Product Description

The Aghora trilogy have been embraced world-wide for their frankness in broaching subjects generally avoided and their facility for making the 'unseen' real. We enter the world of Vimalananda who teaches by story and living example.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #288058 in Books
• Published on: 1986-11-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 327 pages

Customer Reviews

SetiDraconis
I have 2 of the 3 books put out by the author and so far this book here is great...gives you a different take on what a Aghora is compared to what most may think from a anthropological perspective.

Its also a good look into the life of a Kundalini adept as well.

SetiDraconis

Vimalananda sounds like an ego maniac!
I just do not understand how so many people wrote good reviews for this book (Makes me wonder if these reviews are from students or friends of Robert Svoboda???). In my opinion Vimalananda sounds like a ego maniac. What other people call wit doesn't sound like wit to me, but sounds like he is insulting others (most other people in this planet if not all) as inferior to him. I really enjoyed reading the book "Tantra: Path of Ecstasy by Georg Feuerstein" and then wanted to try this book. I now feel that it was a bad mistake to get this book. Vimalananda makes fun of the normal people and also boasts about his achievements in tantra/aghora. He talks as if he is the only one in this world who knows these techniques and the only one fit to learn it. He also says that he has not found any one fit to teach these techniques in his life so far. Whatever he has learned, he wants to keep it with himself. Since all the rest of us are not fit for it!!! What a ego maniac? In this whole big world, is not a single person worthy of learning these techniques (if his claims about the techniques are true!)? His attitude casts doubts on the claims that he makes of his achievements in tantra. I would not suggest this book to any one. I thought the ultimate aim of yoga is to take us on the path of enlightenment not on a ego trip!

Approach with Caution.
There are many things that I find objectionable about this book. The first thing is his condescending attitude towards westerners, those who perhaps have not heard the teachings of tantra before. At the beginning of the book he says that most Westerners are stupid, and that all we care about are eating, sleeping, and intercourse. I have also found that his attitude towards women is very insulting. At one point in the book, his guru tells him that mankind is in an age of ignorance (the Kali Yuga) because women are allowed to drive cars. He also says that women should always be on the bottom during intercourse (and that if she wants to be on top, she's unnatural), that every woman should be a mother, and that she should fulfill her spiritual role through being a "loving servant" of her husband. There is also an interesting bit in there where Svoboda says (I kid you not) that women are naturally more fickle because of their genitals, and that men are more stable because of theirs. I won't elaborate too much on that because there may be children reading this. I don't understand why anyone gave this book a positive review. A spiritual teacher is supposed to be compassionate and inclusive, not condescending and sexist. If you want a good book on spirituality (not tantra), I suggest that you pick up "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda.