Nostalgia for Eternity

- A unique treasure-trove for travelers, scholars and students of Indian religions, visually exciting and ethnographically insightful as well as poetic and reflective - The author has succeeded admirably in conveying the beauty, the brilliance, and the mystery of the sadhus and the monks, the fakirs, and the holy men and women of India in one aesthetic firework The culmination of five years' travel with Indian pilgrims, Nostalgia for Eternity takes the reader into the depths of millennia-old spiritual and mystic traditions. It is a stunning visual poem about the timeless human search for transcendence and ultimate truth. Translated literally from the Greek, 'nostalgia' means homesickness; spiritually, it is the universal longing for existential peace and completeness - for a final resolution of all life's conflicts and contradictions. 'The truth is one, ' taught India's ancient gurus, 'the sages call it by many names.' With breadth and insight unmatched by any other publication, Nostalgia for Eternity illustrates the worlds of pilgrims seeking that transcendent truth and illuminates the different paths that they travel. Through evocative, complex images we enter the secretive realm of Tantric worshippers of the Mother Goddess; and we walk with Sufi pilgrims across the deserts of Rajasthan. Meditative, richly layered photographs reveal the inner world of Bengali Bauls - mystics who worship the human being; and of Sidis - descendants of African saints whose religion merges African ancestor worship with Sufism. Richly annotated text reveals to the reader the deeper symbolic and mythological significance of the Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, and syncretic practices explored in the book. Contents: Foreword by Wendy Doniger; Introduction; The Pathless Path; Tantra; The Hero's Journey; Followers of the Real; Fakirs; Khalsa; Crossings; Sadhus; Men of Heart; Metamorphoses; The Eternal Return; Coincidentia Oppositorum; Children of Saints; Mysterium Tremendum; Acknowledgements; Notes; Bibliography; Index.