Yogananda is one of the world's most widely known and universally respected spiritual masters. His Autobiography of a Yogi has helped stimulate a spiritual awakening in the West and a spiritual renaissance in his native land of India.More than half a century ago, in a hilltop ashram in Los Angeles, California, an American disciple sat at the feet of his Master, faithfully recording his words as his teacher had asked him to do. Paramhansa Yogananda knew this disciple would carry his message to people everywhere.Kriyananda was often present when Yogananda spoke privately with other close disciples; when he received visitors and answered their questions; when he was dictating and discussing his important writings. Yogananda put Kriyananda in charge of the other monks, and gave him advice for their spiritual development. In all these situations, Kriyananda recorded the words and guidance of Yogananda, preserving for the ages wisdom that would otherwise have been lost, and giving us an intimate glimpse of life with Yogananda never before shared by any other student.These Conversations include not only Yogananda's words as he first spoke them, but also the added insight of an intimate disciple who has spent more than 50 years reflecting on and practicing the teachings of Yogananda. Through these Conversations, Yogananda comes alive. Time and space dissolve. We sit at the feet of the Master, listen to his words, receive his wisdom, delight in his humor, and are transformed by his love.

    This spiritual classic, the Devimahatmya, addresses the perennial questions of the nature of the universe, humankind, and divinity. How are they related, how do we live in a world torn between good and evil, and how do we find lasting satisfaction and inner peace?These questions and their answers form the substance of the Devimahatmya. Its narrative of a dispossessed king, a merchant betrayed by the family he loves, and a seer whose teaching leads beyond existential suffering sets the stage for a trilogy of myths concerning the all-powerful Divine Mother, Durga, and the fierce battles she wages against throngs of demonic foes. In these allegories, her adversaries represent our all-too-human impulses toward power, possessions, and pleasure. The battlefields symbolize the field of human consciousness on which our lives' dramas play out in joy and sorrow, in wisdom and folly.The Devimahatmya speaks to us across the ages of the experiences and beliefs of our ancient ancestors. We sense their enchantment at nature's bounty and their terror before its destructive fury, their recognition of the good and evil in the human heart, and their understanding that everything in our experience is the expression of a greater reality, personified as the Divine Mother.

    This translation and commentary of a classical Tantric text sheds light on the practice of Dharana.

    The author, Satguru Kriya Babaji Nagaraj, predicted thaqt they would eventually be a powerful source of inspiration and support for the Mission of Kriya Yog: unity in diversity, world peace and God-realization. These works are rare gems, which will inspire all who aspire for a higher life.

    

    Devoted to Krishna’s miraculous incarnation, this collection of sacred tales recounts his childhood and adolescence in the forests of Vrindavan: playing with his friends, dallying amorously with cowherd maidens, and stealing butter to feed the monkeys. Krishna emerges from these episodes as an immediately engaging figure, and the stories have inspired generations of artists, musicians, poets, sculptors, and dramatists. They also contain valuable insights into Hindu views on such matters as creation, cosmography, and the history of the subcontinent.Making its first appearance as a Penguin Classic, this edition of The Beautiful Legend of God includes an introduction, glossary of Sanskrit terms, pronunciation guide and bibliography. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

    A wide range of vivid illustrations, both traditional and contemporary, showcases the paradoxical and often shocking imagery of Kali, whose outrageous appearance and behavior shatter all social conventions. These intense tales recount Kali's origins as the shadow self of Durga goddess who appears in the world in order to save the terrified gods from the demons Sumbha and Nisumbha. Brandishing weapons of destruction and cackling madly, she annihilates an ever-increasing number of miscreants who try her patience. She comes not only to restore balance within the universe, but also to help humanity cut through the bonds of illusion and attachment.

    Sweeping away centuries of misunderstandings and misrepresentations, White returns to original texts, images, and ritual practices to reconstruct the history of South Asian Tantra from the medieval period to the present day.Kiss of the Yoginī focuses on what White identifies as the sole truly distinctive feature of South Asian Tantra: sexualized ritual practices, especially as expressed in the medieval Kaula rites. Such practices centered on the exchange of powerful, transformative sexual fluids between male practitioners and wild female bird and animal spirits known as Yoginis. It was only by "drinking" the sexual fluids of the Yoginis that men could enter the family of the supreme godhead and thereby obtain supernatural powers and transform themselves into gods. By focusing on sexual rituals, White resituates South Asian Tantra, in its precolonial form, at the center of religious, social, and political life, arguing that Tantra was the mainstream, and that in many ways it continues to influence contemporary Hinduism, even if reformist misunderstandings relegate it to a marginal position.Kiss of the Yoginī contains White's own translations from over a dozen Tantras that have never before been translated into any European language. It will prove to be the definitive work for persons seeking to understand Tantra and the crucial role it has played in South Asian history, society, culture, and religion.

    This book presents the teachings of Vedanta in an easy-to-read form through captivating stories as well as through inspiring anecdotes from the lives of Shankaracharya, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and a few other seers of Truth.

    One of the foundational elements in Hindu culture, this great work consists of nearly 75,000 stanzas in eighteen books, and this volume marks the much anticipated resumption of its first complete modern English translation. With the first three volumes, the late J. A. B. van Buitenen had taken his translation up to the threshold of the great war that is central to the epic. Now James Fitzgerald resumes this work with translations of the books that chronicle the wars aftermath: The Book of Women and part one of The Book of Peace. These books constitute volume 7 of the projected ten-volume edition. Volumes 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 of the series will be published over the next several years.In his introductions to these books, Fitzgerald examines the rhetoric of The Mahabharatas representations of the wars aftermath. Indeed, the theme of The Book of Women is the grief of the women left by warriors slain in battle. The book details the keening of palace ladies as they see their dead husbands and sons, and it culminates in a mass cremation where the womens tears turn into soothing libations that help wash the deaths away. Fitzgerald shows that the portrayal of the womens grief is much more than a sympathetic portrait of the sufferings of war. The scenes of mourning in The Book of Women lead into a crisis of conscience that is central to The Book of Peace and, Fitzgerald argues, the entire Mahabharata. In this book, the man who has won power in the great war is torn between his own sense of guilt and remorse and the obligation to rule which ultimately he is persuaded to embrace.The Mahabharata is a powerful work that has inspired awe and wonder for centuries. With a penetrating glimpse into the trauma of war, this volume offers two of its most timely and unforgettable chapters.

    A beautiful, lucid and simple rendering into English of the most well-known spiritual text of the East; by a renowned scholar.

    F. Hussain , who harbour contempt for the Hindus; as well as masochists, like S. Gopal, who derive gratification by flagellating their own people.Anti Hindus talks in detail about M F Hussain''s paintings and draws a comparison between Hindu and Muslim subjects. Ironically, Muslim and Christian subjects have been portrayed as fully clothed decent people while Hindu subjects have been dealt in an embarrassing manner in his paintings.To make the readers fully aware of the corrupt ideas of Hussain, Anti Hindus has 32 colour photographs of his paintings that describe him as a sexually perverse person whose revolting paintings of Hindu Goddesses and women copulating with animals are bound to throw any normal person into a state of frenzy.There can be no greater perversity than shown by the portrayal of deities in union with animals in Hussain''s paintings and also the anti-Hindu features written by Hindus themselves, Goradia writes. Men like Hussain were sadistic in drawing satisfaction by hurting the sentiments of Hindus, Goradia feels.Anti-Hindus also focuses on how Gandhi, a devout Hindu, slowly started getting more and more anti-Hindu as his public life progressed. Goradia feels that Gandhi was so obsessed by the belief of Hindu-Muslim unity that he was ready to sacrifice or sell out Hindu interests, Hindu honour and Hindu blood.Anti-Hindus further describes India''s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru as an anti-Hindu. The book talks about how Nehru, being Gandhi''s favourite, was chosen over Sardar Patel as the Congress president in 1946. In fact, none of the members of the provincial committee had voted for Nehru for the post. So Nehru was a leader without any followers at that point of time. Afraid of Hindu nationalism and looking around for allies, he soon found support in the Muslims who had not emigrated to Pakistan. Internationally then, the Third World was largely pro-Soviet, one whose leader was Nehru. So at home, the communists sided with Nehru making him a pro-Muslim, a pro-communist and an anti-Hindu.In this manner, Anti Hindus, packed with various news paper articles, writings, excerpts from books and photographs tries to do justice to the analysis of the prevaling anti-Hindu sentiments in India.

    In his book Swamiji presents the wisdom of this powerful tradition and explores Consciousness, the most intimate experience of life. Swami Shankarananda has succeeded in making Kashmir Shaivism come alive in these pages, and I consider this work the best introduction to that tradition thus far. Georg Feuerstein, author

    The most important Hymns are quoted in full; extracts are also included from the Brahmanas, the part of the Rig Veda that that guides the Brahmans, the highest class of priests, in Vedic ceremonies. This is one of the oldest and most important of the world's holy books. It is primarily composed of hymns, poems, incantations and rituals from ancient India. Not only is this the "bible" of the Hindu religion, it also offers a unique snapshot of normal, everyday life in India as it occurred over four thousand years ago.

    The entirety of this book deals with nondual Self-Knowledge and Self-inquiry, with emphasis on Ajata (no-creation) teachings of pure Advaita Vedanta. The verses are divided by spiritual themes into eleven mandalas. The essays read as three concise texts on Self-Realization and Self-inquiry. The final sections deal with a great number of spiritual topics in the light of nondual Self-Knowledge, inclusive of brief talks given by Nome and dialogues with many spiritual aspirants that occurred in the satsangs transcribed. Informative introduction by Sasvati.