Inquilab . . . . .Bhagat Singh on Religion and Revolution Edited by S. Irfan Habib

Bhagat Singh was not only a freedom fighter but also  a thinker and an intellectual. S. Irfan Habib has done a  great  service   by bringing us in touch with  Bhagat Singh’s  thoughts and vision  of independent India. And it makes us think: Where have we deviated  after Independence? 

            Bhagat Singh was born on 28^th September , 1907 and  one of the articles included in this book was published in 1924 when  he was just 17 years old. This was on Universal Brotherhood. He was hanged on March 23, 1931    when he was 23  years  6 months old. Most of  the writings were of the period 1928 to 1931 when he was between  21  years to 23  years  .But at such a young age , his intellectual maturity is commendable, to say the least.

       The longest article is “ Why I am  an Atheist ?”(about 15 pages) written in 1930.It  conveys his views on religion and God.

Another   long piece  is about his statement in the Sessions Court  dated 6 June , 1929 and  the statement filed in the Lahore High Court  where he explained  the intentions behind  throwing the bombs .He says :’’ Bombs and pistols do not  make revolution. The sword of revolution  is sharpened on the whetting stone of ideas. This is what we wanted to emphasise.. . . . .It was very necessary to give the timely warning  that the unrest of the people is increasing  and that  the malady may take  a serious turn, if not treated in time and properly.”

     This book has 20  writings/articles by   one of the most brilliant and courageous minds India has ever produced. In the last part of the book, some Excerpts from Bhagat Singh”s Jail Notebook have been given .The writing are in 135 pages and the excerpts are in 57 pages.

 S. Irfan Habib , the  editor Has  taken  a commendable  initiative in  compiling and editing these writings of Bhagat Singh which will make every Indian  understand the vision and the thoughts of the great martyr  and freedom fighter.

     I recommend every Indian, especially the youth,  to read this book

Self-Renewal . . . The Individual and The Innovative Society by John W. Gardner

This is a book about the self-renewal of an individual as well as  renewal of organizations and societies. Anything which is susceptible to decay  , is capable of regeneration. How can we design a system  that will continuously renew itself , beginning with specifiable  ills and moving on to ills we cannot foresee.?

 Gardner lists five methods:

1.        The habit of self development   leads to self-renewal. For self-renewing persons , the development of their potentialities and the process of self -discovery never  end.

2.       Self-knowledge is also necessary  to facilitate self-renewal.

     George Herbert said:

“ By all means use some times to be alone. Salute thyself: see what thy soul doth wear?”

This is a goof self-renewal doctrine.

3.        We should be willing to risk. Fear of  failure should not stop us from  exploration and experimentation for self-renewal.

4.       Accept love and give it. This is one attribute of self-renewing people.

5.       The self-renewing person is highly motivated.” Wipe the slate clean and  do one little thing  that you really care about deeply, that you could do with burning conviction.”

Our education should  teach  habits of mind that will be useful in new situations- curiosity, open-mindedness, objectivity, respect for evidence  and the capacity to think critically. Education at its best  develops the inner resources  of young people  the point where they can learn on their own. Many of major changes take place through a series of small innovations. We have to provide for  a hospitable environment  for the release of creativity.

             To achieve renewal, we need to understand  what prevents renewal.  As an organization becomes old, it is governed by rules , customs and procedures , which destroys  zest and creativity. These rigidities need to be broken. As individuals  develop vested interests , the organization  itself rigidifies. Vested interests produce rigidity  and diminish capacity for change.

      Society should recognize the need for renewal. This requires protecting the dissenters. Similarly, writers and artists need freedom in the area of their creative activity, freedom to speculate , inquire and imagine.

     Top executives  should periodically  take a look at unprocessed reality. This will protect them from  filtered experience.

       Self-renewing people never feel that they have   “ arrived”. They know that really important tasks  are never finished—interrupted perhaps but never finished-and all the significant goals  recede before one.

           No society is likely to renew itself  unless its dominant  orientation is to future. In such a society , people not only welcome the future but also  believe  they can have  a hand in shaping  that future. Such people believe that they can make their own history.

      The first step in moral renewal is  the confrontation of precept and practice, and stripping the hypocrisy.

 A society is being continuously  re-created , by its members. Self-renewing individuals make a self-renewing society.

 John Gardner  , with his brilliant career as a civil servant   , and founder of Common cause, has written this masterpiece for self-renewal.   It is stimulating as well as inspirational. I recommend you to read it.

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The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz

                       

The magic of Thinking big was on my book shelf for  about 15 years till recently, when  I decided to read it . I know many people who do not read self help books . Obviously this book  is not for them . But for the rest , let me say that  it is one of the best self help books I have read . Written in 1959, it still continues to be read.

   The best thing that I liked in the book came at the end of the book.  It is the answer to the question:How to think big? The answer:  Have a daily managed  solitude , for at least 30 minutes. This solitude can be   directed or undirected .Both are useful .Directed solitude takes  you for a review of a major problem facing you .The undirected solitude   permits you to let your mind  select  what it wants to think about .This is helpful in doing self-evaluation .Solitude means  no mobile, no TV , no newspaper, no book, no reading material in print or electronic form , and no human being or pet near you.

       A few other tips. The  book  emphasises the value of having the right attitudes  ,  as for example , learning from setbacks. Blend persistence with experimentation .Action cures fear and builds confidence. Don’t be afraid of talking to other people. Underneath, most folks are nice. But don’t do any thing which   you know is wrong. When you  go any where ,  walk a little faster , with your head lifted up.

       Think above petty things and trivialities. Think high standards in every thing that you do. Don’t get involved in petty quarrels and petty things. Think Big. To think big, listen more and talk less. But  remain humble , as pride has a fall. Dress right. 

  Keep company of people with big ideas. Read biographies of great men. Study negators.  Don’t let them destroy your plans for action. Have a broad  group to circulate in. To be enthusiastic about a thing , learn more about it.Dig deeper. The deeper you dig , the more enthusiastic you will become.

  Put service first. This attitude creates  money  also.

Think right towards people. Congratulate when some one  has made some achievement. But don’t give false praise  .  Don’t criticise others. Don’t blame others , nor blame yourself. Don’t be reformer of others. We are lifted to higher levels by those who know us as likeable, personable individuals.  Cross bridges as you come to them. Don’t start worrying about possible  problems and difficulties.

          I found this book excellent. Recommended highly for reading and following.

Tolstoy - A Biography by A.N. Wilson

This biography of Tolstoy   by A.N. Wilson (572 pages)  was first published in 1988.Ninety volumes of  Tolstoy’s work fill the shelves  of the Russian Library. Of all the Russian  novelists who came  after Pushkin , Tolstoy was the greatest. He was born  on August , 1828 into a high , aristocratic family. He served as a soldier in the Crimean war. Tolstoy died on  November 7, 1910.

         Solutions which he  preached to  solve the problems of the nineteenth century were –pacifism, vegetarianism,  reading the gospels and knitting your own clothes. His two greatest achievements were War and Peace , and Anna Karenina. In War and Peace , in telling  the story of Napoleon’s  invasion and retreat from Moscow, Tolstoy had become  a national institution of Russia. War and Peace  is  one of the  great works of literature  of the world.

 “What then must we do?”  is one of Tolstoy’s most impressive  and unforgettable  books.  “What Then Must We Do?”  is an exposure of the  gap between  rich and  poor , and it leaves no reader unaffected. Millions of readers have found in Resurrection    things deeper , both disturbing and consoling  than anything  in Tolstoy’s writings except  War and Peace. Resurrection was more widely disseminated than anything  Tolstoy had previously written . “After the ball” is a great  short story by Tolstoy. The philosopher  Wittgenstein said that “Hadji  Murat”  was one of the few works of Tolstoy  which he could admire.

          It was hard for Tolstoy  to think that  women have any function  in the world  except as breeding stock. Tolstoy used fiction to purge and to sanitise existence .”I could only preach by deeds; and my deeds are bad”. Father Sergius  ( published after  Tolstoy’s death )  was a vivid dissection of  what was wrong with the whole Tolstoyan way of looking at the world. “The Kingdom of God is Within You”  is an infinitely sad book to read. Also , “ all life is a struggle between  the flesh and the spirit  and gradually the  flesh triumphs  over the spirit”, says Tolstoy.  His later advocacy of anarchism , or his  condemnation of  Shakespeare  are  not shared by many.

     Tolstoy remained a compulsive diarist  until last days of his life. In this diary , centre stage was Tolstoy himself. Dickens was his favourite  author and  David Copperfield his favourite  book. He loved Rousseau’s Emily and  The Confessions  equally. He had sweet and sour relations with Turgenev. For seventeen years , there was no contact between them.   However,  Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky  never met.     Tolstoy did not know “  a better book  in all modern literature than  Dostoyevsky’s “The House of the Dead”. He was a smoker of tobacco and had a habit of non-stop tea drinking.

      Tolstoy was not a prophet and he had many shortcomings and many ideas which are unacceptable. But he was a great writer , with tremendous influence all over the world. Wilson has been able to portray  Tolstoy  truly and in an interesting style. Go ahead and read this book , if you are a fan of Tolstoy.

Uttar Pradesh and the State of the Disabled

Lucknow, the Capital of  Uttar Pradesh , is not  a beautiful city—at least not for the persons  with physical challenges. Today (September20,2018) , I accompanied a  very senior citizen  who is physically challenged and is on wheel chair for locomotion, to the office of Sub-Registrar in connection with the registration of  a sale deed. It was shocking to see the inaccessibility of the office,  for the disabled people. There are  offices of four Sub registrars on first floor and offices of fifth Sub- registrar , AIG and DIG are on second floor. All these offices are located near the office of  District Magistrate , Lucknow .

         There are no ramps for the disabled. There are no lifts for any body. None of the offices has any wheel chair. The stairs to these highly crowded offices are very steep. The  disabled person can reach Sub registrar’s office  only if two or three strong persons physically  lift her . No registration  can be done if you do not reach  the office personally.

                 I find  Lucknow , the capital of Uttar Pradesh so  unfriendly and inaccessible to  the disabled. Good governance is only on paper and in advertisements.I feel ashamed to be living in such a disabled-unfriendly city.

              I appeal to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Aditya Nath Jee  to spare   15 minutes to visit the  offices of Sub registrars himself  , and provide lifts , wheel chairs and ramps there.

On The Shortness of Life by Seneca

“On the Shortness of Life”  by Seneca is a short book (106 pages) published by  Penguin Books – Great ideas. The book has three essays : On the Shortness of Life, Consolation to  Helvia , On Tranquillity of Mind. I could pick up some  advice from this book  as follows.   Seneca writes:”It takes the whole of  life  to learn how to live , and – what will perhaps make you wonder more – it takes the whole of life  to learn how to die.”   Seneca is an educator of  young people. He gives down to earth , practical  everyday advice on  how to live  a wise  and joyful  human life.

          Organize every day as if it were your last.  Make time for philosophy. Share your time with better men than you , men like Socrates, Aristotle , Theophrastus, Epicurus, Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus ,  Stoics and Cynics. None of these allows  anyone to depart empty-handed. You will have these  friends  whose advice  you can ask  on the most important  or the most trivial matters. The world expands on us  when we participate in the  great wisdom of the  philosophical tradition.

           “ If you have the strength to tackle any one aspect of  misfortune  you can tackle all. When once virtue has toughened  , the mind renders it  invulnerable  on every side. If you consider that sexual desire  was given to man  not for enjoyment but for the propagation of the race, once you are free of this violent and destructive  passion rooted in your vitals, every other desire will leave you  undisturbed.”

         It is better to conquer our grief than to deceive it. We must not evade it.  The grief that has been conquered by reason is calmed  forever.  Grief   which springs  from love  can   be diverted from its anguish  by philosophy or honourable occupation.

         If you write something , write it in a simple style for your own use and not for publication. Less toil is needed if you study only for the day.

Dont travel too frequently.  Many people make one journey after the other. As Lucretius says:” Thus each man ever flees himself”.

  What is public service? The man who teaches the young , who instils virtue in their minds, who grips and restrains those  who are rushing  madly after wealth and luxury, and if nothing more, at least  delays them , he too is doing  a public service , though in private life. If you apply yourself to study you will avoid all boredom with life , you will neither be a burden to yourself nor useless to others. But if we shun all society and, abandoning the human race , live for ourselves alone , this isolation , devoid of any interest , will be followed by  a dearth of worthwhile activity. Help your fellow citizens with unspoken support. At banquets , play the part of a good companion. Practice the duties of a man. Encourage others, cheer them on. Get used to your circumstances, complain about them as little as possible, and grasp whatever advantage they have to offer. What can happen to one can happen to all.

     A basic source of anxiety  is to assume a pose and not reveal  yourself openly to any one. Life of those who live behind a mask , is never  pleasant or free from care. Yet , a life which is open  too runs the risk of being scorned. But still , it is better to be despised for simplicity than to suffer agonies from everlasting pretence.

Mingle two things: solitude , and joining a crowd. There is a role of  relaxation , sleep, walks out of doors, fresh air and a clear sky. A wavering mind should be surrounded by attentive and unceasing care.

   Seneca wrote this  book in the year 49 AD , bringing up many Stoic principles. But  most of his advice is valid and practical even today.This is a true sign of a great work.  I recommend you to read it at least once.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

The War of Art  by Steven Pressfield  (2002 edition;  165 page)  , as the subtitle  indicates , is about breaking through the blocks and winning  your inner battles. The title may   lead you to believe that it is a book about art but it is not so. It is not a book about art only.  It is a book about  Resistance  against  any new thing that you want to start ;how to overcome that Resistance.  Procrastination is the most common  manifestation of Resistance. If not  controlled, it can become a  life long habit.

                The moment you  decide  any of the new activities,  there are inner obstacles or blocks . Steven Pressfield calls them Resistance .  He   gives  a list of activities which most commonly elicit Resistance (read Procrastination):

1.Writing , painting , music , film , dance or any creative art.

2.  Launch of any enterprise, business or non-profit.

3.  Any diet or health regimen.

4.  Any programme for spiritual advancement.

5.  Any program to overcome a habit or addiction .

6. Education of every kind.

7. Any act of courage  including any decision to change our thought or conduct.

8. Any act which needs commitment like  getting married,  deciding  to have a  child or to weather a rocky patch in a relationship.

9.  Taking a principled stand in an adversity.

    Resistance is experienced by every body. Resistance is most powerful at the finish line.

The more energy we spend to get support from our colleagues and loved ones, the weaker we become. Seeking support is also a sign of Resistance.

   Resistance can be beaten. One way to do it is to turn pro ( professional). Pressfield mentions the following  qualities that define a professional:

1.        Show up every day.

2.        Show up no matter what.

3.         Stay on the job all day.

4.         Remain committed over a long haul.

5.         Your stakes are high and real.

6.       You  accept remuneration for your labour.

7.       You  do not over -identify with your jobs.

8.       You master the techniques of your jobs.

9.        You  have a sense of humour about your job.

10.   You  receive praise or blame in the real world.

The professional  prepares mentally to absorb blows and to deliver  results. He or she reminds him/herself that it is better to be in the arena , getting stomped by the bull , than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot. A professional  is resolute in overcoming resistance.

            Pressfield     also recommends  that before you sit down to work, say your prayer to the Muse. The Muses were nine sisters , daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Their names are Clio, Erato,  Thalia, Terpsichore, Calliope, Polyhymnia, Euterpe,  Melpomene , and Urania. Their job is to inspire artists. Also  always  remember Goethe’s couplet: “ Whatever you can do, or dream you can , begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it. Begin it now.”

           Carl Jung  defined the Self as a greater entity , which includes ego but also incorporates  the Personal and Collective Unconscious. Our consciousness dwells in the ego but we must make efforts to move consciousness from ego to the Self. Then we discern what is really important,( as we do when we are about to die) . The Ego produces Resistance .It does not want us to evolve. It likes the things just the way they are. We must operate territorially and  not hierarchically.

             This book captured  me slowly . In fact , when I finished its first reading , I  still thought that it is about art. But slowly , it dawned on me that it is about everything important that we do in life. The second reading of the book made it clear to me.

                 It is an extremely useful book. All of us procrastinate but we do not consciously realize what Resistance is working inside us.

           I strongly recommend  you to read this book.It will change  the way you live and work.

To Thine Own Self be True by Lewis M. Andrews Ph.D.

I picked up this book, “To Thine Own Self be True”  by  Lewis M. Andrews , Ph.D. , (1989 edition;222 pages) to search the answer to these questions: What does it mean to be true to oneself? Is it possible to be   unethical  and still  claim that one is true to oneself? Why should we be true to ourselves? I am happy that this book has been able to provide the answer. The book quotes somewhere near the end:

·                “This above all: to thine own self be true,

·                  And it must follow, as the night the day,

·                 Thou canst not then be false to any man.” . . . . . .              Shakespeare       (Hamlet  Act 1, Scene 3).

    There is a connection between  spiritual values and emotional health. Emotional problems/ bad mental health    include  negative emotions  like    depression , guilt , feelings  of worthlessness, indecision , boredom , fear , frustration , loneliness and anxiety. There is a connection between  the most common negative emotions  and particular unethical behaviours  which cause them.  Spiritual values are  the elevating ethical beliefs  what Alduous Huxley called “the highest common denominator”. Deliberating reforming our characters  is the essence of  effective self-help.  Basic truths we have always known  are in our hearts.  Listen to these and be true to your deepest selves. In other words , if you are not true to your self , you are likely to have a poor emotional health. You cannot and should not reject inner values and  manipulate the overt behaviour of self and others.

        The approach of Dale Carnegie in  his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is manipulative. It advocates using a technique  on your friends. It is a real trap where  social success is  existential failure. Habitual role-playing (going through the motions)  is also a kind of sickness. Appearing to be a kind of person   you  think others expect –more amusing , more attractive, more competent- is role playing. There is an emotional cost of hiding your true self. Avoid needless role –playing. Be responsive to your innermost  self. Express consciously who you are. Reveal your true personality. Only then you have  any chance of achieving  genuine intimacy with another person.   What is called for is a conscious effort to change the ethical quality of our every day interactions. If you are a writer, write out your thoughts  without catering to  some rigid standards fixed by a professor .The awareness that being true to one’s self liberates qualities which  by their spontaneous nature, are far easier to sustain  over the long run , becomes a powerful force for conscious and unconscious change.

To be able to be true to oneself,  one has to be free from grudges, resentment and hostility against  others. To carry a grudge  is a very crippling mental condition. Cleanse yourself of all malicious thoughts. Never allow  yourselves  to entertain malicious thoughts , under any circumstances  no matter what the provocation. By carrying a grudge , you  are hurting  yourself .It is better to forgive people deliberately. It is in your own interest.  Passing some malicious gossip is also an act of resentment. Resentment is the process of being stepped  on , allowing some one else to push us around. It does not matter that you are doing exactly the  opposite of  what a person wants. If you were really free ,you won’t do that . Resentment leads to  despair and depression. Let no one live in your head rent free.

Never ignore guilt through arbitrary self acceptance. It is better to face guilt and repent and atone  .

Each time you attempt to mislead others  or to rationalize a decision  you don’t really believe in , an actual breakdown of consciousness occurs .Don’t  be evasive to small threats. Face them.  Speak truthfully so that people can depend on your word. Even in the tough world of  labour and management conflict resolution , don’t play a negotiating game. Forsake manipulation. Manipulators attract only counter-manipulators. Betraying confidences  is an excellent indicator  that your intention is  manipulative.

To overcome your hyper-anxiety , share your disturbing thoughts  with another person.”Writing  about   your anxieties for brief periods  appears to have the same  healthful effect  as confiding the thought to  a real person”. Alcoholism and other addictions  are primarily a response  to unfulfilled  spiritual potential.

           This book , written by a qualified psychologist,  clarifies many  ethical  issues which we face in our lives. It  can change your life and make your emotional health better. I recommend you to read it.

                       

The science of Positivity by Loretta Graziano Breuning , Ph.D.

The science of Positivity is a book (2017 edition ;224 pages; Adams Media)  which tells us about how negative thought patterns are formed  and how we can rewire ourselves  and  replace our negative thought habits with positive ones. 

             Dr. Breuning is a Neuro Chemical expert   and explains  through examples , stories , analogies  how brain chemicals  ( neurotransmitters) Dopamine, Serotonin , Oxytocin , Endorphin  and Cortisol  play a major role in our thought habits. Our neural pathways were paved by our early neuro chemical ups and downs. Our negativity and cynicism  are habits formed in an early stage of our life to  cope up with  chance events related to survival threats, breaches of trust , being dominated  socially by bullies or, being left behind in a competition or race. Negativity is good at  stimulating happy chemicals. Because it feels good , we do’nt want to come out of negativity. The electricity in our brain flows  into these  old pathways or circuits  whenever  stressful situation due to survival threats  comes up. As a result , we remain negative or cynic. If we want to have positivity in life , we have to build new  neural pathways or circuits. The book tries to answer how it can be done .

  Why should we have positivity?  As  the author explains:” Cynicism  helps relieve a sense of threat  but it comes at a price .it makes you powerless  because you focus on things you cannot control  instead of things you can control.”

   In Chapter 6 of the book  (title: PARE Habit), the author gives a very practical way  to build a positive life , called PARE which means Personal Agency and Realistic Expectations. She says that three times a day , stop and think of something good. Spend one minute each time scanning  for the positive aspects of situation  that are currently on your mind. Do this for six weeks and your brain  will be trained to look for the  good of the world.  She also says that we should maintain a positivity  minutes(journal)  to keep daily the minutes  of this exercise.     Just keep finding and recording three good things a day for six weeks  , and your new expectations will affect your neuro chemistry  and build your new  neural pathways. This metamorphosis or alchemy  from negative  wiring to positive wiring in six weeks sounds too good to be true but Dr. Breuning  insists that  it is true. And I trust her academic and intellectual integrity.

          There are  many interesting  examples of  positivity at work . For example , if your bank makes an error, you get upset but you do’nt notice the bank’s billions of correct transactions .She seems to be advocating a more tolerant view of people at work , rather than a Zero Defect mindset. But she is on weak wicket when  she asks us to do something for climate crisis  with a positive feeling and have no negative feelings .When you are choking  with polluted air , it is difficult to  have only  positive feelings .

            But still,  it is a highly convincing book  about getting from cynicism to positivity. Dr. Breuning’s style is  clear , direct, accessible  and  captivating , and  very enjoyable . There is some inner logic , drive and force  in this book  which makes it different from other books on positivity that I have read. I   strongly recommend you to read this wonderful short book. It has the potential to change your life.

Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

I have read this  classic novel   ( Nausea : 253 pages: Penguin Modern Classics)by Jean-Paul Sartre   three times. Each reading gave me more meaning and more joy. Written in 1938 , it  has had a powerful impact on literature as well as philosophy. It belongs to existential genre of literature.

        It is the story of Antoine Roquentin , a French writer  completing his historical research  on the Marquis de Rollebon. The book is in the form of a diary. Antoine  is a  critical  thinker and  a lonely person , who struggles to come to terms with his life .In his solitude , he   tries to discover the meaning of life but  when he does not succeed ,  he becomes  overwhelmed with an  intolerable awareness of his  purposeless existence , which he calls nausea. He has no dearth of money and stays in a hotel  in Marseille in France to do his research .

               One character  called Autodidact   ( also called Ogier P-), who was a bailiif’s clerk and whose acquaintance  Roquentin had made  at the Bouville library , is frequently mentioned in the book .Autodidact is The Self Taught Man (STM) and  frequently discusses  life and its meaning with Roquentin. Autodidact does not agree that there is no meaning in life .Rather he confronts his despair  by turning into a Humanist. Before that , he   reads  all the books in the library , one by one  but the way he reads ( books   selected  with authors’  names   alphabetically, irrespective of the subject) . Such a knowledge does not give  him  any satisfaction  . As a humanist , he wants to go to help  and  serve other human beings. Autodidact is the symbol of everything  that has gone wrong with our education and our society. He keeps working towards a goal . Once one goal is reached, he needs to create a new one  for himself. The again and again .This approach looks at life as a series of goals .To Antoine , it feels  as  though  such an unexamined  life  is all quite pointless. Most of us approach life  in a way similar to  Autodidact’s  approach. It is a life  which is not examined because of endless pursuit of trivial knowledge and   material goals. This is the   question which   this book  Nausea    forces us to confront.

           In its final pages,  Nausea is not a book without solution .Sartre says that  our happiness is in our hands only. Only we can   justify ,create and give meaning to our lives. But such a meaning  cannot come out of writing a history book.(“history talks about  what has existed –an existent can never justify  the existence of another existent” ).It has to be some thing   which was above existence , which could make people  ashamed of their existence. It could help him  in accepting himself.

              Sartre speaks right to our soul. His style is intimate and beautiful. This is the kind of book  we could  and should read again and again, discovering some new meaning or detail every time . It is serious work of literature and some people may   find it a heavy read . So , if you  like serious literature and   wish to be  different from Ogier P-, I strongly recommend this book for you.