The Thread of God in My Life--R.M.Lala

The Thread of God in my Life by R.M. Lala; Penguin Books; Pages: 194; Price: Rs 399/-
************* The book under review was released by our scholar ex-President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam .He declared "When I read the book I found that the book is a book of books. You feel every page is scholarly and touches the heart. Many authors appear in the book; many poets appear in the book; many scriptures appear in the book. Every page of the book of Russi Lala indeed breathes the spirit of faith, self confidence and hope. Throughout the book, the message of Rig Veda is ringing. .. Let not the thread of my song be cut when I sing; let not my work get over before fulfillment. The book continuously shines…It revealed to me that beauty in the character is possible and harmony in the soul is possible and order in the nation is possible and peace in the world is also possible, but one thing we need and that is righteousness in the heart."
Lala is rightly famous for his biography of J.R.D.Tata and Creation of Wealth :The Tata Story, Encounters with the Eminent, For the Love of India—a biography of Jamshetji Tata. He wrote a touching book on his battle with cancer—Celebration of the Cells: Letters from a cancer patient. He was closely connected with the MRA and founded and edited Himmat Weekly which he did for ten years. In the present book Lala himself wrote “ I am not important but what has happened to me and what I have learnt from it may be," . He calls his book ”an autobiography with a difference ” because it has two parts — the first being the autobiography and the second, the values he had imbibed from it. Notable for its utter honesty the autobiography is a simple, uncomplicated narration of his life, a direct release from the heart. His tremendously variegated life offers an insight into several disciplines which ruled his life — a journalist, manager of a publishing house, an author, director of a well-known trust, founder and chairman of the Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy and his role in the Moral Re-Armament movement. Lala’s felicity of expression and grace of style combined with a fund of interesting and meaningful anecdotes, his impressive repertoire of reading religious and literary classics make this book at once scintillating and unputdownable. Fali Nariman, highly respected jurist and friend of the author for over six decades contributes a scholarly Foreword and observes with great accuracy that RM Lala takes himself lightly. Throughout the narration, he never lets the description of his tribulations bog the reader down — his parents' separation, the period of coldness in his marriage, financial troubles and his fight with cancer have been dealt with in a matter-of-fact way, without an ounce of self-pity. The influences in his life that have shaped him- figures and events in history , the anxious wait on the lawns of Bombay University as the grand clock ticked away towards India's independence, etc — all these delicious snippets enliven the book. And, though the autobiography is titled The Thread of God in my Life, a reader will also find the thread of the author's humility running through the story along with his deep faith in God. Lala says in the beginning , “A person should be ready to receive a book. The more it satisfies a need in him at a particular point in time, the greater the impact.” This book, apart from satisfying needs, will inspire in the reader the courage to meet life head-on, reassurance about the presence of a Supreme Power, the will to follow his / her inner voice and the need to build a “House of Values” and to live within it. An excerpt from the book about his fight with cancer is revealing : “At times I have wanted to flee but I know that the only way to deal with pain when it comes is to go through it and not around it. When my boat is small and the sea stormy, I need the strength that comes from a power higher than myself. The great thing about physical pain is that after it passes we forget it. When physical pain stabs us it is good to remember that 'this will also pass'. Finding a faith and cultivating friendship with my Creator was the most wonderful thing to have happened in my life. I learnt that prayer is of three types: you speak to God, next you want to listen to Him, and lastly you just like to be in His presence and converse with Him silently. The choice of books, friends and the discipline of a quiet time has kept this flame of faith alive. This desire to turn to the Lord is my most precious possession. The ability to do so follows the sincerity of the desire. It is available to all. Acceptance of the reality leads to peace of heart. Acceptance is not helplessness or surrender. It is a recognition of reality, and the starting point of a strategy for meeting a challenge. Rebellion can only make things worse. It needs a special kind of courage because whenever there is a recurrence of my problem, I know it hurts those to whom I am dear. But it should not and cannot be hidden. It is best to reveal it. So long as they see the will to stand up to it, they are reassured. The importance of attitude cannot be overemphasized. We fail to realize it adequately, but we have a choice about how we face the pressures of everyday life. We can choose to react in a positive way, doing our best, or we can make ourselves miserable repeating in our minds patterns of defeat. Hippocrates, the father of Western medical science, said that it was more important for doctors to know what sort of person had the disease than the sort of disease a person had. As a cancer survivor I might utter a word of caution. My 'fighting spirit' is not at the same level every day, or at all times during the same day. One can sometimes drift from a mood of defiance to one of stoic acceptance or even one of exhaustion with life. The question is what is your feeling at most times? And how do you pick up?”.

In sum, this is a book that is at once deep and easy of reading and laden with moral values following of which will guarantee our improvement and conquest of happiness.

P.P.Ramachandran,
12-12-2009