Hinduism: sacred texts and revered writings Books

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Book SynopsisJoshua M. Greene has taken one of the most venerable and revered texts of all times -The Bhagavad Gita, and presents it in a completely new way. Greene reveals that the GIta, which can easily be obtuse to the modern reader, is really a simple conversation between two friends about the meaning of life. This fresh new view helps the 21st century seeker relate to the Gita and offers new ways of understanding this essential wisdom. The Gita is a discussion between Krishna and his devoted friend Arjuna on a battlefield known as Kurukshetra, a sprawling tract of land two hours north of Delhi, India. Scriptural calculations put the date of this famous discussion at around 3000 BCE. Like all great literature the Gita explores the human condition: who we are, where we come from, and why we are here. And as with all great literature, the more we study the main characters the more real and human they become. From related works we learn that Krishna and Arjuna played together as children. They were close friends in youth and became family when Arjuna married Krishna’s sister. We learn that later in life they shared extraordinary adventures, including a journey through subtle pathways to places outside the known universe. Plainly put, India’s most revered scripture is a heart-to-heart talk between two men who were closer than brothers and were the best of friends. Above all, The Sacred Conversation is practical and features a very helpful glossary in the back for terms, names, and places. Whether you are an expert on The Bhagavad Gita or a first-time reader, this unique contribtion to spiritual literature offers deep knowledge in a highly accessible way.

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Book SynopsisNotable and inspirational verses from the ancient and beautiful Hindu epic, newly presented in a gorgeous and giftable pocket-sized treasury.For thousands of years, readers and seekers have turned to the glorious and epic Hindu poem the Bhagavad Gita (the “Song of God”) for wisdom and inspiration. This beautifully presented tiny book features 150 quotes, inspirations, and words of guidance, accompanied by simple yet evocative imagery. The tiny book is intended for those who want to foster deep reflection as well as for those who simply want a little help on the path to finding peace, whether in the world or within themselves.

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Book SynopsisMoral injury is a profound violation of a human being's core moral identity through experiences of violence or trauma. This is the first book in which scholars from different faith and academic backgrounds consider the concept of moral injury not merely from a pastoral or philosophical point of view but through critical engagement with the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and American Civil Religion.This collection of essays explores the ambiguities of personal culpability among both perpetrators and victims of violence and the suffering involved in accepting personal agency in trauma. Contributors provide fresh and compelling readings of texts from different faith traditions and use their findings to reflect on real-life strategies for recovery from violations of core moral beliefs and their consequences such as shame, depression and addiction. With interpretations of the sacred texts, contributors reflect on the concerns of the morally-injured today and offer particular aspects of healing from their communities as support, making this a groundbreaking contribution to the study of moral injury and trauma.Trade ReviewThis book is a powerful impetus to understanding the full spectrum of moral injury and moral rehabilitation. -- John Dominic Crossan, Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies, DePaul University, Chicago, IL.A highly valuable collection for those engaging with religion and trauma studies. -- Karen L. King, Harvard Divinity SchoolThis may be the most important, authentic, and enjoyable volume yet written on moral injury. Each deliciously crafted essay explores new territory in the moral injury landscape using passages from ancient and revered writings as guides. The whole powerfully affirms the role of moral living-and its sometimes heartbreaking challenges-in the center of human experience. -- William P. Nash, MD, Director of Psychological Health for the U.S. Marine CorpsTable of ContentsForeword - Jonathan Shay; Introduction - Joseph McDonald, PhD, Visiting Instructor at Texas Christian University and Brite Divinity School; 1. Soul Repair: A Jewish View - David R. Blumenthal, PhD, Jay and Leslie Cohen Professor of Judaic Studies, Emory University; 2. Sodom and Lot's Family: Moral Injury in Genesis 19 - Nancy Bowen, PhD, Professor of Old Testament, Earlham School of Religion; 3. "The Most Beautiful of Stories": A Muslim Reflection on the Qur'an and Moral Injury - Amir Hussain, PhD, Professor of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount University; 4. Moral Injury and the Division of Spoils after Battle in the Hebrew Bible - Brad Kelle, PhD, Professor of Old Testament, Point Loma Nazarene University; 5. Civil Religion and the Moral Wounds of War - Daniel C. Maguire, STD, Professor of Theological Ethics, Marquette University; 6. Like acid seeping into your soul: Religio-cultural Violence in Moral Injury - Kelly Denton-Borhaug, PhD, Associate Professor of Religion and Co-director of Peace and Justice Studies, Moravian College; 7. Do Not Torment Me: The Morally-Injured Gersaene Demoniac - Michael Yandell, Theological Studies PhD student, Emory University; 8. Peter and Judas: Moral Injury and Repair - Warren Carter, PhD, Professor of New Testament, Brite Divinity School; 9. Buddhist Scripture and Moral Injury: Reflections on the Story of A?gulimala - John Thompson, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Christopher Newport University; Conclusion; Afterword - Rita Brock PhD, Research Professor of Theology and Culture, Brite Divinity School, and Founding Co-Director, The Soul Repair Center; References

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisFormalized by the tenth century, the Bhagavata Purana has witnessed centuries of performance, interpretation, worship, and debate. This annotated translation and detailed analysis makes a central Hindu masterpiece accessible to English-speaking audiences and more meaningful to scholars of Hindu literature, philosophy, and religion.Trade ReviewThe work gives the reader a superb sense of what the whole of the Bhagavata is all about. -- Graham M. Schweig, author-translator of Bhagavad Gita: The Beloved Lord's Secret Love Song The authors have provided an excellent sampling of the text. -- Edwin Bryant, Rutgers University Nowadays the Bhagavad Gita is regarded as the central text of Hinduism, but for centuries that honor belonged more to the Bhagavata Purana, where Krishna also reigns. Thanks to Gupta and Valpey, today we have a chance to encounter the Bhagavata anew-fresh translations, an absorbing introduction, and a judicious, imaginative selection of passages that reveal the heart and sinews of this monumentally beautiful work. -- Jack Hawley, Barnard College The Bhagavata Purana is one of the most important theological and devotional texts of Hinduism. Yet, given its great length and complexity, it has rarely been read even by the wider audience of scholars and students, beyond the justly famous narratives of Krishna found in its tenth book. Most readers remain unfamiliar with the rich range of its philosophical and religious narratives, its fascinating and entertaining narrative of cosmology and myth, its teachings on religious practice and devotion, and its important articulation of a fundamental Vaishnava theology. Gupta and Valpey have put their Indological and theological skills to good use in their excellent translations of key texts judiciously selected from all twelve books, thus making the Purana truly accessible for the first time. It is also a welcome companion to the scholarly essays found in their The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition. Together, these volumes will quickly find a place in the classroom and on the shelves of every library collection attuned to the greater Hindu traditions. -- Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University To know the Bhagavata Purana is to love it, but until now it has been largely inaccessible to those who wish to experience its delights. Ravi Gupta and Kenneth Valpey have now brought this classic to a global audience. The pickiest scholar will be satisfied with their faithful yet fluent translations. The lay reader is well served by chapter summaries and judicious selections, and devotees will delight in the bhakti which suffuses this fine book. -- McComas Taylor, Australian National University This is an extraordinarily useful introduction to the Bhagavata Purana, one of the most important scriptures of the Hindu tradition. As told in this devotional classic, the tale of Krishna-the Supreme Being who acts playfully in the world to bring succor and delight to his devotees-is absorbing and elevating. More than an introduction, Gupta and Valpey's work is a masterfully edited and translated presentation of the heart of the original text. It captures the essence of the story in an accessible and engaging package. Highly recommend for students of religion and general readers wanting insight into the Hindu experience of God. -- Lance E. Nelson, University of San Diego The Bhagavata Purana is an enormously important text in the religious landscape of Hindu India. It is also a text that is very difficult to translate. Ravi Gupta and Kenneth Valpey have performed a huge service by producing an eminently readable and scholarly translation of vital selections of the Bhagavata Purana that will be very useful for those interested in this essential scripture. This volume contains the Bhagavata's most popular narratives that are commemorated in widespread artwork and religious commentaries, and knits them together with very effective summaries of the untranslated portions. Along with its informative introduction, the overall result gives handy and accurate access to a text that many initial readers find unwieldy. -- David L. Haberman, Indiana University BloomingtonTable of ContentsForeword, by C. Mackenzie Brown Preface Introduction Book One Book Two Book Three Book Four Book Five Book Six Book Seven Book Eight Book Nine Book Ten Book Eleven Book Twelve Commentarial Excursions Notes Glossary References Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is the first in any language to follow the evolution of rasa, or taste, the word Indian intellectuals chose to describe art's aesthetics. A Rasa Reader ranges from rasa's origins in dramaturgical thought—a concept for the stage—to its flourishing in literary thought—a concept for the page.Trade ReviewA Rasa Reader is the product of enormous erudition in both the Indian and European traditions of the philosophy and science of aesthetics, and it will make a unique and powerful contribution to scholars in several areas. No other work of which I am aware enables even the lay reader to grasp the elusive concept of rasa, its relationship to the psychology of emotion, and the way in which successive authors redefined the meaning and locus of the aesthetic response. -- Robert Goldman, University of California, Berkeley A Rasa Reader marks a serious contribution to scholarship on rasa and promises to shape the field for a long time to come. There is certainly no one work in English or any other language that covers anything like the ground this one does. -- Lawrence McCrea, Cornell University A Rasa Reader is a monumental achievement not only in giving clear translations of difficult Sanskrit texts on aesthetics but also in making complicated arguments comprehensible to the general reader. It is the missing cornerstone in the increasing availability of premodern South Asia literature in reliable translation. It is now possible for the curious reader to find his or her way with some depth into a once impenetrable field. -- Stephen Owen, Harvard University Framed by Sheldon Pollock's magisterial introduction and commentary, A Rasa Reader opens out a panoramic view of one of the world's great aesthetic traditions, whose adherents blend philosophical rigor and poetic insight as they advance, dispute, and refine theories of the nature and effects of artistic expression. Discerning readers of this luminous anthology will 'become intoxicated by it'-as the great poet-critic Dandin said of poetry-'like bees by honey.' -- David Damrosch, Harvard University Pollock recounts the core aesthetic concept of rasa by tracking its transformations, extensions, and exclusions. From its early appearance as a term specific to drama to its flowering as a hybrid concept bringing together emotion, eroticism, cuisine, devotion, authenticity, and response, rasa makes sense of aesthetic experiences but in a way that doesn't and shouldn't reduce to any of its near-equivalents in Greek or German philosophies of the beautiful. Comparative literature gains immensely from this detailed, historically differentiated anthology with its illuminating introduction. -- Haun Saussy, University of Chicago In this bold, comprehensive, and bracing foray into classical India, Pollock confirms his reputation as a pioneering intellectual historian-the rare kind that creates a vast new field of inquiry and scholarship while provoking reappraisals of existing ideas, assumptions, and concepts. -- Pankaj Mishra, author of From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade AsiaTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments English Translations of Sanskrit Titles List of Abbreviations Introduction: An Intellectual History of Rasa 1. The Foundational Text, c. 300, and Early Theorists, 650-1025 2. The Great Synthesis of Bhoja, 1025-1055 3. An Aesthetic Revolution, 900-1000 4. Abhinavagupta and His School, 1000-1200 5. Continuing the Controversies Beyond Kashmir, 1200-1400 6. Rasa in the Early Modern World, 1200-1650 English-Sanskrit Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is a study of heroic femininity as it appears in the epic Mahābhārata, and focuses particularly on the roles of wife, daughter-in-law, and mother, on how these women speak, and on the kinship groups and varying marital systems that surround them.Trade ReviewMcGrath has produced a painstaking examination of how Kunti, Gandhari, Damayanti, Savitri, Amba and Shakuntala function in the Mahabharata as a true mirror for princes, intervening at critical junctures of the narrative to take it forward by proclaiming the true dharma of rulers...McGrath makes an important contribution in bringing out the importance of the matriline in the epic. -- Pradip Bhattacharya * The Statesman *

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Book SynopsisThe Vaikhānasas are mentioned in many Vedic texts, yet they are Vaiṣṇavas, monotheistic worshipers of Viṣṇu. Thus, they bridge two key ages in the history of South Asian religion. This text contains many quotations from ancient Vedic literature as well as architectural and iconographical data of the later first millennium CE.

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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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