Background
She was born in Salzburg on 12 April 1940 to Professor Eduard Baumer and Valerie Baumer and secured her High School Leaving Certificate (Matura) in Salzburg in 1959.
(Interreligious dialogue is one of the important ways for ...)
Interreligious dialogue is one of the important ways for overcoming cultural and religious differences and misunderstandings, and for contributing to world peace. But such a dialogue has to go beyond the social, institutional and purely academic areas: it has to reach the very depths of the spiritual, philosophical and theological insights of the religious traditions. In Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity such insights are expressed in the apparently opposite, but in reality complementary concepts of Void (shunya) and Fullness (purna, in Greek pleroma). These concepts lead to the respective spiritual experiences and their interpretations in scriptures and philosophies. This volume contains the papers presented at an interreligious seminar at Sarnath, Varanasi, organised by the Abhishiktananda Society, and inspired by the ideas and life of Swami Abhishiktananda (1910-1973). These papers throw light on these fundamental concepts from the different traditions, and are an invitation to dialogue. H.H. the Dalai Lama gave the concluding speech on the importance of interreligious dialogue.
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(Reprint of a classic on Tantric mysticism, focus on Kashm...)
Reprint of a classic on Tantric mysticism, focus on Kashmir and Saiva traditions. text trans. and incorporated
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8120804627/?tag=2022091-20
(The Silparatnakosa is a 17th century Orissan text compose...)
The Silparatnakosa is a 17th century Orissan text composed by Sthapaka Niranjana Mahapatra describing all the parts of the temple types of Orissa such as the Manjusri and Khakara. It also contains a section on sculpture on image-making (Pratimalaksana). This text though much later than the temples described reflects the still living tradition and it contributes much to clarify the terminology of Orissan temple architecture. The text has been edited from three palmleaf MSS and translated with numerous illustrations.
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(The Paratrishika Vivarana by the great Kashmiri philosoph...)
The Paratrishika Vivarana by the great Kashmiri philosopher and mystic Abhinavagupta is an extensive commentary on the Paratrishika Tantra, and it is one of the most profound texts, not only of non-dualist Kashmir Shaivism, but of Indian philosophy and mysticism in general. The present work attempts to make this difficult text accessible, by culling out the important themes and offering an interpretation. The main focus is on the understanding of the Absolute (Anuttara) and the ways to realize it. The central theme of mantra also leads to a mysticism of language with its philosophical implications. All these reflections and practices are inscribed in the theory that everything is related to the totality, every part contains the whole of reality (sarvam sarvatmakam). It is this holistic vision of Abhinavagupta, based on the Tantras, which makes this work so relevant in our times of fragmented aspects of life and knowledge in search of integration. No doubt, in the view of the Tantra and of Abhinavagupta, language and mantra provide the key. This fascinating book is an important contribution to studies and interpretations on Kashmir Shaivism, its spirituality and philosophy, and on Abhinavagupta in particular.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8124605726/?tag=2022091-20
She was born in Salzburg on 12 April 1940 to Professor Eduard Baumer and Valerie Baumer and secured her High School Leaving Certificate (Matura) in Salzburg in 1959.
Doctor of Philosophy, University Munich, Germany, 1967. Doctor of Letters, University Vienna, Austria, 1997. Doctor honoris causa (honorary), University Salzburg, 2002.
Vandana Parthasarathy, writing in The Hindu, described Baumer as a "renowned Indologist, one of the foremost expounders of Kashmir Saivism and a well-known figure in the field of inter-religious dialogue". She was awarded Austrian Decoration for Science and Art by Government of Austria in 2012 and Padma Shri by Government of India in 2015 for her contribution to Literature and Education. She pursued higher studies in Philosophy, Religion, Theology and Music at the Universities of Salzburg, Wien, Zurich, Rome and Munich between 1959 and 1967.
She was appointed a professor at the Institute for the Study of Religions, University of Vienna in 1997 and in 2002 gained a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Salzburg, the first to do so from the University"s Faculty of Theology.
She has done field work in Orissa. She worked in the University of Vienna (Indology) and as director of the Research of the Alice Bonner Foundation for Fundamental Research in Indian Art and has been a visiting Professor at University of Vienna, University of Salzburg and the University of Berne.
She has been honorary co-ordinator of the Kalatattvakosa programme, and editor of Kalatattvakosa: a Lexicon of Fundamental Concepts of the Indian Arts, respectively conducted and published by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. She has been a fellow at the Harvard University and at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
In 2009 she was director of Samvidalaya at the Abhinavagupta Research Library, Varanasi.
She was the co-chairperson of the fifteenth World Sanskrit Conference, held in New Delhi in 2012. lieutenant speaks about cosmic energies. The book provides extensive translations, commentary and in-depth interpretation of Abhinavgupta"s theories.
(The Paratrishika Vivarana by the great Kashmiri philosoph...)
(The Silparatnakosa is a 17th century Orissan text compose...)
(Interreligious dialogue is one of the important ways for ...)
(Reprint of a classic on Tantric mysticism, focus on Kashm...)
(Scholarly comparative study, essays by ten specialists. w...)
Member of Abhishikhananda Society (president 1988—2002), International Association Sanskrit Studies.