Eastern Philosophy Books

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Frithjof Schuon
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : December 1, 2010
• Pages : 173
• Weight : 300 g.
• Size : 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569535
• ISBN-10 : 8186569537
• Product Code : BK14268

Description:

Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998) is acclaimed as the greatest authority of the twentieth century on the subject of comparative religions. The Transcendent Unity of Religions is a testimony to life as a holistic and sacred phenomenon. Every religion can be likened to a ray of light, emanating from the Divine Source. To transcend religious differences, Schuon explains, we must explore the esoteric nature of the inward-turned spiritual path. On this journey, we can trace the brilliant ray of illumination back to the Divine Oneness that is the basis of all religions. "Superlative ... the most powerful statement of the grand, or better, primordial, tradition. It is original in incorporating what our age for the first time demands: that religion be treated in global terms."--Huston Smith

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Osborne
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 1 December 2011
• Pages : 164
• Weight : 200 g.
• Size : 6.9 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13: 978-9381120002
• ISBN-10: 9381120005
• Product Code: BK14264

Description:

Arthur Osborne found that while academics investigated the causes of historical incidents, their research was limited, for the most part, to obvious physical causes, but they failed to clarify the overarching but hidden principles that, in his eyes, governed actions and made history. In this book he suggests a different approach to history, giving its due importance to spiritual ideas and teachers, and proposing that ideas shape the physical conditions of society more than the other way round. In his own words:
“The purpose of the present book is not so much to suggest any new philosophy or interpretation of history as to draw attention to a rhythm that runs through it, establishing parallels and coincidences large and obvious enough not to be open to dispute. These will be sufficient at least to show that history is not purely haphazard and yet is also not simple progress.”
Arthur Osborne observed that so-called progress was not what it appeared to be and that modern civilization is not necessarily an advance on the discoveries and understanding that ancient civilizations had garnered and demonstrated in their development. He outlined the parallels — not be confused with uniformity — in the different phases through which the great civilizations of mankind passed. In the eighteenth century there was a radical divergence between the West and East, which is being overcome by the surging of a single world civilization.

About Author:

Arthur Osborne (1906-70) is best known for his book Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge, one of the first books to make known to the world the south Indian sage Sri Ramana Maharshi, to whom Arthur Osborne devoted the last part of his life. 

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : R. Torella 
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 1 December 2011
• Pages : 267
• Weight : 500 g.
• Size : 21.6 x 14.2 x 2.3 cm
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569960
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569962
• Product Code : BK14263

Description:

India’s progressive emergence on the world stage, in terms unimaginable just a few decades ago, obliges us to reconsider its image as nurtured by the West for over two thousand years: a prestigious image maybe, but also greatly reductive, as the privileged home of occult knowledge, ecstasy and asceticism, or — quite the opposite — of fabulous riches and voluptuous pleasures. Rather than getting to know India, the West has preferred to dream of it: one result has been that Indian thought, albeit unanimously celebrated as the seat of the highest wisdom, has not been granted even the smallest place on the great stage of the history of philosophy.
This book presents the thought of pre-modern India first and foremost by outlining the cultural parameters within which it arose and developed, and should be read; often associated with religious experience, but also essentially independent of it; sometimes differing in form and outcome, but more often very close to Western thought, and certainly never “alien”.
“This is a marvellous piece of compact insight in all respects: a summary as well as a fresh view of the whole area, always sound and based on first hand experience with the material. I really mean it when I would like to call it the best modern survey of our field at an extraordinary high level of penetration.”
—Prof. Ernst Steinkellner, University of Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences

About Author:

Raffaele Torella is professor of Sanskrit at University of Rome “Sapienza”, where he has also taught for long Indian Philosophy and Religion, and Indology. His preferred fields of research are Kashmir Shaivism, linguistic speculation, Buddhist epistemology and manuscriptology. Among his main publications, there is the first critical edition and annotated English translation of Utpaladeva’s Ishvarapratyabhijna-karika and Vritti, the fundamental theoretical work of Pratyabhijna philosophy and of Hindu Tantrism as a whole (MLBD, Delhi 2002); the Italian translation of the Shivasutra with Kshemaraja’s commentary (Milan 1999); Eros and Emotions in India and Tibet (Einaudi, Turin 2007; in Italian). He has been the scientific responsible and co-author of the section “Science in India” in the multivolume work History of Science (Rome 2002; in Italian). Along with Bettina Bäumer, he has recently organized the first International Workshop on Utpaladeva at Indian Institute for Advanced study in Shimla (2010).

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Mahaprabhu Aghoreshwar Baba Bhagwan Ram
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 1, 2012
• Pages : 413
• Weight : 450 gm.
• Size : 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569669
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569665
• Product Code : BK14253

Description:

The Aghoris believe that their tradition was started by Shiva himself, and was propounded further by Jagadguru Dattatreya. Baba Kinaram (1563-1714), a very renowned saint in Banaras, revived the tradition.
The followers of the Aghora path try to cultivate a state of mind and social practice totally non-discriminatory. Seeing the Divine in everything and everybody, they transcend all category distinctions, all prescriptions and proscriptions of the “normal” social structure such as high and low, purity and pollution, pure and impure, or male and female.
In the twentieth century, Aghoreshwar Mahaprabhu Baba Bhagwan Ram (1937-92) was the greatest avadhut in the Aghora tradition. He had an overwhelming spiritual quest ever since his infancy, and attained enlightenment at the age of fourteen or fifteen. He thus became an Aghoreshwar, the highest of all spiritually realized saints in the Aghora tradition, a walking, talking deity, Shiva incarnate. People felt that Baba truly loved everyone who went to him. His life was no longer for his own self; he lived for those who came to him. Hundreds of thousands of devotees, simple villagers, spiritual seekers and high dignitaries would flock around him.
In the holy city of Banaras Baba laid the foundation of Shri Sarveshwari Samooh in 1961, an organization to fight social evils like leprosy, dowry and illiteracy. To fulfil hese goals, Baba started an ashram and a leprosy hospital by the name of Awadhut Bhagwan Ram Kusht Sewa Ashram (The Awadhut Bhagwan Ram Leprosy Service Ashram) at Parao, Varanasi.
Baba’s teachings were imparted more through everyday conversations rather than through sermons. On his advice, his words were compiled into a book that will have the essence of all his messages. Thus was written Aghor Vachan Shastra in Hindi and the present book, its English translation.
Baba Bhagwan Ram is credited to have changed the place that Aughar ascetics occupy in society. While earlier they were regarded as being, literally, on the social fringe, inhabiting cremation grounds, today they have become a part of the mainstream of religious life in Banaras and elsewhere, using the powers of their spiritual practices for social benefit.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By :  Reza Shah-Kazemi
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 1, 2009
• Pages : 261
• Weight : 350 gm.
• Size : 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569870
• ISBN-10 : 8186569871
• Product Code : BK14213

Description:

The aim of this book is to contribute to the elucidation of an important but much neglected theme in comparative religion and mysticism: that of transcendence. The book intends to shed light on the meaning of transcendence both in itself and as the summit of spiritual realization, taking as starting point what three of the world’s greatest mystics have said or written on this subject. Shankara, Ibn Arabi and Meister Eckhart, each of an inmense importance within their respective traditions, have been chosen for this study inasmuch as both the conceptual and experiential aspects of transcendence figure prominently in their articulated writings and discourses; each one has, moreover, expressed himself in a manner that is at once authoritative — bearing witness to his personal realization — and detailed, thus allowing for extensive analytical treatment of these aspects of transcendence.
“Paths to Transcendence has the merit of gathering, in the same volume, the deepest thinking of the most intellectual and spiritual elite of three great traditions and civilizations: Shankara for Hinduism, Ibn Arabi for Islam, and Meister Eckhart for Christianity. It provides detailed analysis and lucid examination of the misinterpretations which frequently occur nowadays about these spiritual authorities.”
— Jean-Pierre Lafouge, Marquette University
“Here is a major landmark in comparative metaphysics. The universality of spiritual realization through knowledge is rendered apparent with a rare combination of analytic rigour and depth of ‘synthesis. This book demonstrates that spiritual intuition can inform and innervate academic discourse without compromising its conceptual demands.”
— Patrick Laude, Georgetown University

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By :  Malcolm Tillis  (Author), Ram Alexander (Editor)
• Edition : June 15, 2004
• Pages : 454
• Weight : 550 gm.
• Size : 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Cover : Paperback
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569498
• ISBN-10 : 8186569499
• Product Code : BK14212

Description:

In the pages of this book we are taken on a profound pilgrimage of spiritual discovery. With our guide, Malcolm Tillis, we wander the length and breadth of India in search of other Westerners who, like him, have forsaken their old lives in the West for totally new, dramatically more meaningful ones in the East. By seeing Indian spirituality through the eyes of outsiders who were not born into the ancient culture, but found tremendous personal meaning therein, we discover it new and fresh with each individual Malcolm interviews. Each of these individuals has discovered an enormous spiritual wealth in India that makes the material prosperity and technological “advancements” of the West seem obscenely desolate and primitive in comparison. Contemporary Indian readers should find this particularly relevant, as India becomes more “modern” and on par with the West, and as they find themselves increasingly in a similar position with regard to rediscovering their own heritage.
Some of the people interviewed, renowned today, have remarkable life-stories:
Vijayananda met the great saint Anandamayi Ma with whom he found all he had hoped for. He moved into her ashram to live the life of a contemplative reununciate, where he remains to this day, now a revered and venerable teacher himself.
Ani Tenzin Palmo (Diana Perry) spent much of her time residing and meditating in a cave in the Himalayas at an altitude of over 12,000 ft. Today she is one of the better known figures in contemporary Buddhism.
The Swiss Swami Jnanananda took the formal vows and garb of a Hindu monk and then spent years wandering and meditating in the Himalayas in the company of saints and yogis. Today he is a beloved teacher residing in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Bill Aitken is a noted author of books about his adopted homeland.
Atmananda, an Austrian classical pianist, translated and edited the primary works about her Guru Anandamayi Ma into English, and ultimately became a Hindu sannyasini.
Lucia Osborne, wife of the writer Arthur Osborne, was a close follower of the great sage Ramana Maharshi.
Father Bede Griffith, the Benedictine monk and well-known author, spent his life formulating a synthesis of Christianity and Hinduism.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By :  Anil Mihiripenna
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 1, 2007
• Pages : 479
• Weight : 900 gm.
• Size : 9.9 x 8.8 x 1.3 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569758
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569757
• Product Code : BK14211

Description:

Although many collections of ragadhari vocal compositions have been published over the years, there is a dearth of instrumental compositions. Hence, it has been the in the north Indian musical tradition.
This book cannot replace a teacher, and it is from a teacher that students of music must seek instructions and guidance. The purpose of this book is to offer some support to both the teacher and the student. Exercises and compositions should not be forced indiscriminately on students, but the teacher must use his discretion in prescribing appropriate material for individual students. He must also offer his advise and guidance to students on how to select compositions to suit their needs and abilities.
In this book, you will find Gat composed for various types of instruments with different techniques of playing. There are compositions appropriate for stringed instruments (bowed and plucked) and for wind instruments. Thus, the compositions for sitar and sarod are basically in Mazith Khani and Raza Khani styles, while different Gat styles are employed for violin, esraj and flute.

About Author:

Anil Mihiripenna is a versatile and internationally recognized musician from Sri Lanka. He graduated from Vishva Bharati University (Shantiniketan). He studied under the great esraj maestro Ashish Chandra Benerji, flute from Pt. Gowr Goswami and vocal from Pt. Jamini Kantha Chakrawarti. He has widely travelled on concert tours in the USA, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and India, and he is regarded as the leading flautist-cum-esraj player in Sri Lanka. He has also composed music for several ballets, documentary films and feature films. He is the founder of Sharada Kla Nikethanaya, an institution that propagates and popularizes Oriental classical music in Sri Lanka.

Specification:

• Publisher :  Indica Books
• By :  Stefano De Santis
• Cover : Hardcover
• Edition : 1 January 1995
• Pages : 485
• Weight : 500 gm.
• Size : 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186117040
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186117040
• Product Code: BK14210

Description:

The present work is an important contribution towards understanding the cultural environment in which the corrupts of man and nature were conceived in ancient India. This study has two principal objectives:
1. To provide to the intellectuals presently involved in the search for a new “ecological” ethics a set of information regarding the traditional Indian conceptions of man and nature.
2. To review the philosophical values on which Hinduism is based from a viewpoint which in has intense intellectual and emotional resonance in the understanding of the present generation of university students.
Since the author explains the ancient ideas from a perspective which has contemporary relevance, the book has the rare virtue of presenting the Hindu philosophical systems in a style which is clearly intelligible even for neophytes. At the same time his scholastic review of esoteric topics like the “Psychology of Samkhya” a and the “Cosmology of Shaivism” makes the book a significant reading also for authorities on Indology.

About Author:

Stefano De Santis was born in Rome in the year 1957. By profession a cultural anthropologist, he has worked in India for more than five years as a development consultant for projects which aim at preserving the cultural and natural heritage while improving the economic standard of the people. “At a certain point of my life I realized that I could not understand the cultural values of Indian tradition without a deep study of the Hindu philosophical schools.” So for five years he left his anthropological fieldwork in the rural areas and went to study at Banaras. There he took his second doctorate at the Banaras Hindu University with a research on “The Relationship Between Man and Nature”. He also directed the documentary film “Into Our Nature”, produced by SociecoS for the Indian Television, which was telecast in different countries and made his field of research popular to a wider international audience.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By :  Bithika Mukerji 
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : July 4, 2005
• Pages : 366
• Weight : 450 gm.
• Size : 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Language : Hindi
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569559
• ISBN-10 : 8186569553
• Product Code : BK14209

Description:

She would say in humility, l am a little girl only, I have not been educated at all ”, but I have heard the effervescence of Veda-Vedanta pouring forth from her divine lips.”
— Mahamandaleswar 1008 Sri Vidyanandaji Maharaj, Kailash Ashram, Rishikesh
For a span of more than fifty years Sri Ma Anandamayi dominated gracefully the spiritual horizon of India. The keepers of the Vedic heritage — the ascetics orders of India — were united in declaring her the quintessence of the Upanishadic Spirit. Eminent philosophers like Mahendra N. Sarkar and T.M.P. Mahadevan acknowledged her utterances as authoritative.
Much has been written about Sri Ma by erudite scholars as well as ordinary men and women. The present book is a lively and engaging account of Sri Ma’s enigmatic personality from the point of view of a single devoted family. It is an intimate and moving study of personal commitments. Yet through the author’s perspective an emerging modern society is glimpsed where orthodox rites, political upheavals, social changes create the shifting patterns of a kaleidoscope. Sri Ma and her entourage of visiting dignitaries, princes, scholars, village women and children, and renowned ascetics assume a three-dimensional image. According to Richard Lannoy, who has written the Foreword, the book is a valliant attempt at closing the distance between the known and the unfathomable.
“Trained in the highest rigours of academic discipline in renowned universities of India and Canada, Bithika Mukerji, being very close to Anandamayi Ma from early childhood, was able to observe from near rare dimensions of a surpassingly beautiful spiritual being. Her reminiscences of her days with the Mother consequently, have an authenticity, charm and insight difficult to come by.”
— Manas Mukul Das, Professor of English, University of Allahabad

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By :  Kāśīnātha Nyaupāne
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 1994
• Pages : 160
• Weight : 500 gm.
• Size :  
• Language : Hindi
• ISBN-13 : 9788186117002
  
• Product Code : BK14208

Description:

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By :  Divyabandhu
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 2016
• Pages : 331
• Weight : 500 gm.
• Size : 
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186117248
• ISBN-10 : 8186117245
• Product Code: BK14207

Description:

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By :  Agustin Lopez Tobajas 
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 1, 2008
• Pages : 117
• Weight : 150 gm.
• Size : 6.8 x 4.8 x 0.3 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569782
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569788
• Product Code : BK14206

Description:

Born with the Industrial Revolution, the idea of “Progress” is a basic dogma in the ideology of modernity. Despising old religions as superstitions, worship of material “progress” has become the new religion of the world. But, behind its bright face, so-called “progress” and what came in its wake has thrust humanity into the core of a deep crisis. Science and technology continuously devise new ways of destruction that keep the world in a state of permanent danger; economic development condemns whole countries to utter poverty; art has renounced any search for meaning; ecologic catastrophes are a matter of routine; violence increases everywhere and human beings feel a growing dissatisfaction and emptiness in their lives. Where then is progress?
The nature of a manifesto is to create a direct impact on the reader by ushering in clear and forceful ideas without diluting them with secondary considerations. The author presents here a strong case to dismiss so-called progress and to cut asunder the allurement that it still may have for many of us. In this short but incisive, discerning, sarcastic, caustic, radical and uncompromising text, the author searches for the real face of modernity and progress behind its gleaming make-up and dares to declare for all that would hear that “the king is naked”. His judgement is clear-cut and categorical: from the spiritual point of view, which sees man as God-bound, so-called “progress” is an unmitigated disaster.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Debabrata SenSharma
• Cover : Hardcover
• Edition : January 1, 2007
• Pages : 162
• Weight : 200 gm.
• Size : 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569677
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569672
• Product Code : BK14185

Description:

The distinguishing feature of all schools of Indian philosophy in general is that these do not remain content with merely enunciating the metaphysical tenets of the particular school, but they also set up the spiritual goal before the seekers, prescribing the modes of spiritual discipline to reach it. Spiritual discipline or Yoga therefore constitutes an inseparable part of the philosophy of every school. This is very true especially in the case of Tantric schools, in which spiritual practices or sadhana kriya dominate. The performance of kriya in the prescribed manner forms an integral part of all texts dealing with Tantra Yoga.
This book opens with an account of the nature, origin and development of Saiva-Sakta Tantras, their classification under different schools, the wealth of literature available belonging to these schools, etc. It also sheds light on the principal metaphysical tenets of Saiva and Sakta Tantras, relevant to the study of Tantra-Yoga. The topics covered in this book are the concepts of divine Grace or saktipata, guru and his different kinds, the process of initiation (diksa) and its varieties, mantra’s nature and place in sadhana kriya, different modes of spiritual discipline, Kundalini Yoga, the highest spiritual goal, etc.
This book attempts to remove the misconceptions widespread in the academic world about the theory and practice of Tantra-Yoga, which have been deliberately kept secret by the practitioners to prevent their misuse by unscrupulous persons.

About Author:

Dr. Debabrata Sen Sharma, a well-known scholar of sanskrit and Indian Philosophy and Religion, has spent more than half a century in studying, teaching and writing on the Advita Shiava thought of Kashmir.  Retired as Professor of Sanskrit and Director of the Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies from the Kurukshetra University of Haryana, now settled down in Kolkata, he is devoting all his time to read in depth, write and translate Sanskrit texts on Shaivism. He had the rare privilege of studying abstruse Sanskrit texts on Shaivism and Tantra with Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. Gopinath Kaviraj, an acknoledged authority on Saiva-Sakta Tantras and a spiritual, for eight long years at Varanasi.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
  
• By : Debabrata SenSharma
• Cover : Hardcover
• Edition : January 1, 2009
• Pages : 180
• Weight : 450 gm.
• Size : 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569894
• Product Code : BK14184
  

Description:

Ancient Indian tradition traces the origins of the Shaiva cult to the Agamic thought current. The emergence of the Trika school of Shaivism in Kashmir marks the climax in the development of the Advaita Shaiva thought, being backed up by a rich Sanskrit literature. The doctrine of recognition (pratyabhijna) constitutes the cardinal doctrine in the philosophy of the Advaita Shaiva School. The sadhaka (spiritual seeker) has to try to discover his real being by removing the various veils, to thereafter recognize his true essence.
The Advaita Shaivas describe the nature of the Supreme Reality, one without a second, in two different ways namely, as Caitanya or Samvid as an abstract metaphysical principle (nirakara tattva) as well as Parama Shiva and Parameshvara possessing a form (sakara Being). They also describe the Supreme Reality as the transcendent Absolute (anuttara) and at the same time as all-pervasive Reality (vishvatmaka)
The Advaita Shaiva philosophers have not only shed light on the process of the world manifestation in the conventional way, they have added a new dimension to it by describing it in terms of involution on the part of Caitanya to the gross level of matter; or as the unfoldment on the part of the Supreme Lord out of His free will, exercising His svatantrya shakti, or as His self-extension in the aspect of His Shakti. They mention seven different kinds of experients or subjects (embodied, unembodied, and disembodied), a concept unique in the annals of Indian philosophy.
The concept of purnahanta (pure I-experience) symbolizing the fullness-nature of the Supreme Experient, i.e. Shiva pramata different from the ego-experience (ahamkara) of the limited embodied beings, has been explained in this book in esoteric terms as it marks a unique contribution of Kashmir Shaivism to Indian philosophical thought.

About Author:

Dr. Debabrata Sen Sharma, a well-known scholar of Sanskrit and Indian philosophy and Religion, has spent more than half a century in studying, teaching and writing on the Advaita Shaiva thought of Kashmir.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Timothy C. Cahill 
• Cover : Hardcover
• Edition : January 1, 2004
• Pages : 364
• Weight : 650 gm.
• Size : 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569467
• Product Code : BK14183
  

Description:

This volume contains the most comprehensive collection of scholarly sources on Indian poetics and aesthetics (the Alamkarashastra) ever published in ancient India. Entries are divided into three sections and a detailed index is provided.
Reference to primary sources from several languages range from about the fifth to the nineteenth centuries. Secondary sources in two dozen languages are divided into two sections, viz., books and articles. These begin in the mid-nineteenth century and continue to the present. Annotations are usually brief and descriptive.

About Author:

Timothy C. Cahill. Ph.D. (1995) in Sanskrit and Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, is an Assistant Professor at Loyola University, New Orleans. His research focuses on South Asian religions and comparative aesthetics. 

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Jha Dr. Kamlesh
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 2008
• Pages : 199
• Weight : 300 gm.
• Size : 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569795
• Product Code : BK1418
  

Description:

Saivism encompasses all aspects of religion: a philosophy, a theology, a conception of the universe, a current of devotion, a world of myths, elaborate rituals in organized temples, expressions in plastic arts, in poetry, music, and dance. Images of Siva of great variety and impressive beauty are countless all over India. To improve our understanding of such a rich and elevated subject, the sources are the Sanskrit texts of Epics, Puranas and Agamas, The present book gives a clear presentation of Saivism through a survey and an erudite reading of this vast literature. The Agamas are the key to the knowledge of temple organization and rituals, the description of which is a unique and original contribution of this work. This very readable work contains an amazing quantity of information, carefully referenced at every step, and is likely to be of the greatest utility to researchers in history of religion, medieval to modern, as well as to the general reader interested in Saivism.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Gautam chatterjee 
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 15, 2016
• Pages : 207
• Weight : 500 gm.
• Size : 
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186117231
• Product Code : BK14181
  

Description:

In the ancient lexicons of Vedic and classical periods, the influence of ¶gama has been parliamentary and pivotal. NÈ yaveda by seer Bharata is a magnum opus dates back to 5th century B.C. The other important works in musicology such as Brihaddeshi, Abhinavabharati and Sangitaratnakara are from post-Vedic and mediaeval periods, distinguishly composed by the great Saivite polymaths. Thus the streams of ¶gama consciousness and the works of Indian art and poetics went together in the creative evolution of Indian mind. It was obvious to trace and deconstruct the inter-influence in modern cultural mileu. This research work is the outcome.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Boris Marjanovic
• Cover : Hardcover
• Edition : January 1, 2004
• Pages : 372
• Weight : 650 gm.
• Size : 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 9381120064
• ISBN-13 : 978-9381120064
• Product Code : BK14180

Description:

Abhinavagupta, undoubtedly the greatest genius of India in the fields of philosophy, aesthetics, poetics, dramaturgy, Tantra and mysticism, is being rediscovered only in the last few decades. Although several scholars, in India and abroad, are engaged in studying his works, it is surprising that there are still few translations available.
Abhinavagupta explains in his commentary that he undertook this work because he felt that his predecessors when commenting on the Bhagavad-Gita had not understood its secret or esoteric meanings. With the main purpose to explain these esoteric meanings, Abhinavagupta elaborates the secret doctrine of the purification of the sense-organs through the alternation of enjoyment of worldly objects and deep meditation. He claims that the continuous exchange of two contradictory experiences, i.e. gratification of the senses which brings satisfaction and samadhi in which sense-organs are reduced to one’s own atman, quickly brings the highest good.
The great merit of the present translation of Abhinavagupta’s “summary of the (real and secret) meaning of the Bhagavad-Gita” lies in the following: First, it includes the text and translation of the Kashmiri version of the Bhagavad-Gita, which in places differs from the one commented upon by Shankara (there are fifteen additional verses, and many verses partially differ from the verses found in other recensions). Besides, it brings out the specific meanings in the context of Kashmir Shaiva philosophy and yoga, without being influenced by Samkhya or Vedanta. The translation and explanatory notes show a deep understanding of Kashmir Shaiva metaphysics and yoga.
The present work will fulfil an important role by presenting a different version of the Bhagavad-Gita in the light of Kashmir Shaivism. It will also be inspiring for anyone interested in the practice of the secret yoga of the Gita.

Specification:

• Product Code: BK14180
• Publisher : Indica Books
• Edition : January 1, 2004
• Pages : 372
• Weight : 650 gm.
• Size : 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Cover : Hardcover
• Author : Boris Marjanovic 
• Language : English
• ISBN-10: 9381120064
  ISBN-13: 978-9381120064

Description:

Abhinavagupta, undoubtedly the greatest genius of India in the fields of philosophy, aesthetics, poetics, dramaturgy, Tantra and mysticism, is being rediscovered only in the last few decades. Although several scholars, in India and abroad, are engaged in studying his works, it is surprising that there are still few translations available.
Abhinavagupta explains in his commentary that he undertook this work because he felt that his predecessors when commenting on the Bhagavad-Gita had not understood its secret or esoteric meanings. With the main purpose to explain these esoteric meanings, Abhinavagupta elaborates the secret doctrine of the purification of the sense-organs through the alternation of enjoyment of worldly objects and deep meditation. He claims that the continuous exchange of two contradictory experiences, i.e. gratification of the senses which brings satisfaction and samadhi in which sense-organs are reduced to one’s own atman, quickly brings the highest good.
The great merit of the present translation of Abhinavagupta’s “summary of the (real and secret) meaning of the Bhagavad-Gita” lies in the following: First, it includes the text and translation of the Kashmiri version of the Bhagavad-Gita, which in places differs from the one commented upon by Shankara (there are fifteen additional verses, and many verses partially differ from the verses found in other recensions). Besides, it brings out the specific meanings in the context of Kashmir Shaiva philosophy and yoga, without being influenced by Samkhya or Vedanta. The translation and explanatory notes show a deep understanding of Kashmir Shaiva metaphysics and yoga.
The present work will fulfil an important role by presenting a different version of the Bhagavad-Gita in the light of Kashmir Shaivism. It will also be inspiring for anyone interested in the practice of the secret yoga of the Gita.

Specification:

• Product Code: BK14178
• Publisher : Indica Books
• Edition : 1971
• Pages : 1144
• Weight : 2.1 kg.
• Size : 9.7 x 7.4 x 2.4 inches
• Cover : Hardcover
• Author : N. Whitall Perry 
• Language : English
• ISBN-10: 8186569065
  ISBN-13: 978-8186569061

Description:

Since time immemorial, one perennial Wisdom permeates the whole history of mankind, expressing itself in the spiritual traditions of all peoples. Even though these traditions often differ in their forms of expression in different places and times, they nevertheless fully coincide in their essential contents.
A.K. Coomaraswamy once said: “The time is coming when a summa of the Philosophia Perennis will have to be written, impartially based on all orthodox sources whatever.” Whitall N. Perry, after fifteen years of patient work, completed this anthology containing several thousands of quotations gathered from a wide range of spiritual authorities, pointing to this One trascendent Truth which manifests through many languages.
In Perry’s words: “The reader is invited to enter upon a spiritual journey. In this book he will encounter the heritage he shares in common with all humanity, in what is essentially timeless and enduring and pertinent to his final ends. Out of this myriad mosaic of material emerges a pattern of the human personality in the cosmos that is unerringly consistent, clear, and struck through with a resonance infallible in its ever renewed reverberations of the one same Reality.”
“Marco Pallis [in his foreword] distinguishes three classes of reader to whom this book is likely to be of service: those who are already ‘spiritually committed’; those who are still seeking to become such; and those who, from any motive or angle, concern themselves with ‘Comparative Religion’. In any case it is to be hoped that the presence of this work on the shelves of many a private, public and university library not only will illumine an enliven the study of religion on the more academic levels [...] but also will lead many individuals to a truer and more fruitful personal response to religion and spirituality [...]. Indeed, for whatever purpose this anthology is consulted, few individuals will be able even to skim through its pages without being drawn somewhat into its dephts.”

About Author

WHITALL N. PERRY at an early age became interested in Platonism and Vedanta. Even before college, his contacts —though travels in the Near, Middle and Far East — with Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist cultures left deep-rooted impressions, and after a short term at Harvard, he chose to return directly to the living sources of his elected field. In 1946 he came under the close personal influence of Coomaraswamy, and from then until 1952 resided in Egypt, where he enjoyed a continuing realtionship with Rene Guenon. During this same period commenced his association with Frithjof Schuon, and he has since had intimate personal ties with foremost authorities in Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic orders, as well as with Roman Catholic and Orthodox contemplative circles. The author counts many personal friends among the American Indians with whose sages in particular he has been familiar.
Whitall N. Perry has made contributions on metaphysical and cosmological subjects to various journals, including notably Studies in Comparative Religion.

Description:

An understanding of emptiness, the ultimate nature of reality, lies at the heart of Buddhist view and practice. The Heart Sutra, one of the best known and most popular of Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, contains the essence of Buddha's teachings on emptiness and the methods to develop the wisdom that understands this ultimate reality. In this explanation of the Sutra, Geshe Kelsang reveals its explicit and implicit meanings, and relates them to the five Mahayana paths that lead to full enlightenment. He also explains how an initial understanding of emptiness can be used in conjunction with the Sutra to overcome both internal and external obstacles to our happiness.

About the Author
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso was born in Tibet and is a fully accomplished meditation master and internationally renowned teacher of Buddhism. Living in the West since 1977, he is the author of a series of highly acclaimed books that transmit perfectly the ancient wisdom of Buddhism to our contemporary life. He has also founded over 300 Centres throughout the world for the study and practice of Mahayana Buddhism. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
'An excellent book... for the serious student of Buddhism a better book would be hard to come across'. - The Middle Way 'Geshe Kelsang's introduction is both excellent and comprehensive'. - North American Board for East West Dialogue --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Specification:

• Product Code: BK11579
• Publisher : Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
• Edition : January 1, 2006
• Pages : 198
• Weight : 300 gm.
• Size : 0.5 x 5.6 x 8.7 inches
• Cover : paperback
• Auther : Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
• Language : English
• ISBN: 8120817281, 978-8120817289

Description:

Practical Buddhism is a collection of insights and tales about practicing dharma in everyday life. These humorous accounts of the mundane successes and failures of the author and his friends offer practical guidance for anyone wishing to align their daily lives with Buddhist values and ideas. Stories about answering the door, quarreling dogs, coping with city traffic, living with cellphones, greeting others, etc. employ wit and irony to demonstrate that really effective progress in improving one s character is often made in mundane ways. The anecdotes and reflections that the author shares in this book is straight from his own life. Of course, each of us has grown up in different circumstances and encounters different situations in our lives, but no matter what culture or historical era we're from, our human minds function in very similar ways. Each of us wants to be happy and avoid suffering although different people, possessions, and places may bring us happiness or suffering. Despite this desire for happiness not misery, we lack the knowledge of what the causes for each are. In fact, we often find that the words we said or deeds we did with the conviction that they would bring us joy resulted in the opposite. The moment we get the gorgeous new car we've craved, we've entered "car hell" for the car will surely break down at the most inopportune times. The repairs will cost more than we like and may not completely fix the problem. Alongside "car hell" are situated "computer hell," "iPod and Blackberry hell," "relationship hell," and on and on. We keep looking outside of ourselves for someone or something that will bring us the satisfaction and joy we seek, yet these continually elude us. And to the contrary, the difficulties we shun find us anyway.

About the Author
Kenneth Liberman is Professor Emeritus at the University Oregon. He is the author of Dialectical Practice in Tibetan Philosophical Culture (Rowman & Littlefield), Husserl's Criticism of Reason (Lexington Books) and More Studies in Ethnomethodology (SUNY Press). He presently divides his time among Sera Jey Monastic University in Bylakuppe, India, where he serves as the Phd Proctor/Professor, and research assignments as the Hans Christian Anderson Visiting Professor at Suddansk Universitet in Denmark and University Research Fellow at the Universita di Trento in Italy.

Specification:

• Product Code: BK11575
• Publisher : Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
• Edition : June 11, 2016
• Pages : 256
• Weight : 400 gm.
• Size : 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Cover : Hardcover 
• Auther : Kenneth Liberman
• Language : English
• ISBN: 8120810252, 978-8120810259

Description:

The Cheng weishi lun (=CWSL; T.1585), purporting to be a composite commentary on Vasubandhu's Trimsika Vijnaptimatratasiddhi, is a translation-compilation by Xuanzang (600-664 CE). with the assistance of his pupil Kuiji (632-682 CE). Xuanzang's main mission in this endeavour appears to be twofold: (i) the establishment and elucidation of the thesis of vijnaptimatra, and this predominantly on the basis of Dharmapala-Silabhadra's expositions; (ii) the harmonization of the earlier yogacara doctrinal interpretations, and in so doing also the definitive establishment of the superiority of the Mahayana bodhisattva ideal. The CWSL may be said to be one of the most precious gems in the whole of the Chinese Tripitaka. In the preface to his Shuji, Kuiji eulogizes the CWSL thus: This treatise purifies true cognition. Its expositions include the provisional as well as the ultimate teachings, going far beyond the early teachings of the historical Buddha. Its doctrines penetrate into the subtlest. They catch hold of the Prajnaparamita tenets and ride on their colourful brilliance. The treatise summarizes the essential teachings of the sutras, seeking out their hidden teachings and assimilating their purposes. It further incorporates the best of all the sastras, gathering up the most wonderful. The CWSL is a compilation containing the ten individual commentaries on Vasubandhu's Trimsika by 1. Dharmapala; 2. Gunamati; 3. Sthiramati; 4. Bandhusri; 5. Nanda; 6. Suddhacandra; 7. Citrabhanu; 8. Visesamitra; 9. Jinaputra and 10. Jnanacandra which are herewith collected together and translated in detail in a single text.

About the Author
XUANZANG (600 664) is one of the most illustrious figures in the history of scholastic Chinese Buddhism. In the Cheng weishi lun, completed in 659, Xuanzang presents Vasubandhu s Tri?sika in the context of its Indian commentaries and on the background of Yogacara works such as the Yogacarabhumi, Dasabhumi and bhidharmasamuccaya. Xuanzang had brought these and many other texts back to China in 645 after studying in India for fifteen years. He subsequently translated seventy-five works, making him the most productive of all Chinese translators from the Sanskrit, and by completing what Bodhiruci/Ratnamati and Paramartha had started out, he was the first to make the Yogacara systematically available in China. VASUBANDHU (ca. 350 430 A.D.) was born in Puru?apura in Gandhara and is, next to his half-brother Asa?ga (ca. 330 405 A.D.), the most famous personage of the Yogacara school. He originally belonged to the Sravakayana school of the Sarvastivadins and had already made a name for himself through the composition of numerous treatises when he was won over to the Mahayana by Asanga, sometime in his forties. Vasubandhu counts as the great systematizer of Buddhism and is one of the six great ornaments six great commentators of the Buddha s teaching.

Specification:

• Product Code: BK11573
• Publisher : Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
• Edition : January 1, 2018
• Pages : 1926
• Weight : 3.700 kg.
• Size : 10.6 x 7 x 4.7 inches
• Cover : Hardcover 
• Auther : Louis De La Vallee Poussin (Author), Gelong Lodro Sangpo (Author), Gelongma Migme Chodron (Author), Alexander 
• Leonhard Mayer (Author)
• Language : English
• ISBN: 8120840674, 978-8120840676

Description:

Commentary and supercommentary, with text, on åIâsvarapratyabhijänåa, classical verse work, expounding the Trika philosophy in Kashmir Sivaism, by Utpala, fl. 900-950.

Specification:

• Product Code: BK11567
• Publisher : Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
• Edition : January 1, 1986
• Pages : xcvii + 1047p. (Set) 
• Weight : 1.800 kg.
• Size : 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Cover : Hardcover 
• Auther : K. A. Subramania Iyer (Author), K. C. Pandey (Author), R. C. Dwivedi (Author)
• Language : English
• ISBN: 8120800192, 978-8120800199