Alchemist
the amazing book. The author has succeeded to narrate difficult philosophy in very simpler words.
Here is the review about the book:
Review 1 Review 2 Review 3 Review 4
But I guess its more than that, its not only about following the dream. “when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true.” This is not the only thing the author wants to tell the reader. Its much more than that.
The King Plays major role in Santiago’s life. He helps him to follow his dream when he is about to give up. He advices - Destiny is what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, they are not afraid to dream and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny.
It’s a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and your will, because there is one great truth on this planet : whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, its because that the desire originated in the soul of the universe. Its your mission on earth.
The soul of the universe is nourished by people’s happiness and also by unhappiness, envy and jealousy. To realize once destiny is a person’s only obligation. All things are one.
Santiago, the boy, opted to be shepherd because he likes to travel whereas the baker also had wish to travel the world decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. The boy never thought of peoples’ mentality of thinking bakers are more important to people than shepherd. He just continued doing what he likes without thinking about society.
The king narrate a story which concludes – the secret of the happiness is to see all the marvels of the world and never to forget the drops of oils on the spoon symbolic to purpose of the life.
We should keep listening to Omen, the good signs to find the treasure, our destiny. One should learn the language of universe for the same.
Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.
The boy works with crystal seller to go back but when he collects enough money to return back he thinks for a moment before returning back and decides to head towards Egypt thinking he is two hrs closer to Egypt. That’s a positive attitude.
The Alchemist tells a story about dream of a father, an angel tells him that the words of one of his sons would be leaned and repeated throughout the world for all the generations to come. He thinks it’s the one who is poet. But it happens to be the one who goes to serve at a distant place. So the story advices, no matter what person does, every person on the earth plays a central role in the history of the world and normally he doesn’t know it.
Where your treasure is, there will be your heart. That means your heart will lead you to the destiny that’s your dream.
The peak of the story is when Santiago wants himself to turn into wind.
The desert creates game to nourish falcon, falcon nourishes man and then man nourishes the desert where the game will once again flourish. That’s what love is. It makes the game become falcon, the falcon become man and man in his turn, the desert.
The alchemist’s secret is – we have inside us the wind, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, everything created in this universe. We all are made by same hands and we have same soul. Hindu Vedas talks about same thing everything is made up of panchamahabhoota (five elements), aap (water), tej (fire), vaayu (wind), pruthvi (earth), akasha (sky) and eventually everything turns to panchamahabhoota.
Its true that everything has its destiny, but one day the destiny will be realized. So each thing has to transform itself into something better and to acquire a new destiny until someday the soul of the world becomes one thing only.
This is why alchemy exists. So that everyone will search for his destiny (the dream, the purpose of his existence), find it and then want to be better than he was in his former life.
Bhagvat Geeta talks the same, The God has created everyone for some purpose. When the purpose is fulfilled the life ends and new life is born. The cycle continues till the soul realizes you are same as that of creator.
Love is the force that transforms and improves the soul of the world.
We think the soul of world is perfect. But its also like other aspects of creation and has its own passions and wars. It’s we who nourish the soul of world. The world we live in will be either better or worse depending on whether we become better or worse. And that’s where power of love comes in. Because when we love we always strive to become better than what we are.
We should realize we are part of god and we have all the power to perform the miracles. This state is achieved when we see no difference in God and us. That’s what is called as achieving Moksha.
For me moral of the Alchemist is :
Everything is created by same hands with some purpose. We should follow our heart, listen to omen to know and fulfill the purpose our life. We should not fear to realize our destiny. We should spread love because that’s the language of soul of the world which is nourished by all of us. If we want the world to be better we need to be better and love is the force which transforms and improves the soul hence the soul of the world.
