If Truth Be Told — A Monk’s Memoir

We are a rather strange species, if you ask me. Strange because almost always, we want something different from what we already have. Our capacity to be selfless is as immense as our potential to be selfish. I can vouch for this because I saw myself as a kind person, and didn’t think I had it in me to cause pain to my loved ones. Yet, when propelled by my desire, I inflicted it upon them effortlessly.

One morning, I got up, got ready, went to work and did not go back home in the evening. Instead, I boarded a train to take me away from all my certainties, from the people I loved and from the wealth I owned. Giving my family no warning, no indication even, I simply walked away although I knew full well it would be a point of no return.

It’s not that I didn’t think about their feelings. I did, but chose to ignore how they might have felt because I couldn’t postpone my inner calling any further. I no longer wanted to get up every morning, work the entire day, come home in the evening, eat my dinner and go to sleep just because everyone else was doing it, just because it was considered ‘normal’. Who decided what was normal anyway? If I had to live my life by the rules and conditions set by others then what was the goal of my life, what was my individual purpose—if there was any?

Before me lay the material wealth I had earned painstakingly over the last decade. But cars, properties and a bank balance were lifeless things at the end of the day. They always had been. I wasn’t born with these possessions and they certainly wouldn’t go with me after I died. What was the struggle of life about then? And, whatever it was about, was it worth it?

Countless times, I had given myself the consolation that I would find the purpose of my life one day, but this consolation was wearing thin while my questions beat like muffled drums in my head. With each strike, the sound was getting louder, getting closer. It began to drown out all the music around me: the melodious songs of the birds, the pouring rain, the compassionate words of my mother and the caring ones of my father; nothing was audible anymore, let alone joyous.

Leaving behind everything I had worked towards, razing all that I had built and abandoning everyone I had ever known, I felt indifferent towards my own past. An uninterested stranger. Just as the advancing dawn erases the existence of the night, my departure from the material world wiped away my life as I had known it.

From an Internet cafe, I sent emails to my family and close friends, saying I was going away and didn’t know if and when I would return. No emotions, no sentiments tugged at my heart when I deleted my email account, destroyed the SIM card, gave away my phone and broke up with my material life of three decades. Casting away the labels that defined me—son, brother, friend, CEO, MBA, colleague—I walked out of the store and into a new skin.

This new existence was utter nakedness; no, not in physical terms, but in being nothing, having nothing, not even an identity or a name — the life of a monk. It was only in this state of emptiness, as it were, that I could be filled by what I sought most desperately: a true inner life.

Above is the prologue from my upcoming memoir slated to be released next month (November 2014) by HarperCollins Publishers India.

Updated [Jan 2015]: Buy it on Flipkart or Amazon (in India). Or on Amazon.com (outside India) here.

Currently, the print book is available for sale in the Indian subcontinent only. Soon, in a couple of months, it’ll be available as an e-book on amazon.com as well for readers in remaining parts of the world.

For a limited time, it’s being offered at 25% discount on Flipkart. I would love it if you care to buy a copy, and even more importantly, post an honest review on Flipkart and Amazon after you’ve read the book.

In December 2014, as part of my book tour, I’ll be visiting the following cities:

Delhi: Official book launch on Thursday, 11 Dec @ India International Centre.
Chennai: Book signing on Saturday, 13 Dec @ Tattvaloka Auditorium.
Bangalore: Book signing on Thursday, 18 Dec @ Unnati Centre.
Mumbai: Book signing on Saturday, 20 Dec @ Rudraksha Centre.

You are welcome to see me in person there, hear me talk about my journey and get a signed copy of the memoir. The venue and other details can be found in the events section of this blog. Stay tuned with us on Facebook where further announcements will be made and meanwhile, you can order your copy here.

Peace.
Swami