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Adv Jaspal Singh

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My first encounter with Osho Books

Jaspal Singh - 14 September 2021

Osho Books

Updated on May 29th, 2023

Years ago, I had my first encounter with Osho books. I used to read books on different subjects in my college days, including literature, politics, and philosophy. One day my younger brother brought me a few books on Osho. Those were on different topics, and I started reading first, and that was related to Sikh thoughts. In fact, it was a commentary on Japuji Sahib titled Ik Onkar Satnam. I read it from page one to last, and I was so impressed with the way of explanation. I felt really close to Sikh Philosophy after reading that book.

Osho on Japuji Sahib: in three languages

View Point changed thereafter

But my experience thereafter was not the same when I started another book. I started, read a few pages and threw it aside. I started another book and felt the same. Ultimately, I got disturbed by all books and thoughts given in those books. I pushed aside all books, considering them meaningless and full of illogical thoughts. Why, can’t say but a few months later, I again picked the same books one by one and read all of them. I tried to absorb the ideas given in them. I read all books thoroughly. My impressions got changed about the ‘great thinker’ and his thoughts.

Osho Philosophy
Life is an open secret: Osho

As I am from a Sikh family, my mind swallowed the first book on Sikh philosophy. Today I see nothing but ‘conditioning of mind’ behind my accepting one book while rejecting others. I started reading Osho’s thoughts regularly, like fiction books. Today I have an extensive collection of Osho in my personal library.

Our mindset is a collection of past

I am putting here that our thinking is mostly the result of our conditioned ‘mindset’. What we conclude every moment is what we already had collected in our minds. Our mind is the experience of our collective past. Based on our experience, we see things as good and bad. ‘Things familiar and known’ attract our mind, whereas ‘new and unknown’ is not easily welcomed. When some new situation or new idea is given, the mind doubts, and starts analyzing it, again based on the old mindset. Rationalizing is simply finding logical reasons from old experiences.

Osho Books
Osho

Today Osho Philosophy and thoughts are available in enormous volumes of books, perhaps over 600 books, but here I am sharing a single point that we have to drop the old one to receive new in life. To fill fresh raindrops, you need an empty vessel in your hands. Mind is always in the past as it lives with definitions, principles, beliefs, laws, and disciplines. Existence is always fresh, and we can touch it with pure hearts only. The reality and potential of here and now can only be experienced and appreciated if we dare to drop our tinted glasses. We need to see life as it is, without analysing and jumping to our normal conclusions. Read another write-up On Osho in Punjabi.

Few other books I read and liked

Over the years, I read so many books on different topics. Osho has written no book, he has only spoken the whole of his life and his discourses are transcribed into books. A brief excerpt from sutras or scripture selected from the world’s religions triggered most of his talks, with each book focussing on one set of religious texts. Mentioning some of his transcriptions that I have gone through.

Tao Upanishad / The Way of Tao 

Discourses on Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, a book that will make you see reality upside down. “Good and evil are not separate. They are one, two sides of the same coin. Without one, the other will disappear.” Osho’s 127 discourses in Hindi on the Tao Teh Ching were given in the early ’70s over a period of several years and published in Hindi as a series of 6 volumes. Only the first two volumes have been translated into English as of August 2017.

From Sex to super-consciousness: 

A Book to make you understand that repression of sex does not make you free of sex but turns it into sexuality. You neither get free of sex by repression nor by indulgence but by understanding. “Become the witness of your sexual desires, too. Witnessing transforms sex into love.” With complete frankness, Osho (a disgraced cult leader) discusses the three stages of sex – physical, psychological and spiritual – and provides guidance on how this raw energy can be transformed into the realization of ultimate consciousness. 

Krishna: The man and his philosophy

Discourses on the colourful dancing god celebrating life in all its dimensions play with the entire universe. “Total surrender is the way to godliness, total acceptance is the key to wholeness.” The crux of this book says White contains all the colours of the spectrum, yet it seems to be colourless; it contains all these colours in a such synthesis that they all disappear

Awareness: The Key to Living in Balance

This book is an amazing compilation of Osho’s different talks and his answers to questions from seekers related to different aspects of awareness or consciousness. Once we can identify and understand what this quality of awareness is, we have the key to self-mastery in virtually every area of our lives. Awareness, says Osho, is the key to being self-directed, centred, and free in every aspect of our lives. In this book, Osho teaches how to live life more attentively, mindfully, and meditatively, with love, caring, and consciousness.

…… I will add a few more books here that I always refer to. Keep visiting again.

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REVOLUTION 2020: Love, Corruption & Ambition

Jaspal Singh - 7 September 2021

Revolution 2020

Updated on May 26th, 2023

The storyline of ‘Revolution 2020’, a recent novel by Chetan Bhagat, revolves around a love triangle. Gopal, the narrator of the story, Raghav and Aarti, are friends from their school time. All three are moving together but still carrying different ambitions and dreams. Since their school days, they were best friends, but “Love, Corruption, and Ambition” combine to bring differences between them.

There are twists in the tale as Gopal and Raghav both loved the same girl. Gopal comes from a middle-class family. He is the son of a retired teacher who sees ‘richness’ as his aim, whereas Raghav, who comes from a well-to-do family, sees ‘revolution’ as his dream. Parents of both want them to become engineers, but they are moving to fulfill their own dreams. Aarti, the bureaucrat’s daughter, wants to be an air hostess, but Varanasi, the city in north India where they all live, is too small for such ambition. She is beautiful and has all in her personality to be ‘a dream lady’ in anyone’s dreams. She seems always confused about whom to accept as a partner or a friend.

The entrance exam for engineering makes the initial twist in the story. Gopal and Raghav prepared for exams. Raghav cleared it with his first attempt, whereas Gopal failed. His father sent him for preparation to Kota classes, taking even loans, but luck did not favor him. While his one-year stay away from his hometown, Aarti and Raghav fell in love. He feels like nowhere, no admission in engineering lost his love and ultimately his father.

The first half of the story is ‘no story’ as in the Indian context; everybody already knows what the author is telling. Lacs of students appear in entrance exams like JEE or AIEEE, and few get their targets fulfilled. Teaching classes are part of a big industry, selling dreams and making money. These coaching classes are mushrooming everywhere, in big as well as small cities.

In the second phase, the story enters where all three childhood friends move further in their lives. Gopal got the opportunity, and with the help of a corrupt system, he became the director of the engineering college. Raghav passed out an engineering degree, but his dream is in journalism, so he preferred to be a journalist. He thinks somewhere in his mind that he will unearth scams, and corruption in society, to start a revolution. Aarti is struggling to be an air hostess. Revolution 2020 shows a few glimpses of a corrupt system in the education sector. Mushrooming of private colleges by corporate houses, politicians, and non-professional rich people. After failing to get admission to an engineering college, Gopal, with the help of a corrupt MLA, starts his own engineering college. Throughout the entire story, the author has described corruption in our education system.

The whole story is loaded with scandals; sex, corruption, and a love triangle are there to make it a tale. Both friends are in love with the same girl. It adds rivalries between them. A famous quote from the novel that describes many things is, “Life is a bitch when the only woman you can think of belongs to someone else”.

Most of the story took place in Varanasi, except for some parts in Kota. No doubt storyline is straightforward and depicts known facts of Indian society, but the book is still worth reading. Chetan Bhagat is a wonderful storyteller. The language has a good flow and is easy to read. The author has been very successful in using current social/political situations in the novel to affect the overall progress of the story.

The novel’s end is totally unpredictable and leaves the reader in a state of shock for few moments. You may disagree with such an ending like me as it is vague and overdramatic, perhaps inspired by Bollywood drama movies. It certainly has many weak points, but Revolution 2020 is ‘A must read‘.

more books by Chetan Bhagat.
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The Company of Women: An Erotic Fantasy

Jaspal Singh - 29 May 2021

Updated on May 15th, 2023

The Company of Women is entertaining, has a grip on readers, and has erotic, emotional, and social angles. Need mature readers who can see other things beyond a simple narration of a few sex descriptions. If we go with the title and a few other erotic details, it seems a tale revolving around the life of a rich businessperson who had an unsuccessful married life. Recently separated from his ill-tempered wife of thirteen years. And now trying to have the adventure of companions to share his bed.

Convinced that ‘lust is the true foundation of love, he is focused on his physical needs. He keeps on searching for companionship to spend his leisure time. When his marriage breaks down, he places an advertisement for a concubine. What he needs is a short-stay, live-in relationship. No strings attached. All this keeps on rolling throughout the storyline.

Ladies, those who came into the life of Mohan

Few ladies come into his life, one after another, and share intimacy and sexual relationship. A few remarkable women that can be named are Ph.D. Professor Sarojini Bharadwai from small-town Rewari, sweet-natured and talkative Molly Gomes from Goa, classy charmer, and seductress Susanthika from Sri Lanka. We can’t ignore his association in the US, where he was a student, his first love, the American black lady, assertive Jessica Browne, to whom he lost his virginity, and the wife of Azad Kashmir minister, Pakistani Yasmeen Wanchoo, who brought him the passion of an older woman. After each affair ends and before the next begins, Mohan finds solace in the practiced charms of his obliging maid, Danno.

‘The Company of Women‘ also talks about social aspects

I have mixed impressions about this book. No doubt it has a lot of erotic and endlessly entertaining content, but it has much more. It also discussed the concept of arranged marriages in India. Based upon the social and economic status of families, ignoring the basic nature of individuals. And how such relations keep on crawling without love bonding. Urban life cultures of social clubs, like the Gymkhana Club and the India International Center, where Mohan spends his evenings, also reflect the behavior of people and the hollowness of relations. People keep on back-biting each other.

The main character of the story, Mohan Kumar, also has a strong bond with his father. He went to study in the US. After completing it, I preferred to return and settle in India despite getting an offer of a green card. On the other side, Mohan’s wife’s behavior toward Mohan’s father also shows bitterness in such relations. Besides being focused on fantasy, it is also a comment on the hypocrisy of Indian society.

Overall, the book is worth reading if you are looking for cheap thrills and erotica. But it may shock others who like scholarly and meaningful prose quality. Those who have read other scholarly works of Khushwant Singh, especially History of Sikhs, Train to Pakistan & his novel Delhi will find this book below. The author wrote such an erotic fantasy at eighty-three, and he has a grip on its subject.

You may contact the author here Adv.Jaspal@gmail.com

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