Half of the year has gone and I have read 6 books till now which was my so called aim for this entire year. I am so happy that I was able to accomplish it sooner than my expectation.
Also I am thinking about recording my feelings and response about the books along with reading them. And I can turn my notes into a new blog….
To start with the recent one I have read ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ by Amish Tripathi .
It is a fictional story based upon Indian mythological stories of Lord Shiva which is the central character of this trilogy.
First of all it is a very well narrated story. All the facts and figures are depicted in nice and crisp way without any melodrama. It is subtle not loud. All the characters are placed beautifully, one can recognize them instantly.
Of all the characters I liked the central character the most i.e Shiva. He is strong, intelligent, leader yet vulnerable. Talking about mythological characters yet making them believable is just so mesmerizing.
Story is about a typical fight between right and wrong which gets twisted towards the end when Shiva gets really confused as to who was right and who was wrong. He experiences an interesting revelation after having a conversation with Pandit ji at Ramjanambhoomi Temple of Ayodhya. All the places and characters are of historical significance.
The reason that I liked the book is that I am a big Shiva fan. I am a believer yet I am not into idol worship. I believe in humanity, I respect and acknowledge the Divine part of the human beings. I believe in Ram, Sita, Hanuman, Shiv, Krishna and other mythological characters. But I also realize that they were real human being with rare Divine qualities. By Divine qualities I don’t mean any super powers. I mean the best of human qualities. The central character in this book is one such human being with superior qualities. Shiva is a great leader, fighter, friend, lover, dancer. He is compassionate, practical, witty, sensitive, free from any arrogance. He makes friends, falls in love, gets hurt, feel angry. Very much believable.
May be few people find it awkward reading about their worship God as a human being. It depends upon individual perceptions. I won’t comment about that. But I found it very fascinating to read a mythological story told in a realistic manner. It was very brave for an attempt as we Indians are very sensitive and narrow minded when it comes to our religious feelings. Writer throughout made sure not to offend anybody. The only part which I found unnecessary was the word picture drawn about every building, temple, area of the 2 cities mentioned. May be because I was least interested in knowing about the magnificence of the architecture back then as compared to the characters depicted. I found the thought process of Shiva very remarkable. His ability to understand the situation present and thus the action required in it. The way he handled every situation he was put into, willingly or not, was commendable and something to learn from. We usually loose our cool as soon as we face an unfamiliar or unexpected situation. May be that is the difference between ordinary and Divinity. But that doesn’t mean we cannot attain Divinity ourselves. It is a kind of eye-opener that most of us are yet to discover. We have been living in a culture where the Divine is separated from human. We are taught that God is somewhere out there in the sky, in temple, in idols. We are taught to look upon everything except within us. Unless we respect humanity we can never experience Divinity. The day we experience Divinity we will be able to feel God in every form. God is not separate from us. How can it be, we are a part of it. Like every wave is a part of the ocean whether it realizes or not. The day it realizes this, duality ends. There is no fear, no complains, no sorrow. Our ignorance is reason for all our sorrows. The day veil gets lifted there will be total and absolute liberation.
Until then we can very well continue to enjoy the mirage..
