Book Reviewed: The Power of Negative Thinking and other Parables from India, by Koilpillai Charles

Book Reviewed: The Power of Negative Thinking and other parables from India, by Koilpillai Charles

A collection of aphorisms, parables and moral stories from Hindu scriptures (four stars)

This book has a collection of moral stories and other parables from Hindu mythology and literature. The author points out that negative aphorism are integrally connected to the positive, such as love and hate; fear and courage; happiness and sorrow; and they are related to each other in a dialectical way. The unique feature is that there is a positive lesson to be learnt from many stories presented in this book. The author’s commentary on each story and the moral taught is explained in a comprehensible way. There are about 62 stories in this book and a story ranges from one page to four pages.

The Hindu religious instruction is given through the Vedic practices and beliefs originating from the vast Hindu literature; the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Gita, the epics and the Puranas. In addition to six schools of Hindu philosophy and the vast stotra literature, the worship and the religious practices has also been contributed by numerous legends and stories. Many of them are woven around the life and actions of gods & goddesses, their manifestation and reincarnations. These stories awaken the truth in the listener’s heart and help shape the Hindu belief system. It is noteworthy that the parables and stories spoken by Jesus in canonical gospels is the major part of his teaching.

A few stories discussed in this book are worth looking into: The story of four blind men trying to find out what an elephant may look like: They feel different parts of the body and conclude differently about the appearance of a real elephant. The truth is each one of them has partial truths and they have to synthesize the knowledge gained by combining all their perceptions. The concepts of illusion and reality are nicely illustrated in this example. The story about Fate (chapter 14) is another interesting narrative which helps a believer. The fact that the Supreme Being is governing the universe is a source of strength, and that everything happens according to a divine plan is a faith. Incidentally, interpretation of physical reality through quantum physics strongly supports this notion of existence and reality. The story about Ramayana (Chapter 36) finely illustrates the illusion of life (Maya) when Rama refuses to accept Sita doubting her faithfulness to him. She refuses to prove her faithfulness, and instead enters the womb of mother Earth. This infuriates Rama even more until demigods explain to Rama that his suspicion, anger and vengeance destroyed his relationship with his wife. It is all due to Maya and the real reason is that he is the reincarnation of Lord Vishnu and he appeared as a human to destroy the evil in the form demon king Ravana. The Time Warp (Chapter 37) illustrates the propensity of man to mistake, temporary with permanent; and the transitory with eternal, is the cause of human misery. This is the story of Lord Vishnu teaching a lesson to the Vedic God Indra. Other chapters of interests are; Pollution (Chapter 43), The Tantric Way (Chapter 44), Humility (Chapter 48) about Lord Vishnu and Sage Bhrigu; and Enlightenment (Chapter 52) about Dharma and Yudhisthira. I enjoyed reading this book and it is recommended.