Truth From the Source

Truth From the Source, Ann West, Avalon Publishing, 2003

This is the true story of one person's search for spiritual fulfillment. By the age of 30, Ann West was a former fashion model and gossip column fixture living the "good life" in Southern California. Meantime, she was feeling more and more dissatisfied on the inside. One day, she gets a very strong psychic or emotional message telling her to go to India--now. A friend tells her that she must visit Swami Sharosh at an ashram in a place called Achaala, way up in the Himalayas. Despite her husband not believing that she's actually going to do it, even while saying goodbye at the airport, Ann gets on a plane to India.

On the way, she just happens to meet people who are most able to help her get to Achaala, despite there being no available places to stay because of a major religious festival going on at the time. Is it coincidence, or Spirit giving her a hand? She gets to Achaala, and meets Swamis Ji and Sharosh, and their followers. She is overwhelmed by the amount and intensity of unconditional love that she receives. Everyone seeks that undefinable "it" that would make their lives spiritually complete. If the love, and instruction, that she received at the ashram wasn't "it" for Ann, it was very close.

Eventually, the time came to leave the ashram. Ann decided to spend a few days on the beaches of Goa, in the south of India. It's as if Spirit isn't finished with her, continuing to open her eyes to new ways of looking at the world around her. Back in California, she realizes that things have changed, not least of which is getting a divorce (she and her husband were moving in different emotional directions).

For anyone seeking spiritual fulfillment in their lives (isn't that most or all of us?), this book is a must read. Everyone will take different paths to reach "it", this is one person's journey. It's more than just a book on Eastern religion. It's well done, interesting, and on more than one level, it's really recommended.