Acting on Faith: Women’s New Religious Activism in America (2005)

Acting on Faith: Women’s New Religious Activism in America is a documentary film that offers an intimate look at the lives and work of three American...

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Hinduism is the world’s third largest religious tradition. On the whole, Hindus recognize the oneness of the Divine, as well as the many gods and goddesses who give expression to the Supreme. When immigrants from South Asia first came to Greater Boston, they worshipped and celebrated festivals in homes and rented halls, but eventually saw the need for temples to institutionalize and preserve their religious and cultural heritage. Today, there are close to forty Hindu religious centers in Greater Boston, including the Sri Lakshmi Temple in Ashland, which serves as a major religious...

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Radha is the beloved consort of Lord Krishna, his favoirte among the milkmaids or gopis whom he loved and with whom he danced. Radha is seen by some Hindus as Krishna's lover, by others as his spouse.

The Mahabharata is the great epic of India, comprising some 18 sections. It tells the tale of the great battle between the Pandavas, understood to be sons of the gods, and the Kauravas, their cousins, who conspire to deprive the Pandavas of their kingdom. Within the epic of family rivalry and battle are included countless myths, legends, and teachings about Dharma, such as the Bhagavad Gita, which is told by the incarnate Krishna to the warrior Arjuna just as the battle is about to begin. The Mahabharata is a treasury of the culture and lore of Hindu India. Emerging over the centuries from... Read more about Mahabharata

Swami Chinmayananda (1916-1993) was a Vedanta teacher and disciple of the influential guru Swami Sivananda. He founded the Chinmaya Mission in India in 1953 and the Chinmaya Mission West in 1975 to teach the wisdom of the Vedanta tradition in the context of Western culture. Today there are some twenty-five Chinmaya Mission centers in the United States and Canada.

“Hindu” was originally a word given by the Greeks, then the Persians, to the land and peoples beyond the Indus or “Sindhu” River. The term “Hinduism” came into common use only in the 19th century to describe a complex and dynamic pattern of life and practice. The Hindu tradition is more an ethos than a set of beliefs. It includes three major streams of Hindu devotion—Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta—and a number of distinctive philosophical traditions. Despite great sectarian diversity, there are Hindu assumptions about life that do have common, although not universal, currency. the universe is... Read more about Hinduism

North Indian Bhakti began in about the 12th century with the Sanskrit poet Jayadeva, when a variety of poet-saints of northern India began to create a new devotional climate. This culminated in the 15th and 16th centuries with spirited devotional movements and vernacular poetry and song associated with Chaitanya, Kabir, Mira Bai, Vallabha, Tulsi Das, and Surdas.