What Does Comfort Mean to You?
With the holidays upon us, there is a lot of attention brought to comforts and material luxuries. This gets me thinking every year. But this year, specifically, it has made me think about a book I read a couple years ago.
The Yoga of Max’s Discontent by Karan Bajaj came into my life after reading an article about it by one of my most beloved yoga icons, Sharon Gannon. She praised the book for its raw authenticity and deep spiritual roots. At the time, I wasn’t reading very much fiction, but her recommendation sparked my interest, so I picked up the book that day.
The story resonated deeply within me. It is a fictional story, but it is meticulously well researched. Because of this memory, I went back and read the book again. I certainly wasn’t disappointed the second time.
The story is about a man named Max who lives with plenty of material comforts. But he finds all of this unsatisfying and decides to head to India on his spiritual quest for enlightenment. Sounds cliche, I know. But so does he. So that makes the book a little more interesting.
He travels around India having all kinds of experiences. He desires to be like one of those monks in the caves who can live on virtually nothing. And he succeeds to an extent. But in the process, there are many swear words and some crazy sexual encounters. Not what I was expecting in this novel.
While I can’t say any of these vulgar anecdotes are done particularly tastefully, they definitely have their purpose in the story. Contrast and duality shine bright. What makes this story particularly intriguing is that none of this is shunned.
So many stories you hear about monks, sadhus, and spiritual aspirants are all about depriving ourselves. Blocking out the world to focus entirely on our inner selves. There is a good deal of amount of this, but the main character’s humanness is brought forward just as much. And not in a negative way. This helps us to focus on our spiritual goals while also remembering to embrace our humanness. Something lacking in any other books I have read about these topics.
This story is truly unique and I have yet to read anything like it to this day. So if you feel like feeding your spiritual side while getting lost in a great story, I highly recommend you pick up The Yoga of Max’s Discontent today.
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