Jul 17, 2007 10:27 AM
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I know you read this book long time back. You got hold of this one during your graduation days. Sometime it feels as if it was read in some previous birth of your's.
You made a mistake of trying to finish it in one reading. Somewhere in between you realized that and slowed your pace. The book gave you an account of the author Richard Bach's escapades in his biplane. It also gave account of his chance meeting with Donald. The lessons author learnt in whatever time he could spend with Donald formed the crux of the book. Donald's character immediately intrigued you.
Do you still remember that you used one of the lines from book as a parting comment? I think you said it to one of your college friends who had actually recommended this book to you. It went like - "Aren't goodbyes necessary before we can meet again?" Do you still remember how his eyes lit up?
I remember you looking out of the window in your hostel room and pondering over the line you had just read - "You are never given a wish without being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however." It was so simple and so impacting that it made you smile.
You can never forget the profoundness of this simple statement - "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." Can anything more positive be ever said and that too in simpler words? These words are something that you have carried for a very long time with you. They make you feel better every time things have gone from bad to worse in your own life.
The book made you sit back and think. It made you understand that best way to convey any message in life is to keep it simple. A book that had so few pages had bestowed upon you happiness many a time its size.
You were kind of shaken when book said that Donald was shot dead! Like Richard you also wanted to know why should something so beautiful come to such a tragic and an abrupt end? But like Richard you also missed the leitmotif of Donald's words and only remembered that "goodbyes are necessary before we can meet again". The full line went like - "And meeting again after moments, years or lifetimes is certain for those who really are friends". Notice mention of lifetimes here? You realized that there are relations that span beyond lifetimes.
You reached the end and it said - "Whatever is written in this book may be wrong". You did not like this line. All along you had loved the simple words and lessons learnt from this book. How can everything be wrong? You questioned and questioned but could get no answer.
You kept the book aside and forgot about this question. You had realized that not every question can have an answer and also in the hope that someday you will have enough maturity to see the point.
Till today you remember this book with reverence and fondness. Wasn't this one book which made you believe in the power of illusions and miracles?
That great wheel of fire burnt and shed light. It turned and you grew older. The light it radiated made you see things in a different perspective. It tore apart many of your wrong beliefs. Empowered by the warmth and radiance of that burning wheel, you made another mistake - You thought you have seen a lot. Didn't the author choose the title very carefully - "Illusions"? We decide what is right and what is an illusion based on what we know today. Now did you get your question answered partly at least that whatever is written in this book may be wrong? Tomorrow you may know more and that may change your perspective and tear apart what you believe to be true today. What you know as truth today may turn out to be just an illusion tomorrow.
I know that for you - The afterglow of this wheel of fire will remain after it has gone rolling by - not only for moments and not only for years; but for many of your lifetimes to come. Didn't the book also say somewhere - "The truth you speak has no past and no future. It is, and that's all it needs to be."
