David Crow Interviews Phil Goldberg, Author of "American Veda"

Last month I had the pleasure of meeting with a fellow writer who I had not seen for many years, and interviewing him about his latest book.

Phil Goldberg is one of those writers that I admire, not only because most of his work has been related to the field of consciousness, spirituality and natural healing, but simply because of the sheer volume of material that he has produced. Having spent ten years writing “In Search of the Medicine Buddha,” and having spent another ten years since writing a sequel that is still not completed, it strikes me as an immense accomplishment to be able to write not just one book, but twenty-three. I have great respect for anyone who can do this, not only because of the high level of self discipline it reveals, but because of the cumulative knowledge and wisdom that one gains from doing so.

It was also a pleasure to reconnect with Phil for another reason. As I say in the introduction to the interview, “Phil is the person responsible for getting my book published many years ago. The way this happened was that I presented him with a pile of notes; he was honest enough and straightforward enough and helpful enough to tell me that it wasn’t a book, just a pile of notes, but there was the potential of it becoming a book. Over the coming year he helped me organize that pile of notes into an actual proposal for a book and then introduced me to the woman who would later become my literary agent, and the rest is history.”

The interview took place on Sunday, October 9th, on a beautiful fall day at the Sivananda Yoga Farm outside of Nevada City. Phil was visiting the area on a tour, giving talks about his book, “American Veda.” In a very lucid and articulate way, Phil discussed many topics that I personally feel are very important and relevant to the evolution and wellbeing of our culture: the influence of Vedic philosophy and practices over the last hundred years on American spiritual and religious thought; the major teachers and their teaching styles; the complexities of integrating ancient Indian philosophy into our modern lives; the more recent arrival of Ayurveda, kirtan, and yoga; and many others.

Overall, I found Phil’s talk and the premise of his book very insightful, and I learned a lot from it. I hope you enjoy it also; please ignore the poor sound quality at times, a result of an informal discussion on a porch with a small hand held microphone.

Listen a segment of this interview now:

Download	Name	Play	Size	Length
	American Veda (David Crow interviews Phil Goldberg)		5.2 MB	11:27 min

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