An Audience with God at Mount Kailash
An Audience with God at Mount Kailash

Author: Davinder Bhasin

Publisher: Partridge Publishing

Published: 2016-02-11

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1482858797

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An Audience with God at Mount Kailash: A True Story grounds its account of the journey of the author, Davinder Bhasin, to the Abode of Lord Shiva upon personal experience and a summary of insights from trusted external sources. The narrative begins by exploring a basic human question that invites all on a quest for truth: Does God exist? An exploration of Shiva, the Lord of Kailash, follows and then finds its context in a review of the mountains place in culture and history. With this background in location, the author reveals the details of the two audiences God gave to him and his family. Rooted in the experiences of these pilgrimages, the next sections provide readers with guidance for planning and making their own journeys to Mount Kailash. In addition, a brief history of Tibet, the home of Mount Kailash, provides further resources for appreciating the natural and human history associated with this sacred mountain. An Audience with God at Mount Kailash: A True Story will enlighten and inform all who contemplate seeking to experience an encounter with God. It also provides an intimate portrait of the spiritual journey of a man and his family, offering their story as a guide for others as they travel the worlds pathways to seek God for themselves.

Calcutta Yoga
Calcutta Yoga

Author: Jerome Armstrong

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2020-01-09

Total Pages: 478

ISBN-13: 1529048117

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An often surprising and always sure-footed survey of the magic of yoga and Calcutta's role in bringing it to the world' JOHN ZUBRZYCKI 'Interweaving historical facts with Armstrong's own experiences ... the result is a book which is neither an autobiography nor a purely scientific work - quite a unique mixture ... it moves me' CLAUDIA GUGGENBÜHL 'I wish I was doing what he is doing [in Calcutta Yoga]' BISHWANATH GHOSH The epic story of how Buddha Bose, Bishnu Ghosh and Yogananda took yoga from Calcutta to the rest of the world. In Calcutta Yoga, Jerome Armstrong deftly weaves the multi-generational story of the first family of yoga and how they modernized the ancient practice. The saga covers four generations, the making of a city, personal friendships, and shines light on the remarkable people who transformed yoga and made it a truly global phenomenon. Along the way, we also meet the people who founded the schools of yoga that are so well known today. Enriching the cast of characters are the internationally renowned B. K. S. Iyengar, Mr Universe Monotosh Roy, even as the book uncovers the truth about Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram Yoga. We follow them and others from the streets of Calcutta to the United States, London, Tokyo and beyond, where they perform astounding feats and help revise Western perceptions of yoga. Cleverly researched and enjoyably anecdotal, Calcutta Yoga gives a holistic picture of the evolution of yoga, and pays homage to yogic heroes previously lost from history, while highlighting the pivotal early role the city of Calcutta played in redefining the practice. A culmination of rigorous fieldwork and numerous interviews, this book is as much about yoga as it is about history, relationships and human nature.

The Gaddi Beyond Pastoralism
The Gaddi Beyond Pastoralism

Author: Anja Wagner

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2013-06-01

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 0857459309

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The Gaddi of North India are agro-pastoralists who rear sheep and goats following a seasonal migration around the first Himalayan range. While studies on pastoralists have focused either on the pastoralists’ adaptation to their physical environment or treated the environment from a symbolic perspective, this book offers a new, holistic perspective that analyzes the ways in which people “make” place. Based on extensive fieldwork, this book not only describes a contemporary understanding of the Gaddi’s engagement with the environment but also analyzes religious practices and performances of social relations, as well as media practices and notions of aesthetics. Thereby, the landscape in which the Gaddi live is understood as a network of places that is constantly being built and rebuilt through these local practices. The book contributes to the growing interest in approaches of practice within environmental anthropology.

Yasodhara and the Buddha
Yasodhara and the Buddha

Author: Vanessa R. Sasson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-12-10

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 135016318X

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By combining the spirit of fiction with the fabulism of Indian mythology and in-depth academic research, Vanessa R. Sasson shares the evocative story of the Buddha from the perspective of a forgotten woman: Yasodhara, the Buddha's wife. Although often marginalized, Yasodhara's narrative here comes to life. Written with a strong feminist voice, we encounter Yasodhara as a fiercely independent, passionate and resilient individual. We witness her joys and sorrows, her expectations and frustrations, her fairy-tale wedding, and her overwhelming devastation at the departure of her beloved. It is through her eyes that we witness Siddhattha's slow transformation, from a sheltered prince to a deeply sensitive young man. On the way, we see how the gods watch over the future Buddha from the clouds, how the king and his ministers try to keep the suffering of the world from him and how he eventually renounces the throne, his wife and newly-born son to seek enlightenment. Along with a foreword from Wendy Doniger, the book includes a scholarly introduction to Yasodhara's narrative and offers extensive notes along with study questions, to help readers navigate the traditional literature in a new way, making this an essential book for anyone wanting to learn about Buddhist narratives.

The Geomantic Year
The Geomantic Year

Author: Richard Leviton

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2006-11-16

Total Pages: 599

ISBN-13: 0595860567

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The spiritual world blesses the Earth at least 58 times a year-here's how you can join the party. Do you think folklore customs about solstices and equinoxes and other regular celebration days are quaint holdovers from the past? Not so. Do you sometimes wish there were a way to include the entire planet in a meditation practice? There is, and it's called the geomantic year. At least 58 times a year the spiritual world-angels, archangels, Ascended Masters, Star-Angels, even the Supreme Being-tunes in to the Earth, blesses, and even heals it in real-time day-long events. Our planet is constantly receiving input from the cosmos and heavenly realms. It's all part of a rhythmic maintenance calendar in which the Earth is enlivened, and all of humanity is invited to participate. This book shows you how. What kinds of events? On Epiphany, January 6, the Christ focuses on the planet to birth his Light. On Bifrost Paints the Planet, April 10, the Great Bear constellation envelopes the Earth in 14 rays of light. On Michaelmas, September 29, the Archangel Michael cleanses the Earth's sacred sites and all their "plumbing." Other events in the geomantic year involve stars, Nature Spirits, holy mountains, River-gods, Pleiadians, Hollow Earth dwellers, Grail Kings, volcano spirits, the Great Mother, and much more. The Geomantic Year documents 58 festival dates that focus on the Earth through its sacred sites, and it provides 58 simple meditations to help you participate. And it offers 12 informative essays linking Earth energies with hot topics such as the Illuminati and world control, parallel universes, the world's gold supply, the Ghost Dance, the Fall of Man, Earth and climate changes, and the apocalyptic year 2012. Why not get out your appointment book and pencil in a few dates: the Earth's expecting you!

Sharp Blue Search of Flame
Sharp Blue Search of Flame

Author: Zilka Joseph

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 2016-04-04

Total Pages: 135

ISBN-13: 0814340504

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Stirring, atmospheric poems that journey through memories of growing up in India, and the myth, death, loss, and rebirth that surrounds that experience. Sharp Blue Search of Flame is an exploration in poetry of a complex network of nuanced journeys into a variety of worlds. The searingly rich poems reflect Zilka Joseph's own history of living in Eastern and Western cultures, as well as the influences of her Jewish Indian roots. Joseph's free verse and forms shift scenes from the real to the imagined landscapes of the mind, and search for fulfillment and solace amidst the terrifying beauty and chaos of the human condition. Joseph's poems, while dark and brooding in subject matter—bride burnings and infanticide in her native country, the loss of Eden, mourning for a beloved mother—offer a tactile insight into life in India and the United States. Through a flurry of sounds and smells, the reader learns an interpretation of the history of the sari, witnesses the horror of attacks on women, and wrestles with death, whether it be that of an elephant, an extinct frog, honey bees, humans, or goddesses. Her poems dig deep and aspire for something beyond. Colored by fire, blood, ash, and rain, these poems present images of great joy and deep loss in a complex harmony. Sharp Blue Search of Flame embraces worlds within worlds and worlds between worlds, which is not only intrinsic to the fabric of the poems but to the life of the poet as well. Readers of poetry will savor this sensory collection.

They Sing the Wedding of God
They Sing the Wedding of God

Author: John Napier

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2013-06-12

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0786471409

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In Rajasthan, India, a caste of musicians and mendicants, the Nath-Jogis, sing stories of kings who renounce their thrones to become wandering mendicants. They also sing of a god, Mahadeva, Shiva, who must abandon his world-renouncing life and marry, thus establishing the very caste that tells his story. This is the first detailed ethnomusicological study of the music of this caste, examining how the existential questions of the sung stories--of the conflict between loyalty to families or communities and the transcending desire to renounce the material world--are articulated in musical performances in which the caste's own ethnography is inscribed. Discussing the relationship between the performed repertoire and the caste's identity, the contexts of performance and ways in which familiar stories are effectively retold, the book offers a transcription, translation and musical and ethnographic analysis of one performance, by Kishori Nath, and shows how the questions the performances project are not merely speculative acts of self-identification but also challenges to audiences to consider their own responses.

Face to Face with Shiva
Face to Face with Shiva

Author: Dr. Abhinav Aggarwal

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2016-10-21

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1524638846

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Face to Face with Shiva - scientific perspective of a spiritual experience: A real life account of being face to face with Lord Shiva: the highest among all known beings. An event that took place in 1970, is given in as-is form. It was among rarest of the rare experiences. Ever since then, the continuous dialog with Lord Shiva has been unfolding, and has provided revelation to the mysteries of life and defining its very purpose. In the dilemma of being a scientist who must find a scientific explanation to every phenomenon, I had refrained from publicly sharing this unique experience. Over forty five years of an ongoing dialog with Lord Shiva has yielded a scientific hypothesis to this rare happening, and time has now come to share this experience for larger benefit of humanity. In this brief presentation, the hypothesis and experience are shared alike. Bridging the gap between science and spirituality, physical and metaphysical, un-manifested and visible existence, abstract and defined, Lord Shiva answers the most unanswered questions like: Is there God? If so, who is that? Who made God? What is the purpose of Life? Who are we? What can one do as an individual to make a difference in this world? Why do tragedies happen? Why do living beings have desires? How do we participate in the universal divine plan? What happens after death? Are we the only living beings and is there life elsewhere in this inter-galactic universe? Are we being observed? Am I empowered to change the universe? What is the end-all of existence? What is our responsibility in this life? How is the universe managed? Who controls the universe? What lies beyond edge of the universe? Atheists, believers, and scientists can all benefit by drawing insight to the reality of all that is and discover the truth beyond science and religion. Brought to you by IEEE Author of the Year.

The Alchemical Body
The Alchemical Body

Author: David Gordon White

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-07-10

Total Pages: 616

ISBN-13: 022614934X

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“[A] brilliant disquisition on . . . mostly unpublished texts for three allied systems of tantric thought and praxis (sexual, alchemical, and hatha yogic).” —The Journal of Asian Studies The Alchemical Body excavates and centers within its Indian context the lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from previously unexplored alchemical sources, David Gordon White demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people, and that they can be understood only when viewed together. White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam. “White proves a skillful guide in disentangling historical and theoretical complexities that have thus far bedeviled the study of these influential aspects of medieval Indian culture.” —Yoga World “Anyone seriously interested in finding out more about authentic tantra, original hatha yoga, embodied liberation . . . sacred sexuality, paranormal abilities, healing, and of course alchemy will find White’s extraordinary book as fascinating as any Tom Clancy thriller.” —Georg Feuerstein, Yoga Journal “Remarkable . . . a study of the language of mystic experience and expression—the multitudinous symbols, rituals, and doctrines of the medieval siddhis, yogis, and alchemists.” —Skeptic Meditations

Mind Training
Mind Training

Author: Thupten Jinpa

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-05-01

Total Pages: 625

ISBN-13: 0861717112

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Compiled in the fifteenth century, Mind Training: The Great Collection is the earliest anthology of a special genre of Tibetan literature known as "mind training," or lojong in Tibetan. The principal focus of these texts is the systematic cultivation of such altruistic thoughts and emotions as compassion, love, forbearance, and perseverance. The mind-training teachings are highly revered by the Tibetan people for their pragmatism and down-to-earth advice on coping with the various challenges and hardships that unavoidably characterize everyday human existence. The volume contains forty-four individual texts, including the most important works of the mind training cycle, such as Serlingpa's well-known Leveling Out All Preconceptions, Atisha's Bodhisattva's Jewel Garland, Langri Thangpa's Eight Verses on Training the Mind, and Chekawa's Seven-Point Mind Training together with the earliest commentaries on these seminal texts. An accurate and lyrical translation of these texts, many of which are in metered verse, marks an important contribution to the world's literary heritage, enriching its spiritual resources.