Two books, written across the years that defined me. The first was an attempt to put twenty years of struggle and sacrifice between two covers. The second was an attempt to live with the sun the way the body is meant to.
Book launch — both books unveiled together. Komal Somani at centre. Names of all dignitaries to be added with permission.
Twelve chapters. Begins on the cold floor of a meditation cell at Dhammagiri on the first day of 2020. Ends with the Sanskrit mantra of refuge in the Buddha. In between: the boy from Malkapur, the engineer who lost an academic year, the founder who gifted four Maruti Swifts before he could afford one, the CEO who slept on a Mantralaya guesthouse floor for five days.
It is also a book about pain — the pain that gets stored in the body, the pain that becomes patterns, and the pain that finally lets go when you sit with it long enough.
The second book emerged from the daily practice. From rising at 4 AM with the sun. From eating Satvic vegetarian food with Konkani influences. From Pranayama before the day touches you. From treating the body as the vessel that carries the work, and the work as something that must serve more than itself.
It is a book about circadian alignment, breath, food, and the small daily disciplines that hold the body together when the work demands more than the body knows how to give. It draws on Ayurvedic and Vedantic traditions, and it draws on twenty years of doing the work and watching what works.
If The Fire Within tells the journey, Living in Harmony with the Sun tells how to live the body in a way that lets the journey continue.
If you are picking up either book, I assume you are not looking for a corporate manual or a wellness guide. I assume you are looking for someone who has had to put both halves of life together — the building and the breathing, the deal and the breath, the contract and the meditation cell. That is the only reader I have ever written for.
If that is you, both books are yours.