Measuring Love...

Reading Paulo Coelho's "The Witch of Portobello", liked these lines:

"But time, as well as healing all wounds, taught me something strange too: that its possible to love more than one person in a lifetime. I remarried. I'm very happy with my new wife, and I can't imagine living without her. This, however, doesn't mean that I have to renounce all my past experiences, as long as I'm careful not to compare my two lives. You can't measure love the way you can the length of a road or the height of a building."

More from 'The Pilgrimage'

I do most of my reading in the auto, yeah once I start driving the car I wont be able to do that :)
Anyway today I completed reading 'The Pilgrimage' written by Paulo Coelho. It was walking the path of learning along with Paulo on his pilgrimage on the Road to Santiago.

Sharing some more excerpts from the book:

"In the same way, a disciple such as you can never imitate his guide's steps. You have your own way of living your life, of dealing with problems, and of winning. Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself"
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"Didn't I tell you? Once a problem is solved, its simplicity is amazing."
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"I began to feel great pain, because now I knew that I was only one step from success; this is the moment when one's strength begins to flag, and one loses confidence in oneself. On a few occasions in my life I had lost in the last minute - swum across the ocean and drowned in the surf of regret. But I was on the Road to Santiago, and that old experience must not be allowed to repeat itself - I had to win.
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"But there are problems in our lives that require us to choose between one way and another. Everyday problems, like a business decision, the breakup of a relationship, a social obligation. Each of these small decisions we have to make, throughout our lives, might represent a choice between life and death. When you leave the house in the morning on your way to work, you might choose one means of transportation that will drop you safe and sound or another that is going to crash and kill its passengers. This is a radical example how a simple decision may affect us for the rest of our lives."
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"The only way to make the right decision is to know what the wrong decision is," he said after I had mentioned my concern. "You have to examine the other path, without fear and without being morbid, and then decide"
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"Life always teaches us more than the Road to Santiago does," he answered. "But we don't have much faith in what life teaches us."
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"We are not smart enough to be able to listen to the silence! We are just human beings, and we don't even know how to listen to our ramblings..."
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"Everything is contained in sounds - the past, the present, and the future. The person who does not know how to listen will never hear the advice that life offers us all the time. And only the person who listens to the sound of the moment is able to make the right decisions."
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"And when I think about it, I guess it is true that people always arrive at the right moment at the place where someone awaits them."
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About Death from the book "The Pilgrimage" - Paulo Coelho

Sharing some passages from Paulo Coelho’s book “The Pilgrimage” from the chapter “Death” which I am reading now:

"Human beings are the only ones in nature who are aware that they will die. For that reason and only that reason, I have a profound respect for the human race, and I believe that its future is going to be much better that it’s present. Even knowing that their days are numbered and that everything will end when they least expect it, people make of their lives a battle that is worthy of a being with eternal life. What people regard as vanity - leaving great works, having children, acting in such a way as to one's name from being forgotten - I regard as the highest expression of human dignity.

"Still, being fragile creatures, humans always try to hide from themselves the certainty that they will die. They do not see that it is death itself that motivates them to do the best things in their lives. They are afraid to step into the dark, afraid of the unknown, and their only way of conquering that fear it to ignore the fact that their days are numbered. They do not see that with an awareness of death, they would be able to be even more daring, to go much further in their daily conquests, because they would have nothing to lose - for death is inevitable"

The second paragraph reminds me of the book “The Tibetan book of living and dying” written by Sogyal Rinpoche. We live our life without realizing the importance of Death, avoiding its talk & ignoring its reality. Allowing it to be part of our thought process helps us live fulfilling lives.

Paulo Coelho's "By the River Piedra I sat down and wept"

The side effects after reading a Paulo Coelho book: "I am in a trance". Its entering a new realm of spirituality. It occurs every time I read his book. In his books, he displays various shades of life and the growth of inner self. In this book "By the River Piedra I sat down and wept" he shows the path of freedom is not necessarily the path thats been traversed by others. The most trodden path looks easy and less risky but the path thats new and adventurous is the one we dont see, we are ignorant of. Its the road that relieves us from bondages of our fears. We can pave a new road that connects us to our soul. And we are the best judges for that....

The book takes us along a love story of a woman who meets her childhood love to find he has become a spiritual master who can do miracles. She takes the path she always feared and surrenders to love. After this joyous discovery she fears losing him to his spiritual cause as she loves him so much. She loses him to his mission and cries by the river Piedra full of memories of the recent past...!

Some excerpts from his book:

"You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen"

"Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking the risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have dreams to follow..."

"There are many ways to commit suicide. Those who try to kill the body violate God's law. Those who try to kill the soul also violate God's law, even though their crime is less visible to others"

Reading during Travel...:)

Traveling to the US, was sleepy as started my travel early morning. Spent most of time watching movies and sleeping. Watched some real good ones...:)
Then when was a little awake read Paulo Coelho's "By the River Piedra sat down and wept". Read half of it and as always he just awakens the dead spirit in one.

And as I read the books of the spiritually awakened or listen to the discourses or attend a course of a divine Guru, I keep realizing how the messsage is the same, the packaging may vary. What I understand is that the Truth is the same.

Now at the hotel and listening to the discourse ' A Dimension Beyond the Physical' by 'Sadhguru' of 'Isha Foundation'

Planning to complete Paulo's book, and then do my Yoga in the evening.

Wow, life feels good....so lucky to be from a place like India...where one can gain access to life, spirtuality, love in such a intense way.

Last trip to Sydney I was sick by body, mind and was in such a emotional turmoil. And not that I couldnt meditate or do yoga but just that the divine had greater plans for me. Life is a learning and I am grateful for everything. "The Good and the Bad". Sometimes I wonder how I can call anything "Bad", there is only goodness around, atleast feel like that at this moment :)

Some excerpts from Kahlil Gibran's work

I am reading this book "Selected Works of Kahlil Gibran", he has gone to such depths in discovering the human soul!

Some quotes:

"Our most sacred tears never seek our eyes"

"Every thought I have imprisoned in expression I must free by my deeds"

"Even the hands that make crowns of thorns are better than idle hands"

Reading time

Have been reading 2 books parallely, one by Irving Stone and the other by Kahlil Gibran. Both have deep insights and wonderful quotes. Sharing this one for today:

"We are cast in flesh but must live as Iron"

This is from Irving Stone's Novel.

Will give more details on my book reading in the next post.
Till then enjoy this post I had written 2 years back :-)

http://satyakadarshan.blogspot.com/2005/12/book-reading-2005.html

Book Reading – 2005

From past 10-11 years I have been reading mostly non-fiction (stopped fiction after college when I graduated to non-fiction). Year 2005 I decided to read fiction and I did read lots of them.
Feb 2005:
Well I started the year with “The Monk who sold his Ferrari” and this certainly was not a fiction per say. I want to mention this book here because this quite inspired me to start my weight-loss program and I did successfully lose 15 kgs to get back to shape. Thanks to Robin Sharma and well Mom too (she was the one who kept coaxing me to it)

May 2005:
Sridhar went to Paris for 3 weeks and I started reading as I had lot of spare time. It was Paulo Coelho time :-). I read 3 Paulo Coelho books in a stretch Valkyries, Veronica Decides to Die & Eleven Minutes. I had read his Alchemist in 2003 and that had left an impression on me. What I liked about Paulo Coelho was he was able to share so freely, he could touch the rawness of humans with no difficulty. I got inspired on Astral Travel in his book Veronica Decides to Die; I tried practicing it, not successful though!! :-)

I read Fatal Cure, written by Robin Cook. It was about a doctor couple who go to a new place and how they witness series of deaths in their hospital. I followed Robin Cook till the mystery gets solved :-)

Jun 2005:
Sridhar was still in Paris and I read Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I shared with him different aspects of Da Vinci Code as he was in Paris. It was a book that opened a whole new chapter in history and religion in particular. It was certainly a brave attempt by Dan Brown. Sridhar got so bugged of my references to the book that he decided to read it when he got back to India.

For some reason I picked up Sobha De’s “Spouse”. Read a couple of chapters, reinforced the marriage institution. This was the first Sobha De book I read and here I felt she did try to get her point that one needs to work on the marriage for it to succeed.

Then I read the Wrong House, don’t remember the author now. It was also kind of a mystery novel, well written. It had shades of romance of a 35+ divorced lady with a painter and about her parents an aging couple. Well written book, it was part of the Readers Digest collection I picked up at MG Road.

Jul 2005
Sridhar was back from Paris and I didn’t have so much time at hand but I managed to read Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. I didn’t know anything about antimatter and this was a good learning of that. Most of the book was like a dreamy novel but the introduction to some aspects of science was good. Also I particularly like the connection between Religion and Science brought about.

I read the book The Child in the Family by Maria Montessori. Guess this should be a must read for parents, helps give perspective on how we need to treat children. Not as weak dependant beings whom we unknowingly dominate but as respectable spiritual beings.

I started reading the “The World of Fatwas” by Arun Shourie. I couldn’t read the entire book, read only 25% of it. It’s a good insight into the world of Shariyats and the Fatwas they render.

Aug 2005
I read the book Five Point Something by Chetan Bhagat. Frankly speaking I relate a lot to Chetan Bhagat because his writing style is like mine. What I mean is he is not like the great writers but reaches out to the crowds’ faster, guess that’s what matters. Liked the book, took me the world of IITians. Sridhar is one and was curious about the IIT life. Hostel life, trying to achieve grades and some romance paved an interesting and quick read.

Work got me busy…

Sep 2005
I read Deception Point, now Dan Brown was getting predictable in his style. I still want to read his books as I feel the story is just to give an interest in the topics he wants to introduce to the readers. In Deception Point one learns about meteors, space program expenses NASA, the government and the political parties.

I get back to reading after a hiatus of 2 months. Work kept me real busy and then other personal obligations occupied me.

Nov 2005
Embarked on Arundhati Roy’s book “The God of Small Things” and the first few pages and I new I would be hooked on till I finish the book. Its a poignant story with black humor and one can relate to some of the childhood observations. For her first book she has done a nice job of creating an impression in the mind. I still can visualize pictures of the place in Kerala the story revolves around, the smell of pickles and the greenery around. The characters are so distinct and are etched in my mind.

I read the 2nd half of the book during my taxi drive in Coorg and finished during the return journey back to Bangalore.

Dec 2005
I am currently reading Chetan Bhagat’s novel One Night @ the Call Center; it gives us an understanding of the lives of people working at the Call centers in India. I haven’t completed it, more about this in my next post

Also in parallel I had started reading Sogyal Rinpoche’s The Tibetan book of Living and Dying. I will continue on this once I finish Chetan Bhagat’s book. More about this too in my next post :-)

Hope you enjoyed my book reviews …!!!