The Afterlife of Sai Baba

The Afterlife of Sai Baba
Author: Karline McLain
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-09-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780295744339

Nearly a century after his death, the image of Sai Baba, the serene old man with the white beard from Shirdi village in Maharashtra, India, is instantly recognizable to most South Asians (and many Westerners) as a guru for all faiths--Hindus, Muslims, and others. During his lifetime Sai Baba accepted all followers who came to him, regardless of religious or caste background, and preached a path of spiritual enlightenment and mutual tolerance. These days, tens of thousands of Indians and foreigners make the pilgrimage to Shirdi each year, and Sai Baba temples have sprung up in unlikely places around the world, such as Munich, Seattle, and Austin. Tracing his rise from small village guru to global phenomenon, religious studies scholar Karline McLain uses a wide range of sources to investigate the different ways that Sai Baba has been understood in South Asia and beyond and the reasons behind his skyrocketing popularity among Hindus in particular. Shining a spotlight on an incredibly forceful devotional movement that avoids fundamental politics and emphasizes unity, service, and peace, The Afterlife of Sai Baba is an entertaining--and enlightening--look at one of South Asia's most popular spiritual gurus.

Hinduism

Hinduism
Author: Kim Knott
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2016
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0198745540

Hinduism is practised by about 80% of India's population, and by about 30,000,000 people outside India. But how is Hinduism defined, and what basis does the religion have? This work gives concise insights into the central preoccupations of Hinduism.

Stories of Indian Saints

Stories of Indian Saints
Author: Mahīpati
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Total Pages: 1100
Release: 1988
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9788120804692

The present book is an English translation of Mahipati's Marathi poem Bhakta-Vijaya which records the legends of Indian saints, irrespective of their difference in caste, community, creed, language and place of origin. Thus we have the record of different saints - Yayadeva, Jnanadeva, Namadeva, Ramananda, Tulasidasa, Kabir, Suradasa, Narsi Mehta and Guru Nanakadeva. A lot of information is available on Ekanath-the greatest scholar-philosopher-saint-poet-cum-social reformer and the towering personalities Tukaram and Ramadasa. It also records the miraculous and fascinating legends of several saints, how they spread the Bhakti cult, how they struggled against discrimination between man and man and how they tried to uproot the malpractices which prevailed in the name of Religion in those days.

Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint

Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint
Author: Smriti Srinivas
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2022-10-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000604063

Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint focuses on the presence and contemporaneity of Shirdi Sai Baba (d.1918), who has a vast following in postcolonial South Asia and an ever-growing global diaspora. Essays consider the saint’s influence on everyday life and how visual, narrative, textual, sensorial, performative, political, social, and spatial practices interpenetrate to produce multiple terrains of devotion. Contributions by twelve scholars of several academic disciplines explore eruptions and circulations of sacred materials, spatialities of devotional practices, visual and digital imaginaries, transcultural narrativizations, and material affects and effects of Sai Baba. The presentation transcends routine scholarly discussions about sainthood, cultures of worship, religious objects, Hinduism and Islam. Shirdi Sai Baba’s presence conveys inspiration and healing energies and he accepted the entreaties of people of all castes and creeds, offering an alternative to communal ideologies of his time – and the present. Considerations of Shirdi Sai Baba’s milieux of devotional praxis situate and localize debates about the meaning of nation and religion, past and present, urbanization, and class identity in transitions from colonial to postcolonial/global South Asia. The book expands the boundaries of the study of Shirdi Sai Baba and makes important contributions to South Asia Studies, Anthropology, Religious Studies, Global Studies, Urban Studies, Indian Ocean Studies, Inter-Asian Studies, Visual and Media Studies, and Cultural Geography.

Indian Pilgrims

Indian Pilgrims
Author: Michelle M. Jacob
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2016-10-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0816533563

Kateri Tekakwitha is the first North American Indian to be canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Indian Pilgrims examines Saint Kateri's influence and role as a powerful feminine figure who inspires decolonizing activism in contemporary Indigenous peoples' lives.

Visits to Saints of India

Visits to Saints of India
Author: Swami Kriyananda
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781565893214

In 1958 and 1972, Swami Kriyananda (a close disciple of the great yoga master Paramhansa Yogananda--author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi) traveled to India, meeting a number of great saints and writing about his experiences in a series of letters to spiritual friends. In Visits to Saints of India, we walk alongside Kriyananda and see India and its spiritual representatives through his eyes--the eyes of an advanced Western yogi and truth-seeker.

Reflections of Amma

Reflections of Amma
Author: Amanda J. Lucia
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2014-03-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0520281144

Originally presented as the author's dissertation (Ph. D.--University of Chicago, 2010).

Hindu Selves in a Modern World

Hindu Selves in a Modern World
Author: Maya Warrier
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2004-11-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1134298943

This book explores devotional Hinduism in a modern context of high consumerism and revolutionised communications. It focuses on a fast-growing and high-profile contemporary Hindu guru faith originating in India and attracting a transnational following. The organisation is led by a vastly popular female guru, Mata Amritanandamayi, whom devotees worship as an avatar and a healer of the ills of the contemporary world. By drawing upon multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork among the mata's primarily urban, educated 'middle class' Indian devotees, the author provides crucial insights into new trends in popular Hinduism in a post-colonial and rapidly modernising Indian setting.

Songs of Three Great South Indian Saints

Songs of Three Great South Indian Saints
Author: William Joseph Jackson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

In This Book The Author Translates The Songs Of Annamacharya, Purandaradasa And Kanakadasa, In An English That Is Sometimes Startlingly Contemporary And Colloquial, Capturing The Essence Of Bhakti As A Movement That Belonged To The People, And That Spoke The Language Of The Streets.