-
That Thou Art...
That Thou Art
by: Ramakrishna PuligandlaThis book is an excellent exposition of the complex philosophy of Advaita. A special feature of the book is that it inspires the readers to inquire deeply into their own traditions and undertake the mystical quest.
₹171.00
ISBN: 9788124605271
Year Of Publication: 2009
Edition: 1st
Pages : xx, 146
Bibliographic Details : Glossary; Bibliography; Index
Language : English
Binding : Paperback
Publisher: D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.
Size: 22
Weight: 250
Written with extraordinary clarity and elegance, this book is an excellent exposition of the complex philosophy of Advaita. A special feature of the book is that it inspires the readers to inquire deeply into their own traditions and undertake the mystical quest. The author’s emphasis on first-hand truth is indeed heartening, for, as he says quite rightly, ultimate questions are too important to be left for others to determine the answers. Professor Puligandla approaches Vedanta as a free and independent thinker with a desire to modernize its format and shows the key to search and reach the highest form of living truth by tracing the single theme of non-dualism.
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Central Upanishadic Insights
2. Clarification and Discussion
3. Philosophical Significance
4. Philosophical Significance (Continued)
5. Religious Significance
6. Concluding Remarks and Reflections
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
-
Sale!Seven Weeks In ‘Little Tibet’: Philosophic Travelling in Ladakh ₹225.00
A German lady, a veteran Yoga practitioner, travels to Ladakh, also known as ‘Little Tibet’. There she dives as much into life in its bustling capital Leh as into moonlike landscapes and Buddhist locales. She spends a week in a solitary meditation cabin, goes on a trek and meets not just Ladakhis but also interesting fellow travellers from all over the globe.
So is this a travelogue? Or are these musings in a journal? Yes, but also much more. Charmed by her chatty narration, spiced with irony and humour, you are gently led to contemplations on life and living, changes wrought by globalization, man-woman relationships, cultural differences, loss of identities, fear as an inherent part of the human psyche and the burgeoning objects of enjoyment versus the diminishing capacity to enjoy.
Before you know it, you realise that HellaNaura’s deep reflections have awakened in you a need to integrate some spiritual viewpoints into your busy modern life. Why? Because her experiences and many joys, in spite of several difficulties, are a proof that a ‘spiritual’ outlook is an effective antidote to the crafty seduction by material and sensual gratifications. And, as she notes, even parts of Ladakhi society – formerly happy, prosperous and woven tightly together with warmth and intimacy – seem to be succumbing to its lures.
-
Sale!Sleeping to Dream and Dreaming to Wake Up ₹1,440.00
“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.
“ -
Sale!First Five Brahmasūtras (विज्ञानभिक्षोः ब्रह्मसूत्रपञ्चचसूत्रीभाष्यम्) ₹990.00
This is an annotated English translation of Vijñānabhikṣu’s commentaries on the first five Brahmasūtra (BS) of Bādarāyaṇa called the Vijñānāmṛtabhāṣya (VijBh). This is a pioneering work as no translation of the VijBh has been done so far. Bhikṣu is perhaps the only known Vedānta scholar who has argued for Brahman along with his prakṛti-śakti being the cause of the world. He calls his Advaita philosophy as Avibhāga-Advaita and sets himself against Śaṅkara’s Advaita which argues for Brahman alone being the material and efficient cause of the world. Bhikṣu is also an unique Advaita scholar as he interprets Vedānta using Sāṁkhya/Yoga principles. One of the reasons for choosing to comment on only the first five sūtras was because the VijBh is a huge work and also because Bhikṣu’s Avibhāga-Advaita can easily be understood from his commentaries on these first five sūtras of the BS. Even though the real reason for Bhikṣu’s commentary on the fifth sūtra (BS I.1.5) should be clear to anyone familiar with Vedānta’s objection to prakṛti being the cause of the world, it needed to be seen as to how Bhikṣu, as a committed Sāṁkhya-Yoga-Vedāntācārya, defends prakṛti’s role in being the cause. Just as writing commentaries on the first four sūtras of Śaṅkara’s BSBh done by some eminent scholars present the main features of Śaṅkara’s Advaita, the commentaries on the first five sūtras of the BS by Bhikṣu could adequately present Bhikṣu’s Avibhāga-Advaita Vedānta.
-
Sale!Abhinavaguptas Hermeneutics of the Absolute ₹1,620.00
The Paratrishika Vivarana by the great Kashmiri philosopher and mystic Abhinavagupta is an extensive commentary on the Paratrishika Tantra, and it is one of the most profound texts, not only of non-dualist Kashmir Shaivism, but of Indian philosophy and mysticism in general. The present work attempts to make this difficult text accessible, by culling out the important themes and offering an interpretation. The main focus is on the understanding of the Absolute (Anuttara) and the ways to realize it. The central theme of mantra also leads to a mysticism of language with its philosophical implications. All these reflections and practices are inscribed in the theory that everything is related to the totality, every part contains the whole of reality (sarvam sarvatmakam). It is this holistic vision of Abhinavagupta, based on the Tantras, which makes this work so relevant in our times of fragmented aspects of life and knowledge in search of integration. No doubt, in the view of the Tantra and of Abhinavagupta, language and mantra provide the key.
This fascinating book is an important contribution to studies and interpretations on Kashmir Shaivism, its spirituality and philosophy, and on Abhinavagupta in particular. -
Sale!Modern Civilization ₹720.00
The crisis of the age inheres in this, that notwithstanding the century’s mind-numbing disasters, it persists in subscribing to propositions which have logically led to the atomization of the whole cloth of human experiencing, and being. Great indeed is the value which is placed on the procedure of analytic dismemberment. While the method has certainly been result-producing, materially, in its wake it has brought immense suffering – both physical and spiritual. The price paid for a lopsided advance is thirty major wars – with their toll of one hundred and thirty million lives, and the irreparable destruction of the natural environment. The time demands a reappraisal of the basic paradigms of human existence, but the hegemony of well-entrenched vested interests – material or intellectual – would seem to preclude this.
The “advanced” people among the mankind of the day become suicidally specialized. For, if the mechanical model of thought has been of advantage in man’s preceding unfolding, the same, what may be called the “survival” paradigm, now creates dangerous dualities, binary oppositions (you–me, body–mind, East–West, etc). The model has outlived its usefulness merely enforcing dormancy on a major part of the human brain.
It behoves mankind to choose wisely right now – since parallel to the socio-economic, scientific and technological revolutions there has got to be the overdue radical psychic transformation. The first step towards clearing the fateful crisis would therefore be to be aware and end the hold of the linear, causal, mechanical thought orientation over the intellectual culture of the times.
Delving deep into the epistemological cum ontological causation of the emergency confronting the being and becoming of man, this volume provokes the thoughtful lay reader to a serious engagement with his or her self.
