Deepak Chopra, through his book Buddha-The Story of Enlightenment has brought the Buddha back to life in this gripping. This bestselling novel tells a tale of a young prince who deserted his heritage to discover his true calling. This iconic journey of his life changed the world forever and the impact has been so much so that it even today, continues to influence every corner of the globe.
The author, Deepak Chopra has penned this book out of his forte, but has done his job with excellence. The book has been divided into four part each one describes a different phase of the life of Gautam Buddha, as a prince, his time as Gautama the ascetic monk and the shortest section – Buddha, after enlightenment.
The division of each book has been done so that it looks natural transition from the different phases in his life. The initial pages of the book seem to be blurred with the thoughts of the author as while reading about 100 pages I was confused in figuring out Gautam, the monk and Siddharta, the prince in the first half. However, the latter part of the book, Gautam has been shown with his journey through struggle to realize Nirvana and where the book reveals the deeds after his enlightenment, which is beautifully described.
Here, Chopra surprises the readers and gives them a boost with his imagination and creative skills, making the readers believe that it is his forte, indeed. Here, the author captures the spirit of Buddha and showcases his sufferings along with a transition in the figure which is today, a God to many, with some memorable prose.
In addition to this, the best part lies in the midst of the story, which deals in the enlightenment of Buddha and the author has here done something which is just inexplicable. The interpretation of the life of this Godlike figure, Buddha and his death struggle has been done in such an emotional way that it will move the readers to read more. There, you will get an insight about his life and his determination, which was just commendable, yet the author has forgotten or I should say missed, to include the climax of the book.
According to Chopra, the famous moment when Buddha took his oath to sit in meditation until he attained the truth, even if his body died and decayed and his bones turned to dust, never happened. Instead, he passed through a period of purposeless emptiness – and his enlightenment dawned on him in a way I found hard to understand.Maybe this is because I’m not enlightened myself, but then I do not think that Deepak Chopra is either – perhaps that is the problem.
In spite of all the flaws which I have pointed out, I found this book really enjoyable. I loved that last section so much that I re-read it straight away.
Mr Chopra has offered us a imperfect treasure, that would intrigue the readers.
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