Joseph A. Fitzgerald - Böcker

Beautifully illustrated with over 100 colour and sepia photos and illustrations, the present book includes a concise and sensitive biography of Anandamayi Ma with important selections from her oral teachings.Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982) was one of the great Hindu saints of the 20th century. She was born in present-day Bangladesh. As a person of remarkable piety, sanctity and wisdom, she came to the notice of both simple people and famous figures of India. During her long life, Anandamayi Ma traveled a great deal and assisted in the building or establishment of numerous ashrams and places of worship. Although born into a family that worshiped Vishnu, she became a devotee of Shiva. Her beatific presence and words of wisdom won her many followers and spread her renown. Many of Anandamayi Ma's sayings were written down and recorded in books.Through her teachings and the example of her life, Anandamayi Ma has inspired millions of individuals of diverse faiths and circumstances - from Prime Ministers, artists and industrialists to shopkeepers, beggars and monks including Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Jawarharlal Nehru, former Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the Queen Mother of Greece and the former President of India, Ragendra Prasad. Without a doubt, Anandamayi Ma is one of the most beloved 20th century saints within her native India, and across the globe.

Marco Pallis (1895-1989) was a Renaissance man: a gifted musician, composer, mountaineer, translator of "perennialist" works and a widely respected author on Tibetan Buddhism. Pallis travelled extensively in the Himalayas, where at first he climbed mountains and, later, studied Buddhism from Lamas within the tradition. From 1936 onwards, he was a practising Buddhist with the Tibetan name of Thubden Tendzin. This book is a selection of his most important writings on Tibetan Buddhism, backed by his universalist approach to religious belief. Pallis focuses on the Tibetan tradition but situates it in the wider context of the perennial wisdom and the spiritual life which this entails. He provides the keen observations of a Westerner as he makes sense of spiritual practices, moral systems, modes of dress and other traditions that are often hard to understand unless described by an open and seeking soul. Pallis was just such an observer and the traditional world of Tibet that he encountered comes to life in much greater intelligibility for Western readers.

Often spoken at the end of a prayer, a well-known Sioux phrase affirms that we are all related." Similarly, the Sioux medicine man, Brave Buffalo, came to realize when he was still a boy that the maker of all was Wakan Tanka (the Great Spirit), and ...in order to honor him I must honor his works in nature." The interconnectedness of all things, and the respect all things are due, are among the most prominentand most welcomethemes in this collection of Indian voices on nature. Within the book are carefully authenticated quotations from men and women of nearly fifty North American tribes. The illustrations include historical photographs of American Indians, as well as a wide selection of contemporary photographs showing the diversity of the North American natural world. Together, these quotations and photographs beautifully present something of nature's timeless message.