Freda Bedi had a big heart and a big life. An English head prefect and Oxford graduate, a devoted Indian wife and doting mother of three, a hands on social worker and investigative journalist, a university teacher and Tibetan translator, a Gandhi satyagraha and Buddhist nun: who was Freda Bedi, Gelongma Palmo, affectionately called Mummy la by all the Tibetans including His Holiness the 16th Karmapa and His Holiness the Dalai Lama? Who was this lady who tread so lightly yet left an indelible footprint, obscured but not forgotten? Fearless even in death, Freda died sitting in meditation with no rigor mortis, her body remaining supple for four days with warmth around the heart.

Spiritual Odyssey of Freda Bedi, Norma Levine, Shang Shung Publications, Paperback, 317 Pages, $28.00

Norma Levine is a lifelong Buddhist practitioner and the author of Blessing Power of the Buddhas: Sacred Objects, Sacred Lands; A Yearbook of Buddhist Wisdom; and Chronicles of Love and Death: My Years with the Lost Spiritual King of Bhutan.