As a place to die, to dispose of the physical remains of the deceased and to perform the rites that ensure that the departed attains a "good state" after death, the north Indian city of Banaras attracts pilgrims and mourners from all over the Hindu world. This book is primarily about the priests and other kinds of "sacred specialists" who serve them, about the way in which they organize their business, and about their representations of death and understandings of the rituals over which they preside.

Since ancient times, Hindus have expressed their love and devotion to their deities through beautiful ornamentation dressing and decorating the deities with elaborate clothing, jewelry, and flowers. In this pioneering study of temples in Vrindaban and Jaipur, India, Cynthia Packert takes readers across temple thresholds and into the god Krishna s sacred domain. She describes what devotees see when they behold gorgeously attired representations of the god and why these images look the way they do. She discusses new media as well as global forms of devotion popular in India and abroad. The Art of Loving Krishna opens a universe of meaning in which art, religious action, and devotion are dynamically intertwined."

The first book to analyze why India's caste system has authoritatively endured for so long, this path-breaking text provides, for the first time anywhere, an exhaustive analysis of the historical predecessor to caste: the ancient Indian varna system as it was laid out in the Vedic literature. Presenting a revisionist overview of the way the religion of the Veda is to be understood, Classifying the Universe demonstrates that social classes were systematically reduplicated in taxonomies that organized the universe as a whole. The classification of society, in which some groups were accorded rights and privileges withheld from others, could thus be represented as part of a primordial and universally applicable order of things. Social hierarchy, argues the author, was in this way subtly but powerfully justified by recourse to other realms of the cosmos that were similarly ordered, and this essentially religious understanding of varna is the key to comprehending the Vedic world-view in all its complexity, and the persistence of its power in the social realm.

A short reading for every day. Spurgeon wrote this selection of readings to encourage believers to enter into the full provision that their relationship to Jesus entitled them to realise, on a daily basis. He explains we have to present the promises of Scripture to God in prayer and faith, anticipating that he will honour what he has said. Beautiful volume in burgundy leather.

Excerpts from the book: In this course of lessons, we shall take up the subject of "Gnani Yoga"-the Yoga of Wisdom, and will endeavor to make plain some of its most important and highest teachings. And, we trust that in so doing, we shall be able to awaken in you a still higher realization of your relationship with the One, and a corresponding Love for that in which you live, and move and have your being. We ask for your loving sympathy and cooperation in our task.

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'I have heard the supreme mystery, yoga, from Krishna, from the lord of yoga himself.' Thus ends the Bhagavad Gita, the most famous episode from the great Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata. In its eighteen short chapters Krishna's teaching leads the warrior Arjuna from perplexity to understanding and correct action, in the process raising and developing many key themes from the history of Indian religions. The Bhagavad Gita is the best known and most widely read Hindu religious text in the Western world. It considers social and religious duty, the nature of sacrifice, the nature of action, the means to liberation, and the relationship of human beings to God. It culminates in an awe-inspiring vision of Krishna as God omnipotent, disposer and destroyer of the universe. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Few people are aware of the true power of breath. They take it for granted despite the fact that it is the most essential function for life. This book may allow one, for the first time, to truly understand this power and what it can do. A power can be generated by the breath that is known in various cultures as prana, chi, vital force, orgone, or a host of other names. Through extended practice amazing things can be performed that would otherwise be unheard of including inhibiting pain, self-healing, healing others, controlling blood flow to areas needing energy, recharging yourself, recharging others, charging water before drinking it, psychic protection, projecting thoughts, transmuting energy, controlling emotions, stimulating the brain, and much more. This powerful book reveals numerous exercises that will amaze and invigorate the reader.

This is the second volume of a translation of India's most beloved and influential epic saga, the monumental R?m?ya?a of V?lm?ki. Of the seven sections of this great Sanskrit masterpiece, the Ayodhyak???a is the most human, and it remains one of the best introductions to the social and political values of traditional India. This readable translation is accompanied by commentary that elucidates the various problems of the text--philological, aesthetic, and cultural. The annotations make extensive use of the numerous commentaries on the R?m?ya?a composed in medieval India. The substantial introduction supplies a historical context for the poem and a critical reading that explores its literary and ideological components.

This work contains almost everything written by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, his inspired compositions, and a number of translations from ancient Advaitic texts, representing the essence of his teachings. They fall into two categories-those which exemplify the path of surrender through love and devotion to the Divine, and those which are more doctrinal. The first group included the Five Hymns to Sri Arunachala, of which the first poem, The Marital Garland of Letters, "is among the most profound and moving poems in any language" and expressses the attitude of the soul aspiring for union with God. Sri Bhagavan has affirmed that seekers who study these works are certain to attain the Bliss of Liberation.

Tantric traditions in both Buddhism and Hinduism are thriving throughout Asia and in Asian diasporic communities around the world, yet they have been largely ignored by Western scholars until now. This collection of original essays fills this gap by examining the ways in which Tantric Buddhist traditions have changed over time and distance as they have spread across cultural boundaries in Asia. The book is divided into three sections dedicated to South Asia, Central Asia, and East and Southeast Asia. The essays cover such topics as the changing ideal of masculinity in Buddhist literature, the controversy triggered by the transmission of the Indian Buddhist deity Heruka to Tibet in the 10th century, and the evolution of a Chinese Buddhist Tantric tradition in the form of the True Buddha School. The book as a whole addresses complex and contested categories in the field of religious studies, including the concept of syncretism and the various ways that the change and transformation of religious traditions can be described and articulated. The authors, leading scholars in Tantric studies, draw on a wide array of methodologies from the fields of history, anthropology, art history, and sociology. Tantric Traditions in Transmission and Translation is groundbreaking in its attempt to look past religious, linguistic, and cultural boundaries.

To many outside India, Hinduism is envisioned as the foundation of an ideal, all-embracing society. Yet this is far from the truth. Though historically the practice of Hinduism does promote the idea of an inclusive and tolerant way of life, in the past decade Hindu extremists have captured the religion and perverted it to their own ideological ends. In "The Hindu Case, "Indian journalist""Salil Tripathi meticulously documents how Hindu fundamentalists have succeeded in censoring and banning many cultural works, tampered with university teaching, and prevented academics from continuing in their jobs. In addition, Tripathi shows that these extremists are in the process of rewriting the ancient Hindu scriptures. This title in the Manifestos for the 21st Century Series, published in collaboration with the "Index on Censorship," the only international magazine dedicated to promoting and protecting free expression, focuses on the rights, tolerance, censorship, and dissent within India's complex society, and it is an essential read for those interested in the struggle between religious fundamentalism and free expression.""

The Vaikhanasas are mentioned in many Vedic texts, and they maintain a close affiliation with the Taittiriya school of the Krsna Yajur Veda. Yet they are Vaisnavas, monotheistic worshipers of Visnu. Generally, Vaisnavism is held to be a post-Vedic development. Thus, the Vaikhanasas bridge two key ages in the history of South Asian religion. This text contains many quotations from ancient Vedic literature, and probably some other older original material, as well as architectural and iconographical data of the later first millennium CE. The Vaikhanasas remain relevant today. They are the chief priests (arcakas) in more than half of the Visnu temples in the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka-including the renowned Hindu pilgrimage center Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

1927. Contents: The Seven Schools of Yoga; The Yoga of Will and Freedom of Patanjali; The Yoga of Love and Union of Shri Krishna, the King; The Yoga of Thought and Understanding of Shri Shankara; and Practical Concentration and Meditation. See other works available by this author from Kessinger Publishing.

Whether we're concerned about our relationships, career, or spiritual growth, or are faced with a seemingly insolvable problem, intuition is one of the most effective ways to overcome the challenge before us. Sri Daya Mata shares the invaluable wisdom she received from Paramahansa Yogananda on this important faced of the spiritual life, covering all aspects of developing intuition the soul's direct perception of Truth.

Religious texts are not stable objects, passed down unchanged through generations. The way in which religious communities receive their scriptures changes over time and in different social contexts. This book considers religious reading through a study of the Pushtimarg, a Hindu community whose devotional practices and community identity have developed in close relationship with Varta Sahitya (Chronicle Literature), a genre of Hindi prose hagiography written during the 17th century. Through hagiographies that narrate the relationships between the deity Krishna and the Pushtimarg's early leaders and their disciples, these hagiographies provide community history, theology, vicarious epiphany, and models of devotion. While steeped in the social world of early-modern north India, these texts have continued to be immensely popular among generations of modern devotees, whose techniques of reading and exegesis allow them to maintain the narratives as primary guides for devotional living in Gujarat-the western state of India where the Pushtimarg thrives today. Combining ethnographic fieldwork with close readings of Hindi and Gujarati texts, the book examines how members of the community engage with the hagiographies through recitation and dialogue in temples and homes, through commentary and translation in print publications and on the Internet, and even through debates in courts of law. The book argues that these acts of "reading" inform and are informed by both intimate negotiations of the family and the self, and also by politically potent disputes over matters such as temple governance. By studying the texts themselves, as well as the social contexts of their reading, Religious Reading and Everyday Lives in Devotional Hinduism provides a distinct example of how changing class, regional, and gender identities continue to shape interpretations of a scriptural canon, and how, in turn, these interpretations influence ongoing projects of self and community fashioning.