What if the world you experience is not reality itself, but a constructed interface?In GENERATED, Robert Srinivas explores the unsettling possibility that perception does not reveal the universe as it truly is. Instead, it renders a simplified, usable version of reality, one shaped by evolution, constrained by biology, and optimized for survival rather than truth.Drawing on neuroscience, physics, evolutionar...

Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint focuses on the presence and contemporaneity of Shirdi Sai Baba (d.1918), who has a vast following in postcolonial South Asia and an ever-growing global diaspora. Essays consider the saint’s influence on everyday life and how visual, narrative, textual, sensorial, performative, political, social, and spatial practices interpenetrate to produce multiple terrains of devotion.Contributions by twelve scholars of several academic disciplines explore er...

Hinduism is practised by nearly eighty per cent of India's population, and by some seventy million people outside India. In this Very Short Introduction, Kim Knott offers a succinct and authoritative overview of this major religion, and analyses the challenges facing it in the twenty-first century. She discusses key preoccupations of Hinduism such as the centrality of the Veda as religious texts, the role of Brahmins, gurus, and storytellers in the transmission of divine truths, a...

This book will help you to appreciate one of the historic religions of the Indian subcontinent, to understand what it means to be a Sikh, especially the guru—disciple relationship, to recognize the key festivals of the Sikh year and the different aspects of Sikh worship and practice, and to avoid faux pas in conversation, in travelling, and in personal relationships.Access the world's religions with Simple Guides: Religions a series of concise, accessible introducti...

A radical new explanation of how life and consciousness emerge from physics and chemistry.As physicists work toward completing a theory of the universe and biologists unravel the molecular complexity of life, a glaring incompleteness in this scientific vision becomes apparent. The "Theory of Everything" that appears to be emerging includes everything but us: the feelings, meanings, consciousness, and purposes that make us (and many of our animal cousins) what we are. These most imm...

A fresh introduction to an ancient religionExplaining the origins, beliefs, scriptures and philosophies of this ancient religion, Klaus K. Klostermaier succeeds in capturing the rich diversity of rituals and gods that comprise Hinduism, while keeping the tone both engaging and informative. Covering contemporary issues such as the relationship between Hinduism and modern Western ideas, and imminent challenges the religion faces, this sweeping exploration of a fascin...

Why is the future so different from the past? Why does the past affect the future and not the other way around? What does quantum mechanics really tell us about the world? In this important and accessible book Huw Price throws fascinating new light on some of the great mysteries of modern physics and connects them in a wholly original way. Price begins with the mystery of the arrow of time. Why for example does disorder always increase as required by the second law of thermodynamics? Price...

The Sikh religion has a following of over 20 million people worldwide and is one of the largest religions in the world. However, events such as the verbal and physical attacks on Sikhs just after September 11 indicated that Sikhs were being mistaken for Muslims, and suggests that the raising of sufficient and appropriate awareness about Sikhism still needs to be addressed. This book will introduce newcomers to the meaning of Sikhism, and its practices, rituals, and festivals. The key threa...

In this unique book, the reader is invited to experience the joy of appreciating something which has eluded understanding for many years — entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The book has a two-pronged message: first, that the second law is not infinitely incomprehensible as commonly stated in most textbooks on thermodynamics, but can, in fact, be comprehended through sheer common sense; and second, that entropy is not a mysterious quantity that has resisted understanding but a s...

The rise, fall, and modern resurgence of an enigmatic book revered by yoga enthusiasts around the worldConsisting of fewer than two hundred verses written in an obscure if not impenetrable language and style, Patanjali's Yoga Sutra is today extolled by the yoga establishment as a perennial classic and guide to yoga practice. As David Gordon White demonstrates in this groundbreaking study, both of these assumptions are incorrect. Virtually forgotten in Indi...

"The Whole Truth" consists of a series of discussions of a wide variety of scientific and philosophic concepts.Although it is based on scientific fact, it is not a text, and is not written for the academic audience; instead it is speculative in nature and discusses alternate views of a number of philosophic and scientific topics.Among these topics are reality, time, our universe and its constituents (including space, energy and the big bang), and life.It addresses a...

Hinduism is practised by eighty per cent of India's population, and by thirty million people outside India. In this Very Short Introduction, Kim Knott combines a succinct and authoritative overview of a major religion with an analysis of the challenges facing it in the twentieth century. She discusses key preoccupations of Hinduism such as the centrality of the Veda as religious texts, the role of brahmins, gurus, and storytellers in the transmission of divine truths, and the importance of...