The book is a rich combination of Makoorjee's scholarly style and an excellent collection of Tantric art, both geometric/diagramatic and visual, including the ever-popular Tibetan yab-yum pairs. I came upon the original edition as an undergraduate in the 1970s and was impressed then by the elaborate and in-depth scientific and metaphysical explanations of a complex and elusive topic -- tantra -- or the science and practice of first "seeing," then experiencing the essence behind form, not intellectually but with the perceptive faculties of one's inner being. His narration is interwoven with the illustrations to give the reader a clear sense of both the culture from which this body of knowledge arises and the subtle dynamics of tantric knowledge as revealed through art, ritual, and practice. Not a practitioner's guide, but an excellent introduction to tantric history, theory, metaphysics, and cultural expression.

This book details all kinds of historical Yantras as revealed in various Vedas (historic Hindu scriptures). Yantras are cosmic machines which directs energies to the human body/mind to attain various psychic states. The author dwells deeply in to the philosophy behind it, which in essence is Hinduism. Understanding the Hindu concept of the world, the cosmos and the human being is the key to unlocking the power of Yantra. A reader who is not exposed to Eastern religious philosophies will find it difficult to comprehend the description of concepts behind the Yantra.

This book has many illustrations of historic Yantras and details of the significance of its geometric drawings. I liked this book for the depth of analysis and the description of underlying concepts. Please note that this is NOT an instruction work book on Yantras which details about how to make a Yantra.

One disappointing fact is that the author uses little space to describe Occult Yantras which are commonly used by ordinary people for protection, healing and power. The Sri Yantra, which enables a person to attain higher states is described in detail. Overall this book gave me indepth knowledge about the working of a Yantra - the energized cosmic machine.

Mookerjee really understands his subject. The relationship between the illustrations in this book and Mookerjee's descriptions/explanations is incredibly valuable to anyone interested in metaphysics (or anyone wanting an understanding of yoga's symbols). He certainly increased my understanding of the undepinning truths of the the system of yoga.

The illustrations in the book are of good quality, large and plentiful. I would add the comment that many of them are rare - as in not seen in any other books on the subject.

I highly reccomend this book for its insights and its presentation of the material.

This book gives a great introduction to many of the more fascinating aspects of Kali: the history of the divine feminine in Hinduism, her relationship to other godesses (esp. Durga), the devotional poetry of Ramprasad, her role in Tantra. It's also full of beautiful and fascinating photographs and art related to the goddess. It is definitely a great book for anyone wanting to learn more about this fascinating deity who is so often misunderstood in the West.

There is a popular misunderstanding in the Western world about the nature of Kali. Kali is often portrayed as some kind of demon and, unfortunateley, she sometimes even has been worshipped as such, even in India. There are documented cases where Kali worship has involved human sacrifice, and in the western world even some satanists has tried to integrate Kali in their pantheon.

But, of course, from the start she was the very opposite of a demon. In the original myth about Kali and Durga, wonderfully described in this book, these goddesses in fact save the gods and the world and defeats the male demons that threatens it.

In Mookerjees book, with a lot of splendid illustrations, you get the story of Kali, as well as some interesting insights in Devi worship, saktism, and, of cource, the story of Durga. It can highly be recommended.

This book is beautyful! The photographs, paintings and drawing are breathtaking. The information is on target. Its not a big book, but for its sized it has a good amount of information. The auther knows her stuff. I cant stand it when people write about Kali and have no idea what they are talking about and believe me people I see it often. Kali is not all about destruction, or hexing, or the end of time. Shes not just a goddess in her "Crone phase" Shes not just a Goddess of the moon. Kali is used for many things even for healing. In her Bhadra Kali aspect shes a young virgin. But some people do not know this about her. If theres one complaint about this book is that sometimes the auther can get off the subject of Kali. But regardless all the information is informative and wonderful. Its well researched. Its not as devotional as Kali by Elizabet U Harding but its defenitly a compliment to her book as well as to the book Kali Puja. I reccomend all three.

This book is meant to introduce the reader to the ancient yogic tradition of Kundalini. It details what the historic tantric scriptures describe and has many illustrations of historic drawings. The concept of Kudalini - awakening body/mind chakras - is described from a Eastern perspective. This also describes experiences of Kundalini by some of the known swamis (holy people).

Please note that this is not a Kundalini awakening instruction book. It is more a scholarly work on describing traditional Kundalini.

If you like to know about traditional concepts of Kundalini, this book will give you a good introduction.

I haven't read this book, but came across this reference in a book by Roland Drolet I am translating into English. "Another example of a word which needs to be demystified is Kundalini, which is nothing other than the sexual energy, that is the mass nuclear energy (E-mc2) liberated during sexual relations. For more details and depth on the Kundalini, see the two excellent works: "Kundalini: The arousal of the inner energy" by A. Mookerjee and "The Tao of Sexology" by Dr. S. T. Chan."

I was looking forward to getting this book as I am unable to find quality books on Indian designs and motifs. Being from India, and really interested in beautiful Indian art from a very young age, I have even contemplated writing a book using my own collection of designs.

I was very disappointed when I got this book. 5000 designs sounds like a lot of work but a lot of the designs are not even worth using... the quality of drawing is so poor - it is an embarassment! There is even repetition of same designs on different pages. I would have forgiven that but the author seems more focused on making the number of designs large rather than actually making them legible qaulity. Moreover what really annoys me is the fact that he offers hardly any explanation to the source of the various designs he has used.

Overall very poor book... i wouldn't recomment it to anybody except that there are not that many books out there on Indian designs.

My husband finds great inspiration in this book for his Mehndi art. (temporary tattoos.)While not all 5000 are great for our use, it's still a great book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes to work with henna.

This book has a great collection of drawings from various geogrraphies of India. They are all small in size and most of them are simple to draw or practice. I bought this book for my daughter who loves to sketch. She really enjoys spending time recreating some of the designs. Ajit Mookerjee did a nice job of compiling all these designs into one book.