Book Review- Shunya A Novel, Author- Sri M

 

Disclaimer- This book review is majorly a self-contemplation. The personalized meaning derived from the book vis-à-vis life experiences. The quotes are used directly from the book.

Sri M, a Padma Bhushan award recipient, is the author of this “spiritual fiction” book. He is popularly known as a ‘practicing yogi’. His ‘otherworldly’ life journey and the story of ethereal awakening at Vyasa Cave is definitely worth going over (a write-up for next time). 

Shunya A Novel- is set around a man who appears out of nowhere in a sleepy little neighborhood in suburban Kerala. He calls himself Shunya, the zero. He is a-man-of-no-religion. People start calling him –Saami. He settles into a small cottage in the backyard of the local toddy shop. Here he spins parables, blesses, curses, drinks endless glasses of black tea, and lives in total freedom. On rare occasions, he plays soul-stirring hymns on his old, bamboo-reed flute. The mysticism, magical realism, spirituality, philosophy, and the mystery in this book are entrancing.

The story showcases many problems of the neighborhood and out-of-way antidotes of Saami to resolve them. He strives to bring together people of varied religions. Then, just as mysteriously as he arrived, Shunya vanishes, setting the path for a new avadhuta, a new era.

The read is a sort of “meditation on the void" which decays the wall between reality and make-believe, the limited and the infinite. With its spare storytelling and profound wisdom, it steers into the realm of 'shunya', the nothingness of deep and enduring peace, the advent and end of all things.

Shunya does not mean ‘anything’ but ‘no-thing’.... a concept prevalent in Hindu and Buddhist schoolings, underlining the impermanence of life. Everything is supposed to come from shunya and go back to it.

That “I” is the problem. Throw it off. That “I” is to be pushed out like shit. All your insides are constipated with ego. Take an enema. Break your image. Get the shit out.

To overcome false crowns, self-image, or needful societal reverence, comprehensive cleansing of the soul is required. But this is a gradual process that begins with awareness of the ego.

Surprisingly (& may be true), everything that is comprehensible is not true and everything that is true need not be comprehensible. It is just a lack of proficiency regarding this that we may not actually comprehend what's happening.

Listen, this world is a mirage, a bubble that can burst anytime. Understand this and be free of all expectations. Happiness is a state of mind not dependent on anything you possess. The fakir with no possessions sitting under the tree is often happier than the man who owns a fleet of Mercedes and BMWs.

Billions of beings battle to grow the Shunya in bank balance while downgrading the emotional balance. Shunya is a broad-based term. This book defines the meaning of zero with infinite meanings and implications.

As I conclude this book review under the open sky of Assam, a miscellaneous quote strikes my mind. It is not an exact quote but few lines of remembrance from memory- 

Look at the stars. It won't fix the economy. It won't stop wars. It won't give me flat abs, or even help me figure out a relationship or workplace chaos. But yet it's important. It helps to remember that I and my problems are both infinitesimally small and conversely, that I am a piece of an amazing and vast universe. 

When mind and soul are expanded from limitedness to infinity, the ultimate truth of oneness is revealed. 

 

Related Read- Nothing Matters

https://wisdomekta.blogspot.com/2020/09/nothing-matters.html