<p>The P thiv S kta of the Atharva Veda describes the beauty of the earth as poetic, mystical, and very real. Its hymns give praise to medicinal plants, to inter-human relationships, and to Mother Earth. When meditating upon this text, and the striking photographs from around the world that accompany each verse, we witness the Hindu tradition of reverence for nature and all forms of life. This book represents a powerful tradition that needs to be remembered, nurtured, and activated in our contemporary context. The book beautifully combines a new interpretation of the environmentally themed Sanskrit Veda by the celebrated scholars, O.P. Dwivedi and Christopher Key Chapple with stunning photographs by Robert Radin, Todd Mansoor and Shailendra Dwivedi that highlight the environmental message. The Earth Veda articulates the Indian reverence for nature and all forms of life, a tradition that needs to be cultivated in our contemporary context. In this new translation, the authors carefully selected photographs from around the globe to enhance each verse of their translation. The earth is in trouble. The scientific community agrees that Earth s ecosystems can no longer support the modern, industrial lifestyle and concerned citizens seek an alternative. In Praise of Mother Earth offers the solution in the ancient wisdom of the Earth Verses that implore the reader to live in harmony with Mother Earth. The book holds the ethical position that material prosperity is not an end in itself. The text inspires both global stewardship and an appreciation of our natural inter-relatedness to each other through the sacredness of the Earth. This coffee table book is an ideal gift to anyone. Each page includes the original Sanskrit text along with the translation. The photographs and the simple layout make the book easy to read while the profundity of the translation makes it an important text for any library.</p>

In Praise of Mother Earth: The Prthivi Sukta of the Atharva Veda

O.P. Dwivedi

Christopher Key Chapple

Marymount Institute Press, a Tsehai Publishing imprint

This collection can be read as an eclectic response to what it means to possess Shakespeare. It contains essays, poems, autobiographical reflections, and a musical composition. Some of the pieces were written specifically for this volume and directly address elements or ideas found in Shakespeare s plays; others make no direct mention of his work or influence, and in fact were originally written and published for very different reasons. Nonetheless, what these pieces have in common is that they were written in possession of Shakespeare. The contributors, by the very nature of who they are and what they have written and done, own, are owned by, and owe some debt to Shakespeare. The Catholic Worker Jeff Dietrich has fed the homeless and poor on Los Angeles Skid Row for more than forty years and written about his experiences doing so. He has stood on the heath with them, as the title of his essay suggests. The essayist, cultural critic, and poet Lewis Hyde has spent a lifetime thinking about what it means to be an artist. His interest in the influence of artists upon one another, of ideas that are as common as air, is the very premise of this book, which is that Shakespeare himself is common as air. Like Shakespeare, Lewis Hyde knows that the quality essential to all creative work first and foremost begins by borrowing. Arnal Kennedy, homeless for some twenty years, has been an active member of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker ever since he left the streets. He cares for the poor on a daily basis by serving meals and washing dishes ; he is also a poet. While his work is an expression of the deepest suffering and loss, his poetry also holds out the saving adage of Shakespeare s understanding of redemption. Logan Metz and Lincoln Mendell are collaborators, poet/musicians in the lyrical tradition of Shakespeare s Feste or Ariel. Logan Metz teaches Shakespeare and music to young children in underprivileged schools in Los Angeles. Wole Soyinka is a poet, essayist, a novelist, a satirist, a journalist, a critic, a writer of memoirs, a wordsmith (quite literally, a maker of words ), and occasionally a composer but first and foremost (perhaps), he is a playwright. And in this capacity he shares more than his initials with his predecessor, William Shakespeare. The poet Gail Wronsky has written many books of poetry, two of which nestle in Shakespeare. Like Shakespeare, she writes about doubles, herself and himself, Bottom and Vishnu, as the trading of dreams. Theresia de Vroom has been thinking about Shakespeare since the sixth grade, when she saw a performance of A Midsummer Night s Dream and Hamlet in the same week.

In Possession of Shakespeare: Writing into Nothing

Wole Soyinka

Lewis Hyde

Jeff Dietrich

Theresia de Vroom

Arnal Kennedy

Gail Wronsky

Logan Metz

Lincoln Mendell

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