Table of Contents
Foreword Huston Smith xv
Introduction 1
1 Namaste, America! 7
What India has given us and why, it matters
2 The Voice of an Old Intelligence 26
"Hindoo" texts enchant Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman
3 New Thought in Old Wineskins 47
Eddy, Blavatsky, and the New Thoughters metabolize Vedanta
4 The Handsome Monk in the Orange Robe 67
Swami Vivekananda conquers the Parliament and creates the Vedanta Society
5 The Public Intellectuals 87
Swamis tutor smart guys, and they tutor us
6 The Yogi of the Autobiography 109
Paramahansa Yogananda becomes the voice of India
7 Blowin' in the Wind 130
Beatniks, hippies, and consciousness expanders trip toward the East
8 Maha Mass Media 151
The Fab Four find Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and meditation goes mainstream
9 The Baby Boomers' Babas 176
Muktananda, Bhaktivedanta, and other gurus storm the seventies
10 The Yoga Bearers 197
Satchidananda, Iyengar, and other Yogacharyas take Americans to the mat
11 Sex, Lies, and Idiosyncrasies 210
The guru wave casts a shadow
12 Made in the U.S.A. 219
Ram Dass, Deepak, and other American acharyas take the wheel
13 Not Just Academic 236
Practitioner-Bandits penetrate the Ivory Tower
14 Guru Americana 247
Om-grown gurus gather disciples
15 Art-Omatic Transmissions 262
Musicians and writers channel India
16 The Soul of Science, the Science of Soul 282
The cosmic Shiva dances into the lab
17 Into the Mystic 309
A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into an ashram
18 The Once and Future Religion 327
America the spiritual evolves
Notes 349
Index 387