In this article, I will focus on the lengthy, convoluted, and symbolically weighty version of the Jaya, Vijaya, and Narasimha story that one can find in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, which I will henceforth refer to as the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.
What I am attempting to describe here is a subtle dimension of practice and self-understanding through which yogic-tantric practice can be understood as a bodily-gesture within the cosmos.
Since the Vedic era, the idea of incarnation has undergone many stages of evolution in order to reach its current interpretation wherein a soul, or an element of a divine consciousness essential to every being requires a physical body in order to grow and evolve through diverse experiences of struggle.
Amidst a revelry of dancers, drums, bells, flames in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, a black curtain opened to reveal the cover of the book entitled Death: An Inside Story.
Though Sanskrit is often called a dead language, the ideas embodied in its texts help to make sense of this in a vibrant, dynamic way.
Across religious traditions, revealed scripture is viewed by the faithful as a direct link to that Being/Deity/Truth that reveals the wisdom contained within Its revelation as scripture.
What is the role of the academy, and academia, in the study of religion and spirituality?
The academic study of yoga is subtly at odds with its practical objectives.