Stories with Books

 “You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.”

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“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair”

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“You give but little when you give of your possessions.

 It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

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“Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

 Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”

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“Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent…”

And the list is endless. Each line of The Prophet by Khalil Gibran reads like some well-thought-out and deep, deep quote. Some of them touch the strings of your soul and make you shudder. I myself shuddered when I read the last one – “The ocean laughs always with the innocent.” It was so great.

But even then, The Prophet is not a book of quotes that make little or no sense on first reading. The Prophet is much like an experience of a world you knew existed but couldn’t witness before.

The book begins with a Prophet standing facing the sea, waiting for a ship that will take him to his place of birth. But for a moment, he seems to be torn between leaving this land he has spent so long, and between leaving for his birthland.

But that’s just the backdrop – what lies thereafter is a series of dialogues and monologues between villagers and the Prophet on a myriad of subjects: eating, drinking, marriage, children, clothes, forgiving, giving, working, love, everything. The Prophet answers in metaphors, but which make some sense even when they do not seem like making. The Prophet provides you with a new perspective to look at things.

But the thing about The Prophet is that by the time you will have finished its last chapter “The Farewell”, you will have forgotten many of the things you read. A second reading and a glance of highlights you have made, and you will recall many of the places you smiled at, many places where you were confused, many where you felt excited. At the end of the day, what the book leaves you with is an unmatched experience – unmatched but of the likes of The Alchemist and Manual of the Warrior of Light. More than that, it provides you with a depth of thought, a profundity of understanding, and a pearl of unspeakable wisdom.

Above all, many, many quotes of versatile relevance.

The Prophet is truly worth a read.