When a "Master" attains 'salvation'...to read about her 'words' of 'passion', 'longing', 'fire', and 'determination'....along the "WAY"...is something 'unparalleled'. One can only read with 'held breath'...of the 'accounts' of her 'travails' and 'forcefulness of purpose' expressed so poetically, and 'sit' in 'thankfulness' that they've been 'revealed'. :-)

Many, many 'aspects' and also 'teachings' are 'cogently' 'given' in these poems and 'words' of this "Master". For a 'seeker' of 'knowledge' and 'liberation...and for a person with 'spiritual' 'curiosity'...this 'collection' is...'neat'. :-) (thanks) "Joy"

I loved this book because I could really "feel" the experiences that Swami Chidvilasananda was telling about as I was reading. With her poetry, spiritual life seems so simple, so deep, so profound, and yet so exciting! ...very inspiring, definitely!

This splendid, well-printed and inexpensive edition will perhaps appeal to those who have already read this short text, a text better known as the 'Ashtavakra Gita,' in the translations of Hari Prasad Shastri (London: Shanti Sadan, 1992 ISBN 0 85424 028 4) or Ramesh S. Balsekar ('A Duet of One' Los Angeles: Advaita Press, 1989 SBN 0 929488 11 1), and who would like to deepen their acquaintance with it.

Its great advantage is that, whereas the edition of Shastri contains only a lightly annotated English translation, and that of Balsekar an English translation along with his very full commentary, the present edition also gives the Sanskrit text.

After a very fine introductory essay by Dr. Satkari Mookerjee, M.A., Ph.D., an essay to which I've often returned, Swami Nityaswarupananda then gives us the Sanskrit text in Devanagari, a literal word-by-word translation, a final literary translation, and full and detailed notes on all words and concepts of interest. The book is rounded out with two indexes.

In his introduction, Dr. Mookerjee explains that the 'Astavakra' is a very early and pure Advaitic text which gives us the essentials of the Advaita position while being wholly free of the scholastic over- -elaboration and hair-splitting logical argument which is found in so many later texts.

It is, in other words, not so much a technical philosophical treatise as "an unfoldment of the ultimate Truth" (p.xiii) which takes the form of a dialogue between King Janaka, earnest seeker of truth, and the enlightened sage Ashtavakra.

Taking up the question of how freedom is to be achieved, its message, Dr. Mookerjee tells us, is simple:

'Know the Self as Pure Consciousness, the unaffected witness of the phenomenal world, and you will be free' (I.3).

I can't really do justice to Dr. Mookerjee's impressive introductory essay here. In particular, what he has to say about the nature of reason and its real place in human thought should be read by everyone.

As for Swami Nityaswarupananda, he too is to be congratulated on having done a thoroughly competent job of making this beautiful and profound text available to us in its original language. Even those who have little Sanskrit will now find it easy to make their way through the original text: the verses are short and simple, and, although the book lacks a guide to pronunciation, we have been given every other help.

If you are innocent of Sanskrit, my advice would be to first learn the Devanagari alphabet and then jump in. Even having a little Sanskrit is better than having none, and what better way to learn the language than by soaking yourself in such a magical work?

But if you lack the time to get involved in Sanskrit, you will still find that the introduction, and the well-done translation with its full notes, of great help in coming to grips with this valuable text. Along with those of Shastri and Balsekar I count it an indispensable edition, and I would agree with Shastri who has written:

"Each verse is a text for meditation; the whole work has a magic of its own, which elevates and exalts the mind and grants it glimpses of the transcendental region" (p.vii).

The Astavakra Samhita gives the answer to all spiritual disciplines in a simple way. Explains that while we maintain our view of object and subject will be duality. Therefore, this is the ilussion of difference. The path is the oneness and no difference. This book can be the key to all the answers to the spiritual seeker specially the one common point in all spiritual systems. In the other hand, to a person without spiritual principles can be the beggining of encountering its dark side to reconcile with itself and find the balance required. This is the Bible of the year 2000.

This is the best book I read in the past several years. It deals with the spiritual as well as the material aspects of an individual, bringing balance to one's life. Thumbs up!

My only regret is that I have not got around to reading this book again. Each point is sharp and practical, applicable to spiritual life in a non-formulized way. This book is for anyone in any religion who wants to improve their life with no-nonsense technologies given to us by a pure and sincere and powerful practitioneer. I offer my obeisances to Swami Krishnapada.

An enthusiastic friend encouraged me to read this book, which takes its title from a line of Kabir's poetry: "Student, tell me, what is God? He is the breath inside the breath." In their exploration of what it means to be fully human, something holy happens in the 134 meditations collected here. Each has the potential to "cut through" to the inner search for meaning and truth, honesty and integrity in our lives (p. 212). Swami Chetanananda teaches us that "it is the heart that illumines the mind, not the other way around" (p. 55).

The heart governs our entire experience of life (p. 5). Success, we're told, is not measured by the amount of money we earn or recognition we receive. "Rather, success is the degree to which you mobilize the resources within yourself, and the degree to which you allow those resources to manifest. This is success. This is fulfillment" (p. 20). Swami Chetanananda encourages us to continually become aware "of the essense of your own life" and then learn to live "from that essence whether you're walking, riding the subway, working in your job, or doing anything else" (p. 26). "I tell people simply to do good work, whatever that work is," he says. "Care about the quality of your work in your science, your study, your profession, or your relationships. Do well. Don't be lazy. Care deeply. If you care, then ultimately, you must come to an understanding of the immense importance of spiritual growth" (p. 239).

This book is like a breath so deep that it shifts your heart's chemistry around. It will appeal to anyone interested in learning how to experience life more fully from the heart.

G. Merritt

Among this American-born, India-traveled meditation master's several books, this is one of my favorites (I haven't read a few of the latest). It is a simple compilation of short essays taken from his informal talks to his students (his center is now located in Portland, Oregon). Being an American, "swamiji," as his students like to call him, is good at expressing deep-seated ideas, techniques, fears, and so forth, many of them based on ancient Indian philosophy and religion, in straightforward--and sometimes even irreverent--American venacular. In sum, this is a highly readable blend of spiritual thought, practical advice ("One thing you can do when you start to feel anger welling up is to notice where in your body you feel it."), psychological insight ("Fear is something that arises for most people. The reason for this is that any time a new area opens up for us, we recognize that allowing ourselves to flow into it will change us completely..."), and personal conversation and confession ("Some people tell me they have a nagging feeling that something is missing in their spiritual practice..."). Each 200-600-word essay expands with sincerity and lightness on such a thought

Chetanananda who is carrying on the teaching for Rudi, brings his own style to the wisdom of the east stripped of all of it's cultural baggage, extracting a potent concentrated clarity. This is an intellectual poetic book that is double edged in that; the insight it brings clarifies and inspires and reveals the gunk and horror of what habitually falls out of our awareness. His metaphor of the pendulum and acting from a place prior to our projection of good/bad, positive/negative jarred me awake from a place of deep slumber. This book is beautiful.

Just the chapter on inner vision was worth the book by itself

This book gives a great indepth overview of the occult. It starts by enlighting you to senses beyond the first five and presents two new ones Telepathy and Clairvoyance. These are split into subcatagories: Telepathic mind reading, psychometry, crystal-gazing. Clairvoyant aura-waves-vibrations, space and time, second-sight, astral-body traveling. Also explains psychic laws & principles, influence over others & at a distance, attraction, magnetic healing. Its about 300 pages, but is so compressed it seems like thousands. I highly recommend it.

I read and studied this book many years ago. I am glad to see it back in print! I used to give it out as a present to people interested in the occult.

This is very interesting book. Keeps you on your toes till you finish the book.
It is very logical and convincing.

I have read many books on reincarnation throughout my life. This is a relatively small book and I was not very impressed with its appearance at my first glance. As I kept reading it, I am became deeply involved. It is impressive the way the author presents the subject of reincarnation in such a scientific manner with touches of religious belief, and with so many logical examples.

I have read mostly all the books from Swami Venkateshananda. He is not only a scholar but also a great teacher and meditator.

The problem we have with many hindu scriptures is that many of them are translated by hindu people who don't have a great command of the english language and who don't know a great deal about american problems and concerns.

On the other hand, many hindu scriptures are translated by american people who are only scholars and did not live in an hindu culture or environment.

Swami Venkateshananda gives us the best of both worlds. Born in India, being a sanskrit scholar and a monk under the supervision of Swami Shivananda, he is qualified for translating these scriptures and drawing from them the spiritual meaning.

Moreover , his written english is excellent and his is also well acquainted with the occidental mind, having lived many years in South Africa.

His version of the Bhagavad gita is, according to me, the best I have read. His commentaries are to the point for modern people. Unfortunately, his version of the Bhagavad gita seems to be out of print. His rendering was based on a 365 days. You read one page each day and at the end of the year, you've read all the book.

His first versions of the Ramayana and Yoga Vasishta were great. Each page started with a sanskrit verse wich was the heart of the page. Reading one page a day would ensure the completion of the book at the end of the year. Unfortunately, subsequent editions have been disappointing: publishers took out these sanscrit verses at the top of the page and rearranged the book in a way that one page was no more a one day lecture. In this way, most of the spiritual side of the book was lost.

Then, The concise srimad bhagavatam : BUY THIS BOOK BEFORE IT GOES OUT OF PRINT !!

Like all his other books, it is an abridgement. I don't know if previous versions had a sanskrit verse at the beginning of each page, but this one has not. However, the book is still arranged in a one chapter/one page/one day to read.

Being an abrigment is often seen as being a flaw. But in this case it is not. Instead of loosing ourselves into minor and unnecessary details, Venkateshananda brings up the spiritual side of the text.

His abridgment is better than the original ! I have the complete version of the Shrimad Bhagawatam by Goswami M. A. Shastri. I read both version in parallell and I can tell you that anything important is never taken out by Venkateshananda. Moreover, we don't have the feeling that Venkateshananda's rendering is an abridgement! We don't loose anything.

The rendering of Venkateshananda is so great than when you read the first chapter of the first canto ( 1 page only ), the day after, you don't read the second page, but you reread the first page because there were so many spiritual thruths to meditate upon. And this applies for each page. After reading one page, you close the book and you ponder about the spiritual teachings you've just read.

So, highly recommended and 5 stars.

The Srimad Bhagavatham is one of the eighteen puranas that form part of the hoary and divine literature that Sanatana Dharma (eternal doctrine of life) encompasses. It is also a fairly massive work. Swami Venkatesanda has done a highly creditable job of rendering this purana in English in a concise manner.

Division of the contents of this translation into page-length chapters, 365 in number, is a good idea, so one could read and reflect upon a relatively small but significant portion of the large work, one chapter a day.

As is common with such divine literature, each sub-story in the Bhagavatham has a phalasruthi (fruit of reciting or listening to the sub-story); in this translation, the phalasruthis have been stated in a manner that is soothing and reassuring to the reader.

The author has not polluted the work of literature with irrelevant or inappropriate anecdotes or other unnecessary references to entities or persona either in space or in time. In other words, the translation is extremely compact. The original Srimad Bhagavatham has been authored by none other than the great Sage Vyasa. A concise translation of such a work is no mean feat. This translation by Swami Venkatesananda serves to inspire the reader to explore the treasure trove of divine literature that is part of Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana Dharma asserts that God may be attained by, among other means, discerning intellect (Gnyana Yoga) or loving devotion (Bhakthi Yoga). The Srimad Bhagavatham is a delicious blend of both, and Swami Venkatesanda has brought out this characterization in an appealing and convincing manner.

It is said that repetitive study of scriptures leads to the attainment of the state/bliss that the phalasruthis promise. Going by that, repeated study of The Concise Srimad Bhagavatam by Swami Venketasanda should help in achieving some semblance of peace and tranquillity in this tumultuous world that we currently live in.

Personally, this translation has given me an excellent introduction to the Srimad Bhavatham. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in Sanatana Dharma (the eternal religion) in general and the Srimad Bhagavatham in particular.

Badri Krishnamoorthy.

What would you do if the greatest being in existence was going to come to your home? What would you say? How would you act?

These questions and more are answered in the ancient text of the Devi Gita written in Sanskrit at the beginning of the Kali Yuga, transliterated and translated into English by Swami Satyananda Saraswati of the Devi Mandir.

Gita means a song. The famous ancient scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, is a song describing the philosophy and method of becoming that Perfect Being. It is a song of the Divine Mother Goddess and instructs on how to perform worship and meditation. It is a doctrine of wholistic spirituality which seeks to unite various philosophies into a chain of higher understanding.

In the Devi Gita, the Divine Mother Goddess reveals the wisdom and knowledge of how to transform our thoughts and lives into one of balance, peace and harmony. She illuminates the darkness of ignorance.

The Devi Gita gives us specific guidelines. Like a practical training manual, step by step, the reader is guided on how to defeat the darkness of egotistical attachment. The Divine Mother Goddess gives us the fullest knowledge of yoga, devotion and wisdom as shown in the Vedas, by which one can attain union and realization of the universal principle. She also explains the proper system of worship.

The Devi Gita is comprised of twelve chapters included within the Seventh Skanda, or Book, of the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam, from Chapters 29-40. This is the first time that a translation and transliteration of the Devi Gita has been made, and the text includes the origonal sanskrit, along with transliteration and commentary.

Swami Sayananda has spent 20 years walking across the length and breadth of the Himalayas in India, studying Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali and other languages, while learning the systems of worship of the oral tradition wherever he went. Because of his experience, the verses ofthe Gita come alive with inspiration and insight.

This translation has remained extremely faithful to the Sanskrit and is of tremendous importance as an exposition of the various classical philosophies of India, culminating in a thorough explanation of the philosophy of the goddess-from Nyaya and Sankhya, through the Tantras to Vendanta.

What would you do if the greatest being in existence was going to come to your home? What would you say? How would you act?

These questions and more are answered in the ancient text of the Devi Gita written in Sanskrit at the beginning of the Kali Yuga, transliterated and translated into English by Swami Satyananda Saraswati of the Devi Mandir.

Gita means a song. The famous ancient scripture, the Devi Gita, is a song describing the philosophy and method of becoming that Perfect Being. It is a song of the Divine Mother Goddess and instructs on how to perform worship and meditation. It is a doctrine of wholistic spirituality which seeks to unite various philosophies into a chain of higher understanding.

In the Devi Gita, the Divine Mother Goddess reveals the wisdom and knowledge of how to transform our thoughts and lives into one of balance, peace and harmony. She illuminates the darkness of ignorance.

The Devi Gita gives us specific guidelines. Like a practical training manual, step by step, the reader is guided on how to defeat the darkness of egotistical attachment. The Divine Mother Goddess gives us the fullest knowledge of yoga, devotion and wisdom as shown in the Vedas, by which one can attain union and realization of the universal principle. She also explains the proper system of worship.

The Devi Gita is comprised of twelve chapters included within the Seventh Skanda, or Book, of the Srimad Devi Bhagavatam, from Chapters 29-40. This is the first time that a translation and transliteration of the Devi Gita has been made, and the text includes the original sanskrit, along with transliteration and commentary.

This translation has remained extremely faithful to the Sanskrit and is of tremendous importance as an exposition of the various classical philosophies of India, culminating in a thorough explanation of the philosophy of the goddess-from Nyaya and Sankhya, through the Tantras to Vedanta.

Julie Victor-India West Magazine, April 23, 1993

This is a work that is very empowering as we approach the 21 century.The more Light there is the healthier our planet will be. It is an ancient practice made available through Swami Radha's dedication, devotion and spiritual search. She gives very clear, articulate and eloquent explanation of how to do the practice. She calls on us to know from our own experiences and to grow into Light. My life, my daily experiences and my relationships have been enriched because of Swami Radha's book.

Working with the Divine Light Invocation has changed my life, and this book presents clear instructions for how to do the invocation. It also includes the history of the Divine Light Invocation and questions by students and answers by the author. This book is essential for anyone interested in bringing more light into their lives.