Skip to main content

A guide to good health

Book Review

Title: Weightless: Unburden

Author: Dr Mickey Mehta

Publisher: Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, 2023

Pages: 240

This is not a book to be read. It is a set of instructions that are to be put into practice if you wish to have long life with good health. Let me tell you at the outset that practising what the author is asking you to is going to be tough, as tough as becoming a genuine yogi. If you want to enjoy some of the simple delights of life like a weekend drink, then you’d better forget this book and go ahead with a wellness programme of your choice.

This book can make you a saint. In fact, it intends to do precisely that. In one of the last pages, introducing the author to the readers, the book says that Dr Mickey Mehta’s vision is “Connecting with 8 billion hearts to make wellness the religion no. 1.” Wellness is indeed a religion in Dr Mehta’s vision.

The book starts with a theoretical framework which is founded entirely on Indian philosophy, essentially Yoga and allied practices. Health is not just a matter of the body, obviously. Your mind and your soul play a crucial role in your overall wellbeing. I am not a religious person and so when I say ‘soul’ it might need clarification. I don’t mean soul in the traditional sense of something that survives the body after our death. I mean something like our consciousness+. What is that plus? I can’t explain though I know it in the core of my being. Now, that ‘core’ is the soul, I’d say.

Dr Mehta takes care of the body, the mind and the soul. The lion’s share of the book consists of diets and exercises that you should follow if you’re going to embark on the spiritual trail blazed by Dr Mehta.

I’ll provide pics of a few pages here which will speak far better than my description of the book. I hope I’m not violating any copyright rule by doing this. If I am, I hope the publisher or the author will let me know and then I’ll remove these pics. Otherwise, I hope these pics will offer a clear idea to the reader about the nature of the book.






 

 

 

Labels:

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanJanuary 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM

    Hari OM
    ...I trust he put all the caveats of "consult your personal health practitioner if intending to undertake this regime"? If you are already in decent health and fitness, then all good and well... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Liz A.January 13, 2025 at 3:18 AM

    Ah, the book which tells you what everyone should eat. These always make me laugh, because at least half of what they recommend are things I cannot or will not eat. (Salad? My stomach hates lettuce. I mean, it's bad. Throwing up all night bad. Tea? I hope it's caffeine free. Otherwise, I'll have a headache all day.)

    Wellness is great. What works well for one person might not work for another. Allergies. Lifestyle issues. (I get irritated by books like this. Sorry for the vent.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 14, 2025 at 12:25 PM

      I didn't take the book seriously either. In fact, I found it funny in some places - the recipes, for instance - for reasons similar to yours.

      Delete
  3. sathishJanuary 14, 2025 at 8:21 PM

    Osho says "Our body is the visible soul and the soul is the invisible body" the wellness of both has become important these days with the hybrid lifestyle ! Books like this cannot be followed like hard and fast rules but trying to take what is feasible would improve the health i feel. Thanks for bringing such book out with your reviews Sir!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 14, 2025 at 9:47 PM

      This body-soul polarity is a bit outdated, isn't it, dear friend?

      Delete
    2. sathishJanuary 14, 2025 at 10:38 PM

      of course polarity is outdated sir... we have to start looking it as one

      Delete
  4. Dr Srishti MahajanJanuary 16, 2025 at 3:01 PM

    A guide to good health comes with focusing on the importance of balance, which will cover physical, mental, and emotional well-being. This can include practical advice on nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, and prevention care. Also, one can include tips and evidence-based practices which can make the article more engaging.

    Dr. Srishti
    top homeopathy doctor in delhi

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
47 comments
Read more

The Art of Subjugation: A Case Study

Two Pulaya women, 1926 [Courtesy Mathrubhumi ] The Pulaya and Paraya communities were the original landowners in Kerala until the Brahmins arrived from the North with their religion and gods. They did not own the land individually; the lands belonged to the tribes. Then in the 8 th – 10 th centuries CE, the Brahmins known as Namboothiris in Kerala arrived and deceived the Pulayas and Parayas lock, stock, and barrel. With the help of religion. The Namboothiris proclaimed themselves the custodians of all wealth by divine mandate. They possessed the Vedic and Sanskrit mantras and tantras to prove their claims. The aboriginal people of Kerala couldn’t make head or tail of concepts such as Brahmadeya (land donated to Brahmins becoming sacred land) or Manu’s injunctions such as: “Land given to a Brahmin should never be taken back” [8.410] or “A king who confiscates land from Brahmins incurs sin” [8.394]. The Brahmins came, claimed certain powers given by the gods, and started exploi...
15 comments
Read more

The music of an ageing man

Having entered the latter half of my sixties, I view each day as a bonus. People much younger become obituaries these days around me. That awareness helps me to sober down in spite of the youthful rush of blood in my indignant veins. Age hasn’t withered my indignation against injustice, fraudulence, and blatant human folly, much as I would like to withdraw from the ringside and watch the pugilism from a balcony seat with mellowed amusement. But my genes rage against my will. The one who warned me in my folly-ridden youth to be wary of my (anyone’s, for that matter) destiny-shaping character was farsighted. I failed to subdue the rages of my veins. I still fail. That’s how some people are, I console myself. So, at the crossroads of my sixties, I confess to a dismal lack of emotional maturity that should rightfully belong to my age. The problem is that the sociopolitical reality around me doesn’t help anyway to soothe my nerves. On the contrary, that reality is almost entirely re...
14 comments
Read more

Mahatma Ayyankali’s Relevance Today

About a year before he left for Chicago (1893), Swami Vivekananda visited Kerala and described the state (then Travancore-Cochin-Malabar princely states) as a “lunatic asylum.” The spiritual philosopher was shocked by the brutality of the caste system that was in practice in the region. The peasant caste of Pulayas , for example, had to keep a distance of 90 feet from Brahmins and 64 feet from Nairs. The low caste people were denied most human rights. They could not access education, enter temple premises, or buy essentials from markets. They were not even considered as humans. Ayyankali (1863-1941) was a Pulaya leader who emerged to confront the situation. I just finished reading a biography of his in Malayalam and was highly impressed by the contributions of the great man who came to be known in Kerala as the Mahatma of the Dalits . What prompted me to order a copy of the biography was an article I read in a Malayalam periodical last week. The article described how Ayyankali...
14 comments
Read more

Duryodhana Returns

Duryodhana was bored of his centuries-long exile in Mythland and decided to return to his former kingdom. Arnab Gau-Swami had declared Bihar the new Kurukshetra and so Duryodhana chose Bihar for his adventure. And Bihar did entertain him with its modern enactment of the Mahabharata. Alliances broke, cousins pulled down each other, kings switched sides without shame, and advisers looked like modern-day Shakunis with laptops. Duryodhana’s curiosity was more than piqued. There’s more masala here than in the old Hastinapura. He decided to make a deep study of this politics so that he could conclusively prove that he was not a villain but a misunderstood statesman ahead of his time. The first lesson he learns is that everyone should claim that they are the Pandavas, and portray everyone else as the Kauravas. Every party claims they stand for dharma, the people, and justice. And then plot to topple someone, eliminate someone else, distort history, fabricate expedient truths, manipulate...
14 comments
Read more