BOOK REVIEW

that is indifferent to the outside world. Nor does it consist of simply performing some physical or other such exercises. Nor, too, is it trying to achieve some ecstatic or emotional condition. Rather, authentic spirituality is about leading our everyday lives in an authentic—that is, positive—way, based on intellectual development. It is about refining our minds and, accordingly, our behaviour, through imbibing spiritual lessons drawn from reflecting on everything that we see, feel, hear or otherwise experience in our lives. The spirituality that the Maulana articulates is a mind-based, rather than a heart-based one, being based on reflection on and contemplation of the world around us. Here are some excerpts from the book: • It is the honeybee’s culture to fly out from its hive every day and reach places where flowers are available for it. The bee extracts nectar from the flower and returns to its abode. It pays no heed to anything else. • Where there are flowers, there are also other things like thorns; but the honeybee simply ignores the presence of those thorns and does not waste time in complaining about them. It simply extracts the nectar from the flowers and returns to the hive. • This behaviour of the honeybee provides a symbolic lesson for man—‘Live like the honeybee’. That is, extract what is good for you and leave what is unwanted. Do not waste your time in complaints and protests. • Every single experience that we go through, even the seemingly most negative or difficult, the Maulana explains, is of great potential spiritual value, because we can draw a spiritual lesson from it and thereby develop our minds. The Maulana has brilliant advice for us to tackle difficulties that inevitably come our way almost every day. The key to remaining positive in such conditions, he says, is to change our way of viewing them. Instead of taking them to be problems and fret about them, we can view them as challenges that can help us become stronger and more resilient, confident and wise. As the Maulana explains: Life is full of unwanted experiences. There is no one who is not destined to travel through a jungle of problems. It is the destiny of every man and woman. The question is: what is the formula to deal with this? The only successful formula is: Don’t take things as an evil. Take them as a challenge. If you take things as evil, you will simply develop a negative