Max (short for
Maximus) Pzoras works at a Wall Street investment firm, extremely successful at
finding ailing companies to invest in, slash costs dramatically, and make the
firm a tidy profit. He’s moving up, not bad for a boy from the projects in the
Bronx.
But his mother
has just died from cancer, he’s haunted by what happened to the girlfriend he
left behind and his own past, and he’s come to see his work as something less
than what it appears to be. So Max takes off to India to find a wise man to
teach him, and perhaps to find himself.
The Yoga of Max’sDiscontent by Karan Bajaj is about what happens to Max in India. From the
mountains of the Himalayas to Mumbai, and from the far south of India back to
the Himalayas, we follow Max as he becomes a yogi, and tries to reach a state
of perfection right there at his fingertips.
This is one
fascinating book. While it is about Max and his journey, it is also about yoga
in all of its varied forms and stages. And it provides an easy-to-read account
of what yoga means and what it required to become one of its practitioners. I
thought I would have to be convinced to read and enjoy a book like this, but I
was hooked from the first few pages.
The novel
captures the sights, sounds, smells, and people of India. We travel with Max on
a two-day train ride (second class and general seating; no one can believe a
foreigner will ask for general seating). We struggle with Max in the mountains,
as he gets lost and nearly dies. We train with Max in the southern lowlands,
feeling the parched thirst of the monsoon season that seems as if it will never
come. We walk with Max through the marketplaces and bazaars. We even sit with
Max in the ramshackle bathroom facilities, dealing with the scorpions and
occasional cobra.
 |
| Karan Bajaj |
As times passes,
and the training increases in intensity, we join Max in shedding our Western
notions, cultural biases, and what we perceive as our needs. Our understandings
of time and self change profoundly.
Bajaj was born
and raised in the Indian Himalayas and now lives in Brooklyn. He teaches
meditation, and you find training courses and resource links on his web site.
He has been a bestselling author in India for his novels, Keep Off the
Grass and Johnny Goes Down. The Yoga of Max’s Discontent was first
published in India as The Seeker and
is the first of his works to be published in the United States.
It is one fascinating
story.
Photograph of the Indian Himalayas by Piotr Wojtkowski via Public
Domain Pictures. Used with permission.
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