An insightful, detailed look at kirtan chanting and Bhakti yoga.
A Canadian Bhakti yoga teacher and founder of a Nova Scotia yoga retreat offers an in-depth debut guide to the Indian chanting practice of kirtan.
In the mid-1970s, the 28-year-old author experienced a spontaneous spiritual awakening that inspired her lifelong pursuit of yogic chanting. Her book explains how to chant Hindu names and mantras and how to set up a kirtan chanting group with a leader and musicians. Prabha intersperses insights she’s gained from a lifetime of practice with personal anecdotes illustrating particular points. For example, she emphasizes in great detail the seemingly exceptional benefits of chanting: “If anger or worry overwhelms you,” she writes, “wield the great sword of chanting and swiftly annihilate it.” During kirtan chanting, she says, some devotees reach soaring heights of trance-induced ecstasy. She tells of one occasion when she chanted with one of her teachers, Swami Gyanananda, and she started dancing complex Indian dance moves that she could have only known through years of study, including intricate figures that experienced Bharata Natyam dancers recognized. In mostly clear and engaging prose, she reveals many of the philosophical underpinnings of Bhakti yoga and offers an interesting, detailed exploration of the relationship between Sanskrit sacred chants and various aspects of “the divine.” Overall, this book offers a thorough introduction to its subject. For example, it delves into Hindu sacred texts to talk about Hindu deities, their attributes, and stories that reveal their characters, their significance, and how, through chanting, devotees can realize the divine in themselves. The author also stresses the importance of correct Sanskrit pronunciation, including a pronunciation guide and glossary.
An insightful, detailed look at kirtan chanting and Bhakti yoga.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9939498-1-4
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Shining Bay Books
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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