For those spiritually inclined, Krishna: The 7th Sense offers a short course on the God of love, his time on earth, and how lessons from his life can lift the fog of the modern, muddled mind.
Debutant novelist Debashis Chatterjee, who headed IIM Kozhikode for many years, marries the clarity of a manager’s mind with the mysticism of a spiritual truth-seeker. The book follows the journey of Keshav, Neel and Kaya, and their friends from a B-school in Lucknow to a “be” school in Rishikesh. Keshav teaches a class on LOVE (Leadership of Voluntary Enterprises), and is the bringer of magic to the world of spreadsheets and surveys. His students, including Neel and Kaya, run the gamut of emotions college-goers do, finding learning and some solace in the teachings of Krishna.
The book has three threads: Stories from the life of Krishna, lessons from said stories, and the students’ days at the Indus business school. Chatterjee handholds the reader through the lives of the protagonists, switching from their past to the present and back, placing their troubles and triumphs within a larger spiritual context.
The first thread, capturing Krishna’s life with wisdom and tenderness, is the most enjoyable of the three. And, of that, Krishna’s relationship with Radha evokes the most genuine feeling.
The various shades of love—from paternal to romantic—are explored through tales, and Keshav’s often Sadhguru-like explanations keep his listeners hooked. The prose is often poetic, and, when so, rooted in nature.
Reading Krishna is not an exercise in passivity; it forces the reader to pause and think. It is a treatise on love, asking fundamental questions of identity and faith, and answering them with warmth and insight.
Krishna: The 7th Sense
By Debashis Chatterjee
Published by Rupa Publications
Pages 256 Price Rs695