Vedic Mathematics or Sixteen Simple Mathematical Formulae from the Vedas

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Review by J. Pawlak "johnrp" on Amazon.com


A coworker loaned me her copy, telling me that someone as "math nutty" as myself would love it. My first impression, when reading the foreword and intro, was that it was just smoke and mirrors. Oh yeah, sure, you can divide numbers without going through the usual hit-and-miss constructive method! I'll believe that when I see it.
Well, I saw it and I'm a believer! Simply amazing! The techniques used to multiply and divide are based on well founded and cleverly applied principles, but the key to this book is that you don't really need to know WHY it works .. it just does! I think that kids should be taught this way instead of using the old traditional painful methods I was taught.
This book is a must for anyone who loves to see core mathematics applied as they were meant to be. You will, as I was, be awe struck. This is ancient wisdom at its best!

John Pawlak

Multiple Facets of My Madurai

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Review by Iwegaia on Amazon.com
For anyone interested in India, Manohar Devadoss' ink sketches are such a treat. What is even more amazing is that he is nearly blind and yet, his sketches pack an amazing quantity and quality of detail and aesthetics.

His quardiplegic wife, Mahema Devadoss, had written the copy. Their life story is so inspiring that it can be a book by itself. I found a brief and beautiful sketch here titled "A Special Kind of Grace"

ASKING FOR THE EARTH: Waking Up to the Spiritual/Ecological Crisis

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Review by Kenneth E. Klonsky on Amazon.com
This book is incisive, understandable, and ultimately moving. Ambassador James George is uniqely qualified to deal with the problem of the divorce of science from spirituality. He was a personal friend of Thomas Merton, J. Krishnamurti, and continues to have a close relationship with the Dalai Lama. The message of Asking for the Earth is one of hope, despite the self-destructive tendencies that humanity has demonstrated until now. Brilliant work.

The Little Green Book on Awakening by James George

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Review by Claudia A. Dudley on Amazon.com
The Little Green Book on Awakening is quietly revolutionary. On the one hand it is an urgent, 11th-hour plea for the health of the earth. But more than this, is a call to spiritual awakening on both a personal and global scale. At its core is the possibility of hope, because it invites us to open our eyes and hearts to real help.

Jim George, now 91, is considered by many to be one of the world's most spiritually and politically cosmopolitan citizens. A former ambassador to India, Iran and Greece, he has known hundreds of key figures in the political, cultural and spiritual arenas of the past century. But his book is surprisingly modest. His essays range over such varied topics as the ecological crisis, off-planet cultures, the "Akashic field" of quantum physics, the evolutionary power of love, the call to conscience. Jim George himself has been a longtime student of the teachings of G.I.Gurdjieff, and worked with Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann, Gurdjieff's closest pupil. He also has a close connection to Tibetan Buddhism, having been instrumental in relocating Tibetan refugees to Canada from India in the early 1960s. It is clear that the breadth of his vision has emerged from a spiritual practice that is truly comprehensive.

Bringing together the political, ecological, scientific and spiritual worlds -- seeing their interrelation -- Jim George raises the radical possibility of many more people, especially in the West, opening to a spiritual dimension. This he feels could well alter the course of the earth. Many rich questions also arise around this. Is there an Intelligence reaching out to us, each and all, relative to every life situation? What is being offered (in addition to what is needed) in these dangerous times? Is our responsibility external, internal, or both, and what would this mean? Are we called, and to what? What could help individual and collective conscience to have an action?

Few people in the world could have written a book like this. From Jim George's long life and wide experience, he offers a vantage point that has influence in many quarters. Particularly moved, one hopes, will be those who have already devoted themselves to public service -- the anonymous Al Gores of the world -- and who may be seeking to inculcate a deeper spiritual practice into their lives. Jim George leaves us with the unusual sense that perhaps not all is lost for us, that spiritual and political/social power can meet, might even provide a critical mass of help at this moment in time. In his sensitive hands, we are invited toward the most natural thing in the world: to turn with love and intelligence toward each other and the earth itself.

Indian Society, Institutions and Change by Rajendra K. Sharma

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Myhindupage.org Review
If you are researching Hindu Dharma, or Hindu codes of living, then this book which is a past and present analysis and narrative is a very good resource. The work spans not only Hindu dharma, but also the evolution of Buddhist, Christian and Muslim norms of living in India. What impressed my was the chapters on the Hindu Varna System (Varna Dharma) and Ashrama Dharma. They are well researched with appropriate references without cumbersome quoting from Scriptures and other authors on the subject. The author also goes to the length to state ideals of these systems and how the have evolved or devolved over time. This book is academic and therefore a resource for the scholarly and those interested in collecting articles of Indian / Hindu societal analysis or understanding.