Customer Reviews

Can You Listen to a Woman: A Man's Journey to the Heart

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What women does he listen to? Where is the evidence?

He tell us how important his relationships with Donna and Alicia are, but he does not let us see those relationships. He does not let the reader hear Donna, nor does he show himself listening to her. He tells us dramatically that Swami Radha talked to him and Donna and Alicia about the deeper possibilities of marriage, but he does not show those. The old rule in theater is that if you drag a cannon on stage, at some point in the play you have to fire it. He dragged in the cannon of possibility then never fired a shot.

Throughout the book he kept himself hidden, and his relationship with Donna, his wife, hidden, and his relationship with Alicia, his daughter, hidden, and his relationship with Swami Radhananda hidden--despite his praise for her in the dedication.

I look forward to the book he will write one day where he stands in the Divine Light and reveals the truth that can help all struggling on their Paths. I pray that when he has truly had a glimpse of the Goddess and seen the stars of enlightenment in her eyes, he will allow his ego to dissolve. Then that rock in his path will indeed fall apart and allow him to pass.

With great respect for his intent, I offer him, Prayers and best wishes.

I was very inspired by this book. Inspiration comes to me when I enter into a place of "spirit" and out of the day-to-day. David Forsee has shared such an intimate life experience that it was impossible not to have it touch my own life. It connected so quickly with me because it is an account of an ordinary man who is transformed by his willingness to see his own heart -- with the guidance of his teacher. His struggles in coming to terms with accepting his female guru helped me to gain perspective as a woman living and working in a man's world. I have discussed this book with a male friend who also found it very inspiring and insightful. If you are on your own journey to discover your divine nature and connection with spirit, you will find this book most helpful in understanding your own experiences through the experiences of David Forsee.

Can You Listen to a Woman is as moving an account of the soul's pilgrimage as I have ever read. It's honesty an courage come as a tonic in an age when spiritual "junk-food" is on the increase everywhere. I recommend it warmly to all who are really concerned about seeing more of the Light as they journey on. A compelling read.

Tom Harpur Author of Prayer: the Hidden Fire

On the front cover of David Forsee's book Can You Listen to a Woman? there is a startlingly beautiful photograph of Swami Sivananda Radha as a young woman. Her gaze is deep, direct and passionate, perhaps even urgent as if, already, at that young age there is something she must tell us, if only we will listen. In the title of the book David offers the reader the same challenge that was offered him by Swami Radha: Are you listening? Can you hear me? Can you hear the feminine Divine within your own heart? Can you lower your defences to allow the divine to show you who you really are? David offers us his own story, his personal experience with the many layers that lie under the surface of these questions. This is David Forsee's journey toward the spiritual self. Along the way, we meet him in his earlier life as the young man who loses both his parents in a car accident, as a radio journalist, a logger, and as a husband and a father, who is more surprised than anyone by his attraction to the spiritual life. We accompany him as his friendship with Swami Radha grows and as he and his family make their decision to move to Yasodhara ashram in the Kootenays of British Comubia. Eventually David becomes one of Swami Radha's renunciate desciples and is given the name Gopalananda. His new name reflects his potentail to reach higher conciousness by identifying with the spiritual growth of the youthful Krishna. Understanding that potential, is the struggle of his life. As Swami Gopalananda, David Forsee, the accomplished writer, the gifted spiritual diarist, and superb story teller, brings us into Swami Radha's presence through a candid, intimate look into his life with her. The story of Radha and Krishna and their painful separation is a pivotal theme of the book. In one form or another, separation from the beloved is the most poignant aspect in all our lives. In this ancient Hindu allegory, "Radha's separation from Krishna rapresents the separation of individual conciousness from Cosmic Conciousness." According to Swami Radha's teaching's each event in our lives has a purpose that must be understood if we are to make progress on the spiritual path. Seen that way, the longing that accompanies the loss of a mother or the separation from a beloved becomes the power, the sound of the flute that draws us back to the union with the Divine. The experience of loss, then, rather than building up resistance and defenses, becomes a gift with a purpose. Loss will occur over and over until we go deep enough to find out, "what we really need to know". Even the smallest events can be understood from the perspective of a Divine purpose for life. "Most of the time you haven't listened," was one of Swami Radha's final challenges to Gopalananda, as she prodded him to go deeper into his own knowledge, to listen to the feminine voice within. Perhaps that is the challenge to us all. There is much left unsaid in this story. Beneath the story lie many of the mysteries of yogic practice, and of the guru-desciple relationship, of the meaning of surrender, and of spiritual knowledge from past lives. References to the practice of the Light or the repition of mantra are, for the most part, left unexplained. Let these omissions be an enticement for the reader who is listening and has a desire to know more.

Seami Sivananda was a western woman who took sanyas at the age of 44 in the ancient tradition of Kundalini Yoga, and was encouraged to return to the West to share her teachings. Over the next 40 years, she and her followers established an ashram in British Columbia and many "Radha Houses" in several countries. Forsee became especially close to the master. This is the story of his spiritual development, and the story of his relationship with his beloved teacher. It is well written (journalism was Forsee's first career) and candid. From the unexpectedly sultry picture of a young Radha on the cover, to the stories of love between her and Krishna woven into a spiritually intimate relationship, the reader will delight in the simplicity of a very human tale full of both questioning and light revealed.

David tells of his journey from spiritual desert to lush valley, from ego to openess. In this journey the spirit most certainly moves in mysterious ways, it appears where least expected, challenges gender stereotypes, redefines identity and it relentlessly demands response. David's story inspires: it describes a radical transformation, paints a vivid portrait of a charismatic guru, and--perhaps most importantly--it is told with simple and unmistakable sincerity.

"Go back to the diaries. Read what's there. You must be able to see how far you've come." So the authors guru, Swami Radha, invoked her belief that wisdom and learning was a living process, to be documented, to be renewed. This compelling book is one result of those commands from and older, gentle woman whose ashram Forsee and his family moved to when he left his career as a CBC broadcast journalist. His diaries and memories chronicle an astonishing spiritual and emotional growth in this man, who trusted his teacher to elicit the feminine within himself. The spiritual path of yoga, for this "conventional" North American married man and father, would be no piece of cake. When he made the move to the Pacific Northwest ashram, he became, "uncertain about how to live a married life while trying to give attention to purpose for being here...a stronger sense of devotion in my life." With candor and his polished, reportorial skills, Forsee tells of his transformation, his increasing devotion to Swami Radha and her enlightened teachings, the new purpose for his editorial and production skills. He writes honestly of a three month vigil near the old beach house to reduce his male arrogance. "The weather was grey and sodden with wet snow and freezing rain. Each morning I would go to the prayer room and chant mantra for two hours. At times, the warmth was the only thing keeping me there." Full of hope and inspiration.

Can You Listen to a Woman is a remarkable story of a spiritual journey along with one of the West's foremost woman yogis, Swami Sivananda Radha, whose wisdom and freedom flow like a clear mountain stream throughout the book. The book provides a practical yet personal insight into the real yogic path in daily life today, with one's feet on the ground and one's heart in the heavens.

David Frawley Author of: Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses

Can You Listen to a Woman describes with remarkable insight, sensitivity, and candor the many subtleties of spiritual descipleship filled with lessons big and small - all adding up to the miracle of self-transformation. At the same time, it gives us a rare glimpse into the mind and heart of the twentieth century's most extraordinary female guru - Swami Sivananda Radha. While each person's journey to enlightenment is unique, we can all learn from the triumphs and mistakes of others. I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone venturing forth on the spiritual path.

Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D. Author of: The Shambhala Encyclopedia of Yoga

This informal autobiography shows the reader how to reach a higher plateau of conciousness through yoga. It is a useful introduction for any readers who may be tentatively exploring spirituality. Candid and inviting, Forsee's style is mercifully free of the pretentious air in which some spiritual and philisophical writers indulge.

In addition to allowing us to live vicariously through a wide-eyed disciple, Can You Listen to a Woman affords the reader an intimate profile of a woman guru. Swami Sivananda Radha, founder of Yasodhara ashram in the East Kootenays, is commonly held to have been one of the most notable yogi's of this century.

This slim soft cover book, with it's sophisticated soft focus gaze of a young woman, in radiant sepia tones, is instantly visually engaging, Drawn from memiors and chonicaling the graceful and often blind steps of a trusting disciple, this book successfully manages to convey a sense of perpetual wonder, as if the author is humbled by his journey.

(review appeared in the April/May edition of Synchronicity: The Magazine)