The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Hello people! How are you?

Happy belated Mahashivratri 🙏🏻

Growing up, I was always looking forward to Mahashivratri. In my society, all Mums, including us kids, would go to a Shiv temple and perform Shiva abhishekam. But, the child in me was more excited about the prashad including Sabudana vada, potatoes & sweet potato dishes, etc.

Good old days 😌

Today, I will be sharing a short summary, lessons and some of my favourite lines from the book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.

A quick summary

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is a 198-page-long, self-help book written by Robin Sharma. The book tells the story of an enormously successful but unhappy lawyer named Julian Mantle. Julian suffers a heart attack in the middle of a courtroom, which forces him to re-evaluate his life and priorities. After this wake-up call, Julian sells all his possessions and decides to give up his lucrative career and sets off on a spiritual journey to the Himalayan Mountains in India. During his travels, he meets a wise sage who teaches him about the importance of living a balanced and fulfilling life. After his transformation, Julian returns to his old life and shares his newfound wisdom with his friend and former colleague, John, who is also struggling with his own work-life balance. The highlight of the book is the seven timeless virtues taught by a wise monk named Yogi Raman to Julian during his stay in India that embody the keys to self-leadership, personal responsibility and spiritual enlightenment.

1. Master Your Mind

The quality of our life is determined by the quality of our thoughts. It all starts with using our mind more effectively. We might not be able to control the weather or the traffic or the moods of all those around us. But we most certainly can control our attitude towards these events. Once we consistently apply this principle to our daily life and start to condition our mind to translate every event into a positive, empowering one, we will banish worry forever. We will stop being a prisoner of our past. Instead, we will become the architect of our future.

2. Follow Your Purpose

Those who are truly enlightened know what they want out of life, emotionally, materially, physically and spiritually. Take out ten minutes a month to write out goals and think deeply about the meaning of life. Clearly defined priorities and goals for every aspect of our life will offer us guidance and refuge when the seas become rough. Anyone can revolutionize their lives once they revolutionize the direction in which they are moving. But if you don't even know where you are going, how will you ever know when you get there?

3. Practice Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese word that means constant and never-ending improvement. We can practice the art of kaizen by pushing ourselves daily- by working a little better than yesterday to improve our mind and body, by doing the things we fear, by watching the sunrise, by dancing in a rain shower and by being the person we dream of being.

4. Live with Discipline

Discipline is built by consistently performing small acts of courage. It gives us the control to live the life we have imagined rather than accepting the life that we have. Practices like being silent for a few hours or a day, chanting mantras, etc can help condition our will to do as we command it to do.

5. Respect Your Time

Time is the most precious commodity and it is non-renewable. Time consciousness, if practised from an early age can reward with rich, productive and satisfying lives. One can practice time consciousness by developing a deathbed mentality— an empowering way to look at our lives reminding us that today could be our last day, so savour it to the fullest.

6. Selflessly Serve Others

The quality of our life ultimately comes down to the quality of our contribution to the people around us.

The higher purpose of our lives, i.e. all we have discussed till now— an abundance of mental ability, boundless energy, unlimited creativity, a storehouse of discipline and a wellspring of peacefulness is unlocking these treasures and applying them for some common good.

7. Embrace the Present Moment

The seventh and final virtue is all about living. A truly joyful and rewarding life comes only through a process called 'living in the now.' Never put off happiness for the sake of achievement. Never put off the things that are important for our well-being and satisfaction at a later time. Today is the day to live fully, not when we win the lottery or when we retire.

Never put off living!

My favourite quotes:

• There is a huge difference between well-being and being well-off.
  

• Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.
  

• Understand the anatomy of fear. It is your own creation. Like any other creation, it is just as easy to tear it down as it is to erect it.
  

• Live for today — there will never be another one quite like it.

I hope you learnt something through reading this blog. If Yes, then make sure to like the blog, comment, share and subscribe to the email newsletter if you haven't yet. I post a blog every Monday at 7 pm IST, until then Happy Reading!