Jayadeva's dramatic lyrical poem "Gitagovinda" is one of the most important works in Indian literature and a source of religious inspiration in both medieval and contemporary Vaishnavism. Revealing an intense earthly passion to express the complexities of divine and human love, its songs are an important part of Indian devotional music and literature.

The twentith anniversary edition of the renowned translation by noted scholar Barbara Stoler MIller brings this classic to a new generation of readers and offers fresh insights for those familiar with the text.

The relevance of this book is enhanced rather than diminished by the years since its original publication. The human situation has become even more critical. We are moving from a period of industrial plundering of the planet into a more intimate way of relating to the planet. We can no longer violate the integrity of Earth without becoming a destructive force for both the surrounding world and for ourselves.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

We'll Find the Place tells the fascinating story of the Mormons' exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, to their New Zion in the West - a story of a people's deliverance that has never before been completely told.Following the journey of the original pioneer camp of 1847 to the Salt Lake Valley and concluding with the first conference of the church there in 1848, Richard E. Bennett shows the inner workings of the Mormon exodus by probing the minds and hearts of those who suffered and triumphed through this remarkably difficult hour in Latter-day Saint history. A work many years in the making, We'll Find the Place looks behind the scenes to reveal Mormonism on the move, its believers sacrificing home, comfort, and sometimes life itself as they sought a safe refuge beyond the Rocky Mountains. It is faithful both to the convictions of the early pioneers and to the records they kept.

This volume in The New Cambridge History of India looks at the numerous nineteenth-century movements for social and religious change--Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and Zoroastrian--that used various forms of religious authority to legitimize their reform programs. Such movements were both indigenous and colonial in their origins, and the author shows how each adapted to the challenge of competing nationalisms as political circumstances changed. The volume considers the overall impact of British rule on the whole sphere of religion, social behavior, and culture.

Collected here in one edition are two of the most important books on the Samurai Way, Bushido: The Soul of Japan and The Book of Five Rings. Bushido: Chivalry is a flower no less indigenous to the soil of Japan than its emblem, the cherry blossom; nor is it a dried-up specimen of an antique virtue preserved in the herbarium of our history. It is still a living object of power and beauty among us. The Book of Five Rings: There are various Ways. There is the Way of salvation by the law of Buddha, the Way of Confucius governing the Way of learning, the Way of healing as a doctor, as a poet teaching the Way of Waka, tea, archery, and many arts and skills. Generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.

1900. The Sacred Books of the East series, comprising fifty volumes, has translations of key sacred texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Islam. The series was edited by the famous linguist Max Muller, who also produced many of the translations and were the foundational documents for the new discipline known as the comparative science of religions. This volume contains the First and Second Kanda. According to the text of the Madhyandina School. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Anthropologist David Jordan and Daniel Overmyer, a historian of religions, present a joint analysis of the most important group of sectarian religious societies in contemporary Taiwan: those that engage in automatic writing seances, or worship by means of the phoenix" writing implement.

Originally published in 1986.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In the spiritual language of the 20th century few names raise such varied reactions as that of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1866-1949). Much of what is considered New Age spirituality can be attributed to Gurdjieff. This book is a tribute not only to the scope and power of Gurdjieff's ideas, but to the special "atmosphere" that surrounded his work with pupils.

On February 3, 1913, the first General Meeting of the newly formed Anthroposophical Society was convened in Berlin. Six weeks later, in Holland, Rudolf Steiner spoke for the first time to an anthroposophical audience in a detailed, intimate way of the esoteric schooling of the individual human being in earthly life. Hence the fundamental importance of these lectures for anthroposophical inner development. Steiner deals here with the subtle effects of spiritual development at every level of the human being. Beginning with straightforward questions relating to the body's experience of foodstuff - meat, coffee, alcohol, and so forth - he unfolds the universe of anthroposophical spiritual striving until it includes direct perception of Paradise and the Holy Grail, as well as the role of the human being as evolving between the forces of Lucifer and Ahriman. This edition also includes as a prologue Steiner's crucial lecture on "The Being of Anthroposophy," which has never before appeared in English. In this, Steiner says: Sophia will become objective again, but she will take with her what humanity is, and objectively present herself in this form. Thus, she will present herself not only as Sophia, but as Anthroposophia - as the Sophia who, after passing through the human soul, through the very being of the human being, henceforth bears that being within her, and in this form she will confront enlightened human beings as the objective being Sophia who once stood before the Greeks.

This book fills a long-standing need in literature: Voodoo, Santeria, and Macumba as practised today in cities throughout the Western world. It is not another history or sociological study, but a candid personal account by two who came to "the religion" from the outside. It includes descriptions of the phenomena triggered by Voodoo practice, divination techniques, spells and a method of self-initiation.

Five volumes (Volume 5, 18, 24, 32 and 47) of the series on the 'Sacred Books of the East' have been devoted to study the Pahlavi texts. Easch volume covers a specific aspect of it and is a sequel to the previous one.;Though we must look to the Avesta for information regarding the main outline of the Parsi religion, it is to Pahlavi writings we refer for most of the details relating to the traditions, ceremonies and customs. To understand the relationship between these two classes of Parsi sacred writings, it must be observed that the Avesta and Pahlavi of the same scripture, taken together, forms its Avesta and Zend which are nearly synonymous with 'Revelation and Commentary'.

The experience of the divine in India has three components, sight, performance, and sound. One in a trilogy of books that include Diana Eck's "Darsan: Seeing the Divine in India, " and Susan L. Schwartz's "Rasa: Performing the Divine in India, Mantra" presents an introduction to the use of sound -- mantra -- in the practice of Indian religion.

Mantra -- in the form of prayers, rituals, and chants -- permeate the practice of Indian religion in both temple and home settings. This book investigates the power of mantra to transform consciousness. It examines the use and theory of mantra under various religious schools, such as the Patanjali sutras and tantra, and includes references to Hindu, Sikh, Sufi, Islam, and Buddhist traditions. This edition adds new sections on the use of sacred sound in Hindu and Sikh North American diaspora communities and on the North American non-Indian practice of yoga and mantra.

In Faith and Politics in the Public Sphere, Ugur explores the politics of religious engagement in the public sphere by comparing two modernist conservative movements: the Mormon Church in the United States and the Gulen movement in Turkey. The book traces the public activities and activism of these two influential and controversial actors at the state, political society, and civil society domains, discerning their divergent strategies and positioning on public matters, including moral issues, religious freedoms, democracy, patriotism, education, social justice, and immigration. Despite being strikingly similar in their strong fellowship ties, emphasis on conservative social values, and their doctrines concerning political neutrality, these two religious entities have employed different political strategies to promote their goals of survival, growth, and the collective interests of their communities. In contrast to the Mormon Church's more assertive approach and emphasis on its autonomy and distinctiveness, the Gulen movement has been rather cautious with its engagement in the public sphere, with preference for coalition building and ambiguity. To explain such different strategies, Ugur examines how the liberal and republican models of the public sphere have shaped the norms and practices of public activism for religious groups in Turkey and the United States. Ugur's deft and nuanced exploration of these movements' adaptation and engagement is essential to help us better understand the dynamic role of religious involvement in the public sphere.

This volume contains Rudolf Steiner''s leadin g thoughts and letters written for the Anthroposophical Soci ety. In brief paragraphs they succinctly present Steiner''s s cience of the spirit '

The official journal of the Brigham Young pioneer company is made available for the first time in this book. The arrival of Latter-day Saints in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake is one of the major events in the history of the LDS church and the West. Thomas Bullock, the author of this account, was the official journal keeper of that party of pioneers.Bullock was the "Clerk of the Camp of Israel," an English scribe who is perhaps more responsible than any other person for the vast documentary record of the LDS church in the the mid-nineteenth century. Though he wrote thousands of pages ultimately released under other men's names, he remains a relatively obscure figure in Western History. An intensely personal document, Bullock's account rises above its status as the "official" journal. He shares his doubts, his complaints, his personal assessments of his fellow travelers throughout the pages of the journal. This remarkable record presents in detail the daily reality of a journey that has become an American legend. From Nauvoo to Salt Lake and back to the Missouri River, Bullock's journals from September 1846 to October 1847 paint a colorful and personal picture of both the Mormon Trail and the suffering of the poverty-stricken Saints during their struggle across Iowa in 1846. They tell the legendary tale of Brigham Young's pioneer company-the beginning of a great exodus across the Plains and Rockies to the Great Basin Kingdom. Life at Winter Quarters, the renowned "miracle of the Quail" at the Poor Camp on the Mississippi River, detailed accounts of buffalo hunts, dances and celebrations, and other trail events are recorded. Jim Bridger's famous meeting with Brigham Young and other leaders of the pioneer party was described in detail by Bullock. Bridger's comments on the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, the Indians, agriculture and the West in general show the breadth of knowledge of mountain men like Bridger. The interview also gives evidence of the unanswered questions still plaguing the Saints as they neared their destination. With maps, illustrations, bibliography and index, this work is a major contribution to the history of overland migration, the LDS church, and the wider West. The book provides insight into the impressions of a devout European immigrant of the great American West. An appendix containing biographical data on Mormon pioneers is included.

This study was defended as a dissertation in Groningen (1998). The first monograph in the series, it studies the Acts of John in its second-century context and sheds new light on the text, which was probably written in Asia Minor before the year 150 AD. Lalleman shows that both the Gnostic and the non-Gnostic sections of the Acts of John owe much more to the canonical books of the New Testament than has been assumed. The enigma of the Gnostic section is solved by the discovery that it forms the second stage of initiation into a Gnostic form of Christianity. Read in this way, both sections of the Acts of John turn out to be important steps on the trajectory from the Fourth Gospel to Gnosticism. Penetrating investigations of the Christology and the attitude towards asceticism in the Acts of John complete the book (Peeters 1998)

Yoga, tantra and other forms of Asian meditation are practised in modernized forms throughout the world today, but most introductions to Hinduism or Buddhism tell only part of the story of how they developed. This book is an interpretation of the history of Indic religions up to around 1200 CE, with particular focus on the development of yogic and tantric traditions. It assesses how much we really know about this period, and asks what sense we can make of the evolution of yogic and tantric practices, which were to become such central and important features of the Indic religious scene. Its originality lies in seeking to understand these traditions in terms of the total social and religious context of South Asian society during this period, including the religious practices of the general population with their close engagement with family, gender, economic life and other pragmatic concerns.