Reminiscences of a Seeker – Book Review
Reminiscences of a Seeker – cover page
Book Review:
Book: Reminiscences of a Seeker
Author: Kapil Kumar Bhaskar
Reviewed By: Manas Mukul
Publisher: Angel Books Publications; First
Edition edition (2017)
Price: 365 INR
Pages: 300 (Paperback)
ISBN-10: 8193359909
ISBN-13: 978-8193359907
Language: English
My rating: 3/5
India is a country full of diverse beliefs and traditions arising from various cultures that have settled in this varied land. Many of such beliefs and traditions give birth to a lot of rituals and sometimes even superstitions. It’s our faith and experiences that usually guides which spiritual path one pursues.
Most of us are usually content with our simple monotonous way of connecting with the higher being. But some of us go the extra mile in search of their true master…what’s their purpose here…and following their process ultimately to bond with the supreme almighty.
Kapil Kumar Bhaskar’s Reminiscences of a Seeker is the journey of such a seeker of spiritual enlightenment. As per the author this debut novel is a true account of what all he encounters during his pursuit. The rational and practical ones might find it illogical and at times really hard to believe what all he experienced. But many of you, who have experienced the supernatural in their lives, will definitely correlate to a lot.
The story revolves around Kapil’s initial two Gurus; one being a tantric and other an aghori. The story is a roller-coaster ride of his journey with the mystic…some of them explainable…but some of them really bizarre. In fact for many of the readers, because of scarce material in these types of topics, this might be a turnoff. The book starts with a photo of Kapil’s Guru under whose blessing he continued on his spiritual path, which made me curious and I was compelled to turn the pages just to see whether there are more of such pics and I succeeded in finding one of ‘Sai Baba’. Honestly, the blurb at the back cover or on other sites that you will find while purchasing doesn’t give you a complete picture about what this book is all about.
Back cover with blurb
The vocabulary is very simple and it surely assists in it being a fast read. Kapil tries to justify everything he wrote about experiences with smaller stories and unnecessary introduction of characters, which drags and derails the plot at times.
The book digs deep into the world of spiritual masters, tantrics and aghoris. It gives a detailed description of their practices and rituals. It also showcases the darker side to this so-called ‘white world’. How these spiritual gurus can go to any extent to keep their followers and how they feed on the fears and weaknesses of seekers. How they lure the innocent and then themselves create havoc in their lives so that they are forever entangled with them.
The basic premise of any form of spirituality is that it teaches detachment in its most fundamental element. What this book clearly highlights is, how these gurus once they become powerful, knowledgeable and enlightened (at least they believe so) cannot let go of the ‘detachment’ that comes along and remain intoxicated with power, money and above all followers.
This is a good debut effort with an effortless fluency to the book. You definitely get hooked onto to the narrative after the few initial pages and would reach the end in no time. Kapil masterfully crafts and brings the story to an end in a way that it leaves the reader gasping for the sequel.
The ones who love the mystical arts or are curious about occultism will definitely like it. I am going with 3 out of 5 for ‘Reminiscences of a Seeker: Dark face of a White World’. The uniqueness of the subject makes for a good page-turner that you should not miss. Do watch out for that sequel.
Manas ‘Sameer’ Mukul
