Skip to main content

Book Review: Ashrams of India Volume 1 by the Bronte Company Limited

Produced by the Bronte Company Limited, ‘Ashrams of India Volume 1’  presents a useful resource guide for the people and travelers that are looking forward to visit or connect with ashrams and places of worships such as synagogues, churches, temples, mosques, and divine caves and so on in India.


‘Ashrams of India’ is a bulky book that has compiled information about 500 places across 18 states, of which mostly are ashrams in India, especially of Hindu faith. However, the book is not wholly dedicated to Hindu ashrams and the gurus that have their centuries-old lineage for their disciples and followers, rather the book also focuses on special highlighted places of worships in some of the states such as Goa, Kerala, and Sikkim.

Of course, it’s a prevalent fact that India is a country of myriad gods and gurus, as a result it’s abundant with ashrams that are in existence since many centuries. However, there are some places that hold historical relevance with regard to other faiths that came to India by various ways. For instance, in state Goa, the book sheds light on various churches/cathedrals and their history during the trading times. In Kerala it provides a long list of Jews synagogues and some mosques that were built by foreign traders. In Sikkim, instead of temples and ashrams, you will have divine caves where people go for worshipping to have benefits like increase in knowledge and spiritual upliftment.

From ancient to modern ones, the book houses nearly all famous saints and gurus from India like Ramakrishna Mission, ISKCON, Art of Living, Osho etc. Beside you must have heard news about Nityanand, Shri Satya Sai Baba, and Radhe Ma – this book has special coverage for them. Not all saints and gurus have had the luxury of vast expanse of ashrams, in Mumbai still there are many divine people who live in small compact flats and see their followers every day. The book traverses from north to south and east to west – all back stories of history and saint’s lineage sound fictional but it gives a pleasing reading session.

The fringe benefit of this book is that it provides useful information for modern travelers and spiritual seekers. In the book, they will find address and contact details for visiting hours or booking, GPS so that they can connect directly on Google maps and so on.

Every ashram or place of worship comes with its own protocols and terms and conditions for outsiders and followers, keeping this book handy will equip you with information that can save your time and energy while inquiring about workshops and meditation sessions.

It’s a work of great minds that must have required immense research work. The book is interactive because of short stories about the ashrams, its terms, its history, and most importantly pictures. It is a great read even on Kindle.

Buy from Amazon/Kindle.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...
65 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...
68 comments
Read more

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...
41 comments
Read more