Customer Reviews

Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley

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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.

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.

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".

Most people may know Talbot Mundy from his famous "King of the Kyber Rifles" which became a motion picture. This novel is certainly adventurous as well as historical--referring to early 20th c. India still under British rule as well as little-known (and still independent) Tibet. There is also a considerable element of mystery to it and a great deal of mystical allusions, references, sayings, etc. The author includes some humor and clever turns-of-phrase such as p. 15: "He felt about as sweetly reasonable as a dog with hydrophobia." While some of the specific details are a bit inaccurate IMHO, it's a terrific mystical novel overall--such as Edward Bulwer-Lytton's "Zanoni." Other mystical or occult novelists (quite popular at the start of the 20th c.) include Marie Corelli & Joan Grant (though hers are claimed as pastlife experiences). Similar to the play within this book, fictional presentations are a remarkably effective way to convey truths, mystical or otherwise. Today, video vignettes are used, for example, in teaching managers to supervise, employees to avoid sexual harassment, etc. There are some great truths woven into this fictional work which only serve to enhance its value. Of course, it can be read as simply an adventure novel. Enjoy, it's great!