Shakti's New Voice (eBook)

Guru Devotion in a Woman-Led Spiritual Movement

Angela Rudert (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
256 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-1-4985-4755-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Shakti's New Voice is the first comprehensive study of Anandmurti Gurumaa, a widely popular contemporary female guru from north India known for offering spiritual teachings and music on satellite television and the Internet. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and religious-historical researchas well as unexpected and unprecedented outsider contact with the guruAngela Rudertoffers an intimate portrait of ';Gurumaa' that will be of interest to the guru's admirers as well as to scholars. To examine Gurumaa's innovation, Rudert turns to examples drawn from fieldwork research in the guru's ashram and from other locations in India and in the United States. These examples specifically discuss Gurumaa's religious pluralism, her gender activism, and her embrace of new media, in order to illuminate elements of continuity and change within the time-honored South Asian tradition of guru-bhakti, devotion to the guru. Raised in a Sikh family, educated in a Catholic convent school and understood to have attained her enlightenment in Vrindavan, the famous Hindu pilgrimage site of Lord Krishna's divine play, Gurumaa refuses identification with any particular religious tradition, or ';ism,' yet her teachings draw from many. She speaks strongly, often harshly, about contemporary issues of gender inequality, while calling for women's empowerment, and she has established a non-governmental organization called Shakti to promote girls' education in India. In the case of Anandmurti Gurumaa and those spiritual seekers in her fold, innovations and re-interpretations of tradition come from within the pluralistic setting of Indian religiosity, while they exist and act within a global religious milieu.

Autor

Angela Rudert is lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ithaca College.

Inhalt

Methods in a “Buddhafield:” Interchanges Between a Scholar and a SantWhat’s New about New Age Gurus? Gurus and Disciples: Situating Gurumaa in TraditionDeath at Darshan and Other Narratives of Guru-BhaktiA Sufi, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, TV GuruShakti, in Word, Activism and Hagiography: “Listen to My Voice!”New Media, Same Old Magic: “This is the Siddhi”Conclusion. Conversations with a “Twenty-First Century Mystic”

Rezensionen

Shakti's New Voice is a rich addition to studies on gurus, women’s leadership in religion, and the tension of continuity and change in religious traditions. Rudert nimbly situates the ‘modern’ and 'New Age’ eclecticism and cultural challenge of Gurumaa into broader historical patterns found in longstanding North Indian sant traditions while illuminating the innovations facilitated by twenty-first century technology. Creative, empathetic, and self-aware, Rudert’s book makes a worthy contribution to on-going scholarly analyses of ‘gurudom’ while also offering noteworthy and fascinating insights on method. Written with scholarly expertise along with a personal and approachable style, Shakti's New Voice should appeal both to professional academics and anyone intrigued by the magnetic pull of gurus and wisdom figures.

Angela Rudert’s fascinating book introduces the contemporary transnational female guru Anandmurti Gurumaa, ‘a fresh, fiercely independent, feminine manifestation of Master who is poet, sant and activist.’ Central to the study is the theme of conversation across multiple registers. The author’s special access to the guru enabled discussions that animate her ethnography and theorizing. Gurumaa’s emphasis on pluralism rejects labels in favor of listening to historical voices from a multiplicity of religions that are relevant to spirituality today. Through socially-informed activism, she empowers girls by her educational Shakti NGO, and by encouraging global communication through social media the guru engages her devotional community in discussion about her teachings. This fine study demonstrates that Gurumaa and gurus of today transform the received idea of the New Age to bring spirituality into potent contemporary dialogue with self and service.

Rudert’s remarkably rich and insightful ethnographic study of the contemporary Indian ‘revolutionary mystic’ Swamiji Anandmurti Gurumaa reveals how the call of the Divine Beloved is played out in the lives of disciples in a globalized and transnational context, whether through her songs, or through digital, electronic or face-to-face encounters. Framed as an interplay between tradition and innovation, the book is essential reading for understanding how Gurumaa’s pluralism and gender activism are embodied within Indic spirituality even as they reformulate traditional understandings of the boundaries between religious faiths and the role of women.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.10.2017
• Reihe/Serie: Explorations in Indic Traditions: Theological, Ethical, and Philosophical
• Zusatzinfo: 20 Illustrations including: - 20 Halftones, Black & White including Black & White Photographs.
• Verlagsort: Lanham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Hinduismus
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
• Schlagworte: Anandmurti Gurumaa • Bhakti • female gurus • Gender • guru devotion • Gurus • media and religion • New Religious Movements • north Indian sants • religion in india • Religious pluralism • Spirituality • Women and Religion
• ISBN-10: 1-4985-4755-9 / 1498547559
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4985-4755-0 / 9781498547550