Rosen offers Westerners an easy-to-read introduction to a sacred text, demystifying its considerable philosophy in a user-friendly way. This is not yet another translation, merely reiterating what the Gita itself has to say. It is rather an attempt to "culturally translate" the text, making use of concepts and categories to which Western readers are accustomed. By engaging familiar motifs--such as issues of modernity, pop-culture icons, and well-known philosophers in the West--the author brings the Gita into focus for non-specialists and scholars alike. Through a series of contemporary news references and insightful summaries, readers will finally understand the facts and personalities that make up the Bhagavad Gita. Using his many years of Gita-centered research, Rosen unlocks the mysteries of the text's spiritual underpinnings. He provides an overview of the Gita's narrative and teachings alongside documentation of its traditional application and more modern ways in which the text can be understood. Subjects discussed include: * Violence in the Gita * The Gita and the Atom Bomb * Gita in the Workplace * The Goal of Yoga * The Soul: Who Am I? * Star Wars. Students and scholars alike will rejoice in how well this book lays bare the culture and the context of the Gita, resulting in a reader's deep familiarity with this most sacred of all the world's wisdom texts.

Students of religion and Eastern thought will welcome this readable translation and practical commentary on the Uddhava Gita, a Hindu text in which Krishna's teachings introduced in the Bhagavad Gita are extended and nuanced. Krishna's Other Song: A New Look at the Uddhava Gita examines the entire Uddhava Gita in relation to other Hindu scriptures, especially the Bhagavad Gita, and shares its teachings in light of interreligious understanding and nonsectarian spirituality. This edition's elaborate commentary, written by a prominent American scholar of Hindu studies, who is also a practitioner, opens up the text's esoteric teaching to a Western audience for the first time, adding context and relevance that make the book accessible and its teachings practicable for a Western readership. A foreword, written by prominent Hinduism scholar Charles S. J. White joins the author's own introduction to lay out the Uddhava Gita's background, philosophical dimensions, and religious significance. This edition does not include the original Sanskrit, nor does it labor to translate each word verbatim. Rather, it gives the reader all 1,030 verses in plain English, offering accessible commentary that allows the meaning and relevance of the Uddhava Gita to unfold to one and all.

This revealing compilation of essays by prominent practitioners and well-informed scholars lays to bear one simple truth: One must be a vegetarian to properly practice Yoga. Bringing together the work of nine distinguished scholars and practitioners of Yoga and Eastern thought, Food for the Soul: Vegetarianism and Yoga Traditions is organized around the fact that, although vegetarianism is a natural and inescapable part of the Yogic tradition, many Yogis and Yoginis today remain blissfully unaware of that fact. The essays gathered here explore the important and much-debated subject of vegetarianism in the major Yoga traditions, looking at what diet has to do with the practice of Yoga and whether ahimsa (harmlessness) is a prerequisite for achieving Yoga's goals. The contributors draw on history, philosophy, ancient Yoga texts, Hindu scriptures, comparative religion, contemporary practitioners, the words of sages, and the teachings of Yogic masters to forge illuminating insights into the subject. Readers, whether students of Hinduism, practitioners of Yoga, vegetarian or animal rights advocates, or simply people with an interest, will find both the questions and the answers provocative-and edifying.

With its complex nature and many forms and practices, Hinduism is one of the world's most elusive religions for outsiders to understand. In Essential Hinduism, expert Steven Rosen aims to make the facets of this faith clear. Essential Hinduism explores this rich tradition through its history, literature, arts, and people. This straightforward overview focuses primarily on monotheistic Vaishnavism, the most common form of Hinduism. Beginning with chapters about the foundations of Hinduism, Steven Rosen clearly lays out the religion's otherwise complicated history. Providing Hindu terms alongside English translations, he illuminates the basics of the faith for readers unacquainted with its varieties and tenets and examines commonly held misconceptions. Chapters about practices, including festivals, teachings, chanting, eating habits, and more, bring Hinduism to life in vivid detail.