Book of the day-4: 'Autobiography of a Yogi' by Paramahansa Yogananda

This book has been chosen as one of the best 100 Spiritual Books of the 20th century. This acclaimed autobiography of Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda is now available in a new attractive hardbound edition, in a larger format, with more photographs. It is priced at Rs.125/-

First published in 1946 and enlarged by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1951, this book has been translated into twenty one languages including Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu.

Published by Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (Paramahansa Yogananda Path, Ranchi-834001, Jharkhand, India) and distributed by Jaico Publishing House and Motilal Banarasidass.

Free online edition is available at:

http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/

Brief Biography of Paramahansa Yogananda from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda

Memorable Passages-2: From 'A Train to Pakistan' by Khushwant Singh

India is constipated with a lot of humbug. Take religion. For the Hindu, it means little besides caste and cow-protection. For the Muslim, circumcision and kosher meat. For the Sikh, long-hair and hatred for the Muslim. For the Christian, Hinduism with a sola topee. For the Parsi, fire-worship and feeding the vultures. Ethics which should be the kernel of a religious code, has been carefully removed.

Consciousness of the bad is an essential prerequisite to the promotion of the good. It is no use trying to build a second storey on a house whose walls are rotten. It is best to demolish it. It is both cowardly and foolhardy to kowtow to social standards when one believes neither in the society nor in its standards. Their courage is your cowardice and your cowardice is their courage. It is all a matter of nomenclature. One could say it needs courage to be a coward. A conundrum, but a quotable one.

(From 'A Train to Pakistan, by Khushwant Singh)

Memorable Quotes-8:

Reading a Good Book, you feel stronger, wiser and purer - Janis Sudrab

Memorable Quotes-7:

Books make man master of the universe - P.A.Pavlenkov

Memorable Quotes-6:

Books give people wings - Fyodor Gladkov

Qualities of a Great Book

The qualities that make a great book: HUMANISM, LYRICISM and RING OF TRUTH - Satyajit Ray

New Books-3 : 'Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment" by Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra has written a provocative

"reimagining" of what life really might have been like for the young Siddhartha on his journey to becoming the Buddha.

This is a racy, insightful, fictionalised account with evocative cinematic images and juxtapositions....

Contemporary Buddhists are at pains to emphasise that the Buddha was a human being like any of us. Despite a life of luxury and comfort, driven by the need to find a way out of suffering, not for just himself but for others, he set out to find the insights and techniques that would liberate him and all of us from the inevitable pain of birth, sickness and death. His was a human effort that any of us can replicate. We learn from the Buddha, we are inspired by him, but the effort must be our own. We need to verify the Buddha's teachings by our own experience and understanding. We are encouraged to evolve our own unique paths if our insights appear at odds with those of the great teacher. The Buddha gave diverse teachings that often appeared contradictory, positioned as they were to response to the diverse capacities and mental dispositions of those who he taught.

...

The book nudges us into going beyond traditional hagiographic accounts, stimulating us into a better, deeper understanding of the psychological processes and motivations that lead a young aspirant born into a life of privilege and opportunity to give it up for an uncertain spiritual quest. His story could be ours.

Excerpts from Review of the book by Rajiv Mehrotra in INDIA TODAY, October 15, 2007

Strand Bookstore, Home to 18 miles of New, Used and Out of Print Books!

Ramachandra Guha commences his article, ‘A Letter in a Book’ (The Hindu of July 8, 2007) with a mention about Strand Bookstore. I could not move to the next line. It reads, ‘Strand Bookstore, home of 18 miles of new, used, rare and out of print books’. Wow! I found it very difficult to visualize a bookstore with bookshelves lined for 18 miles! It should be a treat to any book-lover. I added Strand Bookstore to my dream-list of places to be visited before I die.

Thoroughly impressed, I searched the Net and got further information, which I give below for book-lovers like me who have not heard about Strand Bookstore before:

Strand Book Store
828 Broadway, 12th Street
New York City, NY 10003
+1 212 473 1452
strand@strandbooks.com
Open Hours
9:30a-10:30p M-Sa, 11a-10:30p Su

This Greenwich Village favorite has been around since 1927. The prices on both new and used books are attractive. There are numerous specialty sections, including an excellent one of discounted art books. It also maintains a collection of antique books, and there are discounted reviewers' copies in the basement.

Further reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strand_Bookstore

Memorable Passages-1: From 'The English Teacher' by R.K.Narayan

I used to be an avid reader of novels initially and then later non-fiction. I found so much joy in reading and I have read many novels at one stretch, forgetting food and sleep i.e. as long as they are not prescribed by school/college curriculum. Some novels left a deep impression on mind, especially a few passages became unforgettable. One such passage is from 'The English Teacher' by R.K.Narayan. (Incidentally, I am a great fan of Narayan and have read almost all his books.)(In the US, this book was titled as, 'Grateful to Life and Death', probably taken from the last line of the novel.

I returned from the village. The house seemed unbearably dull. But I bore it. "There is no escape from loneliness and separation...." I told myself often. "Wife, child, brothers, parents, friends.... We come together only to go apart again. It is one continuous movement. They move away from us as we move away from them. The law of life can't be avoided. The law comes into operation the moment we detach ourselves from our mother's womb. All struggle and misery in life is due to our attempt to arrest this law or get away from it or in allowing ourselves to be hurt by it. The fact must be recognized. A profound unmitigated loneliness is the only truth of life. All else is false. My mother got away from her parents, my sisters from our house, I and my brother away from each other, my wife was torn away from me, my daughter is going away with my mother, my father has gone away from his father, my earliest friends - where are they? They scatter apart like the droplets of a waterspray. The law of life. No sense in battling against it...." Thus I reconciled myself to this separation with less struggle than before. I read a lot, I wrote a lot, I reflected as much as I could. I saw pictures, went out for walks, and frequently met my friend the headmaster. I spent a great deal of my time watching the children at play or hearing him narrate his stories for the children as they sat under the mango tree in the school compound. When I sat there at the threshold of his hut and watched the children, all sense of loneliness ceased to oppress, and I felt a deep joy and contentment stirring within me. I felt there was nothing more for me to demand of life.

Books, Books, Books - Usha Dravid, The Times of India

I remember vividly the first day of school each year, when we would get our new textbooks. The touch of fresh, unopened pages, the crisp binding, was sheer enchantment. On the English literature books was inscribed the quote, "A book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit," which seemed as apt description of the vistas of the authors tried to open up in our young mind...."

Elizabeth Barret Browning, in her poem, 'Books, books, books!' expressed aptly how passionate a bookworm can become about an unfinished book, "And how I felt it beat under my pillow, in the morning's dark, an hour before the sun would let me read."

Luckily for us, our father also loved reading comics, so there was never a taboo about these so-called obnoxious objects. As a result, we read everything from classics, down to Superman....

I have tried to read e-books, but though I love my computer dearly, reading on screen as it were, cannot hold a candle to reading a real book. For what joy can be greater than to cradle an old favourite tome, turn its crumbling pages gently, and relive the magical contents over and over again? - Usha Dravid

Courtesy: The Times of India

New Books-2 : 'Giving' by Bill Clinton

Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World
by Bill Clinton
PUBLISHER : ALFRED A. KNOPF ©2007
ISBN-10 0307266745
ISBN-13 9780307266743
FORMAT Hardcover
PAGES 240
PUBLISHED 09/04/2007
Non-Fiction

From Strand Bookstore
It is an unfortunate fact that many of today's Americans overlook the wealth and incredible advantages that have been bestowed upon us. As a democratic civilization whose aim it is to promote freedom and well-being for all its people, should it not be our duty to extend our resources to those outside our borders? It is this concern which lays at the heart of former president Bill Clinton's call for global action: "Giving". In this stimulating and articulate volume, Clinton makes his plea to the humanitarian within us all by promoting the extraordinary contributions of ordinary citizens who have dedicated themselves to aiding others. "Giving" is a responsibility from which all can gain.

From the Publisher
Compiling anecdotes about the diverse charitable efforts of the famous and non-so-famous, the former president looks at the positive influence of such work in every corner of the world and examines the profound benefits of working for the good of others for all humankind. 750,000 first printing.

More about the book
Since leaving office, former President Bill Clinton has been very active in public service, most notably in his work on behalf of hurricane and tsunami victims. In GIVING, Clinton profiles several private citizens who have given of themselves and their resources on behalf of others. His profiles include the famous, such as Bill and Melinda Gates, as well as the lesser-known people who deserve recognition. Clinton shows how these involved citizens, with their energy and creativity, can be models for the rest of us, doing what governments cannot or will not do, and, above all, getting things done.

Courtesy: www.strandbooks.com

Book News-1: World Book Capital 2009

UNESCO has selected Beirut as World Book Capital 2009 as part of its efforts to promote books and reading. In 2003, New Delhi was the choice - Newscape, The Hindu, July 8, 2007

Memorable Quotes-5:

In the pages of good books lies the magic to inspire our dreams and the power to make those dreams come true.

All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been - it is lying, as in magic preservation, in the pages of books - Carlyle

The World of Books

The World of Books
is the most remarkable creation of man.
Nothing else that he builds ever lasts;
Monuments fall;
Nations perish;
Civilizations grow old and die out;
And after an era of darkness,
New races build others;
But in the world of books are volumes
That have seen this happen again and again
And yet live on
Still young,
Still as fresh as the day they were written,
Still telling men's hearts
Of the hearts of men centuries old.

Courtesy: Sultan Chand Book Window, July 1-15, 2004

Memorable Quotes-4:

We get as much out of things as we put into them. Read a book with interest and it will pay you back in interest; read it carelessly and you have wasted both your time and your money - Unknown

Memorable Quotes-3:

Discriminate in your choice between good books and the best books. Rich rewards await those who go out of their way to discover and read the world's great books - Unknown

New Books-1

1. Unlearn Before U Learn
Seven critical factors to get out of the rut
Kamekish
Promilla & Co., publishers in association with Bibliophile South Asia, C-127, Sarvodaya Enclave, New Delhi-110 017
Rs.550/-

2. Brahmavidya Abhyasa
Sure Way to Inner Self
Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Narayanashrama Tapovanam, Venginssery, PO Paralam, Thrissur-680575, Kerala
Rs.125/-

3. Sublime Footprints
V.R.Krishna Iyer
Gyan Publishing House, 5, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110 002
Rs.540/-

4. God Loves You, You Love God
R.Subrahmanyam (Tr)
Copies can be had from R.S.Gopalan, Vedaniketanam, E-3-6/57, Sankaranarayana Flats, Kupaiah Street, West Mambalam, Chennai-600033
Rs.100/-

5. Quietude of the Mind
Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Narayanashrama Tapovanam, Venginssery, PO Paralam, Thrissur-680575, Kerala

6. Green Healers: Medicinal Plants of India
P.Sudhakar
CPR Environmental Educational Centre
CP Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation
1, Eldams Road, Alwarpet, Chennai-600018
Rs.150/-

7. Mahatma Vs Gandhi
Based on the life of Harilal Gandhi, eldest son of Mahatma Gandhi
Dinkar Joshi
Jaico Publishing House, 121, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Mumbai-400001
Rs.250/-

Courtesy: New Arrivals, The Hindu, Madurai, October 2, 2007

The Most Expensive Book Ever

A British entrepreneur is out with a book that buyers dare not misplace! Entitled, 'Dancing with the Bears' the hardback details how the author Roger Shashoua made his millions. What is particularly interesting is Shashoua is offering a made-to-order edition of the book estimated at a whopping 3m (nearly Rs. 50 crore). Encrusted with 600 flawless diamonds this is by far the most expensive book ever!

Courtesy: School Magazine, Supplement to The New Indian Express, Madurai, October 3, 2007