Following the Second World War, yoga has asserted its presence in America and impacted the American culture, arts, and literature. This book offers extensive explications of Saul Bellow’s Mr. Sammler’s Planet, J.D. Salinger’s “Teddy,” John Updike’s S.: A Novel, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five in the light of the four different yoga philosophies interwoven into their respective narrative structures. The comparative analyses of these four contemporary American fictions unveil the deeper mystical motifs implicit in their plots, stories, themes, and characters’ behavioural patterns. The exhaustive interpretations of texts in the five successive chapters put forth an exposition of how the ancient Indic philosophy and contemporary American fiction interact to explicate and enrich each other. The book adds a unique, unconventional dimension to the comparative and interdisciplinary investigation into contemporary American fiction and thereby opens up new vistas of an off-beat interface between the Eastern philosophy and Western literature.

The book is aimed at university students taking courses in Comparative Religion and Philosophy and practitioners of yoga. Hence, it presents yoga in the context of its historical evolution in India and seeks to explain the nature of its associations with various metaphysical doctrines

A unique reference work from the foremost writer on Yoga today, THE YOGA TRADITION surveys the 5,000-year history of Hindy, Buddhistm, Jaina, and Sikh Yoga, featuring full and partial translations of numerous key scriptures and over 200 illustrations. It is considered the CLASSIC text on Yoga practice and history.

Stimulates thoughts and expands awareness of the philosophical dimensions of yoga in its many forms and practices Yoga — Philosophy for Everyone presents a wide array of perspectives by people whose lives have been touched by yoga. Addressing myriad aspects of yoga's divergent paths, topics include body image for men and women; the religious and spiritual aspects of yoga; and issues relating to ethics, personal growth, and the teaching of yoga. Written by philosophers and non-philosophers alike, with contributions from professional yoga instructors, lifelong practitioners, and first-timers, Yoga — Philosophy for Everyone offers a wealth of material for both enjoyment and deep reflection.

A fascinating look at India’s remarkable impact on Western culture, this eye-opening popular history shows how the ancient philosophy of Vedanta and the mind-body methods of Yoga have profoundly affected the worldview of millions of Americans and radically altered the religious landscape. What exploded in the 1960s, following the Beatles trip to India for an extended stay with their new guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, actually began more than two hundred years earlier, when the United States started importing knowledge--as well as tangy spices and colorful fabrics--from Asia. The first translations of Hindu texts found their way into the libraries of John Adams and Ralph Waldo Emerson. From there the ideas spread to Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and succeeding generations of receptive Americans, who absorbed India’s “science of consciousness” and wove it into the fabric of their lives. Charismatic teachers like Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda came west in waves, prompting leading intellectuals, artists, and scientists such as Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Allen Ginsberg, J. D. Salinger, John Coltrane, Dean Ornish, and Richard Alpert, aka Ram Dass, to adapt and disseminate what they learned from them. The impact has been enormous, enlarging our current understanding of the mind and body and dramatically changing how we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos. Goldberg paints a compelling picture of this remarkable East-to-West transmission, showing how it accelerated through the decades and eventually moved from the counterculture into our laboratories, libraries, and living rooms. Now physicians and therapists routinely recommend meditation, words like karma and mantra are part of our everyday vocabulary, and Yoga studios are as ubiquitous as Starbuckses. The insights of India’s sages permeate so much of what we think, believe, and do that they have redefined the meaning of life for millions of Americans—and continue to do so every day. Rich in detail and expansive in scope, American Veda shows how we have come to accept and live by the central teaching of Vedic wisdom: “Truth is one, the wise call it by many names.”

The Book Contains Well Researched Articles By Scholars From Indian Universities. The Articles Offer A Comprehensive View Of What American Fiction Has Been Like During The Last Hundred Years Or So. American Culture, Society, Family, Cities Of Blacks And Whites Have Been Variously Framed Into The Narrative Art Form By A Galaxy Of Talented American Novelists : Mark Twain, Henry James, Theodore Dreiser, Faulkner, Hemingway, Saul Bellow, Salinger, Norman Mailer, John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Ernest J. Gaines, Among Others. The Editor Has Adopted A Chronological Approach And The Emphasis In Articles Has Fallen Upon Providing A Synoptic View Of American Fiction Rather Than Giving A Historical Account Of It. The Approaches Covered Here Are Multi-Disciplinary As Well As Intertextual. The Reader, Teacher And Scholar Should Find The Book Full Of Fresh Insights.

'An indispensable companion for all interested in yoga, both scholars and practitioners' Professor Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson Despite yoga's huge global popularity, relatively little of its roots is known among practitioners. This compendium includes a wide range of texts from different schools of yoga, languages and eras: among others, key passages from the early Upanisads and the Mahabharata, and from the Tantric, Buddhist and Jaina traditions, with many pieces in scholarly translation for the first time. Covering yoga's varying definitions, its most important practices, such as posture, breath control, sensory withdrawal and meditation, as well as models of the esoteric and physical bodies, Roots of Yoga is a unique and essential source of knowledge. Translated and Edited with an Introduction by James Mallinson and Mark Singleton