From Death to Birth: Understanding Karma and Reincarnation

Rating:
Summary: Written Without Real Reason
Review: A few years ago I read "The Power of Mantra and the Mystery of Initiation" by the same author. It is a very interesting and useful book, which I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone and, as a matter of fact, I still follow some advice from that book.

Unlike that one, this book miscalled "From Death to Birth", completely misses the point. Only two pages deal with the subject indicated in the title. Those are pages 126 and 127 which actually say something abut what happens with us when we die. All the rest is one painfully long and boring introduction and one painfully long and boring conclusion, 250 pages saying practically nothing new or interesting or important, consisting mostly of stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Epics.

Some of those stories are misquoted. On page 108 you can read about Kunti that "Altogether she was blessed with five mighty and noble sons ..." But, Kunti was not the mother of five Pandava princes but of three of them, as also of Karna before her marriage. The mother of two youngest Pandava princes was Madri.

There is also a mistake connecting rudra granthi with the navel chakra: "And those who have penetrated rudra granthi (the knot at the navel center) are blessed with the light of the fire of the manipura chakra." says page 211. However, the knot at the navel center is brahma granthi not rudra granthi. Rudra granthi is the knot connected with the ajna chakra (third eye).

This is a book I wanted to read for a long time and I cannot say how disappointed I am. I expected to enjoy reading something like "Hindu book of the dead" but I was exposed to treatise about yamas and niyamas and karmas, which by itself, is not a bad thing, but you can read about these in numerous yoga primers. From this book I expected to deal more with the after-the-body experiences, not to be full of talk for the sake of mere talking. I managed to come to the end only with the help of the narrator (Dr. D.C.Rao) who was, as always, excellent in doing his job.

To summarize, it was a terrible waste of my time. I should have meditated instead, or chanted, or whatever else. Life is too short to spend it on books like this one.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully informative, compassionate and illuminating
Review: The Good Doctor must have known we were both ready for and needing this book, which not only puts the central mysteries of Eastern philosophy and religion into a context for the Western mind to fully fathom, but makes seem just that much more beautiful and poetic than we are currently able to even imagine. For those of us who can't help but hear Narcississtic baby boomers in mid-life crisis playing jams from the Doors and the Beatles on out of tune guitars and talking about Woodstock whenever you hear the word "Karma" (and therefore would rather not hear anyone try to explain what it is) this book brings you back to the dignity and profundity of what it realy means--not to mention how important it was that the Baby Boomers embraced it when they did for generations after them!

Not only will you have no question as to what the central tenets of Hinduism and Buddhism refer to and build from after reading this, you will have a better understanding of what it is to be fully, truly human than practically most of the Western religious text we have today is capable of rendering, as well as the philosophy--which is ironcially based on much of this! This book sheds a light on life that is so bright it embraces the light of all others and absorbs it into its own, instead of attempting to extinguish it. It will answer more questions than you even knew you had. It will also put much of everything from the spiritual self-help/New Age/psychological movement of today's culture to the quantum physics/cutting edge philosophy movement of Western society today into the overarching context we all have been intuitively desperate for.

This book teaches your soul to dance.

Rating:
Summary: The great drama of life and death explained
Review: The term "karma" is almost ubiquitous these days, though it tends to be used in an entirely superficial way. Nevertheless, it seems odd that there is such a paucity of serious works available on the topic of karma, rebirth and reincarnation. Fortunately, this book fills the void most admirably.

While this is a serious book, it is readily accessible to the sincere inquirer. Thankfully, its accessibility is not acquired at price of condescension or superficiality. Best of all, it leaves one with a hunger for further spiritual nourishment.

Rating:
Summary: this It's about life after death
Review: This book is about the possibility of life after death and how some people can prove they have been alive in prievous life times.