Book Reviews
Book Reviews
by Konstantin Serebrov, Robin Winckel-Mellsih (Editor), Guram Kochibrolashvili (Translator)
(Publishing House Serebrov Boeken, The Hague, the Netherlands) 2007
I have a long history of reading about religious practices in Russia. I understand that before the fall of the Soviet empire all religious thinking was highly controlled. So controlled that any manuscripts had to be either hand written, typed or photocopied.
If the Soviets caught you, you would most likely lose your job and go into some sort of rehab (read: GULAG).
Thus this book is set in those conditions.
I have read and re-read the book several times. In some areas there are great passages where exercises in meditations are given for the reader to practice.
This book also deals with the various forms of yoga to the point where yogs becomes this youg mans personal religion. It could be taken from this book that yoga helped Serebrov to deal with the personal stress and struggles of living in the former Soviet Union. As Serebrov's spirituality grew, his meditation levels increased. This book explains how he accomplished this.
Parts of this book are excellent but other parts are deeply rooted in the past history of the Soviets.
The author spent a lot of his years seeking his own form of spirituality instead of accepting what Christianity was teaching through the Underground churches in the former Soviet Union. It is some years later that Serebrov discovers this truth through his mentor. Also that Serebrov spent a lot of his youth romanticizing young women and drinking. That is the sad part.
The book is more of a record of one Russian's search for truth and spirituality. Luckily, it is not all our own search for truth and spirituality!