Ask a chef what an appetizer is and he’d rattle all out an ounce of flour, a pint of wine, a hint of tomato, a dash of salt, a sprig of mint. The chef talks a feast for the hungry. Ask veteran journalist Vinod Dhawan to rustle an appetizer and he’ll throw in peace, wisdom, lessons, Masters, preaching, truths… He talks a feast for the soul.
His appetizers are spiritual. Not one, two, three appetizers on Dhawan’s menu. 50 Spiritual Appetizers. That is the title of Dhawan’s book which is a compilation of short excerpts from spiritual Masters’ teachings from the East and West.
For Dhawan, this book is not an attempt to escape harsh realities or the need to slough off urban malice. It is a continuum of his profession as well as an extension of his Being.
For 15 years, Dhawan has been running a philosophy column for a US-based newspaper, where every week he picked up preaching of two Masters. That too, in a way, stems from Dhawan’s innate love for spirituality. As the book’s blurb states, “Disappointed with college education, Vinod Dhawan gorged himself on J. Krishnamurti in the library. Choosing a career in journalism as being least disruptive of his spiritual pursuits, he wrote on saints and masters. Rudderless after the death of Krishnamurti, he sought out other teachers and found a goldmine”.
It is this goldmine that Dhawan quarries through in the book which is divided into 13 sections which deal with topics like bhakti (devotion), awareness, happiness, peace, death, survival, evil, corruption, suffering, God, divine, guru, mother, internal, external, desire, thought, love, compassion, mind, ego, manifestation, body and science.
Each section has an introduction which prepares the reader for the truths. The headlines of the excerpts themselves serve as quotable quotes. For example, ‘The invisible is more significant than what is
visible,’ ‘Real success lies in making others happy,’ ‘Happiness is determined by our capacity to love,’ You are what you are looking for’ and ‘Home is not a place, thing or person – it is rest.’
For a man who seems to subsist on spiritual appetizers, I ask for his definition of God. He immediately quotes J Krishnamurti, “I never said there is no God. Only I prefer to call it Life.” In this age of religious fanaticism, how does he separate religion from spirituality?
I ask another question. “Religion comprises followers who always misinterpret. Spirituality is exploration within. Difference between a religious teacher and a Guru is that the former interprets teachings of others while the Guru talks from his own experience”, Dhawan adds as he mentions that from being a diehard J. Krishnamaurti fan in his youth, he is currently doting on Rupert Spira, a British potter and spiritual teacher.
Any talk on spirituality inevitably leads to the premise of peace. Finding inner peace. But Dhawan snubs that question. He calls it “wrong question” and quickly refers to Page 94 of his book where Anandamayi Ma says, “Jagat (world) means ceaseless movement. How could there be peace in perpetual coming and going? Peace reigns where no coming exists and no going, no melting and no burning. Reverse your course, advance towards Him and there will be hope for peace.”
I stood corrected about this quest for peace and picked up the book which has daisies on the cover and is written in simple, lucid English. The book’s format is the perfect appetizer for a restless soul. One does not need to hog on all of it at one go; small helpings of a few pages are enough to fill the soul.
Being divided into tidy heads also gives the readers the freedom to pick according to their favorite topic or Master. From each page there peeps a Master; on each page there is a pithy saying that can unravel the enigmas of life.
Not surprisingly, even spiritual teachers are talking about 50 Spiritual Appetizers. Jac O’Keeffe, Spirituality teacher, lauds that it “offers information without fluff” while Colin Drake, Spirituality teacher relishes “the tasty morsels that are ideal to accompany my morning coffee, sitting on the verandah, before settling to contemplate/relax into awareness.”
Dhawan is already thinking about the next edition of Spiritual Appetizers. Before that hits the stands, he keeps “looking at life according to the guidance received from these Masters”.
Published by Partridge, a division of Penguin-Random House, the book is available online at Amazon, Flipkart
and Barnes & Noble.
Preeti Verma Lal
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