India Books

I read this book and was blown away. Incredible stories, unbelievable, awe inspiring to say the least. This book describles stories of very sick people trying urine fasts, as a last resort, after years of traditional medical treatment and healing whatever ails them. I would also recommend "Your own perfect medicine" by Martha Christy and "the golden fountain" by coen van der kroon, two books I also read about urine therapy. I have done a few urine fasts and they really work to help you lose weight and junk in your body.

The universe keeps gifting us with blessings and we often miss them. Our education or culturization gets in the way. I really think the best things in life are free. The Water of Life by John Armstrong is a beginning, an opening door, that will hopefully change opinions. The cases presented are not only interesting they are convincing. My biggest complaint, is that there are not enough specifics for implementing. e.g. For application to the head/hair. How long should it remain on the hair. Should the hair then be shampooed, or just rinsed?

My fear has flown out the window, I'm convinced. Very easy to read guidelines for applying urine therapies, with testimonials.

It's very useful both for ill people but also for the others !
I recommend it !
Thanks !

THE WATER OF LIFE : A Treatise on Urine Therapy by John W. Armstrong. Saffron Walden, Essex : The C. W. Daniel Co.Ltd., 2nd Edition 1971, Twelfth Impression, 1998.

Since its first publication in 1945, 'The Water of Life' has achieved something of the status of a classic. Having just finished reading it, I can understand why. Armstrong, who was a British naturopath, was a very modest man who never intended to write his book. But after repeated requests, and after considering that he had a duty to his fellow men and women to reveal the details of the miraculous therapy he had discovered, he went ahead, and we should all be intensely thankful that he did. The book is a goldmine of good sense, practical advice, brief though fascinating case studies, and astute observations on a wide range of matters.

His discovery - or perhaps rediscovery is a better word, since urine therapy was and is known and practised in many cultures and is even known to the animals - came about in a curious way. As a young man he suffered from consumption, had been passed through the hands of a whole slew of orthodox medical practitioners, none of whom had been able to cure him, and some of whom made his condition worse.

But he seems to have been a religious man, and one day, while pondering Proverbs V.xv : "Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well," he had a flash of inspiration which led him to link this passage with a few tales he'd heard about the curative properties of urine. Could this reference to "waters," he wondered, be a reference to the body's own water - urine? Having nothing to lose, he decided to give it a try.

He began drinking his own urine, was restored to health, and went on to lead a vigorous and productive life by helping to restore the health of many others, both human and animal. Incidentally, one of the interesting features of his book, which indicates something of his kindly and unselfish nature, is that he has included a Chapter XVI 'Urine-Therapy on Animals.'

In 'The Water of Life' he has provided details of the threefold 'urine fast' method he worked out, details which will be found enough to go on by mature adults of average intelligence who have a bit of common sense.

The most important point to understand, which he emphasizes throughout, is that one should NEVER attempt to use or ingest any substance other than urine and pure water - whether chemicals, drugs, alcohol, denatured foods, etc., - when undergoing a urine fast or 'penance' as he liked to call it.

The whole idea is to allow NATURE to take her course with as little interference from us as possible. A fast of urine and pure water, plus frequent, lengthy, and thorough urine massages, and, if necessary, the application of urine compresses, would, he felt, cure pretty well anyone of almost anything if undertaken long enough for the body to rid itself of toxins.

Armstrong's 'The Water of Life' is a very rich book, crammed with fascinating and useful information, and interwoven with brief case histories of almost every conceivable ailment. I couldnt even begin to do justice here to the wealth of ideas it contains.

Four books on urine therapy are currently available : those of Armstrong, Martha Christy, Coen van der Kroon, and Flora Peschek-Bohmer. Of these, the Peschek-Bohmer may be ignored as being both superficial and highly misleading on essential matters. The remaining three all serve to complement each other in different ways, with one providing what the other lacks or hasn't gone into as fully.

The serious practitioner would be unwise to overlook Armstrong. True, his is an early book and we know more about the actual constituents of urine and how it does its work today. But he was a unique character, and in his own way he was a very wise man, and I think he will always have a lot to teach us all.

Vaswani's creative honesty and descriptive genius make these sojourns memorable. Like dreams one cannot forget, the residual allegorical power of the situations you experience linger on long after all the pages have been turned. From stark reality to the fantastic, Vaswani's range touches on various levels of human existence - the mundane to the spiritual. Waiting for more.

Readers who love the short story will enjoy discovering this exciting young writer. The stories have a wide range - magical realism with roots in (East)Indian mythology, funny and realistic depictions of the tensions, misunderstandings, and strong ties within intergenerational Indian immigrant families - but all are almost compulsively readable. The pages fly by, and you will find yourself laughing out loud. Resonant with some of your favorite Indian authors, but an authentically new and hard to categorize American voice.

What separates this book from the pack and makes it a must-read is the multifaceted power of the writing. Vaswani is functioning on a literary level, eschewing easy plotlines and trite constructions, and yet the reader gets soundly pulled into each and every story in the same tidal way children sit rapt at the unfolding of a fable. Vaswani follows the truth of the human heart, regardless of the borders it may cross or the many ways it may find to love.
Many of the stories have land-mine lines or images that--spearing out from the artfully crafted exposition or the colossally detailed exposures of character--bury themselves hilt-deep in the reader: a passing reference to a lumpectomy, an innocent question about the demonic nature of higher education. It is moments like these that had me placing the book back on top of the pile when I was done, ready to read it again almost immediately.

Anyone who appreciates the economy and power of the short story form should buy and read this book which is astonishing in its historical, cultural, geographic and stylistic range. Many of the stories, but especially the first two, are an eerie blend of myth and modernity. The reader must speculate on how much they were adaptations from what the author, whose parents are Indian and Irish, read or heard as a child and how much they were creatures of her own wondrously bizarre imagination. Modern stories, except those intended for children, are rarely animistic. These are feistily complex fables for adults who understand the continuum between humans and the rest of the sentient world. "Twang (Release)" has to be one of the zaniest and zenniest titles for a short story (or long, complex dream) ever invented. I found a word I'd never seen before --"marcelled". Are these marshalled waves, or marceauvian waves that mime movement as Vaswani's narrative mimes the crazed logic of fantasy? "The Excrement Man" is as rich in incongruity as the others; the core story is more linear than the first two, although it too has many hallucinatory gambols and gambles. "Sita and Mrs Durbar" is a sad but lovely piece, more manic in subject than style. "Five Objects in Queens" is a suite of vignettes with a common cast, chronological structure, and disconcerting counterpoint -- foreboding continuum under light motifs. I imagine that these Queens stories are more autobiographical than the others, if only for the direct Irish Indian references, but they may be just more miracles of Vaswani's endlessly fertile imagination. "Bing-Chen" offers other ethnically diverse insights, notably the sweet wistful lust of a self-conscious Asian boy who watches prom girls being shorn, before his own hair mixes on the floor with theirs. "Domestication of an Imaginary Goat" is a tour-de-force unraveling of a relationship, interwoven with nostalgic yearning for ways of life lost to political and migratory vagaries. "The Rigors of Dance Lessons" half as long as the other stories in this collection, and even more, well, rigorous, recounts an intense flamenco session, ineptness, disdain and reconciliation. Vaswani's cultural range is especially impressive in another Iberian piece, "Bolero,"which draws together the Basque ethonological landscape and vivid musical metaphors. One could quarrel with Bernstein's equivalency, cited here, between movement and sentence. Why is not the musical movement equivalent to a chapter or to a multi-themed, multiple layered Vaswani story? "The Pelvis Series" takes us into yet other areas of expertise, to paleontology and primate research, and an engaging character, Lola Bonobo, blurring the boundaries of what is human. "An Outline of No Direction" is a clever, telegraphic exercise in subjective geography: four parts follow cardinal directions, disintegrating our vast country; the fifth part is a pebbly reintegration. Vaswani transcends this surface structure with the language and density of reported incident. The last piece "Blue Without Sorrow" is another mysterious migration-and-myth, life-and-death story, marrying (somehow) Mexico and India, peasants and peanuts and literary escapes.

This is Neela Vaswani's first book, but her unique voice is already beyond "enormously promising." I can't recommend it highly enough and I just can't wait for her second.

A fireworks display of language and form: this is a stunning debut!

I liked this book for several reasons: it provided a chronological overview; explained the meaning of the Indian ritual; showed the logic behind the architecture of the Hindu temple; showed the importance of the mirroring of the outer into the inner in Indian thought. I believe I understand the esoteric aspects of Vedic spirituality much better after reading this book. I found it very enjoyable!

I liked this book because it is off the beaten track in highlighting the essentials of Indian civilization. It is a small book, but full of surprising insights.

Enjoying reading this panoramic introduction to India and her spiritual heritage!

In this essay Kak covers all the fundamental facets of the Indic tradition. He sheads light on previously misconcieved notions of the European view of India. A must read for any Indian. An enriching educational experience! The book was based off of lectures I saw @ Stanford.

'Subhash Kak presents what is arguably the most complete, articulate and up-to-date overview on the entire Indic tradition. More notably, he speaks not from a dry academic standpoint but from one in contact with the very soul and spirit of the culture. His panoramic view covers spirituality, science, linguistics and history, making clear India's important role in world civilization past, present and future. He dispels the many current distortions and misinterpretations of India, the cobwebs of colonial and Eurocentric thinking, and reveals her vast civilization in its true light. Everyone interested in India and in human civilization will be fascinated and transformed by his many-sided insights. They will never look at India again in the same way.' This is how David Frawley describes the book and I believe that is a fair assessment. The book is based on lectures at Stanford and California universities.

This book shows the life of what the sisters of charity do and it is excellent. I say the pictures here touch your heart. Seeing all these pictures of the lives of the Sisters of Charity and Mother Theresa are great. Looking at what they do is more touching that just hearing it.

This is an assemblege of photography of Mother Teresa and her nuns doing their work in various locations around the world. Picture speak a thousand words, and this book gives a true sense of the daily works they do.

Collopy's volume on Mother Teresa is a spiritual journey even for the atheist. The compassion, humility and love that was Mother Teresa and lives on in the work of her Sisters is caringly portrayed in Michael Collopy's book. You see a rare side of Mother Teresa whose warm smile could light up a room. Collopy adds a tremendous dimension with his own recollections of speciifc instances noted in his photogrpahs. His own spiritual depth and the impact that Mother Teresa had on his life is apparent.

I am a photography major at Purdue University. I have the book and believe that Michael Collopy is a brilliant photographer. If there is anyone out there who knows how I can get in touch with him, please let me know. I want to do a report on him for one of my classes.

Collopy's volume on Mother Teresa is a spiritual journey even for the atheist. The compassion, humility and love that was Mother Teresa and lives on in the work of her Sisters is caringly portrayed in Michael Collopy's book. You see a rare side of Mother Teresa whose warm smile could light up a room. Collopy adds a tremendous dimension with his own recollections of speciifc instances noted in his photogrpahs. His own spiritual depth and the impact that Mother Teresa had on his life is apparent.

At a mere 323 pages, I was eager for an even more in-depth study of the blazing hot market for South Asian snow-removal technology. Surely there's more to explore. For example, why not include the riding variety? We can only hope that will come in volume 2!

That said, after reading it, I'm seriously considering starting a Mumbai-based snow-thrower franchise. I think snowmobiles and muk-luks and anoraks (using traditional Indian fabrics, of course) are also going to be part of the business.

This six-year outlook may seem at first to be a juicy treat for only those investing in the snow-filled regions of the Indian subcontinent. However, I have found it of lasting value in the fluff and blow business across the Americas as well. Non-riding dual-stage attachment-free snow blower consumers are a tight bunch of enthusiasts and businesses, and groups in the Americas keep an eye on Asia to hint at trends for next year's hot items. The projected drop in diesel kilohp snow blowers in urban Kandahar starting in 2009 is sure to have repercussions through 2011 in the Alps and Andes regions. Luckily, consumers aren't tapped into these high-quality niche datafeeds, or the bottom would drop right out of our futures. A must-have.

I am an ever-procrastinating Christmas shopper. But this year, I need not wait any longer. This book will make THE perfect stocking stuffer for EVERYBODY on my list!

I've recently said to my wife, "It seems like all people talk about anymore is the latent need for improved snow management in the southern hemisphere. You can't walk into a coffee shop, a barber shop, a grocery store nowadays without overhearing somebody gabbing about this issue!"

I am ordering a dozen. At only $495, I can't imagine they'll be able to keep these things on the shelves! Who knows, I may even e-bay a couple of them down the road to pay for my children's college educations. Thank you, Phil Parker.

This is an absolute must-have for anyone who's considering getting into the snow-blower business on the subcontinent. As a bonus, it's a real page-turner with an engaging plot line, colorful subplots, and a double-twist ending that keep you on the edge of your seat to the very last page!

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a unique person.
He was a respected philosopher and statesman.
He wrote several excellent works concerning Eastern and Western Philosophy and Religion.
He served as President of India.
He was a deeply spiritual man who tried to bridge Eastern and Western thought and cultures.
Can you imagine such a deep spiritual thinker as this in our own White House? Wouldn't that bring a golden age of peace and enlightenment?
Oh well. It won't happen here in the land of violence and materialism.
Anyway, this book is outstanding. Radhakrishnan was an excellent scholar and had deep spiritual insights. He reminds me, in some ways, of Alan Watts who was a sound scholar as well as a mystic. If you want an excellent discussion of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism and their interrelationships, read this book.

a comparision of eastern religions and their influence on western thought

a comparision of eastern religions and their influence on western thought

One of the best books on a philosophical discussion of various religions of the world. The author is probably the most respected philosopher who bridged the gaps in Eastern and Western philosophy.

This is a great book if you're planning a trip to India with children aged 4-11, or if you've been to India with them and you want to help them recapture the experience. (I'm not sure what children who have no other connection to India would make of it.)

My son is four and loves the book in spite of all the text. He's been to India, and so have his parents. The wonderful jumble of drawings (mostly quite accurate--must have been either on-site or from a good photo collection) and collage is captivating enough that I think most youngsters would be capable of sitting through the lengthy text, though the diary format is a little awkward for reading aloud. There are occasional minor inaccuracies (the library review above correctly points out the "puja" problem... but then, this book doesn't pose as an encyclopedia entry), but as children's books on India go, this one's on the more accurate side of the scale. What's most impressive is the girl's eagerness to meet children from another place, culture, and economic class. She makes friends in a way that seems genuinely non-judgemental. (She and her family chat with a poor pavement dweller in Calcutta, an incense worker in Mysore, a fruitseller on the beach in Goa...)

This is a great book! My son is 9 years old and went to India a couple of years ago. This book vividly brought back all his memories. What I liked best was that even though it is not written by an Indian, it is so authentic. The illustrations are just great! I highly recommend it.

India is a large and diverse country, the home of many ancient and interesting cultures. This book is the travel dialog of a young girl named Anni as she travels through India with her mom and dad. They travel by train, bus, camel and elephant. There are many illustrations and they illustrate the daily street life of India. You see people bathing in the Ganges River, carts being pulled by oxen, people cooking their food in the streets, street vendors hawking their wares, children at school under a tree, and the clothes that the Indians wear. What was most interesting were the pictures of products they encountered in India. Postage stamps, matches, cameras, railway tickets, lottery tickets, honey, fireworks, fabrics, hotel receipts and other products that I did not recognize.
An excellent introduction to India written for young people, this book demonstrates some of the variety and vitality of a country whose culture was old when the first white people landed in North America.

This is a great book! My son is 9 years old and went to India a couple of years ago. This book vividly brought back all his memories. What I liked best was that even though it is not written by an Indian, it is so authentic. The illustrations are just great! I highly recommend it.

I love "India Style". This book is really a fantastic book about incorporating Indian design into almost every home. I found a lot of inspiration here. It is currently the best book on Indian decorating that I own. The photographs are beautiful and colorful, and the text is informative and engaging. I especially liked the fact that homes from all walks of Indian life were featured, not just palaces and luxury hotels. There are also photos of non-Indian homes where the owners have been influenced by Indian design and really allowed their imagination to run wild.

The only drawback to buying this book I've found is that I now have the irresistable urge to paint my house in bright colors and hop a plane to India to go on a shopping spree. Consider yourself warned!

I'll just make this short and sweet for this short and sweet book. I only wish it had more pages! Inspirational style... if you like bohemian luxury, Indian decor is for you. Get this book to get your ideas rolling with colors, textures, textiles, furniture. Eye candy!

This book is excellent for those seeking to add a little Indian Influence into the room. Most pictures focus on living room or bedroom areas. However, there are ideas for almost every area. One thing I admired about this book was the use of various color schemes. They show ideas for bold colors like blues and purples and other room designs for quiter elegance such as cremes and beiges. There is something for everyone with a little fondness of Indian Style!

This book has beautiful photographs of both interiors and exteriors. Most elements of this style, as shown in this book, can be translated by people wanting to incorporate India style into their home. The book tells you which design elements in each photo represent India Style. This book brings India style into the present while still paying homage to the past.

Like other books in the Architectual & Design Library series, this book is great for people who are just starting to explore a style and/or people who want to add a book representative of a style to their collection.

I recommend this book to everyone.

An excellent overview of what it is to be Asian American in America today. Joann Lee writes beautifully and puts you in touch with the individual struggles and victories of her subjects. A must read.

This book by Joann Lee is an excellent book on Asian-Americans. It tells the life stories of Asian-Americans without so much stereotypical baggage found elsewhere.

It shows Asian-Americans as people. Instead of the shallow, stereotypical views found in the movies, it gave me a deeper view of what it feels like and means to be a person of Asian descent living in America. And it does so honestly. It gives the reader a view into a very intimate but often overlooked part of life in America.

I recommend this to all who are interested in this topic.The book reads well and easily.

Enjoy!

This book provided many personal accounts of Asian Americans. The people and their experiences are very different from one another, but they are all considered as one category 'Asian American' perhaps because of similar social problems they've encountered living in america. The accounts portrayed truthfuly, and give an honest look at racism and prejudice, and the complexity of the issue. very inspiring

Studs Terkel meets Asian America. The author, affiliated with Queens College at the time the book was compiled, records oral histories from first through fourth generation Asian Americans from China, Cambodia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, and Pacific Islands. (Chinese immigrants began to officially arrive in 1848; they were not allowed to apply for citizenship until 1943. Japanese and Koreans were not allowed citizenship until 1952; Filipinos and Asian Indians beat them by six years) These histories are grouped into three major section: Living In America; Americanization; and Refections on Interracial Marriage. In "Living In America", selections include Will Hao on being a true Hawaiian, and Andrea Kim on being born and raised in Hawaii, but not being Hawaiian. Sam Sue, a Chinese American lawyer, talks about growing up bitterly in Clarksdale Mississippi during a time of segregation. The Americanization section includes stories of escape and exodus, the bumpy road of acculturation, 3 stories just on run-ins with traffic cops (driving while Asian), and over 9 stories on Americanization, racism, tension, being Asian versus being American, and even on being a minority within a minority. Cao O discusses life as an ethnic Chinese in Vietnam and being Chinese-Vietnamese in America and dealing with social service agencies in Chinatown that is staffed by Hong-Kong born Chinese. In "No Tea, Thank You", Setsuko K. discusses the subtleties between the generations, such as politeness and their hidden meanings (when "no" means "yes", and "yes" means "no"). In a sub-section of nine stories about family, Cao O discusses the idea of `obligation', while Hideo K talks about the "Company as Friend". Tony Ham discusses Mah-Jonng as a family social focus. In a sub-section on religion, there is an interesting piece on Koreans and church membership. In one of eight stories on "Interracial Marriage", Jody Sandler writes talks about "So He's Not a Jewish Doctor", in which a 23 year old Woodmere Long Island Five Town girl marries an Asian America and faces pressures from family and friends, and contrasts Tony's values with those she grew up with in Five Towns.

This is an excellent book to understand the theoretical basis of Ayurvedic medicine. The complexity of Ayurveda's theory is often overlooked for its knowledge of herbs and diet. Vasant Lad's "The Science of Self-Healing: A Practical Guide..." is very useful for such practical information; anyone wanting a quick perusal of what Ayurveda can offer should consult his book.
For those already familiar with Ayurveda or medicine, however, this book opens your mind. His writing style is excellent (certainly a higher level than Vasant Lad's books), but very engaging and easy to read. I do not know how to describe his style (you should look at excepts), but he takes you through every aspect of Ayurvedic medicine, starting with the fundamentals. Almost like a narrative, he tells the story of the Ayurvedic view of the human being and the universe, thus illustrating what the Ayurvedic philosophy means.
One criticism I have is that he does not cite his references. This is particularly problematic when he refers to "recent discoveries" or what "modern science" says; he has a bibliography, but that mostly contains books pertinent to Ayurveda. Also, some of the comparisons he makes to allopathic medicine and anatomy are questionable, such as the existence of a deposit of magnetic metal in the frontal bone of the skull. As a student at a US medical school, I would advise to take some of these comparisons with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, he is familiar with the ideas and theory behind allopathic medicine, and he makes thought-provoking comparisons to the Ayurvedic system.

I highly recommend this book to those who want a further understanding of the philosophy that is Ayurveda.

Excellent introduction to the subject by one of the foremost practitioners and teachers of Ayurveda in the western world. highly recommended

If you want to understand the history of Ayurveda and the basic concepts of this science of life, read this book. I'm presently reading several ayurveda books and this one has impress me very much with its clarity and Dr. Svoboda way of writing. There are other great books on this subject by Dr. Vasant Lad.

This is indispensable for serious students.