Customer Reviews

From Here to Nirvana

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This is a great book.It was written for those of us who want to travel to India and learn more yoga, meditation etc.Not all places are described in equal length and depth but you will always find useful information about yoga schools, ashrams and monasteries in all the parts of India.In a lot of cases, the writers have been there and they took the classes for you, sat through the satsangs and tried the food and water.The book talks about each place separately and gives you info on "Teachers & Teachings", "Facilities and Food", "Schedule","Fees","Contact Information","How To Get There",etc.A very helpful guide for spiritual seekers who intend to travel to India.

Thanks to this book, I was able to arrive in Delhi at midnite, go to the taxi stand at the airport and not wonder where I would end up for the night. I had already made arrangements to stay in an ashram in Delhi that night. And taxi drivers don't give you the hotel runaround when you tell them to take you directly to a particular ashram. For that alone, this book was worth every penny to me.

I would recommend reading it before you go because some of the places/people to be contacted must be done ahead of time. and you may find that contact information can change sporadically in India (one of the many beautiful challenges you'll find on your travels there).

This book is a godsend (pun unavoidable) for anyone with a spiritual bent traveling to India. I used it in 2005 to find some amazing places, and will take it with me this year again because it's so useful. The only issue is that now it is 10 years old and so naturally it may not be up to date. it doesn't have websites. But it's still worth gold to have the ashrams and their specifics-- programs, residential opportunities, spiritual traditions followed-- identified and the contact information there.

I read this book and found it to be a good general guide for Eastern spiritual experiences, which are great, for the most part.

My concern is that the author visited Swami Shyam the same year that Melissa Baer was rumored to have been murdered by that ashram. . and Anne Craig and many others came out that they had been raped or otherwise sexually conquered by this guru.

My book: Himalayan Hoedown. . .offers an alternative insiders account of this particularly ashram. . .which gives too much power to a guru. . a point that many should be aware of, given the recent sweatlodge deaths.

These are realities that no factual book on Easter religious followings should ignore.

This book would be excellent for people seeking ashrams. However, there is nothing about major temples, festivals, or other local observations. There is a little bit of information about local pilgrimage sites but it is laughably inadequate.