Skip to main content

Warrior of Light


Book Review 


Title: Manual of the Warrior of Light

Author: Paulo Coelho

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002

Pages: 268 [Content only one side, however]

 

You can work miracles if you wish. Miracle is a change of attitude. Miracle is a matter of changing your way of looking at reality.

Paulo Coelho’s book, Manual of the Warrior of Light, is a kind of handbook for those who wish to perform miracles. But if you are looking for some shortcuts to miracles, or even some practical psychological tips for self-improvement, this book will disappoint you.

How do you transform your attitudes? How to change your perspectives? Sit down and do some serious meditation. Probe within. Probe deep. Question yourself, your thoughts and feelings, your beliefs and convictions. This book can help you do that by giving some starting points.

Each page of the book carries a particular thought meant to stimulate your contemplation. Many of these thoughts may not be new to anyone who has read a lot of similar work. Some of them may even sound like platitudes. A few examples:

A warrior of light always keeps his heart free of any feelings of hatred. [86]

The warrior knows that no man is an island. [102]

Yesterday’s pain is the warrior of light’s strength. [158]

A few of the ideas are borrowed directly from other writers and gurus like John Bunyan and Jesus. Examples:

The consequences of our actions are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men. T. H. Huxley [45]

A warrior is as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove. Adapted from Jesus [162]

If you are the kind of person who sits in meditation for a while every day and would like to have a triggering point for the meditation, you will find this book helpful. At any rate, this is not a book for ordinary reading. There is nothing much to read in it. This is a book that helps you to reflect. Read a page and let the idea play in your mind. Probe the idea as far as you can go with it. The exercise will change the way you look at yourself and the world. That is the miracle that this book can work on us.

 

 

Labels:

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanMay 29, 2023 at 10:11 PM

    Hari OM
    I read The Alchemist and also The Pilgramage many years back... I never got back to Coelho's works, but they are accessible and truly inspirational. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 30, 2023 at 6:18 AM

      I too read the same two plus Eleven Minutes, the latter of which is rather uncharacteristic of Coelho.

      Delete
  2. DawnanddewMay 30, 2023 at 6:03 PM

    Exactly...Eleven minutes is not characteric of Coelho. His is a book of pondering and contemplation. He has given his ideas in a new bowl of motivation, it seems. But his writing is mesmerizing and miraculous indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. WaterMay 31, 2023 at 7:40 PM

    He is one of my favourite writer. I love his writing. I read his alchemist and that is full of encouragement to keep moving you'll never miss your goal. Your review reminded me that my shelf has a few of his works which I have to read. I am going to open them now. Thank you Sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 31, 2023 at 10:19 PM

      My pleasure. It's always better to read what's left unread on your shelf.

      Delete
  4. peppylady (Dora)June 1, 2023 at 7:24 AM

    I haven't read a Brazilian author.
    Coffee is on, and stay safe.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AmbicaJune 2, 2023 at 1:57 PM

    I find his books very significant, as they make you think.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anupama JoshyJune 26, 2023 at 6:29 PM

    "A warrior is as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove. Adapted from Jesus [162]" I recall this from your classes.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ghost of a Banyan Tree

  Image from here Fiction Jaichander Varma could not sleep. It was past midnight and the world outside Jaichander Varma’s room was fairly quiet because he lived sufficiently far away from the city. Though that entailed a tedious journey to his work and back, Mr Varma was happy with his residence because it afforded him the luxury of peaceful and pure air. The city is good, no doubt. Especially after Mr Modi became the Prime Minister, the city was the best place with so much vikas. ‘Where’s vikas?’ Someone asked Mr Varma once. Mr Varma was offended. ‘You’re a bloody antinational mussalman who should be living in Pakistan ya kabristan,’ Mr Varma told him bluntly. Mr Varma was a proud Indian which means he was a Hindu Brahmin. He believed that all others – that is, non-Brahmins – should go to their respective countries of belonging. All Muslims should go to Pakistan and Christians to Rome (or is it Italy? Whatever. Get out of Bharat Mata, that’s all.) The lower caste Hindus co...
121 comments
Read more

Tanishq and the Patriots

Patriots are a queer lot. You don’t know what all things can make them pick up the gun. Only one thing is certain apparently: the gun for anything. When the neighbouring country behaves like a hoard of bandicoots digging into our national borders, we will naturally take up the gun. But nowadays we choose to redraw certain lines on the map and then proclaim that not an inch of land has been lost. On the other hand, when a jewellery company brings out an ad promoting harmony between the majority and the minority populations, our patriots take up the gun. And shoot down the ad. Those who promote communal harmony are traitors in India today. The sacred duty of the genuine Indian patriot is to hate certain communities, rape their women, plunder their land, deny them education and other fundamental rights and basic requirements. Tanishq withdrew the ad that sought to promote communal harmony. The patriot’s gun won. Aapka Bharat Mahan. In the novel Black Hole which I’m writing there is...
61 comments
Read more

Romance in Utopia

Book Review Title: My Haven Author: Ruchi Chandra Verma Pages: 161 T his little novel is a surfeit of sugar and honey. All the characters that matter are young employees of an IT firm in Bengaluru. One of them, Pihu, 23 years and all too sweet and soft, falls in love with her senior colleague, Aditya. The love is sweetly reciprocated too. The colleagues are all happy, furthermore. No jealousy, no rivalry, nothing that disturbs the utopian equilibrium that the author has created in the novel. What would love be like in a utopia? First of all, there would be no fear or insecurity. No fear of betrayal, jealousy, heartbreak… Emotional security is an essential part of any utopia. There would be complete trust between partners, without the need for games or power struggles. Every relationship would be built on deep understanding, where partners complement each other perfectly. Miscommunication and misunderstanding would be rare or non-existent, as people would have heightened emo...
9 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

The Circus called Politics

Illustration by ChatGPT I have/had many students whose parents are teachers in schools run or aided by the government. These teachers don’t send their own children to their own schools where education is free. They send their children to private schools like the one where I’ve been working. They pay huge fees to teach their children in schools where teachers are paid half of or less than their salaries. This is one of the many ironies about the Kerala society. An article in yesterday’s The Hindu [ A deeper meaning of declining school enrolment ] takes an insightful look at some of the glaring social issues in Kerala’s educational system. One such issue is the rapidly declining student enrolment in government and aided schools in the state. The private schools in the state, on the other hand, are getting more students. People don’t want to send their children to the schools run by the government systems. The chief reason is that the medium of instruction is Malayalam. The second ...
6 comments
Read more