Mysteries of the Sacred Universe: The Cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana 9780963530936

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Mysteries of the Sacred Universe: The Cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana
 9780963530936

  • Commentary
  • Hinduism/Vedic Cosmology
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The Cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana



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“Mysteries of the Sacred Universe is a very original book, and it represents an important advance in theunderstanding of the cosmology described in the famed Bhdgavata Purdna of India. Thompson looks at this cosmology from several points of view and he presents a compelling case showing that this cosmology was intended to have multiple meanings that span the terrestrial, the astronomical, and the spiritual planes.” —Professor Subash Kak, Louisiana State University “Thompson takes us back in time when man regarded himself an integral part of the cosmos and shows us how, in a strange way, such a system as the Bhagavatam cosmology bears an uncanny harmony with modern astronomy. More important and interesting is the way Thompson shows how the Bhagavatam literature presents visual astronomy in geographical and mythological settings which, in this respect, is very reminiscent of the Pyramid Texts of ancient Egypt and many mythico-religious cosmologies of other ancient cultures of the world... . Gripping, scholarly and ground¬ breaking, Mysteries of the Sacred Universe deserves to be widely read and discussed.” —Robert G. Bauval, author of The Orion Mystery and coauthor of The Message of the Sphinx “Dr. Thompson has a talent that may well be unique in our times: the ability to take complex, esoteric ideas that require high level mathematics, special¬ ized technical expertise, and a familiarity with scholarship that spans the history of civilized humanity, and presenting them to the lay reader in a narrative style that is as user-friendly as a novel, but packed with sound reasoning, solid scholarship, and impressive empirical research.” —Professor William W. Wall, Santa Fe Community College, Florida “Mr. Thompson’s premise is that the system of the Bhagavatam includes some modern understandings of the science of astronomy, not just mythol¬ ogy. ... If the reader can judge what is science and what is not science, putting aside the non-science aspects of the cosmology, it seems clear that there are indeed a number of references to known scientific aspects of the sky in the Bhagavatam. ” —Jeanne E. Bishop, Planetarium Director, Westlake, Ohio “A revolution in our understanding of the cosmology of the Purdnas is in the making here. This book offers a way of reading ancient Indian texts that is profoundly interesting, that overturns a long history of scholarly undervaluation of the supposedly konly mythological' contents of Puranic literature.” Professor Gene R. Thursby, University of Florida ■

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