Teaching

Paulo Coelho wrote:

The master says: “Write! Whether it’s a letter, a diary or just some notes as you speak on the telephone — but write!” In writing, we come closer to God and to others.

“If you want to understand your role in the world better, write. Try to put your soul in writing, even if no one reads your words — or worse, even if someone winds up reading what you did not want to be read. The simple fact of writing helps us to organize our thoughts and see more clearly what is in our surroundings. A paper and pen perform miracles — they alleviate pain, make dreams come true and summon lost hope. “The word has power.”

Enlightening..eh?

The Devil and Miss Prym

We humans are mere an instrument of God who bestows his temptations, his love, and his burden upon us. On the other hand stands there is Devil. A gritty and shrewd competitor of God. In classical age, they were tied together with phonograms: Devils and Angels. When the wrangle between the two prevailing super powers heats up, humans fall prey to the circumstances, losing their integrity, solidarity and above all losing their selves, serving as a tool, like movie characters, to emblem the occult struggle. The book “The Devil and Miss Prym” struggles with the same heat, turmoil, despair and bleakness that shadows everything when Devils ploy against Angels.

Humans! A strange creature with all his ability to think and analyze. What is he? Good? Or, bad? This is the trial here. Which side he is at? Devils? Or, angels? This is the ordeal here.

In a small village, Viscos, rotten of their children, their money and of any possible adventure; predictable and programmed; ethnic and settled; a stranger comes in with Devil accompanying him. He was betrayed by the God and angels, or at least he feels such, or rather Devil has made him feel such. Whatever! Berta, who was told by her long died husband about this misfortune asking him to keep vigil, recognized him at once. But, what can an old woman of such an age could do? Except, probably, musing over and succumbing to her destiny. Nothing to worry, though! In the flock of 281 habitants, destiny had its agent, Miss Prym, to carry the burden. Stranger, himself lost to evil, has a strong desire to find if humans, as a whole, as the most evolved race, are corrupt, devoid of morality and ethics. And he throws a strange bite: grotesque at first, acceptable eventually. Would the villagers, his fellow humans, act as he want? Or, would they deny? Would they revolt? This is a struggle to rise above the rubbles of past, threats of evil and temptations of bad.

Paulo once again writes an inspiring fiction, quintessential of the fight we confront each passing day and night, filled with didactic one-liners and a finale moral. A worth reading book, which opens up new windows and verbalizes the age old mystique.

The Alchemist

What is a dream? No, don’t go to the Great Sigmund Freud seeking explanation and emblem to it. I am asking about your dream. Your own “personal Myth”. Your share in the soul of the universe. Leave philosophies, shun logics and abandon reasons. And then, dream. What you see is your destiny. Your desire. Something that is preserved for you. Something that awaits you. And here is a fable, full of wisdom and simplicity and symbolisms, to make you believe in the impossible that you had once dreamed of but couldn’t dare to pursue.

Paulo’s poetic writing and gritty optimism had made this book “The Alchemist” one of the largest sold novels in the recent history. The mystique and simplicity goes hand-in-hand. God made everything simple, so simple that even a grain of sand can reveal the entire history of the world; but men have a mania to complicate everything; and they endeavor voraciously in evolving an “enigma” out of everything. But at the heart, life remains simple. This is the message of the author.

The story of the treasure-hunt passes through the labyrinth of destiny and omens that helped Santiago, the lead character, tracing out the laid path. He had a dream. A dream that told him about his treasure buried faraway in the pyramids beyond the impassable desert of Africa. He believed and ventured for daring risks. It’s not in the destination that your treasure lies, it is laid all along in the path that your heart longs to follow. So follow you heart; because it is always right; because it suffers; and because it cares; because it has come from the soul of the universe and it is exactly where it will go back.

“Everything has been written on the soul of the world by the same hands” says the Alchemist revealing all secrets in a single line. Alchemist is a person who understands the nature and its language. He is the one who has found the pristine core that runs life into every creation of the universe. The external form may differ, but at the core every thing is same – the elixir of life which cures all the evil. So if, you have found something that is pure, not like an impulse of volcano, you have found your treasure.

Every journey that takes a man to his destiny and fills him with enough courage to renounce everything he possess is a part of the future that he lives in present. And the future is his dream. “When you desire something, the whole universe conspires in helping you achieve that.” says the alchemist. Because, what you dream today would later become a part of your future, a part of your destiny. So, a traveler of dream has not to worry for the path but preserve to meet the target for the path would be laid and revealed through the conspiracy.

What if you realize your dream? What next would you do? The author explains the enigmatic and oracular fear of dreamlessness, too, that keeps men from chasing their belief. He says that we and everything else are subject to evolution, striving for betterment and perfection. Hence, if you heed your heart and the omens you would evolve; and by evolving yourself you would help the universe to evolve for you are a part of it and it is a part of you too.

Sometimes, on the way, you see the vision that pushes you further. And sometimes, you want to settle down and accept things as they come not due to lack in courage but for the feeling of contentment. And this happens when you fear losing something precious, something pure like the soul of the world. Santiago met Fatima, a woman of desert, and fell in love. Love here was a direct nexus between them revealing through their eyes, “because eyes show your soul” and because the whole universe had conspired in their meeting. He felt an immediate urge to stop the hunt and settle down to lead a happy life. The alchemist, then, took the command and explained the monotony of the possible life, a frustration after the denial of “principle of favorability” and persuaded him to have faith in what he had found. Moreover, everything is written on the soul of the world and it will remain there for ever and ever. And love never stopped a man to pursue his destiny. Neither did Fatima.

This is a brilliant novel talking about simple things of life that people have forgotten like, love, traditions, god, and omen and above all dreams. It has a great inspirational power to live the moment, the present and the path abetting you become daring enough to risk for a belief. “And, if a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know, there is only one thing that makes it impossible to achieve: the fear of failure” says the Alchemist.

Maktub…

Read a similar story at:
http://www.animesh.org/oeuvre/a_day_after_the_alchemist.asp

Eleven Minutes

I am not sure what but there is something in this man, Paulo Coelho that makes him think out of the blue. Read his books, I mean any of them, and you will confront your own secret demons who were always there lurking inside you but you could never have them such vocal. His writing has the power to inspire and sometimes to conspire. This time, he has come up all along the universe to conspire in helping a young, beautiful and gritty but yet sensitive woman from the interiors of Brazil as she takes on with her own destiny only to concede later.

The title is “Eleven Minutes”. In case you are wondering what the title could hint for, let me tell you more about the story to help you out: Once upon a time, there was a girl in a small town in Brazil. She wanted to become famous and different and rich and happy and content – all at the same time. There entered a show-man from the Swiss-glamour-industry and she went with him following her dreams of money and fame.

But what did she find? A confusion – if violence is a way to reach one’s limit? If one can know oneself only at the edge? If violence can help in reaching hallowed? Whether sex is divine or curse?

What happened next was a pool of misery, confusion, confrontation and love and of course sex. This book is a journey – a journey through a woman’s heart touching her soul. And this is special because never before any one had ever tried seeing the immortal soul passing through the boundaries of the mortal body. Because, it is a reverse journey. The duration allowed is of only eleven minutes, but the destination demands more. How would she cope with it? Would she concede or fight?

Paulo has the same ‘The Alchemist’ style magic all ready to rekindle you and your thoughts. But, instead of framing it like an allegory, he prefers it saying like fairy tales though he claims that the story is a true.

This book has History – tracing the lost lacuna of love, Psychology – threading the human confusion and Love – speaking for itself. But beware, this is a daring step and would try to break many of your prejudices that you inured to while growing in a society like ours.

If it succeeds it’s good; and it not then the entailing debate would make it worse for you to believe that Love is not different from Sex.