Articles for May 2016 on Sutra Journal

May2016 Issue of Sutra Journal

Piety, Puja, and Visual Images

May, 2016 by Pratapaditya Pal

‘Puja and Piety: Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Art from the Indian Subcontinent’ is a major new exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art which opened April 16th, 2016. The exhibition celebrates the complexity of South Asian representation and iconography by examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice, or puja, in the three native religions of the Indian subcontinent. read more

Towards a Theory of Tantra-Ecology

May, 2016 by Jeffrey S. Lidke

In the highly coded environs of Tantric practice the final aim is the realization that the body of the sādhaka and the body of divinity are united in a holographic universe whose constituent parts contain within themselves the whole, “this all” (sarvaṃ idaṃ). The Śiva Saṃhitā, a Nāth Siddha guide to Haṭha Yoga (ca. Tenth century), describes the body of the yogin as the seat of the entire universe. read more

HISTORY OF INDIAN ART THROUGH FIVE MASTERPIECES - Part Four: Nainsukh of Guler

May, 2016 by William Dalrymple

Two hundred and fifty years ago, the Punjabi hilltown of Guler was Florence of the Himalayan foothills. Behind its walls, amid a region wracked by warfare and bitterly divided between a patchwork of rival principalities, its rulers were discerning patrons of the arts: poetry, dance and music all flourished in this remote valley on the edge of the Himalayas. read more

MUHAMMAD IQBĀL AND THE BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ - Part One

May, 2016 by Purushottama Bilimoria

"I realised that in the Gītā is contained the Qur'ān, and in the Qur'ān the Gītā." This, on the face of it, is an amazing if not a provocative admission, and an unlikely one to come from somebody who found himself to be poles apart from that other contemporary Indian patriot, who swore by the Gītā, and said of the Almighty that "Ishvara and Allāh" were equally His names. read more

Pranayama in the Light of Consciousness

May, 2016 by Godfrey Devereux

Even the slightest hint of effort, or intention, maintains mind in its linear, dualistic limitations. Rather the infolding flow of awareness so clearly and elegantly presented by Patanjali, happens only and exactly because all effort, all intention have been relinquished into the free flowing intelligence of consciousness. This is, of course what surrender means. Not to submit to some higher power, but to let go of resisting the presence of natural intelligence. read more

Tolerance, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, and Persecution in Indian Religion During the Early Mediaeval Period - Part Two

May, 2016 by Alexis Sanderson

Any claim that tolerance of religious diversity is at the heart of Hinduism must overlook the view of the Vaidikas, whose theoreticians flatly denied the validity of any religious practice that was undertaken on the authority of texts lying outside the Veda (vedabāhyāni), that is to say, outside the Vaidika scriptural corpus of Śruti and such secondary literature (Smṛti) as was accepted to derive from it. read more

Ancient Stepwells of Ahmedabad: A Conversation on Water and Heritage

May, 2016 by Riyaz Tayyibji

‘Stepwells of Ahmedabad - a conversation on water and heritage’ is a collaborative effort of a diverse group of researchers, practitioners, young graduates, students and concerned citizens to bring to light aspects of this recurring typology of water structures that are dispersed across the semi-arid and arid landscape of Western India. read more

A Goddess-Based Path to a Sustainable Future

April, 2016 by David Dillard-Wright

We need a powerful organizing theme capable of broad-based resistance to this alarming corporate-state takeover of natural systems. Maybe the reason the ‘Earth as Mother’ metaphor doesn’t gain more traction in the West and in the upwardly mobile classes around the world is that it hasn’t been taken seriously enough. read more

A Comparative Theology of Divinity and Revelation

May, 2016 by Christopher Key Chapple

The relationship between God and human beings has been expressed in various theologies of revelation. Some emphasize the otherness of God, while others seek knowledge through the indwelling spirit. read more

Beauty and Memory

May, 2016 by Joseph Houseal

It is a choice to remember life in beautiful ways. Dance is an art made of life itself. The human body as medium contains within it every aspect of humanity. The body by becoming a symbol of meaning can probe deep levels of experience, and speak universally. It takes on style, shape, and decoration; it carries tradition, contemporary interpretation, and the ability to transform consciousness. read more

Neither of the East nor of the West: The Journey of the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya from India to America - Part Two

May, 2016 by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Traditionally the Sufi sheikh is the “keeper of the gates of grace.” Love and grace are the cornerstones of the relationship with the teacher, which is the most important relationship for the disciple. Without this relationship there is no path and no journey. read more

"The Last Queen of Kashmir" Rakesh Kaul in Conversation

May, 2016 by Vikram Zutshi

Conversation with Rakesh Kaul, the author of the novel "The Last Queen of Kashmir" about the life of little known 14th century Queen Kota Rani, who ruled the lands in the face of adversity. read more

Abhinavagupta's Maṅgala verse No. 2 (video talk) from Parātrīśikā Vivaraṇa & Tantrāloka 13 103-107

May, 2016 by Boris Marjanovic

Boris Bhāskara Marjanovic, the eminent Kashmiri Shaiva scholar, shines a light on the verses from Abhnavagupta's Tantrāloka and Parātrisika Vivaraņa. (Video) read more

Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Part Five

May, 2016 by Richard Miller

Dr. Miller has translated several classical Indian texts from Sanskrit into English. This is the fifth part of Richard's translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, along with his rich insights and incisive commentary. read more

Pāṇini and Bharata on Grammar and Art

May, 2016 by Subhash Kak

What could Pāṇini, perhaps the greatest grammarian of all time, have to do with Bharata Muni and his theories of art, drama and music? But speaking of grammar in the same breath as art is not as incongruous as one thinks when it is noted that both language and creations of art are governed by rules and conventions. read more

Pratapaditya Pal: A Life Spent in Curating Art (Video)

May, 2016

The Aims of Indian Art

May, 2016 by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) was one of the great art historians of the twentieth century whose multifaceted writings deal primarily with visual art, aesthetics, literature and language, folklore, mythology, religion, and metaphysics. read more

The Art of Pilgrimage and The Durga Puja

May, 2016 by Laura Amazzone

Pilgrimage means to “partake of a shrine”; however, the “shrine” can also be a quality of truth in addition to and sometimes instead of a physical place. Pilgrimage can be understood metaphorically, and the journey can equally be an inner one that takes place during meditative practices. read more

The Music of Colliding Black Holes - Video

May, 2016 by Ha Chi Ming

The Śaiva Religion and its Philosophy in Context Part One

May, 2016 by Christopher Wallis

Modern scholarship now frequently acknowledges that the concept “Hinduism” was constructed by Western ‘Orientalist’ [1] scholarship, and that there was no such indigenous term until the nineteenth century.[2] Yet such acknowledgment is often merely lip-service, for the term continues to be used to describe the entire complex and diverse Indian religious milieu, other than Buddhism and Jainism, throughout the common era. read more

Vettaveli: vast luminous space

May, 2016 by Marshall Govindan

Yoga isn’t only about letting go of own false identification with what we are not but also remembering who we are at the ground of our being in Self-realization and God-realization. read more

Consciousness: The Ultimate Reality

May, 2016 by Navin Doshi

Mathematics is the golden key to communicable truth of reality of the natural world-maybe even beyond our limited bandwidth. The key to non-communicable truth is the mystic experience through yoga and meditation. read more

dharma	yoga	tantra
ayruveda	meditation	buddha

May2016 Issue of Sutra Journal

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