A young boy Ashtavakra goes to king janaka’s Court to debate the kingdom most learned sages but is ridiculed by the courtiers for his deformed body. After the boy triumphs in the debate, Janaka realizes that the boy has an extraordinary intellect and becomes his disciple. While Janaka is obsessed with his quest for spiritual liberation, a treacherous plan unfolds inside the secretive world of the royal palace. Very soon war clouds gather on the horizon of Mithila, but all Janaka does is devote more and more time to the young sage. Even though the whole world believes a calamity is imminent, Janaka stays on the path to spiritual enlightenment. Ultimately, with Ashtavakra’s guidance, the king enters the realm of a new world which alters the reality for him and his kingdom. This novel is rooted in ancient Indian spiritual wisdom and philosophy, but with new interpretations of the concepts of liberation, enlightenment, consciousness and the realities of life. Among others, It seeks to answer the question: is everything we see indeed an illusion? This compelling story sheds light on the modern readers’ existential questions, leading them to relate to the king and his struggles.

    In this collection, you will find images and poems that relate to life, love, loss, gain, realisation and the final thing called Moksha. The poems may sound philosophical, intellectual and emotional from time to time. You will also find a surprise at the end of this wonderful poetry collection if you read everything carefully. And, like the previous poetry collection by Alok Mishra, this book will also not take more than 15 minutes from your daily routine. However, you may want to read the book at least twice or maybe thrice to understand what do the poems mean. Alok has devised a style of his own to communicate his thoughts to the readers of Indian English poetry. A 4-3-6 style has perfectly settled with this collection having 14 wonderful poems. Here are some reviews for Moving for Moksha:The collection of poems takes us on a journey to ponder the truth and fallacies of life that come our way. The poems are mostly mystic in nature, having more than what it seems to be... you will certainly love it if you have a taste for English poetry.by: Amit Mishra (founder of The Indian Authors & Indian Book Lovers)...beauty, truth, eternity.... a very close observation of life, these poems sneak into nothing but the philosophy of life that people confront during life-span.by: Ravi Kumar, Research Scholar with expertise in Indian English Literature, a writer for many online literary platformsThe poems reflect disillusion, rejection, realisation and answer to the final call – Moksha, as called in Indian philosophy. The innovative form with a 4-3-6 pattern looks very apt for the emotional and intellectual and also cryptic nature of the poems in this collection.The Last Critic

    It continues the original and innovative idea of nontranslatability of Sanskrit, first introduced in the book, Being Different. For English readers, this should be the starting point of the movement to resist the digestion of Sanskrit into English, by introducing loanwords into their English vocabulary without translation.The book presents a thorough mechanism of the process of digestion and examines the loss of adhikara for Sanskrit because of translating its core ideas into English. The movement launched by this book will resist this and stop the programs that seek to turn Sanskrit into a dead language by translating all its treasures to render it redundant. It discusses fifty-four non-translatables across various genres that are being commonly mistranslated. It empowers English speakers with the knowledge and arguments to introduce these Sanskrit words into their daily speech with confidence. Every lover of India’s sanskriti will benefit from the book and become a cultural ambassador propagating it through routine communications.

    What inspires them to leave behind the comforting shore of security for uncertainty and risk? What pushes them to chart uncharted terrains with no reward in sight? Expect the unexpected as Dipa Sanatani takes us on her journey in The Merchant of Stories. “No matter how much we plan things—or not plan anything at all—life’s plans will always take precedence over our own. When we come into this world, we are not promised fortune, fame, a happy family or really anything at all. All we get is the journey. And in these pages, you will mine.” Through a series of musings, letters, poems and notes from her diary, Dipa Sanatani takes readers on a globetrotting adventure that celebrates creative entrepreneurship as a spiritual journey. The book has everything—from the journey of her ancestors to her tales as a traveller; from the struggle of a writer to the rise of an artist; from the ecosystem of an employee to the emergence of an entrepreneur—everything. There is pain, struggle, strength and victory. Evoking both personal experiences and universal themes, The Merchant of Stories shows us that no misstep is ever a mistake. Even the darkest night or the most mundane moment can awaken the soul—The Little Light—that resides inside each and every single one of us. All we have to do is take that first uncertain step and embrace life as one great adventure.

    In an attempt to decode menstrual practices, the author undertook a journey across India and studied various indigenous knowledge systems such as Ṣaḍ-Darśana, Āyurved, Tantra, Cakra, Yōg, Āgama Śāstra, Jyotiṣa Śāstra, and several sub-texts from these categories. As a result, the book goes beyond just describing cultural practices and takes a deep dive into explaining the scientific and logical reasoning behind the origin of these practices. This book is for all Indian women who have unanswered questions pertaining to menstrual practices, for menstrual researchers who will find a treasure trove of potential areas for research pertaining to menstrual health, for sportswomen to discover the ancient techniques that worked in sync with women’s periods and not against it, and also for the feminist who assumes that cultural practices around menstruation are a taboo that needs to be done away with.The correct understanding of the science behind menstrual practices, as given in this book, will help women prevent menstrual difficulties, develop a positive attitude toward menstruation, and learn to work in sync with nature’s cycles.Ṛtu (pronounced as ruthu) is one of the terms for menstruation in Sanskrit. Vidyā means knowledge. Ṛtu Vidyā is the author’s attempt to bring together various indigenous knowledge systems that provide information about the science of menstruation, which is relevant even to this day.

    At the time there were no schools for girls in India. Also, the few doctors (who were all male) could not treat female patients. Having witnessed the suffering of women, Anandi hoped to help create a culture that saw women as deserving and capable of equality with men.Anandi faced critics in India and skeptics in America. Her mentor was her husband Gopal, who tutored her and fostered her ambition. Her American champion was Theodocia Carpenter, a New Jersey housewife who initiated a three year correspondence with Anandi, offering “all possible help.”With her determination and grace, Anandi won the support of all—Indians, Americans, as well as British—who crossed her path. Three thousand supporters attended her 1886 graduation from the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia.Based on original letters, university archives, and newspaper accounts, RADICAL SPIRITS draws a textured portrait of British India and post-Civil War America. Exploring the relationships that Indian, British and American individuals forged by bridging cultural, political, and class boundaries is sure to be a rich and rewarding experience.

    Arise, O lion among men, the daily morning rituals need to be performed.With these stirring lines begins the near-ubiquitous Hindu prayer, the Venkatesa Suprabhatam.An appeal to the lord to arise and save the world, the Venkatesa Suprabhatam is the first of four recitations that are sung together every morning in the Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirumala, where it was originally sung.Prativadi Bhayankaram Anna, who composed this prayer in the fifteenth century, was a saint, a poet and an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. The poet’s devotion shines through, most unforgettably in M.S. Subbulakshmi's rendition, which rings through many south Indian homes in the mornings.Venkatesa Suprabhatam: The Story of India’s Most Popular Prayer is a translation of the prayer, a journey through its verses and also a deep dive into the history of its composition and the circumstances of its author.So whether you have grown up listening to the Suprabhatam or are just curious about such matters, this book—scholarly and yet accessible—is a compelling examination of the cultural phenomenon.

    However, as is perhaps not very politically correct to point out, Islam as a religion calls Muslims to be a part of Ummah, which is to say, that all Muslims belong to the same theological ‘country’ regardless of political borders.That coupled with the intrinsic need of the Left to forever consider the Muslims as the victims, even under imaginary circumstances led to massive riots and violence in India. The perceived wrong here was that CAA left Muslims out, however, the truth was the CAA had nothing to do with Indians at all, let alone Indian Muslims.Another excuse for the rampant violence was that the proposed NRC would snatch away the citizenship of Muslims. That too, was a shameless canard. The NRC, when implemented and drafted, would be aimed to identify and deport Illegal Immigrants, and not Indian Citizens. No country in the world wantonly accepts indiscriminate influx of illegals, but the Left and Islamist nexus burnt the country because that is exactly what it expected of India.While many people wish to look at the Delhi Riots 2020 in isolation, the events that started right from the 1st December 2019 proves otherwise. It proves that the violence was a concerted effort to push Anarchy and Chaos in India. It proves that the Delhi Riots was no anti-Muslim pogrom, it was indeed, a well-oiled plan to tame ‘kafirs’.

    Lotus In The Stone takes us on a journey to the dizzying array of deities, temples, festivals, rituals, art, architecture, applied sciences and living traditions of India, that is Bharat, bringing us to an understanding of the sublime, advanced society her culture nurtured. With her experiences and adventures in crisscrossing India for decades, the author shows us how ancient India's surviving heritage and living traditions are a testimony to her history, and the invisible threads and sacred geography that bind her people together.

    

    This book comes at a time when the debate on CAA rages in the country with those opposing the Amendments to the Citizenship Act have chosen to neglect the sufferings of the persecuted minorities in the three neighboring Islamic countries. This timely work narrates untold stories of persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh.The authors have met these refugees who are living in Karnataka in person and accounted their stories of persecution, misery and sorrow. Each chapter narrates a gut wrenching story of Hindus who suffered at the hands of Jihadis there. Some of those who tormented them and targeted them were their neighbors, acquaintances for many years and residents of the same locality or village.Each story narrated by the victim shows the kind of torment they had to endure at the hands of the Jihadis, the loss of lives and property and the conditions under which they had to take a decision to leave their motherland and find refuge in India. The way they suffered through their journey from their hometowns to a refugee camp in India, the issues they faced here and way they rebuilt their lives has been poignantly explained.

    These awakened mantras empower us to pull the forces of abundance and nurturance toward ourselves so we can experience life's fullness.Sri Sukta: Tantra of Inner Prosperity is the modern practitioner's guide to these mantras. Pandit Rajmani Tigunait's beautiful translation, commentary, and delineation of the three stages of formal practice help us unravel the mystery of Sri Sukta. This volume offers a rare window into the highly guarded secrets of Sri Vidya tantra--the heart of a living tradition--and reveals the hidden power of these mantras.The wisdom of Sri Sukta is needed now more than ever. It holds the key to our individual peace and prosperity, and to a collective consciousness healthy and rich enough to build an enlightened society.

    R. Ambedkar spent his life battling Untouchability and instigating the end of the caste system. In his 1948 book The Untouchables, he sought to trace the origin of the Dalit caste. Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men is an annotated selection from this work, just as relevant now, when the oppression of and discrimination against Dalits remains pervasive.Ambedkar offers a deductive, and at times a speculative, history to propose a genealogy of Untouchability. He contends that modern-day Dalits are descendants of those Buddhists who were fenced out of caste society and rendered Untouchable by a resurgent Brahminism since the fourth century BCE. The Brahmins, whose Vedic cult originally involved the sacrifice of cows, adapted Buddhist ahimsa and vegetarianism to stigmatize outcaste Buddhists who were consumers of beef. The outcastes were soon relegated to the lowliest of occupations and prohibited from participation in civic life. To unearth this lost history, Ambedkar undertakes a forensic examination of a wide range of Brahminic literature. Heavily annotated with an emphasis on putting Ambedkar and recent scholarship into conversation, Beef, Brahmins, and Broken Men assumes urgency as India witnesses unprecedented violence against Dalits and Muslims in the name of cow protection.