Wednesday, 28 September 2022

Yoga for Super Immunity by Bijoylaxmi Hota (Book Review: 3.5*/5) !!!

  

22nd Book of 2022


All of us want to get into yoga and yogic lifestyle but none of us know how to start. We are aware of its benefits but we aren’t aware of which yoga activity provides what exact benefits. Our middle-class mindset doesn’t even allow us to spend on a Yoga class, retreat and we don’t even trust every Yog guru we find around us. What is it that can then help us understand the same? Can there be anything for which Books can’t provide an answer? Definitely No! Here, I would like to talk about Bijoylaxmi Hota’s latest book named “Yoga for super immunity” which is a short book of around 140 pages which will help you as a beginner to start your journey with the last answer to everything – Yoga.

 

Author has divided the whole book into small chapters each concentrating on one subject problem and tried to provide the yogic answers for all of them. I liked how author explained us the concept of prana and how we need to maintain and increase it within our system to improve our overall health – mentally, spiritually and physically. I have read importance of prana with such conceptualization for the first time in my reading experience. Author has very intelligently covered not only yogasanas but explained many aspects and types of it. Similarly, she also gives importance to eating healthy and right food. Author starts the book mainly with the chapter which talks about cleansing our system something to which all of us give the least priority. She provides multiple solutions such as laghoo shankha prakshyalana, fasting, steaming, massage and also suggest some special foods for the same.

 

In the chapter - how we can increase our healing energies- we get to know that pranayama is not just one thing but it has multiple subtypes and how we can perform each of them. Then, author moves ahead and provide us simple all-round asanas which can be performed specifically for the improvement of the nervous system, spine, digestive system, intestine, heart, thyroid, adrenal gland, kidneys, pancreas and later makes it further easier by providing particular asana which benefits the overall health i.e. Surya Namaskar.

 

Bijoylaxmi also explains many mudras and bandhas which people generally don’t know about. I am glad that I did Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering which had already taught me Sambhavi Mudra the benefits of which I have already enjoyed. I really got very cheerful to find it’s mention in this book too. The book also covers the topics such as how we can perform meditation and what we can do to beat insomniac issues. The illustrations and images provided to explain every step involved in any technique is commendable and appreciable as it makes this book a practical guide to perform it without having any teacher around us. Author’s pure intention to make our lives better can be sensed in every written word.

 

Overall, this book is great if you are a beginner. I believe that the topics that author has covered could have been elaborated further to make it a bit more explainable to the readers. Similarly, I felt book quite basic in terms of the subjects covered in it. Some real-life claims also sounded unbelievable to me. Anyway, I give the book 3.5 stars out of 5 – extra 0.5 for its illustrations and images. Give it a try if you have only heard the word “Yoga” but never had any experience of doing it before.


PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE

 

Thanks!

 

WRITING BUDDHA 


Tuesday, 20 September 2022

THE AGE OF ASCENT by Yogi Mahajan (Book Review: 4.25*/5) !!!

  

21st Book of 2022

 


I have a separate soft-corner for spiritual books and you must have understood with the choice of books I am reviewing in recent few months. This time I picked up the book by Yogi Mahajan named “The Age Of Ascent”. It’s summed up in around 170 pages and published by Rupa Publications. It also has the tagline which says “Empower yourself by knowing yourself” and it completely justifies it. There are few books which you can’t finish in a single reading or so. It took me almost 1.5 months to complete this book of just 170 pages because of the kind of subject author has chosen to deep dive into.

 

I have read many books on spirituality even by personalities like Sadhguru, Om Swami, Eknath Easwaran etc. but I can say that Yogi Mahajan has not performed a bit less than any of the eminent personalities while writing about the subject. He has chosen the extremely popular and interesting topic of 7 Chakras and Kundalini and the way he has explained each chakra in detail along with its illustrations will just make you understand a lot of things about our body and mind which we are completely unaware of. Generally, authors keep on using the word “Soul” repeatedly which sounds deep but readers aren’t able to comprehend the logics and explanations provided for the same. Here, author has used this word as minimum as possible and tried getting into the practical approach of explaining our inner self.

 

Author has dedicated a chapter each for every chakra and ended the book with good summarization with few chapters which are distinct but makes us understand how everything works in collaboration. There are many beautiful quotes and anecdotes which you’ll get tired of highlighting repeatedly. You will want to keep everyone of them handy with yourself always. Some of them are so impactful that it can make you understand things which 10 books can not write to impress you. The book mainly promotes Nirmala Deviji as a spiritual figure and Sahaja Yoga as a tool to get your chakras and its vibrations corrected and reach a stage where you are able to experience the blooming of Kundalini. Like Sadhguru’s book – Inner Engineering, the main concept is kept as a closure for reader to search the name Nirmala Devi and get associated with their community. Well!

 

Author has not shied away from giving examples from Quran as well as Christianity. He is very open in terms of explaining how every religion is speaking about the same destination irrespective of whatever path a human being chose to experience the zenith. I also admired the way book connects the whole health parameters with the well-being of our chakras. I was surprised to know that the vibrations of left and right side of our body are also distinct which can cause a totally different thought process in our mind. Similarly, every chakra is associated with few of our organs and how it will work. We can sense which chakra is losing balance based on our health issues. It then makes us aware on which chakra to focus to enable the healthiness of the respective organ. Reading such scientific element in a spiritual context was quite intriguing and made me read not more than 3 pages a day – to grasp every word properly without losing anything between the lines.

 

Overall, the book is a different experience. It might seem harder for a beginner in the world of spirituality and chakras but people interested in spirituality or have already read at least 10 books in the genre will enjoy this to the fullest. I give the book 4.25* out of 5. Recommended!


PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE

 

Thanks!

 

WRITING BUDDHA