Monday, September 23, 2019

Book Review : Aatma Sutra – Unveiling The Soul by Hingori


To feel Aatma (soul) one must madly fall in love with oneself. One must learn to accept, respect and revere oneself. There are several obstacles in accepting oneself like societal norms of evaluation (age, profession, physical appearance, social background, negative feedback) and things beyond one’s reach (frustrations and fate, our thoughts, an impediment, guilt, samskars-mental impressions). The magic attitudes for evolution are empathy, acceptance, vairagya or detachment, role play, pratipakshbhavana (art of creating an opposite attitude to something you do not like) and doing seva (selfless service). By changing one’s attitude one can feel Tat Twam Asi meaning you are that (supreme consciousness) or Aham Brahmasmi meaning I am Brahman (divine).

The author also talks in detail about the aura in this book. It is the electromagnetic field that encompasses all life forms. The thicker the aura, the more spiritually powerful the person is. The aura acts like a protective layer for the body. One can enhance one’s aura by chanting mantras, by changing to sattvic (purity) nature of mind, by doing seva (helping others), by spiritual healing, by greening places, by watering plants and by visiting religious places and caves.

The quotes that I like from the book are as follows:-

1.      It is only when one learns to look at divinity in everything can one lose the arrogance and ego. When we start looking at things this way, we are already divine.

2.      When you criticise someone and their qualities, even unwittingly, you magnetise a fraction of the person’s qualities. Therefore, criticising someone regularly will at some point instill within you the very qualities that you criticised. The same rule applies if you praise or admire someone.

3.      According to yogic teachings, if you want to acquire speed, meditate upon a horse. Similarly, meditate on the strength of the elephant, the courage of the lion, the patience of the spider, and so forth. The moral of the story is : what you meditate upon, that you become.

4.      Self-love has to go beyond attention seeking. If you look around, your dog is asking for it, your kids are asking for it, and many of your friends are asking for it as well. So do not join the attention-seeking club. Once you see the spark of divinity within you, you will not want attention from anyone else. You will look for vairagya and that solitude will give you a high.

The most interesting part of the book is Life Scorecard. It gives equal weightage to three main parameters of life i.e. physical, intellectual and spiritual. It motivates one to score more in these three fronts of life.

At the end of the book, there is a glossary to explain the meaning of Indian words and terms. It is very helpful in understanding the concepts related to Aatma, aura and destiny. The illustrations are thought provoking, appealing and inspiring.

Hingori Sutras has unfolded four spheres namely Dream Sutra, Aatma Sutra, Karma Sutra and Guru Sutra. You can share your spiritual experiences, comments and viewpoints with the author at hingori@hingorisutras.com. You can also take up a spiritual quiz here https://www.hingorisutras.com/karma-quest/ and can read the blog here https://www.hingorisutras.com/blog/.

Highly recommended book for those who wanted to fall in love with themselves! :)