Paulo Coelho - The Pilgrimage

Paulo Coelho – No English author has touched my heart the way he did. I liked the style of story telling of Jeffery Archer, the vast plot and eye for details of Dan Brown and the magical, addictive style of JK Rowling. But none of these authors has touched my life as Paulo did. The first novel I read by him was Veronica Decides To Die. Till it reaches almost the last chapters I felt it a boring story dragged a lot. But when I finished the book, I was awestruck ! Man, was this he supposed to tell… What a wonderful way he did it !!!  And the second time with that book, every move which was thought absurd felt elegant. That was magic. And in that trance I read The Alchemist. The Pilgrimage followed. And that was I liked the most ( till now, as I got to finish more from him. That mission is on ). ( I didn’t like Winner Stands Alone, though. In that Paulo touch was missing, or was very weak ).

The book reminded about my Pilgrimage to the mountain temple Shabarimala. I was 13 when I made it. Though I had a few very ‘interesting’ experiences in that trip, I never understood it. Afraid of being called crazy I kept them to myself. It bothered me for some more time and then I forgot it. Only to remember everything clear now, and more importantly, UNDERSTAND it. What I felt bizarre and a lot of thing I ignored had an all new meaning now. I am not sure whether I will find them again, but I am surely going to do that once again. May be walking the same path again will help me get those feelings again.

Let’s talk about The Pilgrimage. It is about the walk of self realisation. He walks the road of common man. Which everyone can walk. Everyone can experience the road. The difference is how he is going to take it. And that makes the walk special. With him the reader also will feel enlightened.

The story starts with Paulo’s ‘promotion’ in the Tradition. Which eventually requires him to walk the road to San Diego. He needs to find his guide on the road and needs to find his ‘sword’ which marks his promotion.

One important lesson I learned reading this is how important is our own Devil to us and the importance to make him friend. He can give some important lessons and information we needs from time to time, only if we can decipher then promptly and correct. Here his guide helps him understand, win and use the Devil in his advantage.

He is so true about the path of Wisdom : it has to be a path that can be followed by anyone. And that thought makes everyone including me and you, worth of wisdom. Only thing falls short of it is we are not trying. We don’t want to make us believe that we also can live, think, dream better. That’s because we are prisoners of the past. We have been defeated before, and we are afraid that it could happen again. We had already achieved things, but now afraid that we might lose them. And we need to free from the burdens we have created in our life… How true it is… Today we are chained more to our world. The decisions we know are true and the things we always wanted to do are put aside. Because some part of us is stopping it. Fearing somebody has failed doing it and it might occur to us too… Read this book and it will help you find your dream. The importance of it and the ease in achieving it. Living our dream. Living life.

Paulo had an interesting observation about time – time isn’t something that always proceeds at the same pace. It is we who determine how quickly time passes. Wow… Great. This is something I Love most about Paulo Coelho. He is not saying something which we don’t know. Or something too deep to understand. He says something which we are already know but never bothered to appreciate. Which is very true about this observation about time. The good thing is, at least when we read it we notice it! Thank you Paulo for the books…

Every journey, whether the journey of life or the pilgrimage, is bound to a dream. We must never stop dreaming. Dreams provide nourishment for the soul, just as a meal does for the body. The Pilgrimage teaches us the importance of keeping the dream alive. As it is the one that makes us fight the Good Fight. Never blame lack of time, our certainties ( we are so certain of ourselves as wise and fair and correct, that we don’t want to see it as a great adventure), or be at peace ( we ask for nothing grand, thinking mature, we kill fantasies ) to kill dreams. Never let it rot within and infect ourselves. I promise Paulo, I will never stop dreaming and will not step back from the good fight till I achieve it. And I know the rule of fight. That a threat leads to nothing if it is not accepted. Both attacking and fleeing are part of the fight, what isn’t becoming paralysed by fear…

Our enemy joins the battle only because he knows that he can hurt us – and hurt us in exactly the spot where our pride tells us that we are most invincible. During the fight, we always try to protect our weak spot, so the enemy strikes at the unguarded side – the side in which we have the most confidence. And we wind up defeated because we allow what should never be allowed : we let the enemy choose how the battle will be waged. Is there anything more I need to tell how this book helped me look at life clearer.

Paulo is a good teacher. He says teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself. My favourite quotation from this and any book is : Once a problem is solved its simplicity is amazing. Think over it and you cannot stop appreciating the small yet wonderful fact. Now to be amazed by the simplicity later, I treat the problems small.

Before everything we do, we need to be clear about the goal of it. The power and the glory were within every person’s reach. And it is not a sin to be happy. The search for happiness is a personal search and not a model we can pass onto others. Before our dream we have to discover its secret – to know what to do with it. With it and with the happiness it would represent to me.

Few can accept the burden of their own victory; most give up their dreams when they see that they can be realized. They refuse to fight the good fight because they do not know what to do with their own happiness; they are imprisoned by the things in the world.

Read this book. It might make you realise things that you never bothered to think they exist. Like any other book by him, Paulo’s simple yet strong messages and insights about the life will help you find yourself better and deep. If I can then surely you can too.

Thank you Coelho. Love you for your books.