Portfolio 2 Columns

First published in 1850, David Copperfield begins with avid the tragedy of David’s brother dying when David is just a boy. After this episode, he is sent by his step-father to work in London for a wine merchant. When conditions worsen he decides to run away and embarks on a journey by foot from London to Dover. On his arrival, he finds his eccentric aunt, Betsey Trotwood who becomes his new guardian. Being witness to the formation of David’s character is quite fascinating. David begins as a strong child whose only aspiration is a better life. On the way to his adulthood, David sees how people enter and leave his life. Romanticism takes its place in David’s life as he gets married to Dora Spenlow who is not long for this world. Will David ever find stability and happiness? And what of his wife? Dickens proves to be a master in creating an autobiographical work that is a captivating page-turner.

First published in 1850, David Copperfield begins with avid the tragedy of David’s brother dying when David is just a boy. After this episode, he is sent by his step-father to work in London for a wine merchant. When conditions worsen he decides to run away and embarks on a journey by foot from London to Dover. On his arrival, he finds his eccentric aunt, Betsey Trotwood who becomes his new guardian. Being witness to the formation of David’s character is quite fascinating. David begins as a strong child whose only aspiration is a better life. On the way to his adulthood, David sees how people enter and leave his life. Romanticism takes its place in David’s life as he gets married to Dora Spenlow who is not long for this world. Will David ever find stability and happiness? And what of his wife? Dickens proves to be a master in creating an autobiographical work that is a captivating page-turner. 

In the 1970s David Bowie, Cat Stevens, and Genesis were titans of the music industry, selling tens of millions of records and packing stadiums wherever they played. This is their story.
David Bowie was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, Bowie is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft had a significant impact on pop.
Yusuf Islam commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He returned to making secular music in 2006.
Genesis are an English rock band formed at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, in 1967.

The incarnations of Vishnu are a recurrent theme in Vedic history. Vishnu exists outside the material realm as the creator, and within every being as the Supersoul. He also enters this world as an avatar, ‘one who descends’, to restore balance whenever his presence is needed. “Whenever there is a decline of religion and a rise of irreligion, I incarnate myself. To protect the good, to destroy the wicked, and to re-establish religious principles, I appear in every age.” There are said to be more incarnations of Godhead than waves on the ocean. The avatars of Vishnu are of particular interest because He takes progressively more developed forms, from fish, tortoise and boar to half-animal, half-man, and finally human form. That God should incarnate as an animal, even a supernatural one, shows animals have an important role to play in God’s eyes. They are living expressions of the spirit and presence of God. Here are the subtle secret teachings of Neem Karoli Baba, the master of Ram Das, Krishna Das and so many more. These ancient yogic mysteries were taught only to Maharaji’s most advanced disciples and were thought to be all but lost these many years. Coming now from a nearly 50-year devotee of Karoli Baba here is a singular opportunity to enter into the true mystical presence of the divine incarnations of the absolute.

Neem Karoli Baba known to his followers as Maharaj-ji – was a great Hindu guru, mystic and devotee of Lord Hanuman. He is very well known outside India for being the spiritual master of a number of prominent Americans who traveled to India in the 1960s and 70s, including spiritual teachers Ram Dass, Bhagavan Das, and musicians Krishna Das and Jai Uttal. His ashrams are in Kainchi, Vrindavan, Rishikesh, Shimla, Neem Karoli village near Khimasepur in Farrukhabad, Bhumiadhar, Hanumangarhi, Delhi in India and in Taos, New Mexico. Maharaji was a lifelong adept of bhakti yoga, and encouraged service to others (seva) as the highest form of unconditional devotion to God. There can be no biography of him. Facts are few, stories many. He seems to have been known by different names in many parts of India, appearing and disappearing through the years. His non-Indian devotees of recent years knew him as Neem Karoli Baba, but mostly as “Maharajji” – a nickname so commonplace in India that one can often hear a tea vendor addressed thus. Just as he said, he was “nobody”. He gave no discourses; the briefest, simplest stories were his teachings.

In 1992 Geoffrey Giuliano was asked if he would do an exclusive interview with the Maharishi in Switzerland. The author readily agreed as the reclusive spiritual master almost never met the press and he was embarking on an ambitious program of mass meditation to try and purify vast areas of the United States. After a great deal of negotiation, the two finally got together on Christmas Eve and had a prolonged, stirring conversation which is documented here. In addition, the Maharishi was joined by the late world-class magician Doug Henning. Put together with a chronological, historical narration by Giuliano, here is your chance to go one-on-one with one of the greatest spiritual minds of our time. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was an Indian yoga guru,[3] known for developing and popularizing Transcendental Meditation (TM), and for being the leader and guru of a worldwide organization that has been characterized in multiple ways including as a new religious movement and as non-religious.

Geoffrey Giuliano lived in the “often wonderfully unreal” world of George Harrison and his friends, interviews with whom are the basis for much of this vivid and revealing portrait. Here are Harrison’s Liverpool childhood, the forging of the Beatles, their unheralded ascendancy, and the bitter break-up; his turbulent solo career with its soaring successes and harrowing setbacks; his reincarnation as a Traveling Wilbury; his impact as a record and film producer; his oft-publicized and misjudged spiritual quest; and much more. George Harrison was an English musician, singer-songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called “the quiet Beatle”, Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles’ work. Although the majority of the band’s songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions.

Geoffrey Giuliano lived in the “often wonderfully unreal” world of George Harrison and his friends, interviews with whom are the basis for much of this vivid and revealing portrait. Here are Harrison’s Liverpool childhood, the forging of the Beatles, their unheralded ascendancy, and the bitter break-up; his turbulent solo career with its soaring successes and harrowing setbacks; his reincarnation as a Traveling Wilbury; his impact as a record and film producer; his oft-publicized and misjudged spiritual quest; and much more. George Harrison was an English musician, singer-songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called “the quiet Beatle”, Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles’ work. Although the majority of the band’s songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions.