WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES

WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES

CHANGE EVERYTHING

In A Time Of Turmoil, A Pathway To Peace

NEALE DONALD WALSCH

Hodder & Stoughton

Rs.295 Pp 300

The title of the book calls to mind several similar publications like ‘When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going,’ and ‘Failure is Never final, Success is Never Ending.’ Umpteen others have written on the crying need to come back from the edges of life – so that "A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, / Seeing, may take heart again." From Longfellow to Neale Walsch. With his own footprint in the shifting sands of modern times: Change Everything!

There is a strong tendency to have a smirk on one’s face when there’s talk of books on personal change, and ‘the kind of people’ who read them. But the fact is that a huge portion of homo sapiens is apparently in search of that indefinable treasure lost somewhere, sometime; some panacea that will ensure abundance of health and wealth for all time to come. The rational knowledge that there is no such thing doesn’t deter, though it may temporarily discourage, our efforts. It’s the delightfully annoying vagueness that keeps us searching, hoping to recognize it when we find it.

When sent out to find the herb Sanjeevani Hanuman was honest enough to admit his inability to identify it – it helped that he could carry the whole mountain down! Neale Walsch, it appears has found his own brand of sanjeevani and like so many of his kind, feels compelled to share with the rest of the world. And what better time to come out with that wonder drug than in times of recession/depression/melt-down? Walsch has been really quick on the bat. After all, marketing is only a matter of accurate timing, even if one has to let the material ferment in the cellar till such time as something like sub-prime lending comes to one's rescue.

So what's so special about this book? It starts with an urgent request to the reader not to throw the book away, not to throw away a chance to get out of the overwhelming morass that surrounds... and this attitude of bending over backwards to make sure the reader is at no time overwhelmed by the book, continues throughout. The chapters are kept short, the instructions to the reader are straight and clear. There are pointers in the midst of chapters for the reader to go and take a breather – or else continue to the next stage. He tries to bring his written communication as close to a counselling session as possible; but a book can help mental depression arising out of a pervasive feeling of failure just as much as it can help cure virginity.  In case the reader still feels the inadequacy of the written word, Walsch has a website called http://www.changingchange.net/ which has a visiting membership as well as enrolled membership – a clear case of counselling going hi-tech.    

The book suggests nine changes that will change everything in your life – the first of which is to change your decision to ‘go it alone’. The feeling of being alone in our trouble is dangerous. The last of the nine changes is to change your identity i.e. change the way you have thought of yourself. These few words can hardly describe the depth of these transformative decisions. In the journey through these nine changes, Walsch speaks of the need to accept the difference between Actual Truth and Apparent Truth, and between Apparent Truth and Imagined Truth. The first pair is the difference between Ultimate Reality (what is) and Observed Reality (what we perceive); the second pair highlights the conversion of our perception by our imagination into Distorted Reality.  Change number Eight is Change your idea about life – a superb study of the functions of the Mind, the Body and the Soul. The sad part of it is that neither the title of the book nor the introductory chapters gives any inkling of the veritable treasure available here. There is also a section in this chapter for those frustrated in their attempts at meditation – it brings the concept and its practice, down to earth. Very impressive.

What started off as an attempt to guide the down-and-out turns out to be a book with profound ideas about our relationship with our selves, and with the Ultimate Being (by whatever name we may call Him). How far a troubled soul who has ‘lost everything’ would care to read about such relationships is doubtful, but if he does he has much to gain. Truly, if you leave out the mountain of reader-friendly tactics used in the book, Walsch has come close to finding his Sanjeevani.