Apr 09, 2008 11:54 PM
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(Updated Apr 09, 2008 11:58 PM)
Miracles!! We all wish to hear that Miracles happened somewhere and proclaim its glory if we get it from believable sources. In our place (Kerala) there are several religious meditation centres all claiming they are witnessing miracles everyday. Matha Amrithanatha Mayi is said to be a living goddess and she is been addressed as Devi and tour across the world. Sai Baba too have a lot of fan following. There is one Ashram called Potta, where thousands attend prayer meetings every day. (As of now the place is facing a police investigation). Besides these, there are several small places and persons where people barge in when medical science fails. There are several temples, churches and religious places people go for miracles as well. Velankanni and Sabarimala are very famous in south India. Any season is a peak season for these centers. People barge in millions to have peace of mind, cure diseases and see miracles happen to others.
What in fact is a miracle? What we expect from a miracle is the suspension of nature's known principles. This we look forward when we lose our hope in known cures and ways. When all the ways are closed the person is ready to accept anything and everything. He surrenders himself. This makes the nature a chance to work on him. Nature doesn't have a limit but human mind has. We have limitations to understand and maintain certain facts and orders. Once we know the pattern of nature nothing is impossible. This is the basic idea the miracle workers use any time anywhere.
The greatest miracle in the world. The title itself invites one to check, what is that?
OG Mandino who shot to glory with his famous book 'The Greatest salesman in the world' (Read my review on it if you didn't read it already) delivers another fine book here.
The book tells the story of how the book is written. The book ends when the manuscript is under preparation for publishing. Before end of the book Mandino give us a Memorandum from God and the answer what is the greatest miracle in the world. The author press the point that you can do the greatest miracle, with the help of this book.
The book is described in a very interesting way where the author who is busy promoting his book 'The Greatest Salesman in the world'. In a day where there was heavy snowfall, OG Mandino meets an old rag picker (Simon) who helped him but didn't wait to get his compliment or reward. After several days he meets him again and they become friends. To the astonishment of Mandino, Simon matches to the character Mandino created in the 'Greatest salesman' but just a contradiction, Simon lives in the 20th century where the story imagined at the time of Christ. Simon is engaged in encouraging people and have a memorandum from God which he pass to people first to perform themselves and explain it to others. Simon finds a good person in Mandino and passes this memorandum to him to pass to the world and they come to an agreement. Welcome to the fantasy world of Miracles. Welcome to read the M emorandum from God to us. Welcome to the world of miracles. See how you can learn that. The greatest miracle in the world is a book told as a story (The book is written in 70s but still the plot is quite novel).
When I connect the situations I can associate several scenes between Simon & Mandino to Christ and Simon Peter. (The character name is Simon Potter). The selection of Simon, Christ's confidence in him and his denial before the death, disappearance… I have to admit but, it all turned to be for good. Simple words and not much preaching is a specialty. Curiosity of the reader is maximum utilized and the book can be enjoyed like a fantasy story. I believe the book inspired books like The Saint, The Surfer and the CEO. The book carried the same style of message delivery as that in the greatest salesman….but this time in a new format.
Unlike The Greatest Salesman, there are not much negatives for this book. Still my rating is a point less than the salesman where I will admit that the plus points too reduce with the minuses. We make mistakes when we try to do something new.
The Memorandum from God looks very lengthy and asking people to repeat it for 100 days simply wouldn't work. Despite reassurances it simply wouldn't work. (May be with the help of CDs it may be workable for a small number of people.) Here Mandino fails to understand the reader's mind.
Few quotes:
Perseverance was one of the most important secrets of success, I didn't dare let myself be defeated even by that angry witch Mother Nature.
Most humans, in varying degrees, are already dead. In one way or another they have lost their dreams, their ambitions, their desire for a better life. They have surrendered their fight for self esteem and they have compromised their great potential.
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven.
It took many tons of rock to produce an ounce of gold.
Proclaim your rarity.
The book is more in style and less in content I may observe. But good enough to make it as a good story oriented book to give a hope and a way to improve. You can read it as a story and the book will make you curious enough to proceed with the program. If you are fascinated to do a great miracle you may search and find the book sometime at your leisure!
For this book, it is a concept and we can either accept it and work on it or reject it and rest in peace. I enjoyed reading it.
