A Search in Secret India - Book Review

 Book Review #16

In the past couple of weeks, I read an engrossing travelogue written by the Jewish British spiritual explorer Paul Brunton, first published in 1934 and considered a classic work on seeking a guru. The book is about Paul’s deeply spiritual journey traveling around pre-independence India in the 1930s, living among yogis, mystics & gurus, some who he found convincing, innumerable as blatant frauds and some he just cannot fathom. Example, the fakir/yogi who can conjure up any scent one can request him. He meets Yogis with control of the body (exhaustively investigated to be true) that are inconsistent with how we understand our body. E.g., one Yogi could completely stop his pulse or breathing for impossible lengths of time.

The book eventually culminates in him accepting, Sri Ramana Maharishi from Arunachala in Thiruvannamalai in South India as his spiritual guru. Let me attempt to summarize the major spiritual learnings that Paul gleaned from this guru


1) You have to ask yourself the question, "Who am I?". This investigation will lead in the end to the discovery of something within you which is behind the mind. Solve that great problem, and you will solve all other problems thereby

2) All human beings are ever wanting happiness (thru drink or thru religion); untainted with sorrow, a happiness which will not come to an end. But man's real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true self. The true self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end

3) To understand this, it is first necessary for a man to analyse himself. It has long been man's habit that he has never faced his "I" in the correct manner. Man has too long identified himself with his body and the brain. Hence, one should pursue this enquiry, "Who am I?

4) The sense of 'I' is not that which pertains to the body or the mind. When a man knows his true self for the first time, something else arises from the depths of his being and takes possession of him. That something is behind the mind; it is infinite, divine, eternal. You can call it the kingdom of heaven, the soul, or Nirvana or Liberation or any name you wish. When this happens, a man has not really lost himself; rather, he has found himself.

5) Our life of action need not be renounced. Meditate regularly, carry on with your duties, and the current of mind induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. As you go on you will find that your attitude towards people, events and objects will gradually change. Your actions will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord

6) A man should surrender the personal selfishness which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true renunciation

For anyone interested in reading more about this spiritual guru, recommended reading would be "Who Am I" and "The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi"

Thanks Kiran Kumar Alla, for recommending this great read.

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Thinking, Fast and Slow - Book Review

 Book Review #15

Daniel Kahneman elucidates in "Thinking, Fast and Slow" - The amount and quality of evidence don't count for much as long as the poor evidence can make a good story. This is because we typically operate through confidence by coherence. Preposterously, some of the most important beliefs we hold have no evidence, but we hold them because the ones we love and trust hold these beliefs. Considering how little we know the confidence we have in these beliefs is preposterous.

Honestly, I struggled to finish this heavy book (not in terms of pages but in terms of concepts) that challenged so many concepts of how we think and operate. As usual, let me try to summarize my key takeaways from it

1) Two Systems: Our mind operates in two modes/systems that co-exist. System 1 operates quickly and automatically with no sense of voluntary control. System 2 does the effortful logic, mental analysis and computations. While we would like to believe that we operate through System 2, overwhelmingly we are driven through System 1. From an evolutionary basis that is good, and it has helped us thrive, but it also leads to many challenges and fallacies in how we operate and hence System 1 is the hero of the book.

2) Jumping to conclusions: “What You See Is All There Is” (WYSIATI) is the basis for System 1 to draw conclusions with readily available but sometimes misleading information. Halo effects, Confirmation bias and base-rate neglect are all manifestations of this.

3) Substitution: When faced with a difficult question, we transform the question into an easier one that we can. Example, when asked “How happy are you with life”, we substitute with, “What is my mood now”. A very useful heuristic but often leads to incorrect conclusions.

4) Small Numbers/Causes trump Statistics: We have exaggerated faith in results from small sample numbers and in general we like to latch into individual examples or accounts even though statistics may reveal a completely different picture. The statistical examples on how wealth advisors add negligible value were really telling.

5) Loss Aversion: The pain of losing is much more powerful than the pleasure of winning. And when faced with choices people always make the choices that can cut losses.

6) Expected Utility and Prospect Theory: Kahneman critiques Bernoulli's Utility Theory and expounds several chapters explains why basic economic thinking cannot adequately explain (rational/irrational) human behaviour. Loss aversion combined with frames of reference help us understand Prospect theory

7) Two Selves: We all have an Experiencing Self and a Remembering self. The Remembering Self drives a lot of decision making (like a bad memory making us avoid some options) but driving decisions through the Experiencing self can make you happy and fulfilled in the long run.

Thanks, Hariharasudhan R for gifting me this book.

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