Autobiography of a Yogi

I had just completed reading Autobiography of a Yogi. Its a fascinating read, packed with abundant learnings, so much so that you'll have to re-read it many times over to absorb it all.

Swami Yogananda has truly established a bridge not just between East and West which is the stated overarching purpose, but the book transcends several dual worlds with ease - yogic mysticism vs science, ancient vs modern worlds, ascetic life vs materialistic pleasures. The writing style alternates between light stories, spiritual messages & heavy stuff on self-realization. As with most philosophical stuff, one can conveniently absorb whatever they can at the moment and skip onto other portions.

The book chronicles the life of 4 yogis at available levels of detail, and also talks briefly about several other saints. Interestingly, you get to hear not just a capsule of their teachings, but also get a first hand account of their lives, including their innate flaws in formative years and how they were reformed by their gurus. Understanding the human compulsions of yogis, their emotions and attachments to loved ones (though subtle and fleeting), makes this all the more relatable to rest of us, ordinary mortals.

This book fills an important void, because the real yogis have always been mystic, secretive and hence their ideals and life accounts have been largely lost on the general population. In an age where there is rampant misinformation & misuse of spirituality with an overflow of charlatans, its truly a remarkable attempt that someone has gone into great detail to demystify, explain the science behind what is perceived as magic and make it all relatable.

Some important takeaways for me from the book were:

• Influence of a guru in shaping one's life
• Importance of yoga - that magic can happen through simple control & regulation of one's breath
• Listening to our inner call by understanding the higher purpose - and that you don't have to necessarily give it all up and live in a Himalayan cave (though thats an attractive proposition!)

No wonder the book is listed amongst the 100 best spiritual books of the 20th century, and is highly treasured by several renown individuals, including Steve Jobs.

How to read 100 books in a year

I lifted this post title straight from an article on Zapier titled 'How to Read 50 Books a Year, in 7 Easy Steps'. I just doubled the number to make it more appealing.

Though worded like a clickbait title, the author, Stephen Altrogge's content captivated my attention. He offers some sound, practical advice and this was stuff I wasn't practicing, or just didn't know a year earlier. In the light of my dismal progress on my Goodreads 2016 challenge, this is advice worth re-emphasizing to myself.

Let me summarize 5 of the tips I could relate to, here. For a full read, please check out the original post that has several good examples and useful references:

#1: Make your book list.
This helps to not only stay on top of your reading list, but the social integration with friends, recommendations and newsletters keep your motivation levels high.
> I set up mine on GoodReads just earlier this year.

#2: Begin reading atleast 2 books at a time.
To account for mood fluctuations and change in interests at different times of the day/week, this tip retains you within the realm of books. Else, you might end up watching movies, reading endless feeds on Facebook or whatnot.
> I never did this consciously earlier, since I considered it sacrosanct to finish one book cover to cover, before picking up the next.

#3: Read in small chunks.
10 minutes is good enough to catch up on some portion of the text and you don't need hours together to settle down with a book. This is another area where read-out-aloud apps can come in handy.
> This was a liberating tip to break my mental block of the need for atleast an hour to pick up a book.

#4: Learn to increase your reading speed.
Increase your throughput and you increase your net output. There is definite benefit in speed-reading books and I was surprised to hear about browser-extensions and apps that train you on this.
> I have an average reading speed and if the content gets interesting I slow down to savour every word, and take some moments to live the experience vicariously. This tip is something to be tried out.

#5: Be selective with your reading choices.
Life is too short to finish a bad book. There's no shame in putting a book aside or not finishing it, in order to get most out of the next book that you'll actually enjoy finishing. And for some books reading every word might be an 'overkill', and there is a 'layered' approach to get a general understanding of the book.
> This was another revealing tip. A habit closely tied to #2 above, I used to loathe dropping a book midway and there are occasions I had to push myself several weeks to get over to the last page. 

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Tales about the Monk's Ferrari!!

The other day I was browsing at the Crosswords bookstore, my favorite pastime these days, and came across the book titled "I bought the Monk's Ferrari"! Surprised and amused, I flipped through the volume and realized that it had no relation whatsoever to the bestseller "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" other than the fact that both were self-improvement books.

The author, Ravi Subramanian (an IIMB passout) must be commended for astutely choosing this title to readily bank on the top-of-the-mind recall! The title sure makes heads turn, though the cover could've been designed better. However, I found the book to be just one other amongst run-of-the-mill Self-Help books. The author goes out of the way to establish the 'Ferrari' connection and that looks artifical. Nevertheless, the fact that some of the 'ten commandments' stand out and prod the reader to imbibe them, shows that the author has managed to partly achieve what he set out for.