Sangita Iyer - Gods in Shackles: What Elephants Can Teach Us About Empathy, Resilience, and Freedom

Through Gods in Shackles, Sangita Iyer exemplifies the power we have to make change happen when we fully commit to acting on our passions with courage, commitment, and willingness to adapt in the face of adversity and challenge. Through natural storytelling and compelling writing, Sangita weaves a personal journey of courage and transformation. She invites the reader into her story and the stories of captive elephants, sharing her emotional connections, struggles, and triumphs along the way, revealing the deep disconnects we have in how we live our lives, and how we treat other sentient beings. Through this engaging story, Sangita Iyer helps us recognize how interdependence, community, diversity, and being open to adaptation and emergence create a transformative change for a sustainable future.

Dr Liza Ireland
Executive director of Changing Climates Consulting,
British Columbia, Canada

Sangita Iyers personal journey is a wonderful model for how we should, and must, rewild ourselves and learn to coexist peacefully with the fascinating, non-human animals with whom we share our magnificent planet. My hope is that self-centred humans will come to realize that the better we treat other animals, the better we will treat ourselves. Its a win-win for all. Some call the Anthropocene the age of humanity. In reality, it is the rage of inhumanity. And if we dont change our anthropocentric destructive ways, we will eventually live in an impoverished and very lonely world. Future generations will inherit the messes we leave them, and this surely isnt fair to them and to their children. Gods in Shackles is a courageous, riveting, and inspirational book that deserves a global audience, and I will do all I can to spread the word far and wide.

Marc Bekoff, PhD
American ecologist, biologist, ethologist, and writer

When a person stands up for injustice, the plight is infectious. Sangitas passion is infectious. The good people of this world came her way and helped because they believed in what she was doing. Sangita made Gods in Shackles and the VFAES happen, and bravo to her. I would thoroughly recommend this inspiring and uplifting book. The subject matter is brutal, but it gives me hope that humans can still make the world a better place if we change our ways and take a stand. Education and solidarity are the way forward. Excellent read and a fantastic journey!

Carla Kovach
Author of the bestselling Detective Gina Harte series

Thought-provoking and very upsetting at times, particularly because that these tortures are under the semblance of religion. This wonderful book is deep and full of facts and emotions. I particularly resonated with the frequent parallels to the elephants plight and Sangitas personal life experiences, both physical and mental. It seems incongruous and wrong that nature should bow to mankind, especially this most glorious and intelligent speciesthe majestic yet gentle elephant. Sangita is a determined, cause-driven, and passionate advocate whom I admire enormously. After a horrendous accident during which she was incapacitated for months, she becomes more and more determined and likens her suffering to those of the horribly abused elephants, particularly those in the temples. The book charts the making of her amazing film Gods in Shacklesan eye-opening, heartbreaking account of the barbaric cruelty inflicted on these naturally gentle giants to break their spirit and make them controllable to humans. I challenge anyone who has had the privilege to see these glorious animals in their natural habitat, in their female-orientated herds, to not be moved and become determined to support Sangita and her mission.

Rula Lenska
British actress and model

Sangita Iyer possesses an abundance of courage, vigour, tenacity, and charm. It is the combination of these qualities which endures in the dynamic achievements of this outstanding author who is a dedicated campaigner for elephant protection. Sangita has demonstrated, time and again, that nothing stands in her way, dispelling untruths and sweeping away injustices so that egotistical and political barriers can crumble leading to change. This phenomenal, trailblazing book reminds us that humans need to self-heal in order to fully play our role in forming a synergistic coexistence with nature and animals. What we do to other species reverberates back to us. There is an urgency, therefore, to end the weeping of elephants and evolving of humans so that we all hold out hands with respect and tender love. Then elephants, and all animals, will be free from shackles and chains. In this outstanding book, Sangita Iyer is the worthy voice of elephants, the translator of their wisdom, of the mapping of their consciousness itself, and how it relates to us mere humans.

Margrit Coates
World-renowned author, healer, and interspecies communicator

A painful and extensive injury becomes the occasion for Iyers understanding of the horrific plight of the temple elephants. Her souls understanding that the elephants are holy beings requires her to work on their behalf to free them from the literal ongoing torture of their ceremonial lives in captivity in the name of religion. The book weaves Iyers story, the elephants story, and Indias extreme contradictions as modern life and its desperations devastate the ancient traditions.

Deena Metzger
Author of A Rain of Night Birds and co-editor of Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals

From an early age, Sangita felt a deep affinity with Asian elephants. Many years later, having long since moved to Canada, she became aware that the temple elephants used in religious ceremonies in her native India are horribly abused, even tortured. It became her mission to shine a light on this abuse. Here, she tells a heartfelt tale of creating and sharing the award-winning documentary film, Gods in Shackles, and draws parallels between her own inner search for spiritual freedom and her work to free her soul animals from the horrendous conditions of their captive lives. Along the way, Sangi shares with us glimpses of her beloved Indian culture and the wonder of the non-human world she finds even in the midst of cities. If you love our non-human brothers and sisters and find the Law of Attraction compelling, then this book is for you.

Dr Robert Kull
Author of Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in ExtremesA Year Alone in the Patagonia Wilderness

Copyright 2022 Sangita Iyer

Published in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com

Published in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au

Published in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk

Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Cover design: Claudine Mansour

Jane Goodall photo: Stuart Clarke

Richard Louv photo: Used with Permission

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.