Advaita

Advaita

To the seeker of truth,

Wake up from your dream;

The dream of false reality

Staged by your senses.

Wake up from your slumber;

The slumber of dreaming

With your eyes closed.

Free your mind,

Let go of the veil of illusion;

The illusion painted by

Your worthless ego.

The ego has blinded you and

Obscured the vision of reality.

Lose yourself; shed everything

That you think you have

To know that you have nothing.

Look inside yourself to learn

And realize that what you

See, hear, touch, taste,

Think and feel is one big lie.

Unlearn that this life is permanent

And learn about its fickle nature.

Let your thoughts transcend

Beyond the realm of your body

And discover that your soul

Is no different than

The Spirit of The Universe;

Where life comes and goes

Round and round in an endless cycle.

Believe that only this knowledge 

Of Self-realization is permanent.

Become aware that you are

An indivisible speck of dust

Within the infinite universe.

Still the mind; stop its clamor

From grief and desires.

Accept that you are nothing

And yet you are everything

Both within and without.

Even with your eyes wide open,

Pure consciousness pervading the cosmos

Since the beginning of time

Will be enlightened within you

To experience eternal bliss.

And this is The Ultimate Truth.

July 14, 2022

Book Review: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The plot of the story is battle between the pure intellectuals and pure socialists. It describes at length about dispute between two extremes: socialism and objectivism. I found this hard to believe because if individuality is one aspect, then social responsibility is another. These two concepts do overlap at a certain point. Otherwise, without objective, you cannot earn a livelihood and still contribute to society.

Another problem I had reading this book is its enormous length; I felt it was overdone. Rand has used her power of vocabulary to describe same things again and again with different lines, different passages with different sub-plots which makes the chapters redundant. Hence it took me more than an year to finish reading it. From the beginning, all the chapters inch towards the climax: "This is John Galt Speaking"; this chapter could have been a hundred page novel all by itself. It doesn't strike the right chord just by repeatedly intensifying to same issue and drag it to this point. I was tired and almost ready to give up. The work could have been more engaging by being more concise. Yes; the major problem of this novel is its length. With all this criticism, I acknowledge that there are some notable quotes, eye catching lines and passages that really nudges your soul.

It would have been worth your time if the book was cut short to explain its principles, not otherwise. If you really want to enjoy reading Ayn Rand's work on objectivism, try The Fountainhead.