Cover to cover

I was thrilled to embark on this new journey. After reading the last page of this book (Celebrating Silence), my respect for Sri Sri as well as the book increased multifold. I said to myself, this is a book that has to be read from start to finish carefully. And there began the journey. I read through these astounding pages with keen interest and focus, and with a sense of sacredness.

After years had I come across a book that gave me a thrill. Two other books that had held my interest before were The Bhagavad Gita and Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Celebrating Silence was divided into three chapters:

- The You that you want to Change
- The Path to the goal that is you
- You, God and Beyond

The first chapter deals with things that we encounter everyday like anger, doubt, fear, negativity, respect. I loved what the first page said:

Being in a crowd when you are alone is ignorance. A feeling of oneness in a crowd is a sign of wisdom. Being alone in a crowd is Enlightenment.

Knowledge of life brings confidence and knowledge of death makes you fearless and centred.

Some know to celebrate when they are in a crowd. Some can only rejoice alone in silence. I tell you to do both. Celebrate while you are alone and celebrate when you are with people.

Celebrate silence and celebrate noise.
Celebrate life and celebrate death.

I had read books on philosophy earlier in my life, but nothing had ever struck such a deep chord in me like this one. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has a style of delivering such profound wisdom in such simple words, this was the most appealing part – even a lay man like me could understand what was being said. This in my opinion is real wisdom – to be able to speak the deepest knowledge in a language that even a simple person can understand.

Sometimes I would read the same page over and over again because of the mind-blowing depth it carried. It became an addiction. Whatever time I could find, I would read further. A couple of pages in the autorickshaw on the way to work. At work, I would eat lunch quickly and come back and read a few more pages. Though I was enjoying it, I didn’t want anyone to know what I was doing, so I would hide the book in my lap under the desk :) as I read through. And although I had developed a deep respect for Sri Sri and for the wisdom he imparted, somehow this Guru concept had not yet sunk into my head. So I enjoyed all this by myself, not letting anyone know the secret to my new found joy.

A new phase in life had begun for me. An old spark to go beyond the ordinary in search of the truth was kindled. A few days later, I finished reading the entire book. Only to come back to the same pages again and again to find fresh meanings there. Even till today.