Hinduism Books

Book SynopsisParamahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), a Hindu missionary to the US, wrote one of the world's most highly acclaimed spiritual classics, Autobiography of a Yogi. David Neumann tells the story of Yogananda's fascinating life while interpreting his position in religious history, transnational modernity, and American culture.

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Book SynopsisDeepen your practice and discover the myths, gods, sacred animals and imagery that lie hidden in your favourite yoga posturesMeet the monks and maharajas, gods and gymnasts who shaped yoga as we know it.Have you ever wondered why yoga postures look the way they do, or how they got their names? From Lotus to Warrior, Cobra to Happy Baby, this book takes a fresh look at the stories behind 30 familiar poses. By drawing in on Hindu scripture, mythology and the animals, birds and flowers the original Indian yogis saw around them, Curious Poses explores the symbolism of yoga postures many of us practise every week and offers inspiration to regular practitioners and yoga teachers alike. Let this book take you on a journey into a treasure trove of yoga history, mythology, philosophy and pop culture that enlightens and entertains by turns. Featuring full-colour illustrations, Curious Poses is an ideal mat companion for the curious yoga enthusiast.Trade ReviewThis magical little compilation of the back-stories of some of Hatha Yoga's best known postures is a treasure... A rich seam of material for yoga teachers and a wonderful resource for practitioners. -- Tara Fraser, bestselling yoga authorLucy Greeves aims to demystify the practice, get people interested in its history, and empower them to dig deeper into how, why and what yoga is today. * The Observer Magazine *A treasure trove of yoga history, mythology, philosophy and pop culture that enlightens and entertains. The ideal companion for the curious yoga enthusiast * Top Sante Health & Beauty *Fascinating…Greeves combines history, popular culture and practice notes to inspire your understanding of yoga, both on and off the mat. * Women's Fitness *Table of ContentsIntroduction Lotus (padmasana) Hero (vajrasana) Bharadvaja's pose (bharadvajasana) Matsyendra's pose (matsyendrasana) Marichi's pose (marichyansana) Lion (simhasana) Cow face (gomukhasana) Preliminaries (pawanmuktasana) Sun salutation (surya namaskar) Mountain (tadasana) Tree (vrksasana) Chair (utkatasana) Downward-facing dog (adho mukha svanasana) Warrior (virabhadrasana) Triangle (trikonasana) Gate latch (parighasana) Crow (bakasana) Half-moon (ardha chandrasana) Headstand (sirsasana) Lord of the Dance (natarajasana) Peacock (mayurasana) Wheel (chakrasana) Cobra (bhujangasana) Pigeon (kapotasana) Forward fold (paschimottanasana) Squat (utkatikasana) Child (balasana) Happy baby (ananda balasana) Corpse (savasana)

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Book SynopsisIn 2002, armed Hindu mobs attacked Muslims in broad daylight in the west Indian state of Gujarat. The pogrom, which was widely seen over television, left more than one thousand dead. In Composing Violence Moyukh Chatterjee examines how highly visible political violence against minorities acts as a catalyst for radical changes in law, public culture, and power. He shows that, far from being quashed through its exposure by activists, media, and politicians, state-sanctioned anti-Muslim violence set the stage for transforming India into a Hindu supremacist state. The state''s and civil society’s responses to the violence, Chatterjee contends, reveal the constitutive features of modern democracy in which riots and pogroms are techniques to produce a form of society based on a killable minority and a triumphant majority. Focusing on courtroom procedures, police archives, legal activism, and mainstream media coverage, Chatterjee theorizes violence as a form of governance that crTrade Review"It is through scholarship of the kind offered by Composing Violence that we can grapple with questions of mass violence, impunity and justice after violence in South Asia, and beyond, in any meaningful way." -- Chulani Kodikara * Social and Legal Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. The Limits of Exposure 1 1. A Minor Reading 34 2. Composing the Archive 56 3. Against the Witness 76 4. Anti-Impunity Activism 93 5. Beyond the Unspeakable 107 Conclusion. Minor, Minorities, Minorization 127 Notes 139 Bibliography 151 Index 163

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Book SynopsisIn 2002, armed Hindu mobs attacked Muslims in broad daylight in the west Indian state of Gujarat. The pogrom, which was widely seen over television, left more than one thousand dead. In Composing Violence Moyukh Chatterjee examines how highly visible political violence against minorities acts as a catalyst for radical changes in law, public culture, and power. He shows that, far from being quashed through its exposure by activists, media, and politicians, state-sanctioned anti-Muslim violence set the stage for transforming India into a Hindu supremacist state. The state''s and civil society’s responses to the violence, Chatterjee contends, reveal the constitutive features of modern democracy in which riots and pogroms are techniques to produce a form of society based on a killable minority and a triumphant majority. Focusing on courtroom procedures, police archives, legal activism, and mainstream media coverage, Chatterjee theorizes violence as a form of governance that crTrade Review"It is through scholarship of the kind offered by Composing Violence that we can grapple with questions of mass violence, impunity and justice after violence in South Asia, and beyond, in any meaningful way." -- Chulani Kodikara * Social and Legal Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. The Limits of Exposure 1 1. A Minor Reading 34 2. Composing the Archive 56 3. Against the Witness 76 4. Anti-Impunity Activism 93 5. Beyond the Unspeakable 107 Conclusion. Minor, Minorities, Minorization 127 Notes 139 Bibliography 151 Index 163

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Book SynopsisThis book about the missing Divine Feminine in Christianity and Judaism chronicles a personal as well as an academic quest of an Indian woman who grew up with Kali and myriad other goddesses. It is born out of a women''s studies course created and taught by the author called The Goddess in World Religions. The book examines how the Divine Feminine was erased from the western consciousness and how it led to an exclusive spiritually patriarchal monotheism with serious consequences for both women's and men's psychological and spiritual identity. While colonial, proselytizing and patriarchal ways have denied the divinity inherent in the female of the species, a recent upsurge of body-centric practices like Yoga and innumerable books about old and new goddesses reveal a deep seated mother hunger in the western consciousness. Written from a practicing Hindu/Buddhist perspective, this book looks at the curious phenomenon called the Black Madonna that appears in Europe and also examines mystiTrade ReviewNeela Bhattacharya Saxena's Absent Mother God of the West: A Kali lover's journey into Christianity and Judaism is a rare gem of a book.... All in all, Dr. Saxena's vast, encyclopedic knowledge seems as cosmological as the Mother Goddess's domain, and her ability to fuse genres together is impressive. Absent Mother God of the West attests to Saxena's supreme virtues as thinker, writer, teacher, and scholar. It is a pleasure to watch this impressive author discover underground regions where the Goddess, in her incarnations such as Theotokos and Our Lady of Czestochowa, thrive in Europe and still reign as "Shakti-Shekinah" energy in India. By delving into the mysteries herself, she gives her readers permission to take their own chthonic impulses seriously and provides them with a template to follow in their own quest for the sacred feminine. * Argument: Biannual Philosophical Journal *It is imperative to emphasize the fact that [Absent Mother God of the West] perfectly fulfils [sic] its declared goal as a sincere and fully engaged book on the Goddess for a wider readership and it presents charming keys to understand Euro-American intellectual history from the original point of view of the author’s Hindu-Buddhist ethos. * Rivista degli Studi Orientali *While this book joins an established tradition of feminist theological critique, and efforts at reclaiming suppressed aspects of the feminine in Judeo-Christian androcentric dualist thought, Saxena’s unique perspective as a Hindu/Buddhist Kali-loving Indian woman, to use her own words, and her grounding in an overtly gynocentric tradition, make for a valuable contribution to this field. * Reading Religion *[Absent Mother God of the West] became a window into her scholarship and spiritual practice that fueled my desire to read the works she references and visit the places she does.... [T]he book takes one on a complex journey between faiths and philosophies, physical places and the Divine Feminine in her multitudinous forms. * Patheos *Saxena uncovers layers of philosophical, cultural, and gendered suppressions of the female god to reveal a vibrant layer of the Mother God in the western world. Needless to say, this journey that is not merely a philosophical quest, but one that emerges out of a soul connection to the Divine Feminine, manifests into this beautiful book, Absent Mother God of the West…. [W]e are invited to participate in a pilgrimage that is described in limpid prose…. Saxena is gifted in being able to bring a wealth of diverse philosophical ideas in easy conversation with each other. This book is one that we can dip into again and again and find our intellectual, creative and spiritual faculties sharpened. * Setu *Saxena takes readers on a far-ranging pilgrimage, a communal search party for the goddess. Deeply poetic and philosophical, her interdisciplinarity opens up new vistas, as it makes surprising connections amongst continental thought, esoteric religion, ecofeminist religion, and postcolonial thought. * Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies *It is not often that a non-Western person deeply anchored in her own tradition trains her gaze onto the Western world. In this case the gazer is a Bengali woman scholar, Neela Bhattacharya Saxena, a self-described Kali lover, widely read and a widely traveled pilgrim delightfully free of narrow disciplinary boundaries. * Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology *This book is the work of a deeply self-aware Bengali Vajrayani woman devotee of Kali, Neela Saxena. In a voice that is warm and compassionate but with adamantine clarity, it offers us a stunningly enlightening and moving reversal of the gaze on western modernity and its religious roots, discovering there an underground and suppressed presence of the Mother God. It is saturated with sophisticated and complex readings of a wide gamut of feminist and other writings. Absent Mother God of the West is both profound and a delightful read, exemplifying in its style the non-duality of samsara and nirvana, of transcendence and immanence. It effortlessly blends personal experience, philosophy, science, and popular culture, delivering to the reader a hope-filled alternative to the androcentrism and colonizing ethos of western modernity, offering the possibility to transform its ‘dueling dualisms’ into what Saxena calls ‘dancing dualities.’ -- Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, Smith College, author of Subversive Spiritualities: How Rituals Enact the WorldThis work is a bold and stimulating study on the contested history of the divine feminine in the west. In her journey across continents, Saxena has endeavored to restore one of the most fascinating figures of the feminine archetype in her several incarnations and cultural contexts, whether as the marginalized figure of the Virgin Mary in Christianity, or the mysterious and sublime persona of Shekhinah in Judaism, or the all-pervasive ‘global Mother Kali’ in Hinduism. The book makes a very significant contribution to gender studies and religious history across civilizations, and it will be an eye opener to the modern scholars and seekers of goddess spirituality. -- Madhu Khanna, Centre for Comparative Religions and Civilizations, Jamia Millia IslamiaIn this impressively wide-ranging volume, Neela Saxena takes her readers on a journey across cultures to encounter the figure of the Divine Mother. This journey is intensely personal, while at the same time grounded in historical knowledge that is characterized by both depth and breadth. Building on her earlier work on the Hindu Goddess Kali, Saxena deftly handles materials from as far afield as Japan and ancient Greece to create a portrait of a Mother Goddess honored in a wide array of forms and manifestations around the world. Many have argued that our alienation from this Divine Mother in the West has been at the root of an array of cultural maladies on many levels, from the individual to the global. Saxena, however, concludes on a note of hope, and shows us that the absent Mother God of the West is perhaps not so absent after all. -- Jeffery D. LongTable of Contents1. Carving Kali: A Hindu/Buddhist Perspective 2. Triple Goddesses of Greece: Traveling Through Ancient Lands 3. Matricide: Slow Destruction of the Mother God 4. Theotokos: Ascendant Christianity’s Mother of God 5. Yogini Magdalene: Gnostic Eve to the Black Madonna 6. Shakti Shekhinah: Immanence Returns to the West

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Book SynopsisThis book about the missing Divine Feminine in Christianity and Judaism chronicles a personal as well as an academic quest of an Indian woman who grew up with Kali and myriad other goddesses. It is born out of a women''s studies course created and taught by the author called The Goddess in World Religions. The book examines how the Divine Feminine was erased from the western consciousness and how it led to an exclusive spiritually patriarchal monotheism with serious consequences for both women's and men's psychological and spiritual identity. While colonial, proselytizing and patriarchal ways have denied the divinity inherent in the female of the species, a recent upsurge of body-centric practices like Yoga and innumerable books about old and new goddesses reveal a deep seated mother hunger in the western consciousness. Written from a practicing Hindu/Buddhist perspective, this book looks at the curious phenomenon called the Black Madonna that appears in Europe and also examines mystiTrade ReviewNeela Bhattacharya Saxena's Absent Mother God of the West: A Kali lover's journey into Christianity and Judaism is a rare gem of a book.... All in all, Dr. Saxena's vast, encyclopedic knowledge seems as cosmological as the Mother Goddess's domain, and her ability to fuse genres together is impressive. Absent Mother God of the West attests to Saxena's supreme virtues as thinker, writer, teacher, and scholar. It is a pleasure to watch this impressive author discover underground regions where the Goddess, in her incarnations such as Theotokos and Our Lady of Czestochowa, thrive in Europe and still reign as "Shakti-Shekinah" energy in India. By delving into the mysteries herself, she gives her readers permission to take their own chthonic impulses seriously and provides them with a template to follow in their own quest for the sacred feminine. * Argument: Biannual Philosophical Journal *It is imperative to emphasize the fact that [Absent Mother God of the West] perfectly fulfils [sic] its declared goal as a sincere and fully engaged book on the Goddess for a wider readership and it presents charming keys to understand Euro-American intellectual history from the original point of view of the author’s Hindu-Buddhist ethos. * Rivista degli Studi Orientali *While this book joins an established tradition of feminist theological critique, and efforts at reclaiming suppressed aspects of the feminine in Judeo-Christian androcentric dualist thought, Saxena’s unique perspective as a Hindu/Buddhist Kali-loving Indian woman, to use her own words, and her grounding in an overtly gynocentric tradition, make for a valuable contribution to this field. * Reading Religion *[Absent Mother God of the West] became a window into her scholarship and spiritual practice that fueled my desire to read the works she references and visit the places she does.... [T]he book takes one on a complex journey between faiths and philosophies, physical places and the Divine Feminine in her multitudinous forms. * Patheos *Saxena uncovers layers of philosophical, cultural, and gendered suppressions of the female god to reveal a vibrant layer of the Mother God in the western world. Needless to say, this journey that is not merely a philosophical quest, but one that emerges out of a soul connection to the Divine Feminine, manifests into this beautiful book, Absent Mother God of the West…. [W]e are invited to participate in a pilgrimage that is described in limpid prose…. Saxena is gifted in being able to bring a wealth of diverse philosophical ideas in easy conversation with each other. This book is one that we can dip into again and again and find our intellectual, creative and spiritual faculties sharpened. * Setu *Saxena takes readers on a far-ranging pilgrimage, a communal search party for the goddess. Deeply poetic and philosophical, her interdisciplinarity opens up new vistas, as it makes surprising connections amongst continental thought, esoteric religion, ecofeminist religion, and postcolonial thought. * Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies *It is not often that a non-Western person deeply anchored in her own tradition trains her gaze onto the Western world. In this case the gazer is a Bengali woman scholar, Neela Bhattacharya Saxena, a self-described Kali lover, widely read and a widely traveled pilgrim delightfully free of narrow disciplinary boundaries. * Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology *This book is the work of a deeply self-aware Bengali Vajrayani woman devotee of Kali, Neela Saxena. In a voice that is warm and compassionate but with adamantine clarity, it offers us a stunningly enlightening and moving reversal of the gaze on western modernity and its religious roots, discovering there an underground and suppressed presence of the Mother God. It is saturated with sophisticated and complex readings of a wide gamut of feminist and other writings. Absent Mother God of the West is both profound and a delightful read, exemplifying in its style the non-duality of samsara and nirvana, of transcendence and immanence. It effortlessly blends personal experience, philosophy, science, and popular culture, delivering to the reader a hope-filled alternative to the androcentrism and colonizing ethos of western modernity, offering the possibility to transform its ‘dueling dualisms’ into what Saxena calls ‘dancing dualities.’ -- Frédérique Apffel-Marglin, Smith College, author of Subversive Spiritualities: How Rituals Enact the WorldThis work is a bold and stimulating study on the contested history of the divine feminine in the west. In her journey across continents, Saxena has endeavored to restore one of the most fascinating figures of the feminine archetype in her several incarnations and cultural contexts, whether as the marginalized figure of the Virgin Mary in Christianity, or the mysterious and sublime persona of Shekhinah in Judaism, or the all-pervasive ‘global Mother Kali’ in Hinduism. The book makes a very significant contribution to gender studies and religious history across civilizations, and it will be an eye opener to the modern scholars and seekers of goddess spirituality. -- Madhu Khanna, Centre for Comparative Religions and Civilizations, Jamia Millia IslamiaIn this impressively wide-ranging volume, Neela Saxena takes her readers on a journey across cultures to encounter the figure of the Divine Mother. This journey is intensely personal, while at the same time grounded in historical knowledge that is characterized by both depth and breadth. Building on her earlier work on the Hindu Goddess Kali, Saxena deftly handles materials from as far afield as Japan and ancient Greece to create a portrait of a Mother Goddess honored in a wide array of forms and manifestations around the world. Many have argued that our alienation from this Divine Mother in the West has been at the root of an array of cultural maladies on many levels, from the individual to the global. Saxena, however, concludes on a note of hope, and shows us that the absent Mother God of the West is perhaps not so absent after all. -- Jeffery D. LongTable of Contents1. Carving Kali: A Hindu/Buddhist Perspective 2. Triple Goddesses of Greece: Traveling Through Ancient Lands 3. Matricide: Slow Destruction of the Mother God 4. Theotokos: Ascendant Christianity’s Mother of God 5. Yogini Magdalene: Gnostic Eve to the Black Madonna 6. Shakti Shekhinah: Immanence Returns to the West

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Book SynopsisIn recent decades there has been a rising interest among scholars of Hinduism and Judaism in engaging in the comparative studies of these ancient traditions. Academic interests have also been inspired by the rise of interreligious dialogue by the respective religious leaders. Dharma and Halacha: Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy and Religion represents a significant contribution to this emerging field, offering an examination of a wide range of topics and a rich diversity of perspectives and methodologies within each tradition, and underscoring significant affinities in textual practices, ritual purity, sacrifice, ethics and theology.Dharma refers to a Hindu term indicating law, duty, religion, morality, justice and order, and the collective body of Dharma is called Dharma-shastra. Halacha is the Hebrew term designating the Jewish spiritual path, comprising the collective body of Jewish religious laws, ethics and rituals. Although there are strong pTrade ReviewThis is a very welcome volume, the first edited collection of comparisons of Hinduism and Judaism since Hananya Goodman’s pioneering 1994 book (Goodman 1994). It is welcome because of its range and the quality of the contributors’ scholarship, and also because there are many fewer book-length studies than one might imagine. . . . this is a very well done and important work that will advance its field significantly. I recommend it highly for scholars, students, and other interested persons. * Journal of Dharma Studies *This is a fine collection of essays on an important topic. Hindu-Jewish (and Indian-Israeli) connections are timely and significant. I recommend this work and congratulate Professor Theodor and Professor Greenberg on this pioneering effort. -- Nathan Katz, Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, Florida International UniversityChapter by chapter, this edited collection reconstructs categories and unsettles assumptions that have long dominated how we imagine religion. The scholars included here lay out thoughtful, focused comparative studies of Hindu and Jewish ritual, ethics, and theology. Along the way, they de-center European and Northern American approaches to religion, engaging scholars from around the world. This is the globalization of the study of religion: rich data, diverse scholarly voices, and expansive frameworks that lead to new insights concerning the human religious experience. -- Kathryn McClymond, Georgia State UniversityScholars who still think of comparisons between Hinduism and Jewish as unlikely, will find this volume a convincing argument for the possibility of comparisons. The book offers an important contribution to the growing field of Hindu-Jewish studies with many diverse and insightful articles, several of them opening up new avenues of research. The overviews of the field and full bibliographies make the volume a resource guide and suitable for classrooms. -- Alan Brill, Cooperman/Ross Endowed Professor, Seton Hall UniversityTable of ContentsYudit Kornberg Greenberg - Introduction Part I Ritual and SacrificeRachel Fell McDermott and Daniel Polish - Image Worship and Sacrifice: Legitimacy, Illegitimacy, and Theological Debate.Tracy Pintchman - Shakthi Garbha as Ark of the Covenant at an American Hindu Goddess Temple.Phillipe Bornet - Working towards a More Perfect World: Hospitality and Domestic Practices in Indian and Jewish Normative Texts.Part II EthicsIthamar Theodor - Dharma and Halacha: Reflections on Hindu and Jewish Ethics.Aaron Gross - Humane Subjects and Eating Animals: Comparing Implied Anthropologies in Jewish and Jain Dietary Practice.Purushottama Bilimoria - Animal Justice and Moral MendacityShoshana Razel Gordon Guedalia - Lethal Wives and Impure Widows: The Widow Marriage Taboo in Jewish and Hindu Law and Lore.Part III TheologyYudit Kornberg Greenberg - Reading Eros, Sacred Place, and Divine Love in the Gītāgovinda and Shir-Ha-Shirim.Paul Martin - On the Comparative Realization of Aesthetic Consciousness in Kabbalah and Tantra.Thomas A. Forsthoefel - The Guru and the Zaddik and the Testimony of the Holy Ones.Daniel Sperber - On the AUM and the TetragrammatonBarbara Holdrege - Hindu-Jewish Encounters—Whence, Whither, and Why?: Theorizing Embodied Communities in the Academy and Beyond. About the Contributors

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Book SynopsisShakti's New Voice is the first comprehensive study of Anandmurti Gurumaa, a widely popular contemporary female guru from north India known for offering spiritual teachings and music on satellite television and the Internet. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and religious-historical researchas well as unexpected and unprecedented outsider contact with the guruAngela Rudert offers an intimate portrait of Gurumaa that will be of interest to the guru's admirers as well as to scholars. To examine Gurumaa's innovation, Rudert turns to examples drawn from fieldwork research in the guru's ashram and from other locations in India and in the United States. These examples specifically discuss Gurumaa's religious pluralism, her gender activism, and her embrace of new media, in order to illuminate elements of continuity and change within the time-honored South Asian tradition of guru-bhakti, devotion to the guru. Raised in a Sikh family, educated in a Catholic convent school and understoodTrade ReviewIn Shakti’s New Voice, Angela Rudert, a scholar working at the intersection of anthropology and the history of religions, fills a lacuna in the field with her in-depth and empathetic exploration of the transcultural guru movement centered on Anandmurti Gurumaa. Based on more than ten years of research with Gurumaa and her middle-class Indian (and a few non-Indian) devotees in India and the United States, Shakti’s New Voice offers a critical ethno-historical examination of global guru devotion (bhakti) as it is “performed” on stage and through song, gender activism, and new media. This book will appeal to academics and non-academics interested in South Asia, religion, globalization, religious pluralism, and gender and women’s religious leadership. Expertly written, its dialogical style makes the book highly accessible to undergraduates, and its delicate balancing of culturally specific and generalizable insights will be of much interest to scholars and graduate students working in these and related fields.... Rudert’s book pushes against the old school dichotomies of “insider” and “outsider” in religious studies and other Humanistic disciplines. The book charts out a new modality for representing the (female) scholar’s voice and those of the people with whom she works and creates relationships, while casting a sobering glance on the ethics and politics of appropriating others’ worlds in the production and commodification of scholarship. * Reading Religion *Angela Rudert has written a fascinating study of the contemporary Punjabi female spiritual leader Anandmurti Gurumaa, generally simply referred to as ‘Gurumaa’. This is a rich account of an important, but as yet little known Indian-derived spiritual movement. . . . Rudert’s book is highly accessible and yet deals with some important and complex issues. It is relevant to anyone interested in the appeal of contemporary gurus, the globalisation of spirituality, and the increasing significance of new media platforms in spiritual movements. * Journal of Contemporary Religion *The book manages to retain the apposite scholarly rigour demanded of a dissertation, while donning the relaxed and casual armchair readability expected by wider audiences. . . . There is much in this book that both a lay audience as well students and scholars of religion would enjoy. * Nidan: International Journal for Indian Studies *Shakti's New Voice is a rich addition to studies on gurus, women’s leadership in religion, and the tension of continuity and change in religious traditions. Rudert nimbly situates the ‘modern’ and 'New Age’ eclecticism and cultural challenge of Gurumaa into broader historical patterns found in longstanding North Indian sant traditions while illuminating the innovations facilitated by twenty-first century technology. Creative, empathetic, and self-aware, Rudert’s book makes a worthy contribution to on-going scholarly analyses of ‘gurudom’ while also offering noteworthy and fascinating insights on method. Written with scholarly expertise along with a personal and approachable style, Shakti's New Voice should appeal both to professional academics and anyone intrigued by the magnetic pull of gurus and wisdom figures. -- Thomas A. Forsthoefel, Mercyhurst University, co-editor of Gurus in AmericaRudert’s remarkably rich and insightful ethnographic study of the contemporary Indian ‘revolutionary mystic’ Swamiji Anandmurti Gurumaa reveals how the call of the Divine Beloved is played out in the lives of disciples in a globalized and transnational context, whether through her songs, or through digital, electronic or face-to-face encounters. Framed as an interplay between tradition and innovation, the book is essential reading for understanding how Gurumaa’s pluralism and gender activism are embodied within Indic spirituality even as they reformulate traditional understandings of the boundaries between religious faiths and the role of women. -- Zayn Kassam, Pomona CollegeAngela Rudert’s fascinating book introduces the contemporary transnational female guru Anandmurti Gurumaa, ‘a fresh, fiercely independent, feminine manifestation of Master who is poet, sant and activist.’ Central to the study is the theme of conversation across multiple registers. The author’s special access to the guru enabled discussions that animate her ethnography and theorizing. Gurumaa’s emphasis on pluralism rejects labels in favor of listening to historical voices from a multiplicity of religions that are relevant to spirituality today. Through socially-informed activism, she empowers girls by her educational Shakti NGO, and by encouraging global communication through social media the guru engages her devotional community in discussion about her teachings. This fine study demonstrates that Gurumaa and gurus of today transform the received idea of the New Age to bring spirituality into potent contemporary dialogue with self and service. -- Karen Pechilis, Drew UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: An “All-In-One Guru” Chapter 1. Methods in a “Buddhafield”: Interchanges Between a Scholar and a Sant Chapter 2: What’s New about New-Age Gurus? Chapter 3: Gurus and Disciples: Situating Gurumaa in Tradition Chapter 4: Death at Darshan and Other Narratives of Guru-Bhakti Chapter 5: A Sufi, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist TV Guru Chapter 6: Shakti, in Word, Activism, and Hagiography: “Listen to My Voice!” Chapter 7: New Media, Same Old Magic: “This Is the Siddhi” Conclusion: Conversations with a “Twenty-First Century Mystic”

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Book SynopsisThe image of the meditating yogi has become a near-universal symbol for transcendent perfection used to market everything from perfume and jewelry to luxury resorts and sports cars, and popular culture has readily absorbed it along similar lines. Yet the religious traditions grounding such images are often readily abandoned or caricatured beyond recognition, or so it would seem. The essays contained in The Assimilation of Yogic Religions through Pop Culture explore the references to yogis and their native cultures of India, Tibet, and China as they are found in the stories of many famous icons of popular culture, from Batman, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange to Star Trek, Doctor Who, Twin Peaks, and others. In doing so, the authors challenge the reader to look deeper into the seemingly superficial appropriation of the image of the yogi and Asian religious themes found in all manner of comic books, novels, television, movies, and theater and to carefully examine how they are being represeTrade ReviewInspired by the richness of discussion and insight in each chapter, even non-experts of comparative religions or non-fans of these pop-cultural icons will find interesting the insights provided into various streams of traditional religious practices and identities from exotically-othered parts of Asia which have historically played a role in shaping popular representations of Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, various strands of Hinduism—particularly Tantra—and how these continue to be borrowed, appropriated, misrepresented, filtered, or woven into the practices and imaginary fabric of global popular culture. * Reading Religion *This volume explores the hitherto-unrecognized complexity of the earliest connections between the Euro-American world and the cultures of Asia. With carefully constructed and nuanced historical case studies, we see how the beliefs and practices of various Asian religions were imported, adopted, and at times twisted to fit into expressions of Western culture. These include new spiritual movements, performing arts, and literature. This skillfully-compiled and broad collection of essays adds completely new examples of the phenomenon of Orientalism in context; the detail and insights found here are sure to interest a broad audience as well as inspire further explorations of this fascinating phenomenon. -- Todd T. Lewis, College of the Holy CrossHere is a brilliant collection detailing the pretzel logic of yoga in popular culture. It demonstrates how pervasive and deep Asian religions and spiritualities permeate the West’s best, even super-heroic, imaginings of itself. -- Rudy V. Busto, University of California, Santa BarbaraTable of ContentsForeword David Gordon White Editor's Preface Paul G. Hackett Acknowledgements Preliminary Notes Part I: Theatre and Film Introduction Ken Derry 1. The Yogi, the Prince, and the Courtesan: Izéÿl in Europe and America Samuel Thévoz 2. Supermen, Mystical Women, and Oriental Others: Dynamics of Race and Gender in Pop Cultural Yogis and the Universal Superhuman Anya P. Foxen 3. From the Razor's Edge to the Scalpel's Blade: Larry Darrell, Doctor Strange, and the Trope of the Rehabilitated Western Man as Yogi Paul G. Hackett Part II: Television and Serials Introduction Jane Naomi Iwamura and Paul G. Hackett 4. “I’ll See You Again in Twenty-Five Years:” Tibetan Buddhism in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and American Pop Culture in the 90s Adam C. Krug 5. The Future is Not What it Used To Be: Religion, Yogic Power, and Tibet in Star Trek and Doctor Who Paul G. Hackett 6. The Blank Scriptures of the Xiyou ji: Interpretive Flexibility and Religious Stability in Post-1949 Adaptations of The Journey to the West Nathan Faries and Yuanfei Wang Part III: Comic Books and Graphic Novels Introduction A. David Lewis 7. The Spiritual Superhero: A Historical Overview of Tantra in Comics Albion M. Butters 8. The Implied Spider-Man: Transcreating Religious Imagery and Meaning in Spider-Man: India Rex Barnes 9. The Dark Knight of the Soul: Death as Initiatory Ordeal in Grant Morrison’s Batman R.I.P. Joel Bordeaux Afterword Paul G. Hackett

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Book SynopsisTucked away in ancient Sanskrit and Bengali texts is a secret teaching, a blissful devotional (bhakti) tradition that involves sacred congregational chanting (kirtana), mindfulness practices (japa, smara?am), and the deepening of one's relationship with God (rasa). Brought to the world's stage by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (14861533), and fully documented by his immediate followers, the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan, these unprecedented teachings were passed down from master to student in Gau?iya Vaishnava lineages. The Golden Avatara of Love: Sri Chaitanya's Life and Teachings, by contemporary scholar Steven J. Rosen, makes the profound truths of this confidential knowledge easily accessible for an English language audience. In his well-researched text, modern readersspiritual practitioners, scholars, and seekers of knowledge alikewill encounter a treasure of hitherto unrevealed spiritual teachings, and be able to fathom sublime dimensions of Sri Chaitanya's method. Using the ancient texts Trade ReviewThere is much that is praiseworthy and much to be learned from Steven Rosen's book. * Reading Religion *“Steven J. Rosen is well known and respected for his prolific output of writing on Krishna bhakti and related topics, but I would venture to state that this is by far his most important work yet. It represents a lifetime of serious study and scholarship, sieving through all the literature on Chaitanya— hagiographic, theological, pedagogical, academic and more—from the earliest literary sources to the transplantation of the tradition to the West. Indeed, this accumulation of sources from different genres is among the unique contributions of this book, allowing us to engage the significance of this remarkable saint/avatāra through a wide variety of lenses. This user-friendly volume seems set to be the go-to source for scholars, students, and practitioners of bhakti on one of the most divinely intoxicated personalities in recorded history.” -- Edwin Bryant, Rutgers University“As one might imagine, I was delighted to learn that Steven was interested in contributing a work to this series. And not just any work: it could well be argued that this volume is his magnum opus. While it is written with the clarity of his earlier work, there is scholarly depth here that makes this particular volume a substantial contribution to academic knowledge of the important, but under-studied figure of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu.” -- Jeffery Long, Elizabethtown CollegeTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Gauḍīya Tradition: From Veda to Rādhā 2. Śrī Krishna: Enter the Dark Lord 3. Śrī Gaura Tattva: From Black to Gold 4. The World of Bhakti 5. The Nectar of the Holy Name 6. Śikṣāṣṭakam: Eight Beautiful Prayers 7. Gauḍīya Vedānta: Inconceivable Unity in Diversity 8. Śrī Chaitanya and Other Traditions 9. Rāmānanda Rāya: The Viceroy of Devotion 10. Rāgānuga-bhakti: Śrī Chaitanya’s Special Gift Afterword: Mahāprabhu Comes West

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Book SynopsisTucked away in ancient Sanskrit and Bengali texts is a secret teaching, a blissful devotional (bhakti) tradition that involves sacred congregational chanting (kirtana), mindfulness practices (japa, smara?am), and the deepening of one's relationship with God (rasa). Brought to the world's stage by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (14861533), and fully documented by his immediate followers, the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan, these unprecedented teachings were passed down from master to student in Gau?iya Vaishnava lineages. The Golden Avatara of Love: Sri Chaitanya's Life and Teachings, by contemporary scholar Steven J. Rosen, makes the profound truths of this confidential knowledge easily accessible for an English language audience. In his well-researched text, modern readersspiritual practitioners, scholars, and seekers of knowledge alikewill encounter a treasure of hitherto unrevealed spiritual teachings, and be able to fathom sublime dimensions of Sri Chaitanya's method. Using the ancient texts Trade Review“As one might imagine, I was delighted to learn that Steven was interested in contributing a work to this series. And not just any work: it could well be argued that this volume is his magnum opus. While it is written with the clarity of his earlier work, there is scholarly depth here that makes this particular volume a substantial contribution to academic knowledge of the important, but under-studied figure of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu.” -- Jeffery Long, Elizabethtown CollegeThere is much that is praiseworthy and much to be learned from Steven Rosen's book. * Reading Religion *“Steven J. Rosen is well known and respected for his prolific output of writing on Krishna bhakti and related topics, but I would venture to state that this is by far his most important work yet. It represents a lifetime of serious study and scholarship, sieving through all the literature on Chaitanya— hagiographic, theological, pedagogical, academic and more—from the earliest literary sources to the transplantation of the tradition to the West. Indeed, this accumulation of sources from different genres is among the unique contributions of this book, allowing us to engage the significance of this remarkable saint/avatāra through a wide variety of lenses. This user-friendly volume seems set to be the go-to source for scholars, students, and practitioners of bhakti on one of the most divinely intoxicated personalities in recorded history.” -- Edwin Bryant, Rutgers University“Steven J. Rosen is well known and respected for his prolific output of writing on Krishna bhakti and related topics, but I would venture to state that this is by far his most important work yet. It represents a lifetime of serious study and scholarship, sieving through all the literature on Chaitanya— hagiographic, theological, pedagogical, academic and more—from the earliest literary sources to the transplantation of the tradition to the West. Indeed, this accumulation of sources from different genres is among the unique contributions of this book, allowing us to engage the significance of this remarkable saint/avatāra through a wide variety of lenses. This user-friendly volume seems set to be the go-to source for scholars, students, and practitioners of bhakti on one of the most divinely intoxicated personalities in recorded history.” -- Edwin Bryant, Rutgers University“As one might imagine, I was delighted to learn that Steven was interested in contributing a work to this series. And not just any work: it could well be argued that this volume is his magnum opus. While it is written with the clarity of his earlier work, there is scholarly depth here that makes this particular volume a substantial contribution to academic knowledge of the important, but under-studied figure of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu.” -- Jeffery Long, Elizabethtown CollegeTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Gauḍīya Tradition: From Veda to Rādhā 2. Śrī Krishna: Enter the Dark Lord 3. Śrī Gaura Tattva: From Black to Gold 4. The World of Bhakti 5. The Nectar of the Holy Name 6. Śikṣāṣṭakam: Eight Beautiful Prayers 7. Gauḍīya Vedānta: Inconceivable Unity in Diversity 8. Śrī Chaitanya and Other Traditions 9. Rāmānanda Rāya: The Viceroy of Devotion 10. Rāgānuga-bhakti: Śrī Chaitanya’s Special Gift Afterword: Mahāprabhu Comes West

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Book SynopsisThis edited volume seeks to build a scholarly discourse about how Hinduism is being defined, reformed, and rearticulated in the digital era and how these changes are impacting the way Hindus view their own religious identities. It seeks to interrogate how digital Hinduism has been shaped in response to the dominant framing of the religion, which has often relied on postcolonial narratives devoid of context and an overemphasis on the geopolitics of the Indian subcontinent post-partition. From this perspective, this volume challenges previous frameworks of how Hinduism has been studied, particularly in the West, where Marxist and Orientalist approaches are often ill-fitting paradigms to understanding Hinduism. This volume engages with and critiques some of these approaches while also enriching existing models of research within media studies, ethnography, cultural studies, and religion.Trade ReviewDigital Hinduism helps to legitimize a relatively new conversation in religious studies. Because the subfield of digital religious studies is still being defined and studies on the intersection of new media and religion are burgeoning, particularly within Hindu studies, this collection of essays brings further insight to a fairly new area of study. . . . This collection has many strengths. Almost every essay provides a wealth of information on technology and how accessible that technology may be to various communities. Additionally, many different topics relating to the formation of an online Hindu identity are represented. An effort was clearly made to bring a diversity of voices into the conversation. . . On the whole, this collection provides a wide-ranging survey of digital Hinduism. * Reading Religion *Like any other living and vibrant tradition, Hinduism continues to adapt to changing circumstances and contexts, including the rise of the internet. This important volume–a fine addition to the Explorations in Indic Traditions series–gives a sense of the diverse ways in which Hinduism is present in cyberspace. From advocacy for Hindu rights to the expression of progressive Hindu perspectives to such traditional activities as puja carried out online, this book chronicles the rise of internet Hinduism and does so in a clear and engaging fashion. -- Jeffery D. Long, Elizabethtown CollegeThis book is a rich collection of diverse voices that deepen our understanding of Hindu traditions in this fluid era of globalization and digitalization, including, but moving beyond, the Indian subcontinent. Each essay opens a new window to the complex ways in which this global tradition is transforming and being transformed by media. It is a much needed addition to a new field in the study of religion. -- Anantanand Rambachan, St. Olaf CollegeHinduism has long been viewed as a timeless religion, but the reality is that it has always been shaped by its historical, cultural, and political context. As Hinduism encounters modernity, its technological landscape has shifted dramatically, thereby transforming the way that Hinduism is conceptualized and consumed across generations and continents. A critical and timely volume, Digital Hinduism is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the future of Hinduism. -- Varun Soni, Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern CaliforniaTable of ContentsIntroduction: Digital Paths to the Divine? New Media, Hinduism, and the Transformation of Dharmic Discourse and Practice, Murali Balaji Part I Chapter 1: The Significance of Non-Participatory Digital Religion: The Saiva Siddhanta Church and the Development of a Global Hinduism, Heinz Scheifinger Chapter 2: The Formation of Online Religious Identities: A Case Study of the Internet-Hindu in India’s Cyberspace, Denzil Chetty Chapter 3: From Newsgroups to #hashtags: Mapping Pattern of Online Hindu Religious Practices, K.S. Arul Selvan Part II Chapter 4: Mirabai Sings on YouTube: The Transmission of a Poet-Saint in the Age of Digital Devotion, Lakshmi Chandrashekar Subramanian Chapter 5: Creating Spaces for Progressive Voices in Hinduism: My Experience with the Queer Hindu Blogosphere, Shikhandi Part III Chapter 6: Dharma Deen Alliance: Cyber Resistance and Building Online Hindu-Muslim Unity, Ravi Grover Chapter 7: #Hinduphobia: Hate Speech, Bigotry, and Oppression of Hindus through the Internet, Sachi Edwards Chapter 8: Digital Divide, Diasporic Identity, and a Spiritual Upgrade, Charu Uppal Chapter 9: Digitalizing the Diasporic Subaltern: How Caribbean Hinduism Is Preserved through the Web, Murali Balaji Conclusion: Digital Dilemmas and New Paradigms in Digital Dharma, Murali Balaji

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Book SynopsisToday's globalized society faces some of humanity's most unprecedented social and environmental challenges. Presenting inspiring and effective approaches to a range of these challenges, the timely volume before you draws upon individual cases of exemplary leadership from the world's Dharma traditionsHinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The volume''s authors refer to such exemplary leaders as beacons of Dharma, highlighting the ways in which each figure, through their inspirational life work, provide us with illuminating perspectivesas we continue to confront cases of grave injustice and needless suffering in the world. Taking on difficult contemporary issues such as climate change, racial and gender inequality, industrial agriculture and animal rights, fair access to healthcare and education, and other such pressing concerns,Beacons of Dharmaoffers a promising and much needed contribution to our global conversations.Seeking to helpalleviate and remedy such social and environmentalTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction by Michael Reading and Christopher Patrick Miller I.Service, Compassion and Humanitarianism 1.“Tai Maharaj, Rebel with a Cause: Acharya Chandanaji’s Life of Compassion in Action” by Anne Vallely 2.“Swami Vivekananda and Sister Nivedita: Beacons of Dharma for India and the West” by Jeffery D. Long 3.“Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the Flavors of Bhakti” by Rita Sherma 4. “Swami Jyotirmayananda’s Integral Yoga: Methods Towards Service to Humanity and Enlightenment” by Priyanka Ramlakhan 5.“Amma: Global Mother – Embracing the World with Compassionate Darshan” by Sreedevi Bringi 6.“The North American Legacy of the Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi” by Suzanne Schier-Happell II.Ecology and Environmental Activism 7. “Eremitic Engagement: The Religious Body Politic of Chatral Sangye Dorji Rinpoche” by Westin Harris 8.“Sri Acharya Tulsi, Anuvrat, and Eco-conscious Living” by Michael Reading 9.“Paramahansa Yogananda’s World Brotherhood Colonies: Models for Environmentally Sustainable and Socially Responsible Living” by Christopher Patrick Miller 10.“Dharma and the Promise of Sustainable Eco-systems: Vandana Shiva’s Innovative Interpretation of Gandhi’s Principle of Swadeshi” by Veena Howard III.Peace, Knowledge and Social Justice 11.“Opening the Heart in Anti-racism Activism: Pema Chodron and the Lojong Teachings” by Judith Simmer-Brown 12. “Bhai Vir Singh: Local Sikh Poet, Global Resource” by Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh 13.“Sri Chinmoy’s Vision of Peace” by Kusumita P. Pedersen 14.“Beacons of Dharma from the Biquini zhuan” by Tanya Storch 15.“Singing Dharam: Transmission of Knowledge in the Sikh Sonic Path” by Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa-Baker and Francesca Cassio. Conclusion by Jeffery D. Long About the Contributors

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Book SynopsisThis book presents contemporary scholarship on the Yoga Sutra. It revisits Patañjali's philosophy by bringing it into dialogue with contemporary concerns across a variety of topics and perspectives. Questions regarding the role of the body in the practice of classical yoga, the debate between the realistic or idealistic interpretation of the text, the relation between Yoga and other Indian philosophical schools, the use of imagination in the pursuit of self-knowledge, the interplay between consciousness and nature, the possibilities and limitations of using it as a therapeutic philosophy, the science of meditation, and overcoming our fear of death probe the many dimensions that this text continues to offer for thought and reflection.Trade ReviewClassical Yoga Philosophy continues to bestow its treasures of wisdom in Thinking with the Yoga Sūtra of Patanjali. Written by leading experts in the field, the 10 original essays in this volume display philosophical ingenuity, academic rigor, and sensitivity to practice. Explore hidden nuances of Patanjali’s system of yoga by thinking with the contributors to this wonderful book. -- Geoffrey Ashton, University of San FranciscoScholarly studies and research in the field of Yoga have not been as productive as the extent to which various forms of yoga have been popularized. Even when issues related to the history of yoga come to public discourse, most of the philosophical aspects have remained unaddressed. The edited volume, Thinking with the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: Translation and Interpretation, reflects this timely need. The volume addresses issues such as consciousness and body, realism and idealism, the yoga system of Patañjali in light of other yoga systems, and issues related to human suffering and death. Divided in ten chapters, this volume is a collection of essays from some of the finest scholars in the field. This work helps bridge theory and practice in yoga and supports a multi-disciplinary approach to studying yoga. This work will inspire the next generation in various areas of yoga studies, comparative philosophy and theology. -- Staneshwar Timalsina, San Diego State UniversityA fascinating book for all Yoga Sūtra readers who look for some fresh and insightful interpretations of Patañjali’s philosophy. We are drawn in thinking with the text indeed. The authors of this well-crafted collection offer a diversity of philosophical perspectives and in-depth readings which go beyond the historical and philological explication of the sūtras. -- Marzenna Jakubczak, Professor of Philosophy, Pedagogical University of Cracow, Board Member of the Society for Asian and Comparative PhilosophyTable of ContentsPreface Introduction List of Abbreviations I. Consciousness and Body Chapter 1 Reflections on Liberated Consciousness Ian Whicher Chapter 2 On Metaphysics and Imagination (bhāvanā); a Note on Patañjali’s Siddhis as Yogic Visualization Yohanan Grinshpon Chapter 3 The Perfect Body in Classical Yoga Philosophy Ana Laura Funes Maderey II. Realism vs. Idealism Chapter 4 The Purported Realism of Classical Yoga Mikel Burley Chapter 5 Realism and Omniscience in the Yogasūtra Kevin Perry Maroufkhani and Arindam Charkrabarti III. Pātañjala Yoga and Other Traditions Chapter 6 Yoga and the Yogasūtra in Classical Darśana Stephen Phillips Chapter 7 Can there be a Science of Meditation? Arindam Chakrabarti IV. Suffering, Death, and Return to Origins Chapter 8 The Making and Unmaking of the Self: Patañjali’s Yogasūtra and the Experience of Trauma Stephanie Corigliano Chapter 9 Abhiniveśa: Pātañjala-yoga on Death and Life Daniel Raveh Chapter 10 Activity, Cessation, and a Return to Origins in the Yoga Sūtra Christopher Key Chapple Bibliography List of Contributors

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Book SynopsisTemples of Modernity uses ethnographic data to investigate the presence of religious ideas and practices in Indian science and engineering. Geraci shows 1) how the integration of religion, science and technology undergirds pre- and post-independence Indian nationalism, 2) that traditional icons and rituals remain relevant in elite scientific communities, and 3) that transhumanist ideas now percolate within Indian visions of science and technology. This work identifies the intersection of religion, science, and technology as a worldwide phenomenon and suggests that the study of such interactions should be enriched through attention to the real experiences of people across the globe.Trade ReviewThis fascinating study documents how religion flourishes in environments of technological innovation and scientific inquiry, and, in particular, how some scientists and engineers in contemporary India visualize technology and science through the lens of religion and mythology. Geraci shows the complexity in the relationship of religion, technology, and science in this Indian context and he succeeds in making the religious flourishing in scientific and technological environment understandable. -- Knut A. Jacobsen, University of BergenThis excellent monograph examines the interactions of science, technology, religion, and nationalism in the context of India. Geraci offers an in-depth reading of cultures of technology(s) in India and explores ethnographically the importance of studying cultures of technologies in different locations. This book is not about the religious lives of technologies in India, and it is equally not about the secular lives of technologies in the West. It is essentially a book on technology(s) and culture(s). Although the book is about India, it has the potential to explain the religious workings of technology in the ‘secular’ West as well. This ethnographically rich monograph will be an important contribution in the field of science(s) and religion(s). -- Renny Thomas, University of DelhiThe relationship between science and religion often is treated as one about beliefs. Geraci describes and analyzes the interplay of religion and science in India as one about practices and politics rather than about beliefs. He thus provides us with an opportunity to learn about India and an occasion to rethink our own assumptions about science, religion, modernity, and secularization. -- Willem B. Drees, editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, 2008–2018Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Navigating Science and Technology in Bangalore 2. Religious Science and the Building of a Nation 3. Nationalism and the Political Enchantment of Technology 4. Hindu Icons, Images, and Rituals in Scientific Spaces 5. India’s Transhumanist Landscapes 6. Reinventing Religion, Reimagining Science

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Book SynopsisWith historical-critical analysis and dialogical even-handedness, the essays of this book re-assess the life and legacy of Swami Vivekananda, forged at a time of colonial suppression, from the vantage point of socially-engaged religion at a time of global dislocations and international inequities. Due to the complexity of Vivekananda as a historical figure on the cusp of late modernity with its vast transformations, few works offer a contemporary, multi-vocal, nuanced, academic examination of his liberative vision and legacy in the way that this volume does. It brings together North American, European, British, and Indian scholars associated with a broad array of humanistic disciplines towards critical-constructive, contextually-sensitive reflections on one of the most important thinkers and theologians of the modern era.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments AbbreviationsVivekananda’s Life, Legacy, and Liberative Ethics: An Introduction Rita D. ShermaPART I: VIVEKANANDA IN RELATION TO HINDU PHILOSOPHIES & MAJOR THINKERSSwami Vivekananda and Adi Śaṅkarācārya: Similarities and DifferencesT. S. RukmaniSwami Vivekananda’s Interpretation of Brahmasūtra 1.1.19 as a Hermeneutic Basis for Samanvayī VedāntaAyon MaharajKuṇḍalinī Yoga in the Spirituality of Swami Vivekananda and in Modern Yoga Michael StoeberVivekananda in the History of Vedānta: Continuities and ContradictionsAndrew J. Nicholson Flavors of Ādvaita in Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, and Sri Aurobindo Debashish Banerji PART II: A LEGACY OF SERVICE Vivekananda and his Organizational Legacy with Particular Reference to Seva within the Ramakrishna MovementGwilym Beckerlegge “This Prema Dwells in the Heart of Them All:” Swami Vivekananda on Love and CompassionKusumita Pedersen Swami Vivekananda’s Legacy of Service: A Critical AssessmentShrinivas Tilak“Perfect Independence”: Swami Vivekananda, Women and Freedom Pravrajika VrajapranaPART III: REVISITING APPRAISALS OF VIVEKANANDA Complementarity, not Contradiction: Swami Vivekananda’s Theology of ReligionsJeffery D. LongNeglected Advaitas: The Genealogy of Swami Vivekananda’s Cosmopolitan Theology James Madaio | Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Oriental Institute De-subjugating Timeless Vocabularies – Swami Vivekananda as Intellectual Catalyst Kapil Kapoor Swami Vivekananda and Muscular Hinduism Sharada Sugirtharajah EpilogueWhat Is Hinduism? A Reflection on Vivekananda’s Legacy in Relation to the Definition of HinduismArvind Sharma About the Contributors

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Book SynopsisRabbi on the Ganges: A Jewish-Hindu Encounter is the first work to engage the new terrain of Hindu-Jewish religious encounter.The book offers understanding into points of contact between the two religions of Hinduism and Judaism. Providing an important comparative account, the work illuminates key ideas and practices within the traditions, surfacing commonalities between the jnana and Torah study, karmakanda and Jewish ritual, and between the different Hindu philosophic schools and Jewish thought and mysticism, along with meditation and the life of prayer and Kabbalah and creating dialogue around ritual, mediation, worship, and dietary restrictions. The goal of the book is not only to unfold the content of these faith traditions but also to create a religious encounter marked by mutual and reciprocal understanding and openness.Trade ReviewBrill’s serious, respectful treatment of the Jewish-Hindu encounter in Rabbi on the Ganges provides much needed breathing room for Jewish lay readers to think about Hinduism with a respected Modern Orthodox Jewish writer who clearly cherishes his experience. . . . Brill approaches Hinduism with an appreciative eye, looking not to debunk, but to find riches. . . The riches in Rabbi on the Ganges are many, and the text also points to places for further, important developments for Jewish readers interested in Hinduism. . . . We can only speculate what the world Judaism of today would like if the majority of the Jewish diaspora had settled in Southeast Asia, or in India in particular. It is a tantalizing thought experiment, through which Brill would be a most enjoyable guide. * Journal of Interreligious Studies *This work is the best comparative analysis ever of Jewish and Hindu philosophy and religious thought. Brill knows his Jewish sources impeccably, and with skilled observations of daily life and engaging dialogues with Hindu thinkers and texts, we accompany him on his journey. This is a groundbreaking dialogue, and through Brill’s appreciative eyes Hindus and Jews will come to understand both the other and themselves in a new way. It has my highest recommendation. -- Nathan Katz, Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, Florida International UniversityThe late Swami Dayananda Saraswati declared Hinduism and Judaism to be the two fountainheads of Religion in our world—the one of the Abrahamic traditions and the other of the Dharmic religions. Yet for the most part in the course of history, the two have remained foreign to one another.In recent times this has changed dramatically, not least of all reflected in the fact that India is frequently the preferred destination of young Israeli Jews. However serious attempts to understand the religious world of the other have been rare. Alan Brill’s book is an impressive pioneering work in this regard and will enable those familiar with Jewish teaching to gain a serious comprehensive understanding of Hindu religious thought, practice, and devotion. Moreover the clarity and insights he provides will enlighten not only Jews, but all those who wish to gain understanding of the rich wisdom and forms of Hindu religious life. -- David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious AffairsBrill succeeds in juxtaposing a comprehensive introduction to Hindu history, thought, and practice with personal reflections drawn from his experiences in India. A Highly readable contribution to the growing field of Indo-Judaic studies, and an invitation to further Hindu-Jewish dialogue. -- Yudit Kornberg Greenberg, George D. and Harriet W. Cornell Endowed Chair of Religion, Rollins CollegeRabbi, professor, traveler, storyteller, spiritual seeker, all of these roles have woven together to enable an outstanding achievement: Alan Brill's Rabbi on the Ganges. This book serves both as an introduction to Hinduism and also as a comparative study of Hinduism and Judaism. Brill has an ability to sift between the essential and the trivial that allows this introduction to be significant and meaningful, exploring the history of Hinduism and its variety of denominations and philosophies.Despite the enormous amount of information, the book doesn't feel dense but rather very readable. In terms of the comparison to Judaism, there are insights both relating to the rituals and practices of these religions but also the deep spiritual teaching. Brill also shows parallel developments in both religions, such as regarding the status of women and responses to modernity.One of the most significant messages of the book is showing how the contemporary Jewish view of Hinduism is based on a Hinduism of antiquity rather than the Hinduism of today. For me, this book has been transformative, and I believe that it will form a basis for a fruitful relationship between Judaism and Hinduism. -- Rabbi Yakov Nagen, senior educator Otniel YeshivaTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments Encountering Hinduism From A Jewish Perspective Vedic Worldview Darshan-Philosophies Hindu Denominations Hindu Texts and Piety Godliness Worship Karma-Kanda Modernity Epilogue: The Malida Offering BibliographyAbout the Author

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Book SynopsisIn May 2019, Narendra Modi won the world’s largest election. Defying expectations, he led his Bharatiya Janata Party to a resounding victory, with the highest vote share for any party in thirty years, and was re-elected as India’s Prime Minister.What accounts for the scale of Modi’s win? Why, despite economic hardship and social strife, did Indians vote so overwhelmingly for him and the BJP? This book explains the economic, social and cultural processes that shaped political passions in India during the spring and summer of 2019. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together a stellar team of economists, political scientists, sociologists, historians and geographers to explain Modi’s win. Together, the contributors compel us to take seriously the ‘structures of feeling’ in politics.Love him or hate him, Modi secured for himself a decisive re-election as India’s Prime Minister. Passionate politics is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how that happened.Trade Review‘Departing from the conventional scholarship on elections, dominated by psephology and discussions of the real, imagined or mistaken interests of sociological groups, this innovative collection of essays focuses instead on the role of feeling, play and aspiration in political life. The result is a stimulating analysis of citizenship and nationalism in contemporary India.’Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, University of Oxford‘At a time when politics in many national contexts is marked by heightened emotions of anger, outrage, paranoia, hatred and adoration, it has become imperative to give emotion due analytic value. This volume is an excellent example of what such a study could look like. Contributors from a variety of disciplines show how the outcome of the 2019 national elections in India cannot be explained by conventional metrics alone and require a recognition of the role that emotions play in determining political outcomes. This volume will be of huge interest for anyone interested in passionate politics!’Mukulika Banerjee, Associate Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science‘India's 2019 national elections have challenged the core assumptions of its post-1947 polity. We need a proper understanding of what exactly happened, how and why. A volume like this is hugely necessary. It is remarkable in its breadth of coverage and notable in its range of insights. It will advance our understanding in very significant ways.’Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences, Brown University‘An engaging exploration of the passions and emotions – fear, awe, love, hate, anger, aspiration, anxiety, protection, care, trust – that suffuse politics. The unusual lens of the 2019 general election in India provokes an interrogation of standard assumptions about the rational voter, as well as reflections on the mutual imbrication of emotion and reason in shaping how political choices are made.’Niraja Gopal Jayal, Avantha Chair in King’s India Institute, King’s College London‘The emphatic, expanded support of India’s electorate for the incumbent Modi government in the general elections of 2019 has puzzled observers. Indrajit Roy gathers a diverse range of scholars to view these elections through the prism of emotions. The result is an engaging, vibrant, sometimes provocative, sometimes perplexing portrait of an electorate driven by an overwhelming but contradictory panorama of emotions, ranging from fear, hate and anger at one end to adoration and hope at the other. This is a valuable addition to our understanding of a time of tumultuous upheaval and change in India’s political landscape.’Harsh Mander, author and human rights activist -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Passionate politics in India today – Indrajit RoyPart I: Fear, love and fake news1 Ordinary conspiracy theories and everyday communalism: Hindutva on the Indian cyberspace – Amogh Dhar Sharma2 People-led campaigns in the 2019 general election: A case study of #Academics4NaMo – Swadesh SinghPart II: The emotive politics of Hindu nationalism3 Neoliberalism and cultural majoritarianism in India – Ajay Gudavarthy4 The BJP and the war on history – Shalini Sharma5 The passionate politics of the Savarna poor – Indrajit Roy6 Seeking humanist Hinduism: Education and new Gurukul coaching models of Hindutva– Suryakant WaghmorePart III: Love, hate and Kashmir7 The historical roots of conflict over/in Kashmir – Sarah Ansari8 This side of paradise: The rise, fall and decimation of regional politics in Kashmir – Shaswati Das9 The fear of Indian settler colonialism and the battle for Kashmir’s soul – Ather ZiaPart IV: Women, gender and love10 Love taboos: Hindus, Muslims and moral panics – Charu Gupta11 Why is romance political? – Sneha Krishnan Part V: What young Indians want12 In pursuit of Parivartan: Youth agency and the 2019 general election in Sikkim – Mabel Denzin Gergan and Charisma K. Lepcha 13 What do young people want from elections? – Sneha KrishnanPart VI: The economics of India’s passionate politics 14 Social oppression and exploitation of Adivasis and Dalits in contemporary India – Jens Lerche andAlpa Shah 15 Two large shocks and a long-term problem: The economic performance of the Modi government,2009–14 – Kunal Sen 16 Agrarian crisis, farmers’ protests and women’s assertion – Nitya Rao Part VII: India tomorrow17 The Modi government’s authoritarian project in India – James Manor 18 The 2019 elections and their implications for Muslim politics – Mujibur Rehman 19 Cementing emotions: The new reasoning of majoritarian politics – Gurpreet Mahajan Index

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Book SynopsisThe World and God Are Not-Two is a book about how the God in whom Christians believe ought to be understood. The key conceptual argument that runs throughout is that the distinctive relation between the world and God in Christian theology is best understood as a non-dualistic one. The “two”—“God” and “World” cannot be added up as separate, enumerable realities or contrasted with each other against some common background because God does not belong in any category and creatures are ontologically constituted by their relation to the Creator. In exploring the unique character of this distinctive relation, Soars turns to Sara Grant’s work on the Hindu tradition of Advaita Vedānta and the metaphysics of creation found in Thomas Aquinas. He develops Grant’s work and that of the earlier Calcutta School by drawing explicit attention to the Neoplatonic themes in Aquinas that provide some of the most fruitful areas for comparative engagement with Vedānta. To the Christian, the fact that the world exists only as dependent on God means that “world” and “God” must be ontologically distinct because God’s existence does not depend on the world. To the Advaitin, this simultaneously means that “World” and “God” cannot be ontologically separate either. The language of non-duality allows us to see that both positions can be held coherently together without entailing any contradiction or disagreement at the level of fundamental ontology. What it means to be “world” does not and cannot exclude what it means to be “God.”Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations and Conventions | ix Introduction | 1 1 The Distinctive Relation between Creature and Creator in Christian Theology: Non-dualism from David Burrell, CSC, to Sara Grant, RSCJ | 17 2 Roman Catholic Encounters with Advaita Vedānta: Between Transcendental Illusion and Radical Contingency | 40 3 The Relation between the World and God in Śaṁkara and Thomas: Sara Grant’s Case for a Form of Christian Non-dualism | 69 4 Creation: “Ex Nihilo” or “Ex Deo”? | 97 5 How Real Is the World? Being and Nothingness in Śaṁkara and Thomas | 129 Conclusion | 161 Acknowledgments | 173 Notes | 177 Bibliography | 221 Index | 231

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Book SynopsisThe World and God Are Not-Two is a book about how the God in whom Christians believe ought to be understood. The key conceptual argument that runs throughout is that the distinctive relation between the world and God in Christian theology is best understood as a non-dualistic one. The “two”—“God” and “World” cannot be added up as separate, enumerable realities or contrasted with each other against some common background because God does not belong in any category and creatures are ontologically constituted by their relation to the Creator. In exploring the unique character of this distinctive relation, Soars turns to Sara Grant’s work on the Hindu tradition of Advaita Vedānta and the metaphysics of creation found in Thomas Aquinas. He develops Grant’s work and that of the earlier Calcutta School by drawing explicit attention to the Neoplatonic themes in Aquinas that provide some of the most fruitful areas for comparative engagement with Vedānta. To the Christian, the fact that the world exists only as dependent on God means that “world” and “God” must be ontologically distinct because God’s existence does not depend on the world. To the Advaitin, this simultaneously means that “World” and “God” cannot be ontologically separate either. The language of non-duality allows us to see that both positions can be held coherently together without entailing any contradiction or disagreement at the level of fundamental ontology. What it means to be “world” does not and cannot exclude what it means to be “God.”Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations and Conventions | ix Introduction | 1 1 The Distinctive Relation between Creature and Creator in Christian Theology: Non-dualism from David Burrell, CSC, to Sara Grant, RSCJ | 17 2 Roman Catholic Encounters with Advaita Vedānta: Between Transcendental Illusion and Radical Contingency | 40 3 The Relation between the World and God in Śaṁkara and Thomas: Sara Grant’s Case for a Form of Christian Non-dualism | 69 4 Creation: “Ex Nihilo” or “Ex Deo”? | 97 5 How Real Is the World? Being and Nothingness in Śaṁkara and Thomas | 129 Conclusion | 161 Acknowledgments | 173 Notes | 177 Bibliography | 221 Index | 231

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Book SynopsisThe object of Hinduism and Buddhism: An Historical Sketch is to trace the history and development of religion in India and elsewhere with occasional remarks on its latest phases. This book is an attempt to give a sketch of Indian thought or Indian religion-for the two terms are nearly equivalent in extent-and of its history and influence in Asia.Table of ContentsPreface; Section 1: The Mahayana -- Main Features of the Mahayana; Bodhisattvas; The Buddhas of Mahayanism; Mahayanist Metaphysics; Mahayanist Scriptures; Chronology of the Mahayana; From Kanishka to Vasubandhu; Indian Buddhism as Seen by the Chinese Pilgrims; Decadence of Buddhism in India. Section II: Hinduism -- Śiva And Vishnu; Features of Hinduism: Ritual, Caste, Sect, Faith; The Evolution of Hinduism. Bhâgavatas And Pâśupatas; Śankara. Śivaism in Southern India. Kashmir. Llngâyats; Vishnuism in South India; Later Vishnuism in North India; Amalgamation of Hinduism And Islam. Kabir And the Sikhs; Śâktism; Hindu Philosophy; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe object of Hinduism and Buddhism: An Historical Sketch is to trace the history and development of religion in India and elsewhere with occasional remarks on its latest phases. This book is an attempt to give a sketch of Indian thought or Indian religion -- for the two terms are nearly equivalent in extent-and of its history and influence in Asia.Table of ContentsSection I: Buddhism Outside India -- Expansion of Indian Influence; Ceylon; Burma; Siam; Camboja; Champa; Java and the Malay Archipelago; Central Asia; China. Introductory; China (Continued). History; China (Continued). The Canon; China (Continued). Schools of Chinese Buddhism; China (Continued). Chinese Buddhism at the Present Day; Korea; Annam; Tibet: Introductory; Tibet (Continued): History; Tibet (Continued): The Canon; Tibet (Continued): Doctrines of Lamaism; Tibet (Continued): Sects; Japan. Section II: Mutual Influence of Eastern and Western Religions -- Influence of Christianity in India; Indian Influence in the Western World; Persian Influence in India; Mohammedanism in India; Index.

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Book SynopsisHinduism is the world’s third largest and most ancient religion. The scope of this book ranges from the ancient history of Hinduism to the contemporary issues that Hindus face today. It explores the Hindu history, society, philosophy, theology, and culture. In addition to Hinduism, this book also touches upon religious traditions with which Hindus have had extensive interaction, such as Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Hinduism contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1,000 cross-referenced entries on deities, historical figures, festivals, philosophical terms, ritual implements, and much more. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Hinduism.Table of ContentsSeries Editor’s Foreword Jon Woronoff Acknowledgements Reader’s Note List of Acronyms and Abbreviations Chronology Introduction Dictionary Appendix: A Guide to Hindu Sacred Literature Bibliography About the Author

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Book SynopsisThis is the first intellectual history of political Hinduism from its medieval origins to current-day India. It provides the ideological context of India’s rise economically and politically in the world in the last decade, illustrating not only where political Hinduism comes from, but more importantly, where it seeks to go. It provides an intellectual framework not only to understand the rise of Narendra Modi and his politics in the world’s largest democracy, but also India’s political, economic, and diplomatic choices as it negotiates its space as a rapidly rising, billion-strong democracy in a fluid and precarious world order.

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Book SynopsisThe Kathasaritsagara is a combination of simultaneously innocent and sophisticated folk stories bringing forth both common sense and highly sophisticated Sanskrit writing. It paints a vivid picture of a most particular part of India at one moment in history, and yet it tells stories that are the Indian variants – often the Indian sources – of stories told around the world. Arisha Sattar’s translations bring these stories to life in a modern way, while retaining their ancient meanings.

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Book SynopsisRegarded in India as one of the most important books of the 20th century, Gandhi’s commentary on this classic Hindu text addresses the issues he felt most directly affected the spiritual lives of common people.   The Bhagavad Gita, also called The Song of the Lord, is a 700-line section of a much longer Sanskrit war epic, the Mahabharata, about the legendary conflict between two branches of an Indian ruling family. Framed as a conversation between Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and a general of one of the armies, the Gita is written in powerful poetic language meant to be chanted. Equally treasured as a guide to action, a devotional scripture, a philosophical text, and inspirational reading, it remains one of the world’s most influential, widely read spiritual books. The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi is based on talks given by Gandhi between February and November 1926 at the Satyagraha Ashram in Ahmedabad, India. During this time—a period when Gandhi had withdrawn from mass political activity—he devoted much of his time and energy to translating the Gita from Sanskrit into his native Gujarati. As a result, he met with his followers almost daily, after morning prayer sessions, to discuss the Gita’s contents and meaning as it unfolded before him. This book is the transcription of those daily sessions.

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Book SynopsisThis landmark work synthesises the insights of East and West. It includes unique analyses of Yoga and the Chakras as well as discussions of Eastern psycho-therepeutic methods. Of course the main difference between Jung''s psychology and Hindu thought is the understanding of psychological problems through dreams. Jung''s psychology leans heavily on dreams to understand the problems, and dreams have become a way to experience the whole realm of archetypes.

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Book SynopsisThis title presents a comparative approach to understanding the centrality of sound to Hindu religious practices. The Hindu world is permeated by sound: drums, bells, gongs, cymbals, conches, flutes, and an array of vocalizations play a central role in worship. Guy L. Beck contends that the traditional Western focus on Hinduism's visual component has often been at the expense of the religion's most important feature - its emphasis on sound. In ""Sonic Theology"", Beck addresses this longstanding imbalance, contending that Hinduism is essentially a sonic theology. Beck argues that sound participates at every level of the Hindu cosmos. Comparing the centrality of sound in Hindu theology to its place in other religions, Beck raises issues about sound and language that not only reshape our understanding of Hindu worship but also invite a fresh approach to comparative theology.Trade ReviewSonic Theology makes a significant contribution to the ongoing Western understanding of the audible or sonic dimension in Hinduism, and it also provides a welcome corrective in the academy by focusing on sacred sound.... Sonic Theology has not only tuned itself to the sonic experience in theology, it has struck a note that will reverberate for years to come. - History of Religion

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Book SynopsisToday’s foremost yoga researcher offers a clear and lively introduction to the history, philosophy, and practice of the Tantric spiritual tradition   Tantra—often associated with Kundalini Yoga—is a fundamental dimension of Hinduism, emphasizing the cultivation of “divine power” (shakti) as a path to infinite bliss. Tantra has been widely misunderstood in the West, however, where its practices are often confused with eroticism and licentious morality. Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy dispels many common misconceptions, providing an accessible introduction to the history, philosophy, and practice of this extraordinary spiritual tradition. The Tantric teachings are geared toward the attainment of enlightenment as well as spiritual power and are present not only in Hinduism but also Jainism and Vajrayana Buddhism. In this book, Georg Feuerstein offers readers a clear understanding of authentic Tantra, as well as appropriate guidance for spiritual practice and the attainment of higher consciousness.

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Book SynopsisThis anthology collects the most lyrical, passionate, illuminating writings of the Hindu mystical tradition. Andrew Harvey, the popular spiritual scholar and writer, has selected excerpts from ancient and contemporary sources, including extracts from the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and other classical Hindu texts; the words of such venerable spiritual teachers as Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi; and the devotional poetry of Mirabai, Ramprasad, and many others. The scope of this anthology makes it a marvelous introduction to Hindu mystical literature, while the power and beauty of the language will inspire those already familiar with the genre.

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