Book picks similar to
Shyam: An Illustrated Retelling of the Bhagavata by Devdutt Pattanaik
mythology
non-fiction
religion
hinduism
Bhagavad Gita Made Very Easy: Read & Understand Complete Bhagavad Gita in Short Time
Kishan Barai - 2016
It’s long, complicated, and can be extremely difficult to understand. The good news is that you CAN absorb every life lesson that lies within, quickly and easily! Bhagavad Gita Made Very Easy is different from anything else on the market, and all 18 chapters and 700 scriptures can be completed in no time at all! Are you ready to unlock permanent happiness? Mind control? Freedom? Direction? Motivation? Faith? Peace of mind? This is just the beginning! Remember – it’s important to read the whole book from start to finish for uncompromised insight. Each chapter has its own gift to give. The thing is, The Bhagavad Gita is NOT just a book. It’s a life-changing conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjun before the battle unfolds. Are you ready to uncover this secret knowledge - with incredible speed and ease? Discover what your goals in life should be, and change your outlook on life like never before, with Bhagavad Gita Made Very Easy! Cordially Yours, Kishan Barai (Author)
Sons of Gods: Mahabharata
Sharon Maas - 2011
The Mahabharata belongs in the annals of world literature, and every educated person should be familiar with it. Its message is timeless (without it being a "message" book), and especially relevant in these turbulent times. Western readers in particular should be reading the Mahabharata, including non-resident Indians who may have lost touch with their roots.SONS OF GODS -- MAHABHARATA is kaleidoscopic in its beauty and intricacy. The hurdle of the tale's massive scope has always daunted translators, and the difficulty of prising the right tone from an ancient grand epic to suit a modern and Western audience has relegated it to largely academic obscurity.
What's saved it for us is that Sharon Maas knows full well that love, betrayal, lust, envy, pride, devotion, and heroism never go out of style. SONS OF GODS is a literary soap opera with a soul that spans the full horizon."The highest literature transcends regionalism, and through it, when we are properly attuned, we realise the essential oneness of the human family."The Mahabharata is of this class. It belongs to the world and not only to India. To the people of India, indeed, this epic has been an unfailing and perennial source of spiritual strength. Learnt at the mother’s knee with reverence and love, it has inspired great men to heroic deeds as well as enabled the humble to face their trials with fortitude and faith."From: Preface to the Second Edition of The Mahabharata, by C. Rajagopalachari; Madras 1952
All Roads Lead To Ganga
Ruskin Bond - 2008
on pilgrimage, shrines, beautiful writing.
The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana
Mallanaga Vātsyāyana
Burton’s translation of The Kama Sutra remains one of the best English interpretations of this early Indian treatise on politics, social customs, love, and intimacy. Its crisp style set a new standard for Sanskrit translation.The Kama Sutra stands uniquely as a work of psychology, sociology, Hindu dogma, and sexology. It has been a celebrated classic of Indian literature for 1,700 years and a window for the West into the culture and mysticism of the East.This Modern Library Paperback Classic reprints the authoritative text of Sir Richard F. Burton’s 1883 translation.
Food and Faith: A Pilgrim's Journey through India
Shoba Narayan - 2020
Shoba Narayan travels across some of the most prominent places of worship in India and presents to her readers the mythologies, histories and contemporary relevance of these sites.
The Kaunteyas
Madhavi S. Mahadevan - 2016
At fourteen she is pressed into the service of the temperamental sage Durvasa who grants her a boon. Its first use, however, only brings her adversity and a shameful secret. With marriage to Pandu, Kunti dreams of a better future, but a curse makes him leave the throne of Hastinapur to his sibling, the blind Dhritarashtra, and retreat to the forest. The births of the five Pandavas rekindle Kunti’s hopes of returning to Hastinapur, but these are destroyed once again when Pandu dies suddenly. Kunti journeys to the kingdom, no longer its queen but a widow, a dependant as are her sons. She must now take up the task of guiding them through the long struggle to get their inheritance, a struggle made harder by the discovery that the illegitimate child she had abandoned long ago is alive and a sworn enemy of the Pandavas. Recasting the Mahabharata from the viewpoint of Kunti, The Kaunteyas replaces the idealized mother figure with a fully three-dimensional woman, providing new insights into the epic.
Thanjavur
Prabha Nair - 2012
The mighty Cholas made it their capital in the 9th century CE, following which they increased, through conquests, the size and strength of their empire. Finally, after realizing all his military ambitions, the Chola monarch Raja Raja Chola I decided to build a great temple in Thanjavur dedicated to Lord Shiva. Thus Thanjavur became home to the majestic Brihadeeswara temple and many other shrines. Amar Chitra Katha tells the stories surrounding this ancient town and its monuments.
The Bhagavad Gita
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
In the moments before a great battle, the dialogue sets out the important lessons Arjuna must learn to change the outcome of the war he is to fight, and culminates in Krishna revealing to the warrior his true cosmic form, counselling him to search for the universal perfection of life. Ranging from instructions on yoga postures to dense moral discussion, the Gita is one of the most important Hindu texts, as well as serving as a practical guide to living well.
The Yoga of Max's Discontent
Karan Bajaj - 2015
1 bestseller in India—a young American travels to India and finds himself tested physically, emotionally, and spiritually.Max Pzoras is the poster child for the American Dream. The child of Greek immigrants who grew up in a dangerous New York housing project, he triumphed over his upbringing and became a successful Wall Street analyst. Yet on the frigid December night he’s involved in a violent street scuffle, Max begins to confront questions about suffering and mortality that have dogged him since his mother’s death.His search takes him to the farthest reaches of India, where he encounters a mysterious night market, almost freezes to death on a hike up the Himalayas, and finds himself in an ashram in a drought-stricken village in South India. As Max seeks answers to questions that have bedeviled him—can yogis walk on water and live for 200 years without aging? Can a flesh-and-blood man ever achieve nirvana?—he struggles to overcome his skepticism and the pull of family tugging him home. In an ultimate bid for answers, he embarks on a dangerous solitary meditation in a freezing Himalayan cave, where his physical and spiritual endurance is put to its most extreme test.By turns a gripping adventure story and a journey of tremendous inner transformation, The Yoga of Max's Discontent is a contemporary take on man's classic quest for transcendence.
Draupadi: The Dusky Firebrand
Kamala Chandrakant - 1974
Born from the pure flames of a sacred fire, Draupadi was devoted wife to the five famously talented and virtuous Pandava brothers. The evil Kauravas wanted her for themselves, and eyed the Pandava kingdom as well. Raging at their impertinence, and ranting at her husbands’ helplessness, Draupadi inspired a deadly war which wiped out the Kaurava scourge for ever.
Indra's Net: Defending Hinduism's Philosophical Unity
Rajiv Malhotra - 2014
Such arguments routinely target Swami Vivekananda, a key interlocutor who shattered many deeply rooted prejudices against Indian civilization. They accuse him of having camouflaged various alleged contradictions within traditional Hinduism and charge him with having appropriated the principles of Western religion to manufacture a coherent and unified worldview and set of practices known today as Hinduism. Indras Net: Defending Hinduisms Philosophical Unity provides a foundation for theories that slander contemporary Hinduism as illegitimate, ascribing sinister motives to its existence and characterizing its fabric as oppressive. Rajiv Malhotra offers a detailed, systematic rejoinder to such views and articulates the multidimensional, holographic understanding of reality that grounds Hindu dharma. He also argues that Vivekanandas creative interpretations of Hindu dharma informed and influenced many Western intellectual movements of the post-modern era. Indeed, as he cites with many insightful examples, appropriations from Hinduism have provided a foundation for cutting-edge discoveries in several fields, including cognitive science and neuroscience.
Holy Blood, Holy Grail
Michael Baigent - 1982
The tale seems to begin with buried treasure and then turns into an unprecedented historical detective story - a modern Grail quest leading back through cryptically coded parchments, secret societies, the Knights Templar, the Cathar heretics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and a dynasty of obscure French kings deposed more than 1,300 years ago. The author's conclusions are persuasive: at the core is not material riches but a secret - a secret of explosive and controversial proportions, which radiates out from the little Pyrenees village all the way to contemporary politics and the entire edifice of the Christian faith. It involves nothing less than... the Holy Grail.
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams and Reaching Your Destiny
Robin S. Sharma - 1996
A wonderfully crafted fable, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari tells the extraordinary story of Julian Mantle, a lawyer forced to confront the spiritual crisis of his out-of-balance life. On a life-changing odyssey to an ancient culture, he discovers powerful, wise, and practical lessons that teach us to:Develop Joyful Thoughts, Follow Our Life's Mission and Calling, Cultivate Self-Discipline and Act Courageously, Value Time as Our Most Important Commodity, Nourish Our Relationships, and Live Fully, One Day at a Time.
The Norse Myths
Kevin Crossley-Holland - 1980
The mythic legacy of the Scandinavians includes a cycle of stories filled with magnificent images from pre-Christian Europe. Gods, humans, and monstrous beasts engage in prodigious drinking bouts, contests of strength, greedy schemes for gold, and lusty encounters. The Norse pantheon includes Odin, the wisest and most fearsome of the gods; Thor, the thundering powerhouse; and the exquisite, magic-wielding Freyja. Their loves, wars, and adventures take us through worlds both mortal and divine, culminating in a blazing doomsday for gods and humans alike. These stories bear witness to the courage, passion, and boundless spirit that were hallmarks of the Norse world.“Kevin Crossley-Holland retells the Norse myths in clear, attractive prose . . . An excellent introduction, notes, and a glossary provide mythological and historical backgrounds and suggest parallels with myths in other parts of the world.”–The Denver Post
मृत्युंजय
Shivaji Sawant - 1967
Shivaji Sawant's Mrityunjaya is an outstanding instance of such a literary masterpiece in which a contemporary Marathi novelist investigates the meaning of the bewildering skein that is life through the personae of the Mahabharata protagonists. For over two decades since its first publication the vast non- Marathi and non-Hindi readership remained deprived of this remarkable exploration of the human psyche till the publication of this English translation by the Writers workshop – a contribution for which there is much to be grateful for. Mrityunjaya is the autobiography of Karna, and yet it is not just that. With deceptive case, Sawant brings into play an exceptional stylistic innovation by combining six "dramatic soliloquies" to form the nine books of this novel of epic dimensions. Four books are spoken by Karna. These are interspersed with a book each from the lips of his unwed mother Kunti, Duryodhana (who considers Karna his mainstay), Shon (Shatruntapa, his foster-brother, who here-worships him), his wife Vrishali to whom he is like a god and, last of all, Krishna. Sawant depicts an uncanny similarity between Krishna and Karna and hints at a mystic link between them, investing his protagonist with a more-than-human aura to offset the un-heroic and even unmanly acts which mar this tremendously complex and utterly fascinating creating of Vyasa.