Krishna’s Playground

Krishna’s Playground
Author: John Stratton Hawley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2019-11-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190991348

This is a book about a deeply beloved place—many call it the spiritual capital of India. Located at a dramatic bend in the River Yamuna, a hundred miles from the center of Delhi, Vrindavan is the spot where the god Krishna is believed to have spent his childhood and youth. For Hindus it has always stood for youth writ large—a realm of love and beauty that enables one to retreat from the weight and harshness of the world. Now, though, the world is gobbling up Vrindavan. Delhi’s megalopolitan sprawl inches closer day by day—half the town is a vast real-estate development—and the waters of the Yamuna are too polluted to drink or even bathe in. Temples now style themselves as theme parks, and the world’s tallest religious building is under construction in Krishna’s pastoral paradise. What happens when the Anthropocene Age makes everything virtual? What happens when heaven gets plowed under? Like our age as a whole, Vrindavan throbs with feisty energy, but is it the religious canary in our collective coal mine?

At Play with Krishna

At Play with Krishna
Author: John Stratton Hawley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2014-07-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1400859123

Every year thousands of pilgrims travel to Brindavan, the village where Krishna is said to have lived as a child. There, they witness a series of religious dramas called ras lilas, whose central roles are performed by children. By translating four plays that collectively span this cycle, John Hawley provides a lively perspective on the mythology of Krishna as Hindus experience it today. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Krishna's Heretic Lovers

Krishna's Heretic Lovers
Author: Mary Angelon Young
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1942493223

This book recounts the legendary love story of Chandidas and Rami, 14th-century Bengalis. He is a young Brahmin priest who renounces his caste status to become an heretical poet-musician wandering the byways of India with a small band of mystics and bards. Rami is a beautiful 20-year-old widow, of low caste, living with her two children. To survive, she washes the clothes of local villagers. An overwhelming magnetism of love and fate compels them to come together against prevailing religious and social customs. Rami leaves all of her familiar world behind to travel, sing and praise the Divine with her beloved Chandidas, along the dusty roads of Bengal. Krishna’s Heretic Lovers is an historical romance that blends fiction and fact, love and sex, action and spiritual teachings, politics, and true characters with the authentic poetry written by the revered poet Chandidas (later known as the “Father of Bengali poetry”). The synthesis of these elements, together with rare insight into the practices of a genuine tantric sect, creates an unforgettable alchemy for readers. Vivid descriptions of cultural and natural environments along with richly detailed characters capture the religion, politics, and lifestyle of the late 14th /early 15th century of remote Bengali villages. The reader is transported into an era when the basic human freedom to create, love, and worship based on one’s natural impulse had to be carved from the stone of rigid hierarchical, even feudal, societal and religious structures. Thanks to Mary Angelon Young, Chandidas and Rami live again to sing the glories of Krishna and Radha to a new audience. Victory to the Divine Couple! —Dr. Robert Svoboda, author of Mysticism in the 21st Century and Aghora: At the Left Hand of God. A BOOK FOR STUDENTS OF COMPARATIVE RELIGION, OR ANYONE FASCINATED WITH EASTERN TRADITIONS, ESPECIALLY THOSE YEARNING FOR A LOVE STORY THAT INCLUDES SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS (DHARMA) AND SCHOLARSHIP.

Bee Season

Bee Season
Author: Myla Goldberg
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2002-08-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1400032768

Eliza Naumann, a seemingly unremarkable nine-year-old, expects never to fit into her gifted family: her autodidact father, Saul, absorbed in his study of Jewish mysticism; her brother, Aaron, the vessel of his father's spiritual ambitions; and her brilliant but distant lawyer-mom, Miriam. But when Eliza sweeps her school and district spelling bees in quick succession, Saul takes it as a sign that she is destined for greatness. In this altered reality, Saul inducts her into his hallowed study and lavishes upon her the attention previously reserved for Aaron, who in his displacement embarks upon a lone quest for spiritual fulfillment. When Miriam's secret life triggers a familial explosion, it is Eliza who must order the chaos. Myla Goldberg's keen eye for detail brings Eliza's journey to three-dimensional life. As she rises from classroom obscurity to the blinding lights and outsized expectations of the National Bee, Eliza's small pains and large joys are finely wrought and deeply felt. Not merely a coming-of-age story, Goldberg's first novel delicately examines the unraveling fabric of one family. The outcome of this tale is as startling and unconventional as her prose, which wields its metaphors sharply and rings with maturity. The work of a lyrical and gifted storyteller, Bee Season marks the arrival of an extraordinarily talented new writer.

Vr̥ndāvana

Vr̥ndāvana
Author: Swami Bhakti Caitanya
Publisher:
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2010
Genre: Hindu goddesses
ISBN: 9788187897248

Theatre and Religion on Krishna’s Stage

Theatre and Religion on Krishna’s Stage
Author: D. Mason
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2009-05-25
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0230621589

Theatre and Religion on Krishna s Stage examines the history and form of India's râs lila folk theatre, and discusses how this theatre functions as a mechanism of worship and spirituality among Krishna devotees in India. From analyses of performances and conversations with performers, audience, and local scholars, Mason argues that râs lila actors and audience alike actively assume roles that locate them together in the spiritual reality that the play represents. Correlating Krishna devotion and theories of religious experience, this book suggests that the emotional experience of theatrical fiction may arise from the propensity of audiences to play out roles of their own through which they share a performance's reality.

The Many Colors of Hinduism

The Many Colors of Hinduism
Author: Carl Olson
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0813540682

This is an introductory text providing a balanced view of the rich religious tradition of Hinduism, acknowledging the full range of its many competing and even contradictory aspects.

The Art of Loving Krishna

The Art of Loving Krishna
Author: Cynthia Packert
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2010-07-07
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0253221986

The vibrant tradition of Temple decoration in India.

Krishna

Krishna
Author: James H. Bae
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2013-12-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 818495512X

In Colour These tiny treasures of metaphysical and mythological knowledge serve as enlightening rubrics for understanding Indian tradition and theology. Exquisitely illustrated, this series serves as a contemporary matrix for illuminating our human experience and offers insightful access into Eastern spirituality. Krishna’s life, his beauty, and his virtue are the basis of a great mystical tradition that stretches back to antiquity. Though supremely powerful, he is carefree, full of love and charm. At the same time, he shares some of our most basic human qualities and lives in ways familiar to us. The tales of his divine life inspire insight into the apparent contradiction between human and spiritual love. These enchanting stories follow the youthful Krishna through his many pastimes. From dancing on the head of the serpent-demon Kaliya to sheltering the cowherd villagers from Indra’s wrathful rain, Krishna: Lord of Love speaks about life, love and devotion in a most intriguing way. James H. Bae is a practitioner of both Hindu and Buddhist yoga systems. For years Bae has lived in India investing himself in his spiritual study and training as a monk. His primary areas of study include Oriental medicine, Hindu and Buddhist art, and Eastern philosophy and culture.