Letters home detail the life, travels, and studies of a young artist immersing herself in Eastern spiritual and artistic traditions during the late 60s and early 70s. Before the Internet, texting, and social media were ubiquituous, Stablein travels through India, Nepal, and Tibet on a journey from girlhood to adulthood and eventually motherhood.

With one hundred dollars in his pocket, his thumb out, and a backpack on his back, the author embarks upon a hitchhiking journey across America, taking him deep within the distinctive American landscape of the early 1970s and an aimless adventure unfolds into an unforeseen spiritual awakening. Returning home, but now driven by the fiery blaze of an unquenchable wanderlust, the author begins a tireless journey across the planet, on a bare bones budget, backpacking throughout Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and deep into the heart of the Islamic world, following the legendary overland trail to India. An extraordinary tale of travel is a multi-layered, raw and detailed account of one solitary traveler and a six year odyssey taking him to the outermost edges of the road, written from a perspective seldom found in traveler’s tales.

Manning Clark was a complex, demanding and brilliant man. Mark McKenna's compelling biography of this giant of Australia's cultural landscape is informed by his reading of Clark's extensive private letters, journals and diaries-many that have never been read before. An Eye for Eternity paints a sweeping portrait of the man who gave Australians the signature account of their own history. It tells of his friendships with Patrick White and Sidney Nolan. It details an urgent and dynamic marriage, ripped apart at times by Clark's constant need for extramarital romantic love. A son who wrote letters to his dead parents. A historian who placed narrative ahead of facts. A doubter who flirted with Catholicism. A controversial public figure who marked slights and criticisms with deeply held grudges. To understand Clark's life is to understand twentieth century Australia. And it raises fundamental questions about the craft of biography. When are letters too personal, comments too hurtful and insights too private to publish? Clark incessantly documented his life-leaving notes to the biographers he knew would pursue his story. He had a deep need to be remembered and this book means he will now be understood in an unforgettable way. Winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-Fiction 2012 Winner of the Non-Fiction Book award at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2012 Winner of the Non-Fiction Book award at the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards 2012 Winner of the Douglas Stewart Prize at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2012 Winner of the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature 2012 - Non-Fiction award 2012 Finalist for the 2011 Walkley Book awards Shortlisted for the 2011 Manning Clark House National Cultural Award

India is killing the Ganges, and the Ganges in turn is killing India. Victor Mallet traces the holy river from source to mouth, and from ancient times to the present day, to find that the battle to rescue what is arguably the world's most important river is far from lost.

Thousands of British women lived in India during Victorian times. They first went out as wives, mothers, sisters; others followed as teachers, doctors, missionaries. What they did and how they responded to their strange environment were seldom thought worthy of record, and writers have handed down to us a fictional image of the typical 'memsahib' as a frivolous, snobbish and selfish creature flitting from bridge to tennis parties 'in the hills'. For the most part, these clichés bear little resemblance to the truth; many women loyally and stoically accepted their share of the responsibility with endurance, courage and resilience. This story is developed around a number of women who wrote in an entertaining and intelligent fashion about their Indian experiences, starting with the arrival on the scene of one of the wittiest and cleverest of them all - Emily Eden, sister of Lord Auckland who was Governor-General from 1836 to 1842. It ends with Maud Diver, who maintained that the random assertion made by Kipling about the 'lower tone of social morality' in India was unjust and untrue. The dramatis personae of the book include Vicereines, wives of Civil Servants and missionaries struggling to break down the subservience of women throughout the vast sub-continent. Through women's eyes we witness the principal historic events at the time - the Afghan conflicts, the Mutiny - as well as the daily routines in very different cantonments and some of the British personalities who made their mark on nineteenth-century India - Honoria Lawrence, Flora Steel, Lady Sale. In this vivid account, Pat Barr evokes the sights and smells of Victorian India, its teeming masses, its problems so impossible, it seemed, for Englishwomen to solve.

From Publisher's Weekly: "[Abbot George] Burke enthusiastically explores the story as a means for knowing oneself, the cosmos, and one's calling within it. His plainspoken insights often distill complex lessons with simplicity and sagacity. Those with a deep interest in the Gita will find much wisdom here." Several thousand years ago in north-central India, two people sat in a chariot in the midpoint of a great battlefield. One of them, the yogi Arjuna, knew that it would be not be long before the conflict would begin. So he asked Krishna, the Master of Yoga (Yogeshwara), what should be his attitude and perspective in this moment. And above all: What should he do?There was no time to spare in empty words. In a brief discourse, later turned into seven hundred Sanskrit verses by the sage Vyasa, Krishna outlined to Arjuna the way to live one’s entire life so as to gain perfect self-knowledge and self-mastery. The Bhagavad Gita tells us that we can attain a Knowing beyond even what it tells us. And it shows us the way. With penetrating insight, Abbot George Burke illumines the Bhagavad Gita's practical value for spiritual seekers, and the timelessness of India's most beloved scripture. With a unique perspective of a lifetime of study and practice of both Eastern and Western spirituality, Abbot George mines the treasures of the Gita and presents them in an easily intelligible fashion for those wishing to put these priceless teachings into practice. Drawing from the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Jesus, Paramhansa Yogananda, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, Papa Ramdas, and other spiritual masters and teachers, as well as his own experiences, Abbot Burke illustrates the teachings of the Gita with stories which make the teachings of Krishna in the Gita vibrant and living. While Yogananda in his commentary on the Gita, “God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita,” focuses on the valuable symbolism contained in the Gita, Abbot Burke dwells primarily on the practical aspects, and what aspirants can put into practice here and now on a daily basis. Any student of the Bhagavad Gita will find “The Bhagavad Gita for Awakening” an essential companion in their studies. At times general principles found in the Gita are illumined, and in other places the deeper meanings found in the Sanskrit text are explained word by word so that seekers will have and in-depth understanding of the religion, practices, and culture that those familiar with Indian religion and philosophy take for granted. "A must read for anyone on a spiritual quest for the truth!” —Sailaja Kuruvadi

This book presents a set of original letters exchanged between Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the eminent Irish poet and theosophist, James Henry Cousins. Through these letters, the volume explores their shared ideas of culture, art, aesthetics, and education in India; aspects of Irish Orientalism; Irish literary revival; theosophy, eastern knowledge, and spiritualism; cross-cultural dialogue and friendship; Renaissance in India; anti-imperialism; nationalism; internationalism; and cosmopolitanism. The book reveals a hitherto unexplored facet concerning two leading thinkers in the history of ideas in a transnational context. With its lucid style, extensive annotations and a comprehensive Introduction, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of Indian literature, Bengali literature, comparative literature, South Asian studies, Tagore studies, modern Indian history, philosophy, cultural studies, education, political studies, postcolonial studies, India studies, Irish history, and Irish literature. It will also interest general readers and the Bengali diaspora.

Swami Vivekananda in india: A Corrective Biography attempts to inform the reader accurately about his life both before and after his historic visits to the West. Much material has been translated anew from original Bengali books. At the same time it challenges current popular and pious notions held about this humanitarian-monk. The four major chapters in this book are about his meetings with Sri Ramakrishna, his travels in India during 1886-1893, media waves about him in India, and his triumphant return from the West in 1897. Analysis of original eyewitness reports in both India and Western newspapers and periodicals forms an integral part of this biography.

Inspirational stories of Swama Rama's experiences and lessons learned with the great teachers who guided his life including Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore, and more.

This book is about the popular cinema of North India ("Bollywood") and how it recasts literary classics. It addresses questions about the interface of film and literature, such as how Bollywood movies rework literary themes, offer different (broader or narrower) interpretations, shift plots, stories, and characters to accommodate the medium and the economics of the genre, sometimes even changing the way literature is read. This book addresses the socio-political implications of popular reinterpretations of "elite culture", exploring gender issues and the perceived "sexism" of the North Indian popular film and how that plays out when literature is reworked into film. Written by an international group of experts on Indian literature and film, the chapters in this book focus on these central questions, but also cover a wide range of literary works that have been adapted in film. Each part of the book discusses how a particular genre of literature has been "recast" into film. The individual chapters focus on comparisons and close studies of individual films or film songs inspired by "classics" of literature. The book will be of interest to those studying Indian film and literature and South Asian popular culture more generally.