The aim of this book is to present and to defend Srila
Prabhupada's rendering of and commentary on the Bhagavad-gita.
The book is clearly structured, being divided into three parts.
Part one, 'Defining the Objections,' discusses arguments of secular
or non-devotee scholars and their objections to Srila Prabhupada's
translations and explanations, and explains the book's argument.
Part two, 'Presenting the Evidence,' fleshes out the structure presented
in part one, part three offers conclusions and part four offers
an afterword and sixteen appendices. There is an interesting and
supportive foreword by Steven Rosen. The central argument of the
book is that scholars outside of the Vaisnava tradition have not
really understood what the Bhagavad-gita is about and have
misrepresented and wrongly criticised Srila Prabhupada's rendering
and explanations of the text. The book's stated purpose is therefore
to demonstrate that Srila Prabhupada's explanations are 'not a biased
over-exaggeration,' that they are not simply another valid approach,
but rather they are the only way in which the text can be 'completely
and perfectly' understood (p. vii).
Chapter one clearly states five objections by secular
scholars to Srila Prabhupada's rendering, all of which question
why Srila Prabhupada understands the Gita in an exclusively
devotional way, and outlines the 'terminology and mechanics' to
refute these allegations. Sivarama Swami seeks to establish his
position through anuman [inferences], codes and corollaries.
The anuman are the book's assumptions discussed in chapters
three to five and include acceptance of Lord Krsna as the supreme,
at least theoretically for the purposes of the argument, that the
Gita is Lord Krsna's absolute statement not subject to speculation,
and that the Gita as vedic authority verifies its own purpose
(p. 22). The codes are the logical steps to establish the anuman
and include the statements that the theme of the Gita is
how to free oneself from the materialistic condition of life and
that Srila Prabhupada's The Bhagavad-gita As It Is presents
the only means for knowing the Gita and that other Vaisnava
commentaries share its method and conclusions. The corollaries support
the codes. Thus code number four, for example, 'Bhakti yoga is the
independent goal of the yoga ladder,' is supported by thirteen
corollaries including '(a)ll yoga systems are dependent on bhakti'
and '(o)nly bhakti awards ultimate liberation' (pp. 23-25).
This book is to be welcomed in so far as it presents
and defends Srila Prabhupada's understanding of the Bhagavad-gita
and in that it engages with secular, scholarly literature on the
subject. Indeed, Sivarama Swami's discussion of this scholarship
is interesting, although highly critical from his own perspective.
The book is written from the viewpoint of a devotee and is in principle
against secular, critical scholarship - Swami's 'empiricists' -
claiming that the Gita can only be understood through the
devotee's eyes and even that one's understanding of the text depends
upon the purity of one's consciousness (p. 256). This does, of course,
exclude the possibility of alternative understandings and restricts
the text to a single interpretation or totalising truth claim. Indeed
it would even mean that the full truth or impact of the Gita
would be closed to those outside of the Vaisnava tradition. On the
one hand Sivarama Swami recognises the bahu sakha or many
approaches to the Veda (p.278), yet on the other only accepts a
Vaisnava interpretative framework. It is here, then, that the main
problem of the book lies, for on this account there can only be
an insider's correct, luminous, Vaisnava understanding of the text,
or an external understanding, severely restricted by its secularist
or even mayavada assumptions. Thus, while the book will be
a welcome and interesting contribution to western or English language
Vaisnava literature, it might not succeed in engaging 'secular'
scholars as the author hopes, because of its different starting
point. Indeed, Sivarama Swami is acutely aware of this problem and
recognises that 'at the outset, we are of divergent interests' (p.15).
Given the rejection of a hermeneutics of suspicion and the acceptance
of the Vaisnava truth claim of the Gita as revelation of
Krsna, then dialogue between 'insider' scholars and 'outsider' scholars
will inevitably be restricted. But nevertheless this book is a welcome
contribution to these debates.
Author: David Gordon White
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press Ltd., London,
1996
ISBN: 0-226-89497-5 (cloth)
The Alchemical Body excavates and centres within its Indian
context the lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working
from a body of previously unexplored alchemical sources,
David Gordon White demonstrates for the first time that
the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha-yoga
were practised by the same people, and that they can only
be understood when viewed together. White opens the
way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of medieval
Indian mysticism, within the broader context of South Asian
Hinduism, Jainism and Islam.
Themes and
Issues in Hinduism
(A volume in the World Religions:
Themes and Issues series)
edited by Paul Bowen
Publisher: Cassel (London and Washington)
First published 1998
ISBN 0-304-33850-8 hardback
ISBN 0-304-33851-6 paperback
This book offers useful insights into the complex and internally
diverse realm of Hinduism. It is intended to acquaint the
reader with themes and issues that, while of relevance to
all religious traditions and systems, contribute to an understanding
of the abstract nature of Hinduism as a whole. Beginning
with Hindu religious understandings of the human condition,
the chapters are arranged so as to form a thematic survey
and overview of Hindu religious beliefs and practices. The
themes of morality and ethics, the role of women in Hinduism,
the Hindu religious construction of nature, and issues such
as mythology, the status of texts, forms of worship, and
sacred time and place can be systematically considered;
or, alternatively, focus can fall upon those topics that
are of particular personal interest. Readers should find
this book a wide-ranging and balanced introduction to Hinduism's
inner diversity.
Written for students of comparative religion and the general
reader, and drawing on the chapters originally edited by
Jean Holm and John Bowker in the Themes in Religious Studies
series, the volumes in World Religions: Themes and Issues
explore core themes from the perspective of the particular
religious tradition under study.
Tantric Visions
of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas
Author: David Kinsley
Publisher: University of California Press Ltd., London,
1997
ISBN: 0-52020498-0 (cloth)
ISBN: 0-520-20499-9 (pbk)
What is one to make of a group of goddesses that includes
a goddess who cuts her own head off, a goddess who sits
on a corpse while pulling the tongue of a demon, or a goddess
who prefers sex with corpses? Tantric Visions of the Divine
Feminine deals with a group of ten Hindu Mahavidyas, who
embody habits, attributes or identities usually considered
repulsive or socially subversive. It is within the
context of tantric worship that devotees seek to identify
themselves with these forbidding goddesses. The Mahavidyas
seem to function as 'awakeners' - symbols that help to project
one's consciousness beyond the socially acceptable or predictable.
Kinsley not only describes the eccentric qualities of each
of these goddesses but seeks to interpret the Mahavidyas
as a group and to explain their importance for understanding
Tantra and the Hindu tradition.
Hinduism for Our
Times
Author: Arvind Sharma
Publisher: Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1996
ISBN: 0-195-63749-6
No religion ever remains static: it affects and is in turn
affected by material reality. It is the creative tension
embodied in this dynamic which makes the world of religion,
rich with possibilities.
This book examines the contours of this creative tension
in the context of Hinduism in our own times. For Hinduism,
a religion of unknown antiquity is also, in several ways,
surprisingly modern. Hinduism for Our Times is an attempt
to raise this dimension of Hinduism to an unprecedented
level of self-awareness. Thus the choices that Hindus
must make in the context of modernisation and globalisation
become conscious as opposed to random choices, choices which
will place Hinduism at the cutting edge of the contemporary
world instead of consigning it to the periphery. This
book will appeal to all those interested in giving religion
a modern agenda.
A Hare Krishna
at Southern Methodist University
Author: Tamala Krsna Goswami
Publisher: Pundits Press, Dallas
ISBN 0-9643485-2-7
A Hare Krishna at Southern Methodist University is a collection
of award-winning essays mapping the convergence of East
and West by Hare Krsna leader Tamala Krsna Goswami. Readers
are invited to enter the world of a unique spiritual pioneer,
who in reality is the seeker in all of us.
