BOOK REVIEW OF- The Perfect Drug

By- Chaitanya Sain

Paperback
Publisher: Pakshi Publication (2018)
ISBN-10: 9353004519
ISBN-13: 978-9353004514
ASIN: B079SY1YX9

THE PLOT IN BRIEF-
Buddha meditated for six years, and Shiva had his mountain. Could there be a drug that might induce enlightenment? A substance that could cause us to attain a heightened state of consciousness, the gaining of a perspective that perforates this veil of maya, revealing the divine in us and others a well? One that makes us perceive that the biggest problem of the world isn’t global warming, air pollution, or overpopulation, but is a global demented state of consciousness, the demon of ignorance that has ingested this whole wide world? Ananya synthesizes such a divine drink with immense difficulty, and tends it with great care-but the attainment of power often brings its abuse. It an attempt to beat the demon outside, he mutes all the voices contrary to his ambition including his much-revered intuition. He fails miserably but his torture endures. Does his indulgence keep Ananya entangled in the web of illusion, or will he emerge a true, conscious being, devoid of all attachments? Is the answer he has to discover for himself?
THE TITLE-
The word ‘Drug’ describes the reality of the plot. It has always been said that to use them with care, and use them with respect as to the transformations they can achieve, and you have an extraordinary research tool. Go banging about with a psychedelic drug for a Saturday night turn-on, and you can get into a really bad place, psychologically. Know what you’re using, decide just why you’re using it, and you can have a rich experience. They’re not addictive, and they’re certainly not escapist, either, but they’re exceptionally valuable tools for understanding the human mind, and how it works. The ‘Drug’ also creates an atmosphere of reality amalgamated with life.
To describe it, the author has added the adjective ‘Perfect’ before it to make more realistic. For everything in this journey of life we are on, there is a right wing and a left wing: for the wing of love there is anger; for the wing of destiny there is fear; for the wing of pain there is healing; for the wing of hurt there is forgiveness; for the wing of pride there is humility; for the wing of giving there is taking; for the wing of tears there is joy; for the wing of rejection there is acceptance; for the wing of judgment there is grace; for the wing of honour there is shame; for the wing of letting go there is the wing of keeping. We can only fly with two wings and two wings can only stay in the air if there is a balance. Two beautiful wings is perfection. There is a generation of people who idealize perfection as the existence of only one of these wings every time. But I see that a bird with one wing is imperfect. An angel with one wing is imperfect. A butterfly with one wing is dead. So this generation of people strive to always cut off the other wing in the hopes of embodying their ideal of perfection, and in doing so, have created a crippled race.
I felt this to be a perfect title for the plot.

REVIEW OF THE BOOK-

The story reveals a vivid description of Divine Reality. If you want to access your power as a divine human being, you must search for the small inside of the big and for the big inside of the small. When you look up into the expanse of sky overhead, look for the stars, the planets, the birds that fly. Small things for the eye to spot. And when you look down into the face of a street side flower, look for joy, happiness, comfort, stillness, and a silent song. When you have mastered finding the small in the big and the big in the small, you will have mastered your own divinity. Once the lotus of your inner divinity gets full-blown and you reach the mental state where all the religious giants of human history experienced the all-encompassing sense of godliness, the exuberance of the human mind turns infinite. Awakening into that state makes all the perceptual limitations of the mind disappear, just like a bucket of muddy water turns crystal-clear once poured into the ocean.
The author describes the journey of life keeping the spirituality and reality at the background. Life has a tendency to provide a person with what they need in order to grow. Our beliefs, what we value in life, provide the roadmap for the type of life that we experience. A period of personal unhappiness reveals that our values are misplaced and we are on the wrong path. Unless a person changes their values and ideas, they will continue to experience discontentment. The author draws the readers’ attention to the word consciousness as he tries to elaborate the fact that not accomplishing your Life Plan is a tragic act of free will. It is akin to charting an elaborate vacation itinerary before arriving at your holiday destination, with all kinds of plans for outdoor adventures and intentions to go sightseeing and shopping, but then ending up spending the whole trip in your hotel room ordering from room service and watching television. In a similar fashion the unconscious soul spends a lifetime in the semi-conscious state of Divine Disconnection and then returns home mostly ‘empty-handed’.
I really loved the plot since it tries to bring out the fact that despite the fact that, the idea of religion has been filled by the human society with all sorts of garbage, and thus been made complicated beyond common human comprehension, in reality, there is nothing simpler than the idea of religion. It is this simple. The religion of a computer is to compute – the religion of a scorpion is to sting in the face of danger – the religion of a human is to help other humans. Scriptures are neither the origin nor the measure of religion. The origin and measure of religion are the human heart.

RATINGS-

Overall I would like to rate the book 42 on a scale of 50.
4 stars out of 5
Originality of the plot and sub plots- 8/10
Net emotions in the story- 8/10
Usage of words and phrases-8/10
The title, cover and the illustration-9/10
The net impact on the readers- 9/10

Reviewed by-
Sayan Basak
Kolkata