This work aims to retell and analyze amazing tales of dream and illusion from classical Indian literature, mostly from the Yoga Vasishtha, a ~12th century Sanskrit work described by the scholar and yogi, H.P. Shastri, as the inner story of the Ramayana. How well it succeeds in this task depends upon one's sympathy with mythological thinking. The Introduction contrasts different philosophical approaches to reality: waking vs. dreaming, Plato vs. Hume, moksha vs. samsara. Implicitly contrasted is Dr. Doniger the Sanskrit scholar vs. little Wendy learning to read Alice In Wonderland. Throughout, the discussion of dream motifs in Sanskrit literature digresses to Freudian dream interpretation, philosophy of science, art of illusion, paradoxes of self-reference. But really, what can Karl Popper-who despised poetical Plato-teach us about mythology? The tales are told well, no mean feat given that the originals are scattered like gems in the world's second biggest book. But focus on the stories and ignore the author's hyperconscious interpretations; otherwise, as depicted on the cover, any lived experience of Shankara's rope/snake will be explained away as intellectual curiosity, right down to the image's incongruent shadow. The author does mention Carl Jung's dream of a yogi meditating in a church; this dream deeply unsettled Jung, who realized that the yogi was more real than himself and that, the moment the yogi awoke from meditation, he (Jung) would disappear. Had the author read von Franz's works on dreams or infused more Wonder into her own writing, this could have been a marvelous book. As is, it is merely interesting. Consider this myth: Psyche (mind) fell in love with Cupid (Eros), who forbade her to look upon him by day. Frightened, with protective knife in hand, she gazed finally upon his beauty by night. But her candle dripped hot wax on him and, wounded, away he fled. Moral? The light of reason destroys what is beautiful, and the grown-up brain gives up childish things. The End.

It is arguable that Manu Smriti is a text that is as important as it is claimed by this author. The Manu Smriti is virtually unknown in Southern India (Traditional Vedic Hinduism survived virtually intact here) and definitely not considered an integral part of Vedic Learning. The claim that Manu Smriti defines Hindu Moral law is absurd since each region and sect of Hindus have their own Smritis and traditions. The true moral code accepted by all Hindus is in the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana.
An earlier reviewer above seems to be under the impression that Women were "purposefully left uneducated" in India - this is a simple case of absolute ignorance of Indian history and total acceptance of the British Colonialist misrepresentation. This book is truly in the tradition of condescending colonial interpretation of Indian history and society which denies India a history, it's people a consciousness and projects the entire history of India through the narrow prism of Colonial and Jesuit misrepresentation. These Indologists have done enough damage to India in colonial times by projecting literature that suited their purposes as the soul of India. It is sad that this tradition survives to this day.

What an irony it is that a woman has translated the Law of Manu, one of history's most oppressively patriarchal works. In this religious system, women were forbidden to study the Vedas, and were purposely left uneducated, until Hanna Marshmann began girls' schools in Bengal in the early 1800s.
Had the original writers of the Law of Manu known that one day a woman would translate it, they would have had strokes and fits.
By translating this work, Doniger has, in a way, subverted patriarchy. Below is just one of many female-bashing texts in the Law of Manu (taken from an earlier translation):

9: 17. When creating them, Manu allotted to women a love of their bed, of their seat and of ornament, impure desires, wrath,
dishonesty, malice, and bad conduct.

Wendy Doniger is the doyenne of Indology today, and her translations of, and commentaries on, ancient Hindu texts testify to this. This translation is lucid and, given its subject matter, timely, displaying as it does both poetry and a variety of chauvinism that, sadly, Hindutva demagogues like to glorify (as some of the reviewers here are attempting to do).

This book is full of inaccuracies. The author does not understand anything about hinduism. Not worth your time if you want to get some accurate information.

Lousy book,wouldn't be be surprised if the author is a rightwing Christian fanatic.Save your money.

The book addresses the diffcult task of giving an overview of hindu myths, with the relevant content. Naturally the book is a part-reference and a part-survey kind of book. The range of the themes are adequate; covers the major aspects- Vedas, Vedic gods, the evolution of purna Gods SIVA, VISHNU, DEVI. The last chapter deals with the objectives of Vedic mythology, Epic myhtology and Puranic mythology. This is an interesting part of the book. No way, such analysis will have acceptance from all.

It's safe to say nobody's perfect. Not Jeffrey Kripal or his book, not even Ramakrishna. But in Kripal's obvious service of relativizing the one-sided treatment (mainly by Vivekenanda and other monks) of Ramakrishna's great power and energy, reader's should exercise some magnanimity towards the author. He did a lot of academic research that in effect exposed how spiritual organisations all over the world form their own limited political and cultural agendas.

Kripal took the controversial subject of tantra by the horns, explained it to westerners in terms that do not mask its sometimes wild erotic and earthy essence, and that is probably the book's most important contribution. He brings us closer to powerful Kali, in ways that the monks in an order cannot risk attempting. And I can imagine Hindus and yogis with a sense of cultural identity have been provoked by the irreverent young western (academic).

In a final analysis Kripal's Freudian speculations about Ramakrishna's sexuality, or his claim that Ramakrishna was unconscious of his own true nature, may be far-fetched or untrue. They may ultimately be more about the author's own subconscious, rather than the Paramahamsa's. But Kripal has partly jarred open a door that still needs further opening. Truth, said Ramakrishna, is the sadhana of our age. And if Kali's Child leads people to consider how an enlightened person looks at life, approaching as Ramakrishna did this great mystery in which we live and have our being - both as feminine and masculine - then it will have served a good purpose.

The "Kali's Child" betrays all the signs of a serious researcher and scholar who is apparently very cautious about the tentativeness of his thesis which is that Ramakrishna was an unconscious homosexual who later came to be conscious of his sexual orientation and this consciousness informed his spiritual realization. However, as one trudges along the long winding chapters through the author's excursus into cultural anthropology and psychoanalysis, and arrives at the concluding part of this impressive tome, one gets the distinct feeling that the author is no longer in the mode of a writer with scholarly reservation about the tentative nature of his interpretation, but is quite open and unequivocal about his enterprise of making a gay saint out of this 19th-century semi-literate misogynist but unmistakably heterosexual (and by the same token quite scared being so) Hindu male. Kripal overlooks the sain't penchant for female lure (to be discerned in the vernacular sources) as well his panic about heterosexual demands, due, most certainly, to his own psychosomatic problems in this regards. Kripal's book is highly provocative in the beginning and quite amusing in the end, but dubious in the middle. Unfortunately, it is in the middle that his protrayal of the Paramahamsa is located. When one looks at this protrait it one cannot fail to notice its resemblance to the oilpainting of the master by the Czech artist Frank Dvorak displayed at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math founded by Swami Abhedananda in North Calcutta--very colorful and very Western!

Naturally, those in need to "worship" Ramakrishna (RK) as a "pure" saint will simply hate and slander this excellent publication of an honest and daring inquiry into the life and psychology of a celebrated icon of spirituality and religion. However, anyone not being a fundamentalist about the modern and decidedly Western dichotomy between body and spirit, sexual energy and religio - is provided here with unique insights into a psyche and mind torn apart by this very concept. The author not only unveils how RK struggles with his sexual preference for young men while being fully dedicated to an ancient and seductive Goddess, but also how he tries to combine libido-employing Tantra with libido-denying mainstream Hinduism. Truly a fascinating book that not only shows RK as a human being but which illustrates the damage that is being wrought in East and West by all systems that deny the natural and healthy union between spirituality and sexuality.