Table of Contents
Foreword Harry Oldmeadow xi
Preface xvii
Prologue 1
Unveiling the Garden of Love 3
The Issue at Hand 3
Approach to the Issues 7
Limits and Boundaries 15
Towards a Contribution 18
Colors of Love: Some Ideals of Traditional Persian and Indian Literature 21
Milieu, Historicity, and Ahistoricity 23
Literary Expression of the Mystical Experience 41
The Stages of Unio Mystica 47
Blooms of Love's Garden: Initial Union and Separation in Union 51
The State of Initial Union 52
Separation in Union 87
Thorns of Love's Gardens: Longing and the Pain of Separation 93
The State of Separation 93
The Pain of Separation 96
Thorns of Love's Gardens: Fusion and Confusion in Separation 117
Fusion and Confusion 118
Pleasure in Separation 120
The Gardener and the Garden: Return and Union Regained 155
Return and the End 155
Death and Transition 156
Prelude: At the Sill of the Door 157
Reunion: Celestial andSexual Encounter 166
Core and Center: The Original State 178
The Wheels Come Full Circle 182
Where Gardens Congregate 184
The Garden Unveiled: Preserving Diversity, Observing Unity 189
Correspondence and Convergence 190
The Way Forward 193
Epilogue 195
Glossary and Index of Persian/Arabic and Sanskrit Terms 197
Bibliography 201
Biographical Notes 209