Anda #12 - February 17, 2024

Books! Books! Books! Books I'm reading. Books I bought but haven't read. Books I love. Anda means "egg" in Sanskrit: a vibrant zone of creativity.

Bookshelf in my apartment

Books here now

Those who know me know I’m sweet on e-books. After decades of lugging many dozens of cartons of books around every time I moved, I was all too happy to ditch them and make the switch. Now, most of my books live on my iPad mini and fit in the palm of my hand. I’m inordinately happy about this.

When I left academia, I sold off hundreds of books and donated what didn’t sell to my school library. I gave away more books to our nonprofit, Jaya Kula. Today I own fewer than ten cartons of books. I dunno, maybe eight? I haven’t looked in my storage in a while.

I’ve kept some books that haven’t been digitized, and some I’m saving to give to students before I die.

The photo is of my current shelf of books not in storage. And down below the dotted line is a “first thought, best thought” list of books I’ve loved, or own and plan to love.

Bookshop.org has a lot of these books on back order, so I had to link to Amazon. But you might check with Bookshop, too, in case they’ve been restocked. Cheaper versions are generally available on Kindle and, of course, used.

Lots of love, Shambhavi

Bookloves

Grace and Mercy in Her Wild Hair: Selected Poems to the Mother Goddess

Poems of Ramprasad Sen translated by Leonard Nathan and Clinton Seely

These poems to Mother Kali by the 18th century Bengali bhakta, Ramprasad Sen, are both luminous and utterly down to earth. If you want to learn how to complain to God about your lot in life, Ramprasad Sen is your guide.

So long to the old boy
In his holy man's get-up.
They'll shout Hari a few times,
Dump me on the pile and walk off.
That's it for old Ramprasad.
They'll wipe off the tears
And dig in for their supper.

The Gospel Of Shri Anandamayi Ma Volume 1: Conversations With The Divine Mother

A new collection of the satsangs of Anandamayi Ma edited by Lisa Prajña Hallstrom and translated by Satya Pal Sharma. Volume 2 is also available.

Anandamayi Ma taught only in satsang—informal gatherings with devotees. These recordings of Ma’s satsangs languished in the Harvard Divinity School Library for years and years until Ma devotee Prajña Hallstrom had them translated. The result is two new volumes of the words of Ma.

This body does not know anything about shaastra (the scriptures). She says only what she knows. Play this instrument, and you will hear.

Things you May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza

By Palestinian poet, Mosab Abu Toha

Mosab Abu Toha escaped from Gaza with his family after being displaced multiple times and wrongly imprisioned by the Israeli occupation forces. Read an account of Abu Toha’s escape in November 2023. His poems are stark, tender, and incandescent.

B. A book that doesn't mention my language or my country, and has maps of every place except for my birthplace, as if I were an illegitimate child on Mother Earth.

Borders are those invented lines drawn with ash on maps and sewn into the ground by bullets.

Everything is Light: the Circle of Total Illumination

A magnificent Dzogchen ati yoga tantra translated by Keith Dowman.

The text is a mixture of more conventionally-presented view teachings and amazing poetic passages aimed at pointing the reader toward what can only be directly known through one’s own experience.

Reality appears in dharmakaya like sunlight shining in a mirror.
Reality suffuses dharmakaya like butter suffusing milk.
Pure presence abides in the nature of reality like sunlight in the sky. Implicit, unthought, dharmakaya reality and its creativity are like the hasp and blade of a primitive razor.
Unadulterated perfection is like a gossamer silk brocade tent.
Diversity and nonduality are like a tree and its shadow.

I, Lalla: the Poems of Lal Děd

Translated by Ranjit Hoskote

Lal Ded or Lalla or Lalleshvari was a 14th century Kashmiri wandering yogini. Her spoken sayings were written down by her disciples and, over the centuries, have deeply embedded themselves into the culture and daily life of Kashmir. This translation restores the gutsiness and also the raw devotional quality of Lalleshvari’s voice.

You won’t find the Truth
by crossing your legs and holding your breath.
Daydreams won’t take you through the gateway of release.
You can stir as much salt as you like in water,
it won’t become the sea.

Shaiva Devotional Songs of Kashmir: a translation and study of Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali

Translation and commentary by Constantina Rhodes Bailly

Utpaladeva’s Shivastrotravali might be a spiritual journal or an outpouring of prayer or poetry. But it definitely is the one book I would take if I were stuck on a deserted island. Utpaladeva (c. 900–950 CE), along with his teacher Somananda, is the founder of the self-recognition school of Kashmir Shaivism. This version of the Shivastrotravali is elegant, simple, and beautiful. Other versions are also well-worth reading.

Even the path of worldly living
Becomes blissful for the devotees
Who have obtained your blessing, O Lord,
And who live inside your realm.

The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies

By Thomas McEvilley

McEvilley’s controversial book is a mind blower. It documents the importation of cosmology and teachings about the nature of the self from North India into the foundations of ancient Greco-Roman philosophy. It’s written in a “soft” academic style, not impenetrable, but also not a stroll in the park.

An admission that Indian philosophers had something to teach Greek philosophers, and that Greek philosophers acknowledged this fact, would add up to an admission that the classical culture of India was equal to that of Greece, not merely that they had shared linguistic roots. It would mean that the ancient Indians could think as clearly as the ancient Greeks—and that confuted the rational West/ irrational East dichotomy that was firmly fixed in the colonizing mentality.

Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking

By Yamuna Devi

I couldn’t not have a cook book. This one has been with me for many, many years. It is simply magisterial, if you can say that about a cookbook. There are recipes from many regions in India, some easy, some complex. Hint: the Kindle edition is only $10.

The Mahabharata-a modern rendering - 2 Vol Set

By Ramesh Menon

Menon’s Mahabharata is a page-turner version of the great Indian tale of doubt, dharma, warriorship, and waking up. You actually could take this to the beach. It’s entertaining, colorful, even a tad ribald here and there. Reading it might just turn out to be a completely life-changing experience.

Running, sobbing as she ran, she hardly knew herself any more as she went. She stopped at times and bayed at the stars in the night sky like a she-wolf that had lost her mate. All she knew was the fire in her soul for revenge, consuming her. Bheeshma may be the greatest kshatriya on earth; but he had ruined her and he must pay for it with his life.

In the heart of a forest, where not even rishis ventured, she sat under a gnarled tree and began to pray. For a year she sat, unmoving, her body fed by just her hatred, worshipping Siva’s son Karttikeya. Dirt caked her face and her hair hung to her waist in tangled jata. Her tapasya was so perfect that Karttikeya appeared before her sooner than he ever had for any other bhakta.

Rip Rap and Cold Mountain Poems

By Gary Snyder

A magical volume of Zen poetry from the start of the 60s by one of America’s finest poets plus Snyder's translations of poems by the 8th century wild wanderer and hermit, Han Shan. Do not exit your time on earth without reading these.

In my first thirty years of life
I roamed hundreds and thousands of miles.
Walked by rivers through deep green grass
Entered cities of boiling red dust.

Tried drugs, but couldn’t make Immortal;
Read books and wrote poems on history.
Today I’m back at Cold Mountain:
I’ll sleep by the creek and purify my ears.
~ Han Shan

The Selected Poems of Li Po

Translated by David Hinton

The poet Li Po (more properly Li Bai) lived during the first half of the 8th century in T’ang Dynasty China. His life was one of extremes. He went from being a translator for the Emperor to an exiled, wandering outcast. He married four times and, as the story goes, he drowned drunk while attempting to embrace the reflection of the moon in a lake. This translation has been criticized for taking too many liberties with the text. I still love it. Purists have plenty of options, too.

What’s taking that wineseller so long?
Mountain flowers smiling, taunting me,
it’s the perfect time to sip some wine,

ladle it out beneath my east window
at dusk, wandering orioles back again.

Spring breezes and their drunken guest:
today, we were meant for each other.

And finally, two books I bought, but haven’t yet read . . .

Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities by Mahmood Mamdani

The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World by Antony Loewenstein

Not quite ready to fire up a paid subscription, but want to show your appreciation?

Please join Shambhavi and the Jaya Kula community for satsang & kirtan every Sunday at 3:00pm Pacific. Come in person to 1215 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR, or join Jaya Kula’s newsletter on Substack to get the Zoom link for satsang. You can also listen to my podcast—Satsang with Shambhavi—wherever podcasts are found.