Homegrown Gurus : From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism / edited by Ann Gleig and Lola Williamson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Williamson, Lola, editor of compilation.

Gleig, Ann, editor of compilation.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gurus--United States.

Gurus.

Hinduism--United States.

Hinduism.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (248 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Today, a new stage in the development of Hinduism in America is taking shape. After a century of experimentation during which Americans welcomed Indian gurus who adjusted their teachings to accommodate the New World context, "American Hinduism" can now rightly be called its own tradition rather than an imported religion. Accordingly, this spiritual path is now headed by leaders born in North America. Homegrown Gurus explores this phenomenon in essays about these figures and their networks. A variety of teachers and movements are considered, including Ram Dass, Siddha Yoga, and Amrit Desai and Kripalu Yoga, among others. Two contradictory trends quickly become apparent: an increasing Westernization of Hindu practices and values alongside a renewed interest in traditional forms of Hinduism. These opposed sensibilities—innovation and preservation, radicalism and recovery—are characteristic of postmodernity and denote a new chapter in the American assimilation of Hinduism.

Contents:

Ram Dass : The Vicissitudes of Devotion and the Ferocity of Grace / F.X. Charet

Building Tantric Infrastructure in America : Rudi's Western Kashmir Shaivism / Helen Crovetto

Amrit Desai and the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health / Ellen Goldberg

Swamis, Scholars, and Gurus : Siddha Yoga's American Legacy / Lola Williamson

A Life in Progress : The Biographies of Sivaya Subramuniyaswami / Richard D. Mann

Guru Authority, Ethnicity, and the Decline of New Vrindaban / E. Burke Rochford, Jr. and Henry Doktorski

Neo-Avaita in America : Three Representative Teachers / Philip Charles Lucas

From Being to Becoming, Transcending to Transforming : Andrew Cohen and the Evolution of Enlightenment / Ann Gleig

On Reason, Religion, and the Real / Jeffrey J. Kripal.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781461951438

1461951437

9781438447933

1438447930

OCLC:

862746284