The Greatness of Saturn is such a therapeutic myth, told and retold through many centuries. Taken from the Vedic tradition, it honors the planet Saturn, who personifies time, limitation, loss, and all forms of adversity.No person goes through life without sometime being touched by Saturn. This book presents a classic Saturn story and a clear view of the cosmology from which the story came. As we hear the story and come to understand its context, we experience a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.

    This refreshing approach to happiness acknowledges the capacity for personal enthusiasm through the experience of God's constant presence in the heart.

    David Kinsley's new book documents a highly unusual group of ten Hindu tantric goddesses, the Mahavidyas, many of whom are strongly associated with sexuality and violence. What is one to make of a goddess who cuts her own head off, or one who prefers sex with a corpse? The Mahavidyas embody habits, attributes, or identities usually considered repulsive or socially subversive and can be viewed as "antimodels" for women. Yet it is within the context of tantric worship that devotees seek to identify themselves with these forbidding goddesses. The Mahavidyas seem to function as "awakeners"—symbols which help to project one's consciousness beyond the socially acceptable or predictable.Drawing on a broad range of Sanskrit and vernacular texts as well as extensive research in India, including written and oral interpretations of contemporary Hindu practitioners, Kinsley describes the unusual qualities of each of the Mahavidyas and traces the parallels between their underlying themes. Especially valuable are the many rare and fascinating images he presents—each important to grasping the significance of the goddesses. Written in an accessible, engaging style, Kinsley's book provides a comprehensive understanding of the Mahavidyas and is also an overview of Hindu tantric practice.

    Although set down in writing centuries apart, the Bhagavad Gita and the Uddhava Gita share Krishna's core advice on developing a more complete personal consciousness. But unlike the urgency of an impending battle that drives Krishna's dialogue in the Bhagavad Gita, this dialogue with his dear old friend Uddhava takes place on the eve of Krishna's departure from the world and is filled with philosophy, poetry and practical advice

    He was also a distinguished author, educator, social reformer, and philosopher. Today, Tagore along with Mahatma Gandhi is prized as the foremost intellectual and spiritual advocates of India's liberation from imperial rule. This inspiring collection of Tagore's poetry represents his "simple prayers of common life." Each of the seventy-seven prayers is an eloquent affirmation of the divine in the face of both joy and sorrow. Like the Psalms of David, they transcend time and speak directly to the human heart. The spirit of this collection may be best symbolized by a single sentence by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the renowned philosopher and statesman who served as president of India: "Rabindranath Tagore was one of the few representatives of the universal person to whom the future of the world belongs."

    The result of the game is our world, which turns the god inside-out and changes his internal composition. Hindus maintain that Siva is perpetually absorbed in this game, which is recreated in innumerable stories, poems, paintings, and sculptural carvings. This notion of the god at play, arguee Handelman and Shulman, is one of the most central and expressive veins in the metaphysics elaborated through the centuries, in many idioms and modes, around the god. The book comprises three interlocking essays; the first presents the dice-game proper, in the light of the texts and visual depictions the authors have collected. The second and third chapters take up two mythic sequels to the game. Based on their analysis of these sequels, the authors argue that notions of asceticism so frequently associated with Siva, with Yoga, and with Hindu religion are, in fact, foreign to Hinduism's inherent logic as reflected in Siva's game of dice. They suggest an alternative reading of this set of practices and ideas, providing startling new insights into Hindu mythology and the major poetic texts from the classical Sanskrit tradition.

    ZaehnerThe Bhagavad Gita (in Sanskrit, "Song of the Lord") is the most famous poem in all of Hindu literature and part of the Mahabharata, the Indian epic masterpeice.  The Gita consists of a dialogue between Lord Krishna and Prince Arjuna on the morning of a climactic battle.  Krishna provides Prince Arjuna with the spiritual means to understand his own nature so that he can take action and prevail.Of course the larger canvas painted in the poetry is that of the moral universe of Hinduism.  As Eknath Easwaran, one of the world's premier teachers of meditation and spirituality, notes "The Gita does not present a system of philosophy.  It offers something to every seeker after God, of whatever temperament, by whatever path.  The reason for this universal appeal is that it is basically practical: it is a handbook for self-realization and a guide to action."

    Each discourse is based on a spiritual hymn by a different saint, including Soami Ji, Guru Nanak, Guru Ravidas, Dadu Dayal, Kabir, Paltu, and Hafiz. The Master’s discussions of the hymns begin with a translation of the complete hymn, followed by clear and detailed explanations of the deep spiritual truths found therein.