After the sudden death of her celebrated husband, Shashi is alarmed to realize that overnight, she has lost her life’s moorings. Meanwhile, their fiercely independent daughter Tara, a Sanskrit scholar, has been drawn into a passionate involvement with an older man, which threatens to consume her in ways she did not imagine possible.Amidst a rising tide of religious fundamentalism in India that is determined to put women in their place, Shashi and Tara attempt to look at themselves, and at each other, in a new light. But is it possible to emerge from an eclipse unscathed?An astonishing feat of the imagination, The Illuminated is as sophisticated in the quality of its prose as it is provocative in its thematic focus on questions of identity. A remarkable novel of ideas, it marks the arrival of a tremendous new literary talent.

    Today, the United States is home to approximately one million Hindus.If you've heard of this ancient religion and are looking for a reference that explains the intricacies of the customs, practices, and teachings of this ancient spiritual system, Hinduism For Dummies is for you!Provides a thorough introduction to this earliest and popular world belief system Information on the rites, rituals, deities, and teachings associated with the practice of Hinduism Explores the history and teachings of the Vedas, Brahmans, and Upanishads Offers insight into the modern daily practice of Hinduism around the world Continuing the Dummies tradition of making the world's religions engaging and accessible to everyone, Hinduism For Dummies is your hands-on, friendly guide to this fascinating religion.

    Teaching readers how to bridge the cultural divide, Storti offers a set of best practices that will enable Westerners and Indians to work together with extraordinary results.

    A man who in the first part of his life wanted Hindu–Muslim unity yet later became the father of Hindutva. A man who called for complete independence twenty years before the Congress but didn’t participate in the Quit India movement. A man who in his younger days was friendly with Gandhi but was later seen as the inspiration behind his killing.Based on Savarkar’s original Marathi papers, accounts of his contemporaries, several of them untranslated from Marathi, court and government records, and newspapers of the time, this new biography is packed with fresh details. Written in a lively, page-turning style, this is a riveting and unbiased account of Savarkar’s life, and the only book you will need to truly understand him.

    In the summer of 1974, inside a balmy Boulder, Colorado, warehouse that served as the main hall of the fledgling Naropa Institute, some say that a minor miracle occurred: the reawakening of the Gita's living presence, as it unfolded in a series of wisdom teachings led by Ram Dass. With Love, Service, Devotion, and the Ultimate Surrender, you are invited to experience these legendary gatherings.The tale of the warrior Arjuna and his divine friend Krishna serves as metaphor for the recurring dilemmas that we encounter as we spiral into the depths of our spiritual journey. In these sessions, Ram Dass illuminates the Gita’s essential verses with insights spanning many traditions, from Rumi's ecstatic poetry to Basho's koans, from devotional chant to monastic silence, from Sri Ramana's self-inquiry to Saint Paul's devotion to Christ. The destination? A new perspective on the crucial moments of contradiction and questioning that all spiritual seekers must face again and again: If it's all Divine perfection, why bother with the search at all? Is it possible to awaken without a teacher or guru? Why am I experiencing these strange spiritual "gifts”? Will I get lost in their power? If I'm conscious and kind, why not indulge in all of life's pleasures? Since everyone suffers and dies, will my compassion ultimately matter?With irrepressible love and intellect (and a good dose of skillful mischief), this epic meeting with Ram Dass yields new answers with every revisit, like a lifelong friend that comes to meet us at each turning of our journey.Highlights:A 12-hour odyssey with Ram Dass into his timeless Yogas of the Bhagavad Gita Naropa sessionsThree ways to enter the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita• Karma yoga—reincarnation, dharma, service, sadhanas• Jnana yoga—inquiry, the critical mind, the koan• Mind, illusion, and Brahman• Sacrifice and mantra—trappings and benefits of ritual and form• Renunciation and purification—ashtanga yoga, kundalini, the chakras, austerities, the "witness," desire, sexual energy• Devotion and the guru—bhakti ("devotion"), surrender, siddhis ("powers"), Maharajji• Death and dying—What is born, what dies? How do you live in the present moment?

    Released on a technicality, he now makes his home in the mountains of North Carolina, building rock fireplaces for a waiting list of clients. His self-imposed solitude is shattered when local author Dana Minette asks him to build a fireplace in her new house. Dana becomes more than a client, and for the first time in twenty years, Reece longs to be with someone other than himself.Then a local woman is murdered in the same savage manner as the murder that sent Reece to prison. More than one person wants him to take the fall, including Dana's ex-husband, the local prosecutor, who's determined to convict Reece in the high-profile case. But Reece won't be railroaded again. Four men were with him the night of the first murder. One of them is the killer. Reece goes underground to discover who's setting him up and why. Dana insists on going along, and against his better judgment, he relents. With both the police and FBI on their trail, it's a race against time and a crafty murderer who will kill again.

    Although there are hundreds of books on Hinduism, there are only a few which provide a lucid, accessible, yet deeply layered account of the religion’s numerous belief systems, schools of thought, sects, tenets, scriptures, deities, rituals, customs, festivals and philosophies. This book is one of them. In the tradition of classics of the genre like K. M. Sen’s Hinduism and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s The Hindu View of Life, this book captures the essence of Hinduism with brevity, insight and an enviable grasp of the myriad layers and intricacies of one of the world’s greatest religions. It is a book that is especially timely given the rather controversial role that religion has played in countries around the world. The author tells us why Hinduism is a religion that is well-suited to the needs of the world today: ‘In the twenty-first century, Hinduism has many of the attributes of a universal religion—a religion that is personal and individualistic, privileges the individual and does not subordinate one to a collectivity; a religion that grants and respects complete freedom to the believer to find his or her own answers to the true meaning of life; a religion that offers a wide range of choice in religious practice, even in regard to the nature and form of the formless God; a religion that places great emphasis on one’s mind, and values one’s capacity for reflection, intellectual enquiry, and self-study; a religion that distances itself from dogma and holy writ, that is minimally prescriptive and yet offers an abundance of options, spiritual and philosophical texts and social and cultural practices to choose from. In a world where resistance to authority is growing, Hinduism imposes no authorities; in a world of networked individuals, Hinduism proposes no institutional hierarchies; in a world of open-source information-sharing, Hinduism accepts all paths as equally valid; in a world of rapid transformations and accelerating change, Hinduism is adaptable and flexible, which is why it has survived for nearly 4,000 years.The text of The Hindu Way is embellished with over a hundred photographs and illustrations, many of them in colour, on various aspects of the religion. Based on Dr. Tharoor’s extensive writing on the subject, including the bestselling Why I Am a Hindu, this book gives the reader an unrivaled understanding of Hinduism.

    While some of them form part of the main story and are well known, there are some hidden gems scattered throughout the epic that make for insightful reading. This book contains fifty-one of these hidden gems, including the tales of: - Barbarik- Uttanka- Kartikeya- The Battle between Krishna and Arjuna- The Blinding of ShukracharyaAnd many more. Whether you're a casual reader or a die-hard fan of the Mahabharata, you will find in here tales that will delight and amaze you.

    Starting with the question of what it means to say we believe in God, and looking at the nature of truth, Peter Vardy goes on to examine ideas about God and their influence on Christian thinking.Peter Vardy takes the reader through the arguments, using amusing illustrations and analogies. He writes for the lay person or student, not assuming any specialist knowledge, and not imposing any particular view.‘This is about the best elementary textbook in the philosophy of God I have come across… an extremely useful book.’Hugh Meynell, The Tablet‘This is a masterpiece of coherence. Step by step the reader is led clearly and humorously through the philosophical maze which confuses our thinking about God.’Linda Smith, Head of Religious Education, King’s College, London

    It includes clear and simple meditation techniques which we can use to transform our attitudes, in order to generate love, compassion, understanding and wisdom. In plain, accessible language, it gives instructions for two meditation practices - lo-jong and tonglen meditation - that release anger and negative emotions and increase our ability to act with kindness.

    After attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst he joined the Peace Corps and taught in Malawi from 1963 to 1965. He also taught in Uganda at Makerere University and in Singapore at the University of Singapore. Although Theroux has also written travel books in general and about various modes of transport, his name is synonymous with the literature of train travel. Theroux's 1975 best-seller, The Great Railway Bazaar, takes the reader through Asia, while his second book about train travel, The Old Patagonian Express (1979), describes his trip from Boston to the tip of South America. His third contribution to the railway travel genre, Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China, won the Thomas Cook Prize for best literary travel book in 1989. His literary output also includes novels, books for children, short stories, articles, and poetry. His novels include Picture Palace (1978), which won the Whitbread Award and The Mosquito Coast (1981), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Theroux is a fellow of both the British Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Geographic Society.Steve McCurry (b.1950) launched his career as a photojournalist when, disguised in native garb, he crossed the Pakistan border into Afghanistan over twenty years ago. His remarkable coverage won him the Robert Capa Gold Medal, which is awarded to photographers who exhibit exceptional courage and enterprise. Famous also for his work in Southeast Asia, McCurry's photographs are beautiful, uplifting and affecting. McCurry is a regular contributor to many international journals including National Geographic magazine and is a member of the prestigious agency Magnu

    Stine to graphic novel form!All the kids in Beaver Creek, Oregon, know that the old Whaley House is probably haunted, so when young tech entrepreneur Veruca Curry moves in, the kids fear that there's more to her than meets the eye. The adults in town think that Veruca is just the sort of hip, young new blood that Beaver Creek needs, but Rosie, a loner who loves anime and Japanese comics, Carlos, a popular preppy boy, and Becca, the school's star athlete find out the terrible truth -- Veruca is a witch, and she's got a terrible plan that could destroy Beaver Creek unless they can stop her.

    Sri Ramakrishna, the spiritual teacher par excellence that he was, however, does not make any effort to make his parables obscure; the morals they convey lie on the surface. Many of his parables are drawn from ordinary domestic and social life, customary with the people who lived arround him. Thus, this collection of the parables published for the first time in separate book form will be of service to all who wish to get some acquaintance with the fundamentals of spiritual life through the interesting medium of parables and stories.

    Christians need to remember what these great early heresies were and why they were ruled out, or else risk falling prey to their modern day manifestations. The book contains key scriptural passages relevant to each heresy, a glossary of terms, and summaries of historical Church documents in which these heresies were defined and outlawed.

    The most powerful Bratva Boss in Moscow.He terrifies me in ways I have never been terrified before, yet he fascinates me.He’s dark, dangerous, and delicious.I was instantly drawn to him…but when he discovers the truth about me, it sends shockwaves that could get us both killed.Whoever says the truth will set you free is a f**king liar; the truth screws you over before it sets you free.