- Paperback: 263 pages
- Publisher: Timeless, (Jan 27 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1932018360
- ISBN-13: 978-1932018363
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #146,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Swami Radhananda's absolute devotion to Swami Radha shines throughout the pages and is an inspiration for us all. --Tenzin Palmo, founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery
Inspiring! --Roshi Joan Halifax, Founding Abbot, Upaya Zen Center
Carried by a Promise, explains the transformation of a former Alberta homemaker into Swami Radhananda, head of the large ashram. --Vancouver Sun, January 27, 2011
Inspiring! --Roshi Joan Halifax, Founding Abbot, Upaya Zen Center
Carried by a Promise, explains the transformation of a former Alberta homemaker into Swami Radhananda, head of the large ashram. --Vancouver Sun, January 27, 2011
Product Description
Yoga means many things to many people. Some understand yoga as an ancient spiritual discipline. Others practice asanas for exercise and health benefits. In Carried by a Promise, yoga is a path of liberation. Follow one woman’s journey from a life of dissatisfaction to a life of joy and meaning – a life transformed through yoga.
Carried by a Promise is the new memoir by Swami Radhananda, the spiritual director of Yasodhara Ashram. We meet her as Mary-Ann in 1977, the mother of two young children, an innovative educator and wife of an intellectual whose potential is imploding. With her marriage in trouble, she struggles with depression and questions the purpose in her life.
A friend takes her to Yasodhara Ashram, where she attends a ‘Women in Spiritual Life’ conference. There she meets her teacher, Swami Radha, who challenges the women in the group to climb the mountain of spiritual aspiration. Her words strike a chord for Mary-Ann who sees in Swami Radha a role model of a woman who knows what her life is about. Yoga provides a lifeline out of her depression and Mary-Ann starts to find her own path of Light.
Her efforts to embody her values within her family, her work and her yoga practice, create an honest picture of what it means to live a spiritual life. Her deepening commitment to self-knowledge leads her first to furthering her education, then to a professional career and finally to becoming a resident of the Yasodhara Ashram in a close relationship to Swami Radha, who she acknowledges as her spiritual mother.
Her challenges within the community, her steadfast commitment to her guru, her loving connection to Divine Mother, all weave a tapestry of integrity, determination and devotion. Mary-Ann transforms into Swami Radhananda. She begins a new phase of life, extending beyond personal limitations to a place of keen leadership that continually challenges and enriches her life.
Swami Radhananda is an inspiration to all those willing to climb the steep path to self-mastery. Her story is a very human example of how a heart-felt promise to the Divine can carry us on the spiritual path.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiration,
By
This review is from: Carried by a Promise: A Life Transformed Through Yoga (Paperback)
''This is the training. Temple, guru, rose petals, people, devotion, service ' one foot in heaven and one on earth.''This is a book for those who look for inspiration from the experiences of others. Much more, it is a deeply touching story of one woman's inner growth and professional development, told in the straightforward voice of a woman who was continually reviewing the way she was evolving, setting herself new goals and polishing and refining others. At the same time, Swami Radhananda is teaching: posing questions readers can ask themselves, demonstrating how to gather up new learnings and apply them in daily life through the practices of journal writing and reflection. Through it, Radhananda emerges as an intelligent, practical woman, who has used her mind constructively in academic studies, a career, family and spiritual life. Step by step, she interweaves experiences in the different spheres of her life, allowing new skills and insights in one area to cross-fertilize and enrich another. She demonstrates how she faced many challenges in her marriage, career and training at the Ashram, giving us recording the subtle shifts of mind and heart that paved the path of her spiritual growth under the guidance of her teacher, Swami Sivananda Radha. We learn how she drew on inspiration and support from Swami Radha and how that relationship sustained her. What has stayed with me since reading the book is the account of the guru-disciple relationship, and the illustrations of how this was powered by love and commitment: ''A love for her, for all she has carried, for what she has created and for how she has changed my life''. Gratitude inspired her to accept the role of leadership in the Ashram, even though she was a relatively new resident and the current president was still very much in evidence. It was a challenging assignment, and Radhananda describes what happened, and how the Ashram began to change in consequence: ''the real accomplishment is the tremendous feeling of harmony, inclusiveness and unity we are building". Radhananda's account ends with the death of her teacher: the point at which she must carry on without turning to her guru for guidance and support, continuing to fulfil her promise.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Ordinary Extraordinary Life,
This review is from: Carried by a Promise: A Life Transformed Through Yoga (Paperback)
How can I reach for the best in me, the best in life, and stretch towards the divine?... There are so many ways to define 'it', and even then, it would seem this 'it' escapes verbal definition.Thankfully, there exist midwives along the path who work in different ways. In my experience, they are brave souls who mustered the strength to break out of social conditioning and habit, and made the commitment to their higher selves, no matter what. This book is about (and by) one of these 'spirit guides', the woman who became Swami Radhananda, director of the prestigious Yasodhara Ashram retreat center in Canada. I was going through *Carried by a Promise* again yesterday, and it's essentially question after question. I mean, it's not that she avoids answering them or, perhaps worse, that she even has all the answers. It's that she keeps it real and fresh, and that in order to keep her commitment alive, she had to ask questions. A lot of questions. Good questions. Questions that made me squirm. Like, How devoted am I? How badly do I want 'it'? Am I one of those who infamously plead 'Dear God, please come to me... I'll do anything... though not just yet!'? In a practical way, how does my sincerity play out in my daily life? Am I devoted to the *idea* of devotion or am I truly devoted, or at least genuinely interested in becoming more devoted? Speaking of 'squirmers'... I found *Carried by a Promise* so good that it whetted my appetite for more. A friend had emphatically recommended another autobiography published by Timeless Books, an environmentally-sustainable micropublisher. I was really happy to have finally tracked down a copy of *In Durga's Embrace* by Swami Durgananda who, like Swami Radhananda, is a long-term disciple of Swami Radha. I started reading it last night and it's so good! That's actually what inspired me to contribute this piece. Who would have thought guru-disciple memoirs could be so juicy?! So on to the squirmy questions in that one. In order to determine her level of awareness, Swami Radha asks her student - who, at that time, was still called Peggy - to write papers on 'How do I lie?' and 'What games do I play?' Swami Durgananda is astounded by what she learns through this process, and the subtle manipulative ways in which she behaves less-than-honestly with herself. When I read those questions, I immediately had a pushme-pullme response and, overcoming it, resolved to explore the questions myself. What about you - are you in?
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.9 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews) 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Puts a Whole New Light on Yoga,
By Janet G - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Carried by a Promise: A Life Transformed Through Yoga (Paperback)
A `must read' for anyone on a spiritual path. Grounded, practical, inspiring. This book takes the fantasy and theory out of what it means to live a spiritual life. Swami Radhananda speaks directly to a marriage that is not working, to lack of financial security, to going back to school mid-life--bringing her spiritual practices into her life then witnessing the changes that start to happen. At the heart of it all is her love for her teacher.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Inspiring Spiritual Journey Valuable to Anyone on the Path,
By Erin L - Published on Amazon.com
Reading Carried by a Promise has provided me with the much needed traction and inspiration to continue and go deeper into my own spiritual life.Swami Radhananda's lusciously honest memoires begin when she was still Mary-Ann McDougall, mother of two, wife, and teacher, discovering for the first time just what Swami Radha's teachings and yoga are all about. She starts from her thought-provoking introduction to different spiritual practices like standing meditation and journaling. Then Radhananda takes us along on her journey and into her transformation as her faith deepens and her devotion to her guru, Swami Radha, intensifies. She tells the story of her rocky marriage, her spiritual experiences, financial stress, the development of her relationship with Swami Radha and how she eventually comes to live at the Ashram. All of this is interwoven with inspiring gems of her guru's teaching. What echoes clear throughout the book is Swami Radhananda's willingness to open her life to Light, and the ensuing Divine assistance she receives, propelling her forward along the spiritual path. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring,
By AllisonAdventures - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Carried by a Promise: A Life Transformed Through Yoga (Paperback)
Carried by a Promise is an inspiring story of growth and transformation through various practices of yoga. I'm just in the beginning stages of learning about yoga as a philosophy and way of life rather than just a fitness regimen. This book takes you through 20 years of personal journals, on her road from a depressed and seemingly going nowhere mid-30's wife and mother to the spiritual director of a thriving ashram. She discovers a spirituality that was missing in her life; and as that grows, so does faith in herself. Using her newfound inner strength, with help from her guru Swami Radha and the "Divine Light" - she manages to pull herself out of the depths of poverty and depression to a successful career and finally life at the ashram. This book is full of useful tips and knowledge from a true guru for anyone struggling on their own path.
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