Book review during corona " Man’s Search For Meaning" , Author- Viktor E Frankl

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Disclaimer- This book review is self-contemplation of book’s content. The personalized meaning derived from book vis-à-vis the current Covid scenario. The quotes are used directly from book.

Where has true emotional warmth disappeared? Why are we all indulged in our own selfish modes and drama? Why the real approach of living is in switch off mode?

Hey, don’t judge. The air may be gloomy with C+ virus but spirits are not. I am not pessimistic. And no… I am not nagging. But don’t we all wonder for the reason of our existence. Our sayings and actions don’t match. Sometimes, they are on totally different dimensions.

The talks of hearts have lessened. The ears are filled with assumptious noises. The warmth of eyes shrieking cold gaze. We are living as if we are immortals. This current situation urges us to once again become HUMAN.

Man’s Search For Meaning (book) is a beacon of light which helps peeping into soul. It rejuvenates meaning of life. Soul-opener.  

So, one morning we were free and the very next day we were ‘trapped’ inside digs because of invisible alien ghostly virus has entered our safe zones. This tap and break from busy life was welcomed with all heye(s) and yeye(s). Initially this break boosted the enthusiasm but now the same break is breaking the hopes of safe future. Tears are surfacing on the hearts. The prayers are on lips for magical recovery.

“But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer” (Quote from book). During the Holocaust, Frankl spent three years as a prisoner in the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. As such one of the fundamental aspects of Frankl’s book is the theme of survival. Although Frankl witnessed and experienced horror, Man’s Search for Meaning focuses less on the details of his own experience and more on how his time under Nazi rule showed him the human ability to survive and endure against all odds.

As of now, the survival plans are being implemented and executed even to the smallest zone called home. The role-roosters have been implemented. The basic survival instinct have returned. It feels like we are SUPERMEN and SUPERWOMEN. Our attitudes have adjusted as per requirement. But within our cores, there is primitive urge for freedom. Freedom from virus.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. (Quote from book)

When survival is required our instinct take over. Empathy. Hope and trust. The attitude for empathy, hope and trust. Our attitude and behaviour decides the pursuit of happiness within self and for others. And this happiness could be a permanent place. Just our attitude in the situation matters.

Take away from book- Life is, simply, an attitude.

 


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