India Books

This is one of the best books I've read. MT's insight to the events in Mahabharatha is amazing. He explains very clearly the loose ends and grey areas in the epic. He suceeds in bring out the man in Bhima, who is otherwise viewed as a strong gaint warrior who is portrayed in the epic as a glutton with a dumb charector. In this we see the emotional side of it. The sorrow of the man who sees the Pandavas rejoicing when his eldest son,Kadolkacha is killed.Just because he was a rakshas and Karna used up his secret weapon on him which makes Arjuna safe. This book bring out the true colors of a lot of charectors whom we usually consider as gods. This book is truely revolutionary which makes MT one of my favourite author

A radical approach in interpreting 'the silences of Vyasa' when he narrated the epic Mahabharatha, the 'Second Turn' ('Randamoozham' for those who know Malayalam) describes the events taking Bhima, the second of the Pandavas as the pivotal point. For those who like to view things differently, MT offers a real feast for thought. A must read!

Even though he never made it to Lhasa, which was off-limits to outsiders when this book was written, Secret Tibet is the most informative & insightful book on Tibet's history, culture & religions I have ever read, a rich & rewarding experience, the best of all books I've read on Tibet (& I believe I've read them all). Fosco Maraini was an exceptional human being, compassionate, highly intelligent, & he wrote with poetic elegance. He was a top ethnologist, a skilled photographer, an expert mountain climber and above all, an extraordinary human being with an amazing understanding of human behavior at all levels. All of his books should be in print & read. He wrote extraordinary books on Mountain Climbing, Pearl Divers in Japan, & above all, on Japan: Meeting With Japan, one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I recommend him to anyone & everyone. You'll never regret reading him.

I have read a lot of books about the old days in Tibet, and this is the best, despite the fact that Maraini never went to Lhasa, the holy grail of most adventurers in those days. But Mariani made no attempt to accompany his employer, the famous Tibetologist Giuseppi Tucci. Tucci claimed to be a Buddhist in order to be allowed to visit Lhasa, and Maraini wasn't a Buddhist (and suggests that Tucci wasn't either) and so chose not to try to trick or bully his way in to the capital. That alone makes him more admirable, in my book, than most of the arrogant Europeans who took it for granted that it was their God-given right to poke their noses into other people's cultures any way they could.

Maraini actually travelled in Tibet on two different occasions, 1939 and 1948, and telescopes both visits in this book, although most of it is based in the 1948 trip. As an Italian, and a highly cultured European, he has a somewhat more sympathetic view of Tibet than English and American writers. He compares Tibet not to Nebraska but to Florence, the Italian Alps, Italian Catholicism, and the Vatican. While Tibet was medieval, in many ways Catholicism in the 30s and 40s could also be called medieval. Maraini thinks like a man of science, but he knows the mind of Italian peasants as well, and an old woman repeating a mantra is not so different from an old woman in Italy saying her own rosary. So there is a lot of sympathy in his view.

He is also clear-sighted. He does not like dirt and smells, for example, and when he describes the Tibetans, he doesn't pretend not to notice the level of filth. He admires Buddhism, but not so much that he loses objectivity. Underground chapels which contain animal carcasses stuffed with straw and rotting away and artwork filled with skulls, human bones and bloody images horrify him, and he says so.

He also conveys a wonderful sense of the beauty, the air, the silence, the scale and scope of the Tibetan land. His book is about people and events, which he describes with piercing insight and analysis. He describes faces and bodies in terms of the character they reveal. He doesn't fill pages with descriptions of ornery porters and bad trails. Instead he takes the hardships of travel for granted and describes the personality and character of every person, mountain, monastery, dance, and meal. The fact that he was not hell-bent for Lhasa allows him to be present in each place that he visits.

Because he is along on the trip as a photographer, he observes the art intensely. His writing is vivid, poetic but not pretentious, and the translation from the Italian is flawless, at least as English style goes. You would never imagine that you are reading a translation.

Maraini also had another advantage that makes him the perfect travel companion--he lived and taught in Japan in the years between his first and second trips to Tibet (because WW2 had broken out and he got stranded there) so he can see Tibet not only as it appears to a European but also in the greater context of Asia.

The updates that contrast the Tibet he saw and the Tibet of 1998 are saddening but give even richer context to the story. He intersperses these at the end of each chapter, so you don't have to try remember which monastery or city he is talking about. The book is skillfully edited so that the three time periods involved flow smoothly into one fascinating narrative.

I am eager to read Maraini's other works, because he is a man of great insight, an open heart and a clear mind.

This book is one of the best I have ever read. It is not about postures, it is about the way to take care of your body and your health. It is chock full of information on how to improve your health in a variety of ways (some of which you can begin while you are reading the book), and many of which are very painless! From breathing, to chewing, to what to eat, to sunning, to ventilation, to bathing, to fresh air, to exercise and so on, he gives you fantastic advice for improving your health and your life. And he also explains WHY you should do the different things, and how they affect your body.

An absolute gem of a book; most highly recommended!

This is an excellent guide to the Hatha Yoga way of life in all its aspects of health and well-being. You don't have to practice yoga positions to benefit from the wisdom and practical suggestions of this book. Just something as small as breathing correctly can change your whole physiology. I found this book to be very helpful in my overall goal to making a temple of my body as a way to aid my spiritual growth.

This book of poems is destined to become a modern masterpiece. The book has two parts: the first deals with the author's memories of Kashmir; the second describes landscapes of the mind. Kak has been called India's finest poet and while this book does not reach the level of his Hindi collection Ek Taal, Ek Darpan, it is an excellent introduction of his poetry to the English reader. Highly recommended!

This is an important book of poems by India's foremost poet. The book remembers Kashmir and it describes other imagined worlds that make it possible for us to relate to reality. Should be read with Kak's Hindi book Ek Taal, Ek Darpan.

BEAUTIFUL BOOK AND IN GOOD CONDITION. THANK YOU.

This magical book of beguiling photos and writing seduced me with the beauty of the world its authors captured. These aren't just colorful shots of India, but shots and text so vivid that I felt as if I were partaking in this "masti," the Indian philosophy which Bloch describes at one point as not so much seizing the day as letting the day seize you. I've been to India, but with Bloch and Bijleveld as guides, I felt I could move beyond the "rich surfaces" of the place, as Bloch aptly calls them, to the treasure beneath. The very first picture takes us inside: we're looking through two doors, the first giving onto a courtyard where someone minds a child, the second into a room beyond where a squatting couple polish gem,stones in their primitive shop. Whether the pictures are of tea pickers at lunch, their babies in baskets by their sides, or a naked holy man or a stonecutter using the heels of his powdery feet to steady his saw, there's masti in every one. Bijleveld's colors, the warmth of his eye, the brazen light suffuse each scene with human feeling and fellowship, of the viewer and the viewed. Masti is in Bloch's stories of encounters with barbers and fishermen, hijra and Sufis. It's in his descriptions of a man's "driftwood" face, a sari enveloping a woman like "a pod," the "soothing growl" of the yoga master, the dance of old women who "brace their feet against their partner's, clasp each other's wrinkled hands, and lean back and start spinning, their gaunt arms fully extended." This isn't just a great holiday gift, it's a joyous holiday in itself.

IBEX has done the reading public a great service by reprinting this 1898 edition of a bilingual collection of Rumi's poems. The table of contents shows the wealth of material covered by this compact volume:

Preface
Introduction (includes biography of Rumi, Persian poetry, Sufism)
Addenda and Corrigenda
Selected Poems
Notes (over 100 pages)
Additional notes
Appendices
--I. Illustrative passages from the Divan with a list of the historical and autobiographical allusions
--II. Translations in verse
--III. Table showing where the Selected Poems occur in other editions of the Divan
--IV. Comparative table of passages quoted from the Masnavi
Indices
--I. Persian and Arabic
--II. English

The format with English translation facing Persian text is very helpful. The Persian text is partially vocalized, to a degree well suited to those who have an intermediate, but not advanced, knowledge of the language. Among other things, ezafes are shown, along with the vocalization of otherwise ambiguous forms such as "bovad" (a poetic form of 'to be') which has the same consonants as the much more common "bud" (simple past tense of 'to be'). Each poem begins with the name of the meter in Persian followed by a schematic representation of the meter using macrons and breves.

If you want to introduce yourself to some of the finest of Persian poetry in its original language, this is an excellent book to use.

Rumi's poetry, as brought to us by the brilliant and moving translations of Nicholson, represents one of the highest forms of mystical romantic outpourings. Like Fitzgerald/Khayyam, one is judging the poetic expression of Rumi through the translation of Nicholson. The end result is one of the most remarkable collection of poems, full of emotional impact, weighty with philosophical import. This book is not easy to find, so is a must-have for anyone interested in this subject.

Raphael says often: "It's very demanding and at the same time very easy." This also applies to this book. It explains the metaphysics of Vedanta, comments on traditional (Sanskrit-)terms: "The Drgdrsyaviveka (Drg = Spectator-observer; drsya = spectacle [the visible; the object of vision or knowledge]; viveka= discernment) is a rational discerning method for distinguishing between the Spectator [the seer; he who sees] and the spectacle (Self and non-self)." (p. 13)
For me personally it was not continuously easy to follow the text, to 'digest' the condensed knowledge.
It might be best to start with the last chapter 'Bibliographical Appendix', as there you find valuable hints about purpose und goal of the book as well as to HOW to read it:
"The only aim ... is to present the Advaita vision to those who are ready 'to spread their wings'. Those who are ready for this experience do not need elaborate or intricate reasonings or erudite treatises. The attentive disciple needs only a 'vision' to meditate upon and contemplate. ... Union and Identity with THAT can not occur upon rational basis or through intellectual knowledge. ... One must grasp the essence of a sutra in order to meditate upon it and then embody it. After which the sutra ... or the text may be thrown away because they have served their purpose as a stepping-stone."
While reading the book, on the one hand my mind has complained at times: "Uff, this material is really dry." But, on the other hand, when I then (nevertheless!) continued to read on, suddenly (just a few pages further on) it was as if a "wide space" opened up. With an "Aha!" of cognition a section (or sometimes just one sentence) appeared, that absorbed me totally. Here Raphael's hints provide a useful and very concrete(!) support for the practical transfer into life. And in the end - despite some lean times during the reading - I found myself really glad and grateful for having read this book. Important coherences have become clear. Thank you, Raphael!

I've been researching Advaita Vedanta for approximately 5 years now and this book is a well constructed exposition on the nature of maya and Being, it points out the relationship between subject/object and their transcendence, and discusses the 4 states of being explicated by the religio-philosophical system of Advaita Vedanta. Raphael makes an interesting analogy between the philosophies of plotinus and paramenades, demonstrating their similarities with Advaita Vedanta. Overall this was an extremely helpful book reguarding the nature of non-duality and how one may go about distinguishing between the being attributed to maya, the jiva, the apparent self of phenomenality....and Being, the absolute, the noumenal, our wholesome and inviolable Self.

A detailed and fascinating study of international trade and Safavid politics in the seventeenth century. I found it to be extremely well researched, drawing together evidence from Armenian and Persian documents, as well as European archival collections. The book chiefly focuses on the Armenian merchants who managed the export of silk from Iran to Europe, and the import of European silver back to Iran and India. It successfully demonstrates the crucial financial role these merchants played in the consolidation of the Safavid state in Iran, with comparisons to other outsiders financing the formation of absolutist states in Europe.

I found this book to be an excellent analysis of the a part of the Iranian economy during the Safavi period. Although it is slanted toward the Armenian minority and does not cover the whole economy, it provides a unique and preceptive view of a section of the economy that has been ignored. Aside from bringing to light the power of the Armenian minority in a hypothetically theocratic state, it will change the reader's preception of the economic, political and social sophistication of Iran and, in fact, the Middle East at the time of European expansion. The book is very well written and the analysis excellent. The absence of tables in the discussion of the volume of exports as given in different sources and and conversions of currency is sorely missed. Such tables would have made it considerably easier to compare the various references. However, this is minor in the general context of the book.

Lots of valuable suggestions on homemade remedies for all skin types plus a look into Shahnaz's herbal range of beauty products. A must read book.

This is not your typical skincare book. It is straightforward and uses old world remedies to solve your current problems. I have tried her products and her remedies and I have always received immediate results (plus wonderful comments from passerbys).
Review the book for yourself.

I recently read this book, to my amazement I was just glued into it because of few reasons. This book is simple, flowing smooth, truthfull and most importantly, it does not add the pepper and salt of mythical believes and myths about Buddha. This makes it a better ingredient for a very truthfull book on Buddha, I read it once and I will read many more times and I also gifted a copy of this book to a person I just met once....!, this is the very essence of Buddha's Dhamma.

Let us discuss about this book and why this book is in my recommendation list:

Lord Buddha, he is the only enlightened human who lived, preached and practiced nobel human service on this planet. Also, he was the only human who was made to god.

The rest of God's like Jesus chirst or Mohamad and other trillions of so called hindu gods are supposed or believed to be gods who came to this earth as humans and lived among humans as human to teach lessons to humans. If you believe in god, this is for someone who believes in god.

But for those who believe god or do not believe god, the truth is Buddha was neither god, nor he accepted God and he certainly did not expect to be worshiped as god.

Because of his highly enlightened status among humans and because of his incredbly powerful teachings and preachings to the well-being of the , people, society and all human kinds, they made him as god by adding all the mythical worshipping methods that are used in hinduism and in other traditions. This has mainly happened after Buddha's death and centuries of tradition after his death almost made the Human Buddha into a God, unbelievable.

For Book lovers, for knowledge seekers and for truth seekers and those who love to read books and for learners, a good and factual book can be a treasure. Along this line, if you want to learn and read about Lord Buddha, there are virtually millions of books available almost all over the world. Since Buddhism is the fastest growing beliefs even by westerners and europeans that is outside of the Buddha's own land of South East Asia and Asia, but books and activities about buddha are almost universally available at this present times.

But, there is a irony in picking up the right book on Buddha and Buddhism, almost 90% of the authors though write greatly about Buddha invariably incorporate mythical beliefs, re-birth, and other unscientific aspects about Buddha and Buddhism that Lord Buddha himself never taught or believed in it. Keeping this in view, finding that 10% of the books that talk about the greatest human ever lived on this eart, who gave us the most valueable tools like meditation, non-voilence, peace, love, harmony, justice, equality and what not can be daunting. Interstingly, this is one of such a truthfully written book about Buddha titled :Sakyamuni Buddha, a biography" by Nikkyo Niwano.

This Japanese author wrote several intersting and quality books on Buddha, he himself was a great Buddhist and a believer travelled widely in Asian countries including the Buddha's birth place in India.

Even this good Buddha writer Nikkyo adds up some pepper and salt of mythical beliefs in his writings about Buddha, but overall and to a greater extent this book is written in a very simple english language, with simple chapters flowing like a gracious and long lasting water falls that brings life to the flowing water, his writings bring a lively feeling to the reader as if you are hearing a story of a next door neigbour, this is actually the very essense of writing a book about great persons or great subjects and the author fullfilled that objectives, though Nikkyo died long time ago, his work's are greatly appreciated and admired by many.

Buddha, who's real name is Sakyamuni Goutama Buddha, the term "Buddha" was added later after his enlightenment. The truth is anyone who seeks and follows Buddha's teaching can become a Buddha, it does not mean that one must go to forest and waste once whole life in wandering meaninglessly, unless you dedicate to find out the truth by advanced meditation, but for the rest of us, simple practices and spreading Dhamma work can bring the Buddha from us to the world. Lord Buddha actually liked to be called as Thathagata, meaning one who attained the truth and came to spread it and came to deliver it and came to give it to the world.

How wonderful is Thathagata, the great and enlightened.

As you read his story, you will not ever feel like setting the book down for a minute, because it is so fascinating, so attractive and so kindling to your mind, he lived about 2500 years ago, at a time there was no science and certainly no brain science (neuroscience). However, Buddha, came out of his family supposed to be a Royal/king's family, he abandoned the kingdom his father build to live and understand the human life, especially a very ordinary "ascetic" (ascetics, are mostly lived alone without family, properties and people), they dedicated their lives in meditations and prayers. But, most of the ascetics had mythical believes unlike most of them and unlike his own teachers Buddha never believed in any myths and illogical things. So, he left the family to find out what is life, how one's mind work, imagine this was the time there was no science then how can one ask a question of life and mind?. Is in't this amazing, after several years of toil, chaning teachers, changing methodology of trying to learn and practice meditations, Buddha sharpened the meditation techniques available at that time and discovered his own techniques like Vipassana and other advanced meditation techniques that helps one to reach their mind to find out once sufferings and problems, kind of a stress reliever, you don't need to seek a medicine or a drug, except that a person is extremely ill and medicatio is the only cure or prevention. To the rest of us all, those who are having good health but sick mind due to so many stress and sufferings in life, Buddha found out ways to correct, improve and make a better living. This is just one of Lord Buddha's extensive service to the well being of humans, societies and the world.

To understand all those basic knowledge about Buddha one needs a simple book, this is not a scholarly book but for simple understanding of truth and background, a scholarly or philosophical book is not neccessary, but yet, this book can be quite useful to even scholars.

this book is not for advanced monks and well versed Buddhists because they might be reading the palicanon and the most authoritative Buddha's books in pali language, but nothing stop them to go through and see how much of the writings in this book reflects real Buddha....in any case, this is the book I advice for learners, newbies, those who do not know about Buddha, to students, to other religious people, to non god believers and to those who seek knowledge.

Do drop your comments, so that I can bring more Buddha's book to this column.

In Dhamma
Dr.Muni

One of the main problems Westerners have in beginning to understand Buddhism is lack of knowledge of the Buddha himself, Siddhartha Gotama. Most people don't realize that the Buddha had been raised as royalty, that he came from modern-day Nepal, and not from China or Japan, and that he nerver claimed to be a god, only "awake". This re-telling of the Buddha's life from the founder of the second-biggest Buddhist organization in Japan (www.rk-world.org), is both accessible and complete. Why do the Buddha's teaching still inspire and enlighten 2500 years after his death? This book will help anyone--Buddhist or otherwise--appreciate the power of the Buddha's message, and the compassionate nature of his personality. A great book for introducing the Buddha to friends and family, too.