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Approaching the Divine: The Integration of Āḻvār Bhakti in Śrīvaiṣṇavism is situated in the context of the ongoing scholarly debate regarding the historical evolution of Tamil Śrīvaiṣṇavism. This study spans the period from the second half of the first millennium, i.e. the bhakti period to the period of consolidation of the scriptural and sectarian tradition in the first half of the second millennium. Traditionally, the lives of the bhakti saints have been used to understand their hymns. Examination of these hagiographies through the lenses of theology, caste, sectarian conflict and popular legends, however, suggests that these life stories might themselves be constructs of the latter period, and are governed by socio-economic and political impulses as much as by spiritual ones. This work attempts to trace the process whereby a Sanskritic brahmanical tradition and a devotional Tamil folk tradition were knit together, arguing that the ways in which the saint-poets' hymns were interpreted and integrated contained elements of both continuity and change.
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhup?da (1896-1977), founder of the Hare Krishna Movement, traced his lineage to the fifteenth-century Indian saint Sri Chaitanya. He authored more than fifty volumes of English translation and commentaries on Sanskrit and Bengali texts, serving as a medium between these distant authorities and his modern Western readership and using his writings as blueprints for spiritual change and a revolution in consciousness. He had to speak the language of a people vastly disparate from the original recipients of his tradition's scriptures without compromising fidelity to the tradition. Tamal Krishna Goswami claims that the social scientific, philosophical, and 'insider' forms of investigation previously applied have failed to explain the presence of a powerful interpretative device-a mahavakya or 'great utterance'-that governs and pervades Prabhupada's 'living theology' of devotion on bhakti. For Prabhupada, the wide range of 'vedic' subject matter is governed by the axiomatic truth: Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Goswami's academic training at the University of Cambridge, his thirty years' experience as a practitioner and teacher, and his extensive interactions with Prabhupada as both personal secretary and managerial representative, afforded him a unique opportunity to understand and illuminate the theological contribution of Prabhupada. In this work, Goswami proves that the voice of the scholar-practitioner can be intimately connected with his tradition while sustaining a mature critical stance relative to his subject. A Living Theology of Krishna Bhakti includes a critical introduction and conclusion by Graham M. Schweig.
This is a scholarly book on one of the oldest living religions of India. Tracing the basic tenets of Vaisnavism to the hymns of Rgveda the earliest religious literature of the world, the author has shown how an ancient cult has developed itself by successive stages into a well-formulated monotheistic system in the hands of Ramanuja and his illustrious followers. In the second part of the book the fundamental philosophical theories of Visistadvaita Vedanta are presented to prove that Vaisnavism is not a mere religious cult, but has a credible philosophic foundation.
"This book analyses the concepts of God in Vaisnavism, which is commonly referred to as one of the great Hindu monotheistic traditions. Addressing the question of what attributes God possesses according to particular textual sources and traditions in Vaisnavism, the book analyses Vaisnava traditions and texts in order to locate them within a global philosophical framework. The book is divided into two sections. The first one, God in Vaisnava Texts, deals with concepts of God found in the canonical Vaisnava texts: the Bhavagad Gita, the Bhagavata Purana, the Pancaratras, and the Mahabharata. The second section, God in Vaisnava Traditions, addresses concepts of God found in several Vaisnava traditions and their respective key theologians. As well as the Alvars, five traditional Vaisnava schools- the Sri Vaisnava tradition, the Madhva tradition, the Nimbarka tradition, the Pustimarga tradition, and the Caitanya Vaisnava tradition- and two contemporary ones Ramakrishna's and Swami Bhaktivedanta's are considered. The book combines normative, critical and descriptive elements. Some chapters are philosophical in nature, others are more descriptive, unpacking a specific Vaiòsònava concept of God for future philosophical analysis and critique. Written by experts who break new ground in presenting and representing a diversity of Vaiòsònava texts and tradition, the book presents approaches that reflect the amount of philosophical and historical deliberation on the specific issues and divine attributes considered. This book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of philosophy of religion and Indian philosophy, cross-cultural and comparative philosophy, analytic philosophy of religion, Hindu studies, theology and religious studies"--
Language is a Developmental, social and cultural phenomenon. When Urdu started its literary journey, writing also treasured it and today we are proud of the great collection of Urdu books. Urdu lovers have also done a remarkable job in writing books on various topics and in conveying the standard writings to the Urdu circles by giving them solid ink. This book although written in English, is one such masterpiece by Krishna S. Dhir. However, it clearly reflects the love of the writer for the Urdu language and its literature. The beginning of this book is an excellent illustration of how the various apabhransha of South Asia interacted with Perso-Arabic and European languages, to give rise to various languages, including Urdu and how they grew up through the time of the Mughals and the British. How all the major religions of the world originated in the Asian continent and the observation of Sufis are highlighted in the second chapter of this book. The role of social and economic institutions and traditions in the evolution of Urdu has been shed light upon. Krishna S. Dhir has painstakingly elaborated upon the protest literature and extensively quoted Mir, Ghalib, Daagh Dehlvi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Faiz Ahmad, Ahmad Fraz and other poets to prove how Urdu poetry has been used to protest against siege, raids, imprisonment, imperialism and colonisation, and to express love and peace. Finally, the writer explores how Urdu is deployed by the diaspora that uses it.
The most comprehensive guide to Norse literature, historical folk lore and more. Kvilhaug peels back the layers of the Eddas, Poems and Sagas to reveal hidden truths within Maria's background in research and archaeology is visible throughout with full illustrations, timelines and beautiful translations of passages providing the key to unlocking and deciphering the hidden wisdom within. Her exploration of modern interpretations, past parables, and related cultural mythos provides a deeper layer into the mysteries of Old Norse practices.
The historical shift from Vedic traditions to post-Vedic bhakti (devotional) traditions is accompanied by a shift from abstract, translocal notions of divinity to particularized, localized notions of divinity and a corresponding shift from aniconic to iconic traditions and from temporary sacrificial arenas to established temple sites. In Bhakti and Embodiment Barbara Holdrege argues that the various transformations that characterize this historical shift are a direct consequence of newly emerging discourses of the body in bhakti traditions in which constructions of divine embodiment proliferate, celebrating the notion that a deity, while remaining translocal, can appear in manifold corporeal forms in different times and different localities on different planes of existence. Holdrege suggests that an exploration of the connections between bhakti and embodiment is critical not only to illuminating the distinctive transformations that characterize the emergence of bhakti traditions but also to understanding the myriad forms that bhakti has historically assumed up to the present time. This study is concerned more specifically with the multileveled models of embodiment and systems of bodily practices through which divine bodies and devotional bodies are fashioned in Krsna bhakti traditions and focuses in particular on two case studies: the Bhagavata Purana, the consummate textual monument to Vaisnava bhakti, which expresses a distinctive form of passionate and ecstatic bhakti that is distinguished by its embodied nature; and the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition, an important bhakti tradition inspired by the Bengali leader Caitanya in the sixteenth century, which articulates a robust discourse of embodiment pertaining to the divine bodies of Krsna and the devotional bodies of Krsna bhaktas that is grounded in the canonical authority of the Bhagavata Purana.