Book Series Review - Karmic City Trilogy by Hema Myer Sood

If you ask me the count of books for which I have misjudged genre based on cover the count would be in double digits. May be for an occasional reader that might not happen frequently, because they select books after a lot of thinking/researching. But for bookworms like us for whom reading is more like a daily routine, such incidents happen more frequently. I am not going to lie but when I ordered the trilogy of Karmic City, I thought it was an action & thriller packed series. My original plan was to finish the series in the first half of February. But I was dumbstruck when I read the first few chapters of part one, "the city of the Lord Brahma". It was clear that the book is not to devour but to digest. I dropped the plan of reading books in haste, instead, I decided to take the whole series slowly and come up with a combined review. To know the reasons check the full review.

First of all, those who think this trilogy is a mythology or mythology-action thriller then it is a big no. The books are from completely different realms. These books belong to the spiritual fiction genre. 

There are five central characters. The first one is the Soul (he preferred himself to be called one) a spiritual learned person. For his next book, he wanted to go to a serene place, so he chose to stay at a friend's flat. He met Aditi, Virat, Vaidehi & Karthik in that society, who are our remaining four characters. The author, Hema, has wonderfully designed each of these for characters such that if a reader looks around, he will find a combination of these characters' personalities surrounding him. Aditi was portrayed as a person who was looking for a mentor for her spiritual uplifting. Vaidehi, on the other hand, was shown as depressed (& oppressed) but over devotional woman, she was looking for answers about why her life was miserable. Virat was shown as all those normal people who can think but accept social norms generally. Such personality usually does wonders when forced to work according to their own thoughts process. The last category is for kinds of Karthik's, financially stable and successful who think their worldly possessions are indicators of personal growth. 

Now as we are aware of central characters, let me give you a brief of the context of each volume of the trilogy. The first part is "The City of Lord Brahma", it covers the journey of Soul. Here Soul explains the wonderful concept of internal dialogues and ego. Through Soul Hema has explained how these internal dialogues affect our life. It shows that one doesn't need the scripture knowledge but an attitude to obtain real knowledge. The concept is simple but mind-boggling. But it helps us to cultivate positive thoughts, which in-turn help us in a healthy spiritual life.

The second book in the series is "The City of Lord Vishnu". As the name suggests this part takes the support of the Lord Vishnu, his avatars and Bhagavad Gita. It contains concepts: food qualities, the human aura, chakras, kundalini, karmic bank balance and many more. Each of these concepts is calmly explained by Soul.

The last book in the series is "The City of Lord Shiva". In the first two books, Soul readied disciples and asked them to attain spiritual guidance from divine power. He made them re-learn ideas behind Shiva, and how by eradicating our ego we can proceed towards higher realms of spirituality.

What you will find these books?

• The simplicity of explanation.
• Wonderful poems.
• Good quotes and lines.

Book is written for

• Those who seek spiritual guidance
• Those who seek work-life balance and tranquility
• Those feel low in life and blame outer circumstances for their grief
• It is a serious read. So a casual reader may need to give extra efforts to read and digest the content.

Ratings

• The City of Lord Brahma - 4/5
• The City of Lord Vishnu - 4.25/5
• The City of Lord Shiva - 3.75/5
• Karmic City Trilogy - 4/4

Book Links - 

• The City of Lord Brahma - Goodreads & Amazon
• The City of Lord Vishnu - Goodreads & Amazon
• The City of Lord Shiva - Goodreads & Amazon

Life's Amazing Secrets by Gaur Gopal Das - Book Review

It was a Saturday evening around 5:55 PM, my daily office closing time, when my mobile pinged. That mobile notification brought mail with two great news for us.

1. We got mail from Pengium India to offer us a chance to review a book
2. The book was none other than Gaur Gopal Das, who's videos are being viral every now and then, referred by many of my friends on social media.

So it was obvious that we were not gonna say no to such a golden opportunity.

Book Blurb

While navigating their way through Mumbai's horrendous traffic, Gaur Gopal Das and his wealthy young friend Harry get talking, delving into concepts ranging from the human condition to finding one's purpose in life and the key to lasting happiness. Whether you are looking at strengthening your relationships, discovering your true potential, understanding how to do well at work or even how you can give back to the world, Gaur Gopal Das takes us on an unforgettable journey with his precious insights on these areas of life. Das is one of the most popular and sought-after monks and life coaches in the world, having shared his wisdom with millions. His debut book, Life's Amazing Secrets, distils his experiences and lessons about life into a light-hearted, thought-provoking book that will help you align yourself with the life you want to live.

Though we had said yes, we were a little bit tensed as the book belonged to a spiritual/mental self-help genre, which I personally not prefer. But I was proved wrong just like his videos. Gaur Gopal Das has used a unique concept. He has narrated his incident from his personal experience. The story started with Gaur Gopal's visit to an elite (super rich) couple's house. Harry (husband) went to drop Gaur Gopal after lunch. They stuck in traffic during the trip, at that time Harry confessed his situation to Gaur Gopal, that was when the story started. From there started a series of serious thoughts bundled with amazing short stories or narrations that one can correlate. Gaur Gopal has wonderfully used the object in which they were traveling to explain things. The content was divided into 4 sections, just like 4 tyres of a car, which according to Gaur Gopal Das makes our life easy and satisfied. These 4 tyres are

1. Personal life
2. Relationship
3. Worklife
4. Social contributions

Even if one tyre gets punctured one cannot drive safely or survive the good drive. Our life depends upon the balance of these tyres. With each section, Harry's doubts were resolved by Gaur Gopal by proper reasoning and spirituality.

Good points

• Easy to follow language and medium pace
• A wonderful amalgamation of self-help and short stories
• Applicable to each and every person, especially in India where people judge first and act later
• Question provided at end of each chapter which can help to learn yourself and align yourself with the logic

A sure shot must read for anyone and any age group. I must be the lucky one to get a chance to review such a book.

No need for separate rating 5/5 to the book.

Book can be found at - Amazon & Flipkart

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads

A must read - Into the Great Heart by Kamla K. Kapur

Recently all the spiritual, business and/or selfhelp books that I have read, Jaico had an upper hand from the content point of view. "Into the Great Heart - Legends and Adventures of Guru Angad the second Sikh Guru" by Kamla K. Kapur is a unique combinational master peice. I haven't read the first book so I was not aware of the beauty of Kamla Kapur's writing. The book is amalgumation of biography, fiction, philosophy, and spirituality. You will not notice when you will be taking a turn in the subject. After reading the first 30 pages I have added the first book in the series on my wishlist.

Book Blurb

From the bestselling author of Classic Tales from Mystic India, The Singing Guru and Rumi: Tales to Live By, comes the second book in the Sikh saga series about Bhai Lehna’s journey from being Guru Nanak’s constant disciple to becoming Guru Angad (1504 – 1552), his successor and the second Sikh Guru. 

Into the Great Heart carries forward and concludes the stories of Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardana, his favourite minstrel, from the first volume of the Sikh saga, The Singing Guru. History, legend and fiction merge to populate this book with fascinating personalities from Sikh history. Pivotal to this narrative are forgotten female luminaries such as Guru Nanak’s wife, Mata Sulakhni, his sister, Bebe Nanaki, Bhai Lehna’s wife, Khivi and daughter Amro. Brought to the foreground, their wisdom and insights as they overcome obstacles to spiritual growth embody the basic tenets of Sikhism in everyday living. They enhance Guru Nanak and Bhai Lehna’s tale with their diverse approach to life. 

Filled with captivating characters that enrich the tapestry of this compelling narrative, Into the Great Heart is a must-read for anyone who loves a rich story about human nature in its search for spiritual awareness.

The story or the book is written on Guru Angad succession over Guru Nanak. A priest of Maa Durga Temple came to Kirtarpur just to see Guru Nanak out of curiosity. His name was Bhai Lehna and he had herd one of the Poem composed by Baba. When he met Baba, both came to know that they were bound to meet. The first half of the book covers how the selfless act of Bhai Lehna and his devotion towards Baba Nanak had won Baba's heart. Baba had already decided that only Bhai Lehna could take the place of the successor after him. But Baba's family was against it, so Baba had to send Bhai Lehna away till the time was proper. That is the 1st part of the book. It was pretty well maintained with medium pace.

The second part started rather slow. Even the story part reduced by 30-40% in the first 50 pages of the second part. But slowly the story part picked up. The starting events of the second part were rather sad. This part ended with Guru Nanak announcement of Bhai Lehna as his heir (as Guru Angad) followed by Baba's demise.

All the characters in the book are painted with the brush of reality. You can feel their mind as if they are your closed one. The devotion of Bhai Lehna, Wisdom of Guru Nanak, Grasping and understanding of Bhai Buddha, the Inner turmoil of most of the women won my heart. Each page is filled with wisdom and spirituality without affecting interest quotient. In just 280 pages you can learn so many things. Those incidents of Baba's journey with Bhai Mardana, the hidden message behind Baba's statements or reactions, the conversation of Buddha with Bhai Mardana and family. There are so many things that made me love this book, I have listed only a few here.

A must read. Just go for it. I am not eligible enough to rate this book anything below 5/5.

The book can be found at Amazon & Flipkart

Reviews from other readers can be found at GoodReads

Book Review - The Silent Reformer: A Biographical Novel on the Life of Revered Pandurang Shastri Athavale

My wife was interested in reading "Shri Pandurang Shastri Athavale". So she requested "Kaya Bani Chandan" Gujarati translation of original Marathi work by Rajendra Kher. But by mistake, we got English edition. So responsibility came to me to finish the review. Though I have read biographies of a few personalities, spiritual leaders' biographies are not my forte. Still I too the challenge.

Book Blurb

English translation of best-selling Marathi biographical novel on the life of Revered Pandurang Shastri Athavale, founder of Swadhyay Parivar, who introduced universal way of life, way of worship and way of thinking to achieve spiritual height. Revered Pandurang Shastri (Dadaji) was an activist philosopher who formed the family (parwar) of millions of Swadhayees World-wide. He was recipient of 100s of awards including Magsaysay award, Templeton Award, Gandhi award, Tilak award etc. This novel is entirely based on his life, thoughts and work. Mr. Kher had personal interviews with Rev. Dada ji within the period of 3 & half years and then and then he wrote this novel. Hence, this book presents firsthand information about Rev. Dada ji and has become historical document of Rev. Pandurang Shastri's life and work

I read this book at a snail's pace. I was reading around 35-40 pages a week. Yes just 5-6 pages per day and it took more than 3 months for me to finish this book. It is not a boring book, but due to the depth of the subject that made my pace slow. The author has done a detailed research of Shastriji's life, it took him 3 and a half year of interview rounds face to face with Shartiji. So there is nothing else to comment on the profundity of the subject.

A serious work which requires serious efforts from readers. If the translation is as good as this book I may think about giving it to my elders as well.

English edition can be found at Amazon & Flipkart
Gujarati edition can be found at Amazon & Flipkart

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads

Book Review - The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

"The Witch of Portobello" is my second book from Paulo Coelho, after reading Alchemist I wanted to read another book by Coelho and so I grabbed this book.

Book Blurb

How do we find the courage to always be true to ourselves—even if we are unsure of whom we are?

That is the central question of international bestselling author Paulo Coelho's profound new work, The Witch of Portobello. It is the story of a mysterious woman named Athena, told by the many who knew her well—or hardly at all.

This book revolves around Athena and her journey to the spiritual world. I really loved Paulo Coelho's narration style. The way he tells the story is amazing. He can take you from the world that we live in the spiritual world.

This book has made me rethink every decision of my life and made me look at the new meaning of love, joy and teacher and sacrifice.

If you're at the point of life where you can afford to rethink your decision to broaden your perspective and go towards spirituality than this book can do wonders.

Lastly, it's always an exhilarating experience reading Paulo Coelho's books.

Ratings

1. Cover : - 4/5
2. Content : - 4.5/5
3. Character : - 4/5
4. Concept : - 5/5
5. Overall : - 4.5/5

Book can be found at Amazon and Flipkart

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads

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