Lead story may 2024

Lead story may 2024

May 2024

LEAD STORY 

The 20 Best Post Millennial  Spiritual  Memoirs 

If you are a spiritual seeker, then you will  find that the list of books recommended here  by Ashish Virmani will save you the time  and effort of googling for modern spiritual  classics to further your journey. And if you  are not, perhaps it’s time to start the process  with these gems  

In writing a spiritual autobiography, the  role of truthfulness and honesty on the  part of the author is paramount. Without  this, it cannot be said to be worth the paper it  is written on, or at best, it could be a second- or  third-rate work. Also, the author’s willingness  to share the difficult periods of their life with  the reader is crucial. To omit the experience  of adversity in their life or gloss over it means  denying the reader a very human experience  as well as the very rationale and need for  spiritual enlightenment. Also, to be able to  bare the uncomfortable aspects of their human  personality in the light of the Higher Truth,  which they have attained, is important, as are  the qualities of humility and modesty. In fact,  all of the above are aspects of genuine spiritual  attainment and are inherent in the experience  of spiritual awakening. 

In choosing these spiritual memoirs, all the  above factors have been taken into consideration  as well as the fact that this is a selection of the  stories of ordinary people—as against spiritual  masters—who awakened spiritually. With one  or two notable exceptions, these are all stories  of regular people like you and me, following  a variety of spiritual paths, who awakened  either gradually through spiritual practice or  suddenly due to seeking a way out of intense  adversity and suffering. There are also a  couple of memoirs by the spiritually gifted  such as genuine psychic mediums or those  who can see angels or read people’s energies,  but they are few and far between. For the vast  majority of humanity, a consistent (preferably  daily) spiritual practice, is the best possible  way to spiritual attainment. This, I would say  from personal experience, is the surest, most  sustainable, and gentlest way to happiness.  

This aggregation of stories aims to supply the  reader with thumbnail sketches as reference  points in the hope that they will resonate with  at least one in the selection, if not more. For  those on the spiritual path, this will hopefully  add more fortification to their belief system.  For those who have not yet chosen a spiritual  path, this article should hopefully provide  a doorway to higher knowledge, in fact, the  highest knowledge available to humankind.  Spiritual faith is the highest aspiration of  humanity, and this article hopes to illustrate  that it is a portal open to ordinary people,  equally.  

• My Journey through Time: A Spiritual  Memoir of Life, Death, and Rebirth  Author: Dena Merriam 

Publisher: Dena Merriam 

First Publication: 2018 

Dena Merriam is an American disciple of the  spiritual master Paramahansa Yogananda. An  avid meditator for decades, Dena’s meditations  opened up a gateway where she could  experience her past lives. This book relates  them as they were revealed to her present  consciousness. A thrilling book, My Journey  Through Time sheds light on the workings of  karma and the law of cause and effect so that  readers can better understand the underlying  conditions that have caused their own present  circumstances and relationships. Incidentally,  Merriam is well-known in international  spiritual circles and is a great aficionado of  Indian spiritual culture.  

Website: https://www.denamerriam.com 

• The Journey Home: Autobiography of an  American Swami  

Author: Radhanath Swami 

Publisher: Mandala Publishing (In India by  Jaico Publishing House) 

First Publication: 2008 

This tale of a Jewish-American  boy, Richard Slavin, who at 19 decides to follow the call of his heart  and come to India, is  both heartwarming  

and hair-raising. Hair raising because the boy  has practically no  money and is  determined  to follow  

t h e  dangerous overland route to India via Turkey,  Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, to arrive  in India around 1971. How he embarks on a  spiritual journey through his apprenticeship  to advanced yogis and spiritual guides, once in  India, forms the crux of this book. Today, many  decades later, Radhanath Swami (Richard was  given the name by his guru Srila Prabhupada  of ISKCON) himself is a revered spiritual  teacher, based in Mumbai, and the spiritual  guru to celebrities such as Will Smith and  Russell Brand, among others. This is, quite  simply, an honest and exhilarating book. 

Website: https://www.radhanathswami.com

• Hollywood to the Himalayas: A Journey  of Healing and Transformation  

Author: Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati Publisher: Simon and Schuster (In India by  Jaico Publishing House) 

First Publication: 2021 

Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati This is the story of an American woman who  accompanied her husband to India in the  late 1990s and fell deeply in love with Indian  spirituality. Sadhvi Bhagwati Saraswati (she  does not publicly reveal her American name)  had an intense spiritual experience on the  banks of the Ganga in Rishikesh in 1996  that changed her life forever. She stayed on  at the Parmarth Niketan in Rishikesh under  the tutelage of her guru HH Pujya Swami  Chidanand Saraswatiji, and today, nearly  three decades later, she is a famed spiritual  teacher herself. This book is an intimate look  at her life and personal issues, which include  childhood abuse and an eating disorder in her  teens, among other things. The willingness to  show the vulnerable side of her character is  what makes the book priceless and a treasure  for readers undergoing these all-too-common  issues.  

Website: https://sadhviji.org 

• Dying to Be Me: My Journey from  Cancer to Near-Death to True Healing  Author: Anita Moorjani 

Publisher: Hay House 

First Publication: 2012 

Anita Moorjani wrote this groundbreaking  book on her near-death experience (NDE) and  the spiritual realisations that were afforded  to her after a near-fatal bout with cancer.  During her NDE, Anita experienced a realm  of unconditional love and interconnectedness  that transformed her understanding of life  and healing. She recounts the overwhelming  feelings of acceptance in another dimension  and the realisation that embracing one’s true  self is fundamental to well-being. The book  challenges conventional notions about illness  and recovery, suggesting that a lack of self-love  and authenticity  in daily living  can contribute to physical ailments. This book has  guided thousands  

of people, if not  more, to live true  to themselves. A  pioneering book in  every way, Dying to Be Me underscores  

the powerful  connection between  the mind and body. 

Website: https://www. anitamoorjani.com 

• Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s  Journey into the Afterlife  

Author: Dr Eben Alexander 

Publisher: Simon and Schuster 

First Publication: 2012 

This by-now famous book of a doctor’s near death experience in hospital and his return to  life is an example of the afterlife being verified  by a practitioner of the scientific method. Dr  Eben Alexander was a successful American  neurosurgeon who, one day in 2008, was struck  by a freak and p a r a l y s i n g  case of brain meningitis.  He was in a coma for  several days w h e n  he had his a m a z i n g  e x p e r i e n c e s of the  afterlife, which he details  in this book. T h e  several realms of t h e  a f t e r l i f e  that he  traversed  and the  s o u l s  he met  t h e r e  

are all  p a r t  of his  story,  a s  is the  tale of how many aspects of his life on earth  came together after his body recovered from  meningitis.  

Website: www.ebenalexander.com 

• Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search  for Everything across Italy, India, and  Indonesia  

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert 

Publisher: Viking 

First Publication: 2006 

This well-known book is a writer’s account of  what happened after she experienced a ‘dark  night of the soul’ in her marriage and felt the  impossibility of carrying on. She subsequently  divorced her husband, quit her job, and went  on a year-long journey to find her true identity  and pursue the things she really wanted. These  included gourmet pleasure in Italy, spirituality  in India, and love in Bali. There was a film  version of the book, released in 2010, with  Julia Roberts playing the author. The book is  a real pleasure to read because it is candid and  unpretentious with the writer showing up as  her true self, instead of someone trying to fit  in with society’s ideals. It was also a pioneering  book in the writing of women’s spiritual  memoirs because it paved the way for a host  of women writers to claim their rights to self contentment.  

Website: https://www.elizabethgilbert.com

• My Love Story: The Autobiography  Author: Tina Turner 

Publisher: Penguin Random House 

First Publication: 2018 

The queen of rock ’n’ roll, Tina Turner, writes  about her unusual life which saw so much  suffering during its early years (including  being an unloved and unwanted child) but  took on epic proportions of career success  

and victory post her forties. It was  

a remarkable achievement  considering she was  a woman of colour,  pretty much  on her own  in a male 

dominated  m u s i c  industry  and also  past the  

p r i m e  of her  youth.  

T i n a talks about the  highlights of her life in this invigorating and  somewhat thrilling book, and of the people  who helped her along the way. She credits her  ability to climb out of the abyss she was stuck in  to her spiritual faith and practice of Nichiren  Buddhism. She writes unhesitatingly about  the long hours and days she spent chanting  during her most desperate times when she  feared for her life and safety, and about how  her spiritual faith was eventually instrumental  

in her survival and great career success.  Website: https://www.thetinaturner.com 

• Stumbling into Infinity: An Ordinary  Man in the Sphere of Enlightenment  Author: Michael Fischman 

Publisher: Sri Sri Publications Trust, India First Publication: 2009 (in America) This is an account of an American disciple  of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Michael Fischman,  who went on to become the president of the  US Art of Living Foundation. Michael met  Sri Sri in 1979 when the spiritual master was  barely known and was seeking to establish his  organisation and philosophy. As one of Sri  Sri’s earliest overseas converts, Michael had  the amazing fortune of being trained directly  under the master himself, which he describes  

in this book. The author talks of his  experiences with the central techniques  of Sahaj Samadhi meditation and  Sudarshan Kriya, and of the  experiences of  living in Art of Living  communities  in the US and  adjoining countries.  

This book  is also an  intimate  look at  t h e  disciples who made up Sri Sri’s world during  his early years and his personal interactions  with them long before the movement expanded  and became a worldwide phenomenon.  

Website:http://www.stumblingintoinfinity.com 

• The Laws of the Spirit World  

Author: Khorshed Bhavnagri 

Publisher: Jaico Publishing House First Publication: 2009 

This book is the story of an elderly Parsi  couple, Khorshed and Rumi Bhavnagri, with  two sons, Vispi and Ratoo, who, unfortunately,  died tragically in 1980 in a car crash on the  outskirts of Mumbai. They were only in their  twenties. The parents were inconsolable until  their sons began communicating with them  from the Spirit World through the medium of  automatic writing. This book is based on the  

spiritual lessons that the sons passed on to their  mother, Khorshed, from another dimension in  the afterlife. It advocates the law of cause and  effect and that the causes we make through  our thoughts, words, and actions in the human  world determine not only our reality in this  life but also our state of life post-death and the  happiness or misery we suffer afterwards.  

• Angels in My Hair: A Message of Hope  from the Angels  

Author: Lorna Byrne 

Publisher: Random House 

First Publication: 2008 

Angels in My Hair is the story of an Irish healer,  Lorna Byrne, who can see angels as a matter of  course in her daily life. Ironically, the author  was thought of as a ‘retarded’ child even by her  parents. A lack of parental love, being dyslexic  as a child, and being taken out of school at age  14 meant that Lorna never learnt to read and  

write. This book, in fact, came out when Lorna  was nearly 55 years old and had distinguished  herself as an outstanding healer in Ireland and  the rest of the world. It was written with the help  of someone Lorna trusted. She details how she  had to face poverty as an adult, a miscarriage,  and the early death of her husband, which left  her with four mouths to feed. She also talks  about the people she healed by guiding them  to their angels. A truly authentic book. 

Website: https://lornabyrne.com 

• A Youthful Diary  

Author: Daisaku Ikeda 

Publisher: World Tribune Press (In India by  Eternal Ganges Press Pvt Ltd) 

First Publication: 2000 

This book, in a diary format, is suitably  subtitled One Man’s Journey from the Beginnings  of Faith to Worldwide Leadership for Peace. It covers nearly 12 years in the life of young  Daisaku Ikeda, from the beginnings of his  faith in the late 1940s to the time he took on  the mantle of the third president of the Soka  Gakkai, a Japanese lay Buddhist organisation,  in 1960. It is a very human story of  a struggle— from the  confusion, ill health, 

a n d relative  p o v e r t y of the  protagonist  amid the ruins of  post-WWII to a  resurrection of his life  under the umbrella of strong Buddhist faith. The most  charming aspect of this book is its modesty, as  Ikeda, the son of a seaweed fisherman in Japan,  candidly lays bare his day-to-day struggles  with his failing health, his problems with  relationships, and his attempts to build a happy  family even as he struggles with his vision of  the worldwide spread of Buddhism.  

Website: https://www.daisakuikeda.org 

• Soul Lessons from the Light: How  Spiritually Transformative Experiences  Changed My Life  

Author: Yvonne Kason 

Publisher: Author’s Choice Press, iUniverse  Inc. 

First Publication: 2022 

Yvonne Kason is a medical doctor from  Canada who first coined the term ‘spiritually  transformative experience (STE).’ She has  personally experienced multiple STEs during  the course of her lifetime, including  a kundalini awakening in her twenties; and,  amazingly enough, five near-death experiences  (NDEs) over decades. This is the story of  a medical doctor who was interested in  meditation and spirituality early in life. This  book describes the conflict she experienced  between her career as a doctor and the spiritual  path that she organically chose. As a disciple  of Paramahansa Yogananda, Kason describes  herself as a ‘Christian yogi’—someone who  bridges the gulf between Hinduism and  Christianity. Dr Kason has also founded  Spiritual Awakenings International (SAI), an  organisation with a mission to raise awareness  globally about spiritually transformative  experiences of all types, which currently has an  active presence on social media.  

Website: https://dryvonnekason.com 

• 50 Life Lessons: A Practical Guide on  How to Maximise Happiness 

Author: Suma Varughese 

Publisher: Hay House 

First Publication: 2022 

Suma Varughese has been a magazine editor  for decades, and her latest book, 50 Life Lessons, consists of wisdom gleaned from her own  growth and spiritual transformation. In this  book, the author talks transparently about  her self-doubts, her struggles, and the turning  points in her life, which led her ever deeper  into spirituality. Covered are many concerns  that contemporary urban dwellers face, such  as the quest for identity, the need for a support  group or groups, fulfilling one’s life purpose,  or ‘dharma,’ the importance of vulnerability,  and many other topics. From her vantage  point as the observer of the lives of numerous  individuals, Suma writes with gentleness about  the things that really matter as a human being:  self-improvement on a daily basis, humaneness,  self-acceptance, and respecting and benefitting  other people, to name a few 

• Love Everyone: The Transcendent  Wisdom of Neem Karoli Baba Told  through the Stories of the Westerners  Whose Lives He Transformed 

Author: Parvati Markus 

Publisher: Harper Collins  

First Publication: 2015 

Parvati Marcus 

Neem Karoli Baba was one of those legendary  Indian gurus who could induce among his  disciples a state of advanced meditation with  his mere physical presence. An enlightened  master, best known to Westerners as the guru  of Ram Dass ( or Richard Alpert, a Harvard  professor), Neem Karoli Baba advocated no  comprehensive body of teachings. In fact,  he rarely spoke, and his instructions to his  disciples consisted of two pithy maxims— ‘Love everyone’ and ‘Feed everyone’—of which  the former is the title of this book. The author,  Parvati Markus, is a well-known American  book editor, and in the book, relates the  transcendent wisdom that the guru transmitted  to his disciples, especially Westerners, as they  came flocking in the footsteps of Ram Dass.  These are here-and-now stories and anecdotes  about Neem Karoli Baba that date nearly half  a century ago, remembered afresh as if they  happened just yesterday. This book would be  of interest to anyone who has a connection to  the counterculture of the seventies.  

Website: https://parvatimarkus.com 

• Finding Venerable Mother: A Daughter’s  Spiritual Quest to Thailand  

Author: Cindy Rasicot 

Publisher: She Writes Press 

First Publication: 2020 

When American author and marriage-and child counsellor Cindy Rasicot moved with  her husband and teenage son from Northern  California to Bangkok in 2005, she wondered  how she would occupy herself in a foreign  land. Always interested in feminist issues, she  attended a women’s conference in Bangkok  where she encountered a Thai Buddhist nun,  the venerable Dhammananda Bhikkhuni. The  nun talked about compassion and the futility of  anger during a particularly stormy and turbulent  conference session, in which traumatised women  from war-torn countries were participating.  The nun’s words and calm countenance stirred  something deep in Rasicot, and she felt herself  drawn to this tall, slender woman and Buddhism.  For the next three years, the author entered the  nun’s world and began her journey of personal  transformation and spiritual development under  the Buddhist tradition, which she relates in this  memoir.  

Website: https://cindyrasicot.com 

• Mahashakti Awakes: An Autobiography of  Spiritual Awakening 

Author: Santosh Sachdeva 

Publisher: Yogi Impressions LLP 

First Publication: 2018 

This is a book about a householder spiritualist,  a wife, mother, businesswoman, a student, and  later, the mentor of Kundalini Yoga, and her  spiritual awakening. It tells the story of Santosh  who grew up during the Indian Partition. The  author describes how the event seismically  affected her and her family’s life during her early  years. She describes her marriage and the events  that came after, including her meeting with holy  personages that led her onto the spiritual path  and also her husband’s relatively early death.  The tale of her spiritual awakening, however,  forms the crux of this book. Santosh’s spiritual  path is Brahma Vidya and the Tibetan practice  of The Eight Spiritual Breaths, a technique she  was taught by her guru, Justice M L Dudhat. The  Eight Spiritual Breaths technique is intended to  serve as a guide to aspirants on the spiritual path  and assist in kundalini awakening. 

Website: https://santoshsachdeva.com 

Santosh Sachdeva 

• The Light Between Us: Stories from  Heaven. Lessons for the Living  

Author: Laura Lynne Jackson 

Publisher: Random House 

First Publication: 2015 

Laura Lynne Jackson is one of the world’s  better-known psychic mediums, which means  that she can connect in another dimension  with deceased people. She had this ability  ever since she was a child, but it took several  years for her to understand  that she could use it to  help other p e o p l e .  Especially  

for people w h o s e  r e l a t i v e s or loved  ones have p a s s e d  a w a y suddenly  or in circumstances that are not normal, Laura often  

brings back messages of hope and consolation  from their loved ones in the afterlife, which  can give the survivors the strength to go on  

living. For many years, Laura worked as a high  school English teacher on Long Island, New  York, concealing her psychic abilities which  

enabled her to read people’s energies and pick  up information about their past, present, and  future. But post the millennium when the  world’s consciousness shifted, with several  books, authors, and spiritualists speaking and  writing about the paranormal and near-death experiences (NDEs), the times caught up with Laura, and she eased into her role as a psychic  

medium full-time. This book is an authentic,  instructive, and moving story of the author’s  life.  

Website: http://lauralynnejackson.com 

• A Baptist Preacher’s Buddhist Teacher:  

How My Interfaith Journey with Daisaku  

Ikeda Made Me a Better Christian  

Author: Lawrence E Carter Sr 

Publisher: Middleway Press 

First Publication: 2018 

Lawrence E Carter is an American Baptist  

preacher and a disciple of the late civil rights  

leader Martin Luther King Jr. A person of  

colour himself, Carter distinguished himself  

early on in religious circles as an outspoken  

proponent of black rights and non-violence  

in America. At some point in the author’s  

mid-life, he discovered that King’s ideals had  

become hopelessly eroded and marginalised.  

This gave way to despair within him about  

the overwhelming currents of society. Then  

fortuitous circumstances conspired to bring  

Carter to undertake an interfaith journey  

with Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda. Carter  

travelled to Japan to meet and hold a dialogue  

with the late Ikeda who happened to be the head  

of an organisation of 12 million Buddhists in  

192 countries and territories around the world.  

36 LifePositive | MAY 2024

Brought together by a common resonance in  Mahatma Gandhi’s life and philosophy, Carter  was rejuvenated. This is an account of how the  author was able to see the rationale of his role  as a Baptist preacher in a world being unified  by interfaith religious currents of humanity,  truthfulness, and compassion. 

• Learning to Eat Along the Way: A  Memoir  

Author: Margaret Bendet 

Publisher: She Writes Press 

First Publication: 2015 

This is the real-life story of an American  newspaperwoman who was sent to interview  Swami Muktananda in the mid-seventies,  when he was visiting Hawaii. Bendet was  so captivated by the swami’s message and  the shaktipat (the energy transmission) he  gave her that she walked out of her job and  marriage to follow the swami and become part  of his American entourage. In this dramatic  

way, she embarked on a journey of spiritual  transformation, eventually coming to live in  Muktananda’s ashram in India for several  years. Spending a total of three decades living  in the swami’s ashrams the world over, this  down-to-earth book describes her various  experiences in India and what she did in the  years following her guru’s death.  

Website: https://www.margaretbendet.com 

• Auspicious Good Fortune: One Woman’s  Inspirational Journey from Western  Disillusionment to Eastern Spiritual  Fulfilment 

Author: Sumangali Morhall 

Publisher: Mantra Books 

First Publication: 2012 

This is the compelling tale of a modern  British woman who writes about her life 

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before and after she met her Indian guru, Sri  

Chinmoy, and of the 10 transformative years  

she spent with him from 1997 to 2007 (when  

he died). During her twenties, Sarah Emily  

Morhall (later ‘Sumangali,’ which means  

‘auspicious good fortune’) had a sudden  

near-death experience in England, which  

opened her eyes to the preciousness of her  

life. She subsequently began searching for  

life’s meaning, her journey leading her to  

study meditation with Sri Chinmoy in the US.  

She then began the journey to discover her  

deepest self. Heartwarming, courageous, and  

well-crafted, this spiritual memoir follows a  

Western woman learning the ways of the East  

and putting them into practice in her modern  

world. 

 Website: https://sumangali.org 

Some honourable mentions 

While choosing the 20 best spiritual memoirs  

written after the year 2000, a couple were  

close to making it to the list. Among these  

are The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into  

Life’s Perfection by Michael A Singer; Chants  

of a Lifetime by Krishna Das; Apprenticed to  

a Himalayan Master by Sri M, and Diary of a  

Ashish Virmani, a mainstream journalist for over 18 years, found maximum fulfilment in spiritual writing.  He has interviewed personalities like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sadhguru, Deepak Chopra, Swami Parthasarathy,  Sunandaji, and others, who led him to a path within himself that he has ever since pursued. As a practising  Buddhist, he has written substantially about Buddhism and now devotes himself to his Buddhist practice  full-time.