“Sravaniya DiPecoraro’s Bhagavata Shiksha Mala is a timely contribution to a long tradition of bringing the Bhagavata Purana’s profound wisdom and charm beyond the confines of the scholars and librarians to a widening audience of readers ready to enter its domain of spiritual life-affirming riches. Around the mid-nineteenth century, the great Bhagavata acharya (teacher), Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, urged his modern-educated compatriots to put aside their ill-informed misgivings to discover this multi-faceted treasure’s profound relevance to their spiritual lives. It was Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, great-grand-disciple of Bhaktivinoda, who dedicated his life to translating the Bhagavata into English, adding extensive explanatory commentary, and who then, at an advanced age, came personally to the West to introduce the work, along with the cultural approach by which it could be understood, appreciated, and lived. With this volume, Sravaniya, a direct disciple of Swami Prabhupada, serves her guru’s and previous acharyas’ purpose well with her thoughtfully chosen and engagingly retold selection of the Bhagavata’s narratives, providing her own pointed commentary to each narrative meaningfully ornamented with references to ideas drawn from a wide variety of Western luminaries. The end result is a nourishing feast for mind and heart of anyone seeking enduring truth for troubled times.”
—Kenneth Valpey (Krishna Kshetra Swami), Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, co-author and editor, The Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Selected Readings, and The Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Sacred Text and Living Tradition

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“Sravaniya Di Pecoraro’s A Garland of Sacred Stories from the Bhagavata Purana is a transcendental page-turner. This highly accessible and well-chosen package of gems sparkles brilliantly. Sravaniya, a seasoned Bhakti Yogi, brings these classic tales to life in a most innovative and contemporary manner. Her thoughtful commentaries are at once refreshing and engagingly dramatic.”
—Kurma Dasa, author of The Great Transcendental Adventure, Cooking with Kurma and Vegetarian World Food

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“Congratulations to Sravaniyaji for presenting an accessible and contemporary volume of Vedic wisdom—with particular attention to the ripened fruit of the Vedic tree of knowledge. Reading her work, it becomes clear why one should never pick fruits until they are fully mature. They simply won't taste as good, nor will they have their most developed and elegant manifestation. This penultimate form allows them to display a vibrance and texture that is only experienced when the time is right. Sravaniya's time is now. Her work embodies a profound understanding of Vaishnava siddhanta (conclusions) and a maturity of expression that is clearly inherited from the sages. A must read for anyone serious about understanding ultimate reality.”
—Steven J. Rosen (Satyaraja Dasa), author of 35 books on Vaishnava related subjects, associate editor of Back to Godhead, and founding editor of the Journal of Vaishnava Studies

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“The Bhagavata Purana is one of India’s most important treatises, and indeed a world classic. Bhagavata Shiksha Mala; A Garland of Sacred Stories from the Bhagavata Purana not only offers a glimpse into some of its central narratives, but brings them to life. Sravaniya DiPecoraro is to be commended for writing such a masterpiece.”
—Dr. Ithamar Theodor, visiting scholar 2010-2015 The Professorship in Indian Religion and Culture The Chinese University of Hong Kong and author of The Fifth Veda in Hinduism; Poetry, Philosophy and Devotion in the Bhagavata Purana

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“Bhagavata Shiksha Mala: A Garland of Sacred Stories from the Bhagavata Purana is a wonderful addition to Sravaniya's writings. As with her other publications, Sravaniya presents the Vedic wisdom tradition in an innovative and contemporary manner, thus making it more accessible to twenty-first century seekers. The histories of sages and rulers of ancient times are retold in a lively way, bringing the readers into their journeys, challenges, opportunities and successes. The magic of her writing is in her ability to create a bridge between the bygone era and our present day and age, thus demonstrating that the lessons learnt at that time are no less relevant and important to us now.”
—Steven Matthews (Chandrasekhar Acharya Das), Researcher at the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong; ISKCON GBC

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“This combination of paintings and commentaries weaves a blanket of solace to curl up with while hearing the transformative tales of the classic Bhagavata Purana. In her charming retelling of choice stories, Sravaniya, a lifetime student of the ancient text, a yogini, and an astrologer, animates meanings and lessons that we can take into our lives to uplift and enrich us.”
—Pranada Comtois, author of the award-winning Wise-Love: Bhakti and the Search for the Soul of Consciousness

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“In her Bhagavata Shiksa Mala, Sravaniya brings us along as she delves into the deeply metaphysical Bhagavata Purana. The sacred stories with which she garlands us entertain with their sublime plots, themes and characters. And, delightfully, they also enlarge our worldview. As she invites us into this expanded paradigm (one that has, perhaps, unexpected and untapped richness to offer), Sravaniya makes these profound stories relevant to each one of us here and now. We are beautified by her carefully woven garland, and we grow from it.”
—Visakha Dasi, ACBSP, President of Bhaktivedanta Manor, UK, photographer, author of Five Years, Eleven Months and a Lifetime of Unexpected Love, and writer for the award winning documentary Hare Krishna! the Mantra, the Movement, and the Swami who started it all

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“Sravaniya DiPecoraro's recent book called the Bhagavata Shiksha Mala, which is presented beautifully by the publisher, offers a general understanding of some of the stories in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, a Sanskrit text of great importance to Hinduism and Indian culture. The author also offers her own commentary; it is traditional in the sense that it reiterates in English a long and distinguished understanding of the text that is shared by the tradition behind her, but it also shares her own interests in the Bhāgavata and it makes novel comparative connections. Readers will surely delight in the stories and gain insight from her comments.”
—Jonathan Edelmann, Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Florida, Section Editor for Hindu Theology, International Journal of Hindu Studies and author of Hindu Theology and Biology: The Bhagavata Purana and Contemporary Theory

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“Sravaniya has brought a new look to the message of the Bhagavata Purana. She combines her five decades of spiritual experience with her last three decades of involvement with the mystical paths to give us refreshing narrations from the Bhagavata, the ripened fruit of the Vedic literature. Her commentaries at the end of each of the narrations are particularly valuable and practical. The book is colorfully illustrated and a must for those of us who like to keep things of value.”
—Swami B. V. V. Narasimha, ISKCON Far East Regional Secretary

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“In this carefully chosen collection of ancient stories from the Bhagavata Purana, Sravaniya DiPecoraro breathes new life into the timeless characters with her dramatic renderings, nuanced commentaries and illuminating bhakti emphasis. Through spellbinding storytelling—uniquely enriched by a lifetime immersion into the texts— DiPecoraro takes readers on enchanting rides through the lives of royals and paupers, queens and courtesans, sages and devils. By juxtaposing these with personalities from other literary classics—from Prometheus to Frankenstein—and delightfully peppering them with Jungian slants, astrological allusions and yogic wisdom, Bhagavata Shiksha Mala becomes an innovative lens through which ancient Vedic knowledge comes alive for the modern reader. In thus weaving in and out of intimate narratives and her wide-angle eclectic exegesis, DiPecoraro powerfully unfolds layers of interpretation brewing with issues that are meaningful to those in the world today, while successfully conjuring the tradition’s ancient potency to simultaneously lift us up beyond the world and into the realm of the transformative, the transcendental, the sacred.”
—Catherine L. Schweig (Krishna Kanta Devi Dasi), co-founder of The Secret Yoga Institute, and editor of Bhakti Blossoms: A Collection of Contemporary Vaishnavi Poetry

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“As an aspiring writer, I am amazed at how Sravaniya DiPecoraro is able to so seamlessly blend together her personal experiences, realizations and philosophical insights with the wisdom and mysticism of the ancient Vedic literatures of India. While gently guiding her readers toward a transcendental state of peace and happiness through spiritual enlightenment, she breathes new life into stories from the Bhagavata Purana with her commentaries that shed light on their relevance to our lives in modern times. I strongly recommend all seekers of truth, yoga practitioners, students of Vedic scriptures and the sacred mysticism of ancient India, or anyone who simply enjoys reading wonderful stories written by an equally wonderful story teller, to read and relish Ms. DiPecoraro’s latest literary achievement, Bhagavata-Shiksha-Mala, A Garland of Sacred Stories from the Bhagavata Purana.”
—Steven Hebel (Swarup Das Adhikari), ISKCON Secretary for correspondence and book distribution (1969-1980)