A vast and diversified religious movement originating from Sai Baba of Shirdi, is often referred to as "the Sai Baba movement." Through the chronological presentation of Sai Baba's life, light is shed on the various ways in which the important guru figures in this movement came to be linked to the saint of Shirdi.

Gurus of Modern Yoga explores the contributions that individual gurus have made to the formation of the practices and discourses of yoga in today's world.

This book provides an assessment of Shirdi Sai Baba, taking into account both the Muslim Sufi and Hindu components of his biography. The author has integrated the available materials without neglecting some frequently overlooked details and supporting data. Many people look at Shirdi Sai Baba as a unifying force between Hindus and Muslims, while others see him as representing only one religious identity. This book covers these points in great detail. In eighty chapters, the sources are analysed to portray diverse events of the saint's life, and to profile many of his devotees. Employing the accounts of Dabholkar, Narasimhaswami, and other key commentators, the treatment investigates numerous obscure situations, besides other more well known occurrences. The author maintains that, despite some hagiology appearing in the sources, there is sufficient evidence for realistic biographical dimensions, more especially during the last ten years of the saint's life, when a large number of visitors arrived at Shirdi. Shirdi Sai Baba (d.1918) is one of the most important latter day Indian saints. He lived an ascetic existence as a faqir in a rural mosque. He is distinctive for a universalist attitude, bypassing religious dogma. The teachings of Sai Baba employed allusion and parable, and are not typical of the traditions associated with him. Some complexities of this matter are addressed in a separate chapter. The book is annotated and fully indexed.

This cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary analysis looks ahead to the direction which urban studies is likely to take during the twenty-first century.

The book, the first of the GOSSIP Series and essentially a collection of teachings given by His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa, is divided into 4 sections (13 chapters) of simple guide to spiritual practice.

This book on the Tripurārahasya, a South Indian Sanskrit work which occupies a unique place in the Śākta literature, is a study of the Śrīvidyā and Śākta traditions in the context of South Indian intellectual history in the late middle ages. Associated with the religious tradition known as Śrīvidyā and devoted to the cult of the Goddess Tripurā, the text was probably composed between the 13th and the 16th century CE. The analysis of its narrative parts addresses questions about the relationships between Tantric and Purāṇic goddesses. The discussion of its philosophical and theological teachings tackles problems related to the relationships between Sākta and Śaiva traditions. The stylistic devices adopted by the author(s) of the work deal uniquely with doctrinal and ritual elements of the Śrīvidyā through the medium of a literary and poetic language. This stylistic peculiarity distinguishes the Tripurārahasya from many other Tantric texts, characterized by a more technical language. The book is intended for researchers in the field of Asian Studies, Indology, Philosophical, Theological or Religious Studies, Hindu Studies, Tantric Studies and South Asian Religion and Philosophy, in particular those interested in Śākta and Śaiva philosophic-religious traditions.

The Life of Shabkar has long been recognized by Tibetans as one of the masterworks of their religious heritage. Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol devoted himself to many years of meditation in solitary retreat after his inspired youth and early training in the province of Amdo under the guidance of several extraordinary Buddhist masters. With determination and courage, he mastered the highest and most esoteric practices of the Tibetan tradition of the Great Perfection. He then wandered far and wide over the Himalayan region expressing his realization. Shabkar's autobiography vividly reflects the values and visionary imagery of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as the social and cultural life of early nineteenth-century Tibet.

A timely work that reviews the phenomenon of gender and its many manifestations of equality. Well-suited for increasing awareness and justice in academic and professional environments, this collective work addresses long-standing and ongoing social problems such as discrimination, stereotyping, prejudice, as well as a plethora of societal and industry influences that sustain the trend of gender imbalance. Aiming to span a broad scope in time, backgrounds and implementation, this book presents a wide variety of topics, including a historical overview, contemporary gender-based Issues, gender approaches across the disciplines, and cultural influences. The reader is guaranteed to confront existing biases when digesting topics related to gender communication differences, stereotypes, tensions and resistances, assigned social roles, transgenderism, non-binary identities, tension fields between equality and equity, relational aggression, and more. A critical underlying aim of this book is to contribute constructively and progressively to the dialogue on the definition of gender, thus addressing an ongoing challenge for policy makers, organizational leaders, and scholars.

The Sikhs have been a people in transition. Unwanted displacements, willing movements and a changing world have led them through demographic, occupational and experiential shifts. While this has led to the evolution of new facets within the community, it has also evoked mixed responses from outside. As new generations of Sikhs engage with the world through sensibilities defined by their contemporary contexts, they find themselves constructed in images dissonant with their lived realities. The Sikh Next Door: An Identity in Transition traces these changes while also making an incisive analysis of old stereotypes-some heroic, some menacing and some farcical. It simultaneously brings into focus the real people behind these images, their varying social stances and their collective commitment to a common religious identity. The work attempts to reframe the Sikhs, bending a few existing narratives and offering an impetus for a more nuanced understanding of the community.