When All is Not Well – a Book for All

A candle can be caged but not its light

You may feel caged from your vantage point

As you are not aware of your inner light

It illuminates all shadows and melts you to void

***

When All is Not Well – by Swamiji 🙏

I found this book when it was much needed. If any of you didn’t read it yet, let me mention some quotes from it so that you can’t resist yourselves to read it 🙂

Why should you read? Because you may be depressed, feeling sad, low, or just fine but don’t get enough kicks to move ahead, or just happy but need  some good food for the brain, or whatever may be your state, this book is so rich that knowing what is written here itself is rare wisdom.

from my sketch/notebook …

Break free, it’s beautiful outside! 

It’s never too late to work towards what you find meaningful. Passion creates opportunities automatically; and purpose fulfils them effortlessly. It’s far more gratifying to dance with your dreams than to be deprived of them.

I have read this line a hundred times. Every time I read, I get a wave of energy flowing through my body and my inner-me says: “dance with your dreams … it’s never too late …”

Some more beautiful paragraphs from this book:

When you don’t allow time for yourself, you can’t receive the light in your life. It’s like you are in a sunny place, but you have built a room around yourself with no windows or door.

—

You feel trapped and helpless, like the leviathan elephant that is cowed into submission by a small goad. You still have strength and abilities, but the tiny piercing of the goad is so powerful (the unpleasant surprise) that you just bow down and submit.

—

Deep somewhere the giant in you knows that you are much stronger than the mahout, and you are far bigger than the goad; but recalling the pain and the fear of that pain being inflicted again enfeebles you.

—

Like Oscar Wilde said, ‘All of us are in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.’ Pain may linger for a little while, but suffering starts to subside when you accept: ‘Fine, it has happened now. Let me deal with it. I’m not going to let my past ruin my present or dictate my future. I’ve come to the realization that it’s not the goad (event) itself but the mahout (life) who is causing my pain.

—

And I have only two options: either I break free and go to live in the woods where I belong or I negotiate with the mahout.’

— 

This breaking free has nothing to do with the physical world; it is but a mental perspective. When you negotiate …

— 

Depression is a fracture of not just your mind, it’s a fracture of your very being – everything you thought you were or stood for feels broken.

— 

Sometimes, strange as it may sound, depression is the body’s way of telling you that certain things you’ve long been ignoring need your attention. Any event that triggers depression may thus be viewed as a wake-up call. If you don’t wake up yourself, though, life will then wake you up the hard way. 

— 

Wake up guys and gals, brothers and sisters, it is beautiful outside! Let’s break free and dance with our dreams. But watch your desires at the same time because here is what Swamiji says:

Desires are just that – desires. No one has ever gained eternal happiness by chasing their desires, for they are endless.

Desires and desires alone were the cause of your feeling depressed.

— 

This book is packed with information from the very first page. No drama, no stage preparation, no exageration. All from His first hand experience and deep knowledge. It seems this book is designed only to help and help and help.

It has many tips, mediation practices, sun salutation procedures, yogas, some ayurvedas (refer His other book: The Wellness Sense), practise of still gazing (called Trataka), Mindfulness, Power of forgiveness, and so on and on. Every page is worth reading again and again!

As William Cowper wrote once, ‘Your sea of troubles you have passed, and found the peaceful shore; I, tempest-tossed and wrecked at last, come home to port no more.’

Happy Reading.

Thanks for your time and patience.

P.S. Featured image was downloaded from pexels.com. The image amid the content is from my note-cum-sketch-book.  I sketched from a reference image on internet, link to the original is lost in crowd.

Pranam to all of you – divine souls 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Thank you again.🙏🏻