Lord Siva’s Song: The Isvara Gita

SKU: BK7196

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Specification
  • Product Code :BK7196
  • Size :16 x 24 Cm
  • Weight :505 gm.
  • Author :Andrew J. Nicholson
  • ISBN :8121513030 / 9788121513036
  • Publisher :Munshiram Manoharlal Publication Pvt.Ltd
  • Edition :2016
  • Cover :Hard Cover
  • Language :English
  • Pages :245
Description

About the Book

While the Bhagavad Gita is an acknowledged treasure of world spiritual literature, few people know a parallel text, the Isvara Gita. This lesser- known work is also dedicated to a god, but in this case it is Siva, rather than krsna, who is depicted as the omniscient creator of the world. Andrew J. Nicholson’s Lord Siva’s Song makes this text available in English in an accessible new translation. A work of poetry and philosophy, the Isvara Gita builds on the insights of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 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 Siva and Visnu. The work condemns sectarianism and violence, and provides a strategy for accommodating conflicting religious claims in its own day and in our own.


About the Author


Andrew J. Nicholson is Associate Professor of Hinduism and Indian Intellectual History at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. His primary area of research is Indian Philosophy and intellectual History, particularly medieval Vedanta and theistic yoga philosophies and their influence in the modern world. His first book, Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History and was awarded Best First Book in the History of Religions by the American Academy of Religion. This book is Professor Nicholson’s second work and is an annotated translation of an eighth century Pasupata Yoga text.


Introduction


The Isvara Gita ("Lord Siva's Song") is a philosophical poem that conveys the teachings of the Pasupatas, a group of Siva worshippers who would have a profound and lasting influence on the development of Hinduism. Since its composition in the eighth century CE, it has been an inspiration to generations of philosophers, devotees, and yogis in India. Like its famous predecessor, the Bhagavad Gita ("Song of Lord Krsna"), it goes beyond mere philosophical theory to describe a regimen of spiritual exercises to achieve self-transcendence and absolute freedom. These spiritual exercises, the "Pasupata Yoga," are a regimen of ethical discipline, breath control, physical postures, and mental concentration through which the yogi attains divine knowledge, power, and liberation. Pasupatas are not content just to know god. The ultimate goal of Pasupata Yoga is to become god-to attain Lord Siva's majestic power and wisdom in this very lifetime through mental absorption and union with him, the Lord of Yoga.

Description

Specification
  • Product Code :BK7196
  • Size :16 x 24 Cm
  • Weight :505 gm.
  • Author :Andrew J. Nicholson
  • ISBN :8121513030 / 9788121513036
  • Publisher :Munshiram Manoharlal Publication Pvt.Ltd
  • Edition :2016
  • Cover :Hard Cover
  • Language :English
  • Pages :245
Description

About the Book

While the Bhagavad Gita is an acknowledged treasure of world spiritual literature, few people know a parallel text, the Isvara Gita. This lesser- known work is also dedicated to a god, but in this case it is Siva, rather than krsna, who is depicted as the omniscient creator of the world. Andrew J. Nicholson’s Lord Siva’s Song makes this text available in English in an accessible new translation. A work of poetry and philosophy, the Isvara Gita builds on the insights of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 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 Siva and Visnu. The work condemns sectarianism and violence, and provides a strategy for accommodating conflicting religious claims in its own day and in our own.


About the Author


Andrew J. Nicholson is Associate Professor of Hinduism and Indian Intellectual History at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. His primary area of research is Indian Philosophy and intellectual History, particularly medieval Vedanta and theistic yoga philosophies and their influence in the modern world. His first book, Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History and was awarded Best First Book in the History of Religions by the American Academy of Religion. This book is Professor Nicholson’s second work and is an annotated translation of an eighth century Pasupata Yoga text.


Introduction


The Isvara Gita ("Lord Siva's Song") is a philosophical poem that conveys the teachings of the Pasupatas, a group of Siva worshippers who would have a profound and lasting influence on the development of Hinduism. Since its composition in the eighth century CE, it has been an inspiration to generations of philosophers, devotees, and yogis in India. Like its famous predecessor, the Bhagavad Gita ("Song of Lord Krsna"), it goes beyond mere philosophical theory to describe a regimen of spiritual exercises to achieve self-transcendence and absolute freedom. These spiritual exercises, the "Pasupata Yoga," are a regimen of ethical discipline, breath control, physical postures, and mental concentration through which the yogi attains divine knowledge, power, and liberation. Pasupatas are not content just to know god. The ultimate goal of Pasupata Yoga is to become god-to attain Lord Siva's majestic power and wisdom in this very lifetime through mental absorption and union with him, the Lord of Yoga.

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