The Yoga of Love

Krishna and the Rāsa Līlā from the Bhāgavata Purāna

Graham M. Schweig (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

320 Seiten

2025
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
9780197768433 (ISBN)

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The heart of this book is a dramatic love poem, the Rāsa Līlā, which is the ultimate focal point of one of the most treasured Sanskrit texts of India, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Judged a literary masterpiece by Indian and Western scholars alike, this work of poetic genius and soaring religious vision is one of the world's greatest sacred love stories and, as Graham M. Schweig demonstrates, should be regarded as India's Song of Songs. The story presents the supreme deity as the youthful and amorous cowherd, Krishna, who sends out a love call to his maidens, inviting them to an enchanting and celebratory dance of divine love.

In The Yoga of Love, Schweig translates the Rāsa Līlā and, through his commentaries, offers an exploration of its historical context, as well as an analysis of its aesthetic and emotional richness. He illuminates the religious and ethical nuances of the drama, drawing widely from the commentaries and esoteric vision of masters of the Chaitanya school of Vaishnavism, a prominent devotional Hindu tradition. Themes such as transcendence of death through love, the yoga of devotion, the contrast between worldly love and passionate love for God, and the dialectical tension between ethical boundaries and boundless love are presented. The final event of the Rāsa dance, the author concludes, presents a dynamic symbol of supreme love that provides the basis for a theological vision of genuine religious pluralism.

Graham M. Schweig is Professor of Religion at Christopher Newport University and Distinguished Teaching and Research Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He is the author of numerous publications and the translator of Bhagavad Gītā (2010) and Bhagavad Gītā Concordance (2024).

Preface
Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION
When Divinity Calls Our Souls to Dance

PART I
The Text and Its Context
1 India's Classic Sacred Love Story
2 Framing Passages of the Rasa Lila
3 The Poetry and Drama of Divine Love

The Principals of the Drama
4 Vraja: Pastoral Paradise
5 Yogamaya: Potency for Intimacy
6 Krishna: Lord of Love, Beauty, and Play
7 The Gopis: Beloveds of Krishna
8 The Special Gopi: Radha

PART II
Dance of Divine Love | The Rasa Lila
Act 1 Krishna Attracts the Gopis and Disappears
Act 2 The Gopis Search for Krishna
Act 3 The Song of the Gopis: The Gopi Gita
Act 4 Krishna Reappears and Speaks of Love
Act 5 Krishna and the Gopis Join in the Rasa Dance

Song of the Flute | The Venu Gita
Song of the Black Bee | The Bhramara Gita

Erscheinungsdatum	24.09.2024
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	142 x 207 mm
Gewicht	372 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Hinduismus
ISBN-13	9780197768433 / 9780197768433
Zustand	Neuware