Books

Books. Do they teach you anything? Just recently I was having a conversation with a close friend, where we were discussing this topic. Books suggesting various 'alternative therapies' to deal with our dreams, desires, and challenges that we face in life are plenty in number, and are found almost in any bookshop, or even on the roadside in India. Books that tell you how to meditate, how to use your mind to achieve anything (happiness, wealth, love, etc.), how to succeed in business/jobs, how to find love, how to find peace, or even how to realise your own self, are available in plenty. But can these books actually help you to realise/achieve your goals? Although books might give you a different view of things, and help you know more about a particular subject, there are hardly any examples of successful people, or 'self-realized' people, who attribute their success to books. This is not to say that books are useless, or the person writing the book is cheating you. Books might be written with the noblest of intentions, and they are useful in certain areas of life. But to learn more about 'life', the best teacher is life itself. And what you learn from life remains, which cannot be said about what you learn from books. Reading self-help books might, at the most, give you a 'feel-good' feeling, and help you reduce stress to a certain extent. But learning from life will help you grow. Books might even lead you to narrow down your thinking, and limit your creative expression. But only when you apply the concepts in your life, will you really learn. I am not undermining the importance of books (I myself am an avid reader of books on a variety of subjects ranging from philosophy, to fiction, to reference, to biographies, to science), but am only suggesting that reading has to be followed by implementing. Otherwise it will not do much to change your present situation.