Ann Gleig is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Central Florida. Lola Williamson is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Millsaps College and the author of Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion.

• List of FiguresEditor’s NoteIntroduction: From Wave to SoilAnn Gleig and Lola Williamson1. Ram Dass: The Vicissitudes of Devotion and Ferocity of GraceF. X. Charet2. Building Tantric Infrastructure in America: Rudi’s Western Kashmir ShaivismHelen Crovetto3. Amrit Desai and the Kripalu Center for Yoga and HealthEllen Goldberg4. Swamis, Scholars, and Gurus: Siddha Yoga’s American LegacyLola Williamson5. A Life in Progress: The Biographies of Sivaya SubramuniyaswamiRichard D. Mann 6. Guru Authority, Religious Innovation, and the Decline of New VrindabanE. Burke Rochford Jr. and Henry Doktorski7. Neo-Advaita in America: Three Representative TeachersPhilip Charles Lucas8. From Being to Becoming, Transcending to Transforming: Andrew Cohen and the Evolution of EnlightenmentAnn GleigConclusion: On Reason, Religion, and the RealJeffrey J. KripalContributorsIndex

"The empirical record testifies to the fact that religions typically change—just as everything else changes—under specific conditions, including, here, historical and specific conditions. The beauty of Gleig's and Williamson's book is its careful and detailed accounting of that phenomenon as Hinduism, after washing across the shores of America with earlier gurus, took root and grew in specific and innovative ways under the charisma and creativity of America's own homegrown gurus." — Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies"…a valuable examination of some prominent American Hindus who have spread Hinduism among Americans and also, in diverse ways, Americanized what was once a foreign and exotic religion." — Anthropology Review Database"Concentrating on North America, this volume offers a timely and important group of essays that examine American Hinduism as a distinctive tradition … It also uses a theoretically sophisticated approach to examine the complexities and issues—such as authenticity, innovation, preservation, recovery, and radicalism—that arise from the meeting of divergent cultures … Highly recommended." — CHOICE