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Experiencing Dialogue. 1. Hermits in Christianity and Hinduism. 2. Ordering Time, Space and Meditation Together. 3. Inter-Faith Encounters and Silence. 4. Creating Liturgies for the Absolute. 5. Reading Texts: Upanishads and Bodhisattvas. 6. The Silence of Death. Appendix 1. An Indian Eucharistic Prayer. Appendix 2. Morning Christian-Hindu Prayers. Appendix 3. Evening Christian-Hindu Prayers. Appendix 4. Roman Indian Liturgy (Eucharist). Appendix 5. Christian-Hindu Liturgies (Midday Worship). Appendix 6. Declarations for a Shared Humanity (St. Andrews and India).

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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 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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