The value of the Rig Veda as a guidebook to spiritual practice has been obscured due to the heavy veil of symbols used by the Rishis to hide their meaning from the uninitiated. "Vedic Symbolism" introduces the major vedic concepts and reveals their esoteric sense.

2019 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title This is the first book to examine the development of the figure of Māra, who appears across Buddhist traditions as a personification of death and desire. Portrayed as a combination of god and demon, Māra serves as a key antagonist to the Buddha, his followers, and Buddhist teaching in general. From ancient India to later Buddhist thought in East Asia to more recent representations in Western culture and media, Māra has been used to satirize Hindu divinities, taken the form of wrathful Tibetan gods, communicated psychoanalytic tropes, and appeared as a villain in episodes of Doctor Who. Michael D. Nichols details and surveys the historical transformations of the Māra figure and demonstrates how different Buddhist communities at different times have used this symbol to react to changing social and historical circumstances. Employing literary and cultural theory, Nichols argues that the representation of Māra closely parallels and reflects the social concerns and anxieties of the particular Buddhist community producing it.

This book builds an overarching view of the essential elements, themes, and teachings of the world's oldest surviving faith tradition Hinduism. Each theme is divided in easy to follow lessons. Highly philosophic content of Vedic chants is made simple enough for students as young as 5. For in-depth study, several appendices guide students into scholarly understanding of complex philosophic ideas such as the nature of reality, the nature of the mind, and the cosmic laws enshrined in the Vedic and post-Vedic texts. As a teacher with 20+ years of experience, the author presents ancient wisdom in simple language. Many books have been written about Hinduism, many of them incomplete and confusing. This book will appeal to those seeking an easy to read, logical approach to both understanding and teaching Hinduism. The book will be useful to parents, grandparents, teachers and students alike.

This project aims to conduct a comprehensive comparative analysis of a selection of prominent epic literary works from different cultures and time periods. By examining the themes, narratives, cultural contexts, and literary techniques used in these epics, this study seeks to highlight the universal and unique aspects of epic storytelling across different civilizations. The selected epics for analysis include Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey," Valmiki's "Ramayana," and Virgil's "The Aeneid." The project involves in-depth textual analysis, historical research, and critical interpretation to provide insights into the evolution and significance of epic literature.

"The Secret of The Veda" by Sri Aurobindo. This book is collection of Sri Aurobindo’s various writings on the Veda and his translations of some of the hymns, originally published in the monthly review 'Arya' between August 1914 and 1920. This book contains few scripts in Sanskrit language. If you are unable to read Sanskrit script don't worry all scripts are translated in English and with proper Sanskrit pronunciation in Roman character.

Sri Aurobindo breaks new ground in interpreting the ancient Vedas. His deeper insight into this came from his own spiritual practices for which he found vivid allegorical descriptions in the Vedas. Sri Aurobindo was able to uncover the mystery of the double meanings, the inner psychological and yogic significance and practices and the consistent, clear sense brought by this psychological view of the Vedic hymns. Finally, the true inner meaning of the Veda and its relevance to the seeking after self-realization and enlightenment is revealed.

This is the most comprehensive study yet made of tapas and of asceticism during the Vedic period. It also explains three other essential components of Vedic thought: sacrifice, homology, and knowledge. These concepts, along with tapas and initiation symbolism, reveal the heart of Vedic religion. therefore, this study presents a "history of Vedic religion," organized around the central building blocks of that tradition.

Sri Aurobindo was an Indian nationalist, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. This book is an enquiry into the integral philosophy of Aurobindo and its contemporary relevance. It offers a reading of Aurobindo’s key texts by bringing them into conversation with religious studies and the hermeneutical traditions. The central argument is that Aurobindo’s integral philosophy is best understood as a hermeneutical philosophy of religion. Such an understanding of Aurobindo’s philosophy, offering both substantive and methodological insights for the academic study of religion, subdivides into three interrelated aims. The first is to demonstrate that the power of the Aurobindonian vision lies in its self-conception as a traditionary-hermeneutical enquiry into religion; the second, to draw substantive insights from Aurobindo’s enquiry to envision a way beyond the impasse within the current religious-secular debate in the academic study of religion. Working out of the condition of secularism, the dominant secularists demand the abandonment of the category ‘religion’ and the dismantling of the academic discipline of religious studies. Aurobindo’s integral work on ‘religion’, arising out of the Vedānta tradition, critiques the condition of secularity that undergirds the religious-secular debate. Finally, informed by the hermeneutical tradition and building on the methodological insights from Aurobindo's integral method, the book explores a hermeneutical approach for the study of religion which is dialogical in nature. This book will be of interest to academics studying Religious Studies, Philosophy of Religion, Continental Hermeneutics, Modern India, Modern Hinduism as well as South Asian Studies.