A dense, multifaceted book about the unseen forces in the universe.
Hariramsait reveals the yogic structures of the cosmos in this debut spiritual work.
Like many thinkers before him, the author argues that man need not wallow in ignorance: “Perfection or enlightenment is within the reach of all of humanity and only ignorance” is what “veils or clouds our mind...the Yogi in deep contemplation is able to remove and transcend all veils and thus transcends all planes and dimensions and therefore is beyond dream and reality, life and death.” Hariramsait takes the reader through a spiritual history of the world, one plumbed from the ancient texts of India as well as from the Bible, the writings of Carl Sagan, ancient astronaut theories, and many other varied sources. It is a story of men that stood 100 feet tall and lived for 100,000 years; of cloning performed by Sage Vyasa 5,500 years ago; of ancient spaceships and floating cities; of a future where teleportation will become the dominant form of travel (“Utilising one’s own body to perform teleportation is the safest manner possible for the Lord Himself says in the ‘Sri Shiva Gita’ that among all of creation, the human body is the most perfect, complex and wonderful of them all”). The book begins with a lengthy synopsis that introduces the author’s worldview, followed by a list of 205 concepts that are then discussed in detail, building to a brief conclusion. This syncretic work is exceedingly dense: while Hariramsait makes an effort to cite in text (or at least reference) the many sources from which his material is gleaned, the ideas pile up on each other in a way that makes it difficult to follow his train of thought for more than a few lines. He includes neither footnotes nor a bibliography, so the reader is left without any means of verifying his claims. Because this is a spiritual book, the burden of proof is essentially nonexistent; even so, it’s hard to imagine any but the most open-minded reader being persuaded by Hariramsait’s arguments. While great emphasis is placed on meditation and the rejection of worldly distractions, there is little practical instruction for those interested in pursuing such activities. There is much here to stimulate the spiritually curious mind, but the soupy prose and unintuitive structure will likely turn away many readers.
A dense, multifaceted book about the unseen forces in the universe.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4828-6946-0
Page Count: 310
Publisher: PartridgeIndia
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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