The Yoga of Max’s Discontent: A Novel. Karan Bajaj. Wisdom Publications MA. May 2016.
336 pp. ISBN#: 9781594634116.
Max
is a successful financial analyst on Wall Street. He lives and breathes numbers, whether at
work or at home. But upon the death of
his mother, he suddenly finds his life is purposeless. He begins to wonder what his mother and other
people’s suffering and joy is all about.
It strikes him as a noisy, chaotic rat race. Eat, sleep, work and die – is that really
what it’s all about? A local street food
seller stands outside in the middle of winter without a shirt on and Max
questions him about this obviously insane act.
It turns out that Max is the one living an in-sane (not sane) life
without one shred of letting go and living at oneness with body and mind that
this cook has. Little by little, Max
begins to read and hear about gurus and ashrams in India where one may aspire
to a different experience of life. On
one day when he’s being highly pressured to come up with a financial analysis
which will dramatically cut costs for his company, he says, “I can’t do this
right now,” and quits!
Off
to India Max travels; the only thing is he’s arrived in the beginning of
winter, not a time to be trying to get to the high ranges of the Himalaya
Mountains. However, Max signs on with
the right guides and begins a daunting trek up the mountains. Not to spoil the story, suffice to say that
he meets teachers and practitioners of yoga who invite him to experience the
life he seeks. There he will learn that
it is possible to let go of rational thought when necessary and be one with the
environment. It’s a brutally dangerous
and irrational journey Max takes, one which he almost abandons at times but one
in which he finally finds peace, one where he finds himself to lose the “worry”
and stress of a lifetime and just “be.”
Nicely
done Karan Bajaj! This is a novel that may
not drive people to India but just may pose enough questions to provoke a
different search for the same ends!
