Unforgetting Chaitanya

Unforgetting Chaitanya PDF Author: Varuni Bhatia
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190686243
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Religion in decline in an age of progress -- Untidy realms -- A Swadeshi Chaitanya -- Recovering Bishnupriya's loss -- Utopia and a birthplace.

Unforgetting Chaitanya

Unforgetting Chaitanya PDF Author: Varuni Bhatia
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190686243
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Religion in decline in an age of progress -- Untidy realms -- A Swadeshi Chaitanya -- Recovering Bishnupriya's loss -- Utopia and a birthplace.

Unforgetting Chaitanya

Unforgetting Chaitanya PDF Author: Varuni Bhatia
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190686251
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
What role do pre-modern religious traditions play in the formation of modern secular identities? In Unforgetting Chaitanya, Varuni Bhatia examines late-nineteenth-century transformations of Bengali Vaishnavism-a vibrant and multifaceted religious tradition that traces its origins to the fifteenth century Krishna devotee Chaitanya (1486-1533). Drawing on an extensive body of hitherto unexamined archival material, Bhatia finds that both religious modernizers and secular voices among the Bengali middle-class invoked Chaitanya, portraying him simultaneously as a local hero, a Hindu reformer, and as God almighty. She argues that these claims should be understood in relation to the recovery of a "pure" Bengali culture and history in a period of nascent, but rising, anti-colonialism in the region. Who is a true Vaishnava? In the late nineteenth century, this question assumed urgency as debates around questions of authenticity appeared prominently in the Bengali public sphere. These debates went on for years, even decades, causing unbridgeable rifts in personal friendships and tarnishing reputations of established scholars. Underlying these debates was the question of authoritative Bengali Vaishnavism and its role in the long-term constitution of Bengali culture and society. At stake, argues Bhatia, was the very nature and composition of an indigenously-derived modernity inscribed through the politics of authenticity, which allowed an influential section of Hindu, upper-caste Bengalis to excavate their own explicitly Hindu pasts in order to find a people's history, a religious reformer, a casteless Hindu sect, the richest examples of Bengali literature, and a sophisticated expression of monotheistic religion.

Unforgetting Chaitanya

Unforgetting Chaitanya PDF Author: Assistant Professor of Hindu and South Asian Studies Varuni Bhatia
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780190686277
Category : Vaishnavism
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Varuni Bhatia examines late-19th-century transformations of Vaishnavism - a vibrant and multifaceted religious tradition emanating from the Krishna devotee Chaitnaya (1486-1533) - in Bengal. Drawing on an extensive body of hitherto unexamined archival material, Bhatia finds that both Vaishnava modernisers and secular voices among the educated middle-class invoked Chaitanya, portraying him simultaneously as a local hero, a Hindu reformer, and as God almighty. She argues that these claims should be understood in relation to efforts to recover a 'pure' Bengali culture and history at a time of rising anti-colonial sentiment.

Chaitanya

Chaitanya PDF Author: Amiya P. Sen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199097771
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
A saint, a reformer, an avatar of Lord Krishna—Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533) is perceived as all these and many others. In this book on Chaitanya, Amiya P. Sen focuses on the discourses surrounding the mystic’s life, which ended rather mysteriously at the age of 48. Written in a lucid manner and for a wider audience, this book is a fresh attempt to historically reconstruct Chaitanya’s life and times in Bengal and Odisha, as well as Vrindavan, the key centre of medieval Vaishnavism in north India. This work critically evaluates how Chaitanya has been understood contemporaneously and posthumously, particularly as an icon in colonial Bengal. Addressing an important gap in scholarship, which hitherto concentrated on religious and philosophical discourses, Sen offers a full-length biographical account of Nimai or Gaur by drawing on a wide range of sources in English and Bengali. He also argues against the belief that Chaitanya is the sole proponent of Vaishnava bhakti in Bengal, choosing to situate him in the wider devotional cultures of the region.

Guru to the World

Guru to the World PDF Author: Ruth Harris
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674287347
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 561

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Book Description
From the Wolfson History Prize–winning author of The Man on Devil’s Island, the definitive biography of Vivekananda, the Indian monk who shaped the intellectual and spiritual history of both East and West. Few thinkers have had so enduring an impact on both Eastern and Western life as Swami Vivekananda, the Indian monk who inspired the likes of Freud, Gandhi, and Tagore. Blending science, religion, and politics, Vivekananda introduced Westerners to yoga and the universalist school of Hinduism called Vedanta. His teachings fostered a more tolerant form of mainstream spirituality in Europe and North America and forever changed the Western relationship to meditation and spirituality. Guru to the World traces Vivekananda’s transformation from son of a Calcutta-based attorney into saffron-robed ascetic. At the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, he fascinated audiences with teachings from Hinduism, Western esoteric spirituality, physics, and the sciences of the mind, in the process advocating a more inclusive conception of religion and expounding the evils of colonialism. Vivekananda won many disciples, most prominently the Irish activist Margaret Noble, who disseminated his ideas in the face of much disdain for the wisdom of a “subject race.” At home, he challenged the notion that religion was antithetical to nationalist goals, arguing that Hinduism was intimately connected with Indian identity. Ruth Harris offers an arresting biography, showing how Vivekananda’s thought spawned a global anticolonial movement and became a touchstone of Hindu nationalist politics a century after his death. The iconic monk emerges as a counterargument to Orientalist critiques, which interpret East-West interactions as primarily instances of Western borrowing. As Vivekananda demonstrates, we must not underestimate Eastern agency in the global circulation of ideas.

Branding Bhakti

Branding Bhakti PDF Author: Nicole Karapanagiotis
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253054907
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
How do religious groups reinvent themselves in order to attract new audiences? How do they rebrand their messages and recast their rituals in order to make their followers more diverse? In Branding Bhakti, Nicole Karapanagiotis considers the new branding of the Hare Krishna Movement, or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Known primarily for their orange robes, shaved heads, ecstatic dancing on the streets, and exuberant Hindu-style temple worship, many contemporary ISKCON groups are radically reinventing their public presentation and their style of worship in order to attract a global audience to their movement. Karapanagiotis explores their innovative and complex approaches in both the United States and India by following three new ISKCON brands aimed at gathering new followers. Each is led by a world-renowned ISKCON guru and his global disciples, and each is promoted through a mix of digital and social media and the construction of an innovative "worship-scape." These new spaces trade ISKCON's traditional temples for corporate work-life balance programs, posh yoga studios, urban spiritual lounges, edgy mantra clubs/lofts, and rural meditative retreat facilities. Branding Bhakti not only investigates the methods the ISKCON movement uses to position itself for growth but also highlights devotees' painful and complicated struggles as they work to transform their shrinking, sectarian movement into one with global religious appeal.

Bonding with the Lord

Bonding with the Lord PDF Author:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 9389611903
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Few other Hindu gods guide a regional consciousness, pervade walks of everyday life and define a collective psyche the way Lord Jagannath does in Odisha and its contiguous areas. Jagannath is metonymic of Odisha and the Odia way of life, arguably much more than any other god for a particular geography or its peoples. While not derecognising the historical and the spiritual aspects of Jagannath, Bonding with the Lord attempts to look at the deployment of Jagannath in contemporary cultural practices involving the sensorium in the widest sense. The project of a cultural Jagannath not only materialises him in people's everyday practices but also democratises scholarship on him. The expansion of the scope of research on Jagannath to cultural expressions in a more encompassing way rather than confining to 'elitist' religious/literary sources makes him an everyday presence and significantly enhances his sphere of influence. Jagannath's 'tribal' origin, his association with Buddhism and Jainism and his avatari status make him an all-encompassing, multilayered symbol and a treasure trove for multiple interpretations.

Unforgettable Moments in Life

Unforgettable Moments in Life PDF Author: chaitanya srivastava
Publisher: JEC PUBLICATION
ISBN: 9358505397
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
Unforgettable moments of childhood are not just about specific activities, but also about the feelings they evoke. The feeling of freedom, innocence, and pure joy that only childhood can bring. These moments shape us and create lasting memories that we carry with us throughout our lives, reminding us of simpler times and the beauty of being a child.

Studies in Hinduism

Studies in Hinduism PDF Author: Amiya P. Sen
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3036507000
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
This is a collection of articles by established scholars in the fields of History, Philosophy, Literature and Religious Studies. These are original essays which address the issues and concerns that now dominate the study of religion in its multiple dimensions with a fresh approach. They critique settled opinions and raise new and engaging questions concerning cultural hermeneutics and the academic study of religion. Embellished with a substantive and topical introduction by the editor, this collection of articles will be of abiding interest to scholars and interested lay persons alike.

The Brahmo Samaj and its Vaiṣṇava Milieus

The Brahmo Samaj and its Vaiṣṇava Milieus PDF Author: Ankur Barua
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004445382
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
In The Brahmo Samaj and its Vaiṣṇava Milieus: Intersections of Knowledge and Love in Nineteenth Century Bengal, Ankur Barua offers an intellectual history of the motif of religious universalism in the writings of some intellectuals associated with the Brahmo Samaj.