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Below are a few of the many reviews of Shambhavi's books from major India publications.


Note cover article on the Yogini by Shambhavi in Tathaastu Magazine 

Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess, reviewed in the Hindu

Yogini, reviewed in the Hindu Business Line

Yogic Secrets of the Dark Godess in Deepak Chopra's Namaste

Times of India Review of Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess

Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess unfolds the mystic beauty of Kali, the most powerful but misunderstood of the goddesses of India. The book is an experience of the Goddess, both at a personal level and throughout the world of Nature. It unfolds a vast panorama of insight, devotion, mantra and meditation that propels the reader into a new vision of reality beyond life and death. Probably the most comprehensive and innovative examination of Kali in recent decades, the book reveals all dimensions of life and consciousness in Kali's transformative dance. The author's purpose is not merely to revel us in some sensationalized experience of Kali, but to show us the gentle face of Kali that can smile away all death and suffering. The book is a new and unique revelation of the Goddess, taking the reader into a deeper understanding through which Kali manifests all her grace, charm and power.a

Hindu Voice UK review of Yogini: Unfolding the Goddess Within

By Hena Patel

Tantra is a misunderstood and misinterpreted spiritual path within Hinduism, which has been exclusively associated with sex in the Western world and with spells and black magic in India itself. Tantra is the path which allows the discovery of the Divine in life and within oneself.

Shambhavi provides deep insight into the different goddesses and their important roles in the tantric processes, as she discovers each of them for herself. From she who sets in motion of spiritual journey, the benevolent Ma Kali, and she who elevates us from one level to another allowing us to remove our negative energies and breakthrough our obstacles Ma Tara, to she who provides the force needed to rise the Kundalini energy from the root chakra to the crown chakra, Ma Bhairavi and Ma Dhumavati representing the grandmotherly spirit.

Her profound and highly philosophical explanation of the sacred nine nights of Navratri, and the sanctified night of Maha Shivratri and other divine festivals arises a feeling of wonderment and respect derived from deep inside oneself and appreciating the immense spiritual wealth embedded within Hinduism.

Shambhavi compassionately shares her intimate and very personal mystical experiences with each of the mahavidyas, the divine goddesses, with the reader, even though it's considered a taboo to do so, with the hope to shed some light on to how handle the unwelcomed events that life at times throws at you.

Her own story, her experiences, her emotions, her insights, and her knowledge provide guidance for those who are on a similar path but also acts as a great example of a woman who has arisen to the state of a true Yogini.

Whilst reading her very first book you begin to view your surroundings in a different way almost as if with a deeper or new level of understanding.

Putting aside the beautiful illustrations and the thought provoking meaningful quotes at the beginning of each chapter, the book offers you a chance to catch a glimpse of how genuine and real the presence of our great goddesses are. Shambhavi with her profound knowledge and experience will indefinitely "...awaken the yoga Shakti within you".

Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess review in the Organiser

By Vaidehi Nathan

The word ‘Kali' conjures up in normal minds the image of the ferocious looking Goddess, whose appearance of multi limbs, array of weaponry and protruded tongue ring terror. But, for the one who worships Her, She is mother, the benevolence incarnate, the mokshadayini, the giver of ultimate bliss, the embodiment of beauty and all that is energy in the universe.

That's how Yogini Shambhavi L. Chopra experiences Kali, the Dark Goddess. She shares her spiritual journey in a book Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess. Attempting to appeal to the uninitiated, Yogini Shambhavi first describes the attributes and appearance of the Devi through broken down chapters dealing with the ‘beauty and bliss of the Dark Goddess.' The Goddess who transforms the hour of sandhya, the mediating moment between night and day, day and evening and evening and night (the dawn, noon and dusk), the one who personifies womanhood, Suvarnavarna Kali, the one who is in the colour of the golden light, the Mother who is worshipped with red roses and the saviour of the universe.

Kali's powers are as enormous as Her forms. She is the dance of lightning, the sweet soma, the red blood, the deep blue void of darkness, the one beyond duality and the profound insight. ‘The secrets of the Dark Goddess' mysterious powers' unfold these and many other secrets of Kali.

Goddess Kali is usually associated with destruction of the evil, asuradamani, She is worshipped and celebrated for this. Yogini Shambhavi says that Kali represents all the different energies. She ignites the consciousness, the kundalini, the fear, the seed of desire, She is the power of beatitude, the conqueror of death and the fire of suffering. Such are Her energies. To a practicing tantric, She bestows the knowledge of mysticism.

The various forms of Kali and the Yogini's interwoven personal experiences are arranged in five chapters, The beauty and bliss of the Dark Goddess, Secrets of the Dark Goddess' mysterious power, The blazing fire of Kali's energies, Kali, the Tantrica and Invoking the Dark Goddesses within you. The arrangement of the chapters needed mentioning as they take the reader on a gradual course of education. Through the course of the pages one unravels the different energies, the forms and the manifestations of the supreme Shakti. One is bound to get overawed. In her first person narration, Yogini Shambhavi connects the Goddess to the reader, impelling one to go on.

The way to invoke Ma Kali is also outlined by Yogini Shambhavi in Kali is invoked with mantras. She has given some of the mantras to invoke the Goddess. As Dr. David Frawley said in the introduction, if one were ignorant about the all pervading power and energy, personified as Ma Kali and wanted to know, this is where one begins. Transcending her spiritual ecstatic state, the author has conveyed the secrets of the Dark Goddess with a gentle coaxing to search and attain the knowledge of the mokshadayini.

 

Understanding Kali  

 By Swati Chopra 

This is Shambhavi’s second book after Yogini: Unfolding the Goddess Within, which was an intimate account of her life as a seeker on the Tantric path. Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess is a progression of her search for the mystical heart of reality, where she delves into an aspect of feminine divinity that is associated with fearsome images in most of our minds – Kali, the 'dark goddess'.

The worship of Kali has usually been shrouded in mystery, a path that is not for all, and one that requires extraordinary commitment from the seeker. Through this book, Shambhavi attempts to lift these veils, as it were, and remove some of the misconceptions and fear that have come to cloak Kali inpopular perception. She helps us come to a new understanding of the power and beauty of this, a powerful manifestation of divine energy. The book is divided into five parts, where each explores different facets of the goddess. What raises this book above the level of a teeka – a commentary – is the fact that Shambhavi speaks from a place of knowing, of having actually experienced the reality that scriptures might point towards. She is not a pundit, a scholar,who recites from bookish learning. She is a yogini, a practitioner, who says it like it is, who articulates her insights with the authority of lived experience, in exactly the way she has come upon it.Shambhavi doesn’t follow any particular scripture or teaching; like her own spiritual journey, the book moves along her sense of the sacred that is both intuitive and precise. Explanations of the roles the goddess embodies are interspersed with Shambhavi’s own connection with these. For instance, while explaining the form of Kali as Kaalasankarsini, ‘Kali who wields the power of time’, where the goddess wields Shiva’s trident, Shambhavi says, “Into mystic throes of a Shiva meditation on a balmy summer’s night…ten beautifully carved golden trishuls found their way from the tips of my fingers, moving into the space beyond me… There was a heavy silence and deep calm, which pervaded my sacred space, taking my being into a senseless void. I lost track of all time and space.”

 Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess brings the sadhana of Kali’s path to 21st century readers in an idiom and format they can understand and relate with. Explanations areprovided for ancient beej mantras and arcane rituals, making them accessible tothe modern mind. With this book, Shambhavi has taken another step in thedirection of clarifying the essence of Tantra and its practices and deities,and has presented it as a credible spiritual path for our times.  



 

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