The Review Par Excellence

"The universe is one being. Everything and everyone is interconnected through an invisible wbe of stories. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all in a silent conversation. Do no harm. Practice compassion. And do not gossip behind everyone's back - not even a seemingly innocent remark! The words that come out of our mouth do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, and they will come back to us in due time. One man's pain will hurt us all. One man's job will make everyone smile."

Source: "Forty Rules of Love" - By Elif Shafak

"We are all connected with one another in a silent conversation" is an apt rule. We are all getting the energy from the super highway called "Universal Consciousness" and we need to tune our individual consciousness to this super consciousness. It is like a radio frequency that we learn to align by tuning the radio to receive a specific broadcast. All that we speak in this world are remaining in that super consciousness. The sum total of all our good and bad deeds remain in this web and affect the overall consciousness of this world. Sometime back, a measuremenet was made about the universal consciousness and it was figured out that we need to cross over 500 out of 1000 to feel love for one another as human being. Our collective consciousness is much belove that which is why there are wars, calamities, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc. Even our collective consciousness of below 300 is achieved because of some of the Monks achieving very high individual consciousness. Therefore, every human being must develop love and compassion to increase the overall consciousness of this world. Serving the fellow beings connects the divine consciousness of individuals and increases the overall consciousness. Understanding the connection between individual consciousness is difficult but it is not impossible.

Our urge to be happy and connect with divine consciousness is endless which is why we make improvements to our life every time we are born. Attitude, Behavior, Character and Discipline are all helpful in refining ourselves in order to deserve to scratch the surface of this world for our living.

 

"This world is like a snowy mountain that echoe's your voice. Whatever you speak, good or evil, will somehow come back you. Therefore, if there is someone who harbors ill thoughts about you, saying similar bad things about him will only make matters worse. You will be locked in vicious circle of malevolent energy. Instead for forty days and nights say and think nice things about that person. Everything will be different at the end of forty days, because you will be different inside."

Source: "Forty Rules of Love" - Elif Shafak

We all know thought energy is powerful and makes a profound impact on all of us. Similarly, the words expressed by us also has significant impact over a period of time. We think we settle score with someone by saying bad things about them in response to their bad words. When we say something bad about someone, it creates double impact in the wound already existing inside of us. It is our reaction to what we heard from some one that impacts us and not the words themselves. When garbage comes out of our mouth, it is an indication that we have garbage inside of our mind. If only we know that tit for tat is only making things worse inside of us, we will never reciprocate to someone saying something bad about us.

On the contrary, the wound created inside of us can only be cured by balancing it out with thinking good things about the person who has hurt us through his words. It boils down to cleaning up the wound, apply medicine, and allow that to heal. These 40 days should help overcome that wound as it would have healed by then.

 

"The past is an interpretation. The future is an illusion. The world does not move through time as if it were straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness. If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment."

Source: "The Forty Rules of Love" - Elif Shafak

Neither the past nor the future is a perfect reflection of what happened or about to happen and they are all how our mind perceived them within the Maya world. The world itself is a projection of our mind. Time exists as long as duality exists. Timeless eternity is the only reality. Only the frame of ours pass through the time and not our soul. Every moment is precious and only the present is real. It is a sequence of events that our soul experiences is recorded in our memories as life experiences. It is our mind's reaction to such experiences that are recorded as encryption. Once we learn to live unaffected by all that happen around us, we live in the present moment and no longer create the past and the future interpreted by the mind. It is the mind that let us dive deep into the Maya driven by time and it is the same mind that is perfectly capable of making us realize the timeless eternity.

 

"The true Sufi is such that even when he is unjustly accused, attacked, and condemned from all sides, he patiently endures, uttering not a single bad word about any of his critics. A Sufi never apportions blame. How can there be opponents or rivals or even "others" when there is no "self" in the first place? How can there be anyone to blame when there is only One?"

Source: "Forty Rules of Love" - By Elif Shafak

The entire world is an illusion created by the mind and each person sees a different world based on his/her mental development. When one person is blamed or attacked or accused or condemned, it results in blaming the true spirit behind each one of us. If there is only one without a second, and if we have this understanding, we will only learn how to love others because it is as good as loving oneself. We have a duty and obligation to love our fellow beings and other species. That is what we came to learn in this world. When the stream of love starts flowing, all the differences between people disappear. We are all connected by only one divine principle and everything else wrapping around that divine principle are transient.

 

"If you want to strengthen your faith, you will need to soften inside. For your faith to be rock solid, you heart needs to be as soft as a feather. Through an illness, accident, loss, or fright, one way or another, we all are faced with incidents that teach us how to become less selfish and judgmental and more compassionate and generous. Yet some of us learn the lesson and manage to become milder, while some others end up becoming even harsher than before. The only way to get closer to Truth is to expand your heart so that it will encompass all humanity and still have room for more Love."

Source: "Forty Rules of Love - by Elif Shafak

Every challenge that is thrown at us is to soften our heart and understand the true value of Love. We get humbled more often when we need to become softer. Until Godliness manifest in each being, the effort to challenge will continue and therefore, one should never resist the challenges and treat both pleasure and pain the same way. The superiority one feels about himself, or his religion, or his knowledge, or his spirituality shows he needs to be humbled more through challenges. Until our ego is crushed into ash and merges into the stream of Love, the challenges continue. The life is created only to learn how to love and not to be born again. Everything else is peripheral in nature. One should do his duty, perform his action, hurt no one, and love all. Loving, Serving, and helping everyone and not hurting anyone are the basic principles one need to practice. Personal purity, and societal unity eventually lead one to divinity.

 

"Nothing should stand between yourself and God. Not imams, priests, rabbis, or any other custodians of moral or religious leadership. Not spiritual masters, not even your faith. Believe in your values and your rules, but never lord them over others. If you keep breaking other people's hearts, whatever religious duty you perform is no good. Stay from all sorts of idolatry, for they will blur your vision. Let God and only God be your guide. Learn the Truth, my friend, but be careful not to make a fetish out of your truths."

Source: "Forty Rules of Love" - Elif Shafak

God is our only true friend. The middlemen are interpreters of God's words from the religious texts but hearing them alone is not going to help realizing Godly nature. One should build one's values and rules strongly through conviction and by practicing them. Finding the Truth is the mission of life but one should not brag about how one achieved it or feel that one's method is superior to others. If one breaks people's heart, all the religious practices become redundant. The truth is always accompanied by unconditional love. God like quality will manifest only when one finds the Truth and remove all other dirt inside. Let God be the only guide in spiritual development. Worshiping idols for getting a personal benefit only results in man's mind changing to another idol worship, if one doesn't succeed. One should believe every thing and every one is powered by the God's Will.

 

Dear Thyagarajan Sir,

I can't thank you enough for reading each and every one of the comments above. Your keen interest and patience only makes me write more here when no one else is commenting here. Once again, thank you for recommending this book to me and I truly enjoyed the book. Only some books have the ability to make life-changing effect on me and this is one of them.

 

"While everyone in this world strives to get somewhere and become someone, only to leave it all behind after death, you aim for the supreme stage of nothingness. Live this life as light and empty as the number zero. We are no different from a pot. It is not the decoration outside but the emptiness inside that holds us straight. Just like that, it is not what we aspire to achieve but the consciousness of nothingness that keeps us going."

Source: "Forty Rules of Love" - By Elif Shafak

"Less luggage, more comfort" is the slogan Indian Railways use to make the passenger understand that it is easier for them to travel when they have less luggages. The same rule applies in our lives as well. The air inside of us can burst at anytime and merge with outside air and therefore, one can leave anytime without all that they accumulated including name, fame, health, wealth, and so on. The life has to be led holding everything one possesses like a trustee, detached with the family (detached doesn't mean not loving the family and it only means mental dependency), ceiling on desires, equanimity to treat pleasure and pain the same way, and emotions-free. When the call comes to leave, one should be ready not requiring notice to settle a few things before the departure. We come empty-handed and leave empty-handed and therefore, we should hold all possessions like a trustee having responsibility to manage it but not have the feeling of ownership. It is consciousness of nothingness that helps us to achieve more and once the sense of pride dominates, it ties one to the world inseparably.