Browsing the "reviews" Category

Book Review: Swami in a Strange Land

May 5th, 2016 | by Harmonist staff

By the story’s dramatic conclusion, readers have met a true holy being, and many may come to agree with Greene that the title’s “strange land” is the world we all inhabit, and that the Swami has come to free us all from our illusions


The Amazing Inner Lives of Animals

November 30th, 2015 | by Harmonist staff

Are our egos “threatened by the thought that other animals think and feel? Is it because acknowledging the mind of another makes it harder to abuse them?”


Review: Sam Harris’ Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality without Religon

September 9th, 2014 | by Harmonist staff

Harris takes the fashionable route of mixing the rigidly precise, if thematically narrow, empirical neuroscience with the wishy-washy warbling of new age spiritualism. Much like his ignorance of Plato on the topic of the soul, Harris seems unaware of almost the entirety of the Western philosophical tradition. Either this or he silently rejects it


Review: Pluralism and the Mind

June 5th, 2014 | by Harmonist staff

A review of \"Pluralism and the Mind\" by Matthew Colborn, wherein a critique of current neuroscience and philosophy of the mind provides an admirably clear overview of the existing approaches and some alternative definitions of consciousness


Film Review: The World Before Her

January 11th, 2014 | by Harmonist staff

The World Before Her reveals two polarities of a cultural conflict driven not so much by Prachi and Ruhi, but by an older generation of Indians represented by a narrow-minded father and a rather villainous diction coach. They cannot conceive of a cultural synthesis that might retain essential spiritual principles while adopting aspects of western liberality


Review: Hare Krishna in the Modern World

October 21st, 2013 | by Harmonist staff

This book offers an important viewpoint into current discussions within the movement. In this sense, it can function as a sourcebook to what is going on within Iskcon in the 2010s


Review: Give to Live

May 15th, 2013 | by Harmonist staff

Too often we encounter either complete beginner\'s guides to spiritual practice or the classic sacred texts, which have endured yet may be hard to penetrate. Karnamrita’s book falls nicely in between these extremes


Review: Blazing Sadhus: Or Never Trust a Holy Man Who Can’t Dance

February 2nd, 2013 | by Harmonist staff

Achyutananda’s genuine tone pairs beautifully with his sincere discipleship. We might hope to hear more from Achyutananda Das in the coming years, especially at a time when other, less humanizing versions of Srila Prabhupada may otherwise become the standard narrative



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