The Hindu sect the Vallabha Sampradaya was founded in India in the 15th century by a devotional saint, Vallabhacharya. Their bhakti tradition worships a variety of forms of Krishna as a seven-year-old child. Following U.S. immigration reforms in 1965, members of the sect established a spiritual headquarters for the faith in Pennsylvania and began to construct temples across the United States. Since then, the growth has continued as this 500-year-old faith becomes an American religion, as this work demonstrates.

Hinduism in the Modern World presents a new and unprecedented attempt to survey the nature, range, and significance of modern and contemporary Hinduism in South Asia and the global diaspora. Organized to reflect the direction of recent scholarly research, this volume breaks with earlier texts on this subject by seeking to overcome a misleading dichotomy between an elite, intellectualist "modern" Hinduism and the rest of what has so often been misleadingly termed "traditional" or "popular" Hinduism. Without neglecting the significance of modern reformist visions of Hinduism, this book reconceptualizes the meaning of "modern Hinduism" both by expanding its content and by situating its expression within a larger framework of history, ethnography, and contemporary critical theory. This volume equips undergraduate readers with the tools necessary to appreciate the richness and diversity of Hinduism as it has developed during the past two centuries.

Combining behind-the-scenes coverage of an often besieged religious group with a personal account of one woman's struggle to find meaning in it, Betrayal of the Spirit takes readers to the center of life in the Hare Krishna movement. Nori J. Muster joined the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)--the Hare Krishnas--in 1978, shortly after the death of the movement's spiritual master, and worked for ten years as a public relations secretary and editor of the organization's newspaper, the ISKCON World Review. In this candid and critical account, Muster follows the inner workings of the movement and the Hare Krishnas' progressive decline. Combining personal reminiscences, published articles, and internal documents, Betrayal of the Spirit details the scandals that beset the Krishnas--drug dealing, weapons stockpiling, deceptive fundraising, child abuse, and murder within ISKCON–as well as the dynamics of schisms that forced some 95 percent of the group's original members to leave. In the midst of this institutional disarray, Muster continued her personal search for truth and religious meaning as an ISKCON member until, disillusioned at last with the movement's internal divisions, she quit her job and left the organization. In a new preface to the paperback edition, Muster discusses the personal circumstances that led her to ISKCON and kept her there as the movement's image worsened. She also talks about "the darkest secret"–child abuse in the ISKCON parochial schools--that was covered up by the public relations office where she worked.

Traces the growth of the Hare Krishna movement in the U.S., describes the experiences of individual followers, and analyzes recruitment patterns, activities, and leadership of the movement.

Following the Second World War, yoga has asserted its presence in America and impacted the American culture, arts, and literature. This book offers extensive explications of Saul Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet, J.D. Salinger’s “Teddy,” John Updike’s S.: A Novel, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five in the light of the four different yoga philosophies interwoven into their respective narrative structures. The comparative analyses of these four contemporary American fictions unveil the deeper mystical motifs implicit in their plots, stories, themes, and characters’ behavioural patterns. The exhaustive interpretations of texts in the five successive chapters put forth an exposition of how the ancient Indic philosophy and contemporary American fiction interact to explicate and enrich each other. The book adds a unique, unconventional dimension to the comparative and interdisciplinary investigation into contemporary American fiction and thereby opens up new vistas of an off-beat interface between the Eastern philosophy and Western literature.

This research examines the social, political and economic history of Indians in Zanzibar in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, specifically between 1870s and 1963. Based on evidence collected from oral interviews and written archival documents, this research work argues that, the Indian migration history in Zanzibar, during this period, was impacted by their religious diversity, economic factors and social factors, as well as the British colonial interest. This research analysis yielded a number of the following key findings: First, there were heterogeneous migration patterns among the Indian migrants in East Africa, influenced by various factors including religion, caste, and the historical contexts in which particular migrants arrived. Second, numerous different social, physical, economic and political processes in India and East Africa motivated Indians to leave their homeland and form a migration community in Zanzibar from 1800 to 1963. Third, the desire to pass on their religion, traditions and customs to their descendants was a significant motivation for Indians to open their own private schools in Zanzibar. Fourth, the change of administration in 1890 had a major impact on the Indians in Zanzibar, especially investors who had already invested heavily in the local economy. Finally, despite their minority status compared to other communities such as Africans and Arabs, Indians participated in the politics of Zanzibar that led towards independence.

Beginning with the 1990s, the subject of caste has seen a profound increase in interest among scholars. What was until then approached as a fossilized tradition of the ritual-obsessed Hindus refusing to see the progressive spirits of the emerging world and studied as a branch of anthropology, suddenly began to be seen as a complex reality deeply embedded in a range of institutions and social practices, attracting scholars from a wide range of disciplines—sociology, political science, history, literature, and even economics. Underlying this opening of the subject of caste were many factors: epistemic, empirical, and political. Caste is no longer approached through the classical binaries of 'traditional' and 'modern'; the 'East' and the 'West'; or the 'closed' and 'open' systems of stratification. With the growing consolidation of caste-based identities among those ranked lower down in the hierarchy since the 1990s, raising questions of citizenship and dignity, the subject has acquired a new salience. As the emerging research shows, the realities of caste on the ground have always been diverse across regions, often contested and ever changing. This Handbook presents a wide range of essays written by authors representing diverse academic disciplines and perspectives, bringing together the emerging trends in the research, imaginations, and lived realities of caste.

Donald J. Trump is an icon: the very definition of the American success story. Republican Presidential candidate, reality-television star, and developer of some of the planet's most prestigious real estate, he's also become one of the world's wealthiest men. Trump is a living example of how thinking BIG and knowing when to back up your opinions aggressively—regardless of what your critics or opponents might say—can help you maximize your personal and professional achievements. In his first political campaign, Trump defeated his opponents by rallying voters nationwide to "Make America Great Again."

An prominent physicist and 33-year-old practitioner of the Gita’s precepts, Lila Purushottam Das presents the Bhagavad Gita thematically in Five Aspects of the Absolute Truth. 10 scientific themes are used to present the five aspects of the Absolute Truth—Ishwara, Jiva, Kala, Prakriti, and Karma. Perfectly crafted for the intellect of every scientist, it is replete with captivating tales and exquisite comparisons to accentuate the Gita’s teachings about Shri Krishna. full of vivid images and striking drawings that support the narrative. Every ardent and rational seeker of truth should read this excellent work.

In the nineties, he joined to a splinter group of Naxalite to be associated with the ongoing struggle for the emancipation of the working class and was rechristened as Netai. However, in subsequent years, he was dismayed seeing the peer rivalry, manipulation to grab power in the organization. Walking with the arms squad, Netai realized that, to the party, the expansion of arms struggle was the sole yardstick of revolution. Netai’s home turned into a permanent shelter of comrades and gradually thrown into disarray with aimless siblings, cataract ridden mother and a lonesome father, still a sole bread earner despite being retired from a government job.