If you're currently in pursuit of your own personal and spiritual liberation, then this book is for you!Moksha is a Sanskrit term which means "to free" or "to let go." It does not refer to freedom from political tyranny or from financial debt, but to breaking free from the prison of one's ignorance and ego. Moksha refers to a state of being, not a place, and is central to the religions of India. Besides Hinduism, it is also used in Jainism and Buddhism, though the latter prefers the word "nirvana." In all three religions, moksha is understood to mean "spiritual liberation," the closest equivalent to the Christian heaven. This book provides an easy-to-read overview of the journey towards Liberation, through the interrelated life endeavors of dharma, artha, kama, and moksha.
In recent years, the literature of India has seen a remarkable resurgence with writers exploring diverse themes and narratives that reflect the complexity of the postcolonial experience. This edited volume, "Writing the Postcolonial Nation: Contemporary Indian Voices in English", brings together a collection of essays that delve into the portrayal of postcolonial features in the works of contemporary Indian writers. In the realm of literature, the impact of colonialism on the cultural and social fabric of a nation is a topic that has garnered much attention and debate. The echoes of colonial rule reverberate through the works of contemporary Indian writers in English, as they grapple with the legacy of imperialism and its lasting effects on their identities and narratives. This edited volume delves into the portrayal of postcolonial features in the works of these authors, exploring how they navigate and negotiate the complexities of a postcolonial world. The essays in this collection offer a multi-faceted analysis of contemporary Indian writing in English, examining the various ways in which writers engage with and subvert colonial discourse. From reimagining historical events to challenging traditional power structures, these authors use their stories to reclaim and redefine their cultural identities in a postcolonial context. Through a lens of postcolonial theory, the contributors to this volume shed light on how Indian writers in English interrogate the legacies of colonialism and envision new possibilities for a decolonized future. One of the central themes explored in this book is the notion of hybridity, a concept that reflects the blending of multiple cultural influences and identities. Indian writers in English often navigate this space of hybridity, drawing from both indigenous traditions and Western literary forms to create works that are uniquely Indian yet globally resonant. By embracing their diverse cultural heritage, these authors challenge essentialist notions of identity and offer a nuanced understanding of postcolonial experience. Another key focus of this volume is the concept of agency, as seen through the portrayal of marginalized voices and perspectives in contemporary Indian literature. Through the lens of post colonialism, the contributors to this volume analyze how writers empower themselves and their communities through storytelling, reclaiming their narratives from the confines of colonial discourse. By centering the voices of the marginalized and dispossessed, these authors challenge the dominant narratives of power and privilege and offer a counter-narrative that speaks truth to power. As editors of this volume, we hope to contribute to the ongoing conversation surrounding post colonialism and contemporary Indian literature in English.
The Bhagavad Gita is an intensely spiritual work that forms the cornerstone of the Hindu faith, and is also one of the masterpieces of Sanskrit poetry. It describes how, at the beginning of a mighty battle between the Pandava and Kaurava armies, thegod Krishna gives spiritual enlightenment to the warrior Arjuna, who realizes that the true battle is for his own soul.
The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from Sanskrit root yuj which means ‘join’ or ‘unite’. This may be taken as the union of body, mind and soul, and is used in the literature both as an end as well as means. As an end, yoga signifies ‘integration of personality’ at the highest level. As means, yoga includes various practices and techniques which are employed to achieve the development of such integration. These practices and techniques are means in the yogic literature and are also referred collectively as ‘Yoga’.
This book presents an interpretation of Gandhi's political philosophy, and how he strove to connect it with the four goals of life (purushartha). Anthony Parel argues that Gandhi's aim was the restoration of harmony and the removal of any opposition between the spiritual and the temporal, the political and the ethical.
Selected writings from the author of Brave New World and The Doors of Perception on the role of psychedelics in society. • Includes letters and lectures by Huxley never published elsewhere. In May 1953 Aldous Huxley took four-tenths of a gram of mescaline. The mystical and transcendent experience that followed set him off on an exploration that was to produce a revolutionary body of work about the inner reaches of the human mind. Huxley was decades ahead of his time in his anticipation of the dangers modern culture was creating through explosive population increase, headlong technological advance, and militant nationalism, and he saw psychedelics as the greatest means at our disposal to "remind adults that the real world is very different from the misshapen universe they have created for themselves by means of their culture-conditioned prejudices." Much of Huxley's writings following his 1953 mescaline experiment can be seen as his attempt to reveal the power of these substances to awaken a sense of the sacred in people living in a technological society hostile to mystical revelations. Moksha, a Sanskrit word meaning "liberation," is a collection of the prophetic and visionary writings of Aldous Huxley. It includes selections from his acclaimed novels Brave New World and Island, both of which envision societies centered around the use of psychedelics as stabilizing forces, as well as pieces from The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, his famous works on consciousness expansion.
Notwithstanding his contributions to religion, nonviolence, civil rights, and civil disobedience, among other areas, Gandhi's most significant contribution is that as a political philosopher. While he is not often treated as such, Gandhi was, as Anthony J. Parel argues, a political philosopher sui generis, both in his philosophical method of constant self-criticism and his framework of philosophical analysis. Gandhi wrote daily on politics, but he did so as an activist; political philosophy was to him not just a way of understanding truths of political phenomena but was directly related to understanding those truths in action. If realized in action these truths would give rise to new political institutions, which in turn would create a corresponding peaceful political and social order. Parel dubs this order Pax Gandhiana. The main contention of Pax Gandhiana is that peace cannot be achieved by politics alone. Peace requires the confluence of the canonical ends of life: politics and economics (artha), ethics (dharma), forms of pleasure (kama), and the pursuit of spiritual transcendence (moksha). Modern political philosophy isolates politics from the other three ends, but Gandhi's originality, according to Parel, lies in the way that he brings all four together. In fact Gandhi's political philosophy is relevant not only to India but also to the rest of the world: it is a new type of sovereignty that harmonizes the interest of individual states with the community of states. Arguing against scholars who dispute a theoretical unity in Gandhi's writings, Parel suggests that Gandhi is the preeminent non-western political philosopher, and in this book he seeks to identify the conceptual framework of Gandhi's political philosophy, the Pax Gandhiana.
: With the advancement in innovation and technology, after many researches and studies modern medicine has emerged recently. Does it mean there were no diseases before modern medicine was introduced? Absolutely not. There have been many ancient ways of managing life style and diseases. Ayurveda being one among them. After understanding that there are many ways how a man can be afflicted with diseases, with the available resources of the ancient times, people practised Ayurveda. Many changes happen around us that may lead to ill health. Right from the food we intake, activities we perform, sort of people we involve with, the seasonal changes, the changes while the day, the changes at night etc. While these changes have an impact over body and its functions, a small change in the life style or diet or exercise also facilitates in balancing the bodily functions accordingly and health can be maintained. Therefore people emerged with few practices accordingly that can benefit maintain over all health. Few such practices have also been passed by the family members to their offspring. But now again with the changing era and differences in belief, it becomes a question as to why are they still to be followed and practised. Current generation needs a thorough understanding of the concept and as they have been under the influence of the modern era and modern understandings of concepts. In the present medicine, where everything is constantly changing and they change it by themselves by doing research on and often, Ayurvedic Principles remain intact and will definitely continue to remain intact. Yes there will be adoption to newer methods of therapy, newer ways of technicality, newer machinery etc, but the principles will remain the same. This book is intended to through some light on such Indian traditional practices which, by default, are considered as just a belief or some myth or some sort of spiritual practice or some sort of personal beliefs as well, which holds no value practically and scientifically. with an intent to make the readers believe that not everything is just for sake of a blind belief but also can be understood them in terms of scientificity and genuine health benefits.
Often considered the most admired human being of the twentieth century, Mahatma Gandhi was and remains controversial. Among the leading Gandhi scholars in the world, the authors of the timely studies in this volume present numerous ways in which Gandhi's thought and action-oriented approach are significant, relevant, and urgently needed for addressing the major problems and concerns of the twenty-first century. Such problems and concerns include issues of violence and nonviolence, war and peace, religion and religious conflict and dialogue, terrorism, ethics, civil disobedience, injustice, modernism and postmodernism, forms of oppression and exploitation, and environmental destruction. These creative, diverse studies offer a radical critique of the dominant characteristics and priorities of modern Western civilization and the contemporary world. They offer positive alternatives by using Gandhi, in creative and innovative ways, to focus on nonviolence, peace with justice, tolerance and mutual respect, compassion and loving kindness, cooperative relations and the realization of our interconnectedness and unity, meaningful action-oriented engagement of dialogue, resistance, and working for new sustainable ways of being human and creating new societies. This volume is appropriate for the general reader and the Gandhi specialist. It will be of interest for readers in philosophy, religion, political science, history, cultural studies, peace studies, and many other fields. Throughout this book, readers will experience a strong sense of the philosophical and practical urgency and significance of Gandhi's thought and action for the contemporary world.
