The Bhagwad Gita says: ?Ashatasya kutah sukham?? How can a person be happy if there is no peace in the heart?
The sheer pace of life, the crippling shackles of the fixed 9 to 5 daily routine, the stress of professional problems, the strain of personal problems, the rat race that one is caught in sure takes its toll. Our life'sburdens on a harsh and grinding journey make us unhappy, angry and irritated. The author of this book, J.P. Vaswani, suggests the following rules to follow to lead a peaceful life?seek not to please men; seek only to please God (when you seek to please others, ?you often end up in defeat and bitterness?. When you set out to take serious things lightly and light things seriously, you learn to face life bravely. Take light things seriously because small things are as important as the ?great? things in life. Take serious things lightly because raising a storm in a tea cup over trifling issues does not help); laugh as much as you can (there is something funny about all of us. Learn to laugh at yourself, ?your faults and failings, quirks and oddities?. There is a very popular movement called the Laughter Club which is spreading all over the world and it believes in cheerfulness as the new wonder drug for all ailments. Mahatma Gandhi had once remarked, ?If I didn'thave a sense of humour, I would have committed suicide long ago.? Similarly when the Italian leader Garibaldi was shot fatally, his last message for his mother was, ?Tell her, I will live to be 76!?); cultivate the spirit of acceptance (make this the mantra of your life. ?Yes, Father, yes, and always, yes!? Dale Carnegie had once said, ?When we have accepted the worst, we have nothing more to lose. And that automatically means?we have everything to gain.? It is wise to accept things for what they are because ?acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of one'ssituation.?).
Coupled with the above, Dada Vaswani has made some practical suggestions to adopt which include – being aware that God is always watching over you, always be relaxed in body and mind, never neglect your appointment with God, be it in the prayer room or in one'sheart, count your blessings for all that you have received, remain busy in some creative activity, smile all the while, practice the technique of tonglen (a Buddhist practice in which one connects with the pain and suffering of another by breathing it in and breathing out joy and happiness in return to reach out and comfort the sufferer) and finally, help others because ?service to the poor is worship of God?, concludes Dada Vaswani.
With this book, Dada Vaswani takes the reader by the hand to show that all problems are soluble, all obstacles are surmountable, stress and strain are avoidable and life is a great gift worth living to the full.
(Sterling Paperbacks, A-59 Okhla Industrial Area, Phase II, New Delhi-110020.)
