Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley [Paperback]

Talbot Mundy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1980

Talbot Mundy's famous metaphysical novel is set in the Himalayas. The central figure is a Lama, wise, winning, compassionate, whose story -- told in his own words -- on a crag by the roaring Brahmaputra will capture the imagination and reveal for some readers occult truths.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Talbot Mundy (born William Lancaster Gribbon) (April 23, 1879 - August 5, 1940) was an English writer. He also wrote under the pseudonym Walter Galt. Born in London, at age 16 he ran away from home and began an odyssey in India, Africa, and other parts of the Near and Far East. By age 29, he had begun using the name Talbot Mundy, and a year later arrived in the United States, starting his writing career in 1911. His first published work was the short story "Pig-Sticking in India", which describes a popular, though now outlawed sport practiced by British forces. Most of his novels, including his first novel Rung Ho!, and his most famous work King of the Khyber Rifles, are set in India under British Occupation in which the loyal British officers encounter ancient Indian mysticism. The novels portray the citizens of Imperial India as enigmatic, romantic and powerful. His British characters have many encounters with the mysterious Thugee Cults. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 410 pages
• Publisher: Point Loma Pubns (October 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0913004391
• ISBN-13: 978-0913004395
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,699,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual adventure at once down-to-earth and ecstatic, December 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley (Mass Market Paperback)

An English Secret Service agent stationed in mysterious India wants to find his long-lost sister. He has little to go on but he stretches his talents to the breaking point to find her.

Little does know that he is not actually the pursuer, but the pursued. He is being secretly led by his guru with an inner love and wisdom that is matched by a personality that puts the lie to the stereotypical image of the reticent, desiccated spiritual high and mighty swami. This guru-lama will keep you panting for more of his sublimely practical wisdom as he liberally sprinkles his tongue-in-cheek aphorisms throughout the book. I have photo-copied all of these and enjoy reading them often to keep my spiritual quest from degenerating into a brittle formulaic procedure or trailing off into a wispy yearning for an other worldly never-never-land.

Your everyday life IS the Path and this twinkly-eyed lama will not let you forget it. Indeed, if you think your life is tough as a student aspirant, by the end of the book, you will realize how ever-so-much-harder is the teacher's lot. You will be brought to a summit of poignant insight that leaves you with naught but a desire to throw your arms around this forthright, insightful, stern lama. You will want to comingle your love with this man who has blended his heart flame into an elixir that will, if you truly quaff it, forevermore lift you onto a new Summit. You will find a new definition of spiritual responsibility--alive, vibrant and free--in a dedicaton to service heretofore unknown.

I have read this book three times now--and two of those times I read it aloud to friends whom I loved enough to want to share with them its rare mixture of wisdom, spiritual yearning, humor, businesslike can-do spirit, mystery, adventure and hope.

I gave my last copy to a couple, whom I instantly recognized as soul mates when I met them. Now I am buying it again and look forward to meeting more people I love enough to give it to. Maybe my having another copy will invoke another such joyous reunion. And if you buy it and read it, I'm sure you, too, will be some measure closer to the union of hearts that all spiritual seekers on this planet are aiming for.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you ready for enlightenment? Read this book., August 5, 1998

By 

Christina L. Sarlo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley (Mass Market Paperback)

Read this book and remember how your life is a path full of testing and initiations. We are all led by higher goals, if we so choose. This book will make you feel a part of something grand.

It will also make you laugh and feel alive.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Om, The Secret of Ahbor Valley, June 3, 2009

By 

Gordon Harris (Vancouver Island, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley (Paperback)

I recently received this wonderful novel for the princely sum of 52 cents (plus a lot more for shipping), and it's worth much more! Although written in the mid-twenties with echoes of some of the then-popular prejudices, it still reads well. In places, it's quite funny (I found myself chuckling aloud) and yet, it maintains a thread of mystery and adventure set in the Raj in India and, further on, in Tibet. I am only half-way through it and already I'm looking for more books by the same author, Talbot Mundy.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Eastern religion, historical settings and travel in the "good old days".