This
is a “spiritual” book with none
of the jargons or technical terms that often
scare away prospective readers from reading
such books. This fact makes it special, and
different from many other books on spirituality.
Its main feature is that it is free from “impressive
incomprehensibility” and pedantry. Another
special feature of this book is the highlighting
of a higher dimension in education, which appears
to be completely missing in the modern world,
and which India was renowned for in ancient
times.
Some
people seem to believe that spiritual awakening
is at variance with excellence in performance
in the material world. The author of this book,
Dr Devdas Menon, by his personal example as
a successful consultant and professor of structural
engineering at IIT Madras, bears ample testimony
to the fact that this is not so. All indications
are that spirituality does improve the quality
of whatever work is undertaken.
Dr
Menon is well exposed to the various traditions
of spirituality represented by Buddhism, Zen,
Vedanta, Taoism, Christianity and Sufism, and
has a special preference for the teachings of
Ramana Maharshi, Chuang Tzu, J. Krishnamurti,
Nisargadatta, and now, Eckhart Tolle. He has
received guidance from some highly evolved persons,
a fact that will be evident on reading this
book. As the focus of this book is not on the
author, and not even on the contents of the
book, but decisively on the reader — spirituality
is about the subject, and not the object —
it is not proper to write much more. The less
said, the better.
Dr
Menon’s brilliant and popular lectures,
which I have attended during the past two decades,
have been peppered by some of the ideas expressed
herein. This book is an outcome of persuasion
by many of his friends, including myself, to
articulate his insights in a logical order and
publish them in a popular book form, so that
many more people may be benefited.
I consider it a special privilege to have been
called upon to write this Foreword, and I thank
him sincerely for this honour.
-- K.B.M. Nambudiripad
