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Book Review: The Quest of the Sparrows by Kartik Sharma and Ravi Nirmal Sharma

The Quest of the Sparrows is a promising book on practical spirituality, narrated in a fictional way. If you can read this book, chances are that your life will change positively. As humans, we constantly ask this question, what to do with this life? There is birth and then death. What lies between it. And the answer you get from this book is, Evolution. People are afraid in their life to change for better – before they contemplate any move, they tend to think about future security and certainty in actions.


If life is all about future security, then what is faith in divine? Does it guide our existence on this earth? You will be sent on a roller-coaster guide if you manage to grasp the core of the story. This story, in all senses, is for everyone. It is for masses. The story has been told through three person’s point of view. Their stories converge to one point: what is spirituality in life and does it matter?

The first part is of Nikhil. He is a rich businessman – all his life he ran after money and business and he gave least botheration to his family. As a result, he is deprived of love from his own wife and daughter, who runs away to USA.

The second story is about Sanjeev. He literally hates saints and sages and spirituality just because of his father’s actions. When his father went to an ashram for spirituality, he suffered back home along with his mother.

The third story is of Swami Pratibhan. He is suppressed by the burden of loan. He loses one of his fingers and his mother dies in poverty. All the sufferings in his life are because of his father who ran away from their lives to become a very famous sage. Pratibhan does not believe in spirituality, and he hates his father like an enemy.

The story of Pratibhan is long and interesting one. When his father is about to leave for another world, he is called to his Ashram out of nowhere. He is informed that he has that special divine light in him and he has to succeed after his father. Also, the worth of the Ashram is three billion dollars. Pratibhan already on the run due to loan on his head reluctantly accepts the offer. The way he transforms himself as a saint to guide thousands of his father’s followers is quite fascinating. In the transformation period, he realizes his worth; he connects with the divine self, and gets the purpose of his life.

With many of his followers, he starts a 600-km long journey on foot. They take this journey without gadgets and money, the idea is to realize the power of spirituality by giving up the materialistic desires. The journey is quite crucial for all three, but the question is how they will survive such long distance in cold weather? As the journey begins, various aspects of life and divine faith begin unfolding one by one. The beautiful thing about the journey is not the tolerance to endurance, but their doubts about life, faith and divine begin fading away. A new power is being instilled in them. They feel the transformation as part of their lives.

The book, though religious in nature, offers a splendid view of life. The more you read, the more you feel like exploring your relationship with the god. But, its tragic end may dishearten you. The death of Pratibhan was needless.

It seems that writers have taken special care as not to bore their readers with lectures on life…faith…and so on. They beautifully maintained an element of charm throughout the story. It is not other warts and all on the name of spirituality, it is something special. Highly recommended.

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