Saundarya Lahari of Sri Sankaracarya

Sri Shankaracharya, the best-known and most influential exponent of Advaita Vedanta, is widely admired by westernized intellectuals as India's greatest philosophical genius. And too often, Vedanta is displayed as mere intellectualizing, an abstract system of pure philosophy (even when we all know that the beauty of Indian philosophy is that it wasn't about philosophy, but a way of life!). So who would have guessed that this renunciate genius would have composed these poems of sublime yet sensual beauty in adoration of the Mother Goddess? The English renderings are occasionally stitled, and they do suffer somewhat from a prudish translation and an frequently irrelevant commentary. Yet these minor flaws make a contemplation of the verses so much more worth the personal effort. These jewels of devotion can be easily memorized, then contemplated to illuminate their interior meanings (and, some say, to effect changes in our outer circumstances). Diving into these "Waves of Bliss" can go a long ways toward overcoming our schism between reason and devotion. I would have hoped that the publisher would have printed an image of the Sri Yantra, the mandala or meditative diagram that is expounded upon in verse by Shankara. Still, I am glad I own a copy, and I highly recommend these verses for anyone interested in bhakti yoga, Vedanta, tantra or Goddess worship.