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Rating: 
Summary: A Truly Masterful Creation
Review: I was thoroughly impressed by the standard of the book, clearly Mr.Menon has researced the subject in considerable depth,and goes on to portray the life of Sri Krishna in a lucid and vivid manner. I am a man who has spent half my lifetime in reading hindu texts and the presentation of the work, is remarkable in its accuracy and masterful storytelling... And for the mordern reader with no past knowledge of Sri Krishna, this book provides an excellent narrative...
Rating:
Summary: Duality of Lord Krishna - Human and Divine
Review: Ramesh Menon's Blue God brings out the human in the divine and the divine in the human. He draws a narrative portrait of the role of the divine in human form and in human affairs. What emerges is a truly warm and intimate depiction of the human side of Krishna, set against the background of the Mahabharata, the story of an internecine war pitting good against evil. The story of the life of Krishna is told with intensity and humour.A wonderfully delightful rendering of the life of Krishna, well researched and faithful to the original epic sources. Krishna is presented as a man for all seasons and a god for all reasons.
Rating: 
Summary: Brave but half hearted attempt
Review: The author's attempt at a contemporary interpretation of vishnu purana combined with folklore and a liberal dose of his own fertile imagination. The first half of Krishna's childhood and youth are fascinating, as also the passages from Gita that accompany them. The author paints or more accurately choreographs the cowherd prince's life with great love and feeling - without attaching too much of contrived 'humanness' or psycho spiritual interpretations to his character. Sadly though the second half degenerates into just that, poor krishna becomes a puranic Hugh Hefner complete with his harem of women, crystal palaces with exotic animals/birds and handling a powerful empire with political savvy and cunning. His conquests of women and slaying of demonic characters is interpretated with a lot of descriptive blood and gore and violence, almost a literal translation of the original but perhaps could have been avoided in a modern context. Most of these stories have strong metaphysical undercurrents to the 'violence' and teh demons are not literal - while there is a good degree of integration of other aspects of metaphysics into the story it does nto seem to be so in this area.
There is a lot of psycho spiritual , contrived stuff around his love for his mother Yasoda and seeking her out through his conflict during the war - there is no such reference anywhere, even in folklore that he thought of his mother during the war and it seems totally contrived.
As also the reference to Radha over Rukmini and such. According to the puranas, Rukmini is the female counterpart who is Lakshmi in Goddess form - not Radha. Further Rukmini is also the symbol of feminine virtues, humility, love and unconditional acceptance of the lord. There is a lot of mix up of her character with that of Radha and even Satyabhama.
It is a difficult task to 'humanize' Krishna, especially the adult Krishna. Unlike his predecessor Ram of the ramayana, he does not make claims anywhere towards being 'human' or even having human emotions. He is more like nature - wild, compassionate, merciless at times and very loving at others and all pervading, nevertheless. And the overwhelming message of his stories and his life is one of love, that God comes to those whose hearts are open to unconditional love, in any shape or form. There are parts of the book where that message seems to come across, but the story surrounding it, particularly in the later half, is neither factual nor folklore nor a good interpretation and makes for a racy novel at best.
Rating:
Summary: A Magical Journey!!
Review: Truly a magical journey into the life of Krishna. A vivid and colourful recounting of the battle of Kurukshetra, Arjuna's moral crisis and the life of Krishna the "Blue God".The artful format, from the life of Krishna to the battlefield and back flows beautifully and makes it
a treat for any reader, Eastern or Western, buy this book! give it away and buy it again!
Rating:
Summary: A Magical Journey!!
Review: Truly a magical journey into the life of Krishna. A vivid and colourful recounting of the battle of Kurukshetra, Arjuna's moral crisis and the life of Krishna the "Blue God".The artful format, from the life of Krishna to the battlefield and back flows beautifully and makes it
a treat for any reader, Eastern or Western, buy this book! give it away and buy it again!
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