The Sacred Sword by Hindol Sengupta

This is the second book of Hindol Sengupta that I read and he is becoming a name to recommend for all mythology lovers.

This story is of course a fictionalized version of the last guru of Sikhs,Guru Govind Singh but it is a remarkably inspiring and awe worthy account. His life has great many lessons to learn from and more than that ,the conviction he showed in uniting the clan and fighting the Mughal on behalf of all is a story I was unaware of.

Hindol has beautifully added the poetry - Punjabi and Englisher both into this narrative . It also helps that Sikhism and the beginning of the khalsa was and has never been a fight for religious supremacy but of freedom from one such dular who wanted to convert all to his religion.

This book is a good way to know our traditions , the heroes and the sacrifice so many made to keep us a free community centuries ago. It is time to revive those lessons and this book does that job well. Even treating as fiction, the story hooks you right from the start.

Quite enjoyable read with a few unnecessary scenes probably.

My rating : 4/5

#BookReview : Have a little faith by Mitch Albom

From the last 4 years , I have been reading "Tuesdays with Morrie" in the first week of Jan. And being someone too used to rituals, I never tried another book or author. This year God had other plans so I happened to come across this book "have a little faith" by same author.

This is a true story of Mitch's Rabi and their conversations in differed settings over a period of 8 years. In those eight years, Mitch gets a chance to rediscover faith , his roots and also some of the human emotions he had lost touch with. The book also has the story of Henry , a convict turned into Christian pastor. And for me that story was some how more inspiring.

The book no where wants you to believe in God but more than that it makes you aware of the ways we have tied our self to meaningless pursuits and how our joys are always linked to what and how much we give back to others. It is a lot of stuff you already know but put in context of real people - people who are flawed yet the goodness survives even today.

When i started, I was not aware of the reasons this book was my first read of 2016 but once I was done with about half, I knew that like Mitch this was my chance to re discover my faith and define my actions going forward 'cause

Faith is about doing. It is how you act , not what you believe. 

I personally liked this book though many sceptical readers might not enjoy it as much. Still this one I feel has something for all of us.

My rating : 4/5

Here's wishing you a glorious year in all you do and read. Bless you !  

Only Love is Real: The story of soulmates reunited - By Dr. Brian Weiss

Image source: Self-clicked.

ONLY LOVE is REAL: Spirituality, Psychology and Metaphysics.

AUTHOR: Dr. Brian Leslie Weiss, MD (68) is a traditional psychotherapist. In 1988, during one of his sessions, he was astonished and skeptical, when one of his patients began recalling past-life traumas that seemed to hold the key to her recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks. His skepticism was eroded, however, when she began to channel messages from “the space between lives,” which contained remarkable revelations about Dr. Weiss’s family and his dead son. Using past-life therapy, he was able to cure the patient and embark on a new, more meaningful phase of his own career. Dr. Weiss is graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School. He is also the Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. (From the official website http://www.brianweiss.com/)

Image Source Dr. Brian L.Weiss, MD

BEST SELLER(s): Many Lives, Many Masters; Miracles Happen; Through Time Into Healing; Messages from the Masters; Same Soul, Many Bodies; Mirrors of Time: Using regression for Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Healing; Meditation: Achieving Inner Peace and Tranquillity In Your Life; Eliminating Stress and Finding Peace; and Healing the Mind and Spirit Cards.

SYNOPSIS (From the Blurb):

                       We all have a soulmate, someone who is special to us.

In his books, psychiatrist and past-life therapist Dr. Brian Weiss describes the extraordinary case of two of his patients, Pedro and Elizabeth, whose shared lives and lifetimes unfolded quite separately in his office. Could they have loved - and lost - each other across time?

Dr. Weiss explains that you may be awakened to the presence of your soul companion by a look, a dream, a memory or a feeling. Finding and reuniting with your soulmate will bring you profound bliss and happiness, safe in the knowledge that you are together always, to the end of time.

EXCERPT:

I have been here before,

But when and how, I cannot tell;

I know the grass beyond the door,

The sweet keen smell,

The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before -

How long ago I may not know:

Just when at that swallow's soar,

Your neck turned so,

Some veil did fall, - I know it all of yore.

- DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

You never forget the hurt, but, as time passes, you can live around it. After a decade of pain, we began to understand about the immortality of souls.

MSM Speaks: There are certain genres which people usually don't find themselves attracted to and at the risk of stereotyping, I would say - religion or spiritualism is one such genre. You either need to have a keen interest or a hunger to hold on to the knowledge and wisdom delivered until the end. I came across this book after few of my friends mentioned Many Masters, Many Lives as something that I should pick up. However, Only Love is Real was given to me by one of my friends. To be honest, I did not open it until few days back because of the mental block that it must be highly boring and well, clichéd. 

The book starts off at a pretty slow pace to make the reader familiar with terms and issues to be dealt with in Past Life Regression Therapy. Dr. Weiss introduces little verses at the beginning of all the chapters to make them more intriguing. I really loved the verse that I have given in the excerpt - it is in essence, all of what Dr. Weiss is trying to say. He starts with Elizabeth's session who is suffering from anxiety and bad relationships. She is also in deep sadness regarding her mother, whom she lost. A lot of her problems are dealt with and a marvellous connection is brought out to her previous lives. 

In another session, Dr. Weiss is dealing with a Mexican patient Pedro who has been suffering from a lot of mental stress and physical stress. Also, he has recently lost his older brother and therefore, feels an incredible sense of loss that seems to be rooted beyond this lifetime. 

Two parallel therapies are taking place - two parallel connections are being drawn. Masters from the other side meanwhile give messages worth reassessing our position in this world. Yes, we are indeed a tiny speck, but we are also one of a kind, the sui generis. Dr. Weiss does not impose what he believes, just gives his take on the principle of past life regressions.

I had to finish this book, and yes, somewhere somehow, even though the contemporary upbringings tell us to believe otherwise, I ended up feeling hopeful about myself. A complete feel good book. 

My Rating: 4.5/5

ONLY LOVE is REAL@ Piatkus UK (www.piatkus.co.uk) 2004

ISBN 978-0-7499-1620-6
Number of Pages: 176
Price: INR 225 /- (flipkart)