[Reader-list] new book on sanjhi virasat

[Lehar ..]

Penguin has released this much awaited book by
Yoginder Sikand, who is a member of Sanjhi VIrasat.
 the author can be contacted on:
ysikand at hotmail..com
or 
http://www.islaminterfaith.org/publications.html
----


http://www.vedamsbooks.com/no30294.htm

Sacred Spaces : Exploring Traditions of Shared Faith
in India/Yoginder Sikand. New Delhi, Penguin, 2003, x,
273 p., $13(pbk)

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. The God of the mountain.
3. The star of the seas, our lady of health of
Vailankanni. 4. Sri Guru Dattatreya Baba Budhan
Dargah. 5. The Sufi-Sadhus of Northern Karnataka. 6.
The Deendar Channabasaveswara of Asif Nagar. 7. The
Sai Baba of Shirdi. 8. The Imam Mahdi and the Buddh
Avatar of Panna. 9. Goga, the ‘Pir of Poison’. 10.
Sarmad Shahid, the ‘Martyr for Love’. 11. The Baba of
Bhatinda. 12. The Sufis of Jammu. 13. Nund Rishi, the
‘Flag-Bearer of Kashmir’. Conclusion: and the journey
must continue. References.

"The politics of communal hatred in recent times has
brought under attack the heterodoxy of our religious
life. This book explores popular religious cults from
various parts of the country that defy the logic of
communities as neatly separated from and necessarily
opposed to each other. Travelling from Kerala to
war-torn Kashmir, and from Punjab to Madhya Pradesh,
through twenty-five places of popular
pilgrimage—dargahs, temples and shrines—Yoginder
Sikand finds followers from different communities
flocking together in common worship.

"At Hazrat Nund Rishi at Charar-e-Sharif, or the Wavar
shrine at the Ayyappa pilgrimage of Sabarimala, at the
temple of Goddess Elamma of Sauditti, or the Dargah of
Sarmad of Delhi, Sikand meets saints, keepers and
devotees to discover how traditions associated with
these places have historically challenged religious as
well as secular elites, and offered their adherents a
powerful and deeply humanist vision of the sacred,
freed from the narrow boundaries of caste and creed.
But it is also noteworthy that some of these shrines,
such as the Swami Dattatreya Budhan Baba in Karnataka,
have been transformed over time and become sites of
communal contestation.

"Weaving together legend, history, ethnography and
reminiscences with critical insights, Sacred Spaces
affords us a rare glimpse of religious traditions
outside the mainstream. This rich legacy could well be
invaluable in promoting alternate ways of
understanding religion and the notion of community
identity, a need that has never been more urgent than
it is today." 



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-
Religions are all limited because they concentrate on
only one aspect of the Truth. That's why they are
always fighting amongst each other. There is no end to
the Truth, so you cannot confine it to one scripture.
When asked what religion I follow, 'I don't believe in
sampradaya-sect. I believe in Sampradaha-
incineration.' Burn down everything which gets in way
of the Truth.
- Aghori Vimalananda; At the Left Hand of God

Organised religion is the prop of a man who has not
found his Self/ God within.
- Shaheed Bhagat Singh




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