An important modern exponent of Asian dance, Pandit Chitresh Das brought kathak to the United States in 1970. The North Indian classical dance has since become an important art form within the greater Indian diaspora. Yet its adoption outside of India raises questions about what happens to artistic practices when we separate them from their broader cultural contexts. A Guru's Journey provides an ethnographic study of the dance form in the San Francisco Bay Area community formed by Das. Sarah Morelli, a kathak dancer and one of Das's former students, investigates issues in teaching, learning, and performance that developed around Das during his time in the United States. In modifying kathak's form and teaching for Western students, Das negotiates questions of Indianness and non-Indianness, gender, identity, and race. Morelli lays out these issues for readers with the goal of deepening their knowledge of kathak aesthetics, technique, and theory. She also shares the intricacies of footwork, facial expression in storytelling, and other aspects of kathak while tying them to the cultural issues that inform the dance.

As a child growing up in the Hollywood Hills during the 1950s, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson thought it was perfectly normal that a guru named Paul Brunton lived with his family and dictated everything about their daily rituals, from their diet to their travel plans to his parents' sex life. But in this extraordinary memoir, Masson reflects on just how bizarre everything about his childhood was-especially the relationship between his father and the elusive, eminent mystic he revered (and supported) for years. Writing with candor and charm, Masson describes how his father became convinced that Paul Brunton-P.B. to his familiars-was a living God who would fill his life with enlightenment and wonder. As the Masson family's personal guru, Brunton freely discussed his life on other planets, laid down strict rules on fasting and meditation, and warned them all of the imminence of World War III. For years, young Jeffrey was as ardent a disciple as his father-but with the onset of adolescence, he staged a dramatic revolt against this domestic deity and everything he stood for. Filled with absurdist humor and intimate confessions, My Father's Guru is the spellbinding coming-of-age story of one of our most brilliant writers. REVIEWS "An uncompromising yet compassionate book . . . A coming-of-age memoir unlike any other." -The Toronto Star "AN EXTRAORDINARY CAUTIONARY TALE .... about the enduring human impulse to imbue charismatic individuals with superhuman attributes." -San Francisco Chronicle "Told with a mixture of humor and compassion. . . . Throughout this confessional book a grown man tells of an unusual, even weird childhood and the blind submission that consumed his family's life." -ROBERT COLES The New York Times Book Review "My Father's Guru is an interesting account of a warped upbringing made fascinating by the insight it provides into Masson's adult life. He makes no excuses: in initially revering Freud and other authority figures, Masson realizes he was seeking new and better gurus that Brunton-and was fated to reject them pitilessly when they showed themselves, like Brunton, to be merely human." -Los Angeles Times Book Review "Beneath the guru-bashing, the book is Masson's poignant and loving indictment of his parents, worth reading for his psychological portrait of coming-of-age disillusionment." -Seattle Weekly

Guru Dutt Is Probably The Only Indian Film-Maker Who, Within The Parameters Of The Box Office, Made A Personal Statement With His Cinema. His Films Stand Testimony Not Only To His Own Genius But Also To The Creativity Of His Team, Comprising Stalwarts Like Cameraman V.K. Murthy, Music Director S.D. Burman, And Writer Abrar Alvi, Among Others. In Ten Years With Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi&Rsquo;S Journey, Sathya Saran Looks At The Tumultuous Yet Incredibly Fecund Relationship Between The Mercurial Director And His Equally Talented Albeit Unsung Writer, A Partnership That Evolved Over A Decade Till Guru Dutt&Rsquo;S Tragic Death In 1964. Starting His Career As A Driver And Chaperone To Guru Dutt&Rsquo;S Producer On The Sets Of Baaz, Abrar Soon Caught The Attention Of The Director With His Sharp Ear For And Understanding Of Film Dialogue. With Aar Paar In 1954, Abrar Rewrote The Rules Of Dialogue Writing In Hindi Cinema, Till Then Marked By Theatricality And Artificiality. He Followed It Up With Mr And Mrs &Rsquo;55, Pyaasa And Kaagaz Ke Phool&Mdash;All Veritable Treatises On The Art Of Scriptwriting&Mdash;Before Donning The Director&Rsquo;S Mantle With Great Success In Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. Full Of Anecdotes&Mdash;About How Abrar Honed His Skills By Writing Over 300 Love Letters; How An Accident Involving A Buffalo Led To The Discovery Of Waheeda Rehman; Guru Dutt&Rsquo;S Visit To A Kotha To Get The Ambience Right For Pyaasa&Mdash;Ten Years With Guru Dutt Is A Warm And Insightful Look At Two Remarkable Artistes Who Inspired Each Other To Create Movie Magic. It Is, At The Same Time, An Intimate Account Of The Ecstasy And The Agony That Marked The Making Of Some Of The Enduring Classics Of Indian Cinema.

"In the Presence of the Master" is a series of stirring and insightful discourses given by Sadhguru. In his willingness to share, Sadhguru offers glimpses of the profound wisdom that is otherwise accessible to enlightened beings only. Offering the rare possibility to go beyond all limitations, a veritable Guru takes the seeker on a mystical journey towards the ultimate liberation. Considering a Guru as someone who is supposed to guide the seeker in his quest for self-realization, the statement “A Guru always takes you for a Ride” may sound provocative, contradictory and unjust, at first sight; however, there are comprehensible, even compulsory reasons for it. In this volume, Sadhguru delivers rare insights into the Guru-shishya relationship.

The story of one man’s journey from his youth in suburban Chicago to an adult in spiritual India and a world of mystics, yogis, and gurus. Within this extraordinary memoir, Radhanath Swami weaves a colorful tapestry of adventure, mysticism, and love. Readers follow Richard Slavin from the suburbs of Chicago to the caves of the Himalayas as he transforms from young seeker to renowned spiritual guide. The Journey Home is an intimate account of the steps to self-awareness and also a penetrating glimpse into the heart of mystic traditions and the challenges that all souls must face on the road to inner harmony and a union with the Divine. Through near-death encounters, apprenticeships with advanced yogis, and years of travel along the pilgrim’s path, Radhanath Swami eventually reaches the inner sanctum of India’s mystic culture and finds the love he has been seeking. It is a tale told with rare candor, immersing the reader in a journey that is at once engaging, humorous, and heartwarming. Praise for The Journey Home “Here is an inspiring chapter of “our story” of spiritual pilgrimage to the East. It shows the inner journey of awakening in a fascinating and spellbinding way.” —Ram Dass, author, Be Here Now “He tells his story with remarkable honest—the temptations of the 1970s, his doubts, hopes, and disappointments, the culture shock, and the friendships found and lost . . . Add a zest of danger, suspense, and surprise, and Radhanath Swami’s story is a deep, genuine memoir that reads like a novel.” —Brigitte Sion, assistant professor of Religious Studies, New York University

In 1985, when Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was expelled from the United States, he left behind a bizarre trail of devoted followers, illegal wiretaps and marriages, attempted murders, and 93 Rolls-Royces. Gordon follows that trail, exploring the strange happenings.

The Author Karin Vastola is one of the rare Western Spiritual Seekers who has experienced “The Tenth Gate Opening’” and its profound effects on the mind, body and spiritual heightening characteristic of the Kundalini phenomenon. The lessons presented in the book are easy to follow. They come from firsthand experiences and with simplicity of the approach, the reader moves towards enlightenment in unexpected ways. The connection with “The Tenth Guru of The Sikh Religion is a rare phenomenon.

Buried Treasures is the confluence of two great spiritual rivers that led to the fulfilling of the author's destiny — a near death experience and the vision quests of an indigenous village of Mexico. Buried Treasures is the story of 3 years in the early adult life of Guru Singh (the book's author). Gerry Pond (Guru Singh) was twenty years old when he died in a Seattle hospital from a ruptured appendix. This near-death-experience, and all that came with it, gave him the resolve to deliver on his dream of being a musician for freedom and peace in the musical revolution of the 1960's. The book follows the years that it took for him to get out of the Army Draft; land a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records; record and perform his music while living in San Francisco of the 1960's; explore higher consciousness with an indigenous village in remote Mexico and find the path he is still on today. Buried Treasures is his journey, but also the journey that each of us must travel to get from where we are to who we are destined to become in our lives. We all have this story in us and each individual's version of this story is the classic hero's journey.

This book is the first publication by Without Shape Without Form (WSWF), an arts organization established in 2017 by volunteers from the Guru Maneyo Granth Gurdwara (GMGG) in Slough, UK. Featuring digital paintings by world-renowned Sikh artist Kanwar Singh, it offers an introduction to the history and teachings of Sikhism.

"Armed with wit, insight, and truly astonishing research, Falk utterly demolishes the notion of the enlightened guru who can lead devotees to nirvana.--John Horgan, author of "Rational Mysticism."