HINDUISM: Spirituality For Leadership & Success by Pranay (Book Review: 3.5*/5) !!!

11^th Book of 2021

 

There are several books releasing since past few years on Hinduism and texts related to Sanatan Dharm and I try to find time to read most of them. In majority of Hindu families, we aren’t taught our religion at all. Even when we are told some rituals and we ask why it is done so, our parents don’t have the answer. We are told “Just do the way you are told to”. Haha! This made someone like me very restless and curious about what my religion actually is and why is it called the oldest religion giving infinite knowledge with which we can live our life happily and blissfully. The quest towards this made me pick up the book called “Hinduism: Spirituality for Leadership & Success” written by the author, Pranay, in around 140 pages. The book is published by Fingerprint publisher – one of the publishers who gave us another spiritual author, Shubha Vilas, who makes difficult spiritual concepts easier for us.

 

TO start with, the cover page of the book is very beautiful: In the white background, the rushes of colors in between which has the image of Lord Ganesh – again in white colour which really gives you a very peaceful feeling on holding this book. The book is divided in 21 different chapters where each of them talks about a concept and how Hinduism teaches us a perspective towards that. This is one of the very simple book for beginners who really want to understand our religion and culture and the lessons we get from it.

 

Author Pranay has not complicated anything. He keeps things very basic for us to understand. He doesn’t go on displaying his command over language and concepts. His intent towards writing is evident in every sentence as it is framed only from the point of view to make his readers aware about – Ramayan and Mahabharat and what it teaches through its events and dialogues. Over this, author has tried to further focus the book towards the lessons that these spiritual texts give us in reference to Leadership, Entrepreneurship and how to successful as a leader or influencer. The italic text in beginning of each chapters is the crux of the whole section reading which you’ll get enough motivation to understand what you need to change in your life.

 

The 1^st chapter itself talks about how leadership needs to be egoless and selfless by giving references of Shri Ram and other religion’s references too. Then, in another chapter, author very beautifully compares both- Eastern and Western approach towards spirituality and life and explains how we can learn from both and implement in our life. Author does it so wittily that he doesn’t give any approach more weightage than other but extracts the key lessons from both. A chapter on “Adaptability and Flexibility” gives reference of river and lake in terms of what Hinduism is which is so meaningful that you’ll understand why we need to be like a river which finally finds it higher purpose. The same chapter has references of resurrection, Indian Vedanta, Sankhya philosophy where author let us know the different perspectives such as purusha and prakriti, yin and yang etc.

 

A chapter on “Self-belief” is one of the most powerful chapter which speaks about how life can be seen with eyes of hope and self-belief in whatever we do. That chapter certainly brought some change in how I perceive myself. Further, in another chapter, author tells us how to develop integrity as a leader through our conduct and communication. There are many such chapters that teaches you a lot. Some of them are-

-          The Power of Acceptance: It tells us how after accepting our situation and present, we move further towards bettering our future rather than spending time in self-pity and getting affected by it.

-          Karma Yoga: It tells us how we have to be dedicated and submerged in our work without expecting any result out of it because then our conduct towards the work we are performing gets corrupted.

-          Leela: The Art of Playfulness: This chapters helps us understand that in order to be a good leader we don’t have to become very strict and boring. We can be humorous and keep the mood light so that people get positivity by our presence.

 

Specially mentioning the last chapter of the book which I also believe is the longest one named “Vedas, Upanishads, and Sri Ram for Leaders”. Author gets little deeper into this one and hence I could find it touching my core with every sentence. We are made to understand how we are same as the divine and how we can experience the same. How all our religion and texts explain the same is nicely conveyed in this section which will open your spiritual side to you. Anyone who has not been in spirituality or its concepts will get curious and mind-blown after reading this last chapter. The chapter mentions few concepts which Shri Ram had said which I was completely unaware of – I always thought that we are learning only through the way he lived his life but this was an eye-opener for me that like, Shri Krishna, Shri Ram also gave us lessons on concepts of spirituality and getting in touch with our divine reality.

 

Now, talking about few drawbacks – I felt that author has taken too simple approach to tell the concept in order to get the beginners understand the concepts. I think he should have gone little deeper in each chapter as it is mostly for leaders who are already quite matured to know what they need to do. Secondly, I felt few chapters are written more from an MBA approach than religious approach. I found many chapters not having much reference of Hinduism which disappointed me.

 

Overall, this is a good book for people who are new into non-fiction, spirituality and religion. Please do get this one. I give this book 3.5 stars out of 5.

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE 

Thanks.

 

WRITING BUDDHA