An ideal resource for courses on Hinduism or world religions, this accessible volume spans the entire field of Hindu studies. It provides a forum for the best scholars in the world to make their views and research available to a wider audience.

• Comprehensively covers the textual traditions of Hinduism
  
• Features four coherent sections covering theoretical issues, textual traditions, science and philosophy, and Hindu society and politics
  
• Reflects the trend away from essentialist understandings of Hinduism towards tradition and...

Is tantra just about exotic sexual practice or does it amount to something more? This lively and original book contributes to a more complete understanding of tantra. It argues that within the different Hindu traditions, it is ritual and ascetic practice which fully explains corporeality. Without minimizing its sexual dimensions, Flood argues that the tantric body is more than just a sexual entity, and cannot be understood apart from the religious traditions and texts that give it form. Through ritual and yogic practice the body is formed into a pattern determined by these traditions, and the...

The Importance of Religion reveals the significance of religion in modern times, showing how it provides people with meaning to their lives and helps guide them in their everyday moral choices

• Provides readers with a new understanding of religion, demonstrating how in its actions, texts and world views religion is enduring and vividly engages with the mystery of the world
• Offers striking arguments about the relationship of religion to science, art and politics
• Engagingly written by a highly respected scholar of religion with an international reputation
...

The Importance of Religion reveals the significance of religion in modern times, showing how it provides people with meaning to their lives and helps guide them in their everyday moral choices

• Provides readers with a new understanding of religion, demonstrating how in its actions, texts and world views religion is enduring and vividly engages with the mystery of the world
• Offers striking arguments about the relationship of religion to science, art and politics
• Engagingly written by a highly respected scholar of religion with an international reputation
...

The idea that there is a truth within the person linked to the discovery of a deeper, more fundamental, more authentic self has been a common theme in many religions throughout history and an idea that is still with us today. This inwardness or interiority unique to me as an essential feature of who I am has been an aspect of culture and even a defining characteristic of human being; an authentic, private sphere to which we can retreat that is beyond the conflicts of the outer world. This inner world becomes more real than the outer, which is seen as but a pale reflection. Remarkably, the...

The Bhagavad Gita, the "Song of the Lord," is an ancient Hindu scripture about virtue presented as a dialogue between Krishna, an incarnation of God, and the warrior Arjuna on the eve of a great battle over succession to the throne. This new verse translation of the classic Sanskrit text combines the skills of leading Hinduist Gavin Flood with the stylistic verve of award-winning poet and translator Charles Martin. The result is a living text that remains true to the extraordinarily influential original. A devotional, literary, and philosophical work of unsurpassed beauty and...

The idea that there is a truth within the person linked to the discovery of a deeper, more fundamental, more authentic self has been a common theme in many religions throughout history and an idea that is still with us today. This inwardness or interiority unique to me as an essential feature of who I am has been an aspect of culture and even a defining characteristic of human being; an authentic, private sphere to which we can retreat that is beyond the conflicts of the outer world. This inner world becomes more real than the outer, which is seen as but a pale reflection. Remarkably, the...