Exquisite Love: Reflections on the spiritual life based on Nārada’s Bhakti Sūtra

William K. Mahony

dek, 2014 · Sarvabhava Press

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 The Bhakti Sūtra attributed to Nārada is a collection of 84 aphoristic statements in Sanskrit, dating to the tenth to eleventh centuries in India, on the nature of love for Divinity, which the text describes as the highest, most exquisite form of love. Translating, explaining and interpreting 21 of those statements, William K. Mahony brings these teachings into our contemporary world through his thoughtful and articulate extended reflections on the qualities of this love and on the contours of a life oriented toward strengthening, refining and elevating it. The book also includes Mahony’s translation of Nārada’s Bhakti Sūtra in its entirety.

Basing his reflections on the understanding that God is absolute Love, Mahony speaks of a divine Heart present in our own human sentiments and expressions of love in all its modes, directions and degrees of intensity. He offers readers guidance into ways a Heart-centered spiritual life can open them ever more fully to the reality of Love itself.

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William K. Mahony, PhD, is Professor of Religion at Davidson College. A specialist in the history and philosophy of religions originating in India, he brings to his reflections in “Exquisite Love” his understanding of the spiritual life in general, which is illumined both by his commitment to intellectual clarity and by his deep appreciation of contemplative and devotional sensibilities.