I found Entering the Life of Prayer to be a fascinating insight into the nature of the modern quest for meaning and insight through prayer and chanting. It is no accident that Satsvarupa is drawn to the great Christian mystics, for he stands in a direct line, even if the focus of his devotion is Krishna rather than Christ. Here is the same frank honesty; the same dissatisfaction with blind acceptance and empty ritual. Here is the same quest to encounter the reality behind the words and the all-encompassing nature of the Divine in the mundane.

I have read a lot of Hare Krishna material, but this is the first book which makes me as an outsider want to explore the faith more deeply, and which really reaches out to me as a fellow believer in the Divine.

The integrity of the book and its unswerving honesty make for refreshing and challenging reading. It deserves to be known well beyond the confines of the Hare Krishna movement or ISKCON, for it is about grappling with our place and our sense of both meaning and of the Godhead in a world which is often alien and hostile - even the religious world which some of us inhabit.

I recommend this book to any who are genuinely wrestling with the implications of faith and with the path of prayer. It deserves to become a spiritual classic.

Martin Palmer
Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture; and Religious Advisor to World Wildlife Fund for Nature (International).
 

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