Women Who Wear Only Themselves: Four Travelers on Their Sacred Journeys

(Hardback)

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In this inspiring book of divine discovery, poet and seeker Arundhathi Subramaniam gives us a glimpse into the lives of four self-contained, unapologetic female spiritual travelers.

Among the finest pieces of spiritual truth-telling literature I have ever read ... A book to savor and celebrate.Mirabai Starr, author of Wild Mercy and Ordinary Mysticism

As the pages turn, one feels a growing sense of shared humanity, even kinship, with these extraordinary practitioners of the sacred.Tim Parks, author ofTeach Us to Sit Still: A Skeptics Search for Health and Healing

In life, spiritual paths are often as unique as we are. Bringing together the voices of four women mystics walking very different spiritual paths, poet Arundhathi Subramaniam reveals the expansive potential of forging an intimate, personal connection with the divine. We'll meet these four travelers:

• Sri Annapurani Amma, who left the safety of home to follow the summons of a long-dead saint and chooses to live naked,
• Balarishi Vishwashirasini, a nada yoga teacher who became a guru as a child and admits she's missed out on a real childhood,
• Lata Mani, who discovered tantra after a major accident left her with a brain injury and today talks of how the spiritual life is deeply anchored in the wisdom of the bodynot unlike the redwood trees of her adopted home, and
• Maa Karpoori, who needed to resist pressure to marry, and found her calling in a local yoga class and now radiates fierce independence and the contagious joy of living.

Sensitive, insightful, and lyrical, Women Who Wear Only Themselves bathes us in the kind of mystery that feels deeply familiar and invites us to connect with whatever sparks our spiritual fire.

Reviews

"Beauty can be the boat that carries meaning across the waters of the mind home to the heart. Women Who Wear Only Themselves is a rare book that combines substantial spiritual insight with gorgeous writing. It is lyrical and wise, poetic and revolutionary. The four contemporary women sages the author lifts up are extraordinary, no doubt about it, yet it is Arundhati Subramaniams own authors note and prefaceamong the finest pieces of spiritual truth-telling literature I have ever readthat rewove the tattered strands of my feminine soul. A book to savor and celebrate." Mirabai Starr, author of Wild Mercy and Ordinary Mysticism "To be guided by a guru who died three centuries ago, to converse daily with Shiva, to be possessed by mantras in earliest infancy, to live naked the year long, whatever the company Subramaniams frank interviews with four women who have lived their Hinduism to the full allow us a precious insight into experiences that might seem far beyond our Western understanding. As the pages, turn one feels a growing sense of shared humanity, even kinship, with these extraordinary practitioners of the sacred. Its hard to think of a more effective way of overcoming our cultural incomprehensions." Tim Parks, author ofTeach Us to Sit Still: A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing "[This] tender, unblinking, insightful book opens doorways of perception to the spiritual and sacred. A truly transformational text." Namita Gokhale, author of The Book of Shiva "A wild ride. An amazing experience. What a ravishment of a book, what a contraband of riches." Jerry Pinto, author of Em and the Big Hoom