| Publisher |
DK Print World Ltd |
| Publication Year |
2015 |
| ISBN-13 |
9788124608104 |
| ISBN-10 |
8124608105 |
| Binding |
Hardcover |
| Number of Pages |
259 Pages |
| Language |
(English) |
| Weight (grms) |
1000 |
This book comprises the first part of Saundarya Lahari (The Upsurging Billow of Beauty), popularly known as Ananda Lahari, covering the first forty-one verses.
This poetic work has fascinated generations of scholars and laypersons with the sublime beauty of the verses in praise of the Devi, but also puzzled people by the authorship of Shankara. The text is a protolinguistic composition using a pictorial language of images. Beauty, elevated to the highest level, provides content to the otherwise abstract notion of the Absolute. The absolute joy of Advaita is presented subjectively as ananda and objectively as saundarya.
This tenth-century hymn to the Devi is a poetic restatement by the philosopher Shankara of his strict Advaita Vedanta monism. In a compelling series of verses, Shankara draws in many strands of India’s heritage and braids them into a vision of luminous, transcendent Beauty.
The present commentary by Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati grew out of his class of intimate meditations. He has integrated the academic disciplines of aesthetics, linguistics, and psychology with contemplation into a comprehensive study of creative manifestation. The heterodox Tantric Shri Vidya schools are centered on the realistic worship of the Devi or Goddess and the Shri Chakra. Keeping in line with contemplation, the Appendix provides 53 meditations on the Shri Chakra.
Nitya Chaitanya Yati
After his matriculation, Guru Nitya left home as a wandering mendicant to familiarize himself with the land and people of his country of birth. He met great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and poets of high repute and sat at the feet of several spiritual masters, including Sufi fakirs, Jain munis, and Buddhist monks, and Hindu teachers such as Ramana Maharshi and Nityananda. In 1947 he joined the University College, Alwaye, Kerala to continue his academic studies. After specializing in philosophy and psychology, he taught these subjects in Indian universities. In 1951, he accepted Nataraja Guru - founder and head of the Narayana Gurukula - as his spiritual preceptor. In 1973 he followed him as head and Guru of the Gurukula, a world community of spiritual seekers. Between 1970 and 1980 he taught courses in psychology, philosophy, yoga, and aesthetics at universities in the US and other countries. He also was the chairperson of the East-West University of Unitive Sciences and the Commissioner for World Education. Guru Nitya published over 120 books in Malayalam and 80 books in English, as well as countless articles on philosophy, psychology, social ethics, and aesthetics. His writings combine rare insight and profound wisdom with an ability to communicate in terms readily understood by students everywhere.
Nitya Chaitanya Yati
DK Print World Ltd