eState of the Devas – A Book Review

^eState of the Devas – A Book Review

The book ^eState of the Devas, the first book of Sandip Dash, is a spiritual sci-fi thriller. Maybe we can christen it as a spi-fi. In a snapshot this book is about the path of Shriti to attain eState and reach the River Moksha, through a host of trials and tribulations that she faces in her life. I see some parallels between the journey of Sandip’s Shriti and that of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. However they are two significantly different journeys set in two different ages and are two characters are diametrically different individuals; and the two books are two vastly different books.

This short book has good mix of intrigue, separation, sleaze, drama, hi tech medical jargons, science, elevated spirituality. It is fast paced, reads well and has a bunch of characters/situations that one can relate to. It has everything that one needs to have in a book to finish over a weekend. I will not get into the plot and intrigue, I will let the readers enjoy it for themselves.

Where this books stands out is the message that is shares, one ‘Fill your inner sense with love and happiness. Don’t do things for love and happiness; do it out of love and happiness’. This is a massive message – and in sync with what all wise people have said, are saying and will say in the past, present and future. Even though this is very intuitive to understand, it is very difficult to practice and internalize – and hence authors will need to keep reiterating this for a very long time. The second message, is the constant interplay of ‘primitive’ versus the ‘evolved’ state of the human mind. Enhance self-awareness by bringing more elements to the realm of the conscious mind from the sub-conscious. As a result, improve self-control by shifting more instincts to the realm of the voluntary to the involuntary. This is possible by practice and focus (or tapasya). The ultimate state of love, self-awareness and self-control (or being in total sync with oneself) is what the author says is the ‘^eState’, the pre-requisite to Moksha. The third message, which emerges is that – Devalok (the figurative heaven) is everywhere. One doesn’t have to go to Develok to experience bliss or to reach an ^eState or attain Moksha. It can be experienced everywhere and by everyone.  Debra and Shriti can be anyone in flesh and blood, irrespective of what we are doing currently – as long as we have the willpower to build our self-control and to disseminate unconditional love (to be in total sync with ourselves) that is required to ward off our detractors, which are in the form of internal vibrations (either stimulated by external factors or internal moods). The fourth message, is the every experience and every situation has a role in the journey towards ^eState. No person or situation is undesirable or deserves any less love. The fifth message, is the need to take it to the masses, how can it be done. Great souls in the past have done it through compassion, but after few centuries the grip of their teachings has loosened. Science and society has to evolve further to mass replicate it. The six message, extant scientific theories alone cannot predict human behavior. We cannot reject empirical evidence (in science or medicine or any other walk of life) just because we cannot understand it. Rationality also demands, that we accept that human mind and scientific constructs have not understood everything yet, the same we had not understood everything a hundred or a thousand years earlier.

It is quite possible that the author himself has started practicing mediation and has started experiencing the benefits of spirituality by seeing the different corners of his own mind – a pre-requisite, I feel, to be able to write such a book.

This author’s theme is quite exciting. It latches onto a relatively empty space in modern day in English writing amongst Indians. The spi-fi is a very good space to write in. These days, a large number of young people in India and abroad, are more open to appreciate and accept the benefits of spirituality. Concomitantly, there is greater curiosity associated with it, and hence there is a latent appetite for such kind of books. This blends well with the fact more and more people these days embrace mediation and yoga whole-heartedly and there is greater conviction that these techniques help us live healthier and happier lives, even though scientific theories and discoveries about the cause and effect are still evolving and are a long way to go before bio-mechanical-neurological-cosmic connections can be fully understood and put in public domain. A lot is yet to be written in this realm, and my guess is that there will be many more books is this space in the near future.