"The problem is that we cannot truly change without giving up something; we cannot be transformed unless we terminate. But we have to remain the same in some way; and retain something we must, while being transformed."
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Man's Fate and God's Choice by Bhimeswara Challa Trafford Publishing
book review by RJM Terrado
Man's Fate and God's Choice is a gripping exposition on human nature and self-transformation without preference to religion. It successfully utilizes philosophical texts without losing the engaging capacity of narratives. Challa outlines his blueprint of transformation by starting with a supposition on human’s penchant for the immoral path and a collective need for deep cleansing. Between the immoral path and deep cleansing stand the three pillars of toxicity: indifference, intolerance, and injustice. For Challa, the destructive pull of these three pillars make humans gifted with reasoned analysis and thinking behave in the most irrational and irresponsible way. Challa has critically provided a foundational argument for a deeper discussion of philosophical and practical ideals concerning self-transformation.
From utilizing certain strands of thoughts from Buddhism and Hinduism to Christianity and Islam, Challa opines that all religions value love, kindness, compassion, charity, and altruism. However, despite these commonalities, religions evoke intense animosity and vitriol to each other. He concludes that these inconsistencies are products of a war taking place from within, and unless humans shift their consciousness from ego-mind to the inner heart, the down-hill slide continues.
According to Challa, harmonizing the head and the heart is the way for humans to function as spiritual beings. The heart is the countervailing power of the confining and corrupting aspect of the mind. Challa posits that the human mind is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction and with the awakening of the dormant heart intelligence transformation is possible. In spite of the long paragraphs and a lengthy discussion of the topic, Man's Fate and God's Choice remains a recommendable reading on self-transformation and critical self-knowledge.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review