Songs for Siva

Songs for Siva
Author: Vinaya Chaitanya
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2017-03-24
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9352644115

'[Vinaya Chaitanya shows] an acute awareness of textual issues that never bothered earlier translators.' - From the foreword by H.S. Shivaprakash Hailed as an early feminist literary voice, Akka Mahadevi was born in twelfth-century Karnataka. As a child she was initiated into the worship of Channamallikarjuna, her village's version of Siva. She was forced to marry her region's ruler, but because she had become so ardently devoted to the god, Akka abandoned her husband and all her possessions and wandered alone - a naked poet-saint covered only by her long hair. Her vacanas, a new populist literary form meaning literally 'to give one's word' - demonstrate both her radical devotion to Siva and the commitment to equality her Virasaiva poetry embodied.

Lord Śiva's Song

Lord Śiva's Song
Author:
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2014-03-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1438451024

While the Bhagavad Gītā is an acknowledged treasure of world spiritual literature, few people know a parallel text, theĪśvara Gītā. This lesser-known work is also dedicated to a god, but in this case it is Śiva, rather than Kṛṣṇa, who is depicted as the omniscient creator of the world. Andrew J. Nicholson's Lord Śiva's Song makes this text available in English in an accessible new translation. A work of both poetry and philosophy, the Īśvara Gītā builds on the insights of Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra and foreshadows later developments in tantric yoga. It deals with the pluralistic religious environment of early medieval India through an exploration of the relationship between the gods Śiva and Viṣṇu. The work condemns sectarianism and violence and provides a strategy for accommodating conflicting religious claims in its own day and in our own.

Finding Shiva

Finding Shiva
Author: Rukmini Vijayakumar
Publisher: Notion Press
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2021-12-14
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN:

After high school, I was not sure about whether I should pursue dance or a technical subject. Awaiting clarity, I spent many months considering my options. While I was in the midst of this confusion, someone asked me, “What brings you closer to yourself?” I didn’t respond immediately, but in my mind the answer was clear. “Dance brings me closer to myself,” I thought. It was such an odd question, yet strangely it influenced a life decision. How can one be closer to or farther from oneself? I knew that dance would begin to reveal something to me at some point in time, but I wasn’t sure of what this thing would be. The act of dancing holds something within it that I wanted to discover. What if I could imbibe my life with the clarity of thought, precision, control and simultaneous surrender that I am able to wield as a performer? Wouldn’t life change inexplicably for the better? The applause bursts like rain clattering From a cloud too heavy to hold, My elation bathes me as sweat trickles Down my forehead a moment before It stings my eye to remind me to see, They applaud the dance, not me. If I were to fall prey, my dance entwined With only moments of applause to remind Of my days of yore. No never not. Dance is me and yet not at all... - Rukmini Vijayakumar

Dancing With Siva

Dancing With Siva
Author: Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Publisher: Himalayan Academy Publications
Total Pages: 1270
Release: 2003-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0945497962

This 1,008-page sourcebook answers many questions to quench the soul's thirst for God and Self-knowledge. Every spiritually-inclined human being will be enriched by the path revealed in this extraordinary book. India's tolerant and diverse vision of the Divine is all here: meditative, devotional, philosophical, scriptural and yogic. In question-and-answer style, Dancing with Siva guides the aspirant deep into the Hindu heart. Lavishly illustrated with 165 black and white reproductions of paintings from India. Resources include a Hindu timeline, comparisons of 12 world religions, a children's primer and more.

Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir

Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir
Author: Constantina Rhodes
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1987-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0791495647

Utpaladeva was considered a siddha, a "perfected being," one of the masters of the tantric tradition in Kashmir, and he is best known for his philosophical treatises. The Shivastotravali reflects Utpaladeva's philosophy, known as the Pratyabhijna school. And yet it is unique among the author's works in its not being a straightforward philosophical treatise but instead, as Dr. Bailly points out in her introduction, more of a spiritual diary of one who is actually treading the path of Shiva. The path that Utpaladeva has chosen does not require leaving one's home and heading for a mountain cave; instead it calls for changing one's view of the world, for leading a life of divine recognition while carrying on with ordinary life. In clearly written, lucid prose Dr. Bailly illuminates the many facets of Utpaladeva's quest. At the core of his spiritual journey is the enigmatic relationship between devotion and grace: how much does spiritual attainment depend upon the individual's efforts, and how much is a divine gift? And how are these to be realized while living in the midst of society, maintaining worldly obligations and lifestyle? For over a thousand years the Shaiva community of Kashmir has used in its worship the hymns of Utpaladeva's Shivastotravali. Here for the first time these hymns are presented in translation as English verse along with the Sanskrit, a clear and lively introduction, two appendices on special aspects of Kashmir Shaivism, and additional notes.

Speaking of Śiva

Speaking of Śiva
Author: A. K. Ramanujan
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1973
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780140442700

The Vacanas Or Free-Verse Lyrics Written By Four Major Saints Of The Great Bhakti Protest Movement Which Originated In The Tenth Century Ad. Composed In Kannada, A Dravidian Language Of South India, The Poems Are Lyrical Expressions Of Love For The God Siva. They Mirror The Urge To Bypass Tradition And Ritual, To Concentrate On The Subject Rather Than The Object Of Worship, And To Express Kinship With All Living Things In Moving Terms. Passionate, Personal, Fiercely Monotheistic, These Free Verses Possess An Appeal, Which Is Timeless And Universal.

In Praise of the Goddess

In Praise of the Goddess
Author:
Publisher: Nicolas-Hays, Inc.
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2003-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0892546166

About 16 centuries ago, an unknown Indian author or authors gathered together the diverse threads of already ancient traditions and wove them into a verbal tapestry that today is still the central text for worshippers of the Hindu Devi, the Divine Mother. 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.

Oath of the Vayuputras

Oath of the Vayuputras
Author: Amish Tripathi
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Total Pages: 565
Release: 2016-07-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1681445034

Today, Shiva is a god. But four thousand years ago, he was just a man - until he brought his people to Meluha, a near-perfect empire founded by the great king Lord Ram. There he discovered he was the Neelkanth, a barbarian long prophesied to be Meluha's savior. But in his hour of victory fighting the Chandravanshis - Meluha's enemy - he discovered they had their own prophecy. Now he must fight to uncover the treachery within his inner circle, and unmask those who are about to destroy all that he has fought for. Shiva is about to learn that good and evil are two sides of the same coin...

Poems to Siva

Poems to Siva
Author: Indira Viswanathan Peterson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 415
Release: 2014-07-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400860067

Composed by three poet-saints between the sixth and eighth centuries A.D., the Tevaram hymns are the primary scripture of the Tamil Saivism, one of the first popular large-scale devotional movements within Hinduism. Indira Peterson eloquently renders into English a substantial portion of these hymns, which provide vivid and moving portraits of the images, myths, rites, and adoration of Siva and which continue to be loved and sung by the millions of followers of the Tamil Saiva tradition. Her introduction and annotations illuminate the work's literary, religious, and cultural contexts, making this anthology a rich sourcebook for the study of South Indian popular religion. Indira Peterson highlights the Tevaram as a seminal text in Tamil cultural history, a synthesis of pan-Indian and Tamil civilization, as well as a distinctly Tamil expression of the love of song, sacred landscape, and ceremonial religion. Her discussion of this work draws on her pioneering research into the performance of the hymns and their relation to the art and ritual of the South Indian temple. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.