Prashant Solomon has been a regular contributor to the Speaking Tree — India’s leading spiritual column which is printed everyday in the editorial section of the Times of India — for the past ten years. The Cosmic Light Within: Essays on Faith, Prayers, Love, Truth, the Eternal Journey of the Soul and God is a collection of 26 essays written by Solomon, several of which were published in the Speaking Tree section until January 2014.
The sixth essay in the collection is “When your Earth Visa Expires”, which was chosen in the Best of Speaking Tree Volume 8. The essay talks about the journey of the soul after the death of a person. Solomon explores the beliefs of several religions in relation to this topic, also touching upon different accounts of near-death experience — by people who were declared as clinically dead but who came back to life. Solomon uses a very simple example to explain the phenomena of the transmigration of souls:
“When TV channels are changed, it is only awareness that is shifting from one channel to another. The old channel doesn’t cease to exist because the channel is being viewed. It is just that the screen is now displaying a different frequency. This is the same principle that happens when we die. Our awareness is turned into a different frequency of creation. The Earth plane does not cease to exist, but the person who has passed on, the frequency of awareness has shifted.”
“When TV channels are changed, it is only awareness that is shifting from one channel to another.”
Meanwhile, the eighteenth essay in the collection, “Power of Thought: Each Thought Creates a Universal Vibration”, talks of the same principle that countless other spiritual writers and thinkers have always obsessed about: the power of positive thinking. And if I explain the concept of this chapter just as the author had in the first essay titled “Still the Mind and See the Light”, it’ll go somewhat like this: Every thought is like a pebble thrown in a pond. It creates ripples that are carried forward. And just as the intensity of the impact increases the ripples’ strength also increases. So, our thoughts are vibrations that hold the power to alter the universe, the stronger the thought, the stronger the vibration.
Solomon further explains the impact of these vibrations by saying, “Have you noticed that when you enter into a room where there has been a fight or argument, you can “sense” the tension in the air? Have you ever been in a place where you have had an eerie or uncomfortable feeling? We have all felt this some time or the other. It is natural for us to be able to sense vibrations.”
Overall, The Cosmic Light Within doesn’t provide any new soulful lessons. It just takes all the thoughts that other spiritual writers or preachers have been putting out for years to a different level. So, if The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari, or The Secret, or The Alchemist or any other popular book that rocked the market in the genre of spiritual texts failed to grip or mold your thoughts, don’t expect this one to work any wonders on you.