World as Image...
World as Image
by: Arvind SharmaBook exploring one of Advaita Vedantas central illustrative themes with which it tries to render its doctrines credible in the face of our experience of plurality and variety in life.
Original price was: ₹200.00.₹180.00Current price is: ₹180.00.
ISBN: 9788124603628
Year Of Publication: 2006
Edition: 1st
Pages : vii, 110
Bibliographic Details : Bibliography; Indices
Language : English
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher: D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.
Size: 23 cm.
Weight: 400
There is something profoundly counter-intuitive about Advaita Vedanta. Nothing is more obvious to both the philosophical as well as the non-philosophical observer than the fact that multiplicity constitutes the basic datum of our experience. Variety is not only the spice of life it is a cardinal fact of life. The doctrines of Advaita Vedanta shock us by flying in the face of this fact and by denying any ultimacy to that plurality and variety which we experience so intimately. This naturally raises the question: how does Adavita Vedanta render its doctrines credible in the face their apparent implausibility. This book is an exploration of one of its central illustrative devices with which it tries to accomplish this daunting task.
Preface
1. Introduction
2. The Metaphor of Reflection in Advaita Vedanta
3. The Role of Avidya
4. Some Conclusions Based on Traditional Views
5. The Metaphor of Reflection in a Modern Setting
6. Sleep, Samadhi and the Metaphor of the Image: Soteriological Issues
7. Epistemological Issues
8. Limitations of the Metaphor
9. Conclusion
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
- Sale!Sex and Sex Worship Original price was: ₹1,990.00.₹1,980.00Current price is: ₹1,980.00.
Mankind, when it gave expression to its first dawning of religious thoughts, wove a fabric of myths and theories about religion, the warp of which ran through from earliest historical times to our own days as threads of the warp of philosophies and theories about sex, male, female, love, passion, lust, desire, procreation, offspring, etc. The succeeding ages and civilizations wove into its warp the woof of the individual religions, myths and fables of gods and goddesses, so that the whole fabric of beliefs became refined as mankind itself advanced.
Sex and Sex Worship is the result of a long-time, arduous study of the concept of sex and the worship of phallus in various civilizations and in the development of different religions, modern and old, over a period of many millennia. The book makes one grasp a lot of topics associated with sex and sex symbols such as nature of sex and reproduction, status of women, cosmo-gonies, sex in man and animal, sexual relationship of gods and goddesses, virgin worship, phallic festivals, among many, while making it clear that the worship of generative organs was rather a use of representations of phallus and yoni as symbols for certain religious ideas which were embodied in nature worship.
It also vividly talks about the concept of sex and sex organs in art and ethics, sculpture, art anatomy, etc. The contents in toto lead one to the myriad aspects and concerns associated with sex and phallic worship. It is a must read for a scholar and a common man alike. - Sale!Mind and Cognition An Interdisciplinary Sharing Original price was: ₹4,000.00.₹3,600.00Current price is: ₹3,600.00.
“Knowing one’s tradition is important; but only when tradition is not presented as fossilised but as continuous with our present-day living. In most places we do not make enough effort to show the link between the classical philosophical thoughts and the contemporary world view. We need to show that we can still meaningfully interact with the classical philosophical systems”, writes Amita Chatterjee in her seminal essay “In Search of Counterpoints”. This volume is dedicated in her honour. “Knowing one’s tradition is important; but only when tradition is not presented as fossilised but as continuous with our present-day living. In most places we do not make enough effort to show the link between the classical philosophical thoughts and the contemporary world view. We need to show that we can still meaningfully interact with the classical philosophical systems”, writes Amita Chatterjee in her seminal essay “In Search of Counterpoints”. This volume is dedicated in her honour. Chatterjee belongs to a genre of philosophers, who have as part of their cultural heritage, like Raghunath Siromani and Immanuel Kant. Chatterjee, in addition to breaking cultural boundaries, desired to break boundaries that have kept professional disciplines apart. She deeply believes that there are certain basic questions that are questions not for any specific discipline. These questions, she thinks, could not be answered by remaining within one single discipline. It is no surprise that she was the founder of the first Cognitive Science Centre in India. Responding to her multifaceted academic talent, forty academics from diverse disciplines and from all over the world have contributed papers to this volume. The major areas of Chatterjee’s interest that feature in this volume are: (i) Fusion Philosophy, (ii) Mind and Cognition, (iii) Mind and Perception, (iv) Mind and Language, (v) Logic and Vagueness, (vi) Logic, (vii) Indian Philosophy, and (viii) Philosophy, Society and Popular Culture. Chatterjee’s intellectual autobiography and her responses to each of the papers are parts of this volume.
ISBN 9788124609514 (vol. 1)
ISBN 9788124609521 (vol. 2)
- Sale!Navya Nyaya Philosophy of Language Original price was: ₹400.00.₹360.00Current price is: ₹360.00.
This book represents the philosophy of language in Navya-Nyaya, based upon an analysis of the “Verbal Suffix Chapter” (Akhyatavada) of Gangesha’s Tattvacintamani. Since this chapter elaborates what kind of verbal understanding is generated and discusses related issues, the book demonstrates the main features of that philosophy of language and serves as a good introduction to that. The analysis mainly deals with Gangesha, but in some cases it refers to Raghunatha. Since the book is an attempt to pursue philological exactness and philosophical analysis, it is hoped to interest not only Sanskrit scholars, but also philosophers in general.
The book consists of four lectures. Lecture I clarifies Gangesha’s view of the meaning of the suffixes of a finite verb, which (meaning) is greatly disputed among the Navya-Nyaya philosophers, the Mimamsa philosophers, and the Grammarians. Lecture II investigates how Gangesha determines the meaning of words and illustrates that his method bears upon ontological categories of Vaisheshika. Lecture III deals with Gangesha’s “Five Definitions of Invariable Concomitance Section” (Vyaptipancaka) and elucidates the relation between meaning and the logical structure of the definitions. The lecture also provides diagrams as a tool to represent the structure. Lecture IV explains the realistic standpoint of Navya-Nyaya by clarifying the concept of the counterpositive (pratiyogin) of absence (abhava), or a thing whose existence is negated, focusing on empty terms or non-factual expressions such as “a round triangle”, “the present King of France”, “a rabbit’s horn”, and so forth. The lecture delineates how Udayana, Gangesha, and Raghunatha observed and, as the time passed, did realism thoroughly in language analysis. - Sale!Kundalini Original price was: ₹600.00.₹540.00Current price is: ₹540.00.
“Tantra, an exposition of Sri-vidya, is a thread of Vedic tantu. This ray of the light of consciousness folds upon itself as a coil (kundala) forming the coiled energies of the conscious universe, thus becoming kundalini.
This book looks at Tantra from a different perspective against the common view of it being more associated with its carnal/sexual nature. Tantra is the “art of celibacy”. Human beings are a wave in the ocean of Consciousness and this wave passes through our psycho-physiological complex compound, forming the personal kundalini. All sensations in human body are manifestations of the presence of kuõóalinã. Our desires are the signals released by the kundalini. Different psycho-physical apparatuses are plugged into it like electric plugs in different socket.
This volume, while portraying kundalini from its psycho-physical and spiritual implications and impacts, tries to alleviate some misconceptions about the nature of cakras — the consciousness centres. It deals at length with the phenomena of higher levels of spiritual evolution — “raising the kundalini” and “opening the cakras” — helping one drop all mental habit patterns to achieve “liberation”.
This book is a “must read” for the practitioners of Yoga and all who want to take their spiritual life to a new realm. “ - Sale!Science and Spirituality Original price was: ₹1,000.00.₹900.00Current price is: ₹900.00.
A dialogue between science and spirituality is a necessity in our times where both, differences and mutual enrichment of the two great fields of human approach to reality, are taking place. This volume addresses this need from the perspective of different areas of science and spiritual traditions. The starting point is the intention of the founder of the IIAS, Dr S. Radhakrishnan, who saw that “both the practice of science and experience of spirituality are intimately related to being human”. Although much thought has gone into their relationship, the present volume intends to broaden and deepen the possibility of a harmonious integration, necessary to overcome the present-day crisis of humanity.
From the side of science, the contributors come from the fields of physics, plant biology, neuroscience, psychology, ecology and philosophy of science; and from the side of spirituality, following traditions and spiritual masters are represented: PÀtaðjala Yoga, Trika Œaivism of Kashmir, VedÀnta, Buddhism, Christianity, Theosophy, and Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and J. Krishnamurti. The deliberations included topics such as Awareness in plants, Neuroplasticity and Habit, appropriate use of terms such as “Consciousness” and “Energy” in different contexts, clarifying several issues concerning the on-going dialogue. The contributing scholars have built “bridges of understanding”, thus encouraging the reader to proceed further in this quest.
