Rating: 7/10
Book in 3 sentences
- Gaur gopal das compares our journey in this world to 4 wheels of the car that need to be aligned to keep the car’s balance. These 4 wheels are Personal life, Relationship, Work life & Social contributions.
- Take pauses to reflect on life regularly and practice gratitude. Learn to detach ourselves from situations that are outside our control.
- Healthy competition is about competing with ourselves rather than others and strive to become a better version of ourselves. Compete with others too, but only with an intention to learn the good from them and be sure to help them when they need it.
Impressions:
- This is a good read where Gaur shares many funny anecdotes from his past and ties them to the concepts he is trying to explain in this book.
- This book is like many of his viral videos where Gaur highlights the importance of personal life and relationships and how one should balance them to be happy.
Who should read it?
- I would recommend this for light reading and you will not regret having started this book.
- Also if you have enjoyed pravachans from ISCON in the past, then you will definitely enjoy reading this book🙂
Notes:
Personal Life
- Happiness does not reside in (material)possessions but the soul.
- Everyone is going through their own struggles. Be kind towards others always !!
- Silent presence is more important than a million empty words. Be present and listen to people.
- Living with gratitude. It is a good way to live your life…
- Worrying never helps – (I was able to relate some concepts from stoicism )
- Understand that we are all spiritual beings and respect that in one another.
Relationships
- Be more sensitive towards animate as well as inanimate things. And the way you treat inanimate objects ( for example bucket or a mug) shows something about you !!
- Give corrective feedback which can help instead of focusing on criticism. – shows about your character and your relationship going to be
- See the good and bad !!
- Practice Forgiveness as Virtue. Look beyond the situation and why the person has said/done what they did. Always separate a particular episode from that person. safa
- Associations either uplift you or bring you down. Company matters and influence…
Work-life
- Build a career based on the concepts from Ikigai. Passion, profession, and calling .. where it all meets and gives you fulfillment.
- Healthy competition is useful and focuses on competing with yourself.
Contribution towards society
The philosophy of ice cream is to enjoy it before it melts while the philosophy of candle is to give light to others before it melts. To be happy we must shift our attitude from being an ice cream to a candle, selfish to selfless. This can be achieved through service. In the process, you should be aware of compassion fatigue. We need to balance all 4 wheels as we try to help others. This is the principle of being selfishly selfless. Start practicing selflessness with family first.
P.S: Gaur Gopal Das, has about ~3.7 million youtube followers where he has most of his content. You should check that out from here.