For those who practice it everyday, the hope is that the ritual of prayer releases love energy and uplifts the entire human race. Arun Shanbhag has reinforced this hope in his book, "Prarthana," in which he has done a superb job of transliterating and translating many prayers from their Sanskrit version into English. I was particularly impressed by his mastery in translating the Suprabhatam - a prayer that most of us awake to in South India and is actually intended to awake the divine presence within each of us. The Gayatri mantra, a prayer that is simple and easy to recite, is explained as a way to "invoke the Sun from within oneself."

The essence of the Sanatana Dharma from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:

"From the unreal lead me to the real,
From darkness lead me to light,
From death lead me to immortality."

shows us how we can attain final emancipation or `moksha.' These are but a few of the gems contained in Shanbhag's rendering of Hindu prayers and psalms. The explanations that go hand-in-hand with the actual Sanskrit verses are so easy to read and understand and at the level where I could easily explain them to my children who were both born in the US.

The author has done a great service to the Indian diaspora living abroad, and also to Indians living in India who are not well-versed in Sanskrit. I would recommend this book to everyone who believes in the power of prayer and wants to understand a little bit of the meaning and significance of many popular Hindu hymns.

My husband bought this book because he liked the author's blog...and the book also turned out to be very well-written. The explanations are simple - he read some of the smaller ones with our 9 yr old - and yet have an adequate level of interpretation and background provided. Attention to pronunciation is excellent. A great book to have in the family. Wonderful job.

Neeta