Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism

Contents

Contents List of Figures ix Editors’ Note xi Introduction From Wave to Soil 1   Ann Gleig and Lola Williamson Chapter 1 Ram Dass: The Vicissitudes of Devotion and Ferocity of Grace 15   F. X. Charet Chapter Two Building Tantric Infrastructure in America: Rudi’s Western Kashmir Shaivism 41   Helen Crovetto Chapter Three Amrit Desai and the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health 63   Ellen Goldberg Chapter Four Swamis, Scholars, and Gurus: Siddha Yoga’s American Legacy 87   Lola Williamson Chapter Five A Life in Progress: The Biographies of Sivaya Subramuniyaswami 115   Richard D. Mann Chapter Six Guru Authority, Religious Innovation, and the Decline of New Vrindaban 141   E. Burke Rochford Jr. and Henry Doktorski viii / Contents Chapter Seven Neo‑Advaita in America: Three Representative Teachers 163   Philip Charles Lucas Chapter Eight From Being to Becoming, Transcending to Transforming: Andrew Cohen and the Evolution of Enlightenment 189   Ann Gleig Conclusion On Reason, Religion, and the Real 215   Jeffrey J. Kripal Contributors 225 Index 229 ...