Life of Śyāmācaraṇa Lāhiṛī, 1828-1895, well known as Lahiri Mahasay, propounder of Kriya Yoga; translated from Bengali.

This definitive biography of Subhas Chandra Bose, the revered and controversial Indian nationalist who struggled to liberate his country from British rule before and during World War II, moves beyond the legend to reveal the impassioned life and times of the private and public man.

Composed by three poet-saints between the sixth and eighth centuries A.D., the Tevaram hymns are the primary scripture of the Tamil Saivism, one of the first popular large-scale devotional movements within Hinduism. Indira Peterson eloquently renders into English a substantial portion of these hymns, which provide vivid and moving portraits of the images, myths, rites, and adoration of Siva and which continue to be loved and sung by the millions of followers of the Tamil Saiva tradition. Her introduction and annotations illuminate the work's literary, religious, and cultural contexts, making this anthology a rich sourcebook for the study of South Indian popular religion. Indira Peterson highlights the Tevaram as a seminal text in Tamil cultural history, a synthesis of pan-Indian and Tamil civilization, as well as a distinctly Tamil expression of the love of song, sacred landscape, and ceremonial religion. Her discussion of this work draws on her pioneering research into the performance of the hymns and their relation to the art and ritual of the South Indian temple. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book is a rare gem. Written and originally appearing at the end of the author's illustrious life, it is one of the few books available today in which the accurate information on Kriya Yoga is given, historical and otherwise, and written by a man who was part of that sacred tradition during its very crucial years and who had personally known several of the authorized disciples of the Yogiraj Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya (including of course his own beloved Master, the illustrious Swamiji Maharaj, Sriyukteshvar Giri, by whom he was initiated in year 1929 at age nineteen and with whom he remained in close association). Kriya Yoga is a system of physical and mental discipline towards attainment of Yoga as defined in the Yoga Shastras. The system taught by Yogiraj Shyama Charan Lahiri and down through his illustrious disciples is commonly termed Kriya. The technique and discipline taught are in conformity with the basic conceptions laid down in the Gita, Patanjal, Yoga and Tantra Shastras and the Manu Smriti; and designed in the pattern of movements of heavenly bodies that cause appearance of the Yugas and their virtues. The book also discusses similarities that can be traced in the teachings of Jesus Christ contained in selected expressions in the Holy Bible and the basic conceptions of the Hindu spiritual practices and scriptures. Essentially Kriya Yoga is a universally applicable spiritual system without any inhibition with regard to faiths and nationalities, and directed towards development of the complete man-in body, mind and in the unfoldment of the inner Spirit.