Audio book
Genre- Spiritual autobiography
Rating- 5/5 for the narration which requires good knowledge of English and diction; 1/5 for the words which need knowledge of Sanskrit or indian words; 5/5 for the true believers who need no nudging; 3/5 for those who are neutral in their viewpoint of Yoga and spirituality of India. Overall a beautiful tale told from the heart!
Do you know what’s the Similarity between Steve Jobs of Apple and George Harrison of Beetles and Elvis Presley!?
They all had one favourite book!
In fact Steve first read this book in teen and later on he used to read it once every year!
Any student of Yoga must read this book without fail!
The audiobook has been narrated by none other than Ben Kingsley who played Gandhi!
The book among other amazing quotes has one which goes, “Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become!”
Listening length around 17 hours but if you increase the speed to 1.2 then it comes down to 13-14 hours without compromising on the flow and understanding.
The language is simple and straight forward and the book is written in simple English which you will understand without any difficulty.
The book is one of the most famous among the practitioners of yoga and those who want to know about the spirituality of india.
Personally though if it was not because of audio; I would have not read the book since I had it with me for the past three years! But the advent of audio book has opened these doors and this is one book which you must listen if you want to enjoy it fully!
If it is not the Sanskrit or Hindi words like Chela or Mahasshai; Ben effortlessly glides through the passages like a musical poem but the moment he meets an indian word is when you realise that a non indian is narrating this book! Apart from this very obvious flaw in the book; the rest of the book is a must read or listen!
Swamiji starts with his mother and father who were simple, decent and religious folks who had a guru of their own (who incidentally is Swamiji’s guru’s guru!). The story lines in between the stories of Swamiji and his family follow a pattern where every Guru and his Guru and their respective Guru’s miracles and nature is described! So first Lahiri Mahashai is described and his miracles then Lahiri Mahashai describes his Guru, Babaji’s miracles and how he met him!
Later on His Chela (or an Ben says, “Chella!”); Sri Yukteshwar is described in detail in most part of the book who later on becomes Yoganand’s guru! The Gurus are shown to be initially simple folks who get the initiation into Kriya Yoga and then they become one of the cosmos or those who become enlightened! It of course needs a strong belief system to accept the miracles of any of the saints as mentioned in the book!
Loss of Yoganand’s mother is being described with lots of emotional stress and how she prepared him. How he had the foresight and how she sent him a talisman. It is an indian fairy tale with lots of emotions. He describes how his belief in God as a saviour and deliverer of miracles like with his sister, and then his bother and visit to Mathura, then his sister and brother in law visit to Dakshineswar temple and his visit to America! Everything falls into place like a self solving jigsaw puzzle!
How he wanted to escape to the Himalayas at the first attempt and his elaborate plans both the times and how like the Alchemist he found what he was looking for so close to home! The story is so similar to Paul Coelho’s version!
In the whole book he describes many magical babas! Like the Gandha baba and the baba with one heart but two bodies! The whole narration is so magical and entertaining to say the least!
Of course most of the book is about Yoganand and Swamy Yukteshwar who is shown to be one of the best teachers you can ever have including his life and subsequent resurrection! The description of the cosmic Hiranyaloka may raise many a sceptical brow but that left to the reader!
Visit to Kashmir and the vivid description of the beauty of Kashmir! Comparing with America and Mexico and yellow stone park and Niagara Falls and Swiss alps which shows how much Yoganand ji has travelled.
A vivid introduction of music and suras and talas and classification system is also given and it was an eye opener to me!
A description of yoga especially Kriya yoga and other types of yoga is also given but this is not a book of Yoga description but of the life and time of the Yogi only!
Description of astrology as a science and how it is so vast which is why it is not understood by many is described! He also mentions his meeting with the great scientist J C Bose and his work and their mutual admiration!
A section is also given for his visit to America where he spent most of his life and how he established yoga centres all over and his Center in Ranchi and his travel with his companion Smith in his Ford!
The story of the agnostic doctor and many other skeptics are told without any morality or judgement which is left to you!
One section describes his meeting with Rabindranath Tagore and his place and it’s like a vivid summary of Shantiniketan and Tagore!
Another section describes in detail of his meeting with Gandhi and his ashram and how his life had affected him and how he initiated him to the Kriya Yoga!
Many places Yoganand ji talks about Jesus and Bible and many lines are repeated from that.
He tells about the lady sage who used to get visions of Jesus and his crucification, then about the lady guru whose Husband itself became her devotee and then he describes about a lady guru who had not eaten a morsel or drank any fluid for decades and still is in the pink of health!
An swami who used to play with lions and tigers!
He describes about the Kumbha mela, about the diet which is very important (vegetarian if you must know!), talks about Geeta (there is a separate book on that!) and much much more!
If you have the ebook or the hard copy then you can go through the amazing photos of the places and people including great Swamis and saint which is a good refresher.
The end is a paragraph narrating how Swamiji attained maha samadhi and how his body did not decay Even a bit…
Read it just for self realisation and to appreciate the simple life of a yogi!
Even if you do not believe, this will still calm your mind!
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