This book is a treasure trove of information; very readable presentation with great insight on medical and yogic issues related to this ancient practice. Yoga Nidra is more than relaxation, it is a way to access the deepest levels of the Self through the progressive suspension of distractions. It leads the individual through progressive relaxation, visualization, affirmation, and insight. Its practice synchronices the hemispheres of the brain by utilizing sound as the means of guidance. The Monroe Institute uses the same principles in its Gateway Program which uses "Hemisync" to lead the individual through progressive relaxation, affirmation, visualization by means of specific sound frequencies. If you think you may be interested in consciousness exploration give this book a try. No dangerous effects..at worst you fall asleep. This book offers an excellent practice that yields results! Great buy at any price.

If you recognize stress as an inherent part of modern life, and see stress as a cause for many psychosomatic illnesses, you'll be interested in Yoga Nidra by Swami Satyananda.

Satyananda's premise is simple and elegant. Our minds are mainly turned outward, concentrated on the external events. When turned inward, our minds are mainly obsessed with unresolved events from the past or worries related to the present or future. These become additional sources of stress. We try to relax by engaging in activities such as reading the newspaper or watching television, but we are relaxing in a wrong way. These activities keep our senses active, which do not promote true relaxation.

Yoga nidra is a natural technique for real relaxation, with senses turned off and a peacefully focused mind. This yoga technique does not make our mind lazy and sleepy. Instead, it brings us to a state of complete physical, emotional and mental relaxation and increased inner awareness. Satyananda has brought us this practice through a practical book with detailed descriptions of yoga nidra techniques. Yoga nidra is a meditative technique of aware sleeping; "nidra" means "sleep" in Sanskrit. This meditative technique brings us to a state of conscience between sleep and awakened awareness - in other words, a sleep state without loss of awareness. In such a state, we experience a deep relaxation and latent contents of our subconscious are being awaked. This has a strong healing effect on us and removes obstacles we may find hindering our self-development.

Reading this book will definitely expand your views, but it's the diligent practice of yoga nidra that will yield positive changes. Accept Swami Satyananda's invitation to a spiritual pilgrimage to a state of relaxation and see what happens.

The chapter on eating is absolutely essential for anyone with food issues. It's a totally spiritual approach to eating and food that has changed my life, and my health. Don't be fooled by the word "discipline." Gurumayi is a yogi and when she talks about discipline it has nothing to do with harsh restrictions or anything like that. With food, for example, she talks about its sacredness, and how it is a form of God. One of her main teachings is that God dwells within everyone and she goes into an explanation of how when we eat we are actually feeding God within us. She presents the body as a temple of God, something that's sacred because of that and so it's important to treat the body with the highest respect. Eating, she says, is an incredibly sacred act. Food itself is sacred. This is such an uplifting and life-changing book for me. Since reading it I have come to respect my body and take care of it. I've changed my dietery habits and feel much better about the way I eat, what I eat. I'm more conscious. I highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent book which not only shows you the sweetness of the Yoga of Discipline but that makes you believe in your own capacity of becoming the person you've always wanted to be! Very practical, very inspiring, very helpful! I loved it!

This book is a translation by Swami Tapasyananda, Ramakrishna Math, of the east Indian mythological text called Adhyatma Ramayana. It contains the Sanskrit verses plus a lucid translation of a nonsecterian type. Although it's intersting to read it is still a long-winded story. But for most Hindus this is a very important sacred text and there is no way around reading it, if one wants to understand Hinduism.

I could see Gurudev [Swami Chinmayananda] walk, talk, laugh -- and most of all, teach -- throughout the pages of the book. The ending was so intense and powerful, I could feel his presence right then and there.

An Excellent book. This contain dialogue with H.H Mata Amritanandamayi

This is an excellent book on both Indian philosophy and the basics of pranic or kundalini awakening. Rajarshi Muni writes with great authority and has synthesised a very simple but profound understanding of spiritual growth via spontaneous/kundalini yoga. The last part of the book gives a taste of what spontaneous yoga is about, which if you have experienced the awakening of the life force, you will be able to relate to. I look forward to further books from Swami Rajarshi as there are few authors who present their understanding in such a clear and definitive way.

This is the best Yoga book I have ever read. After using the program in this book for three weeks I had a drastic reduction in arthritis pain and swelling. When I started the program I was walking with a cane. I am now fully free of the cane and I feel more together and energetic than ever. A great big thanks to Svami Purna. : )

I first read Beyond Birth & Death as a practicing Hare Krishna devotee, when I was selling the book on traveling sankirtan in 1973. I had a near death experience and found the book calming and soothing for understanding our nature as the eternal soul, not the body. I read it again in March, 2000, to help deal with the pain and confusion of a dying relative. I would recommend this book for anyone who has to deal with the death of a loved one, or for anyone serious about understanding the real purpose and destiny of the human form of life.

It's said ability for self realization is what makes men different from animals. So we read so much of Philosophy from the books of western philosophers as eastern philosophies have been hard to get until this New Age movement. In this book the founder of Hare Krishna Movement - ISKCON provides a Vedic angle to philosophies of all famous thinkers of the west. From Fraud to Jung, From Marx to Socrates etc. The authors views are on these philosphies is so enlightened, powerful and that it puts all of them in the right perspectives.

While reading this as we get some introduction to prominent western thought, the authors illumination of the Vedic view so enlightening that it challenges reader to use own sensibilities understands some dogmas and glaring gaps in certain theories as of Fraud's. It's like getting hot daal soup to go with bowl of plain rice!

This book is a must read for all seekers of philosophy and self realization.

In my experience Kendra Crossen Burroughs is one of the best editors in the field of Eastern spiritual literature and texts. As well as working freelance, she has been a long-term editor on the staff of Shambhala Publications, and I was happy to have her involved in a book that I had published by Shambhala, although not a book in Eastern thought.

I was very excited when I heard that Kendra was doing this book for Skylight Paths, since the Gita has been one of my, and many other people's favorite and most important spiritual sources, and I eagerly looked forward to its appearance. If I wasn't one of the first people in the world to buy a copy, at least I was one of the first on my block.

I was not disappointed. If I was, I would have never written this review. A blurb on the cover by renowned authority, Ken Wilber, says, "The very best Gita for first time readers." This is one of the rare occasions when a blurb is absolutely true. But, the further truth is that Burroughs's annotations make this a book for the experienced reader of the Gita as well. Burroughs has consulted and used over twenty other translations in her annotations to this particular translation that she uses, the 1935 one by Shri Purohit Swami, and this scholarship, plus Burroughs' own personal experience, make this a valuable book for a reader of any degree of experience.

Besides Burroughs' own brilliant annotations, Skylight has done an innovative and equally brilliant job of format, where the annotations are on one page, and the reference text is on the facing page, so that the reader has the annotations right at hand as s/he reads, and does not have to thumb through to the back of the book or chapter to look them up. The only problem that I encountered with this was my own idiosyncratic one of whether to read the text page through and then turn to the annotations alongside it, or read each annotation as it is referred to in the text. I never completely settled this for myself. Other readers may want to read the annotation page first, and then read the facing page of the Gita text.

As Burroughs notes, the Purohit translation is a good first time one, because he purposely set out to eliminate all foreign words of the Indian Sanskrit language, and uses only terms familiar to the Western, English speaking reader. For myself, however, who is not a newcomer to Eastern thought (though certainly not a Gita scholar at all), I am less happy with this choice. I want to know what the key Sanskrit terms are in the Gita text, which have a meaning and connotation that is at least somewhat different than the familiar English terms used. For example, in the famous and central verses (Ch 4: 7-8) where Krishna tells his disciple Arjuna about who he is and the reason for his periodic appearance in human history, the Purohit text has it, "To protect the righteous, to destroy the wicked, and to establish the kingdom of God, I am reborn from age to age." The very Christian phrase "the kingdom of God," could easily throw off the reader. The Sanskrit actually says, "for the establishment of dharma," and thus it connects with the whole Indian sense of truth and untruth (dharma and adharma), more abstract and general, and later carried with such powerful effect into Buddhism. In 1935 "the Kingdom of God" might have worked better, but in our time, dharma says more, and more accurately to many of us. However, Burroughs' annotations corrects or overcomes a lot of these problems (but not in this case). So, where the Purohit text says (Ch 6: 23) that meditation "should be practiced with determination and with a heart which refuses to be depressed," Burroughs explains that the actual Sanskrit term is "chetas, a synonym for chitta (mind). In Indian philosophy , 'heart' is considered an aspect of mind, concerned with intuitive understanding and valuation." Gems like this of elucidation and clarification occur throughout the annotation pages facing the text.

What reading this edition of the Gita has prompted me to do, in part related to my issue with the Purohit translation, is to now have three Gita's that I carry side by side, and compare them as I read in it--this one, Prabhavananda/Isherwood, and Nikhilananda's. Burroughs would be happy with this effect on me of her edition, and in this case would consider her work a success. And these three, are one more than the two translations of the Bible that I have on hand.