Title: Relationships (Bond or Bondage) / Emotion (The Juice of Life)
Author: Sadhguru
Publication: Jaico Publishing House
Price: Rs. 250
Pages: 201
It’s a human nature to seek answers to the unknown. Several thoughts find their abode in human mind. And when it comes to issues pertaining to relationships, the emotional quotient is at its peak. Just as a human body is rolled into mind and heart, a book that encompasses two most inseparable elements of life that is Relationships and Emotions is written by a yogi and profound mystic of our times Sadhguru.
Publishers’ unique approach towards issues directly pertaining to life is well highlighted with two books rolled into one. Whichever side you prefer reading from, you end up enlightening yourself at the end of each segment. It took me a while though to decide upon which one to go with as both the elements seemed interlocked and made me ponder upon which would help me understand the other in a better way.
Relationships (Bond or Bondage), was what I decided to begin with. If you think of it we can’t live with them, we can’t live without either. The opening two lines of the introduction gave an insight to what Sadhguru had decided to dwell upon in this part of the book. It read: Human beings constantly make and break relationships. Unfortunately, relationships can make and break human beings too.
As a reader when you walk down Sadhguru’s mind you realise that somewhere subconsciously you had already experienced or walk that path before in your life. And some of the experiences shared in the form of anecdotes do not fail to add a smile on to the readers face. The simplicity of Sadhguru’s language being one of the major reasons for direct connection between the yogi and the masses.
Most widely discussed and commented upon relationship is that of husband and wife. Where anger and love go hand in hand, understanding and misunderstanding are lifetime partners and despite several ups and downs in their path both move towards the unseen future with lots of hope and determination. Sadhguru has explained wonderfully the salt and pepper relationship between husband and wife.
He writes: On a certain day, a husband and wife were driving after a serious argument and disagreement. The problem with the car is you cannot get up and leave. If it is a home situation before it picks up too much heat, they get up and move into some other place – the space saves them. But in the car, the dam thing is locked and you are going at a certain speed, so you cannot get off. If you get off, it could be for good! So after an argument and some nasty moments, this husband and wife were giving each other the silent treatment. Then, they were passing by a farm where there were a few mules, pigs and goats. The husband saw the wife paying lots of attention to those animals. “Must be relatives, hmm?, he asked. She said, “Yeah. In-laws.”
According to Sadhguru, these things are not happening between people who hate each other. These things happen between people who love each other. This is all a love affair. If they hated each other, they would do something else really nasty which would end things.
Talk about Emotion (The Juice of Life), the profound mystic leaves no stone unturned in submerging every reader into its depth and totality. For example when a questioner puts forward his question by asking…If we carry the joy of love, can we walk the spiritual path with ease?
See the purity in Sadhguru’s reply. He writes: Love is not a joy; it is a deep, wonderful pain. Everything within you should tear – only then you know what love is. If you felt pleasant, that is not love – it is just convenience. Maybe you felt a little affection. But if you felt loving, everything inside you really tears apart. It is painful but wonderful.
Undoubtedly, this book if read in absolute silence and apt attention, offers completely different approach one’s own problems. Most importantly making you understand why you are, what you are. The flow of examples and life-enhancing narrative by Sadhguru makes it a divine read in fast pace life of today. Every individual is trying his or her best to keep and maintain relations and in the process vents out several emotions. The book attempts to touch upon those, which are deep within and looking for an outlet.
“A Guru is not someone who holds a torch and shows something to you. He is the torch. He burns”, says Sadhguru. By writing this book, the mystic yogi has done just the same.
