Woman and Goddess in Hinduism: Reinterpretations and Re-envisionings

Review

 "The role of the female within the Hindu tradition is both varied and vigorous, as the multiple contributors to this text reveal. They bring together scholarship and sensitivity in conveying unique dimensions and valuable perceptions of that role. This book is an important read for anyone seeking to comprehend female spirituality and divinity in the Hindu context." --Ramdas Lamb, Associate Professor of Religion, University of Hawaii at Manoa

 

"The essays in this outstanding volume successfully avoid the common pitfalls of, on the one hand, objectifying and exoticizing the various Hindu categories and concepts with which they engage, and on the other, of deploying these same categories and concepts in a simplistic and uncritical manner. The hermeneutics of intersubjectivity that the authors skillfully apply to their materials should be a model for future work in the field of Hindu studies." --Jeffery D. Long, Associate Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Elizabethtown College, and author of A Vision for Hinduism: Beyond Hindu Nationalism and Jainism: An Introduction

 

"This book skillfully addresses all things feminine in Indian traditions: goddesses, female gurus, the lives of Hindu women, and more. Includes many excellent new translations of key passages from Sanskrit litereature." --Christopher Key Chapple, Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology, Loyola Marymount University

Product Description

Offering multilayered explorations of Hindu understandings of the Feminine, both human and divine, this book emphasizes theological and activist methods and aims over historical, anthropological, and literary ones. The contributors approach the Feminine in Hindu traditions from the standpoint of intersubjective construction via a method that can be termed dialexis. Here, dialexis refers to a form of intellectual engagement “across styles” that takes as its starting point an adequate accounting of contextualized signification. The diverse ways that cultures articulate themselves are rooted in lexical choices made in historical, geographical, and cultural contexts. 

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Kali: The Black Goddess of Dakshineswar

This is an inspiring book for all lovers of our Great Mother, and gives us understanding of one of her most Archetypal, and complex forms. The author, Elizabeth Harding, has a true insight (rare in a western mind) into the profound nature of Ma Kali, and a real understanding of her worship, as practised in India today. She marvelously expounds the intricacies of the outward rituals, and illuminates the inner philosophy of this loving Goddess, our mother, from whom all things proceed, and to whom all things eventually return. Her essay on the great saint Sri Ramakrishna is most inspiring. Her descriptions of the Temple make it spring to life in the mind of the reader. As you read her vivid rendering of the great Holy days of the Goddess, you are transported there, and can almost hear the chants, and smell the incense. Her understanding of the mysteries of this Goddess is most profound. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in Goddess worship. It is also great source material from a religious, theological, anthropological or sociological standpoint. It is greatly empowering! After you read this, you'll want to go on pilgramige to the Temple.

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