100th Monkey Books

Hindu:
the Vedic, Yogic & Tantric Paths



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The Bhagavad-Gita: Krishna's Counsel in Time of War
translated by Barbara Stoler Miller 168pages

(Bantam)







The Greatness of Saturn: Therapeutic Myth
Robert E. Svoboda (1997) 292pages

(Sadhana)







The Hindu Vision: Forms of the Formless
Alistair Shearer (1993) 96pages

To the Hindu, the entire universe is a living being, and through the visual arts - ritualistic, compelling, often stunningly beautiful - that holistic awareness is made available to all. Long rejected by the West as alien and bizarre, Hindu imagery speaks a language that is at last beginning to be understood. its extraordinary symbolism - elephant-headed and multi-armed deities, fierce demons and fabulous creatures - is a sophisticated iconography conveying universal religious truths. Uniting sensuousness and spirituality, passion and detachment, Hinduism celebrates the fullness of life, and teaches the indivisibility of body and soul, time and eternity. A title in the Art and Imagination series, with 165 illustrations, 15 in colour. (Thames & Hudson)



Kali: The Feminine Force
Ajit Mookerjee (1988)112pages

According to the Hindu tradition, we are living in the Kali age: the time of a resurgence of the divine female spirit. It is said that Kali sprang forth from the brow of the Great Goddess Durga during a battle to annihilate demonic male power. Although she is often presented (in her warrior aspect) as cruel and horrific, with her lolling red tongue and necklace of severed heads, Kali is creator and nurturer - the essence of mother-love and feminine energy (Sakti). As Divine Mother, Lotus-Goddess, she brings worlds to birth, sustains them and absorbs them in a never-ending cycle of her own opening and closing. Using the powerful imagery of paintings, cultures, and writings, this celebration of Kali explores and illuminates the rich meanings of feminine divinity. (Destiny Books)



Kundalini: The Arousal of the Inner Energy
Ajit Mookerjee (1982/86)112pages w/61 illustrations, 16 in color

Human experience owes to Tantra the discovery and location of the centers of psychic energy, chakras, in the subtle or astral body. Kundalini Sakti, coiled and dormant cosmic energy, is at the same time the supreme force in the human organism. Every individual is a manifestation of that energy and the universe around us is the outcome of the same consciousness, ever revealing itself in various modes. The passage of the awakened kundalini through the various chakras is the subject of a unique branch of Tantric esoteric knowledge whose goal is the merging of the kundalini energy with cosmic consciousness, so that one may realize one's real self, ultimately unfolding the mysteries of the whole universe. Kundalini-yoga is an experience of the actualization of human potentialities. - from the author's Preface (Destiny Books)



Meditations through the Rg Veda: Four Dimensional Man
Antonio T. de Nicolas (1976) 284pages

(Nicolas-Hays)



The Myths and Gods of India: The Classic Work on Hindu Polytheism from the Princeton Bollingen Series
Alain Danielou (1964) 441pages

This study of Hindu mythology explores the significance of the most prominent Hindu deities as they are envisioned by the Hindus themselves. Referred to by its adherents as the "eternal religion," Hinduism recognizes for each age and each country a new form of revelation - and for each person, according to his or her stage of development, a different path of realization. This message of tolerance and adaptability, the very heart of Hindu polytheism, resounds clearly throughout Alain Danielou's work. Thirty-three photographic plates by Raymond Burnier further illustrate the many facets of Hindu teaching and trace the significance of the Gods of the Vedas, as well as Vishnu, Siva, Linga, Brahma, Kali, Sakti, and many other deities. (Inner Traditions, 1991)



The Shambhala Encyclopaedia of Yoga
Georg Feurstein (1997) 357pages

This illustrated desktop reference work with over 2,000 entries combines comprehensiveness with accessibility. Georg Feurstein offers an authentic portrayal of a rich and highly complex spiritual tradition of India, with its history, its many approaches, schools, and teachers, its scriptures, and its technical terminology. Among its unique features:
* Each entry has cross-references providing pertinent conceptual links.
* Entries are in English alphabetical order.
* Orientational entries furnish an overview of central aspects to the Yoga tradition, such as history, psychology, and major branches.
* Many entries cite or even quote original sources, shedding light on how a given term is used by traditional Yoga authorities. (Shambhala)



The Shambhala Guide to Yoga
Georg Feurstein (1996) 180pages

In the present book, I am providing an overview of the essentials of Yoga - understood not as a system of calisthenics but as a full fledged spiritual tradition - that can both broaden and deepen the understanding of beginning students as well as serve as a compass for more advanced practitioners. I have singled out Classical Yoga and Tantra-Yoga (including Hatha-Yoga) for more detailed discussion, because these two branches of the Yoga tradition are of the greatest interest to Western students but are still often badly understood.... Working on this book gave me the opportunity to delve again into my favorite Sanskrit scriptures and to listen to the clarifying and inspiring thoughts of masters like Yajnavalkya, Patanjali, Vyasa, Gaudapada, Shankara, Ashtavakra, Gheranda, Swatmarama Yogindra, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Swami Sivananda, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Nikhilananda, Swami Muktananda, and Nisargadatta Maharaj. I have quoted them whenever possible. - from the author's Preface (Shambhala)



Shankara's Crest-Jewel of Discrimination (Viveka-Chudamani)
Translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood (1947)

Adi Shankara (686-718 A.D.), one of the great sage-philosophers of India, taught the profound nondualistic philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. According to Shankara, it is the ignorance of our real nature that causes suffering and pain. The desire for happiness is essentially a longing to awaken to who and what we truly are. Through the path of self-knowledge, Shankara clearly teaches how to awaken from ignorance created by the mind, and abide in the peace of our true nature. (Vedanta Press)



The Song of God: Bhagavad-Gita
translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood (1944) 143pages

The Bhagavad-Gita, timeless epic of the Hindu faith, is translated into clear meaningful by the novelist Christopher Isherwood and his teacher, Swami Prabhavananda, combining distinguished verse and prose with scholarship and philosophical interpretation.
"On earth there is no purifier / As great as this knowledge, / When a man is made perfect in yoga, / He knows its truth within his heart. / The man of faith, / Whose heart is devoted,/ Whose senses are mastered;/ He finds Brahman./ Enlightened, he passes / At once to the highest, / The peace beyond passion." ( Mentor)



Tantra: The Indian Cult of Ecstasy
Philip Rawson (1973) 128pages

Suggesting as its final goal a vision of cosmic sexuality, Tantra embodies fundamental patterns of symbolic expression in a view of life which offers a uniquely successful antidote to the anxieties of our time. The act of creation is continuous; therefore sexual intercourse between human beings can be a microcosmic representation of the creative process - a symbolic tribute to the great Goddess from whose womb, and by whose wisdom, all things in the Universe are manifested in Time. A title in the Art and Imagination series, with 190 illustrations, 32 in colour. (Thames & Hudson , 1997)



Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy
Georg Feuerstein (1998) 314pages

There is a growing need for more faithful portrayals of the philosophy and practice of genuine Hindu Tantra, and the present volume seeks to respond to this need. My presentation is chiefly based on my research into the original scriptures of Hindu Tantra, and secondarily on my personal experience with Yoga over a period of thirty-five years. Secondarily, I am basing my presentation on my study and practice of Vajrayana Buddhism since 1993. My approach is meant to be sympathetic rather than "objective" and detached. In writing about those many areas of which I have no personal experience, I have relied on the testimony of the Tantric scriptures, the available scholarly literature, and the explanations of advanced practitioners...I see my task as being mostly descriptive and occasionally evaluative, but definitely not as being prescriptive. In other words, the present volume is not a manual for Tantric practice...If the present book can help remove the worst popular misconception about Tantra Yoga and thus clear the way to fruitful spiritual practice, tantric or otherwise, it will have fulfilled its purpose. ( Shambhala)



Teachings of Yoga
translated and edited by Georg Feuerstein (1997) 236pages

The purpose of this anthology is primarily to edify and only secondarily to instruct, while at the same time preserving the integrity of the Yoga tradition. The quotations in this volume were chosen for their inspirational power. They still speak to us across the centuries because the human condition has remained essentially the same throughout history...The quotes have been loosely arranged to proceed from a consideration of the nature of human existence and embodiment to the need for renunciation and mind training, to an explanation of discipleship and initiation through a qualified teacher, to an outline of the yogic path itself, ending with higher states of consciousness and liberation, including several ecstatic utterances by great adepts...Listening (shravana) to the disclosures of sages and saints is one of the time-honored practices of seekers after the Truth...Let us, then, listen well that we might benefit from the communications of the illustrious finders of Truth, the Self-realized masters of the distant and the more recent past. - from the Introduction by the translator and editor (Shambhala)



The Upanishads
translations from the Sanskrit with an Introduction by Juan Mascaro (1965) 143pages

The Sanskrit word Upanishad, Upa-ni-shad, comes from the verb, sad, to sit, with u-pa, connected with Latin s-ub, under; and ni, found in English be-neath, and ne-ther. The whole would mean a sitting, an instruction, the sitting at the feet of a master. The Upanishads are spiritual treatises of different length, the oldest of which were composed between 800 and 400 B.C. Amongst the sacred books of the past, the Upanishads can be called in truth Himalayas of the Soul. Their passionate wanderings of discovery to find that sun of the Spirit in us, from whom we have the light of our consciousness and the fire of our life; the greatness of their questions, and the sublime simplicity of their answers; their radiance of joy when the revelation of the Supreme comes to their soul, and one of their poets can say 'The light of the sun is my light.'; their paradoxes and contradictions where we find a living truth; their flashes of vision that reveal to us the infinite greatness of our inner world; their great variety and yet their absolute unity in the awe-inspiring conception of Brahman; their burning uplifting faith in the soul of man which is one with the Soul of the Universe;...are all like trumpets sounding the glory of light and love, and over the darkness of doubts and death, proclaiming the victory of life. - from the translator's Introduction (Penguin)



Yoga: Discipline of Freedom - The Yoga Sutras Attributed to Patanjali
translated by Barbara Stoler Miller (1996) 114pages

At the heart of all meditative practice in Asia is what Indians call yoga, the system that "yokes" one's consciousness to a spiritual liberating discipline. In his Yoga Sutra the ancient Indian philosopher Patanjali presents us with the possibility of complete psychological transformation through the discipline of yoga. Each of the 195 aphorisms that constitute the Yoga Sutra is part of Patanjali's scheme for radically altering our conception of the world and the structure of thought through which we relate to it. The text is neither a sacred scripture nor a historical artifact, but a set of philosophical analyses that probe the timeless dilemmas of cognition and obstacles to spiritual tranquility. Patanjali is not engaged in search for new knowledge. Rather, he seeks a new perspective on the nature of knowing - a way to clear the mind of accumulated experiences and memories that bind us to a world of pain....Patanjali's method for achieving insight is far from the mystical ecstasy of a poet like St. John of the Cross or the ritual ecstasy of a shaman in a trance. It is instead a contemplative intensity that unbinds the constraints of everyday experience. - from the translator's preface (Bantam)



Yoga: Mastering the Secrets of Matter and the Universe
Alain Danielou (1991) 195pages

This short exposition of the principles and practice of yoga, compiled from the teachings of many of its living exponents and from published and unpublished Sanskrit sources, is fully authentic in its accounts of the aims, methods, and different forms of yoga. It explains the technical processes by which, according to the doctrines of yoga, the subconscious may be brought under control, the senses overpassed, and modes of perception obtained which lead to remarkable achievements both spiritual and intellectual. (Inner Traditions)



Yoga and Psychotherapy: The Evolution of Consciousness
Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine, M.D. and Swami Ajaya, Ph.D. (1976) 327pages

Contents of chapters 1 to 7 as follows: The Body and Hatha Yoga; Breath and Energy; The Mind: Ancient and Modern Concepts; Buddhi, Guide Through the Unknown; The Secrets of Sleep; From Psychosis to Mysticism: Journey to the Self; The Seven Centers of Consciousness.
The main thrust of this book is not to present a critique of either yoga psychology or modern psychology, but to put forth those theories and practices that we found in our experience of them to be of value in helping one grow and evolve. We have tried to develop a comprehensive theory of personal evolution which incorporates the best of both systems. -from "How We Came to Write This Book" by Swami Ajaya (Himalayan Institute Press)



Yoga and the Quest for the True Self
Stephen Cope (1999) 358pages








The Yoga of Power: Tantra, Shakti, and the Secret Way
Julius Evola (1968/1992) 240 pages Translated by Guido Stucco

The thesis of the book is that the spiritual and social conditions that characterize the Kali Yuga greatly decrease the effectiveness of purely intellectual, contemplative, and ritual paths. In this age of decadence the only way open to those seeking the great liberation is one of action. Tantrism defined itself as sadhana-darshana, namely a system based on practice. Hatha yoga and, more specifically, kunda-lini yoga constitute the psychological and the mental training of the Tantrilas seeking liberation. While attacking the stereotype according to which Oriental spiritualities are characterized by an escape from the world (as opposed to those of the West, which allegedly promote vitalism, activism, and the will to power), Evola reaffirmed his belief in the primacy of action by outlining the path followed in Tantrism. - from the Translator's Introduction (Inner Traditions)



The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion: A Modern Translation of the Narada Bhakti Sutras
translated by Prem Prakas (1998) 159pages

Bhakti yoga is for those oriented toward answering the atma-vichara ("Who am I?") in terms of annada (blissful love). The bhakti yogi performs a dissection of pure love from all that contains a contamination of selfishness. By making love his polestar, the bhakti yogi follows its light along the path of life until the soul realizes it is one with that light. The bhakti yogi does not undertake processes involving discrimination against phenomena, for to him all phenomena are reflections of God. He seeks to see all form as partial manifestation of shakti, God's creative, intelligent energy. Within the context of ananda, the temporal is realized as the reflection of the eternal, and the soul is realized as the expression of God. The Narada Bhakti Sutras are considered to have been composed sometime around the twelfth century A.D. It is possible that they were transmitted orally before being circulated in writing. The authorship is attributed to Narada, an archetypal figure of spiritual devotion mentioned throughout millenia of yogic writings. (Inner Traditions)



The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice
Georg Feuerstein (1998) 686pages

The present volume is a thoroughly revised and enlarged edition of Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy (Jeremy Tarcher, 1989). The changes made in the text are so substantial that a new title seemed justifiable. In addition to revising the existing text, I have more than doubled the number of pages, primarily through inclusion of my English renderings of major Sanskrit scriptures on Yoga, including complete translations of the Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali, the Shiva-Sutra of Vasugupta, the Bhakti-Sutra of Narada, the Amrita-Bindu-Upanishad, the Advaya-Taraka Upanishad, the Kshurika-Upanishad, the Dakshinamurti-Stotra, the Mahayana-Vimshaka of Nagarjuna, the Prajna-Paramita-Hridaya-Sutra, and hitherto untranslated Goraksha-Paddhati. There are also many renderings of sections of other significant Yoga scriptures, including Haribhadra Suri's Yoga-Drishti-Samuccaya, ably translated by Christopher Chapple. In addition, I have added a new section on the adepts of Maharashtra and a whole new chapter on Yoga in Sikhism. The objective of this volume is to give the reader a systematic and comprehensive introduction to the many-faceted phenomenon of Indian spirituality, especially in its Hindu variety, while at the same time summarizing in broad outlines what scholarship has discovered about the evolution of Yoga thus far. (Hohm Press)


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