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Aesthetic Vedanta : The Sacred Path of Passionate Love'

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There are many books in this store that talk about spiritual love in its highest form, the cosmic dance between the lover and beloved and their passage through stages of separation and union. One of my favorites is the Essential Rumi. To this collection, and in my humble opinion, to the forefront comes this remarkable work by Swami Tripurari. In it he tells the sacred love story of Radha and Krishna, who personify the transcendental forms of the highest potential of the human soul and God respectively, seeking nothing other than merging in love on the level where divinity and humanity fully embrace one another. There are so many excellent topics in this book to contemplate that on numerous occasions while reading it I decided I would go back to school and do research on several of them. For example, Vedanta was never associated for me with eccological wisdom, nor have I seen much written about it. In this book, the divine play of Radha and Krishna occurs in the fields and forests where animals roam, transforming everything into a sacred sanctuary. It is in one sense an inspiring message of love for the Earth. But it is the unbridled, unconditional love of the mystics of this tradition that stands out the most. Their urge to tread this path comes not from obligation, necessity, fear, need of security, or desire for material gain, rather from a deeply spiritualized erotic impulse fueled by tangible visionary experience of the Absolute. Their's is an experience of, for lack of better words, pure beauty. The nectar of this beauty emenates from every page of Swami's work.

This book is guaranteed to deeply affect all who read it. It is a book about the greatest love story ever told. Over the centuries poets have written about it, story tellers have captivated untold numbers with it, painters have filled their canvasses with beautiful images of it, and now we all have access to it through this wonderful book written by Tripurari Swami who brings this story to life like no other can, having immersed himself in the life of love that the book is all about. The book is divided into three distint sections. The first section sets the stage and gives the reader the necessary philosophical background in order to fully appreciate the story. The second section is dedicated to the Rasa-lila itself, the dance of love depicted in the Bhagavata Purana. It is so wonderfully written that you will find yourself literally becoming part of the story as you read it. The final section of the book explains how the Rasa-lila story relates to a life of devotion and spiritual practice that culminates in the development of divine love within the sincere praticioner.

I have spent four years studying Vedanta from a number of tradtitions, including Buddhism (which although technically not Vedic contains within it Vedic principles such as reincarnation) Advaita Vedanta, and a few standard Gaudiya Vaishnava texts.This book is not only the most comprehensive presentation of the highest conclusions of Vedanta but is also offered with the sincere sensitivity necessarry to truly understand such a simultaneously simple and complex theology.