Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums and Yoginis: Holy Women as Influencers in Hindu Culture

sun rise · Saturday at 4:03 PM

I saw a reference to this just published work today and found the topic interesting. It's a collection of reprints but one that is new to me.

The table of contents:

Introduction: Gurus, Priestesses, Saints, Mediums and Yoginis: Holy Women as Influencers in Hindu Culture
Mirra Alfassa: Completing Sri Aurobindo’s Vision
Goddess, Guru, and Sanghajanani: The Authority and Ongoing Appeal of the Holy Mother Sarada Devi
Arunjana Das The Mahima¯ of A¯ jali A¯ i and the Persecuted Ma¯ya¯ma¯ra¯ S´atra: Guru-Ma¯ as Holy Patroness and
Divine Mother
Sukanya Sarbadhikary and Dishani Roy Gender, Education and Citizenship as Ideological Weapons of an ‘Army of Holy Women’ in
Bengal: The Matua Matri Sena
Koushiki Dasgupta Between the Boundaries of Asceticism and Activism: Understanding the Authority of the Sadhvis within the Hindu Right in India
Karen Pechilis Revisiting the Experiential World of Women’s Bhakti Poetry
The Spiritual Prodigy, the Reluctant Guru, and the Saint: Mirabai and Collaborative Leadership at Hari Krishna Mandir
June McDaniel
Shakti in Village India: Priestesses, Sadhikas, Bhar Ladies, Ayes, Bhaktas, Witches, and BongaGirls
Antoinette E. DeNapoli “Everyone Drinks from the Same Well”: Charismatic Female Gurus as “Religious Feminist Influencers” in South Asian Hinduism
Sundari Johansen Hurwitt Good Queen, Bad Queen: Gender, Devotion, and Mythmaking in Women’s Histories
Claire Robison Urban Devis: Fashioning Lay Women’s Holiness in Krishna Bhakti Networks

sun rise · Saturday at 4:06 PM

I am most familiar with Mirra Alfassa's works. One thing she indicated really spoke to me:

We are in a very special situation, extremely special, without precedent. We are now witnessing the birth of a new world;

it is very young, very weak -- not in its essence but in its outer manifestation -- not yet recognised, not even felt,

denied by the majority. But it is here. It is here, making an effort to grow, absolutely *sure* of the result. But the

road to it is a completely new road which has never before been traced out -- nobody has gone there, nobody has done tha

t! It is a beginning, a *universal beginning*. So it is an absolutely unexpected and unpredictable adventure.

There are people who love adventure. It is these I call, and I tell them this: "I invite you to the great adventure."

It is not a question of repeating spiritually what others have done before us, for our adventure begins beyond that. It

is a question of a new creation, entirely new, with all the unforeseen events, the risks, the hazards it entails -- a *real adventure*,

whose goal is certain victory, but the road to which is unknown and must be traced out step by step in the unexplored. Something

that has never been in this present universe and that will *never* be again in the same way. If that interests you... well, let us embark.

What will happen to you tomorrow -- I have no idea.

One must put aside all that has been foreseen, all that has been devised, all that has been constructed, and then set of

walking into the unknown. And -- come what may! There.