Download or read book Beyond Gurus written by Nancy Cooke de Herrera and published by Blue Dolphin Pub. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gurus in America written by Thomas A. Forsthoefel and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gurus in America provides an excellent introduction to the guru phenomenon in the United States, with in-depth analyses of nine important Hindu gurus—Adi Da, Ammachi, Mayi Chidvilasananda, Gurani Anjali, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Osho, Ramana Maharshi, Sai Baba, and Swami Bhaktivedanta. All of these gurus have attracted significant followings in the U.S. and nearly all have lived here for considerable periods of time. The book's contributors discuss the characteristics of each guru's teachings, the history of each movement, and the particular construction of Hinduism each guru offers. Contributors also address the religious and cultural interaction, translation, and transplantation that occurs when gurus offer their teachings in America. This is a fascinating guide that will elucidate an important element in America's diverse and ever-changing spiritual landscape.
Download or read book Beyond Emasculation written by Adnan Hossain and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is based on long term ethnographic research with hijras, the emblematic figure of South Asian sexual and gender difference in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It proposes the hijra as a counter-cultural formation that embodies not only a direct contrast to hegemonic patterns of masculinity but also as an alternative subculture offering the possibility of varied forms of erotic pleasures and practices otherwise forbidden in mainstream society. While most studies view hijras as an asexual, emasculated, third sex/gender, this book calls into question the phallocentric logic that obscures alternative sites and sources of bodily power and pleasure, emphasizing how hijras craft their own subject position. Ethnographically rich and theoretically engaged, this book will cause a new, global re-examination of both hijras in particular and the wider range of 'male femininities' in general.
Download or read book Gurus and Media written by Jacob Copeman and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2023-09-25 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gurus and Media is the first book dedicated to media and mediation in domains of public guruship and devotion. Illuminating the mediatisation of guruship and the guru-isation of media, it bridges the gap between scholarship on gurus and the disciplines of media and visual culture studies. It investigates guru iconographies in and across various time periods and also the distinctive ways in which diverse gurus engage with and inhabit different forms of media: statuary, games, print publications, photographs, portraiture, films, machines, social media, bodies, words, graffiti, dolls, sound, verse, tombs and more. The book’s interdisciplinary chapters advance, both conceptually and ethnographically, our understanding of the function of media in the dramatic production of guruship, and reflect on the corporate branding of gurus and on mediated guruship as a series of aesthetic traps for the captivation of devotees and others. They show how different media can further enliven the complex plurality of guruship, for instance in instantiating notions of ‘absent-present’ guruship and demonstrating the mutual mediation of gurus, caste and Hindutva. Throughout, the book foregrounds contested visions of the guru in the development of devotional publics and pluriform guruship across time and space. Thinking through the guru’s many media entanglements in a single place, the book contributes new insights to the study of South Asian religions and to the study of mediation more broadly. Praise for Gurus and Media 'Sight, sound, image, narrative, representation and performance in the complex world of gurus are richly illuminated and deeply theorised in this outstanding volume. The immensely important, but hitherto under-explored, visual and aural dimensions of guru-ship across several religious traditions have received path-breaking and wide-ranging treatment by best-known experts on the subject.' Nandini Gooptu, University of Oxford ‘Gurus and Media casts subtle light on a phenomenon that too often shines so brightly that it is hard to see. This collection is a tremendously rich resource for anyone trying to make sense of that ambiguous zone where authority appears at once as seduction and as salvation, as comfort and as terror.’ William Mazzarella, University of Chicago 'This remarkable collection uses the figure of the mass-mediated guru to throw light on how modern Hindu mobilization generates a highly diverse set of religious charismatics in India. Because of the diversity of the contributors to this volume, the book is also a moveable feast of cases, methods and cultural styles in a major cultural region.' Arjun Appadurai, Emeritus Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University
Download or read book Hymns Of The Gurus written by Khushwant Singh and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2003-05-30 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated edition containing selected hymns of the ten Sikh Gurus, from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobing Singh, translated by Khushwant Singh. Sacred hymns from the Guru Gibind Singh.
Download or read book Beyond Heaven and Earth written by Steven H. Propp and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2003-11-17 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever wondered what happens to us when we die? What if you really HAD to know? When tragedy strikes the family of young Jobran Winter, he is forced to confront these questions directly. Undertaking a feverish "Quest," he explores various branches of Christianity; Judaism; Islam; Hinduism; Buddhism; Sikhism, as well as the religions of China and Japan. His search encompasses the New Age, Reincarnation, Spiritism and Psychical Research. Attending channeling sessions and séances, investigating haunted houses and Near-Death Experiences, he examines spiritual traditions ranging from Swedenborg to Scientology, from Jodo Shinshu to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Finally, the Quest brings him into direct contact with Hospice work; physical disability; child abandonment; abortion; suicide; euthanasia, and even cold-blooded murder. Encounter the doctrines of Purgatory & Predestination, Universalism & Annihilationism, as you journey in a novel that will make you reexamine your ideas about religion, skepticism, love, death and LIFE.
Download or read book Beyond Cynicism written by Jim Cleveland and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2003-11-24 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like many others, Jim Cleveland despaired of the greed and corruption that has spawned great suffering on our planet. Despair turned to cynicism, a feeling of hopelessness that things would ever be better, that we were hell-bent for our own environmental destruction. Turning to the spiritual realms and anchored with revelations such as the Urantia papers and A Course in Miracles, the author turned inward for answers, posing frustrated, angry questions to supernal teachers who call themselves the One Team. In the manner of Conversations with God, the author keystrokes provocative questions and opens himself to key the poignant and illuminating answers of a candid team of celestials who return Love for every cynical challenge. The author also presents an overview of the techniques of Stillness, a daily time for open communion with our Universal God as our ultimate Father. By joining Eastern-style meditation with Western concepts of worship, prayer and forgiveness, the threshold can be crossed to be delivered our own individual spiritual teachers who will guide us from within. Beyond gurus, preachers and psychics, the Stillness produces a personal relationship with the Universal Father, which means you need nothing else.
Download or read book The Graceful Guru written by Karen Pechilis and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A distinctive aspect of Hindu devotion is the veneration of a human guru, who is not only an exemplar and a teacher but is also understood to be an embodiment of the divine. Historically, the role of guru in the public domain has been exclusive to men. The new visibility of female gurus in India and the U.S. today, and indeed across the globe, has inspired this first-ever scholarly study of the origins, variety, and worldwide popularity of Hindu female gurus. In the Introduction, Karen Pechilis examines the historical emergence of Hindu female gurus with reference to the Hindu philosophy of the self, women spiritual exemplars as wives and saints, Tantric worship of the Goddess, and the internationalization of gurus in the U.S. in the twentieth century. Nine essays profile specific female gurus, presenting biographies of these remarkable women while highlighting overarching issues and themes concerning women's status as religious leaders; these themes are nuanced in the afterword to the volume. The essays explore how Hindu female gurus embody grace in both senses--as a feminine ideal and an attribute of the divine-and argue that their status as leaders is grounded in their negotiation of these two types of grace. This book provides biographical profiles of the following female gurus plus sensitive scholarly analysis of their spiritual paths: Ammachi, Anandamayi Ma, Gauri Ma, Gurumayi, Jayashri Ma, Karunamayi Ma, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, Mother Meera, Shree Maa and Sita Devi.
Download or read book Beyond The Border written by Yoginder Sikand and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011-07-19 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘I was born in India. Your grandparents were born in what is now Pakistan. But they live in India and I in Pakistan. Strange, isn’t it?’ Beyond the Border, based on two journeys to Pakistan, is a strikingly unconventional account of what life is like for ‘ordinary’ Pakistanis. Yoginder Sikand discovers a country that only remotely resembles the stereotype of the hostile Muslim neighbour all too common in the Indian imagination. From Shiela, the daughter of a feudal landlord, named after her mother’s Indian best friend, to the owner of a rundown local eatery who refused to take any money as Sikand was the first Indian to visit his stall, the author’s encounters with Pakistanis from all walks of life in Lahore, Multan, Hyderabad (Sind), Moenjo Daro, Bhit Bhah, Islamabad—among other places—reveal a country that is unexpected, paradoxical and rich in diverse narratives. Departing from the fi ercely polemical rhetoric common in Indian and Pakistani accounts of each other, Yoginder Sikand not only goes beyond the strategist’s view of the India–Pakistan divide, but dispels the myths about Pakistan as the terrible ‘other’ that have fi ltered into the Indian psyche. This brilliantly perceptive and quirky travelogue illuminates the Pakistani side of the story while telling Sikand’s own tale of exploration and self-discovery.
Download or read book History of Sikh Gurus Retold 1469 1606 C E written by Surjit Singh Gandhi and published by Atlantic Publishers & Dist. This book was released on 2007 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Impulse Behind The Study In Hand Was The Longing To Find Adequate Answers To Certain Vital Questions What Exactly Does Sikhism Stand For? Why Was It Originated And Developed By Guru Nanak And His Nine Successors? How Did It Strike Roots Among People? What Institutions And Structures The Gurus Evolved To Highlight And Escalate It? What Type Of Praxis Of Man And Society Gurus Visualized? How Was It Different From Contemporary Religious Systems Islam, Hinduism, Sahajyana, Buddhism, Nathism, Bhakti System Etc.? Was It A Synthesis Of Different Traits Of Different Religions? Was It A Syncretism Of Hindu And Muslim Cultures Or Was It An Independent System? Did Sikhism Purport To Design To Raise Itself On Premises Different From The Ones Which Formed The Foundations Of Hindu Or Other Societies? Was It Merely Reformist Movement Aiming At Certain Targets Within Time And Space Or A Distinct Spirito-Social Process To Urge The People To March Towards Integrated Development Both At Micro And Macro Levels? What Was The True Nature Of Supreme Reality As Conceived By The Gurus? How Is This Related With The Universe Including Man And How Does It Permeate, Pervade And Operate The Whole Universe? What Type Of Society Conforms To God S Will And How Was Its Consummation Possible? Which Models Of Polity And Social Edifice Were Recommended By The Gurus? Is Sikhism A Life-Affirming Dispensation Or Life-Negating Philosophy? Why Was Structural Bonding Of Religion And Politics Effected And Institutionalised? What Is The Place Of Sikhism In The Comity Of Religions And How It Is Relevant To Challenges Of The Present-Day World? Such Questions And A Lot More Being Vital And Crucial For The Understanding Of The Role Of Gurus And Their Dispensation, Have Been Fully Taken Cognizance Of In The Present Study.
Download or read book Beyond Boundaries A Search for Unlimited Powers of Mind Along the Path of Guru Nanak written by Devendra Singh and published by Hemkunt Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Our mind is capable of miracles because of its powers. The developments in various fields from science to culture and civilization are the results of the unlimited powers of the mind. But the power of mind can be constructive as well as destructive. It can help us make both a bread and a bomb. The destructive power of mind is to be controlled. Religion shows us the way to keep our mind away from destructive tendencies and experience its infinite powers for the good of our own being in particular and society in general." The present book is an attempt to revisit the path of Guru Nanak in opening the gates of the unlimited power of mind."
Download or read book Beyond Religion in India and Pakistan written by Virinder S. Kalra and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-12-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on insights from theoretical engagements with borders and subalternity, Beyond Religion in India and Pakistan suggests new frameworks for understanding religious boundaries in South Asia. It looks at the ways in which social categories and structures constitute the bordering logics inherent within enactments of these boundaries, and positions hegemony and resistance through popular religion as an important indication of wider developments of political and social change. The book also shows how borders are continually being maintained through violence at national, community and individual levels. By exploring selected sites and expressions of piety including shrines, texts, practices and movements, Virinder S. Kalra and Navtej K. Purewal argue that the popular religion of Punjab should neither be limited to a polarised picture between formal, institutional religion, nor the 'enchanted universe' of rituals, saints, shrines and village deities. Instead, the book presents a picture of 'religion' as a realm of movement, mobilization, resistance and power in which gender and caste are connate of what comes to be known as 'religious'. Through extensive ethnographic research, the authors explore the reality of the complex, dynamic and contested relations that characterize everyday material and religious lives on the ground. Ultimately, the book highlights how popular religion challenges the borders and boundaries of religious and communal categories, nationalism and theological frameworks while simultaneously reflecting gender/caste society.
Download or read book Worldly Gurus and Spiritual Kings written by Tamara I. Sears and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-10 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering book is the first full-length study of the matha, or Hindu monastery, which developed in India at the turn of the first millennium. Rendered monumentally in stone, the matha represented more than just an architectural innovation: it signaled the institutionalization of asceticism into a formalized monastic practice, as well as the emergence of the guru as an influential public figure. With entirely new primary research, Tamara I. Sears examines the architectural and archaeological histories of six little-known monasteries in Central India and reveals the relationships between political power, religion, and the production of sacred space. This important work of scholarship features scrupulous original measured drawings, providing a vast amount of new material and a much-needed contribution to the fields of Asian art, religious studies, and cultural history. In introducing new categories of architecture, this book illuminates the potential of buildings to reconfigure not only social and ritual relationships but also the fundamental ontology of the world.
Download or read book History of Sikh Gurus Retold 1606 1708 C E written by Surjit Singh Gandhi and published by Atlantic Publishers & Dist. This book was released on 2007 with total page 734 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Impulse Behind The Study In Hand Was The Longing To Find Adequate Answers To Certain Vital Questions What Exactly Does Sikhism Stand For? Why Was It Originated And Developed By Guru Nanak And His Nine Successors? How Did It Strike Roots Among People? What Institutions And Structures The Gurus Evolved To Highlight And Escalate It? What Type Of Praxis Of Man And Society Gurus Visualized? How Was It Different From Contemporary Religious Systems Islam, Hinduism, Sahajyana, Buddhism, Nathism, Bhakti System Etc.? Was It A Synthesis Of Different Traits Of Different Religions? Was It A Syncretism Of Hindu And Muslim Cultures Or Was It An Independent System? Did Sikhism Purport To Design To Raise Itself On Premises Different From The Ones Which Formed The Foundations Of Hindu Or Other Societies? Was It Merely Reformist Movement Aiming At Certain Targets Within Time And Space Or A Distinct Spirito-Social Process To Urge The People To March Towards Integrated Development Both At Micro And Macro Levels? What Was The True Nature Of Supreme Reality As Conceived By The Gurus? How Is This Related With The Universe Including Man And How Does It Permeate, Pervade And Operate The Whole Universe? What Type Of Society Conforms To God S Will And How Was Its Consummation Possible? Which Models Of Polity And Social Edifice Were Recommended By The Gurus? Is Sikhism A Life-Affirming Dispensation Or Life-Negating Philosophy? Why Was Structural Bonding Of Religion And Politics Effected And Institutionalised? What Is The Place Of Sikhism In The Comity Of Religions And How It Is Relevant To Challenges Of The Present-Day World? Such Questions And A Lot More Being Vital And Crucial For The Understanding Of The Role Of Gurus And Their Dispensation, Have Been Fully Taken Cognizance Of In The Present Study.
Download or read book Homegrown Gurus written by Ann Gleig and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, a new stage in the development of Hinduism in America is taking shape. After a century of experimentation during which Americans welcomed Indian gurus who adjusted their teachings to accommodate the New World context, "American Hinduism" can now rightly be called its own tradition rather than an imported religion. Accordingly, this spiritual path is now headed by leaders born in North America. Homegrown Gurus explores this phenomenon in essays about these figures and their networks. A variety of teachers and movements are considered, including Ram Dass, Siddha Yoga, and Amrit Desai and Kripalu Yoga, among others. Two contradictory trends quickly become apparent: an increasing Westernization of Hindu practices and values alongside a renewed interest in traditional forms of Hinduism. These opposed sensibilities—innovation and preservation, radicalism and recovery—are characteristic of postmodernity and denote a new chapter in the American assimilation of Hinduism.
Download or read book J Krishnamurti A Life of Compassion beyond Boundaries written by Roshen Dalal and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the most famous visionaries of our times, J. Krishnamurti (1895–1986) continues to transform thought, lifestyles, and education across continents more than three decades after his death. In this new biography, tracing the nine long decades of his life, from his growing-up years, his relationships to his writings and talks, Roshen Dalal provides a much-needed corrective – an objective and balanced view of his legacy. Adopted by Theosophists at the age of fourteen, and proclaimed a world teacher and messiah, in 1929, Krishnamurti dissolved the Order of the Star created for him and went on to develop his own philosophy. What is it about his ideas that draws the following of generations of people? Delivered to a divided world then, what makes his message so relevant now? While his ideas on education are idealistic, why do they continue to be everlasting in their contribution and appeal? Krishnamurti’s vision is of a world without boundaries or wars, a world where compassion and goodness predominate, and his message is that such a world can be arrived at only through individual transformation.B24 There is no direct path to transformation, yet through intense perception and understanding, it is possible to achieve this goal. Carefully reconstructing the events and extracting the essence of his talks, Dalal dispels several myths, explains his teachings, and reveals the underlying theosophical and occult influence in Krishnamurti’s life. Here is the most complete biography yet, of one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century.
Download or read book The Inner Light written by Susan Shumsky and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hidden meanings of the Beatles’ most esoteric lyrics and sounds are revealed by a rare insider who spent two decades with the man who made “meditation,” “mantra,” and “yoga” household words: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. “I absolutely love this book. Between the stories and the pictures, many I’ve not seen before, this is truly a spiritual journey.” —Chris O’Dell, author of Miss O’Dell, My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, and the Women They Loved The spiritual journey of the Beatles is the story of an entire generation of visionaries in the sixties who transformed the world. The Beatles turned Western culture upside down and brought Indian philosophy to the West more effectively than any guru. The Inner Light illumines hidden meanings of the Beatles’ India-influenced lyrics and sounds, decoded by Susan Shumsky—a rare insider who spent two decades in the ashrams and six years on the personal staff of the Beatles’ mentor, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. “With clarity, depth, and impeccable research, an exceptionally comprehensive book filled with engaging tales and fresh insights that even diehard Beatles fans will find illuminating.” —Philip Goldberg, author of American Veda: From Emerson and The Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West This eye-opening book draws back the curtain on the Beatles’ experiments with psychedelics, meditation, chanting, and Indian music. Among many shocking revelations never before revealed, we discover who invented "raga rock" (not the Beatles), the real identity of rare Indian instruements and musicians on their tracks, which Beatle was the best meditator (not George), why the Beatles left India in a huff, John and George’s attempts to return, Maharishi’s accurate prediction, and who Sexy Sadie, Jojo, Bungalow Bill, Dear Prudence, Blackbird, My Sweet Lord, Hare Krishna, and the Fool on the Hill really were. “This book reminds us in illuminating fashion why Susan is the premier thinker about India’s key influence upon the direction of the Beatles’ art. In vivid and stirring detail, she traces the Fabs’ spiritual awakening from Bangor to Rishikesh and beyond.” —Kenneth Womack, author of John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life Half a century later, the Beatles have sold more records than any other recording artist. A new generation wants to relive the magic of the flower-power era and is now discovering the message of this iconic band and its four superstars. For people of all nations and ages, the Beatles’ mystique lives on. The Inner Light is Susan Shumsky’s gift to their legacy.
