Marriage of a Monk: A Story of My Ideas and Life

by Venkata Mohan

An IIT graduate, who always dreamt of becoming a monk, married an IAS officer. Both thought they understood each other, as well as their priorities in life, so well that neither her commitment to work nor his pursuit of Truth would be affected by the marriage.

What they did not know was that life does not oblige mortal’s plans…

348 pages, Paperback

Published February 24, 2017

Reviews

[Sai Bhargava Sanagavarapu]

How can one judge a book that is written by an author for himself? It is clear in the preface that this book is not a self-help book written for readers to simply emulate the author's ideas. But precisely for this reason, this book works as a sneak peek into the life of an individual who seeks to become a 'great' person not by following the paths of other great people but by carving his path to 'greatness'. For me, the most important takeaway from this book is, that it is 'difficult' to live by one's ideas of the world without being able to convince others of such ideas. However, nowhere in this book does the author express the 'difficulty' or describe how he dealt with it. I think, internally the author might not have felt any difficulty or pain even when others are not convinced of his ideas similar to Roark's character from 'The Fountainhead'. This begs the question of what is life. For me, it is to 'live and let live'. For the author, it is to 'just live' by his ideas as if there is no need for a family and a society. Also, specific ideas presented by the author on 'love', 'hate', parenting, and 'non-aggression' as one of the basic instincts are worth pondering over. Overall, from reading this book, one can glorify or criticize the author's way of life. More importantly, it inspires us to think about key ideas necessary for developing a core personality that is of our own making.

[Priyanshu Kumar]

Good for youngsters