The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios Paperback – November 30, 2008

During a time filled with an influx of new religious encounters and experimentation, one young man seeks to discover truth. Through his relationship with a humble Eastern Orthodox monk, Paisios of Mt. Athos, within the context of a dangerous religious landscape, he is gently guided toward the truth he seeks.This is a story that deserves to be considered asmany continue to wrestle with similar questions in a deeply divided world.

The book provides an honest and outstanding depiction of Elder Paisios as well as the journey of one man during his spiritual confusion. It is honest in the sense that at no point does he turn and start criticizing the other spiritual paths he explores nor does he start dogmatically contending they are inferior because they are not Orthodox. Indeed, unless you read the epilogue you would not even know definitively that he chooses Orthodoxy in the end.That is why the negative reviews of the book are somewhat astounding. The author never (EVER) criticizes Hinduism, witchcraft or any of the cults he becomes involved in nor does he characterize them for anything other than what they are. Witches worship the devil and his demons and people that follow a given yogi worship that person as a god and accept the Hindu gods and demons. Both are categorically opposed to Orthodox Christianity (but interestingly, as he finds, not so categorically opposed to one another) no matter how one (or some other reviewers) want to cut it. There is no balancing Orthodox Christian belief with this and no point criticizing the faith merely because it is not more accepting of it. After all, what sort of religion compromises its dogma merely to be accepting of another that is diametrically opposed to it (in turn, leaving its adherents flailing in the wind as it blows)? But that seems to be the point of the negative reviewers: they evidently see Hinduism as such a religion and criticize this book for not falsely depicting Orthodoxy as the same. (For those awake, that makes the above parallel to witchcraft all the more sensible.) Nonetheless, the author does not even go so far as to discuss this (apart from noting exceptional similarities between occult and Hindu symbolism on one of his trips) but even, to the surprise of many whom I know read it (including me), continues exploring Hinduism feeling he is not quite personally sure of whether to choose that religion versus Orthodoxy--even though he has already been privy to the power of Orthodoxy through Elder Paisios and a witness of scary experiences elsewhere.That makes the critiques here all the more false but also all the more expected. The book is about one man's journey for truth with his final choice being Orthodoxy and that obviously bothers some people. It is not a general statement about religion or religious dogma. If one has experience in witchcraft or Hinduism, for example, and one sees parallels, then that is all the more interesting and noteworthy. In any case, the author explores his choices thoroughly (much more so than I would have, given the same experiences) but comes to the conclusion that these other ways are not for him. Nonetheless, as he honestly depicts his personal experiences it becomes obvious what the other paths do not possess: Life/Humility/Love/Truth/Christ. And therein lies the Point. The author is seeking something that these other paths cannot possibly give (nor do they even promise to give) him: an answer to why he is here, a renewal of himself and the salvation of his soul. If the negative reviewers take offense at this specifically directed at Hinduism, it is because, apart from their narrow reading of the book as the cause, the author finds the particular promise that yoga gives "power", clarity of mind, peace and so forth to be incomparably weak relative to what he experiences when he is with Elder Paisios (which is the real power of Christ-like Love). In other words, he finds nothing new on his yoga journey relative to his other occult experiences yet, by contrast, finds everything unique, new and genuine on his Orthodox path. This can only be frustrating to readers that want (everyone) to believe that the exotic aura of yoga is a refresh and an improvement to what they ignorantly and incorrectly view as stale, western Christianity (Orthodoxy is not western). Reading with their eyes and hearts closed, however, they never see that the religion to which the author and many other Greeks, Russians, Serbs, etc. were born into is far from need of refresh.In any case, to clarify on another point, the author states at the outset in the preface that he uses pseudonyms for almost everyone in the book. So the claims that "his book must be fiction" because such names do not exist in the Hindu world--when, in fact, he is clearly being gracious to the yogis and other characters he met by not bringing negative publicity to them--suggests that, as a case in point, yoga is apparently not giving some of its followers here much clarity or power even to discern what has been written right before them.Buy the book for your journey and you will not be disappointed!

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.- John 3:17But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them: `They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'- Matthew 9: 12-13This autobiographical book centres around the pen named Dionysios Farasiotis, a know-it-all wayward Greek youth who is interested in `spirituality'. He and his group of friends dabble in various occult and eastern practises, and decide one day to travel to the Holy Mountain of Mount Athos, initially as a means of acquiring yet another `spiritual kick'. It is here on Mount Athos that the author encounters a living saint in the form of Elder Paisios, where the goodness and mercy of God in the Christian faith is witnessed in all its glory. The sheer Godly love, humility and warmth which radiates from the Elder and from the other monks easily captivates the reader.However, for some reason, despite all the goodness and love that the author experiences on the Holy Mountain, he still decides to give Hinduism and its occult practises the `same chance' as he has given to Orthodox Christianity.He travels to India and begins to seek out gurus and yogis. His experiences with these `wise' men are at times quite horrifying and in fact the complete antithesis to the experiences he had on Mount Athos with Elder Paisios. What is clear from all of this, is that there are most certainly many demonic forces at work in certain people, irrespective of how `religious' they may appear to be - Satan's sugar coated suicide pill if you will.It is here in India where the author learns this valuable lesson - not all religions are the same and not all `power' that emanates from these practises is good and stems from God. Yet the over-riding power of God is manifested magnificently in that despite the fact that the author effectively turned his back on Him and turned towards the occult, God did not abandon him, and through the prayers of the monks on Mount Athos, the author was still kept safe and eventually came to his senses, realising just how much he had been playing with fire.Anyone could relate to this book, perhaps not in dabbling in the harmful `spiritual practises' but certainly in other ways. How? Because invariably we all fall; we all continue to disobey God in more ways than one, despite the fact that we know that God does so much for us every minute of our lives. Yet despite all this God continually loves us, continually forgives us, continually calls us back to Him - exactly as He did the author. A highly recommended book for anyone interested in reading about the goodness of God's true servants in the form of people such as Elder Paisios. If you are interested in reading more about Elder Paisios, I do recommend the book Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain.