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The Fakir
A fascinating story that explores complex issues in a simple, very easy to understand, accessible way - karma, divine action, life after death, spirit communication, the power of prayer, faith and forgiveness, energy and healing; the search for God in goodness and most importantly being constantly attuned with your master.
The Fakir, is a breathtaking spiritual odyssey to your inner self, where God and Master dwell. Experience the joy of being alive, learn the simple yet life altering philosophy of compassion towards all, and heal yourself by taking that first step towards CHANGE. The Fakir, shows you not only how to live... but also how to die.
The Fakir, is a breathtaking spiritual odyssey to your inner self, where God and Master dwell. Experience the joy of being alive, learn the simple yet life altering philosophy of compassion towards all, and heal yourself by taking that first step towards CHANGE. The Fakir, shows you not only how to live... but also how to die.
- GenresSpirituality
247 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
107 people are currently reading
1069 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
March 29, 2014
It's an spiritual book that guides you and gives a clear picture of the intentions of nature behind every suffering and success which we get in our life. It is for the cleansing of the karma that we suffer and it is most beloved of the god that suffers the most due to increased pace of cleansing. it is not always that we are successful because success can be karmic so try to be in peace with your efforts. Nature only sees the intentions and effort, it is only mankind that gives a rank for the work done. Effort never goes to waste, we get the fruit in this life or the other. Thus give a best shot in whatever you do and leave the rest to god and accept the result with complete grace and positive surrender.
Masters and gurus are always with us longing for our attention and directing us to the right path but many a times we ignore them and we cause delay in our advancement on spiritual journey. All the answers which a person seeks lie within the person itself. Its just the person has to focus within himself where all emotions and attachments cease to exist and nothing but god prevails. Concentrating consistently on the light within will help us to merge ourselves with the divine light.
Masters and gurus are always with us longing for our attention and directing us to the right path but many a times we ignore them and we cause delay in our advancement on spiritual journey. All the answers which a person seeks lie within the person itself. Its just the person has to focus within himself where all emotions and attachments cease to exist and nothing but god prevails. Concentrating consistently on the light within will help us to merge ourselves with the divine light.
March 21, 2016
Spiritual lessens dealt in a simple and easily understandable manner. I liked the explanation of various kinds and levels of faith.
Some quotes from the book:-
1. The one who makes the thunder roar, also hears a butterfly sigh.
2. Why you did- what you did, is more important than, what came about what you did.
3. No good deed ever goes unnoticed and no wrong thought or action goes unseen and unaccounted.
Some quotes from the book:-
1. The one who makes the thunder roar, also hears a butterfly sigh.
2. Why you did- what you did, is more important than, what came about what you did.
3. No good deed ever goes unnoticed and no wrong thought or action goes unseen and unaccounted.
June 9, 2013
A super awesome book. It really teaches you how to live in surrender to the divine. It seems like the divine himself has actually channeled this book through the author. It is a good bedside book too.... all you need is to do is close ur eyes and open a page and you will get what you need :)
Cannot wait to read "the journey continues"
Cannot wait to read "the journey continues"
August 30, 2014
Take a suicidal hippie, a chance encounter with a fakir who looks suspiciously like Shirdi Sai Baba, and 200+ pages of regurgitated, pithy spiritual truisms and some terrible jokes. The result is The Fakir.
The prose and meandering storyline of this novel are excruciatingly bad. But that aside, the long winded monologues of the guru in this book do not offer any appealing or fresh insights. I've encountered the same proverbs and quotes in many other books, and this one did not manage to redeem itself in any way.
My father enjoyed this novel immensely and coaxed me to read it. Perhaps it would appeal more to someone who's older, but it's definitely not a book I would recommend.
The prose and meandering storyline of this novel are excruciatingly bad. But that aside, the long winded monologues of the guru in this book do not offer any appealing or fresh insights. I've encountered the same proverbs and quotes in many other books, and this one did not manage to redeem itself in any way.
My father enjoyed this novel immensely and coaxed me to read it. Perhaps it would appeal more to someone who's older, but it's definitely not a book I would recommend.
July 18, 2022
Simple yet thought provoking
October 15, 2017
Ruzbeh N. Bharucha’s book “The Fakir” is a condensation of the teachings about karma, soul planning and connecting to one’s Higher Self. The book’s strength lies in the easy to read narrative style to explain complex ideas such as the cycle of birth and death, karmic accumulation and karmic cleansing.
What does karma mean? If everything is pre-ordained and everything is destined according to karma then why work? Can one change his/her destiny? Is God vengeful and angry? Rudra’s journey in “The Fakir” addresses all these questions and more.
The core lesson in the book is to turn one’s gaze inward and contemplate to reach the innermost recesses of the heart. Trips to mystics, god-men or esoteric experiences will not satiate the heart with peace. But self-realization through introspection and contemplation will.
At times, it might seem that life is unfair. What we are not aware is that our current life is one in a series of lives and we carry over our accumulated karma, the cumulative consequence of every thought and deed, across lives. Each life time is an opportunity to perfect ourselves and become the best version of ourselves. In other words, each life time is an opportunity to clear our karmic debts to people and clean the bad karma we accumulated. As we do this, we clean the dirt that takes away the gloss of our perfect souls and we become God-like.
Our Higher-Self is kind, understanding, forgiving, compassionate, nonjudgmental and loving just like God.
Each experience we go through in life helps us learn essential lessons as part of the evolution of the soul. No suffering is useless. No suffering is meaningless. As we go through difficulties and progress through our life lessons with a conscious awareness we shed our karmic debts. The inner radiance of our heart masked by accumulated karma shines through again. Through the stillness of contemplation and compassionate actions we discover our God-self.
This is the profound message Fakir conveys.
What does karma mean? If everything is pre-ordained and everything is destined according to karma then why work? Can one change his/her destiny? Is God vengeful and angry? Rudra’s journey in “The Fakir” addresses all these questions and more.
The core lesson in the book is to turn one’s gaze inward and contemplate to reach the innermost recesses of the heart. Trips to mystics, god-men or esoteric experiences will not satiate the heart with peace. But self-realization through introspection and contemplation will.
At times, it might seem that life is unfair. What we are not aware is that our current life is one in a series of lives and we carry over our accumulated karma, the cumulative consequence of every thought and deed, across lives. Each life time is an opportunity to perfect ourselves and become the best version of ourselves. In other words, each life time is an opportunity to clear our karmic debts to people and clean the bad karma we accumulated. As we do this, we clean the dirt that takes away the gloss of our perfect souls and we become God-like.
Our Higher-Self is kind, understanding, forgiving, compassionate, nonjudgmental and loving just like God.
Each experience we go through in life helps us learn essential lessons as part of the evolution of the soul. No suffering is useless. No suffering is meaningless. As we go through difficulties and progress through our life lessons with a conscious awareness we shed our karmic debts. The inner radiance of our heart masked by accumulated karma shines through again. Through the stillness of contemplation and compassionate actions we discover our God-self.
This is the profound message Fakir conveys.
June 1, 2023
Learnings from the book:
1/ We have to accept whatever comes in front of us.
2/ God is only in the present - neither in the past nor in the future. Whenever we are doing anything, we ought to do it as if we are doing it for the last time. Enjoy it. If we are eating a mango, eat as if this is the last mango we are eating. If we reading a book read it as if this is the last book which we are reading.
3/ Pain is given by your Guru as a gift to you. In pain, you realize the pain of others and you become more conscious, more aware of what others are going through. These feelings blossoms love and appreciation towards the behavior of others.
4/ We spend most of our time in the journey rather than on the destination. We should try and learn to enjoy the journey as much as we can.
5/ God only looks at your intent. The intent of doing an action is far more important than the action itself. Actions and Results are for the world to see. He is interested only in your intent.
6/ Everyone is running around trying to reach some other place very quickly. We don't know what the hurry is. The person who is running also doesn't know why he is running. Everybody has been allotted 24 hours in a day. So why the hurry.
7/ Never eat alone. Don't ever feel that you are alone. God is always there with you. Always offer a share of your food to God and eat with him otherwise it's not justified.
8/ You can't see God. That doesn't mean he doesn't exist. HE is there around you. You have to believe in this fact at every moment of your life.
9/ A Guru's role is to connect the seeker to actual God.
10/ Love everyone but have faith only in your Guru and not on anyone else. Never doubt your Guru. He will never ever let you down.
11/ If God exists, then rebirth also exists because if God is there, then he has to be impartial to everyone. Rebirth is also proven by the fact that some children are born poor, and some rich; some are born handicapped, and some lead a life of luxury; some are born musicians. All this is not possible without the Karma from previous birth going forward to the next birth. In the new birth we get a chance to experience what we always wanted to experience. God is not kind or unkind to anyone. HE just manages it all with full justice.
12/ Life is just like another game with complex rules. If you play according to the rules, it works out well, and if not, you have to pay the penalty. There is nothing unfair in that. Just like in any sport, you may have to pay the penalty of breaking the rule in a game - in the next game, similarly in life you may have to pay the penalty of breaking the life rules in your next life. The player may not remember the rules he had broken but the empire or the referee remembers everything.
13/ God says that HE is always with anyone who calls him with pure love. God only needs love and nothing else - pure, unadulterated, selfless love. If anyone remembers him with that kind of love and affection, HE has to come.
14/ Every living being thanks nature for sunlight, water, food and in everything that nature provides them. The only exception is humans, who take all these things for granted.
15/ The sun never moves, therefore it's not the sun which is responsible for causing days or night. Rather it's the rotation of earth that causes a part of the earth to experience day and the other part to experience night at any given point of time. Same way, God is never away from us. People who face away from God have darkness in their life and people who face God have brightness in their life. 'To Face God' basically means to remember HIM and as long as you remember HIM, HE is going to be with you. HE is also driven by self-created rules. If you want HIM to remember you all the time, then you have to remember HIM all the time.
16/ When you face adversity, remember that God is not happy giving you that adversity, but it has a bigger purpose. When you face hunger, then you start to appreciate the hunger of others. In adversity, if you seek for power to face the adversity, God has to give you that power to solve HIS own bigger purpose.
17/ Each thought of ours is like a horse who is running our chariot of life. If you are thinking thoughts of the past and future, then the horses are trying to run in different directions. The situation of the chariot becomes pitiable in such a case. Unless all horses start running in the same direction, you will not be able to enjoy life. So, staying in present by doing your job and keeping your mind gainfully occupied allows all the horses to run in the same direction.
18/ Each person around you, even if he or she is supposedly harming you, is there in your world to elevate your soul in some special way. So, do not harm anyone, or feel bad about anyone.
19/ Whatever you desire, God always gives you opportunities to fulfil the same. The ways can be strange, but you will always get a chance - whether in this birth or the next birth.
20/ One of the biggest myths is that death will end all your suffering. When we die, we only get rid of the physical pain. The anger, hurt and all emotions go with us. As long as we live, we got to make best efforts to get rid of these vices.
21/ If your mind is relaxed, then you give the ability to the almighty to start sending in ideas to your mind through vibrations. But if it is already occupied with a lot of thoughts, then it's not possible in such a situation for the almighty to give ideas through vibrations. That's why we get brilliant ideas when we are, say, sitting calmly. It's also very important that we allow ourselves to receive ideas by keeping ourselves relaxed and just being in the situation.
22/ Love is one of the truest forms of God. A heart that is full of true love can never hate anyone.
23/ Only God can make you disease free - no one else can. Somebody can be a medium for you for that, but the blessings can only be given by God and if you want God to come to you and give you the blessings, you need to sit and pray in a very clean area, candlelight it, after taking bath and cleaning yourself. You have to create the environment clean enough for HIM to come and bless you.
24/ If a soul is very disturbed by departure of another soul, the other soul is compelled to stay close to this soul just trying to make an attempt to be with him or her. Think about the poor departed soul. It can't even depart properly. Let the departed go and rest in peace. Console yourself.
25/ You have to pay the price for everything that you want on this planet. The only exception is what you get from your Guru.
26/ The result of karmas cannot be destroyed but a Guru can change the address of the bearer.
1/ We have to accept whatever comes in front of us.
2/ God is only in the present - neither in the past nor in the future. Whenever we are doing anything, we ought to do it as if we are doing it for the last time. Enjoy it. If we are eating a mango, eat as if this is the last mango we are eating. If we reading a book read it as if this is the last book which we are reading.
3/ Pain is given by your Guru as a gift to you. In pain, you realize the pain of others and you become more conscious, more aware of what others are going through. These feelings blossoms love and appreciation towards the behavior of others.
4/ We spend most of our time in the journey rather than on the destination. We should try and learn to enjoy the journey as much as we can.
5/ God only looks at your intent. The intent of doing an action is far more important than the action itself. Actions and Results are for the world to see. He is interested only in your intent.
6/ Everyone is running around trying to reach some other place very quickly. We don't know what the hurry is. The person who is running also doesn't know why he is running. Everybody has been allotted 24 hours in a day. So why the hurry.
7/ Never eat alone. Don't ever feel that you are alone. God is always there with you. Always offer a share of your food to God and eat with him otherwise it's not justified.
8/ You can't see God. That doesn't mean he doesn't exist. HE is there around you. You have to believe in this fact at every moment of your life.
9/ A Guru's role is to connect the seeker to actual God.
10/ Love everyone but have faith only in your Guru and not on anyone else. Never doubt your Guru. He will never ever let you down.
11/ If God exists, then rebirth also exists because if God is there, then he has to be impartial to everyone. Rebirth is also proven by the fact that some children are born poor, and some rich; some are born handicapped, and some lead a life of luxury; some are born musicians. All this is not possible without the Karma from previous birth going forward to the next birth. In the new birth we get a chance to experience what we always wanted to experience. God is not kind or unkind to anyone. HE just manages it all with full justice.
12/ Life is just like another game with complex rules. If you play according to the rules, it works out well, and if not, you have to pay the penalty. There is nothing unfair in that. Just like in any sport, you may have to pay the penalty of breaking the rule in a game - in the next game, similarly in life you may have to pay the penalty of breaking the life rules in your next life. The player may not remember the rules he had broken but the empire or the referee remembers everything.
13/ God says that HE is always with anyone who calls him with pure love. God only needs love and nothing else - pure, unadulterated, selfless love. If anyone remembers him with that kind of love and affection, HE has to come.
14/ Every living being thanks nature for sunlight, water, food and in everything that nature provides them. The only exception is humans, who take all these things for granted.
15/ The sun never moves, therefore it's not the sun which is responsible for causing days or night. Rather it's the rotation of earth that causes a part of the earth to experience day and the other part to experience night at any given point of time. Same way, God is never away from us. People who face away from God have darkness in their life and people who face God have brightness in their life. 'To Face God' basically means to remember HIM and as long as you remember HIM, HE is going to be with you. HE is also driven by self-created rules. If you want HIM to remember you all the time, then you have to remember HIM all the time.
16/ When you face adversity, remember that God is not happy giving you that adversity, but it has a bigger purpose. When you face hunger, then you start to appreciate the hunger of others. In adversity, if you seek for power to face the adversity, God has to give you that power to solve HIS own bigger purpose.
17/ Each thought of ours is like a horse who is running our chariot of life. If you are thinking thoughts of the past and future, then the horses are trying to run in different directions. The situation of the chariot becomes pitiable in such a case. Unless all horses start running in the same direction, you will not be able to enjoy life. So, staying in present by doing your job and keeping your mind gainfully occupied allows all the horses to run in the same direction.
18/ Each person around you, even if he or she is supposedly harming you, is there in your world to elevate your soul in some special way. So, do not harm anyone, or feel bad about anyone.
19/ Whatever you desire, God always gives you opportunities to fulfil the same. The ways can be strange, but you will always get a chance - whether in this birth or the next birth.
20/ One of the biggest myths is that death will end all your suffering. When we die, we only get rid of the physical pain. The anger, hurt and all emotions go with us. As long as we live, we got to make best efforts to get rid of these vices.
21/ If your mind is relaxed, then you give the ability to the almighty to start sending in ideas to your mind through vibrations. But if it is already occupied with a lot of thoughts, then it's not possible in such a situation for the almighty to give ideas through vibrations. That's why we get brilliant ideas when we are, say, sitting calmly. It's also very important that we allow ourselves to receive ideas by keeping ourselves relaxed and just being in the situation.
22/ Love is one of the truest forms of God. A heart that is full of true love can never hate anyone.
23/ Only God can make you disease free - no one else can. Somebody can be a medium for you for that, but the blessings can only be given by God and if you want God to come to you and give you the blessings, you need to sit and pray in a very clean area, candlelight it, after taking bath and cleaning yourself. You have to create the environment clean enough for HIM to come and bless you.
24/ If a soul is very disturbed by departure of another soul, the other soul is compelled to stay close to this soul just trying to make an attempt to be with him or her. Think about the poor departed soul. It can't even depart properly. Let the departed go and rest in peace. Console yourself.
25/ You have to pay the price for everything that you want on this planet. The only exception is what you get from your Guru.
26/ The result of karmas cannot be destroyed but a Guru can change the address of the bearer.
April 1, 2012
It fails when it comes to the writing as I found the actual writing to be very subpar. However, the themes discussed in the book are done in an easy to understand way, and by mid-story, the story carried the book, rather than the writing.
***
Picked up this book from an Indian friend in Hong Kong. Her literary collection in her parent's house is great, and I was surprised to find out this book is not even in the Goodreads database. I just started it, but so far it is an incredibly uplifting story, with a large focus on the importance of a 'master' and the meaning of 'karma'.
***
Picked up this book from an Indian friend in Hong Kong. Her literary collection in her parent's house is great, and I was surprised to find out this book is not even in the Goodreads database. I just started it, but so far it is an incredibly uplifting story, with a large focus on the importance of a 'master' and the meaning of 'karma'.
September 13, 2012
A fine insight into life's many questions that we need answers for. Read and re read....a definite thumbs up for this one.
August 27, 2014
This book really amaze's me whenever i read it
September 14, 2016
Beautiful!!
April 28, 2021
Finished reading "The Fakir" by Ruzbeh N. Bharucha. A phenomenal book that teaches you in plain & uncomplicated jargon on how the Karmic Law works and why there's no escaping it.
Do you think life is predestined and you have no say in whatever that happens? Even if 90% of one's life is already predetermined, and each person has only 10%, in his or her own control, I would still say, that the 10% you have as "free will" and in your control, is more important than the 90% in the karmic vault bank.
Spirituality doesn't mean only going beyond pleasure and weaknesses. Spirituality also means going beyond prejudice and pain, and any and everything that takes you away from your equilibrium, and your primary goal of selflessly loving your Creator and traversing the path of merging with The Light or Creator.
Death is a myth. Life never ends. Ignorance does.
Do you think life is predestined and you have no say in whatever that happens? Even if 90% of one's life is already predetermined, and each person has only 10%, in his or her own control, I would still say, that the 10% you have as "free will" and in your control, is more important than the 90% in the karmic vault bank.
Spirituality doesn't mean only going beyond pleasure and weaknesses. Spirituality also means going beyond prejudice and pain, and any and everything that takes you away from your equilibrium, and your primary goal of selflessly loving your Creator and traversing the path of merging with The Light or Creator.
Death is a myth. Life never ends. Ignorance does.
July 19, 2020
Fakir by Ruzbeh N Bharucha an inspiring book that combines lessons for life and spirituality. Whilst everything is graded or ranked, the key is to give your best shot to life and care less about the result. The intent and effort is more important in the books of nature, hence doing good with the good intent is what accounts for a balanced account. The emphasis on enjoying simple things in life is the key to happiness, on accepting the events as they occur as the will of the master and playing those events out with faith, strength, love and compassion is the key to happiness and spiritual growth. #BookLovers #LoveToRead #dntjbookclub #atozentrepreneurship
August 21, 2018
It's a good, heartfelt book but I liked it in parts.
Certain principal explained very beautifully and leaves you to introspect . The one I liked the most - “That very person who is creating hell in your life may bring you closer to God, prayers and spirituality. It hurts you in the present lifetime, but may be that is the only way you learn the lesson".
The footnotes were well cherished.
The monologue stretches a bit more than normal. I know that the author was trying to drive home some points but the implementation could have been better. This book is worth reading.
Certain principal explained very beautifully and leaves you to introspect . The one I liked the most - “That very person who is creating hell in your life may bring you closer to God, prayers and spirituality. It hurts you in the present lifetime, but may be that is the only way you learn the lesson".
The footnotes were well cherished.
The monologue stretches a bit more than normal. I know that the author was trying to drive home some points but the implementation could have been better. This book is worth reading.
July 19, 2019
A captivating book,book of life..." sometimes an opportunity comes to you in form f disaster.Sometimes the only way God can find place in your heart is through pain and sorrow and turmoil."So true...
It also came at a time when I had started receiving healing and have become a benefactor of this amazing energy.
Just loved it ,in fact just finishing its second part !
It also came at a time when I had started receiving healing and have become a benefactor of this amazing energy.
Just loved it ,in fact just finishing its second part !
January 29, 2022
Not sure if the book I read was poorly proofread and edited but the book had so many spelling and grammar mistakes that I had to constantly keep making sense of what the author wanted to say. Overall the book has a lot of spiritual literature inspired by books like Autobiography of a Yogi. Without context it just appeared as a poor cut copy rendition of the same. Can give it a miss.
September 14, 2025
This is a different kind of genre from what I read.
This book was recommended to me by my Mentor Ms. Vigneshwari.
This book is about being a Medium, or can also be called as a light worker.
This talks about a man (Rudra) with his Guru about how one should lead a life where he can be a medium and how he can heal others.
Lots of snippets at the bottom of the book are worth pondering.
This book was recommended to me by my Mentor Ms. Vigneshwari.
This book is about being a Medium, or can also be called as a light worker.
This talks about a man (Rudra) with his Guru about how one should lead a life where he can be a medium and how he can heal others.
Lots of snippets at the bottom of the book are worth pondering.
May 2, 2018
Highlights some home truths around Sai Baba's life and purported teachings. Could have been condensed into half its current size, as the author belabours many instances to repeatedly drive home oft-repeated messages.
January 23, 2019
I was wondering why should i read it. But somehow i read the reviews and managed to read. From the bottom of my heart i am saying that it's phenomenal. I have read many spiritual books. But this will be one of my favorite book forever... Salute to author...
February 7, 2022
Written in first person, the reader easily connects to the author but a lot of the book is about his sadness over being away from his children. Sadly, a lot of it. The parts that have to be sifted out are some of the statements made by the Baba about the life’s philosophy. That goodness of actions would help create good karma. Being in the moment and helping the aggrieved should be the way to live. That all the answers are within us, and pain and sorrow are self-inflicted. What’s necessary is to sit quietly, go within by focusing on one’s breath and find peace or answers that one seeks.
May 13, 2019
Very engrossing book. Could not stop reading till it was complete.
June 1, 2019
One of the best books that I have read on spirituality and would recommended it very strongly.
September 6, 2019
excellent narrative
February 24, 2020
Good spiritual reading
August 6, 2020
A very nice read on positive thinking and living in the moment.
October 24, 2020
if you believe in path and a steering force, a guide; this book deepens the belief and a hope is it lit , a flame to be sparked till the quench of destiny is showered for the real
December 14, 2021
Breeze of a read, very life affirming.
#Recommended
#Recommended
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January 9, 2022Thank you for the wisdom
January 3, 2026
spirituality is explained in simple yet powerful words
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews