From Here to Nirvana: Essential Guide to the Yogis and Gurus, Ashrams and Temples of Spiritual India

by Anne Cushman, Jerry Jones

If your dreams of traveling to India include some sort of spiritual exploration, here's an essential guide that will help ease your planning and your mind. Coauthor Anne Cushman is senior editor at Yoga Journal magazine, and along with Jerry Jones has researched hundreds of yogis, gurus, ashrams, and temples to make this "the first comprehensive book on the art of pilgrimage in the subcontinent." After some useful general background material, the book devotes the bulk of its pages to a directory of ashrams, yoga schools, and meditation centers. The listings are presented alphabetically by state, and include facilities and food, fees, schedules, how to get there, other services, books, and tapes. Descriptions are entertaining and informative. Here's a sampling from the introduction to Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram in Andhra "With over ten million devotees worldwide--and 1,638 centers in 137 countries--Sathya Sai Baba is undoubtedly the most famous of India's living gurus. He's believed by his disciples to be an avatar, a human incarnation of God, and his plump, frizzy-haired visage can be spotted on rickshaw dashboards, cash registers, phone booths, and altars all over India, alongside more traditional deities like Krishna and Ganesh." In addition to a useful "Indian Philosophies and Religions" section and a glossary, intriguing sidebars "All About Sadhus," "Neo-Buddhist Headquarters," "Exploring Tibetan Buddhism," "The Hindu Pantheon," and "Festivals of India." --Kathryn True

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Spirituality

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

As a writer and teacher of yoga and Buddhist meditation, Anne Cushman explores the poignant intersection between the inspirational ideals of spiritual practice and the gritty, comical, chaotic, and heartbreaking details of ordinary life.

Anne has been investigating the relationship between Eastern spiritual traditions and contemporary Western life for more than 25 years. She graduated from Princeton University with a BA in comparative religion in 1984, and her work includes the NEH-funded documentary Zen Center: Portrait of an American Zen Community (1986); the nonfiction “spiritual India” guidebook From Here to Nirvana (1998); and the novel Enlightenment for Idiots (2008), which was named by Booklist as one of the “Top Ten First Novels” of the year. Her book Moving Into Meditation: A 12-Week Mindfulness Program for Yoga Practitioners will be published by Shambhala in 2014.

Anne is a longtime contributor and former editor at both Yoga Journal and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Her personal essays have also appeared in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, O: The Oprah Magazine, Salon.com, New Woman, and the Shambhala Sun. Her work has been anthologized in Best Buddhist Writing 2004 and 2006; Best Women’s Spiritual Travel Writing; Traveling Souls: Contemporary Pilgrimage Tales; and other books.

Anne’s yoga and meditation background includes extensive training across multiple schools of yoga since 1985, including Iyengar, Ashtanga, Kripalu, Insight Yoga, and many other styles. She has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1983 in both the Zen and vipassana traditions, and is the co-director of the Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation Training Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, where she is also a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader program.

Anne teaches yoga as a support for and an expression of embodied meditative presence. Through sensitive, flowing practice, she invites her students to relax and enliven their bodies, open their hearts, and unwind the physical and energetic obstacles that prevent them from touching their true nature—in the midst of their ordinary and miraculous human lives.

She lives in Fairfax, California, with her twelve-year-old son, Skye Hawthorne.

Reviews

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't wait for my month in India - not sure when that will be yet, but I will definitely have this book with me.

[Renee French · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was extremely useful when I planned a visit to an ashram in India some 15 years ago, and used this book to choose where I would land. It's over 20 years old now, but I think would still be helpful to be able to browse through to get an overview, and then info could be updated by looking up places online.

[Cherie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book after reading it,, as it will be such a great resource for planning for next trip to India. Lots is outdated, but hey, things move slowly in the ashram world so it will still be relevant. This is a guide to ashrams and spiritual centers around India. LOVE IT!!!!