A must read - The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Last evening I was going through my collection of e-books and that’s when I came across – “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”. After one whole night and the entire following day later I completed reading it. One of the most thought provoking book I have read in the recent times. Language is fairly simple, not very tough, easy to digest by almost anyone. The plot opens in a courtroom, where a lawyer named Julian Mantle is fighting a case and in the middle of the trial he suffers a heart attack. An extremely high profile and successful lawyer like himself somehow couldn’t enjoy the fruits of success in his personal life. His wife left him, his daughter died in a car accident, stress has taken a toll on him and misery is at its peak. Yet to the world he is this charismatic person who has dinner with actresses and drives a Ferrari.

The heart attack comes as a wakeup call for him to see what he was turning into – a lop-sided man with all the riches in the world but a huge void inside. He could buy all the luxuries from the money but he couldn’t purchase happiness. So after recovering from the heart attack Julian sells all his material possession including his Ferrari and sets off to India in search for some answers. His journey, to know himself and his purpose in life, takes him to the Himalayan Mountains in search of a group of monks known by the name of ‘great sages of sivana’. These monks were known to have found the deepest secrets about life. They lived more than 100 years of age and could slow their heartbeats on their own will.

This book is about the teachings that Julian Mantle receives from these monks on life, on habits, on thinking and transforming oneself. And these teachings could very simply be adopted by any person who so ever. From doing simple things such as reserving 10 minutes before and after your sleep to contemplate about oneself daily, admiring the beauty of a rose for a few minutes daily, being in competition with one’s former self rather than others, appreciating time and spending it efficiently, cultivating one’s mind like a garden and allowing only positive thoughts to enter it, self-restraining, self-improvement, to a whole lot of things, this book covers it all.

The conclusion that one can draw after reading the book is that moving along the path of achievement and success don’t compromise on your happiness. It’s a must read for all those who want to inculcate a change in their lives by doing very simple yet meaningful things. And the very fact that these philosophies seem so very effective is what makes this quite a useful book. One doesn’t need to leave his home to go and live in the mountains when such immense knowledge is right before us. Glad to read it at this particular time, and this makes me believe that when a person is ready the teacher finds him.

The Bad & the Good

Times. Good times and bad times. Somehow we all have this tendency to classify time in these two categories. How many times have we said that, “my luck seems to be going against me” or “it’s one hell of a time”. These lovely bad times that we all hate so much, have a nag of showing up at our doorstep ever so often. They seem to enjoy seeing us miserable and exhausted. So what can be considered as a bad time? I can list a whole lot of examples from my personal experiences and from what I have seen. An accident on the road, failing in an exam, being rejected in an interview, problems in a relationship and eventually being dumped, which seems like the end of the world (at least it seemed so to me).

But what we tend to forget is that, bad things don’t just happen automatically. I mean, they can happen suddenly, but the reason lies somewhere within us. Probably we were not cautious enough while crossing the road and got hit by a vehicle, or didn’t study at all and were bound to flunk, were not confident/presentable/suitable enough for the job, so had to face the door, or were a complete jerk to him/her and so deserved being dumped (and no it’s not the end yet, there are many jerks out there suitable for us). What I am trying to say over here is that, most of the time (99%), we are responsible for things not going quite right. Like Sylvester Stallone said to his son in the movie Rocky, “Stop pointing fingers at others and saying – you ain’t what you wanna be because of him or her or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you, you’re better than that.”

So why do we hate these bad times so much? Well, because each person likes things to go his or her way. That means we have created a comfort zone for ourselves. When we are made to leave that comfort zone, then it causes discomfort/frustration/irritation. Fact is, that we cannot avoid these times, because, for the expansion of our comfort zone, it is essential that we first step out of it. And in the process we extend our limits and really get to explore ourselves. Running away from these times is pointless because ‘you can run, you can hide but you can’t escape these times’.

Barack Obama, in his book- ‘Audacity of Hope’ says, “My father left us when I was 2 years old. My mother and I, we were very poor. But she gave me an education and most importantly she gave me HOPE.” Hope has the power to light up even the darkest corners of hell. Hope can bail you out of any treacherous situation. If we are willing to hope then somehow a small window will definitely open up for us. So harbour hope, have faith even when you are biting dust, times will change, you will rise and see the sunshine.