The Cattle of the Gods: a tale by Alain Daniélou on audiobook
Among the many works written by Alain Daniélou and translated all over the world, one in particular lends itself particularly well to publication as an audiobook: “Le bétail des dieux” (“The Cattle of the Gods”).
This is one of the seven tales in Alain Daniélou’s book Les fous de dieu, contes gangétiques. Published in 1975, it was reissued in 1983 under the title “Le bétail des dieux et autres contes gangétiques”, then in 2017, by our publishing house Asieur, in ebook version.
Alain Daniélou, who lived for almost twenty years on the banks of the Ganges, was initiated into the secret rites of Shaivite, Orthodox and Tantric Hinduism. The blend of sensuality and mysticism, tenderness and detachment that characterizes Tantric Hinduism has always been a world closed to Westerners. Daniélou opens it up, showing how, in this enchanted universe, the supernatural is part of everyday life, how animals, plants, men and gods come together and rediscover those fundamental links that unite them in the marvelous harmony of creation.
“The Cattle of the Gods” recounts the adventures of Prèm Bagchi, a young Brahmin university student who has come to recuperate in a Himalayan mountain area. The strange world he enters, with the arrogant unconsciousness of a modern man, is dominated by magical forces and, above all, by the presence of the goddess of death and life, mother of the universe. The mysteries of the goddess’s cult are gradually revealed to him in singular, increasingly frightening circumstances, leading to a total upheaval in his life and personality. ”Le bétail des dieux” also shows the consequences of losing age-old traditions, and how the certainties of modern scientists can be a ridiculous superstition in the face of certain ancestral knowledge.
Happy listening…
Listen to an excerpt
To be found on Audible and AppleBooks
