Book Review of Designing Destiny : the heartfullness way

Designing Destiny The Heartfulness Way
By Daaji Kamlesh Patel.

Number of Pages: 214

Publish Date: 31^st Jan 2019

Genre: Self-help.

Summary:

Welcome back my readers!

The reason behind for picking up Designing Destiny is because of its catchy title. Normally, we think that destiny is something which we get by birth from our god. I mean the majority of us think like this way only.

Now, does this book justify its title? Does this book changed my mindset? Is it really possible to change our destiny? So many questions right, let’s find out my final verdict about this book.

As the name suggests, the book is about how one can design his/her destiny. This book has described that by following certain processes, one can achieve whatever he/she wants in his/her life and, that one can make life beautiful through these processes.

This book is focused on how we can achieve the inner peace and how meditation is effective while achieving it. Initially, it tries to cover all the basic questions that usually comes to our mind when we think about meditation. Later on, the author tries to go deeper into the topic. Author has explained the physical and spiritual benefits of meditation. He also has showed ways to achieve that state. Daaji has explained his four principle and at the end he tries to explain how we all are connected with each other.

My Review:

Now coming back to my take on it, before going into the context that designing destiny has talked about, I would like to discuss the writing skill and his research on the topic. Author has used very simple and descriptive language to explain his understanding on meditations. He also showed his profound personal research and deep knowledge about the topic.

Book has been divided into four parts and each part has several chapters and I will put my point of view about each part.

First part tries to explain about destiny and how we can change our destiny.

Second part talks about what is meditation and how to create a meditative state, what kind of impression we should have while meditation. Before meditation one should practice the cleaning process and how our prayers and attitude should be like. There are answers to many more questions in this section.

Third part explains our lifestyle. This section shows that a small change in our lifestyle can make our life so wonderful. This section also explains the different forms of Yoga, benefits of yoga and through which we can even regulate our emotions and can lead a self-controlled, non-controversial life.

Forth part talks about Destiny, Free will and freedom of choice. This section talks about ego and explains how ego can be beneficial. This section also talks about three bodies: body, mind, soul. Body refers to our physical body made up of flesh, bool and organs, mind refers to the vibration of the body and soul is the causal body, the cause of our existence.

My Take on each part

Well the first part was really easy for me to understand as it talks about defining our destiny and also it includes the introductory part so it was very smooth walk.

Second part was little deeper than the first one but was quite easy as well as it includes the definition of meditation, benefits, different steps to be followed before meditation and before going to bed. This portion also has instructions that needs to be followed to do meditation, cleaning, prayer in a very clear manner. So, according to me this part is the most useful one.

Third part talks about lifestyle, encourages yoga, benefits of yoga. This part is also very easy but with deeper meaning.

Fourth part

With all due respect about whatever it talks about spirituality, vibration and whichever topic it touched, but I found difficult to grasp it. The reason might be because my knowledge in spirituality is very less or maybe I haven’t reached that level in meditation. So, whatever would be the reason, I found this portion a very difficult one for me.

What all things I liked about the book

• The big reason to like this book is meditation, I was very curious about how one can reach to different levels of meditations.
• It has proper steps that should be followed not only while in meditation but also recommended best possible steps for cleaning and prayer.
• Preventives have also been given in it. What not to do after meditations (everyone talks about the do’s of it but, being a meditation lover, for the first time I found someone talking about don’ts after meditation).
• It seems common problems people face during meditation are very well known to the author and accordingly solutions are also given.
• He has given his real life personal experience. He also has given very good messages like “our prayers are always selfish as we always pray whenever we are in lack".

What all things I disliked about it

• I was having problem with its start, the start is very slow and unclear.
• I found contradictory statements. At one point it says “when we focus on one thing, it is meditation” but on another page it says “There is no need to focus on any particular thing. The moment we focus on one thing, it is no longer meditation but concentration” (one can refer page 26 and page 81). I cannot ignore this point because meditation is the base of this book so how the base could be contradictory.
• Meaning of Meditation is not clear in it as I have discussed in above point.

Lesson learnt from Designing Destiny

• My Favorite one is “Always Welcome Criticism, always be thankful to a critic who showed you a path for improvement”.
• Do not expect too much from anyone.
• Meditation and self-control would lead you to happy life.
• Don’t notice on how much you are sacrificing for your loved ones.
• Don’t condition yourself, be open.

Reason to read it

• Foremost reason would be meditation, needless to say that meditation is the most effective way to live a balanced life with lesser tension. The more you practice it, the more you become pro on this.
• As the start was slow, I was losing interest in it but later on there are so many lessons that one can learn from it (have already jot down few of them)
• This book answers many unanswered questions which one can have while meditating.

Any Reason to skip it

• If you are not very fond of meditation or yoga then you may skip it.
• It has slow start and might face difficulties to understand the last part of it as goes on deeper level.

My Ratings:

Actually it’s a good book but definition of meditation is contradictory and unclear and hence I would rate it 3.5 out of 5 stars, but otherwise this book is really worth reading.