Traditions

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.

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.

The voice of the scholar-practitioner emerges from a confluence of well-established disciplines, both inside and outside the academy.

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.

My hope was that every student would learn from and be challenged by the Gītā in a perfectly respectable academic fashion, yet without replacing study of the text by discussions of larger theoretical issues.

What is the role of the academy, and academia, in the study of religion and spirituality?

Have you ever wondered why the trend in modern science, scholarship, and practical expertise seems inexorably headed in one direction—towards more and more narrow specialization?

Nāgārjuna is by any account the most influential Mahāyāna philosopher.

One of the most interesting things about what we call “knowledge” is its extraordinary flexibility.

Sri Aurobindo was a modern Indian yogi who founded the form of yoga known as Integral Yoga.

Abhinavagupta is an enigmatic figure, not because he tells us so little about himself, but because he tells us so much.