The Sacred Waters ‘of’ Varanasi


Book Description

This book on urban water bodies, catchment areas and drainage pattern is set against the backdrop of the unprecedented heavy rainfall that severely deluged metropolitan cities and other parts of India in recent years. The recurring natural catastrophes in water-stressed cities of India and alarming rate of diminishing water bodies, wetlads and catchment areas needs a re-visit to an entire urban water-cycle. This book, thus, discusses how the processes and implementation of colonial urban development policies and projects have radically transformed the water bodies and their catchment areas – traditional water holding systems of Varanasi city. In this imperative colonial process, through the case study of Varanasi, the book mainly engages with the reasons behind the elimination of the temple tanks and ponds after the annexation of Varanasi by the British from 1775 till 1947. The book investigates the colonial notion of ‘dry city’, and how this notion crafted the process of separating land and water bodies, which arguably resulted in the reclamation and draining of water bodies, and also gave rise to water pollution. Additionally, the book analyzes the elimination of water bodies and loss of catchment areas through the ongoing processes of restoring the ancient city’s natural and cultural heritage. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)




India


Book Description

“[A] concisely yet informatively narrated and gorgeously colorful pictorial survey...” --Booklist Just 60 years after winning independence from British rule, India’s economy is booming and the nation is fast becoming a leading global power. With a population of a billion people, India’s society is as varied as its awe-inspiring landscape. Home to a dizzying array of languages, ethnic groups, beliefs, and lifestyles, India can seem overwhelming in its complexity. India takesthe lid off this cultural melting pot, showing how past events have shaped thisdiverse but unified nation, where tradition and modernity successfully coexist.Through stunning photography and insightful text, India offers an eye-opening, thought-provoking, and authoritative visual guide to one of the world’s most exciting and vibrant nations.




Indigenous People and the Christian Faith: A New Way Forward


Book Description

Indigenous People and the Christian Faith: A New Way Forward provides detailed historical, cultural and theological background and analysis to a very delicate and pressing subject facing many people around the world. The book is “glocal”: both local and global, as represented by international scholars. Every continent is represented by both Indigenous and non-indigenous people who desire to make a difference with the delicate problematics and relationships. The history of Indigenous people around the world is inextricably linked with Christianity and Colonialism. The book is completely interdisciplinary by employing historians, literary critics, biblical scholars and theologians, sociologists, philosophers and ordained engineers. The Literary Intent of the book, without presuming nor claiming too much for itself, is to provide practical thinking that will help all people move past the pain and dysfunction of the past, toward mutual understanding, communication, and practical actions in the present and future.




Believing Without Belonging?


Book Description

This study examines an indigenous phenomenon of the Hindu devotees of Jesus Christ and their response to the gospel through an empirical case study conducted in Varanasi, India. It analyzes their religious beliefs and social belonging and addresses the ensuing questions from a historical, theological, and missiological perspective. The data reveals that the respondents profess faith in Jesus Christ; however, most remain unbaptized and insist on their Hindu identity. Hence, a heuristic model for a contextualized baptism as Guru-diksha is proposed. The emergent church among Hindu devotees should be considered, from the perspective of world Christianity, as a disparate form of belonging while remaining within one's community of birth. The insistence on a visible church and a distinct community of Christ's followers is contested because the devotees should construct their contextual ecclesiology, since it is an indigenous discovery of the Christian faith. Thus, the "Christian" label for the adherents is dispensable while retaining their socio-ethnic Hindu identity. Christian mission should discontinue extraction and assimilation; instead, missional praxis should be within the given sociocultural structures, recognizing their idiosyncrasies as legitimate in God's eyes and in need of transformation, like any human culture.




Tarab


Book Description

From the Sudan to Northern New South Wales, Tarab is an epic, mesmerising tale of high adventure and the search for meaning. Carl Cleves escapes national service in Belgium to live in South Africa at the height of the apartheid era. So begin the adventures and quests, wanderings and narrow escapes, mishaps and illuminations of a guitar-toting troubadour in his roles as young beat poet, law student, single father, relief worker in India and recording star in Brazil. Cleves’s page turning memoir is no simple music biography, but rather the travel story of an artist’s quest for tarab: a place where music and poetry bestow true bliss upon the lucky one. It’s by turns philosophical, funny, adventurous and insightful. Fully revised and expanded, this new edition of Tarab is a must read for all lovers of travel literature.




The Body, Mind, Spirit Miscellany


Book Description

Spiritual adventurers will savor this book like a fine wine. It features a vast assortment of collected wisdom and mystical miscellany from hundreds of varied sources, all assembled here into a glorious anthology that will be dipped into and pored over again and again. Topics include religion, myth and symbolism, alternative health, the predictive arts, the occult, yoga and meditation, and much more. Readers will learn to understand the language of flowers, how to live in tune with lunar cycles, how to perform an Indian head massage, and what the ancient Romans actually did at their Saturnalia. You’ll even see how to make your own crop circles!




Lonely Planet's Wonders of the World


Book Description

Extraordinary? You bet. Elusive? Not quite. From Antarctica and the Amazon to Victoria Falls and the Great Wall of China, Lonely Planet reveals 101 spectacular sights and how to see them on any budget. Inspiring and practical, with expert advice on how and when to visit, where to stay and a range of itineraries, you'll discover how to visit the world's wonders in a way that suits you. This collection includes both natural and human-made sights across the world. We've selected locations that represent the best and most extraordinary 'places to be seen'. There are sights that most people have heard of: the Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat and the Great Wall of China. But also less famous sights that cannot fail to captivate: the entwined tree bridges of Meghalaya in India, the intricate Islamic architecture of Naqsh-e Jahan in Iran, and the massive Buddhist temple of Borobudur in central Java. We've added museums with remarkable collections of wonders too, such as the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. The planet's natural wonders are no less awesome: giant trees in California, cascading lakes in Croatia, multi-coloured hills in China, great waterfalls, and natural phenomena like the wave of cherry blossom that sweeps across Japan each spring, and the light show of the auroras across the planet's northern and southern extremities. The book also explains how you can visit each wonder, whatever your budget. We've compiled a guide to each one that recommends the best times to visit, how to get there, and where to stay and eat - however much you want to spend. About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.




Sacred Waters


Book Description

Describing sacred waters and their associated traditions in over thirty countries and across multiple time periods, this book identifies patterns in panhuman hydrolatry. Supplying life’s most basic daily need, freshwater sources were likely the earliest sacred sites, and the first protected and contested resource. Guarded by taboos, rites and supermundane forces, freshwater sources have also been considered thresholds to otherworlds. Often associated also with venerated stones, trees and healing flora, sacred water sources are sites of biocultural diversity. Addressing themes that will shape future water research, this volume examines cultural perceptions of water’s sacrality that can be employed to foster resilient human–environmental relationships in the growing water crises of the twenty-first century. The work combines perspectives from anthropology, archaeology, classics, folklore, geography, geology, history, literature and religious studies.




India Express


Book Description

In evocative prose and with street-level reporting, Daniel Lak argues that India has become a global superpower because of its religion, caste, politics, and poverty, and not in spite of it. He looks presciently to the future, and concludes that the strength that democracy gives it means that India is much better positioned to sustain its newfound status than China, whose political system is sure to eventually hinder it. As an expert who has covered the region for the BBC for the last twelve years, Lak weaves together his substantive knowledge of Indian politics, economics, and culture with fascinating stories of everyday people. India Express incisively explores the most urgent challenges facing India in the 21st century: · The governance and development of the most religiously, culturally, and linguistically diverse population on the planet · Crushing poverty--with 300 million on less $2 a day--despite the rise of the largest middle class the world has ever known · Uncertain geopolitics including the parallel rise of China and civil wars in neighboring states and the increasingly unstable, nuclear-armed Pakistan · Corruption at all levels of government while the business sector becomes ever more globalized and attuned to international standards · Growing urbanization: three of the world's top fifteen cities in terms of population are already Indian and they are growing faster than most others · Inequality between different Hindu castes, sexes, regions and newly minted haves and have-nots




Divine Inspirations


Book Description

Swami says, “When a mother is feeding her child, you can see her inducing the child to eat by means of harsh words, a smile, a joke, a threat, or a story, diverting its attention, showing the child a dog, a flower, or the moon. I have also to adopt the same tactics to make you listen and assimilate the valuable food that is so necessary for your growth. That is the reason why I relate stories, sing, recite poems, etc. in My discourses!” With this inspiration, Bhagawan’s teachings and related moral stories are compiled in the form of this book from His Divine Discourses, for better understanding of His teachings. This book should help us in getting inspired, to put His teachings into practice in our daily lives and grow spiritually better and better, with each day.