The philosophy of Yoga tells us that the root cause of our sorrows and suffering is loss of contact with our true Self. Our recovery is only possible by reestablishing contact with our innermost Self, the Reality of all realities, and by recognizing that knowledge of Self is our salvation. In this comprehensive guide, Swami Adiswarananda introduces the overall philosophy of Yoga and then delves deeply into each path: ? Karma-Yoga: the path of selfless action, for the active ? Bhakti-Yoga: the path of divine love, for the emotional ? Raja-Yoga: the path of meditation, for the contemplative ? Jnana-Yoga: the path of knowledge, for the rational Covering the message and practice of each of the yogas as well as philosophy and psychology, preparatory practices, common obstacles and ways to overcome them, this accessible book will prove invaluable to anyone wishing to follow a yoga practice in order to realize the goal of Self-knowledge.

About Carole Satyamurti's translation "Carole Satyamurti's version of the Mahabharata moves swiftly and powerfully. She has found a voice that's capable of a wide variety of expression, and a line--basically classical English blank verse with a jazz-like freedom to swing--that propels the reader effortlessly onward through the cosmic, terrifying, erotic, sublime events of this extraordinary work. I think I shall never get tired of it." --PHILIP PULLMAN, author of The Golden Compass

In analyzing the parallels between myths glorifying the Indian Great Goddess, Durga, and those glorifying the Sun, Surya, found in the Marka??eya Pura?a, this book argues for an ideological ecosystem at work in the Marka??eya Pura?a privileging worldly values, of which Indian kings, the Goddess (Devi), the Sun (Surya), Manu and Marka??eya himself are paragons. This book features a salient discovery in Sanskrit narrative text: just as the Marka??eya Pura?a houses the Devi Mahatmya glorifying the supremacy of the Indian Great Goddess, Durga, it also houses a Surya Mahatmya, glorifying the supremacy of the Sun, Surya, in much the same manner. This book argues that these mahatmyas were meaningfully and purposefully positioned in the Marka??eya Pura?a, while previous scholarship has considered this haphazard interpolation for sectarian aims. The book demonstrates that deliberate compositional strategies make up the Saura-Sakta symbiosis found in these mirrored mahatmyas. Moreover, the author explores what he calls the "dharmic double helix" of Brahmanism, most explicitly articulated by the structural opposition between prav?tti (worldly) and niv?tti (other-worldy) dharmas. As the first narrative study of the Surya Mahatmya, along with the first study of the Marka??eya Pura?a (or any Pura?a), as a narrative whole, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Religion, Hindu Studies, South Asian Studies, Goddess Studies, Narrative Theory and Comparative Mythology.

Diversity is a buzzword of our times and yet the extent of religious diversity in Western societies is generally misconceived. This ground-breaking research draws attention to the journey of one migrant religious institution in an era of religious superdiversity. Based on a sociolinguistic ethnography in a Tamil Saivite temple in Australia, the book explores the challenges for the institution in maintaining its linguistic and cultural identity in a new context. The temple is faced with catering for devotees of diverse ethnicities, languages, and religious interpretations; not to mention divergent views between different generations of migrants who share ethnicity and language. At the same time, core members of the temple seek to continue religious and cultural practices according to the traditions of their homelands in Sri Lanka, a country where their identity and language has been under threat. The study offers a rich picture of changing language practices in a diasporic religious institution. Perera inspects language ideology considerations in the design of institutional language policy and how such policy manifests in language use in the temple spaces. This includes the temple's Sunday school where heritage language and religion interplay in second-generation migrant adolescents' identifications and discourse.

1) The book critically analyses questions of gender and sexuality in the medieval religious texts of Bengal. 2) It contains rich archival resources to understand the projection of the goddess in the text. 3) This book will be of interest to departments of South Asian studies across UK.

This book is the first in-depth study of the Saiva oeuvre of the celebrated polymath Appaya Diksita (1520-1593). Jonathan Duquette documents the rise to prominence and scholarly reception of Sivadvaita Vedanta, a Sanskrit-language school of philosophical theology which Appaya single-handedly established, thus securing his reputation as a legendary advocate of Saiva religion in early modern India. Based to a large extent on hitherto unstudied primary sources in Sanskrit, Duquette offers new insights on Appaya's early polemical works and main source of Sivadvaita exegesis, Srikantha's Brahmamimamsabhasya; identifies Appaya's key intellectual influences and opponents in his reconstruction of Srikantha's theology; and highlights some of the key arguments and strategies he used to make his ambitious project a success. Centred on his magnum opus of Sivadvaita Vedanta, the Sivarkamanidipika, this book demonstrates that Appaya's Saiva oeuvre was mainly directed against Visistadvaita Vedanta, the dominant Vaisnava school of philosophical theology in his time and place. A far-reaching study of the challenges of Indian theism, this book opens up new possibilities for our understanding of religious debates and polemics in early modern India as seen through the lenses of one of its most important intellectuals.

This book analyzes the contemporary global revival of Nondual Saivism, a thousand-year-old medieval Hindu religious philosophy. Providing a historical overview of the seminal people and groups responsible for the revival, the book compares the tradition's medieval Indian origins to modern forms, which are situated within distinctively contemporary religious, economic and technological contexts. The author bridges the current gap in the literature between "insider" (emic) and "outsider" (etic) perspectives by examining modern Nondual Saivism from multiple standpoints as both a critical scholar of religion and an empathetic participant-observer. The book explores modern Nondual Saivism in relation to recent scholarly debates concerning the legitimacy of New Age consumptive spirituality, the global spiritual marketplace and the contemporary culture of narcissism. It also analyzes the dark side of the revived tradition, and investigates contemporary teachers accused of sexual abuse and illegal financial activities in relation to unique features of Nondual Saivism's theosophy and modern scholarship on new religious movements (NRMs) and cults. This book shows that, although Kashmir Saivism has been adopted by certain teachers and groups to market their own brand of "High Tantra," some contemporary practitioners have remained true to the system's fundamental tenets and teach authentic (albeit modern) forms of Nondual Saivism. This book will be of interest to academics in the fields of religion and Asian philosophies, especially South Asian, tantric, neo-tantric and yoga philosophies, alternative and New Age spiritualities, religion and consumerism, and NRMs and cults. Winner of the inaugural 2021 New Zealand Asia Society Book Award, second prize.

The demolition of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 was an event as significant as it was unexpected. In this book, nine scholars (Theodore P. Wright, Jr., John J. Carroll, Matthew A. Cook, Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi, Subhas C. Kashyap, Steven A. Hoffman, Srinivas Tilak, Koenraad Elst, and Vasudha Narayanan) explore the myriad significances of this event for the Hindu and Muslim communities, and for the relations between them, in India.

An examination of the contemporary practices, beliefs, and issues of one of the world's oldest and most enduring religions, both within its Indian homeland and throughout the world. Contemporary Hinduism: Ritual, Culture, and Practice illuminates the modern-day ritual, range, and reach of this ancient and diverse religion. A brief historical overview is followed by discussions of the oral and written origins of Hinduism that give context for the main emphasis-contemporary thought, practice, and key issues. Unique to this work is the consistent attention given to the practice of Hinduism for both men and women. What roles do caste and gender play in modern Hinduism? How are issues like ethics and the environment approached? What are the differences between urban and rural Hinduism, fundamental and secular Hinduism? To what countries has this religion spread, and how do the beliefs and practices of their people compare and contrast? Essays written by Indian and Western scholars answer these and other intriguing questions, introducing readers to the whole world of "living Hinduism" rather than the perspectives and traditions of a small elite. Ten essays explore the history, modern practice, and contemporary issues of Hinduism Maps including ancient and contemporary India and the Hindu diaspora, as well as illustrations within individual essays The book includes a glossary of terms and a guide to pronouncing words from Indian languages A comprehensive introductory essay provides a basic historical overview and addresses the development of the definition and study of Hinduism

The Routledge International Handbook of Charisma provides an unprecedented multidimensional and multidisciplinary comparative analysis of the phenomenon of charisma - first defined by Max Weber as the irrational bond between deified leader and submissive follower. It includes broad overviews of foundational theories and experiences of charisma and of associated key issues and themes. Contributors include 45 influential international scholars who approach the topic from different disciplinary perspectives and utilize examples from an array of historical and cultural settings. The Handbook presents up-to-date, concise, thought-provoking, innovative, and informative perspectives on charisma as it has been expressed in the past and as it continues to be manifested in the contemporary world by leaders ranging from shamans to presidents. It is designed to be essential reading for all students, researchers, and general readers interested in achieving a comprehensive understanding of the power and potential of charismatic authority in all its varieties, subtleties, dynamics, and current and potential directions.

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.

Ideal for anyone with an interest in Hindu temple dance, Manipur dance, cross-cultural collaborations, and the globalising of Indian Classical Dance Comprehensive study of how an exceptional Hindu dance form developed on the global stage. Provides insight into the globalisation of Manipuri dance

The Mahabharata has been explored extensively as a work of mythology, epic poetry, and religious literature, but the text's philosophical dimensions have largely been under-appreciated by Western scholars. This book explores the philosophical implications of the Mahabharata by paying attention to the centrality of dialogue, both as the text's prevailing literary expression and its organising structure. Focusing on five sets of dialogues about controversial moral problems in the central story, this book shows that philosophical deliberation is an integral part of the narrative. Black argues that by paying attention to how characters make arguments and how dialogues unfold, we can better appreciate the Mahabharata's philosophical significance and its potential contribution to debates in comparative philosophy today. This is a fresh perspective on the Mahabharata that will be of great interest to any scholar working in religious studies, Indian/South Asian religions, comparative philosophy, and world literature.

With a focus on Asian traditions, this book examines varieties of thought and self-transformative practice that do not fit neatly on one side or another of the standard Western division between philosophy and religion. It contains chapters by experts on Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, Hindu and Jain philosophies, as well as ancient Greek philosophy and recent contemplative and spiritual movements. The volume also problematizes the notion of a Western philosophical canon distinguished by rationality in contrast to a religious Eastern "other". These original essays creatively lay the groundwork needed to rethink dominant historical and conceptual categories from a wider perspective to arrive at a deeper, more plural and global understanding of the diverse nature of both philosophy and religion. The volume will be of keen interest to scholars and students in the Philosophy of Religion, Asian and Comparative Philosophy and Religious Studies.

This book examines the current use of digital media in religious engagement and how new media can influence and alter faith and spirituality. As technologies are introduced and improved, they continue to raise pressing questions about the impact, both positive and negative, that they have on the lives of those that use them. The book also deals with some of the more futuristic and speculative topics related to transhumanism and digitalization. Including an international group of contributors from a variety of disciplines, chapters address the intersection of religion and digital media from multiple perspectives. Divided into two sections, the chapters included in the first section of the book present case studies from five major religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism and their engagement with digitalization. The second section of the volume explores the moral, ideological but also ontological implications of our increasingly digital lives. This book provides a uniquely comprehensive overview of the development of religion and spirituality in the digital age. As such, it will be of keen interest to scholars of Digital Religion, Religion and Media, Religion and Sociology, as well as Religious Studies and New Media more generally, but also for every student interested in the future of religion and spirituality in a completely digitalized world.

This textbook not only provides a historical overview of this religious tradition but also focuses on Hinduism in American society today. Making this a very comprehensive overview of the subject areas. Each chapter includes a helpful pedagogy including a general overview, case studies, suggestions for further reading, questions for discussion, and a glossary. Making this the ideal textbook for students approaching the topic for the first time. The use of case studies and first person narratives provides a much needed 'lived religion' approach to the subject area. Helping students to apply their learning to the world around them.

Ratified by the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1993 and expanded in 2018, "Towards a Global Ethic (An Initial Declaration)," or the Global Ethic, expresses the minimal set of principles shared by people-religious or not. Though it is a secular document, the Global Ethic emerged after months of collaborative, interreligious dialogue dedicated to identifying a common ethical framework. This volume tests and contests the claim that the Global Ethic's ethical directives can be found in the world's religious, spiritual, and cultural traditions. The book features essays by scholars of religion who grapple with the practical implications of the Global Ethic's directives when applied to issues like women's rights, displaced peoples, income and wealth inequality, India's caste system, and more. The scholars explore their respective religious traditions' ethical response to one or more of these issues and compares them to the ethical response elaborated by the Global Ethic. The traditions included are Hinduism, Engaged Buddhism, Shi'i Islam, Sunni Islam, Confucianism, Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Indigenous African Religions, and Human Rights. To highlight the complexities within traditions, most essays are followed by a brief response by an expert in the same tradition. Multi-Religious Perspectives on a Global Ethic is of special interest to advanced students and scholars whose work focuses on the religious traditions listed above, on comparative religion, religious ethics, comparative ethics, and common morality.

This book explores the ways in which modern Hindu identities were constructed in the early nineteenth century. It draws parallels between sixteenth and eventeenth Cecntury Protestantism and the rise of modernity in the West, and the Hindu reformation in the nineteenth century which contributed to the rise of Vedantic Hindu modernity discourse in India. The nineteenth century Hindu modernity, it is argued, sought both individual flourishing and collective emancipation from Western domination. For the first time Hinduism began to be constructed as a religion of sacred texts. In particular, texts belonging to what could be loosely called Vedanta: Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. In this way, the main protagonists of this Vedantist modernity were imitating Western Protestantism, but at the same time also inventing totally novel interpretations of what it meant to be Hindu. The book traces the major ideological paths taken in this cultural-religious reformation from its originator Rammohun Roy up to its last major influence, Rabindranath Tagore. Bringing these two versions of modernity into conversation brings a unique view on the formation of modern Hindu identities. It will, therefore, be of great interest to scholars of religious, Hindu and South Asian studies, as well as religious istory and interreligious dialogue.

This textbook not only provides a historical overview of this religious tradition but also focuses on Hinduism in American society today. Making this a very comprehensive overview of the subject areas. Each chapter includes a helpful pedagogy including a general overview, case studies, suggestions for further reading, questions for discussion, and a glossary. Making this the ideal textbook for students approaching the topic for the first time. The use of case studies and first person narratives provides a much needed 'lived religion' approach to the subject area. Helping students to apply their learning to the world around them.

In Kali in Bengali Lives, Suchitra Samanta examines Bengalis' personal narratives of Kali devotion in the Bhakti tradition. These personal experiences, including miraculous encounters, reflect on broader understandings of divine power. Where the revelatory experience has long been validated in Indian epistemology, the devotees' own interpretive framework provides continuity within a paradigm of devotion and of the miraculous experience as intuitive insight (anubhuti) into a larger truth. Through these unique insights, the miraculous experience is felt in its emotional power, remembered, and reflected upon. The narratives speak to how the meaning of a religious figure, Kali, becomes personally significant and ultimately transformative of the devotee's self.

Jewel of Reflection on the Truth about Epistemology is here translated and explained in an invaluable contribution to the history of knowledge, making available in English the very best within the traditions of philosophical speculation and argument in India and Sanskrit over more than twenty centuries. The "Jewel" distills the best arguments and most important positions of the past and provides the dominant focus for later philosophic reflection. The achievement of a great 14th-century logician, Gangesa Upadhyaya ("Professor Gangesa"), the Tattva-cinta-mani is a masterpiece of world philosophy, impacting in classical India not only philosophy but also literary criticism, jurisprudence, and medical theory for centuries. Among scholars, it is commonly counted-with perhaps one or two Buddhist treatises and one or two in Vedanta-among the top four or five philosophic works in the whole long history of classical Indian civilization (from 500 bce to the modern period). This three-volume edition of the work marks the first time time it has been translated into English in its entirety. Becoming the focal point of the long-running Nyaya school and canonized in Sanskrit literature, it is famed, across many schools of philosophy, for cogency of argument and consistency of analysis. Focused on four "knowledge sources" recognized in Nyaya, the text covers the epistemology of perception, inference, analogy and testimony in four chapters. In this landmark translation, Stephen Phillips provides an English-speaking audience all four parts with readable translations and running commentary. He contextualizes, analyzes and translates the text into understandable prose targeting especially those working in analytic philosophy but also anyone unfamiliar with Nyaya who may want to see and make use of its findings now accessible as never before.

This book focuses on dual belonging within Hindu-Christian contexts. Written by experts in a variety of fields, the chapters explore the theological, philosophical, and cultural anthropological debates relating to religious pluralism, religious language, and social identity while addressing the fact that both Hindu and Christian forms of self-understandings have been significantly moulded through their interactions in South Asia and across certain Euro-American horizons. The limits of the definition of dual belonging are tested via case studies, and contributors address the question of whether there is anything distinctive about dual belonging across Christianity and Hinduism specifically. A timely contribution to the emerging subject of dual religious belonging, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Hindu studies and Christian theology, Hindu-Christian comparative theology, religious pluralism, interreligious relations, the sociology and anthropology of religion, and comparative theology and philosophy.

In a supposedly 'global age,' which not everyone accepts, the late Dr Jennifer Crawford has brought together a range of disciplines in her creation of a unified, sensitive 'way of knowing' for the global era. Drawing upon her academic and lived experience in philosophy, environmental science, social work and feminism, together with a deep spiritual commitment, Jennifer Crawford has deftly woven together complex ideas in her reconceptualisation of global justice. Spiritually-Engaged Knowledge: The Attentive Heart is framed within the author's troubling encounters in India recounted in the Prologue and Epilogue. These transformative experiences inspired her multi-disciplinary exploration of justice, which took her beyond the boundaries of Western epistemology. Locating the global, the author defines what it is to be a member of a global community in which cross-cultural encounters bring forth the possibility of new genre of knowledge. Crawford situates her argument within contemporary philiosohpical contexts, drawing upon postmodern discourse, globalisation theory and the realisation of shared horizon for all human knowledge, which offers up a potential for 'knowing globally'. Crawford takes the reader through feminist theory, the ethic of care, the craft of 'othering', surrender to the 'other' and to our relationship with the earth which, she argues, can be reconfigured into an ethically-based way of knowing. Drawing on a range of belief systems, including Australian Aboriginal spirituality, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, metaphysics and Western philosophy, Crawford rebuilds an inclusive, compassionate, redefinition of care for the new millennium, which she calls spiritually-engaged knowledge.