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Maya In search of Tantric father by Vipin Behari Goyal
3.0

Let me tell you this first, I won this book in a giveaway on goodreads(obviously). Thanks to the author for choosing me, I was so surprised when I recieved it because this is my first win in the giveaways :D

But, just because I won this book for free doesnt mean that I'm going to write a great positive review. It also doesnt mean that this is negative. Its neutral. Let me tell you, there are many grammatical errors which I found and want to point out so that whoever is concerned should take this into notice and see if such mistakes occur. I suppose that it is just a human error, it can happen with anyone. So, now about the book:

First, I will tell the things which I really liked about this book.

The book is a good read and very interesting for who wants to know more about tantric rituals, mysticism, spiritualism, occult, some history about India, Indian culture. Everything about India was described so beautifully from the eye of Maya.. I got more interested in this tantric ways while kept reading and when I googled about some more information, I came across many unknown facts about our Indian culture and spirituality. This was totally overwhelming and I was glad that I came across such genre. Thanks to the author for describing the concept in an interesting way. :)

Now, about the negative points in the book.

>Well, the writing style was so weak. So very basic. I didnt expect such writing style from an author who wrote like 9 books.

>The book contains specific dates and specific events that has happened on that particular day. So, I assumed that the girl is jotting down her thoughts in a diary. But, I was stunned when I read sentence like this "That evening paved my way for being a maestro in classical Indian music in future" , seriously?! If it is written in a journal form, how can she write a sentence which is going to happen in the future? That was an absolute blunder. There are like 3-4 future sentences that she wrote in her journal like this. BLUNDERS.(but only if you assume that the book is written in the form of a journal by a girl) Another one like this: "I met Deobrat here for the first time. Later he played an important role in casting my destiny". BLUNDER.

>The book started with a negative view of India by this American girl called Maya. She said in one of her line as "I could not believe that they are from the same race as I am, Homo Sapiens". Oh god, how I hated reading THIS line! When she thought of people in THIS way, how could she fall in love with the same Homo Sapiens? How could she search for her father who is a Homo Sapien? How naive she was. This was a bad remark on her character in the starting descriptions about her.

>In one of the scenes, she meets Dr.Rama. She sees her mother's old picture at his place. She starts crying 'cause she missed her deceased mother. When, Dr.Rama was trying to simply console her, WHY did she expect a kiss from him AT THAT TIME? You know, the summary of the book at the back says "Some of them fall in love with her but she has no time to reciprocate" , THIS line is entirely false because SHE falls in love with every one of the main characters. Not they. She even made love to a foreign boy called "Raman". If that is not RECIPROCATING, then WHAT is?! I wonder.

>The title of the book says "Maya, in search of Tantric Father". But, almost at the end of the book, Maya abandons her search for her father!! Then, whats the meaning of the TITLE?!!

>In another scene, one day she attains Samadhi state in her meditation. That was so beautiful. I was lost in thoughts about how beautiful that feel could be. And on the next scene, when she was trying to attain Samadhi for the 2nd time, she couldnt. She felt Depressed and Rejected!! Oh my god. How can a person who reached their samadhi state go into depression?! I never heard of it. Isnt that a contradiction with being achieved a samadhi state? They should be in peace, right?

>And, the strangers with whom she drinks a cup of tea is SO UNREALISTIC. I mean, one moment she enjoying watching a beautiful flow of Holy Ganges, at the same moment when a boy comes and commands almost to have a cup of tea, she obeys him. How could a strange American woman get surrendered to another stranger with a commanding tone?! Ha?

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I conclude this review with few of my favorite lines from the book.

>I loooved the explanations of "Tantra, Tantric Sex, Mudra, Mantra and Yantra"

>Rama is symbol of Idealism while Krishna is epitome of completeness.

>The info and the reason why the caste system was established in India was absolutely awesome. I loved it.

>Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life.

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So yeah, thats pretty much about this book. I enjoyed reading this book because of the genre. I hope, whoever concerned with this review takes it in a postive way rather than feeling like I pointed out something which shouldnt be pointed at. :)