FAIZI: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith FAIZI (1547-1595). The work of Faizi, who held the honorary title Malek ol-shoara (king of poets), marks the beginning of the golden age of Indian literature in Persian. This Sufi poet-laureate of Akbar assisted him in his efforts at reform, which were aimed at reconciling Indians of different faiths. In his best known masnavi poem 'Nal and Daman' he reworks a story from the third book of the Mahabharata in accordance with the demands of the masnavi genre. Faizi also wrote works on philosophy, philology, mathematics, medicine, and...

URFI: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith URFI (1555-1591) lived in Shiraz until he was twenty-six and had become disfigured in the face from small-pox he had six years earlier. Embarrassed in front of friends and relatives he decided to go to India and arrived in the Deccan in 1582 and from there went to Agra where he met the Khan-i-Khanan (Rahim) and became one of his group of poets and was highly respected and well paid for his craft. He was invited to Emperor Akbar's court because of his exceptional talents, where he stayed until Akbar died and afterwards was in the...

JAYADEVA: LIFE AND POEMS Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Jayadeva (circa 12oo AD.) was a Sanskrit poet and most known for his immortal composition, the epic poem/play Gita Govinda that depicts the divine love of Avatar Krishna and his consort, Radha. This poem is considered an important text in the Bhakti (Path of Love) movement of Hinduism. The work delineates the love of Krishna for Radha, the milkmaid, his faithlessness and subsequent return to her, and is taken as symbolical of the human soul's straying from its true allegiance but returning at length to the God that created it. It...

LALLA DED: LIFE AND POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Lalla Ded is the famous female Bhakti poet/saint from Kashmir who lived at exactly the same time as Hafiz of Shiraz (1320-1392). Her vakhs (poems/sayings) are sung even today in Kashmir. She was married at a young age but the marriage was a failure and she walked out at the age of twenty-four. She became a disciple of Siddha Srikanth. It must have taken a lot of courage on her part to walk out of a marriage and to walk around unclothed as she did. She was treated with contempt by some and much reverence by others, seeing her...

KABIR: LIFE AND POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith 

Kabir (meaning 'great') was born near Varanasi (Banaras), India, in 1398 A.D. and died towards the end of the 15th Century. He was brought up by an elderly Muslim weaver-couple named Niru and Nirna, having been abandoned shortly after birth. He learnt the same trade as his new parents and used the imagery of weaving often in his poems. It is said that he had a number of Gurus or spiritually perfected Masters. One was a Sufi Master named Sheikh Taqqi. The most famous was Ramanand, a Bhakti Master. Kabir wanted to...

RAHIM: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith 'Abd'ur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan (1556-1627) was a Bhakti poet and scholar and linguist and great patron of the arts under Emperor Akbar and under Emperor Jahangir. He was the commander-in-chief of the army of Akbar against Sultan Muzaffar of Gujarat. Rahim was known for his strange manner of giving alms to the poor. He never looked at the person he was giving alms to, keeping his gaze downwards in all humility. He was famous for his poetry and generosity even at the court of Abbas the great, the Persian Shah of the time. For his...

VRIND: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Vrind Kavi (1643-1723) was an Indian Bhakti saint and poet in the Hindi language from Marwar in present day Rajasthan. He was an important poet of the Ritikal period of Hindi Literature known for his poems on ethics and mostly known for his work Nitisatsai (1704), a collection of 700 dohas. He was the guru of Raj Singh (ruled 1706-1748), ruler of Kishangarh where he was court poet. Like his contemporaries, Mati Ram, Rasnidhi and Ram Sahay, his doha poetry was primarily in Braj Bhasha dialect. It was deeply influenced by Bihari,...

TULSIDAS: LIFE & POEMS Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith Tulsidas (1532-1623), also known as Goswami Tulsidas, was a Hindu Bhakti poet-saint, reformer and philosopher renowned for his devotion for the Avatar when He appeared as Rama. A composer of several popular works, he is best known for being the author of the epic Ramcharitmanas, a retelling of the Sanskrit Ramayana. Tulsidas was acclaimed in his lifetime to be a reincarnation of Valmiki, the composer of the original Ramayana in Sanskrit. He is also considered to be the composer of the Hanuman Chalisa, a popular devotional hymn...

Every person who rides in a motor vehicle of any kind may well become involved in a road rage incident. Yes, that means every person--doctor, lawyer, teacher, construction worker, minister, every man woman, and child. The road rage epidemic has no limitations.

Fasten your seat belts for this book will take you on an enlightening, at times frightening ride through the direct causes and results of road rage. The writing explicitly points out five levels of roadway violence.

The book's ultimate goals are: (1) to meet thoughtfully the problems emanating from the epidemic, (2) to...