Skip to main content

Book Review: 5000 Years Back by Neetika Maheshwari Kasat

What happened between Arjun and his charioteer Lord Krishna during the battle of Mahabharata? Did they converse about various dos and don’ts? It was their conversation that forms the essence of Bhagavad Gita. In a sense, it was a timeless conversation.


During Mahabharata, Arjun was hesitant to kill his cousins and their army. He was in dilemma about duty, outcome, Karma, and so on. He was brought to light from ignorance by Lord Krishna, who was siding with the Pandavas.

Based on similar limelight is Neetika’s novel ‘5000 Years Back’. It’s neither a chunk from Mahabharata nor a retelling. It’s a contemporary and very light novel, with illustrations, inspired by Hindu Holy Scriptures like Fifth Veda.

The novel is full of light content and relevant illustrations. As the story opens, Yudi and his brothers dive into the past life. The lead characters of the novel are Aarj and Duro. Yudi and his brothers are cheated by Duro in family business. They were rendered poor and helpless. To their rescue, comes Uncle Kris. He organizes a boxing event where the loser has to donate all his property to the winner. Aarj and Duro are champions…but their rivalry and prejudice bring them to the stage. The boxing champion is a big event. Kris opts to train Aarj, while Duro takes huge money from him. Being an avuncular uncle, he helps both.

As the D-day arrives, Aarj beats all to reach the finals to face Duro. However, just before the match, Aarj is confused and rather unwilling to beat his own cousin brother, and then begins the teachings of Kris…that forms 18 episodes…in the form of conversation.

The episodes are the teachings from the book on diverse subjects. The book lays out the vast ocean of knowledge that discusses compassion, knowledge vs action, re-birth, coverage on three phases i.e. ignorance, goodness, and passion. The teachings and insights related to life and Karma are way cool to read and implement in life.

For instance, the third episode is about Simple Mantra, the path of knowledge and action. One should take action after acquiring knowledge.

Being hesitant means breaking the balance between knowledge and action. However it’s also stated that while one goes for action, he is worried about outcome, which is again a folly. So, one of the best preaching from Bhagwad Gita is about doing work, not thinking of results.

"Simple Mantra for people believing in action is - perform action in 100 % right way but do not worry about the outcome. Do your best and leave rest on the nature."

It’s a way great book, beyond than its genre. The author experimented with mythology, history, and modern literate techniques. In simplest terms, it’s a cool introduction to Mahabharata and Bhagwad Gita. Neetika Maheshwari’s concept is new and classic. Highly recommended!!

Buy from Amazon.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should
67 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversation fo
63 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more