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Purifying the Earthl...
Purifying the Earthly Body of God
Religion and Ecology in Hindu India by: Lance E. NelsonExamining the relation between religion and ecological concern in Hinduism, the book covers aspects like the ecological implications of pilgrimage, worship of earth and river goddesses, and Vedanta and Tantra theologies. It discusses how traditional ideas affect contemporary Indian thought.
$20.00
ISBN: 9788124601556
Year Of Publication: 2000
Edition: 1st
Pages : ix, 366
Language : English
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher: D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.
Size: 23 cm.
Weight: 700
Examining the relation between religion and ecological concern in Hinduism from textual, theological, anthropological, feminist, and eco-activist approaches, this volume brings together an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars. The book covers the most relevant aspects of the Hindu tradition, searching out the ecological implications of pilgrimage and sacred geography, earth and river goddesses, the beliefs and ritual practice of villagers, caste consciousness and Vedanta, Tantra, and Goddess theologies. The book considers, in a thoughtful and analytical way, a timely issue: how important and basic traditional ideas like asceticism, karma and rebirth, and purity and impurity influence contemporary Indian thinking about the environment. It has an impressive and diverse array of contributors, and there is a nice balance of theory and fieldwork. It shows well how India is sacred ground (and water).
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I
Theological and Textual Perspectives
1. Toward an Indigenous Indian Environmentalism
— Christopher Key Chapple
2. The Ecological Implications of Karma Theory
— Harold Coward
3. Attitudes to Nature in the Early Upanishads
— Arvind Sharma
4. The Dualism of Nondualism: Advaita Vedanta and the Irrelevance of Nature
— Lance E. Nelson
5. Sacred Immanence: Reflections of Ecofeminism in Hindu Tantra
— Rita Das Gupta Sherma
6. Models and Images for a Vaishnava Environmental Theology: The Potential Contribution of Shrivaishnavism
— Patricia Y. Mumme
Part II
Views from the Field
7. Sin and Rain: Moral Ecology in Rural North India
— Ann Grodzins Gold
8. On the Ethics and Aesthetics of Recycling in India
— Frank J. Koron
9. Learning the Story of the Land: Reflections on the Liberating Power of Geography and Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition
— David Kinsley
10. Theology and Ecology at the Birthplace of Krishna
— Bruce M. Sullivan
11. The Earth as Goddess Bhu Devi: Toward a Theory of Embedded Ecologies in Folk Hinduism
— Vijaya Rettakudi Nagarajan
12. Idioms of Degeneracy: Assessing Gangas Purity and Pollution
— Kalley D. Alley
Conclusion
— Lance E. Nelson
Contributors
Index
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Sleeping to Dream and Dreaming to Wake Up $54.00
“Dreams play a significant role in our life, meaningfully affecting us in the development of our personality and our spiritual journey. They are an everyday experience for any human being. Dreams have always been of great interest to poets and philosophers alike since ancient times and examples are aplenty in Indian and Western scriptures. However, it is an uphill task for an ordinary person to fully appreciate the intricacies and significance of dreams in the day-to-day life. It is here that this book proves as an invaluable guide providing deep understanding on the nature of dream and sleep.
This book is a repertoire of human wisdom – gathered for centuries and attested by the modern science – offering enormous insights into our dream and deep-sleep states. It asks, from a common man’s point of view, many a question that perturb us and provides answers to them from the scientific and spiritual perspectives in a captivating way. Some such questions include:
• Do we see dreams in black and white or in colour?
• What does a visually-challenged person see in his dreams?
• Why are some of our dreams extraordinarily vivid with electric colours, the clarity and brilliance of which, we may never encounter in our ordinary waking lives?
• Why are we non-reflective, irrational in our dreams?
• Are the dream time and waking time equal?
• How does our memory work in dream state? Why do we forget our dreams and is it possible to improve dream recall and cultivate awareness in dreams?
• Why do we fail to distinguish a dream object from the physical world object while we are dreaming?
• If the dream experience exactly feels like the real world and we fail to distinguish it from the waking world while we are dreaming, how can we be certain that we are not dreaming now?
• How does a dream contain various persons exhibiting opposite emotions at the same time when all the dream characters including the witnessing dreamer are produced out of single mind of the dreaming person?
• Can we intentionally transform the dream scenarios? If so, what would be the philosophical implications of it?
• Can dreams and sleeps be utilized for spiritual elevation?
… and many more questions we always wondered about the daily eight hours of our bed time, but never got the right answers to! We find new meanings and ways in dealing with our dreams in this volume, therefore, it is a must read for every dream enthusiast as well as any serious spiritual seeker.
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Vada in Theory and Practice $44.00
Vada, meaning debates, dialogues, discussions, was the quintessential of Indian spirit, enabling and promoting the growth of different philosophical and knowledge systems of India. It percolated deep into our mindset and enriched the moral, ethical, religious and sociocultural edifice of anything that was essentially Indian in nature. As continuation of Anvikshiki from the bc era, vada helped thrive Indian traditional knowledge systems. It subsists on diversity and its tradition envisages pluralism.
Most of our Sanskrit works, covering a wide gamut of knowledge systems, are structured in the techniques of debate. This reality applies not only to the philosophical writings, but to Indian medical systems (Ayurveda), Arthashastra of Kautilya and Kamasutra of Vatsyayana as well. Even great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata are no exceptions.
Vada culture involved verbal duals, attacks and even violence of speech, and all major religious systems — old or modern — were parties to it. This book also elucidates how vata was vital and critical for the growth of our socio-political fabrics. It shows how some of the major conflicts in philosophical systems were centred around karma, jnana, choice between violence and non-violence, pravritti and nivritti. It also presents the manifestations of vada on a vast canvas during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Modern spiritual and religious gurus like Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti and Vinoba Bhave were men of dialogues. Our scholars have applied the varied techniques of vada against the philosophical and scientific systems of the West to prove them correct.
This collector’s issue should enthrall a wide audience of philosophers, scholars and believers in Indian knowledge systems. -
Theory of Karma: As Interpreted in Brahmasutra and Bhagavadgita $40.00
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. -
An Intergrated Science of the Absolute (2 Vols. Set) $80.00
It is not just the magnum opus, but a truly monumental effort of a scientist-philosopher who has spent a whole lifetime to formulate a unitive science, wherein all disciplines of human questing could find a common ground a science where modern science and ancient spiritual wisdom could meet and merge like two opposite poles of a magnet. As a direct disciple of one of the great rishis of the modern age, Nataraja Guru discovers this common ground in Brahma-vidya, which he calls the Integrated Science of the Absolute, and which has, at its base, his Gurus Dars?ana Mala.
A string of hundred Sanskrit verses, composed by the mystic-poet, Narayana Guru (18541928), the Darsana Mala is the very epitome of all visions of truth inspired by his remarkable acquisitions of Upanisadic thought and, yet far more, by his own tapas (mystical discipline). Reproducing these highly significative verses in Roman script, along with English translations, word meanings, and extensive commentaries, Nataraja Guru not only spells out his mentors Visions of the Absolute in contemporary idiom, but also shows how these visions are fully validated by modern science.
Eclectic synthesis of varied scientific disciplines into a systematic whole is not all that Nataraja Guru accomplishes here. Rather, his book (now in third edition) is an attempt to reintroduce Brahma-vidya as the one Master Science that embraces every branch of science, every human interest. -
Vedanta for the Western World $57.00
Vedanta for the Western World is a collection of sixty-eight articles appeared in a magazine having the same title during 1938-45 by eminent scholars of international repute such as Aldous Huxley, Allan Hunter, Gerald Heard and Swami Prabhavananda reflecting on the varied aspects and universal reflections of Vedanta, with an Introduction by Christopher Isherwood. Vedanta, the Vedic philosophy per se, and not time-specific, focuses on three fundamental propositions that man’s real nature is divine; aim of human life is to realize this divine nature; and all religions are essentially in agreement as far as this divine concept is concerned. The essays featured in this volume imbibe and exude the same philosophy being best suited to the understanding of new generation audience, especially the one that belongs to the Western world. This unique volume stands out in its genera of works due to a wide gamut of topics featured in it under the umbrella banner Vedanta. It enables every student of Vedanta know the essence of the Vedic philosophies from the perspectives of both Indian and Western scholars and men of merit.
