FINDING MY CITADEL: MY MIRROR AND ME

 

BOOK REVIEW

FINDING MY CITADEL: MY MIRROR AND ME

by HARI BASKARAN

When I went through the Author's Bio I was amazed at what Shri Hari has achieved after attaining the age of 60 taking up cycling as a hobby and physical activity, culminating in a 250 km ride dedicated to children affected by cancer, to trekking in the Himalayas up to a height of 5000 meters. At the ripe age of 70, he went on a Cyclothon from Chennai to New Delhi a distance of 3000 km partnering with HelpAge India to inspire Senior Citizens. It has been necessary for me to summarize the author’s bio mainly because the reader will be able to understand and appreciate the person behind the book. Obviously, such a person has to be a leader and successful in the Corporate world where he spent most of his working life. When you read the book you travel along with him on his journey, his trials and tribulations, his overcoming self-doubt to faith in his abilities, and this sets him apart from the crowd.

Chapters 1 to 7 trace this aspect of his life. For me, the book really starts from Chapter 8 - Finding Me. It’s here his spiritual journey starts when he says that finding oneself is a lifelong journey to seek the divine within you. The passage - ‘The starting point of the journey is to have a deep desire to understand the fundamental questions of who we are and what is the purpose of our lives is explicit enough. One can understand his attitude to life ‘Every moment is an opportunity to learn and grow and then when we break out of an excessive concern for ourselves, and with innate compassion reach out to help as many people as possible, every moment of our lives is then an opportunity to create value and to sow seeds of happiness around us. Shri Hari Bhaskaran comes out as a very spiritual person and believes that the simple act of faith showed him the power of sincere prayers. He talks about Relative Happiness and Absolute Happiness and is a believer in NIchiren Buddhism and quotes from Daisaku Ikeda the third President of Soka Gakai that Prayer without action is just wishful thinking and action without prayer is unproductive.

In all, I would classify this book under the self-help category, written by a person who has seen both sides of the coin. Except for the fact that some misspellings have crept into the narrative, the book is a sincere attempt to bring out the lessons learned during his journey of life and share them with the reader so that it can be both helpful and a positive guide to self-actualization.

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