The Quest of The Sparrows - Experience Practical Spirituality

Reading The Quest of the Sparrows just after The Evolution of God is like a deadly cocktail of vodka and whiskey. Both are two extreme of one rope. Both books reminded me the famous quote: "Once the God and man met. Their thought 'My Creator'" I liked The Evolution of God and I loved The Quest of the Sparrows. This year has given me another gem in my spiritual book collection. The Quest of the Sparrows is added to my list of "Repeat once in a year"

Book Blurb

Inspired by the life of a sparrow that leads a carefree life, Partibhan, a young and reluctant guru takes off on an amazing journey in evolution. He believes that human beings can become powerful creators, and achieve much more but the desire to secure the future makes them mere survivors. Between birth and death, evolution is the only constant, which humans can achieve by giving up self-limiting practices.

Partibhan sets out to test spiritual principles at a practical level, with the exceptional 600 kilometer journey on foot without money and belongings. He wishes to demonstrate that man’s fixation on materialism and the need to accumulate is overrated: Survival isn’t the goal of life. A much bigger role, a higher calling awaits us.

Can Partibhan and his followers overcome hardships on the way to find the answers they seek? Are they able to prove that spirituality isn’t an impractical concept as many have come to believe but is inseparable from evolution? What insights do they come across? What does their journey prove and what is its power packed message for you? Do they discover peace and joy? How is it different from happiness?

Discover all this and much more in this path breaking, evolutionary new writing that explores the higher meaning of life and demonstrates practically how one can achieve peace and joy while leading a meaningful and creative life.

The book contains only one story but it is portrayed from three character's point of view. The main protagonist of the story is Swami Partibhan. His ascend to his father Guru Parmanand Swami's position is the core of the story. Two more important characters are Nikhil and Sanjeev. Both came to Ashram in Manmar with few goals in mind. After joining ashram as Guru, Partibhan had taken completely new approach. He believed in practical spirituality. He challenged his followers to take a tremendous task of Manmar to Ganpatiphule by walk without money and gadgets. Very few people joined him on this quest and less than 15 finished at the end. Nikhil and Sanjeev's perspective towards spirituality changed completely after the journey. Throughout their journey, they saw various life-changing examples of humility and spirituality. I don't want to reveal characters traits as it might spoil readers experience.

The best part of the story is flow. I kept reading the book in spite of being a busy weekend. I liked the way characters were evolved during their journey. I usually don't like spiritual lectures but the way it was mixed with the storyline, I didn't even feel that it was coming. The author has given emphasis on keeping only positive things in mind. Though one can have multiple negative experiences in wild, the story was kept with at most positiveness.

In today's world it is possible to find religious people but finding spiritual people is a difficult task. The book is written on a similar theme. Not just theoretical spirituality but practical spirituality was preached by characters of the story. The example of sparrow used is eye catching observation. We are always busy in achieving our next goal. What we achieved previously usually become regular and we start taking it for granted. The concept of going somewhere without planning and without money or resources looks scary, but I am thinking of doing it at least once in a life-time. It Let God or supreme power decide the course of action.

Things I liked in book or story:

• Concept of journey - It feels like we are reading a trekking or adventure book
• Reasoning of Parthibhan for various situations
• Overall positiveness (This may be negative for few readers but I liked it)
• Relevance used with Sparrow

I am recommending this book to all genre people. Talking about rating:

1. Cover : 3.5 / 5 (Authors should have given more emphasis on cover)
2. Content : 4 / 5
3. Concept : 4.5 / 5
4. Characters : 4 / 5
5. Overall : 4.5 / 5

Book can be found at - Amazon & Flipkart
Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads