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Indisputably one of the world’s best-known books, the Bhagavadgita embodies the quint-essence of classical Upanisadic philosophy, presented in the form of a dialogue between Krsna, the archetypal teacher, and Arjuna, the archetypal human being caught in the grip of a monumental crisis. For anyone like Arjuna who has ever paused to ponder the meaning of life, the work is as relevant today as it was when it was written.
By stripping away the manifold biases — both subtle and obvious — that have colored other commentaries, Guru Nitya has uncovered the perennial philosophy at the heart of this great classic. In an original, easy to understand format, his commentary divides each of the Gita’s eighteen chapters into three sections: the first elucidating the basic concepts involved; the second including Sanskrit text in Roman script along with the English meaning of each word or phrase and Nataraja Guru’s lucid and revolutionary English translation; and the third carrying explanatory notes and comments in the form of a dialogue between a teacher and student.
The breakthrough of this interpretation of the Gita is in its transcendence of sectarian dogma to reveal the work as a fully developed scientific psychology, whose keen insights and vivid reasoning can be readily appreciated by the twenty-first-century mind.
The Kalacakra Tantra was the last major Tantrik text written in India before the decline of Buddhism. The book has left indelible influence over different regions of Asia in last thousand years of its journey. Apart from the Vimalprabha commentary composed during the mid-11th century, there is no verse by verse commentary available to the general reader. Kumar has attempted translation of the full text from Sanskrit original and has also contributed a new detailed commentary. This book locates mysterious Sambhala and Oddiyana. The book further delves into the chronology of legendary Kalki kings.
This book critiques the poetics of theatre in early India by interpreting a system of theatre and performance along several themes such as theatre’s place in the premodern interdisciplinary knowledge systems, theatre space and architecture, cognition and emotion, performance, experience and consciousness, human and social behaviour, and music.
Theatre discourses of early India present theatre (natya) as an integrated art form, and the poetics of theatre as an interdisciplinary system of thought and performance. Theatre functions as a composite art production comprising dance (nrtya), song (gana), instrumental music (Atodya) and enactment (abhinaya). The poetics of this theatre provides thoughts, techniques, and instrumental frameworks for performance, based on an interdisciplinary reflection upon space, body, mind, motion, sound, memory, consciousness and theatre in relation to the other disciplines of knowledge.
This book attempts to examine the poetics of theatre in early India by interpreting a system of theatre and performance along several themes such as theatre’s place in the premodern interdisciplinary knowledge systems, theatre space and architecture, cognition and emotion, performance, experience and consciousness, human and social behaviour, and music. While focusing mainly on the aphoristic statements on theatre by Bharata in his Natyasastra (third century bce), the book responds to the principles of theatre and literature discussed and debated in a tradition of texts such as Nandikesvara’s Abhinaya Darpana (fifth-fourth century bce), Rajasekhara’s Kavyamimasa (tenth century ce) and Abhinavagupta’s Abhinavabharata (tenth-eleventh century ce). The major concepts elaborated in the book consist of the types of theatre space (ranga), forms of mental/emotive states (bhavas), forms of consciousness (rasas), human and regional variations of performance (vrtti and pravrtti), forms of vocal and instrumental music (gana and atodya), and various others. Divided into eight chapters, each addressing an aspect of theatre, the book is premised upon the argument that theatre poetics of early India presents a coordinated world of inner experience rooted in the self (citta) formed by cognition, emotion and consciousness, but that which develops on stage into an artistic network created by the primitive human behaviour, body, senses, space, sound and the external world, including the varieties of the social world.
This volume presents the translation and interpretation of thirteen principal Upanisads such as Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kausitaki, Kena, Katha, Isa, Mundaka, Prasna, Mandukya, Svetasvatara and Maitri along with the outline of the philosophical wisdom inherent in these Upanisads. It also features the recurrent and parallel passages in these principal Upanisads and the Bhagavadgita.
Upanisads are an authoritative compendium of Indian metaphysics. They represent the earnest efforts of profound thinkers of early India to solve the problems of origin, nature, and destiny of man and the universe, more technically the meaning and value of knowing and being. They are replete with sublime conceptions and with intuitions of universal truth. These Upanisads sets forth two opposing theories: one of mundane life and the other relating to a life that is in search of the Supreme Reality and man’s ultimate aim.
Though, traditionally, 108 Upanisads are well known and subject to various studies, there are around 200 Upanisads in toto. Of them, this volume contains the translation and interpretation of thirteen principal Upanisads such as Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kausitaki, Kena, Katha, Isa, Mundaka, Prasna, Mandukya, Svetasvatara and Maitri along with the outline of the philosophical wisdom inherent in these Upanisads. It also features the recurrent and parallel passages in these principal Upanisads and the Bhagavadgita.
The Ramayana has effected incessantly the Indian consciousness for more 2,500 years. Its moral and ethical impact and relevance are par excellence of its poetic beauty and dramatic narrative. It gave a new praxis to the dharmic mores of the Indian psyche. The Valmiki Ramayana as Epic and Dharmasastra: Reading the adikavya as an Ethical Guide is derived from a series of three lectures that Prof. Dr Robert Goldman delivered at the Department of Philosophy, Jadavpur University in 2016 as a visiting professor.
The book, while taking an overview of the Sanskrit epics as poetry, history and science, takes one through the dilemma that Dasaratha faces due to his denying kingdom to Rama and the latter’s going for vanavasa, the ethical and moral challenges that Rama faces in his war with Ravana and others, and in the ethical shift that Rama undergoes from his compassionate and self-sacrificing moral code to a more rigid dharmasastra and arthasastra-oriented mode of royal conduct in the last part of the epic. All this, looking back over the various situations, episodes and responses of the principal characters in the epic drama.
The Ramayana thus functions not only as as a grand kavya and an ithihasa, but also as a dharmasastra and a nitisastra as well.
It vividly and graphically presents the key concepts of the Bhagavadgita while majorly discussing the concepts like atman, Paramatman, jagat, karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, bhakti-yoga, dhyana-yoga, sthitaprajna, sadhakas’ challenges and the ways out.
This volume covers all the aspects of Yoga and self-management discussed in the Bhagavadgita –– a comprehensive text of personal and professional life management and adhyatma-sadhana (spiritual upgradation). What makes the book special is its dialogue format between a guru and his disciple as exactly what we witness in the Bhagavadgita as between Sri Krsna and Arjuna.
It vividly and graphically presents the key concepts of the Bhagavadgita while majorly discussing the concepts like karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, bhakti-yoga, dhyana-yoga, sthitaprajna, and seven keys of self upgradation, which leads towards Health, Happiness and Harmony, challenges and the ways out.
This book will help in the making broader understanding of the concepts and philosophy of the Bhagavadgita, which transcends time and space, to register with the new generation readers and thereby emulate and practise the varied forms of Yoga.
This book, which highlights and engages one to the theory of karma that is in vogue from the Vedic times and reinforced by the Brahmasūtra and the Bhagavadgītā, talks about one’s karma-phala and supplies enough material on karma-adhikāratva, jīva-kartr̥tva and the divine intervention.
Creation is a process, where the potential insentient matter (prakr̥ti) gets manifested into the gross form, to embody during the sr̥ṣṭi, each of the sentient entities called the ātmas with the suitable body either of deva, manuṣya, jaṅgama or of sthāvara. This glorious activity is orchestrated by the one and only Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient Reality called Brahman. But one question remains still an enigma, as to why a particular sentient entity gets a specified body and through whose direction that decision arrives? The ancient Vedāntic knowledge reinforced by the Brahmasūtra and the Bhagavadgītā establishes that it is, purely and solidly, the result (karma-phala) of earlier actions (karmas) of each one of the sentient entities. This is a strong and formidable solution to the unanswered questions like why does, one child being blessed to be born in either rich or healthy and sāttvic family and another child being consigned to be born in a family living in poor conditions or unhealthy tāmasic environment.
This book would engage the readers to think on those lines by supplying enough material on karma-adhikāratva, jīva-kartr̥tva and Divine intervention.
Thinker, Thought and Knowledge critically and analytically reasons that some of the philosophical expositions like “thought has created the thinker” and “higher-order thoughts are themselves conscious” hinder us from explaining our sense of unity of consciousness. This book presents and elucidates some observations — thought cannot create thinker; along with thinker and thought, thinking too is quintessential for individual experience to take place; thinker, thinking and thought are fundamentally one in self-consciousness; thought becomes the object of self-consciousness; and the modern science attempts to undermine the principle of causation — from the East—West perspective, and registers its disproval with the philosophical views of scholars like J. Krishnamurti and a few other modern philosophers. Coming to the knowledge aspect, the volume delineates the relative existence and knowledge dealing with the absolute reality, and discusses it on the basis of Advaita Vedanta and the Yogacara Vijiianavada of the Buddhist philosophy along with Immanuel Kant’s theory of knowledge. The researcher’s approach employed in this volume should help the students of philosophy and other discerning readers take an analytical and critical positioning towards many a philosophical problem that they come across.
| Tirumurai is the sacred poetry in the Saiva tradition of ancient Tamilnadu. Sung to the rhythm of percussion, string and reed instruments, the devotional outpouring of saints and poets known as Nayanars of the fifth to the twelfth century CE reflect the religious and cultural mores of the people. This book attempts to capture the grandeur of this vast, fascinating subject by presenting a detailed overview of the salient features. Beginning with an introduction to Nataraja Tattvam and Tamil Isai, all twelve Tirumurai are explained. Each chapter begins with the life story of the Nayanar followed by an analysis of the poetry with explanation of paN (raga) and sthala puranam. A few select songs from each Tirumurai are presented in the original Tamil with Romanized transliteration as well as English translation, made available in an online audio album complementing this book. Foreword by Lakshmi Viswanathan |
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