Rajkumari Sharma Tankha
Dev, an 11-year-old boy, is dejected after his father passes away. He cannot come to the terms of his father’s death and takes out his anger on his mother as well as younger brother, and in turn, becomes sad. Then, he meets Sanjay who not only teaches him how to deal with his father’s death but also gain more peace and tranquility of soul.
Gita: The Battle of The Worlds by Sonal Sachdev Patel and Jemma Wayne-Kattan (published by Harper Collins, Rs 250, 99 pages) assumes special significance because the story has been so beautifully told that it engrosses you completely.
In Sanjay’s bid of helping Dev, the authors have narrated the entire epic Mahabharata, explaining the deeper concepts of Bhagwad Gita in a lucid manner. But the Mahabharata here is not happening in the outside world, rather it’s the one happening in one’s own mind and heart.
The authors have narrated the story of human emotions along with the morals of Bhagwad Gita in a beautiful manner. The beautiful illustration in black and white are an added attraction. How Dev fights his ego that is drowning him in unending sorrow makes an interesting read. I find the storyline unique as it teaches children how to overcome ego and other bad emotions through the story of Dev quite innovative.
No matter how bad things get, we should never lose faith – faith is what that will guide us through the darkest of times until light finally re-enters our world, say the authors is as many words and many times over.
The book also teaches the law of karma to its readers. There is no escaping karma, it says, for karma is like a mathematical law, what’s next depends on what’s done before.
The story lays a lot of stress on the importance of meditation in daily life, it talks about how meditation can calm an agitated mind and battered soul, how it can help one lead a peaceful life. The authors have also explained the seven chakras of the body, talking about how stress leads to an imbalance of these chakra that further causes disastrous effects on the physical and mental health.
In a nutshell, Gita: The Battle of The Worlds is a simple and an interesting retelling of the Bhagwad Gita, with a brilliant premise — everyday there is a war waging inside our body, between our ego and our spiritual side. The side that wins decides who we are as a person in real life.
I loved this book. I feel it is a must read for every child — it is all the more relevant these days when cut-throat competition and materialism has taken the ‘life’ out of our lives. It is time we teach kids the value of meditation and the wonders its daily practice can do. As Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev of Isha Foundation) says, “It’s time that the Gita is presented in its true context — not as a moralistic or religious book, but as a book that is relevant to everybody’s life.” I couldn’t agree with him more.
