unMind: A Graphic Guide to Self-realization By Siddharth Tripathi | Book Review

We are fortunate to get a chance to read books from various genres. Of course, we love thrillers and detective stuff along with fictions, mythology, Sci-Fi, Spiritual, Inspirational, Biographies and others. We also love to explore self-help books.

Self help and self-awakening or self-realization books are not for everyone. They are, for the readers who want to absorb the content from the same, apply their own logic and implement the same based on the realities they live in.

Here are some such books we got a chance to read recently.

• Tantra & Buddhism: Greatest Spiritual Wisdom
• Inner Space
• Soul Selfie

Adding to our kitty in the same regards, recently we got a chance to read a book named unMind: A Graphic Guide to Self-realization by Siddharth Tripathi. This book is published by Fingerprint! Publishing, and we are thankful to them for providing us a review copy of the same. The review is unbiased and uninfluenced by all means, as always.

Book Cover:

Being a gateway to the virtual world explored within, the cover page is responsible to make its first impression. And, despite believing in the fact that – a book should not be judged by its cover (only), we also acknowledge the influence of the same in purchase and read decisions.

As you can see, the cover page uses the black and white theme. The maze pattern with dotted line, above an illustration of a face tries to represent the complications happening inside the mind. However, the top part of the book don’t represent it as brain in any aspects.

Overall a simple and not so attractive cover page that may catch your attention for being different than the others in the lot.

The Book And My Views And Reviews For The Same:

Usually we talk about the storyline and our overall views for the book in two distinguished segments. As the nature of this book is little different, we are merging both these segments here.

The author, Siddharth Tripathi, is highly inspired by Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) and Ramesh Balsekar (1917-2009). Mr. Ramesh Balasekar was influenced by Sri Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj.

While they are respected highly by the scholars and devotess, commonfolks may not know much about them or their teachings. As with all thinkers and philosophers, these legends coneveyed many important life-lessons and influence many souls to walk on the right path.

People often consider spiritual or self-realization stuff too abstract and often found no place or time for them, especially in the early stages of their lives. Most of us consider these aspects to be explored in the old age.

Contrary to this belief, spiritual/self-realization stuff can prove to be a guiding factor and gaurding angel at almost every stage of the life. Given that, the learnings are conveyed to a person in a simple and effective way.

Possibly considering this, the author took help of Kalyani S. Naravane (she is an effective illustrator), and came up with a book whose overall structure is like a comic book. The illustrations play an important role in the book. In fact, it is so much weaved with the central concept that the illustrator’s role can be considered as imporant as that is of the author.

In the author’s own words:

My spiritual journey found its shore when I discovered the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Ramesh Balsekar. I believe bringing the spiritual insights of these two masters in a n accessible, visual format can be of great benefit to the serious seeker.

It starts with an excerpt from Bhagvad Gita:

I am the Self, O Arjun, seated in the hearts of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.

Spread over in 200 pages, this book represents its content in below mentioned 4 segments:

• The Grand Illusion
• TThe Leap Of Faith
• TA New Light
• TPractices

The book starts with the basic lessons. The chapter “Wakey, Wakey, Rise and Shine”. This chapter explores a routine we see in almost every house. A kid has to awake and get ready for the bus, but sometimes, the laziness takes over and… Well, we all know, what happens. And, it is not just only for kids. Even getting ready for the work has the same effects and after-effects! The key is to have more control over the “self”. This segment is really interesting. Almost everyone will connect with it.

The book also talks about the stigma people face during their lives: If I had, Possibly I Could Have/ I will…. These ifs and buts are good for analytical purpose, but, just letting them disturb your work flow is not advisable. More often than not, these ways of thinking affect the attitude of a person eventually making him cripple in taking right decisions. So, “Do what you can, with what you have and where you are”.

The book has some really nice pieces of writing, like:

The realization came to him like a flash. The ego was lost in a flood of Self-awareness and the sixteen-year-old found himself on the peak of spirituality.

The “twins separated at birth” case is really worth reading. Also, the way, the author has focused on the philosophy of “you are always pure”, especially its context, is something not to be missed, while reading this book.

The discussions about Acceptance, Compassion and Self enquiry are in-depth. I’ve also enjoyed reading “Working mind/Thinking mind” discussion.

The author has also included “recommended reading” suggestions.

The book has some realistic and some philosophical stuff explored in graphical format. The quotes must have given you an overview of what to expect from the book. Also, the quality fo writing is evident in the quotes right?

Reading this book on Kindle device is not so pleasant experience. Actually, the graphics require a wide canvas to explore the things properly. So, reading a paperback version is recommended. Let me conclude my thoughts with a highly philosophical line from the book:

We respond to external stimuli but the response is pre-programmed, that is, decided by our genes and conditioning.

Such books are not meant for time-pass reading. The reader has to be open minded and ready to explore the spiritual journeys.

Summary:

It is a book with substance represented in the form of graphics. If you love meaningful reads you may like it.

ThinkerViews Rating:

Around 7 stars out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy - unMind: A Graphic Guide to Self-realization by Siddharth Tripathi - Paperback - Amazon IN
• Buy - unMind: A Graphic Guide to Self-realization by Siddharth Tripathi - Kindle EBook - Amazon IN
• Buy - unMind: A Graphic Guide to Self-realization by Siddharth Tripathi - Paperback - Amazon US
• Buy - unMind: A Graphic Guide to Self-realization by Siddharth Tripathi - Kindle EBook - Amazon US

Over To You:

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