India in a Mind’s Eye

Steven J. Gelberg is an independent scholar and writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Nilima Bhatia, a retired administrator at UC Berkeley. For many years he was an orthodox Hindu monk and householder, during which time he regularly visited and traveled throughout India as both spiritual pilgrim and student of the culture. He has written and edited religious and scholarly works on the Krishna-bhakti tradition in India and the West, lectured in colleges and universities throughout the United States, and made unique contributions to the literature on new religious movements and cults. 

While a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) from 1970 through 1987, Gelberg served as the organization’s chief liaison to the international academic community as well as its Director for Interreligious Affairs. His book Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna: Five Distinguished Scholars on the Krishna Movement in the West, was published in 1983 by Grove Press in its Eastern Philosophy and Literature Series. 

His writings and publications for the Krishna movement were numerous, including a study-guide to the Bhagavad-gita, prefaces and introductions to several of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami’s translations and commentaries on Hindu texts (e.g., Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Sri Brahma-Samhita), and three book-length thematic compilations of Bhaktivedanta’s teachings (e.g., The Spiritual Master and the Disciple and Sri Namamrta: The Nectar of the Holy Name). Both during and after his affiliation with the Krishna movement, Gelberg wrote articles on ISKCON (and related topics) published in various academic books and journals. Other, more personal accounts, include “On Leaving ISKCON” [in Bryant & Ekstrand, eds., The Hare Krishna Movement: The Postcharismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2004)]; and Oh, the Things I Learned!: Lessons from Seventeen Years in the Hare Krishnas. (Both these articles, and others, are available online at https://surrealist.org/cults/gelberg.html)

After leaving the Krishnas in 1987, Gelberg studied comparative religions at Harvard Divinity School (M.T.S., 1990). In 1994 the Muse initiated him on the path of fine art photography (www.stevengelberg.com), and over a number of years he published fifteen volumes of his work (available at www.blurb.com). His photographic work is represented by Robert Tat Gallery in San Francisco (http://www.roberttat.com).

His latest book, the fruit of several years intensive research, was published by S.U.N.Y. (State University of New York) Press in early 2025. Titled Tuning In: Experiencing Music in Psychedelic States, it is the first authoritative study of the role of music in psychedelic-assisted therapy and personal growth. https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/Tuning-In

“I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a feel for the many facets of India and its allure, for its beauty in the midst of often ugly scenes of human hardship. Purely as a travelogue, it stands alongside the best ever written. It is much more than that, and is – as Gelberg recognizes in his title – a journey of the spirit that helps us understand the ups and downs of ISKCON’s first fifty years. It does not claim to provide a comprehensive history of those years, but it is a valuable contribution to the history that is yet to be written. Anyone who wants to understand India or ISKCON should read it.” (Journal of Vaishnava Studies) —Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins, Professor Emeritus, Franklin & Marshall College, author of The Hindu Religious Tradition

“[A] transcendent travelogue that offers insight into an uncommon religious experience.” —Kirkus Reviews

“This illuminating memoir from ‘ambivalent pilgrim’ Gelberg ... invites readers into [his] journeys throughout India, whose culture, history, and spiritual traditions have long fascinated him and shaped his life. India in a Mind’s Eye explores the evolution, over many ‘pilgrimages, ‘of this former Krishna devotee’s understanding of spirituality, identity, and the gap between idealism and reality. ... Gelberg now sees his youthful zeal to convert to Hinduism as ‘a quest (however naively idealistic) for radical psychic liberation’ and writes with tender frankness of his years with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), demystifying and honoring the Krishna experience while reporting disillusionment with a system affording so much power to all-too-human gurus. Throughout, Gelberg writes with warmth, intelligence, and an engaging conversational tone that makes his deepest reflections a pleasure to connect with ... including marvelous scenes depicting a woman touched with ‘insights and ecstasies most devotees can only theorize and pontificate about.’ ... He movingly celebrates ‘Indian pessimism,’ that ‘abiding insight into the insubstantiality of the perceived world, the mutability and ephemerality of everything we see, and the centrality of suffering in human experience.’ Gelberg makes that beautiful and inviting.” —Publishers Weekly / Booklife [Editor’s Pick]

“This book will be useful not only to scholars interested in the history of ISKCON, and in many respects the history of newer religious movements in the West, but also to readers who have caught the India bug. ... Gelberg speaks for thousands, perhaps millions of Westerners who travel to India in hopes of finding a paradise of ultimate truths. ... With a foreword by pioneering scholar of new religions Robert Elwood, this volume makes a valuable contribution to both the scholarship of new religions and the ongoing dialogue between the culturally constructed ‘East’ and ‘West’ of western civilization.” (Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions) —Dr. W. Michael Ashcraft, Professor, Truman State University, author of A Historical Introduction to the Study of New Religious Movements; New Religious Movements: A Documentary Reader (co-editor)

“An extremely interesting book … His observations in this memoir are tinged with the ‘mind’s eye’ of a skeptic, albeit one laced with dry wit and humor. ... As a travelogue detailing that vast fascinating country, Gelberg’s vivid descriptions reminded me of Paul Theroux’s classic first travel book, The Great Railway Bazaar. Anyone interested in India or Eastern thought or cults, or just fascinating travel writing, will enjoy this wonderfully written and insightful book.” (International Journal of Cultic Studies) —Marcia Rudin, International Cultic Studies Association

“During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, tens of thousands of young Americans, inspired by utopian dreams, found themselves attracted to Hindu spirituality in one form or another. But over time, and perhaps especially after visiting India, the homeland of those utopian dreams, many developed a nuanced and less gullible understanding of the movements they had joined. Gelberg has provided an excellent book based on his travel journal, recording the landscapes of India, as well as his own ‘mindscapes’ as he came to terms with his growing disillusionment with the Hare Krishna movement and its leaders. This is a deep dive into skepticism as a necessary aspect of the spiritual path.” —Dana Sawyer, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and World Religions, Maine College of Art & Design, author of Aldous Huxley – A Biography; The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded; The Transcendental Meditation Movement

“Not unlike a snake charmer, Steven Gelberg entices you into his mind’s eye as he journeys around secular and holy sites of India. Part travelogue, part thought-provoking spiritual exploration, and illustrated with sensitive portraits of fellow seekers on the path, this is a voyage that offers the reader a glimpse into understanding how and why a ‘Hin-Jew’ could become both enamoured of an ‘alien’ belief and disillusioned by the organisation/people ostensibly embracing its way of life. At times comical, at other times moving, but always engaging - if you have something urgent to do, don’t open this book.” —Eileen Barker OBE FBA FAcSS, Professor Emerita, London School of Economics and Political Science

“For decades, Steven Gelberg, aka Śubhānanda Dāsa, through his writings, has been one of the most articulate and insightful observers of the Hare Krishna Movement. He clearly possesses a rare ability to convey deep insights from both the insider and outsider perspectives via thoroughly enjoyable prose. Though a prolific writer, he outdoes himself in his often hilarious, always insightful excursion around India. I often laughed out loud while reading this book.

Gelberg describes everyday India of the eighties, with all its piety and eccentricity, from a respectful, at times reverent, yet often brash Western perspective. In doing so, he finds the universal in the exotic, and the idiosyncratic in the profoundly universal, providing a thoroughly enjoyable weaving together of the paradoxical human traits he sees played out around him.

Finally, Gelberg’s book presents an important example of a person whose life trajectory led them from the status of spiritual insider to that of a reflective outsider still sensitive to that which was once held sacred. The Hare Krishna Movement is inevitably many things to many people. Its own members have markedly different experiences, each forming their own unique sense of that experience and its broader meanings. Gelberg honestly presents his own perspective, and wisely does so without seeking to make his own journey a prescriptive path for everyone.

Apart from all that, the book is really fun to read!” —Hridayananda Goswami (Dr. Howard Resnick), Emeritus Chairman, ISKCON Governing Body Commission, Academic Dean, Bhaktivedanta Institute