Power of Books

- May 18, 2020

POWER OF BOOKS

Here I want to share my experience as a book reader. I have been loving reading from my childhood. The Meenabazar , The Jahnamamu (Chandamama in Odia) and The Shishulekha were my favorite magazines in my childhood. During high school days I came across a number of novels of eminent Odia writers. Among them Manoj Das's novels were favorite to me. Later on I love to read the works of Ruskin Bond, Amish Tripathy and Anand Neelakatan. During my graduation days I developed interest towards the works of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurovindo to satisfy my spiritual hunger. These books quenched my spiritual thirst, my view on patriotism and motivated me to serve the mankind and my Motherland.

I want to put some examples of some books which put a plethora of impact on my life. And I would like to suggest these books to you, which will definitely help you to improve your life and life style and even it will lead you in a different path of self realization, introspection and enlightenment.

A divine life story

It was my first 22nd birthday. One of my favorite junior presented a book as a birthday gift. The book is named as 'Autobiography of Yogi'. It is a biography of Yoganand Paramahansa a famous Indian monk of Giri order. In this book he described about his early lives, his disciplined life in his guru's ashram, about other Indian monks he met in his youth period, about the mystic powers of the the then sadhus of the country. The book is full of small small stories of his life events. I do not know I felt some other kind of vibration when I touched this book for first time.

Why and how it impacted my life I really do not know. But it brought a lots of changes in me as I realized after completing reading this book. Believe me I can not explain why I like this book. But it is sure you will feel a divine energy, a peaceful vibration and a positive change within you after reading this book.

Learn to maintain equilibrium in personal and professional life

I along with two of my fellow activists of the student organization were travelling to Bengaluru to attend a program named as IND Genius Youth Convention (Uttistha Bharat) organized by Think India in the campus of SVYASA University, Bengaluru in the month of January 2014 on the eve of Swami Vivekananda's 150th birth anniversary. I had carried a book authored by Robin Sharma, named as 'The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari'.It was one of the best seller books of the author. I started reading from Bhubaneswar railway station and completed half of the book when we reached at Bangalore railway station. After attending the program we returned back to Bhubaneswar. And completed the whole book while returning from the Bangalore. Julian Mantle is the hero of the story. How he developed his law practice up to the peak and mean while how he made his life so measurable at a time. He accepted the suggestion of his doctor and set his journey to India for peace and spiritual enlightenment. He sold all of his properties including his Ferrari. He met an old monk at the foot of the Himalayas and after collecting some information he determined to climb the hill to meet the people living there to learn the art of living and leading a happy and prosperous life. After a long toil finally he met one of them and reached at their village and gained the skill to develop an internal peace. He strictly followed the path showed by that Himalayan villager and got a new enlightened life. The villager advised him to share the gained knowledge among the people of the entire world for their spiritual, physical and material enlightenment. This book taught me to learn how to manage your health (real wealth) and wealth. This book sprinkled divinity on my life and made me understand how to maintain an equilibrium in life.

The book which taught me to keep on focusing at the goal

Here I want to mention about the third book which inspired me a lot is 'The Alchemist'. This is such an inspiring novel of Brazilian noble laureate Paulo Coelho.

This is an inspirational story of a Spanish young shepherd of Andalusia. His name is Santiago. His time passes in herding the sheep, reading books and dreaming of travelling far-off places. He keeps getting the same dream that there is treasure lying underneath the pyramid in Egypt. The story starts here and he progresses towards the Egyptian pyramid gradually to avail the treasure. He keeps on struggling. Meanwhile, during his journey for the treasure he meets people some of them teach him, help him, cheat him and also the alchemist who boosts his confidence. Finally with several toils he reaches at the desert and unfortunately gets looted and injured by some thieves. Still keeps on focusing on his goal. At last he comes to know about the real place, where the treasure has hidden. It is the same known place, where once he took rest with his sheep herd. And at last he becomes able find out his dream. Once you will start reading you will keep on reading to reach at the conclusion. And finally you will find a treasure of inspiration to conquer all the struggles to reach at your goal.

The books have tremendous power to change a life. I learnt an innumerable lessons from the books. Books can make you intelligent, successful, leader and a winner.