On October 2, I wrote about the popular fiction I read and enjoyed in my teens and twenties. Today, I'm going to briefly discuss some of the nonfiction books that influenced me and my outlook on life early in my youth. This is going to be relatively easy because, back then, I didn’t read many of those.
To start with, I read a lot of spiritual literature by some of the great mystics of India, which included some thirty-odd books written by my own spiritual preceptor. I still read them. They infuse me with a sense of calm and peace, even if for a brief while, and enable me to recharge my batteries, exhausted in dealing with life’s mundane affairs. Spiritual reading also serves as a necessary counterbalance to my daily dose of stimulating literature.
Among the other mind healing and soul cleansing books I read early on, five books in particular are etched in lasting memory.
1. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (1902), the British philosopher-writer
2. Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970) by Richard Bach, American writer
3. Gandhi: An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth (first serialised during 1925-28) by Mahatma Gandhi
4. The Power of Positive Thinking, 1952, by Norman Vincent Peale, minister and author
5. The Discovery of India, 1946, by Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first prime minister
Among the other mind healing and soul cleansing books I read early on, five books in particular are etched in lasting memory.
1. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (1902), the British philosopher-writer
2. Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970) by Richard Bach, American writer
3. Gandhi: An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth (first serialised during 1925-28) by Mahatma Gandhi
4. The Power of Positive Thinking, 1952, by Norman Vincent Peale, minister and author
5. The Discovery of India, 1946, by Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first prime minister
As I grew up I discovered many more spiritual, inspirational, and motivational thinkers and writers such as Bertrand Russell, Eknath Easwaran, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Peace Pilgrim (Mildred Lisette Norman), Paul Brunton, Eckhart Tolle, Paulo Coelho, and Joseph Murphy, among others. I'm not mentioning specific titles as an internet search will provide you with some of their best-known books. Every one of them is a veritable treasure.
There are days when I read and reread only these books and each time I do, I discover something new and enlightening, something that I find beneficial in more ways than even I realise.
There are days when I read and reread only these books and each time I do, I discover something new and enlightening, something that I find beneficial in more ways than even I realise.
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