The Graceful Guru

The Graceful Guru
Author: Karen Pechilis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2004
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0195145372

A distinctive aspect of Hindu devotion is the veneration of a human guru, who is not only an exemplar and a teacher but is also understood to be an embodiment of the divine. Historically, the role of guru in the public domain has been exclusive to men. The new visibility of female gurus in India and the U.S. today, and indeed across the globe, has inspired this first-ever scholarly study of the origins, variety, and worldwide popularity of Hindu female gurus. In the Introduction, Karen Pechilis examines the historical emergence of Hindu female gurus with reference to the Hindu philosophy of the self, women spiritual exemplars as wives and saints, Tantric worship of the Goddess, and the internationalization of gurus in the U.S. in the twentieth century. Nine essays profile specific female gurus, presenting biographies of these remarkable women while highlighting overarching issues and themes concerning women's status as religious leaders; these themes are nuanced in the afterword to the volume. The essays explore how Hindu female gurus embody grace in both senses--as a feminine ideal and an attribute of the divine-and argue that their status as leaders is grounded in their negotiation of these two types of grace. This book provides biographical profiles of the following female gurus plus sensitive scholarly analysis of their spiritual paths: Ammachi, Anandamayi Ma, Gauri Ma, Gurumayi, Jayashri Ma, Karunamayi Ma, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, Mother Meera, Shree Maa and Sita Devi.

Ashes at My Guru's Feet

Ashes at My Guru's Feet
Author: Chidvilasananda (Gurumayi.)
Publisher: Syda Foundation
Total Pages: 72
Release: 1990
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9780911307160

A Long Season of Ashes

A Long Season of Ashes
Author: Siddhartha Gigoo
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2024-01-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9357084215

In March 1990, sixteen-year-old Siddhartha Gigoo is forced to flee his home in Safa Kadal, Srinagar, Kashmir. The preceding days have been full of fear and horror for the Gigoos, who have seen friends and neighbours killed outside their homes. They could be next if they don’t leave. But they want to stay on, even when faced with a looming threat to their lives. Siddhartha thinks his leaving is temporary and that he will be back home soon. Little does he know that his fate is sealed. What follows is a long, dark time—a ‘camp’ existence and a struggle for survival. Thirty-four years on, Siddhartha chronicles the story of his flight from Kashmir and an entire youth spent in exile. A meditation on the nature of memory, A Long Season of Ashes is a book about a boy’s journey of self-discovery.

Sikhism and Indian Civilization

Sikhism and Indian Civilization
Author: Raj Pruthi
Publisher: Discovery Publishing House
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2004
Genre: India
ISBN: 9788171418794

Contents: Introduction, Sikhism, The Development of Sikhism As a Distinct Religion, Sikh Tradition: Competing Organisations and Ideology, The Sikh Gurus, The Religion and Social Organisation of the Sikhs, Women in Sikhism, Gender and the Sikh Panth, Sikh Code of Conduct, The Concept of Hukam in Sikhism and Religious Experience, Sikh Politics in India, Unity of God The Sikh Point of View, Sikh Saints, Sikhism and Other Religious, Sikhism in the 21st Century.

Veiled Gurus

Veiled Gurus
Author: Colleen M. Yim
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2008
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9780761837756

This work examines the social reality of a Hindu woman's involvement in the transmission of religious knowledge. The two-year ethnographic study traces the steps of Dalit women in an urban village in New Delhi, India, in which Dr. Yim explores the mother's role in life cycle rituals, festivals, vrats (ritual fasts), and daily life. In this study, Yim attempts to bridge the gap between the word of religious texts and the reality of the women's lives. Despite the tradition of religious texts to overlook the role of women as teachers, this study found that women are the primary agents of religious knowledge transmission. The Dalit women in this study convey their erudition through informal education, such as observation; worship; imitation; and family responsibilities. The implications of this study are not only to validate informal education as an effective means of teaching, but to confirm the central role Hindu women have in the transmission of religious knowledge to their children.

The Heart of the Path

The Heart of the Path
Author: Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Publisher: Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
Total Pages: 629
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1891868330

From a review in BuddhaDharma magazine: The Heart of the Path is a lengthy teaching on guru yoga by a contemporary exemplar of the practice, Lama Thubten Zopa. A close disciple of Lama Thubten Yeshe for more than three decades, Lama Zopa has taught by word and example the importance and power of properly following a guru. The book is based on several decades of dharma talks organized by editor Ailsa Cameron into twenty-four chapters, beginning with the question of why one needs a teacher to progress along the path. The remaining chapters discuss in considerable detail how to cultivate and practice devotion, and generate the view of one’s own teacher as the Buddha. It concludes with several short guru yoga visualization practices. Throughout the book Lama Zopa offers personal reflections and stories to illustrate his message that guru yoga truly is the heart of the path to liberation. From a review in Tricycle magazine: For those interested in stepping beyond the realm of ideas into the world of practice, the latest book from Tibetan master Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a helpful guide to one important aspect of the spiritual path. The Heart of the Path explains the importance of guru devotion and Zopa's view of the proper way to develop a student-teacher bond. Lama Zopa has had many teachers, but his unwavering devotion to Lama Thubten Yeshe shines through on every page. Drawing on this experience and the Buddha's teachings, Zopa effectively conveys the value of relationships based on Buddhist ideals. From a review in Mandala magazine: Although guru devotion is a foundational concept within Tibetan Buddhist thought, for many it remains a bewildering and impenetrable topic. Fortunately for contemporary practitioners, Lama Zopa Rinpoche has spoken extensively on guru devotion, giving teachings and advice about what it really means to have devotion to one’s spiritual friend. Drawing from nearly fifty teachings, this treasure is the result of seven years of painstaking editing by Ven. Ailsa Cameron. Not only does it include teachings on the traditional sub-topics that fall under guru devotion found in Tsongkhapa’s lam-rim, but also a useful outline to guide your reading, several supplementary prayers and teachings from other renowned Tibetan masters, and inspiring images of Lama Zopa, Lama Yeshe and other amazing teachers peppered throughout. A perusal of this masterful work by Lama Zopa Rinpoche will assuage any doubts about the utility or possibility of “seeing the guru as Buddha.” This book is made possible by kind supporters of the Archive who, like you, appreciate how we make these teachings available in so many ways, including in our website for instant reading, listening or downloading, and as printed and electronic books. Our website offers immediate access to thousands of pages of teachings and hundreds of audio recordings by some of the greatest lamas of our time. Our photo gallery and our ever-popular books are also freely accessible there. Please help us increase our efforts to spread the Dharma for the happiness and benefit of all beings. You can find out more about becoming a supporter of the Archive and see all we have to offer by visiting our website. Thank you so much, and please enjoy this e-book.

A Carnival of Parting

A Carnival of Parting
Author: Ann Grodzins Gold
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2023-07-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520911555

Madhu Natisar Nath is a Rajasthani farmer with no formal schooling. He is also a singer, a musician, and a storyteller. At the center of A Carnival of Parting are Madhu Nath's oral performances of two linked tales about the legendary Indian kings, Bharthari of Ujjain and Gopi Chand of Bengal. Both characters, while still in their prime, leave thrones and families to be initiated as yogis—a process rich in adventure and melodrama, one that offers unique insights into popular Hinduism's view of world renunciation. Ann Grodzins Gold presents these living oral epic traditions as flowing narratives, transmitting to Western readers the pleasures, moods, and interactive dimensions of a village bard's performance. Three introductory chapters and an interpretive afterword, together with an appendix on the bard's language by linguist David Magier, supply A Carnival of Parting with a full range of ethnographic, historical, and cultural backgrounds. Gold gives a frank and engaging portrayal of the bard Madhu Nath and her work with him. The tales are most profoundly concerned, Gold argues, with human rather than divine realities. In a compelling afterword, she highlights their thematic emphases on politics, love, and death. Madhu Nath's vital colloquial telling of Gopi Chand and Bharthari's stories depicts renunciation as inevitable and interpersonal attachments as doomed, yet celebrates human existence as a "carnival of parting."