Happiness beyond Mind : Rising above Helplessness, Conflicts and Choices

Have you ever wondered the essence of Gita and how you can apply some of the concepts for a happy and fulfilled life? If you have heard about concepts like Dharma, Karma, Karma Yoga, and reincarnation, but do not have a good understanding of these concepts, but want to learn more, then this book is for you. If you want to use the teachings of Gita and other ancient scripts to transform your life, this book will help you on how you can start your journey today based on the experiences of the author, Rajesh Sengamedu, and what he has been practicing for the past few years.The book is divided into two sections.The first section explains key concepts like consciousness, awareness principle, emotional mind, intellectual mind, sense organs, ego, reincarnation, karma, and karma yoga in simple terms with great examples that you can relate to. It demystifies some of these concepts in a way that you truly understand. For example, until I read the book, I used to think that if you believe in Karma, you do not work hard, your fate/outcome is already determined and you can’t really change that. The book clearly explains the difference between Karma and Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga says that you should try your best in everything that you do and accept the results no matter what. It also explains why it is important to nurture your mind in addition to the body. We experience life with our sense organs (hear, touch, see, taste, and smell) and it is important to be mindful of how we are using these organs. You probably go to the gym to nurture your body, but what are you doing to nurture your mind? You will realize the importance of nurturing your mind as that is what will help you in achieving your goals and lead you to a happy and fulfilled life.The chariot analogy is one of the highlights of this book. Our body is the chariot. The five sense organs (hear, touch, see, taste, and smell) are the five horses pulling the chariot. Reins to control the horses is the emotional mind, which doubts and weighs pros/cons. The charioteer is the intellectual mind, which makes decisions and analyzes the right from wrong. The passenger is our ego: the false knowledge about oneself. The destination is our goals: what we are trying to accomplish in our life. The framework helps you to think about what is important in your life and how to achieve your goals. Are you pursuing the right goals? Even if you are an atheist, you will agree with the concepts presented here and realize the importance of mediation to improve our minds.The book also explains various roles (role towards your family as a spouse, parent, son/daughter, role as a student to learn, role towards your fellow human beings etc), how to look at them and things to consider when fulfilling these roles with no regrets. The author also talks about parenting. Many parents including myself struggle with raising kids. The concept of “Children are born through you”, but “not to you” is profound and thought provoking. You tend to realize that you should do your best in raising kids without any expectations. Do not judge your kids when they do not meet your expectations. You will also have a good understanding of concepts like Dharma and Karma Yoga from Gita and other scriptures so that you can explain these concepts to your kids and guide them in their life journey. It gives you a framework based on Dharma when you are making important decisions in your life.If you ever ask questions like “why me” and “why not me”, this book gives you a framework on how to look at life and you will accept everything that comes your way. You would realize that you can’t change your past. We must focus on the right actions in the present to create our future.After you read the book, you will realize that managing the mind is more important than managing the body or anything else. Training your mind will help you in using sense organs in the right way ( for example: watching less television or social media using our eyes and eating less using our tongue), avoid issues in the future, and will help you reach your goals.The second section talks about the practices that the author follows, which you can adapt today. Daily meditation to improve various aspects of your life, physical exercise for the body like yoga, the importance of daily prayer, what types of food to eat and more are explained in detail.It is said that our thoughts determine our life. When our thoughts change, our beliefs change. When our beliefs change, our expectations change. When our expectations change, our attitude changes. When our attitude changes, our behaviour changes. When our behavior changes, our life changes. Thoughts -> Beliefs -> Expectations -> Attitude -> Behavior -> Life. You will realize the importance of daily meditation after you read this section of the book.After reading this book, you can start incorporating many of these things in your life based on where you are in your journey and what is important to you.This book reminded me of some of the well known books like “Seven habits of effective people” by Steven Covey. After reading “Happiness Beyond Mind, you will reflect quite a bit on where you are in your life journey, who you are, are you working on the right goals, what habits you need to unlearn, new habits to pursue and you take concrete actions to transform your life. I probably would re-read this book periodically, just to ground myself on the basics as I am sure my goals will change as I go through my life journey and this book will remind me of the framework that I should use based on the essence of Gita and other scriptures.

Simplicity is not simple. It takes a lot of thought and effort to condense complex concepts to a simple, practical and easy to follow recipe for getting to “contentment” or “happiness”. By distilling the essence of ancient Indian philosophy, practicing it himself and sharing his experiences as he travels the path of dharma, Sengamedu has created a forehead-slapping page turner of a book for us to get to the state of happiness we always yearn for and miss in our lives. In a brief sentence Happiness Beyond Mind gives us a clear path to rethink, structure and execute our entire life in “thought, word and deed” to journey to a state of contentment and happiness. As Gandhi once said “the path is the goal”, Sengamedu’s book IS the path.As soon as I flipped through Sengamedu’s acknowledgements I found it thoroughly engrossing as he takes us on a journey of deep thought and introspection on why, with all worldly accomplishments and success we still feel empty and conflicted, with examples from his own life. It is this trait of personal experience that immediately sucks you into his journey into spiritual realization – you can connect with him as you look back on your own life. His language is simple for us to understand and relate to. He does revert to colloquialisms which really help emphasize and drive his points home. You really GET it.The stories and anecdotes deserve special attention. Sengamedu beautifully blends quite complex analogies from the ancient Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita with his own experiences with family, friends and colleagues – and I found myself with a big lump in my throat or nodding or simply going “now I’ve never thought of it that way!” This is not an easy thing to achieve. The snake and rope to delineate Maya and Brahman, experiences at the office with friends, friends and family living through agony – it’s all described with crystal clear understanding. The ratha kalpana analogy from the Kathopanishad was what I would call mind-blasting (no pun intended). It would take a lot to erase the characters from memory; the passenger (ego), the charioteer (intellect), the reins (emotional mind), and the horses (five sense organs). This analogy and the function of how the entire chariot (human body) functions may appear so obvious, after you’ve heard Sengamedu describe it. And of course, great examples are the letters to his daughter and son actually at the end of the book in three Appendices, but they’re like The Gita of the book! You could just read those and consider them a synopsis of the entire 185 pages preceding them.The prescriptive part of the book where Sengamedu insists that we follow the path of dharma (right life conduct) dives deep into how to think, how to handle day-to-day life situations with words, and of course action – with yoga and meditation, and finally how to approach the goal of understanding oneself and that we are part of the larger whole. “Do try it!” goes his persuasive, characteristic nudge throughout the book, you can almost picture him smiling benevolently over you. I personally found this portion extremely helpful. This will be a practical takeaway for me for years to come. As well for my family, friends and colleagues. This is the enduring portion and can only be realized through action. You know the author is already on the path and is speaking from his personal experience and transformation. You also realize the importance and reverence Sengamedu gives his Gurus, showing a deep sense of learning, understanding and gratitude.I strongly urge all readers, young, old, innocent, not so innocent, brash, arrogant, big hearted, small hearted – to read Sengamedu’s work. For each one of us reading will walk away with our individual experience and messages, and it automatically becomes The Happiness Beyond the Mind WE know for ourselves.

Rajesh has skillfully taken complex subjects and distilled it to a simple prose. The book provides an excellent guide and a framework for many questions you have about life and contentment. A definite must read. The book is full of valuable nuggets - Like the definition of "Dharma".Rajesh's explanation of need and desire fulfillment is simple and effective. Drawing knowledge from scriptures and explaining the treadmill syndrome had quite an impact on me. This led me to evaluate my own goals and desires and rethink my lifelong pursuit of a bucket list. Just having the knowledge to do so is quite calming. The idea to welcome all situations as a learning experience is another powerful concept. Like many other people, one tends to take a path of least resistance and avoid conflicts. The idea of "let it happen" and choosing one’s response is very powerful.I also learnt the true meaning of consciousness. It all makes sense now and it also answers my lifelong questions around a feeling of viewing oneself as a third party. The whole concept of shifting our focus from the physical body to sharpen the mind is also very powerful. The Kathopanishad analogy comparing our journey of life to a journey in a chariot driven by five horses that represent the five sense organs, and driven by our intellect, the charioteer who controls the sense organs (horses) with the emotional mind as the reins is definitely the highlight of the book.Rajesh’s suggestion of walking barefoot on grass is definitely meditative and very calming. I have started practicing it just before going to bed and it helps with getting a good night’s sleep.

This book is a gem, packed with ideas for self realisation (enlightment) from start to finish! At the outset clarifies the fundamental concept of 'higher power' in simple and relatable terms and progresses on to explain how to discover oneself in the context of the higher power. Having armed the reader with the knowledge of "Real I" and the "Absolute Power" moves on to address how one can resolve modern-day challenges and lead a meaningful life.I found this book very insightful and liberating. Written by a person who "walks the talk". Dont miss the appendix section, especially the letters to his childern about life's truths - akin to passing the wisdom to the next generation.My takeaways:1) Provides a clear understanding of "Conciousness", the higher power, explains how it begins from within you.2) Converts your intuitions to convictions.3) Simple instructions to nurture and expand your Conciouness (mindfulness).Finally - this book is a 'live and breathing' document for daily tangible results, not the one to be adorned on the shelf and left behind.

There is never a perfect time to read a good book. And so it is with this. Simple and smooth flowing the book quickly gets you to introspect, identify the error zones in our thinking. Why is happiness so elusive? The framework given is so simple and easy to apply.. The scriptures especially the Gita is a timeless classic and Rajesh ha done us a great favor giving us a peek into its enormous benefits. Recommend this book to one and all

A great practical book . Author has crafted this book with his life experience. The book helps an individual to develop a right attitude towards work and its outcome be it good or bad, suggestions for everyday life decision making , managing ones sense, mind and intellect. It also gives a few meditation practices and yoga poses to improve mind and body.

The author brings age old wisdom to beginners in simple to understand language. The book is replete with practical advice based on the author's personal life experiences. Aside from being easy to read, the framework is very logical and easy to follow. A must read for anyone interested to start on their spiritual journey!