Forgiveness

Forgiveness characterizes the human race. It’s forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would’ve annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive. Shantaram, p. 370

Love Won't Die

You can’t kill love. You can’t even kill it with hate. You can kill in-love, and loving, and even loveliness. You can kill them all, or numb them into dense, leaden regret, but you can’t kill love itself. Love is the passionate search for a truth other than your own, and once you feel it, honestly and completely, love is forever. Every act of love, every moment of the heart reaching out, is a part of the universal good: its’ a part of God . . and it can never die. Shantaram, p. 740

The Good Earth

The soil you turn and the seed you sow are all you really have, when you live and work the Earth. And sometimes, much too often, there’ s nothing more than that – the silent, secret, heartbreaking joy God puts into things that bloom and grow – to help you face the fear of hunger and the dread of evil.  Shantaram p. 114

God is - Impossible . . .

There is no believing in God. We either know God, or we do not . . . I’m inclined to think that God is impossible to believe in, at least most of the notions of God that I’ve come across. . . . O, of course, naturally, God is impossible. That is the first proof that He exists. Shantaram, p. 194

Dreaming of . . .

A dream is the place where a wish and a fear meet. When the wish and the fear are exactly the same, we call the dream a nightmare. Shantaram, p. 150

Heart's River

There is a ‘ river, one that runs through every one of us, no matter where we come from, all over the world. It’s the river of the heart, and the heart’s desire. It’s the pure, essential truth of what each one of us, and can achieve.’ Shantaram, p. 136

Cost of Living

. . . no happiness exists without its woe, no wealth without its cost, and no life without its full measure, sooner or later, of sorrowing and death. Shantaram, p. 129

The Soul

The soul has no nations. The soul has not colour or accent or way of life. The soul is forever. The soul is one. And when the heart has no moment of truth and sorrow, the soul can’t be stilled . . . .Some things are just so sad that only your soul can do the crying for you. Shantaram, p. 124

Present . . .

There’s a king of luck that’s not much more than being in the right place at the right time, a kind of inspiration that’s not much more than doing the right thing in the right way, and both only really happen to you when you empty your heart of ambition, purpose and plan; when you give yourself, completely, to the golden, fate-filled moment. Shantaram, p. 119

Fixing Things . . .

It’s good to know what’s wrong with the world. But it’s just as important to know that sometimes, no matter how wrong it is, you can’t change it. A lot of the bad stuff in the world wasn’t really that bad until someone tried to change it. - Shantaram, p. 97

You Come Now . . .

The author of Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts was born in Melbourne, Australia. Sentenced to nineteen years in prison for a series of armed robberies, he escaped and spent ten of his fugitive years in Bombay - where he established a free medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombay mafia. Recaptured, he served out his sentence, and established a successful multimedia company upon his release. Roberts is now a full-time writer and lives in Bombay. (from the book's jacket)

The Washington Post writes of his 2003 novel, Shantaram - "A sprawling, intelligent novel . . . full of vibrant characters . . . but Bombay itself is Shantaram's strongest performance and Roberts' love of India and the people who live there is unmistakable and a joy to read about . . . Roberts brings us through Bombay's slums and opium houses, its prostitution dens, and ex-pat bars, saying, You come now. And we follow."

Man of God's Peace . . .

My son shared with me a book that I've found difficult to put down. It's called Shantaram and I've found in it all kinds of ‘wisdom.’ The author is Gregory David Roberts (published by St. Martin’s Griffin, New York).

Ostensibly a work of fiction - caution - the book is very earthy but also extremely real - and hauntingly beautiful. Perhaps almost autobiographical, it mirrors much of the experience of the author. In a little and remote farming village in India, he was given the name, 'Man of God's Peace' - i.e. Shantaram. Writes the author: "I don't know if they found that name in the heart of the man they belived me to be, or if they planted it there, like a wishing tree, to bloom and grow. Whatever the case, whether they discovered that peace or created it, the truth is that the man I am was born in those moments."

On reviewer states of the book: "Shantaram has provided me with the richest reading experience to date and I don't expect anybody to unseat its all-round performance for a long time. It is seductive, powerful, complex and blessed with a perfet voice." 

Says another, "I haven't had such a wonderful time in years. Shanataram is, quite simply, the Arabian Nights of the new century. Anyone who loves to read has been looking for this book all their reading life."

I shall be sharing a random thought or two from the book in several blog-articles in the future.

Here's one about Truth. "There’s a truth that’s deeper than experience. It’s beyond what we see, or even what we feel. It’s an order of truth that separates the profound from the merely clever, and the reality from the perception. We’re helpless, usually, in the face of it; and the cost of knowing it, like the cost of knowing love, is sometimes greater than any heart would willingly pay. It doesn’t always help us to love the world, but it does prevent us from hating the world. And the only way to know that truth is to share it, from heart to heart . . . just as I'm telling it to you now."  p. 82