"The Alchemist : An Inspiration"

It's been almost a year since I created this blog. I finally had the sheer desire to express myself, only recently, when I read 'The Alchemist' by 'Paulo Coelho' and was quite moved by it. Here I share my thoughts ('the significance' para) on what I believe is a thought provoking part of the lives of most of us.

The Saying

 "And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

             

                 The Significance

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”

Life is a transformational phenomenon. Over the years our lives have transformed from school to college to the real world. Here I ask some intriguing questions to you and myself:

Q1. During this change how many of us have actually achieved something substantial?

Q2. Have we lived to fulfill our dreams or are we working in pursuit of our goals?

Q3. Do we actually have any goals in the first place?

Not having answered these Q’s I realized the importance of dreams. It’s certainly not the daydreaming imagination that comes out of our present, carefree, indolent souls. But, it’s the achievement of our goals that we dreamt of some day back in the past. Life is like walking with an oil-filled spoon in our hand. We ought to enjoy the marvels of the world, without spilling a drop. And it goes as- “when you give your whole self to it, the whole universe helps you in the pursuit of it.”

                                      The Story

The story is about Santiago, a young Spanish shepherd, who yearns to travel places while selling wool. He along with his herd, reaches an abandoned church with broken roof.  There he dreamt of a child asking him to "visit the Egyptian Pyramids to find a hidden treasure."  One day an old man (who later turns out to be a king) shows up to motivate him. Eventually, Santiago donates six sheep to the king and sells the other and proceeds in pursuit of his dream.

On his way, he gets robbed in Africa. He then works for a crystal trader for a year to earn enough money to continue his journey. He joins a caravan travelling to the Sahara desert. He meets an Englishman who tells him about Alchemists who were immortal and could turn metal to gold. The caravan reaches an oasis to find shelter against the battling tribes in the desert. There, Santiago finds the love of his life, Fatima. She further motivates him to find the treasure and then come back for her.

Santiago finds an Alchemist on the way, who helps him understand the language of the world. The soul of the universe resides in one’s heart which knows that language. Realizing the fact, helps him get away from enemy tribals. Then the alchemist takes him to a monastery, turns metal into gold and distributes among themselves and also gives one part extra for the boy to be kept with the monk. The boy then alone reaches the Pyramids. He doesn’t find treasure but gets beaten and robbed of his gold again. Ultimately, he comes to know that the treasure was actually buried under the Sycamore (tree) at the church where he started. He goes back to find the treasure and then continues his journey to meet Fatima.

 The boy understands that while in pursuit of his dream he learned Arabic, crystal work, to read the omens strewn along life’s path, the language of the world, the splendid pyramids and of course true love, which were a treasure in themselves and which he couldn’t have experienced if he gave up following his dream....