Reviews
from the Press
This
is what Life
Positive,
India’s foremost personal growth
magazine, has to say about the book:
Swami Chaitanya Bharti, known to
his followers as Gurudev,
is one of the first generation disciples
of Osho – who, assigned
the responsibility of conducting meditation
workshops to him.
The title of the book is taken from the
last line of a poem by Ramana Maharshi.
It implies that at the highest level of
enlightenment nothing exists, nothing will
happen and nothing
has ever happened.
Though this seems very nebulous and vague
to the average mind, as one imbibes Gurudev’s
teachings, things begin to get clearer.
It is a compilation of his talks and views
that he shared with his disciples in workshops
conducted in Goa and Panchgani.
Throughout
the book, Gurudev comes across as a teacher
who will spare no effort to see that his
disciples reach their goal.
He is a friend to all, but he can be stern
and rough, if that be the student’s
need for learning and transformation.
The talks are down-to-earth and simple,
and he cajoles and coaxes the gathering
to be light-hearted and non-serious.
According to him, it is the serious minded
people who commit
major mistakes, with the potential for causing
injury to others.
His talks are punctuated with jokes and
anecdotes designed
to make people laugh. He says that laughing
out aloud is also a
form of meditation in which one forgets
oneself. There are frequent cries of ‘Ho
Jaaye’ as a cue for the audience to
start laughing.
There is one motif in his talk – that
of forgetting the ‘I’ and trying
to feel the ‘beingness’ or ‘is-ness’.
He reiterates what Eckhart Tolle says in
the The Power of Now, which is to be always
passive, ever attentive, and always be available
in the present moment. Forget the past and
the future, and live in the now, is also
Gurudev’s message.
He takes us through the five levels of consciousness,
starting from the first level, where we
blame the other
person if something goes wrong; through
the next four levels
of sharing the blame; blaming oneself; blaming
no one; and finally, accepting that nothing
ever happened.
The essence of the book is that the whole
world and
our
entire existence is maya, a leela or illusion,
and nothing else.
He touches on the topic of taboos related
to sex and non-vegetarianism, explaining
how our minds are conditioned by our parents,
our faith, our beliefs, and our customs.
The
book is interspersed with articles and poems
written by his students. It ends with a
guided course on
the art of meditation. The author also dwells
on the principles
of advaita vedanta, according to which there
is no I, no you,
no he or no she. There is only nothingness,
as you reach the state
of consciousness which is called turiya
and even further
to the turiyateet state.
An
excellent book, it will touch your heart
and change your outlook on life.
...Dr. P.V. Vaidyanathan
