About the Book: The story of ‘Asht Yogi’, is a fiction and fantasy story based on Yoga and Tantra. Guru Vishnudev is a perfect yogi. Whatever he does, it is good for the nation and humanity. He plans to create an army of eight accomplished Youth Yogis, who will help people when a disaster strikes India. Envious of the Yoga Guru’s powers, there is a Tantric who tries to harass him with black magic. Along with the entertainment, while reading this short novel, the readers who are unaware of yoga will have a primary knowledge of yoga, and curiosity towards yoga will increase. Although the purpose of the author is to entertain the readers.

Book Review: The Asht Yogis: Novella by Ravi Ranjan Goswami, in one line, is a potential premise for the Indian superhero lineup. The story takes shape on the concepts of Yoga, Meditation, Tantric Science, and so on, if they are to actively persist in the current day common world. It is a very short and quick read with easy language. A prominent Guruji lining up his best eight disciples to impart the knowledge of the following Asht siddhis (8 cool superpowers, I would rather say) to work towards doing good for humanity and their such activities; to state one – the recent severe flood case in Kerala, form the crux of the story.

Asht Siddhis as stated in Wiki and is explained in the story, to throw some light –

• Aṇimā: the ability to become smaller than the smallest, reducing one’s body to the size of an atom or even become invisible.

• Mahimā: the ability to become infinitely large, expanding one’s body to an infinitely large size.

• Laghimā: the ability to become weightless or lighter than air.

• “Garimā”: the ability to become heavy or dense

• Prāpti: the ability to instantaneously travel or be anywhere at will.

• Prākāmya: the ability to achieve or realize whatever one desires.

• Īśiṭva: the ability to control nature, individuals, organisms, etc. Supremacy over nature and the ability to force influence upon anyone.

• Vaśiṭva: the ability to control all material elements or natural forces.

Few interesting points that I came across are – at this age if mobile phones how they go for telepathic communications, then how medication and yoga attain your power points, the use of mantras and chants, the undertones of our folklores so on and so forth. Inpsite of all those, there are reasons or stating this story as a potential one rather than a home-run hit, as there wasn’t much to what is being framed in the story, it more of went about in a single tone.

There were cool ideas, yes, but it went along a predictable line with loose ends and few areas fell flat for me. The attempt and the ideas are appreciated and is commendable but it could have been much more solid and fleshed out.

I would rate this book a 3/5 along with my mixed feelings about this book. If you wish for a very quick one-sitting leisure read, you could give it a pick.