Awaken to the ancient Sri Vidya path of tantric goddess worship
Nearly four decades ago, a series of intense spiritual visions led one of India’s top nuclear physicists—until then a religious skeptic and man of science—to walk away from his prestigious post at the heart of the country’s missile-defense complex.
Retreating into the remote jungles of eastern India, he discovered the remains of a centuries-old Tantric mother goddess shrine and embarked on a life-altering quest to revive and expand it—eventually attracting tens of thousands of followers from across India and around the globe.
His journey took him from the sprawling metropolises of South Asia to the developing world of south-central Africa, from an unlikely Hindu goddess temple thriving in rural upstate New York to a mass Tantric prayer chant at the summit of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. Along the way, he encountered a credibility-stretching array of saints and gurus.
The Goddess and the Guru chronicles the astonishing, inspiring and yet deeply human life of Dr. Nishtala Prahlada Sastry, later best known as Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswati, or simply “Guruji.” In the tradition of Yogananda’s iconic Autobiography of a Yogi or Brunton’s A Search in Secret India, The Goddess and the Guru is part biography, part spiritual guidebook—geared toward a new generation of seekers.
More than merely the story of one man and his particular path, it explores the universal questions of why we believe, why we practice, and how to establish and (above all) sustain a meaningful spiritual life while remaining fully engaged in the world.
Drawing upon reams of original documents and years of candid, in-depth interviews with Amritananda, his family, friends, colleagues, disciples and closest associates, as well as scholars of Indian religion, history and archaeology, The Goddess and the Guru offers unprecedented insight into the making of a modern-day spiritual master. Grounded in the ancient Sri Vidya school of Tantric Hinduism – the world’s oldest surviving and most sophisticated school of goddess worship, with roots tapping back to prehistoric India – Amritananda’s work reveals powerful teachings that were, for millennia, passed orally from guru to disciple.
Who are we?
My name is Michael Bowden. I am an attorney and former New York Times Company reporter with three decades of publishing experience. I’ve written for newspapers and magazines ranging from the ABA Journal to India Today. I was a longtime features editor for Lawyers Weekly Publications in Boston, and I now direct communications for Roger Williams University School of Law, Rhode Island’s only law school. My freelance magazine features have appeared in national and international publications, and I was awarded the American Bar Association’s prestigious Ross Award for my legal journalism.
In 1999 I co-founded the Shakti Sadhana Group, which collected, published and hosted discussions of Hindu Shakta scriptures. I met Amritananda in 2003, and we collaborated on a number of projects together over the years. I wrote The Goddess and the Guru with his full cooperation and participation, and he approved the manuscript just months before his death in October 2015.
Source: Michael Bowden's Indiegogo Page
