Despite being labeled Volume 1, a robust resource of Indian spiritualism all on its own.
In this debut book, a woman recounts her life-changing experiences during three visits to India, using her time spent with several gurus to introduce the culture and lessons of Indian spiritualism.
At age 22, Ejlertsen was seemingly just starting her life as an electronics engineer in Copenhagen, but she already found herself struggling with depression. Then two separate events occurred—a never-before-experienced moment of clarity and a trip and fall that seemed somehow to occur in slow motion, outside her understanding of time and space. These incidents, along with meeting a guru in Denmark, led Ejlertsen to India in 1994. There, she studied under four gurus and saw a palm leaf astrologer, who, using her thumbprint, found a scroll that purported to divine the happenings of her life. She would discover her spiritual Master Chariji in 1995 and return to India on two more occasions. There, she gleaned much about the subcontinent’s rich history and Chariji’s specific form of transmission-based meditation, lessons she recounts in this, her second English edition of the book. Taking place over her 20-plus years of exploration of India’s spiritual culture, Ejlertsen’s work is not strictly a memoir. The first three chapters act as a thorough primer, introducing the ancient texts known as the Vedas, their supplementary Upanishads, the yoga sutras, and their connection to Hinduism, from its history to its practice. Palm leaf astrology is heavily examined, with the author’s own firsthand experiences giving a stirring and intimate view of the fortunetelling process. Much of the rest is made up of quotations from Chariji, and from his master, Babuji, charismatic gurus the author is clearly passionate about even if some of the breakdowns of their words seem dry in comparison. This is mitigated somewhat by the book’s own contention that its content need not be taken linearly. The work brims with useful supplemental resources, including extensive citations, black-and-white photographs and illustrations, locations and contact information for many of the gurus Ejlertsen encountered, and, most impressively, links and QR codes for a full multimedia experience.
Despite being labeled Volume 1, a robust resource of Indian spiritualism all on its own.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5246-6656-9
Page Count: 290
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
