In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda shares six books that have influenced his thinking and that he recommends for readers interested in spirituality, history, nature, and Indian traditions.
Honestly, I would recommend all kinds of books, but for five-ish minutes, I have chosen six books that I especially want to recommend.
Book number one is I, Lalla, a collection of the poems of the remarkable Kashmiri mystic poet Lal Ded. She is quite unique, and I think you will enjoy reading her work.
Book number two is the Dnyaneshwari, technically called the Bhavartha Deepika. It is Dnyaneshwar Maharaj’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. It is a wonderful commentary, not only because it is so deeply focused on bhakti, but also because it teaches how to awaken kundalini. That does not mean it will happen simply by reading it, but it does mean you can learn how it is described.
Book number three is Kinship with All Life, written about seventy years ago by J. Allen Boone. It explores how human beings can interact with and meaningfully communicate with many different species, and how all life is continually communicating with one another.
Book number four is The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman. She wrote a number of excellent books on history, and this one shows how World War I became almost inevitable once certain events unfolded during August 1914. It is an excellent analysis and a powerful example of how human beings, even with the best of intentions, can produce the worst of results.
Book number five is The Wonder That Was India by Professor A. L. Basham, whom I had the good fortune to meet about forty-five years ago in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Although the book is now quite old and some of its conclusions may have changed with later scholarship, it remains an excellent introduction to the many ways Indian culture flourished during the classical age.
The sixth book is one that I have just finished reading. It is called An Immense World by Ed Yong. Ed Yong won a Pulitzer Prize for another of his books and is an excellent writer. This book explores the extraordinary senses of animals and human beings, and how the umwelt, the unique perceptual world of each species, can be dramatically different even though we all live in the same world.