03/07/02
Sati
I didn’t really expect to
like this book, but my anticipation of it being boring faded away almost as soon
as I began to read the book. I
always read the blurb prior to reading the book itself, which is pointless in
Pike’s case, because the blurbs NEVER ever do the book any justice.
If Pike himself writes his own blurbs, he should be ashamed of himself,
and if someone else does, then that person should be blamed for Pike not being a
more well-known author. Anyhoo, in
this rare case, it seems the blurb was quite fitting; it was the first paragraph
of the book, and surprisingly summed up the whole book.
The final line of the two extra sentences added in addition to the first
paragraph of the book in the blurb sparked an extra interest within me: “Sati
may change everything for you”. To
my disappointment, Sati didn’t change everything for me, although she changed
a miniscule of my outlook on life.
I hadn’t given Sati’s
character a chance to grow on me, even though she seemed to be changing the
lives of all the characters in “Sati”.
This was mainly to do with the fact that I am a Muslim, and although I
don’t claim to be an excellent follower of my religion, I do however have an
inbuilt belief that there is ONE God. Hence,
God choosing a beautiful girl as a vessel to come and “play” with mere
mortals was a bit too farfetched for me to take on board.
With that said, I enjoyed the philosophical approach that Pike has taken
to portray Sati with – it demonstrates his wide scope of imagination,
knowledge and variation in presenting ideas through his books.
I found his analogies very impressive, particularly the bathtub one, in
which he described one as forgetting how warm a hot water tub is after being in
it for a while, until one wriggles a toe and realises the warmth has been there
all along, but moments of realisation act as a reminder of the feeling.
Hmm, not sure if I’ve reiterated that correctly.
Also, the metaphor of love being a seed that can be buried too close to
the surface, or too deep, stood out as being a simple but effective idea.
But my favourite Sati wisdom was divulged when Pike writes:
“What people say about you
is their concern”, Sati said. “It
is not your concern. Don’t think
too much about others. If you live
your life based on the opinion of others, then you will always be weak.
But if you are clear in your conscience, then you will not mind what
anybody says about you. It is
necessary that only that you be naturally helpful to others. And you help others most by being happy.
It is very simple.”
I don’t agree with the last
three sentences at all, being happy doesn’t help others because happiness can
only be felt by the person who is experiencing the emotion, so it can’t help
someone who is not happy because it’s not a contagious feeling.
But the rest of the quote was something I needed to read, especially last
night when I was reading that chapter. Ah
last night, after an embarrassing incident caused me to question my annoying
tendency to worry about my own worrying about seeming weak, which ends up in a
vicious circle of worriment and feeling like a chump. What I’m talking about won’t make sense to anyone but
myself probably. Ouch I have a
headache, the neighbours are doing some woodwork or something in the garden and
a weird smell hath creeped into the room through the window and is making me
feel nauseated. Anyhoo, where was
I, yes, although I don’t live my life based on the opinion of others, I do
live my life based on my own opinion of myself, which isn’t very good at the
moment, so the straightforward words “Live life.” decorated with the
finality of a full stop rang a bell inside my chumpy skull, and I smiled, then
read the paragraph again.
Pike really seems to love his
Michaels. Wonder why.
In this book, I liked Michael’s character, but there wasn’t a SINGLE
character I really felt attached to or loved.
They were all used as tools to convey the powerful influence that Sati
has on people. In retrospect
actually, Pike has used a cast of characters that would be expected in a book
about God – the dying character (Timmy), the materialistic greedy one (David),
the non-believer (Reverend Green), the non-believer who becomes a believer after
being “cured” (Mrs Hutchinson), an innocent child who immediately takes a
liking to “God” (Jenny), and of course the doubtful but paradoxically
faithful character who has his own dilemma’s in life that “God” is able to
fix (Michael). Perfect recipe
really, using a fairly three dimensional main character surrounded by rather
simple characters, which is what the book needed in order for the reader to
grasp the full effects of the straightforward-but-profound concepts that Sati
depicts. What I mean is, the simple
set of characters, and the uncomplicated story line serve to emphasise the deep
feelings and images that Sati creates.
I’ve never properly
meditated, and I don’t think I’d be doing it right if I were, but after
reading “Sati”, I sat down, blocked out the bass of the music being blasted
from the dude living upstairs, emptied my mind of concerns and worries, and
focussed on the existence of God. Of
course, some might label my feeling of bliss at that moment as a pure
psychologically produced feeling, but it FELT genuine, like it was coming from
within me. That lasted about 5
seconds, until I wondered what the time was to make sure it wasn’t time to get
ready to go to the cinema yet.
Well, I don’t have anything else to say about “Sati”, except that it’s a good book, but it’s one of those books I’d read only once. I admire Sati’s brave, powerful, innocent and wise nature, and Pike develops these likeable characteristics perfectly in the story.