The Yoga of Love

Krishna and the Rāsa Līlā From the Bhāgavata Purāna
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-0-19-776843-3
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 320 Seiten, Format (B × H): 142 mm x 207 mm, Gewicht: 372 g

The heart of this book is a dramatic love poem, the Rasa Lila, which is the ultimate focal point of one of the most treasured Sanskrit texts of India, the Bhagavata Purana. 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 Rasa Lila 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 Rasa dance, the author concludes, presents a dynamic symbol of supreme love that provides the basis for a theological vision of genuine religious pluralism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Schweig, Graham M.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 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

Über Autor(innen)

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 Gita (2010) and Bhagavad Gita Concordance (2024).