The Epics and the Bhagavad Gita
A Student's Guide to the History and Philosophy of Yoga - Revised edition - Peter Connolly
Peter Connolly [+ ]
The Open University
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Peter Connolly (PhD) was, for many years, senior lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Chichester, England, where he taught courses on Ethics, Indian Religion and Psychology of Religion. He has also worked as an associate lecturer in both Psychology and Religious Studies with the Open University and has delivered many courses on the history and philosophy of yoga for a number of yoga training institutions. He is fascinated by all forms of altered states of consciousness, has trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and hypnosis, and experimented with psychedelic chemicals and a variety of meditation techniques, including Divine Light, Lam Rim, Sant Mat, Transcendental Meditation and Buddhist Vipassana, all of which offer interesting perspectives on the psychology of religious experience.
Description
The Mahābhārata and Rāmāyana are two great epic poems, India's equivalent of the Iliad and the Odyssey, though much longer. The former took shape over a period of about 800 years, from approximately 400 BCE to 400 CE, whilst the latter was compiled in the period between 200 BCE and 200 CE.