Buying pre-order items
Ebooks and Audiobook
You will receive an email with a download link for the ebook or audiobook on the publication date.
Payment
You will not be charged for pre-ordered books until they are available to be shipped. Pre-ordered ebooks will not be charged for until they are available for download.
Amending or cancelling your order
For orders that have not been shipped you can usually make changes to pre-orders up to 72 hours before the publishing date.
Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available
Description
An exploration of the nature of joy and delight through the lens of classical Indian philosophy.
In this study, Stephen Phillips conveys the experiential and philosophical richness of the concept of ananda. Often translated as “joy,” “bliss,” or “delight,” it occupies a central place in the early Upanisads (c. 800–400 BCE). While no single English word fully captures its meaning, Phillips explains why ananda has been appropriated by philosophies around the world.
Phillips focuses on the earliest formulations in the Upanisads, where it is closely linked to meditation. He addresses differing interpretations, from the possibility of entering a state of profound delight by setting aside desires to ananda as intrinsic to the self (atman), revealed rather than produced in meditation.
Drawing on teachings of influential figures such as Shankara and Abhinavagupta, together with modern Indian thinkers like Tagore and Aurobindo, Phillips engages with prominent Indologists and contemporary scholars. He discusses philosophers including Descartes, Hume, and Rawls alongside Milton and Kipling.
Phillips shows how ananda has become a cornerstone of spiritual inquiry and practice across Indian traditions, including Vedantic, yogic, tantric, later Buddhist, and Jain contexts. His inclusive and comprehensive approach highlights the universality of reflections on joy, consciousness, and human experience.
Accessibility Information
Additional accessibility information
- EPUB 3.0
- Conforms with the requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec v1.1
- WCAG level AA
- WCAG v2.2 compliant
- accessibility@bloomsbury.com
Hazards
The publication contains no hazards
Support for non-visual reading
- No accessibility features offered by the reading system, device or reading software are disabled or otherwise unusable with the product
- Has alternative text descriptions for images
Visual adjustments
Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and size, spaces, as well as color of background and text)
Navigation
- Page list to go to pages from the print source version
- Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
- All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order
- Content is enhanced with ARIA roles to optimize organization and facilitate navigation
- Purposes of all links are made clear
Rich content
Language tagging provided
Table of Contents
Introduction: If Brahman Is ananda, How Is Pain Possible?
Part I Advaita Philosophy of Beauty
1. Sources for a Philosophy of Brahman and Beauty
2. Early Upani?ads: The Ineffable Absolute as “Being-Consciousness-Bliss”
3. Tantric Advaita: Brahman as “Consciousness-Force”
4. Advaita Ethics and Theory of the Person
5. Rational Theology in Classical Advaita and Nyaya
6. The “Lord” as Standard-Setter according to the Bhagavad Gita
7. The Aesthetic Literature: rasa, “Aesthetic Relishing”
8. Advaita Philosophy of Beauty
Part II. Upanisadic Passages about ananda
Holistic Pleasure according to the Chandogya Upaniad
The Psychology of Delight according to the Bhadarayaka Upanisad
The “Honey” of Self
A Single Seer “Without Duality,” advaita
Degrees of Delight
Likeness to Self
The Bliss of Brahman according to the Taittiriya Upanisad
The “Sheath” Theory of the Person
The Excellence of Creation and Its “Essence”
Bliss after Death
Yoga (tapas, “heat”) Leads to Bliss
The Bliss of Deep Sleep according to the Manukya Upanisad
Self-discovery according to the Katha Upanisad
Indescribable “Happiness” (sukha) according to the Katha Upanisad
Occult, Self-Luminous Brahman according to the Mundaka Upanisad
The Way to Brahman
The End of Ills (asubha) according to the Bhagavad Gita
Meditation Leading to the Touch of Brahman
From the Saundarya-lahari, “The Flood of Beauty”
Conclusion: The Teleology of Perfectionism
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | 15 Apr 2027 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 208 |
| ISBN | 9781350671751 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Related Titles
