“Love Entered that One, in the Beginning”
Vedic Contributions to Classical Hindu Devotional Thought
Guest Speaker
William K. Mahony
Charles A. Dana Professor of Religion
Davidson College, Davidson, NC
Wednesday, February 3rd
4:00 PM
Location: Gambrell Hall 431
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Co-sponsored by Department of Religious Studies &
Walker Institute / Asian Studies
The lecture, held in the Conference Room of the
Walker Institute Asian Center, brought together
faculty, students, staff and others from the
Columbia area. Dr. Mahony spoke eloquently,
bringing out the tender nuanced poetry of the
Hindu Bhakti devotional traditions. Bhakti, the
path of loving devotion, was one of the three
spiritual paths to God mentioned in the Bhagavad
Gita. It was spread through India between the 7th
and 10th centuries by wandering poet-saints
composing and singing songs of the bond of
divine love between the soul and God. In the
following centuries the canon of these poems and
songs of divine love have become the spiritual
heartbeat of devotional Hinduism. William
Mahony brought his audience on a brief journey along this poetic path of beauty and divine love
with careful examinations of the poems and the deeper meanings woven through the words.
William K. Mahony, PhD, is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Religion at Davidson College, where he teaches courses on the
religions of India, centering particularly on the contemplative and devotional sensibilities and practices associated with those
traditions. With academic degrees from Williams College, Yale University and the University of Chicago, he has received a
number of teaching awards and research fellowships.
His research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Davidson's Boswell Family Fellowship. His
most recently published book, Exquisite Love: Heart-Centered Reflections on the Narada Bhakti Sutra (Anusara Press), is a set
of extended reflections on the spiritual life oriented toward the experience and expression of divine love based on a 10th- and
11th-century Sanskrit text from India.
Mahony has served as the founding president of the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute; as a member of the board of
directors of the American Academy of Religion; and as an editor and major contributor to the 16-volume Encyclopedia of
Religion, First Edition (Macmillan Press).
He travels to India frequently, has lived in contemplative settings for extended periods of time and works internationally with the
yoga community in leading workshops and retreats on the cultivation and refinement of the spiritual life.