The knowledge that enlightens the aspiring student regarding the mystery of life here and hereafter is found in the Tripura Rahasya, one of the most significant scriptures in the tradition of tantra yoga. Its beauty lies in the fact that it expounds the lofty knowledge of inner truth while systematically offering practical instructions on sakti sadhana: the task of awakening the dormant fire within and leading it to higher awareness, or the highest chakra. Pandit Tigunait's translation of the Tripura Rahasya is a journey through the states of consciousness encountered on the path to ultimate self-awareness, written in a manner that makes it easily digestible for the Western reader. Sakti Sadhana is one of the most vivid and well written Vedic translations available in modern times, and an essential read for the dedicated spiritual seeker

As David White explains in the Introduction to Tantra in Practice, Tantra is an Asian body of beliefs and practices that seeks to channel the divine energy that grounds the universe, in creative and liberating ways. The subsequent chapters reflect the wide geographical and temporal scope of Tantra by examining thirty-six texts from China, India, Japan, Nepal, and Tibet, ranging from the seventh century to the present day, and representing the full range of Tantric experience--Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and even Islamic. Each text has been chosen and translated, often for the first time, by an international expert in the field who also provides detailed background material. Students of Asian religions and general readers alike will find the book rich and informative. The book includes plays, transcribed interviews, poetry, parodies, inscriptions, instructional texts, scriptures, philosophical conjectures, dreams, and astronomical speculations, each text illustrating one of the diverse traditions and practices of Tantra. Thus, the nineteenth-century Indian Buddhist Garland of Gems, a series of songs, warns against the illusion of appearance by referring to bees, yogurt, and the fire of Malaya Mountain; while fourteenth-century Chinese Buddhist manuscripts detail how to prosper through the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper by burning incense, making offerings to scriptures, and chanting incantations. In a transcribed conversation, a modern Hindu priest in Bengal candidly explains how he serves the black Goddess Kali and feeds temple skulls lentils, wine, or rice; a seventeenth-century Nepalese Hindu praise-poem hammered into the golden doors to the temple of the Goddess Taleju lists a king's faults and begs her forgiveness and grace. An introduction accompanies each text, identifying its period and genre, discussing the history and influence of the work, and identifying points of particular interest or difficulty. The first book to bring together texts from the entire range of Tantric phenomena, Tantra in Practice continues the Princeton Readings in Religions series. The breadth of work included, geographic areas spanned, and expert scholarship highlighting each piece serve to expand our understanding of what it means to practice Tantra.

The Indian Tantras, which are numerous, constitute the scripture (Sastra) of the Kaliyuga, and as such is a voluminous source of present and practical orthodox "Hinduism". The Tantra Shastra is, in fact, whatever be its historical origin, a development of the Karmakanda (using that term in the general sense of ritual section of the scripture), promulgated to meet the needs of that age. Siva says: "For the benefit of men of the Kali age, men bereft of energy and dependent for existence on the food they eat, the Kaula doctrine, O auspicious one! is given" (Ch. IX, verse 12). To the Tantras, we must therefore look if we would understand aright both ritual, yoga, and sadhana of all kinds as they exist today, as also the general principles of which these practices are but the objective expression.

This book chronicles the rise of goddess worship in the region of Bengal from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. Focusing on the goddesses Kali and Uma, McDermott examines lyrical poems written by devotees from Ramprasad Sen (ca. 1718-1775) to Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976).

A fascinating study from a modern feminist perspective of an androgynous Hindu god in Indian culture.