eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
Yasho of the Hill People complains about Ma Ganga flooding her village and Ma Ganga tells her that she will stop only when Shiva's matted hair is spread on her banks. Yasho and her people realize they must plant trees on the barren hillsides to make Ma Ganga happy again. Includes information about Ganga in Hindu mythology and soil erosion in the Ganges River watershed.
‘The Ganges: Cultural, Economic, and Environmental Importance’ is a geographical, cultural, economic, and environmental interpretation of the Ganga River. The Ganga River originates from Gaumukh- situated in the high Himalaya, flows through the world’s biggest fertile alluvial plain, and inlets into the Bay of Bengal at Ganga Sagar. It makes a unique natural and cultural landscape and is believed to be the holiest river of India. The Hindus called it ‘Mother Ganga’ and worship it. The towns/cities, situated on its bank, are world-famous and are known as the highland and valley pilgrimages. The water of the Ganga is pious, and the Hindus use it on different occasions while performing the rituals and customs. This book is unique because no previous study which presents a complete and comprehensive geographical description of the Ganga has been composed. This book presents the historical and cultural significance of the Ganga and its tributaries. Empirical, archival, and observation methods were applied to conduct this study. There are a total of 10 chapters in this book such as ‘Introduction’, ‘the Ganga Basin’, ‘Geography of the Ganga Basin’, ‘the Ganges System: Ganga and its Tributaries’, ‘Ganga between Gaumukh and Uttarkashi’, ‘the Major Cultural Towns’, ‘Major Fairs and Festivals’, ‘Economic Significance of the Ganga’, ‘Environmental Issues’, and ‘Conclusions’. The contents of the book are enriched by 89 figures, 15 tables, and substantial citations and references.
What Happens When Those Things that are Supposed to Comfort You—Don’t? When Shakuntala Rajagopal lost her husband of forty-seven years in 2010, she was devastated. A devout Hindu, she followed what she had learned since birth. Her family celebrated their beloved father, uncle, and mentor through the many rituals sending him off to his new life. Shakuntala even travelled to India to lovingly give her husband’s ashes to the oceans off the southern coast of India. As her husband’s last ashes floated away, Shaku felt her will to go on float away with him. At the age of seventy, she decided that she needed to revisit her own devout spirituality and take one of the more grueling but one of the most spiritual of all pilgrimages in India—the Char Dham—where she could bathe in the sacred waters of the River Ganges, Maa Ganga. She knew it would be her chance for a rebirth, a new beginning. But she almost doesn’t make it. Song of the Mountains: My Pilgrimage to Maa Ganga is a story of survival, changing and challenging any reader in the way he or she approaches major changes in life. Rajagopal’s story is one that will empower the reader to take action and go forward in their own life, whatever the circumstance they are facing.
This book is concerned with the argument that religious traditions are inherently environmentally friendly. Yet in a developing country such as India, the majority of people cannot afford to put the 'Earth first' regardless of the extent to which this idea can be supported by their religious traditions. Does this mean that the linking of religion and environmental concerns is a strategy more suited to contexts where people have a level of material security that enables them to think and act like environmentalists? This question is approached through a series of case studies from Britain and India. The book concludes that there is a tension between the 'romantic' ecological discourse common among many western activists and scholars, and a more pragmatic approach, which is often found in India. The adoption of environmental causes by the Hindu Right in India makes it difficult to distinguish genuine concern for the environment from the broader politics surrounding the idea of a Hindu rashtra (nation). This raises a further level of analysis, which has not been provided in other studies.
The Ganges is India’s holiest river. But to millions of devoted Hindus, it is much more than just a river. It is also a goddess and a benevolent mother—Ganga Ma or Great Mother. To her devotees, bathing in “Mother Ganga” washes away all sin, drinking her waters heals all illness, and dying on her banks ensures deliverance from the cycle of death and rebirth. Or so they believe. Ganga Ma begins at the Gangotri Glacier in the Himalayas. Her waters plunge spectacularly out of the lofty mountains, meander lazily across India’s broad Gangetic Plain into Bangladesh, and finally spread out fan–like with a thousand watery fingers to empty into the Bay of Bengal. For more than 1,500 miles, the watery personification of the goddess Ganga sustains life in one of the world’s most densely populated regions, and charts a spiritual course to eternal contentment for most of India’s Hindu masses.
Many persons have written the Mantras, Stotras, Stuti, Chalisa and Aarti in English but this is the first time that they have been written in English rhyme. The Author, Munindra Misra has covered the most popular Hindu Gods and Goddesses and thus made it easier for people to comprehend the meaning and also appreciate the same in rhyme. The Deities covered are Lord Ganesh, Lord Shiv, Lord Vishnu, Lord Krishna, Lord Ram, Lord Hanuman, Lord Shani, Ma Gayatri, Ma Durga, Ma Laxmi, Ma Mahakali, Ma Saraswati, Ma Ganga and Ma Santoshi and others. A general understanding of each deity has also been written by the author in English rhyme as a primer to each Deity.
A Journey of Healing and Transformation An enlightening memoir of a reluctant spiritual seeker who finds much more than she bargained for when she travels to India. Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, from Hollywood, California, had a privileged upbringing that hid some dark secrets. She grappled with an eating disorder and trauma from her early childhood for years. But, as a Stanford grad getting her PhD in Psychology, she felt she was successfully navigating adulthood. After getting married, when she agreed to travel to India to appease her husband, little did Sadhviji know a journey of healing and awakening awaited her. She had everything the material world could offer. Soon, she would give it all up to follow the divine path. Hollywood to the Himalayas describes Sadhviji’s odyssey towards divine enlightenment and inspiration through her extraordinary connection with her guru and renewed confidence in the pleasure and joy that life can bring. Now one of the preeminent female spiritual teachers in the world, Sadhviji recounts her journey with wit, honesty, and clarity. Along the way, she offers teachings to help us all step onto our own path of awakening and discover the truth of who we really are—embodiments of the Divine. Americanborn Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, PhD, moved to India in 1996. A graduate of Stanford University, she was ordained by Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati, president of one of the largest interfaith institutions in India, into the tradition of sanyas and lives at the Parmarth Niketan ashram in Rishikesh, where she leads a variety of humanitarian projects, teaches meditation, gives spiritual discourses, and counsels individuals and families. Americanborn Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, PhD, moved to India in 1996. A graduate of Stanford University, she was ordained by Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati, president of one of the largest interfaith institutions in India, into the tradition of sanyas and lives at the Parmarth Niketan ashram in Rishikesh, where she leads a variety of humanitarian projects, teaches meditation, gives spiritual discourses, and counsels individuals and families.
"River Dialogues is an ethnographic engagement with social movements contesting hydroelectric development on River Ganges"--Provided by publisher.
