On Chanting, Presence and Releasing

This book is especially aimed at practitioners of Bhakti yoga who perform "Japa" mantra meditation on the holy names of God, but for one reason or another have not experienced the inner transformation they were expecting. The admission that I am not happy when chanting, or even worse, chanting is drudgery I have to do, can be a painfully shocking thing to admit to oneself and others. It takes honesty and courage to acknowledge that you have not yet realized the truth about yourself and continue to feel dissatisfied and unhappy with your life of chanting. If you find yourself described here in these words, then this book is for you.

Satyadeva Das, born in 1950, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. When he was 13 years old, he started to think about the true meaning of life. At the age of 19, he came to Tokyo which he terms as a fortunate accident. This is when he met his spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, the founder of the ""International Krishna Consciousness Association"". This was beginning of his journey for transcendental knowledge. He got initiated the very same year by Srila Prabhupada and for 51 years since then, he continues to be on a journey of self-realization.
Satyadeva das has been conducting workshops on awakening and yoga philosophy at yoga centres in California, Hawaii, China and Japan. He inspires people to live happily in the present and understand the meaning of life. He distributes timeless wisdom found in ancient Indian spiritual philosophy.
Professionally being a paramedic, he worked in an intense stressful 911 emergency rescue team for 25 years. He delivered nearly a hundred babies, rescued the injured from various disaster scenes, and witnessed and dealt with the injured and the dead daily. What pained him most was to file the information of the victims in minute details on daily basis. This led him to depression to the point of being suicidal. This psychological "crisis" motivated him to go deeper into India's five thousand years old wisdom. Satyadeva das began to understand his own mind and consciousness. He practices using the present consciousness to overcome the repeated mental and behavior patterns. This helps to release our anxiety, confusion and come back to the true self achieving a peaceful and happy life.