Has A Book Changed Your Life?

Can a book change your life? Or does a book change one’s life? 

That Books, or for that matter, the written word affects us profoundly, is something we all accept and acknowledge. It is not for nothing that Desidarius Erasmus Roterodamus, the famous Dutch philosopher and catholic theologian wrote,’When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes’. And Borges said,’ I have always imagined paradise will be a kind of library’.

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one’, The books have been eulogised and revered,loved and respected, even criticised and condemned, castigated and censured. But they have never been ignored. And they reflect as much bad as good, as much puritanical as immoral and as much pride as shame. Oscar Wilde was not off the mark when he observed, ‘The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame’.

The faith and trust of humans are encapsulated in books. The religions, the dogmas, the creeds, the convictions, they all find place in books. Some of them so immensely popular and powerful that they stand deified and enjoy a a spell cast on human minds that only Gods can match. Even for those who are atheists or agnostics, the logic that shapes their thinking and belief flows from books.

And yet there are not many books that can claim to have changed the course of an individual’s life entirely through its impact. Such experiences are rare but not impossible, even improbable. The context and the situation, the mental state and the prevailing circumstances, they all contribute to such an eventuality.

A single book has rarely transformed one’s life. Many readings of a book usually would have a more lasting effect. It is more likely that a series of books of the same subject is likely to mould and modify one’s thinking, and thereby, possibly one’s life. If the mind is constantly engaged and occupied with a thought, an appropriate book read in those times may cast a very powerful and profound effect bringing about significant change in thinking, attitudes or approach.

The book that is likely to affect you indelibly is one that reinforces your existing beliefs and convictions. Its is like reaffirmation of an appealing idea engaging one’s mind since a long time. It is unlikely that a book may initiate one to an idea for the first time and turn one into its devout follower. 

‘Mahabharata’ was one book that shaped many of my principles of life and my value system. It’s a fascinating and gripping story, unequal in its canvas and setting. It’s a complex story, interwoven and layered, connecting diverse people and regions. It brings out the best and the worst, the divine and the devilish, the pious and the malignant, the exalted and the debased. It is a tale of contradictions and while the truth triumphs at the end, as the story suggests, it traverses through vicissitudes and tribulations, eventually ending in the celebration of a triumph. Yet it does not leave one with a sense of elation or peace or comfort or serenity. It agitates one, forcing the mind to visit and revisit the episodes and spectacles that dot the story line. It is not a book that offers a solution to one’s questions. Instead, it offers a range of options and forces one to weigh them while hinting subtly and at times, grossly, the implications that attend each of the options. It is a deeply engrossing and absorbing story; and yet offers choices that are as disturbing as reassuring; and as confusing as enlightening. They present propositions that does not allow one an escape but engagement and combat.

And of course, it contains arguably the most synthesised and refined philosophy of life ever propounded and one that requires many life- times to comprehend, imbibe and practice- The Bhagawad Geeta!