Essence Seekers (A Quest Beyond the Forest of Enjoyment)

"Stillness and silence had heralded the divine being. Now sounds again filled the forest as birds called, branches moved, and water ran over rocks. The being had simply vanished. Somehow the forest felt more alive than before, more full of mystery, yet it was also unchanged. Was that real?"

Avid seeks something beyond an ordinary life, going on a quest for an otherworldly essence of nectar. But, what is that essence exactly? Will he overcome the diversions tests to find it, and, at what price?

Dr. Urmila Edith Best was born and raised in New York City as the daughter of the CEO of the Manischewitz food business. She travels worldwide teaching techniques of bhakti-yoga and mantra meditation which she has practiced since 1973. She has authored Vaikuntha Children, a guidebook for devotional education; The Great Mantra for Mystic Meditation; dozens of articles; and Dr. Best Learn to Read, an 83-book complete literacy program with technology enabling the story books to speak in 25 languages at the touch of a special "pen." She has also produce, Sri Manah-siksa: Splendid Instructions to the Mind. She earned her Master of School Administration and Doctor of Educator degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has been a professor of Sociology and Education at Bhakti vedanta College in Belgium. Urmila and her husband enter an ascetic order (vanaprastha) in 1996. When she isn't traveling she's writing at her home in Govardhana, India, or visiting two sons and daughter, their lovely spouses, eight grandsons, six granddaughters, grandson-in-law, and great-grandson.