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In the past few years, India has witnessed cataclysmic incidents of intermittent violence under the banner of Hindutva. Hindutva is a political ideology which works on extremist agenda to establish a homogenized cultural hegemony by focussing on exclusivist interests of Hindu majoritarian. It advocates revisionist attitude towards Hindu mythical figures by projecting them as prototypes of hypermasculinity to coax common Hindus with pseudo-patriotism. This article discusses on how Hindutva uses the principle of masculinity as its conceptual framework and its ramification on the socio-cultural fabric of India. It also deliberates on the fundamental essence of bhakti tradition, which largely contests Hindutva on ideological plane. Furthermore, it demonstrates the significance of bhakti literature in the present social context by alluding to the rich repository of saint poets whose verses critique Hindutva with a message of humanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the debates among theorists of the body in feminist and gender studies center on the gendered body and its relation to the sexed body, with the validity of the sex/gender distinction itself a topic of contention. On the one hand, feminist advocates of social constructionism tend to distinguish between sex and gender, in which sex (male or female) is identified with the biological body as a "natural" datum and gender (masculine or feminine) is a second-order sociocultural construction that is superimposed as an ideological superstructure on this "natural" base. On the other hand, feminist advocates of sexual difference such as Judith Butler call into question the sex/gender distinction and insist that the sexed body, like gender, is socially constructed. This article brings these contemporary feminist interlocutors into conversation with sixteenth-century Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava authorities who developed a distinctive discourse of embodiment in which they frame the categories of sex and gender in relation to devotional desire in their ontological theories of bodily identities. The Gauḍīya discourse of embodiment explodes notions of the relationship between embodiment, personhood, materiality, and gender on both the human and divine planes and challenges prevailing body theories by positing bodies beyond matter, personhood beyond matter, and gender beyond sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ways in which the sexed body and its gendered subjectivity are constructed and expressed by Vaiṣṇava devotional poets of both sexes. In short, it is an experiment to see if a reading of bhakti poetry alongside gender theory can allow us to gain a better understanding of both fields. What happens when a bhakti poet chooses to speak as a man speaking as a woman, as opposed to a woman speaking as a woman? In the final analysis, neither the male poetic voice nor the female poetic voice necessarily offers a more direct or essential experience of bhakti, but rather both are expressions of the possible but inevitably contingent modes of experiencing oneself as a devotee. From a gender theory perspective, to choose to speak in a male poetic voice necessitates an imagining of the subjectivity of the Other, whereas the taking on of a female poetic voice forces the paradox of the Other becoming the Self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jaimini's Book of the Horse Sacrifice (Jaiminīya Āśvamēdhikaparvan) is a late mediaeval Vaiṣṇava text that is unusual for several reasons. In this article we examine the interplay of violence, devotion and ritual in the Sanskrit vorlage and its Kannada transfiguration--the Jaiminibhārata of Lakṣmīśa (ca. 1500 CE). Violent emotions or extreme feelings are deeply imbricated in South Asia religious discourse. Extreme feeling is entangled with the history of texts that emerged as a result of interreligious and intra-religious debate. Our article puts forth the idea of violence as a mode of bhakti devotion, and we historicize the emergence of violence-as-bhakti in the Vaiṣṇava context, using the tale of Mayūradhvaja from Jaimini's Book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is a huge, multifaceted nation with an abundance of folktales and folk literature. Any society can have folk literature as an integral component of its language and culture. Folk literature, sometimes referred to as oral tradition or folklore, is the customary knowledge and beliefs of civilizations without written language. It is transmitted orally and includes stories in prose and poetry, poems, songs, dramas, ceremonies, proverbs, riddles, and other such things, just like written literature. It has been produced by almost every recognised persons, both historically and currently. First and foremost, translations from this era are mostly credited with enabling vernaculars to advance towards literary languages. Furthermore, it is said that translations made it possible for the common languages to successfully challenge Sanskrit's dominance. Second, the scholars associated with the "Bhakti" movement assert that translations were made into other languages of the "high texts," which were previously only accessible in Sanskrit. This allowed women and other marginalised groups in society, who had previously been excluded from these texts, to directly access divine teachings in their native tongues. Since folktales have a strong hold on the public imagination and because folk heroes are frequently worshipped in villages, the majority of folk tales are produced, disseminated, and preserved in vernacular languages. This essay discusses several facets of Indian folk literature and how they relate to the growth of regional vernacular writing in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible for us to attain infinite and eternal happiness, untainted by even the least misery, and if so, how can we do so and what is the price we must be willing to pay for it? According to the teachings of Bhagavan Ramana, it is possible, and the means to attain it is to investigate and know what we actually are, for which the price to be paid is complete surrender of ourself to what alone is real, which requires “wholehearted and all-consuming love” (Sa. bhakti) born of and nurtured in our heart by the grace of God, who is what we actually are and what alone is real. This paper explores these teachings and their rationale as expressed by Bhagavan in his own original Tamil writings.

This article explores the life and influence of Indira Devi Niloy (1920–1997) who in 1949 began to encounter the sixteenth-century saint–poet Mirabai during her meditative trance states. She would recount songs, stories, and teachings that the saint gave to her as well as scenes from Mirabai's life that she witnessed as an observer and at other times experienced directly as a participant. Their ongoing relationship would have a tremendous influence on Indira Devi as well as her guru Dilip Kumar Roy (1897–1980) and the increasingly international community that grew up around them. Their interactions and Indira Devi's reports in turn would also significantly influence the reception and perceived continuing relevance of Mirabai as both inspiration and authorization for women's self-realization. Additionally, Indira Devi's own story reveals a mode of female guruhood, with a distinct absence of identification with shakti or divine incarnation, a more egalitarian model for the guru–disciple relationship, and an alternate bhakti mode of male–female collaborative leadership with Roy. Further their experiences with Mirabai offer insight into the ongoing engagement of women and men with such influential women of the past, the intersubjective nature of the traditions that surround them, and what Mirabai's message might be for women (and men) today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are more than 150 (grand and micro) theories of emotion. Even as European phenomenological perspectives do mention self and agency, the mainstream discourse on emotion in psychology is quite limited in presenting a coherent theory of affective process. A key aspect of Euro-American theories of emotion is that, these theories are topographically flat, thus, unable to provide mechanisms of transformation of emotion relevant for well-being. In this paper, a theory-based framework for emotional transformation through understanding Indian concepts in āyurveda, yoga sutras and the nātya is discussed. Second, the paper proposes that it is Śānta (the Indian conceptualisation of peace) alone, that permits a substantive possibility to a radical re-emotion or experiencing and articulating well-being. The concept for a radical re-emotion is called Bhāvanā, indicating the possibility of conscious and radical re-creation and re-imagination of affective relationships with objects, concepts, processes and people in the world, re-orienting from the isolated 're-appraisal', 'self-regulation and control' of emotion as discussed in the mainstream paradigm. The paper contends that these culturally relevant models educate and inform global psychology theory and applied practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines various aspects of the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition, a Hindu devotional tradition that centres on devotion to the deity Krishna (Kṛṣṇa). First, the entry provides a historical overview, followed by a description of how the tradition views Krishna as an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient personal God. The article goes on to describe the three main components of the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition’s theological framework. The first of these components is sambandha, or relationship. This knowledge of sambandha includes knowledge of Krishna’s relationship with his śaktis, or energies. These śaktis are māyā-śakti (the material energy which constitutes and creates this phenomenal world); jīva-śakti (the living entities); and svarūpa-śakti (the Lord’s personal energy which consists of his own nature). Krishna is simultaneously both one with and different from his śaktis, and the nature of this relationship of oneness and difference is unfathomable (acintya) to the human intellect. The second component of the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava theological framework is abhidheya, or spiritual practice. This is divided into various stages that correspond with an individual’s degree of devotion for Krishna. The third component is prayojana, or the final goal, which is pure love of Krishna (kṛṣṇa-preman). After attaining this goal, a self attains spiritual perfection. Finally, the article describes the Caitanya Vaiṣṇava tradition’s epistemology, which acknowledges various forms of acquiring knowledge, such as sense perception (pratyakṣa), reasoning (anumāna), and scriptural testimony (śabda).

Jaimini’s Book of the Horse Sacrifice (Jaiminīya Āśvamēdhikaparvan) is a late mediaeval Vaiṣṇava text that is unusual for several reasons. In this article we examine the interplay of violence, devotion and ritual in the Sanskrit vorlage and its Kannada transfiguration—the Jaiminibhārata of Lakṣmīśa (ca. 1500 CE). Violent emotions or extreme feelings are deeply imbricated in South Asia religious discourse. Extreme feeling is entangled with the history of texts that emerged as a result of interreligious and intra- religious debate. Our article puts forth the idea of violence as a mode of bhakti devotion, and we historicize the emergence of violence-as-bhakti in the Vaiṣṇava context, using the tale of Mayūradhvaja from Jaimini’s Book.

In this paper, I present the cult of the Goddess Rādhārāṇī as something prominent in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, starting from the 15th century books of bhakti-yoga, Hindu devotional theism. Before this bhakti literature, Rādhārāṇī was already mentioned in sacred books of Hindu Vaiṣṇavism and already had a cult in the Vaiṣṇava line of master Nimbārka Ācārya. However, her role as the Supreme Deity became more prominent after the period called Bhakti Renaissance, with some other philosophical sects emphasizing Rādhā as the Ultimate Reality. We will present the history of the cult and an analysis of the main aspects attributed to Rādhārāṇī, presenting her as an epitome of all possible love for God and considered the very personal manifestation of divine love, the Supreme and primordial Goddess. We will use as our main base the sacred texts of the tradition and comments from theologians, masters and scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the relationship between eschatological and present issues in Christian soteriological debates of the mid-twentieth century, particularly in post- colonial India. It focuses on the writings of Dhanjibhai Fakirbhai. As mystical views of Christian salvation can be criticized for their irrelevancy to secular society, Dhanjibhai presents a contrast to this in a type of mystical soteriology that breaks such critiques and complicates the usual categories of South Asian understandings. According to Dhanjibhai, "salvation" means to be in union with Jesus Christ, a spiritual faith-based relationship that extends into eternity but is also practically experienced in the world today. This article proceeds according to four key features of Dhanjibhai's writings that demonstrate the holistic effects of union with Christ in his soteriology. I argue that Dhanjibhai alleviates the perceived problems of mystical approaches by presenting a soteriology that envelopes personal, social, and even ecological ramifications of salvation within a contextual evangelical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year around 200,000 Māyāmārā Vaiṣṇavas congregate in a small village in Mājulī, Assam, India, for the annual śevā, or worship service, to Ājali Āi, a 16th-century female figure. She was the mother of Sri Sri Aniruddhadeva, the founder of Māyāmārā Vaiṣṇavism, a religious sect originating in medieval Assam that experienced royal persecution and ethnic cleansing. Among contemporary Māyāmārā Vaiṣṇavas, veneration of Ājali Āi as the mother of the founding Guru has become popular, which is somewhat puzzling since historical information about her life is scarce. Nevertheless, as Guru-Mā, Ājali Āi today has become a symbol of holiness in Māyāmārā society with community members attributing to her mahimā, translated as a divine agency, mysterious glory, or supremacy. Guru-riṇ and Mātri-ṛin, categories that are a part of the Vaiṣṇava and the larger Hindu canon, can generally explain the holiness accorded to the mother of the Guru. In the case of the Māyāmārā Vaiṣṇavas, however, they are not sufficient to explain the power in the form of mahimā that the community ascribes to her in the present day to the degree of attributing to her the power to grant wishes. This exploratory chapter argues for a systems approach to understand the phenomenon of the mahimā of Ājali Āi in contemporary Māyāmārā society. The chapter finds that socio-economic and political forces interacted with extant legends around Ājali Āi and ideas around Āi as Devi and mother in complex ways to create the community's contemporary understanding of Ājali Āi as a holy and loving maternal figure with mahimā—one who keeps a watchful and nurturing eye over the community and grants the wishes of ardent devotees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of 'Hinduism' in contemporary academia has generated considerable controversy. Many scholars have argued that the idea of a single ancient religion is difficult to substantiate based on the historical record. A common alternative position is that Hinduism is a colonial construct, without well-defined historical antecedents. This paper contributes to a scholarly middle ground, which provides an empirically based yet still contingent analysis of the evolution of 'Hinduism', by drawing on evidence from the Sikh tradition. In doing so, it also draws on approaches which interpret Islam as a discursive tradition, subject to contestable representations, shaped by conditions of knowledge and power, as well as by collective aspirations. Sikh attempts at self-definition included distinguishing their tradition from the two larger, pre-existing traditions of Muslims and Hindus in an explicit and self-conscious manner. In doing so, Sikh leaders recognised 'Hindu' as a religious category to some degree, well before the colonial period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article posits a new kind of anthology of bhakti poetry that has been published in India in the twenty first century. Christening them New Bhakti Anthologies, the article identifies features specific to them: the putting together of compositions from different religious/spiritual traditions and the inclusion of a critical introduction that effectively reconfigures patterns of relationships between such traditions. The article suggests that the publication of such anthologies fills in certain gaps identified in academic discourses on the bhakti studies. It specifically examines three such New Bhakti Anthologies: Extraordinary Child: Poems from a South Indian Devotional Genre (Penguin 2008), One Palace, A Thousand Doorways: Song lines Through Bhakti, Sufi and Baul Oral Traditions (Speaking Tiger Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 2019), and The Mystic and the Lyric: Four Women Poets from Kashmir (Zubaan 2019) as three such examples of the New Bhakti Anthology and considers the ways in which they trace new configurations of relationships between the saint-composers whose works they carry and the larger bhakti tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the role of Bhakti saints in music during Mughal period. During the time of Mughals, music played an essential part in Bhakti tradition. In this paper, we have noticed that Bhakti saints not only devoted themselves to worshipping God but also made significant contributions to the cultural life of their times. Listening to music to achieve a state of ecstasy and to profoundly engage in love for God is how these people express their devotion to God, and music is the medium through which they do it. By performing a variety of music that they have created themselves, Bhakti saints can effectively transmit their societal ideals and ambitions to us, which is an interesting phenomenon to observe. In this paper, we examined that with the use of regional languages in their compositions, Bhakti saints provide a common ground for the people of India. This, in turn, attracts people and fosters an environment of peaceful coexistence between Hindus and Muslims. We see that Temples were the most effective arena for cultural transmission, and as a result, they played a crucial role in disseminating the composite tradition in art and culture. We have undertaken to trace the Mughal emperors, especially Akbar, who had a spiritual leaning towards Bhakti saints and would visit their places and listen to their music. It is quite fascinating to see that saints of the Bhakti tradition gave performances in a wide variety of musical styles throughout this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workplaces can catalyse stress and success. In the pursuit of success, some employees may take shortcuts that compromise their values and morals. This can lead to moral and ethical dissonance. This paper explores an employee-centric approach to transcendental attitude to reduce dissonance and amplify ethical conduct in the workplace. The paper proposes an innovative proposition to a transcendental attitude by integrating ancient wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita. The paper presents a framework based on the Triad of Yogas: Karma Yoga (selfless action), Bhakti Yoga (devotion), and Jnana Yoga (knowledge and wisdom). The paper also highlights the importance of the organisational environment and suggests integrating Yukthi (skilful integration) and Mukthi (liberation and autonomy) into the workplace context. Organisations and employees can create purposeful, ethical, and harmonious work cultures by fostering a transcendental attitude. However, there is a research gap in employee-centric research regarding the application of ancient wisdom texts, such as the Bhagavad Gita, in the workplace. The study uses a hermeneutic phenomenological reflection methodology to gain valuable insights into developing attitudinal transcendence and addressing contemporary workplace challenges. Finally, the study proposes an hourglass model for forming a transcendental attitude among employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work is inspired by previous contributions to the development of the Hindi public and print spheres in the 19th century (Dalmia 1997; Orsini 2002; Stark 2007). It aims at extending and integrating previously elaborated presentations by focusing on the patronage provided by colonial institutions to the development of Hindi literary studies in the 1870s and 1880s. The study also considers the role played by Indian sampradāys in enacting the religious and intellectual processes underwriting the expansion of this field. By moving in this direction, the article mainly builds on the investigation of some biographies (jīvnī) of the North Indian devotional poets penned by Bhārtendu Hariścandra in the 1870s. Further, it explores the relationship between these biographies and the anthologies published in the mid-1870s by the Naval Kishor Press. The final section of the contribution provides an introductory analysis of the type of patronage extended to Hariścandra and his works by the Khadgavilas Press in the 1880s. The aim is to draw a comparison between the policies of some earlier private publishing enterprises and those pursued by the new, Hindu-oriented publishing enterprises.

This essay revisits the scholarly consensus about the "earliest" song and early images of Mīrā--the sixteenth-century Rajput noblewoman who is a leading female voice in north Indian devotional (bhakti) movements. I show that what scholars have considered as Mīrā's oldest extant poem--recorded in the Kartarpur manuscript of 1604, which culminated in the making of the Sikh Guru Granth Sāhib--has a different history of recension in the devotional sects of Rajasthan. In the early seventeenth-century manuscripts of the Dādūpanth, the same poem is not attributed to Mīrā but to Sukhānand, one of the twelve disciples of Rāmānand--the first Guru of the major Rām devotional sect of north India. Various possible explanations for this double attribution will be explored, and the question asked: what do the varied attributions of Mīrā's "earliest" song tell us about the growth of a Mīrā corpus and the multiple Mīrās as represented in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century hagiographies that emerged from her own region? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stories, myths and legends travel across time and spaces, and constitute the very essence of a nation's culture. The way certain popular narratives originate and circulate in public spheres—constantly challenging yet cohabitating with hegemonic forces of dominant cultures—is pivotal to understand why such narratives endure and how they evolve with the socio-political culture of an age. The case of the sixteenth-century bhakti poet-saint Mirabai along with the multiple narratives of her life and legend that currently circulate in public spheres is crucial to understand the discourse of bhakti that once emerged as a social movement but eventually took the form of a religio-political enterprise which assimilated the marginalised with the centre, and provided new meanings of cultural interactions. Bhakti as an epochal sensibility valorised cultural resistance and thrived upon the creative energies of poet-saints such as Mirabai. This paper explores the reception of Mirabai as an icon of resistance in Indian cultural landscape when she moves along the public domains of canonised popular memory. It also maps the transition in her portrayal in various narratives while situating her bhakti and bhajans within the cultural locus of public-private negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kabir is a sixteenth century mystic-poet whose words permeate the socio-cultural life of Indian subcontinent, bringing the dimension of the beyond to the everyday life of ordinary people. This study, through a close textual analysis of select poems of Kabir, seeks to map the variations of “truth” in his poetry and contends that there are three phases in the poet’s spiritual seeking – 1. the stage of complete negation of everything that one finds to be a lie and seeing the phenomenal world exactly the way it is without any distortions from the mind; 2. the pain of not experiencing the ultimate truth and the longing for it; 3. experience of the transcendent mystic truth. By juxtaposing an analysis of poems that illustrate these three variations of truth, this study argues that even as truth takes on different meanings in his poetry, there is a common factor to the “different truths” of Kabir – a close and intense attention to what one perceives to be true at a given moment.

This article explores the life and influence of Indira Devi Niloy (1920–1997) who in 1949 began to encounter the sixteenth-century saint–poet Mirabai during her meditative trance states. She would recount songs, stories, and teachings that the saint gave to her as well as scenes from Mirabai’s life that she witnessed as an observer and at other times experienced directly as a participant. Their ongoing relationship would have a tremendous influence on Indira Devi as well as her guru Dilip Kumar Roy (1897–1980) and the increasingly international community that grew up around them. Their interactions and Indira Devi’s reports in turn would also significantly influence the reception and perceived continuing relevance of Mirabai as both inspiration and authorization for women’s self-realization. Additionally, Indira Devi’s own story reveals a mode of female guruhood, with a distinct absence of identification with shakti or divine incarnation, a more egalitarian model for the guru–disciple relationship, and an alternate bhakti mode of male–female collaborative leadership with Roy. Further their experiences with Mirabai offer insight into the ongoing engagement of women and men with such influential women of the past, the intersubjective nature of the traditions that surround them, and what Mirabai’s message might be for women (and men) today.

The burning ground is both a place and a metaphor in the religion of Shaktism or goddess worship in West Bengal, India. As a place, it is where corpses are cremated. As a metaphor, it refers to the human heart, which has been left as a wasteland through sorrow and tragedy. It is when the soul loses its attachment to this world, when the heart is desolate and alone, that the dark goddess Kali descends from the heavens. She may bring the gift of salvation, bringing the soul to her paradise, or she may save it from unhappy rebirth by bringing a new and better life. She may also bring the universal consciousness that is moksha or liberation. Transcendence from the bondage of worldly attachments, which are left behind amid the ashes of the burning ground, brings divine vision and realization. This paper explores the roles of negation and desolation in ritual practice and religious experience in Bengali Shaktism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The great eleventh-century figure, Rāmānuja, belonged to the Śrīvaiṣṇava community that worshiped the divine as Viṣṇu-with-Śrī, the Lord-and-Consort. But he also embarked on a project to develop an interpretation of the first-century Vedāntasūtra, which presented the supposedly core teachings of the major Upaniṣads, traditionally the last segment of the sacred corpus of the Vedas. Rāmānuja sought to reconcile the devotional commitments of Śrīvaiṣṇavism—which was built on the human yearning for the divine that was incomprehensibly Other while graciously accessible—with the conceptual demands of the Vedānta in which a profound identity between the individual self (ātman) and the impersonal, ultimate explanatory principle (brahman) was taught. This reconciliation of difference and identity came to be called "Qualified Nondualism." In his earliest work, the Vedārthasaṃgraha, one of the ways Rāmānuja points to reconciliation is through identifying a single state of consciousness as both cognition of nonduality (the Vedāntic project) and the emotionally valent experience of happiness (the supreme expression of the human encounter with the divine). It does not seem that he systematically pursues this conception of how a state can be both cognitive and affective, and such an analysis will require independent philosophical analysis. Thus, this article argues that if a state of consciousness were indeed both cognitive and affective in this way, we would have a full explanation for how the devotional approach of a human being to Viṣṇu-with-Śrī can also be the self's realization of identity with brahman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vedānta Deśika produced his monumental poetic biography of Kṛṣṇa in a time when Kṛṣṇa-centered devotionalism was expanding to become perhaps the dominant mode of bhakti across South Asia. Central to this phenomenon is the growing popularity of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, and especially of its exploration of Kṛṣṇa's erotic play with the gopīs in his youth. Troubled by the unrestrained and seemingly adharmic sexuality of Kṛṣṇa, Deśika used the literary techniques and narrative paradigms of the mahākāvya to assimilate but also domesticate this increasingly important Bhāgavata episode: Kṛṣṇa's eroticism remains central but confined within more conventional marital norms and is thus made dharmically and theologically acceptable. Once he has resolved these dharmic problems, however, Deśika is happy to explore the soteriological, devotional, and paradoxical dimensions of erotic love with Kṛṣṇa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the ideology of gift in the Sant hagiographies (paracaī) of Anantadās (16th/17th century). It is assumed that understanding author's implicit view of gift giving (dāna) is fundamental to unraveling the meaning of certain episodes of the paracaīs. These involve curious cases such as that of Kabīr abandoning his dāna-related duties or those of various Sants, for example, Pīpā, offering gifts to the brahmins (who are, nevertheless, depicted mainly as enemies of the bhakts). The approach of Anantadās to dāna seems to differ significantly from the ideas expounded by the medieval Brahmanic, Buddhist, and Jain sources as it transcends the notion of the gift as being motivated by the socioreligious status of the recipient. It also proves the existence of a certain God-bhakt reciprocity. As such, dāna works on a soteriological level, as a devotional act aimed at creating a relationship with Hari, and on a proselytic level as a tool for expanding the religious community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work is inspired by previous contributions to the development of the Hindi public and print spheres in the 19th century (Dalmia 1997; Orsini 2002; Stark 2007). It aims at extending and integrating previously elaborated presentations by focusing on the patronage provided by colonial institutions to the development of Hindi literary studies in the 1870s and 1880s. The study also considers the role played by Indian sampradāys in enacting the religious and intellectual processes underwriting the expansion of this field. By moving in this direction, the article mainly builds on the investigation of some biographies (jīvnī) of the North Indian devotional poets penned by Bhārtendu Hariścandra in the 1870s. Further, it explores the relationship between these biographies and the anthologies published in the mid-1870s by the Naval Kishor Press. The final section of the contribution provides an introductory analysis of the type of patronage extended to Hariścandra and his works by the Khadgavilas Press in the 1880s. The aim is to draw a comparison between the policies of some earlier private publishing enterprises and those pursued by the new, Hindu-oriented publishing enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we shall examine some major religious roles for women in West Bengal, India, and the challenges they must face. Among the Santals, an Adivasi group, religious women must avoid being called witches, for women's power is seen as dangerous and religious social roles are traditionally forbidden to them. Some women have been called by deities to become trance mediums, colloquially known as 'bhar ladies', and this role is generally not accepted by family members. Girls have had to undergo exorcisms by male healers to get them to renounce the gods that have called them to this role, while married women must deal with husbands who do not want their wives going into public trances. Many such women have learned tantric practices to control the trance possession. In rural areas, the combination of ascetic practices and stories known as bratas (vratas) are taught to young girls by female leaders called ayes. However, in more urban areas, this role has been taken over by male brahmin priests. We also see women in the bhakti tradition, who run ashrams and lead worship and who must deal with male devotees who question a woman's leadership abilities. All of these involve challenges, and many of these women have developed strategies to deal with the difficulties of being a religious influencer in their societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My recent research on an early female bhakti saint brought to the fore differences between her perspective as represented in poetry attributed to her and her medieval biographer's representation of her concerns. Through that study, the widespread academic use in recent scholarship of traditional biographies to interpret female bhakti saints became especially visible and problematic to me. In this experimental essay, I consider what patterns we might find if we prioritize the poetry attributed to influential female bhakti saints, navigating the significant issues of subjectivity, voice, and utterance to discern the contours of their devotional subjectivity as an authoritative nexus for conceptualizing and expressing individual and group devotion. In contrast to scholarly assurances that female bhakti saints are internally steadfast or that they are mainly troubled by external situations, I argue that their devotional subjectivity voices their realization that diverse embodied experiences of contestation are generative for a shared sense of devotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many Hindu communities today foreground women as religious authorities, some lineages officially recognize only men as gurus and renouncers. If official models of religious authority are gendered masculine, what space do women have to embody holiness? This article investigates this question with reference to women in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a transnational religious organization that has developed prominent communities in India and abroad. Amidst an ongoing disagreement about whether women can be gurus in the organization, this article considers how devotee women are cultivating spaces of religious authority in their temple communities and online media forums through embodying Krishna bhakti as a form of vernacular holiness. This includes the development of personal websites and the use of YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to produce media content that ranges from overtly devout recordings of temple lectures to subtle signals towards Krishna bhakti in the aesthetic style of social media influencers. Case studies discuss women affiliated with ISKCON communities in India and the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper reviews three philosophical counseling traditions that became significant in the author's philosophical counseling practice. The paper begins with (i) an introduction of the topic, (ii) a review of possible definitions of philosophical counseling, (iii) defines the aim of such counseling, (iv) provides methods and techniques used to address various issues, (v) discusses some concerns and solutions found in the philosophies of the Bhagavad-Gita, Saint Kabir, and Gurudev Ranade, and Nimbargi Sampradaya, before (vi) a conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have traditionally approached Jain devotional practices, or bhakti, as a "borrowing" from Hindu traditions. John E. Cort (2002) argues that this formulation of bhakti limits our understanding of Jainism's role in the early development of bhakti within Indian religions. As the birthplace of bhakti, the literature of medieval Tamil Nadu offers rich evidence of how Jain and Hindu thinkers put their distinctive stamps on the emerging devotional landscape. This paper compares the role of bhakti in the fifth-century Jain narrative epic poems Cilappatikaram and Nilakeci as well as the sixth-century poetry of the Hindu poet-saint Karaikkal Ammaiyar. Drawing on the performance-centered approach to the study of religion described by Catherinethe Bell (1998), I argue that the Jain authors of Cilappatikaram and Nilakeci stress complex ritualistic actions as the correct performance of bhakti, while the poetry of Karaikkal Ammaiyar emphasizes a form of spontaneous and ecstatic devotion towards the Hindu god Shiva. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El yoga supramental nunca será un yoga mainstream, ni está diseñado para serlo. No puede subsumirse en una clase de hora y media, ni se presta a ser encerrado en una sala de yoga. Se trata de un compromiso existencial que requiere de toda una vida de dedicación. En estas páginas indago en la vida de su fundador, el yogui, poeta y filósofo Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950). Educado en Cambridge, activista político en pos de la independencia de India y nominado al Premio Nobel de literatura y de la paz, Sri Aurobindo fue sobre todo un experimentador de las profundidades de la conciencia, cuyo yoga se inspira en la enseñanza de Sri Ramakrishna, tal y como algunos investigadores contemporáneos están reivindicando en nuestros días. En este texto enfatizo esa influencia de Sri Ramakrishna, bosquejo la sādhanā que propone el yoga supramental tal y como se refleja en la correspondencia que Sri Aurobindo mantuvo con sus discípulos, e indago en el papel que cumplen la emoción y el fuego anímico en un yoga que tiene como finalidad la espiritualización de la materia.