Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho Summary

Santwana Mohanty

4 years ago

Like the flowing river is a book which can be an inspiration for the readers understanding the depth of different topics Paulo talks about. He cites a different perspective towards a society working uniquely in his/her way.

Overview

The book like the flowing river is all about how the author has learnt new things from little experiences in his life and what he has looked around. This book will not only help you changing your perspective but also how you can build on yourself and how you can learn from the experiences.

Context

Paulo Coelho has penned down all his thoughts and reflections into short stories. It contains more than 100 stories in the book like the flowing river.

Stories to take the taste of the book

He is one of my favorite writers because like him I also believe in science, miracles and angels.

1^st story: Prepared for battle, but with a few doubts

In this story Paulo describes when he was weeding his garden suddenly a question popped into his mind whether he is doing right or wrong because the thing we call as weed, nature takes millions of create any particular species and he should not simply remove or destroy the nature’s hard work.

Another question came up in his mind that whether he should destroy the garden in this way which is cultivated and groomed by the gardener previously.

Thought

“Every gesture made by human being is sacred and full of consequences”

So he must do a thing after giving a good thought upon it. The grass tells him,” If you do not protect me the weed destroys me whereas the weed says, “Why do you want to kill me, I have travelled so far to reach your garden.”

Gita

Then he came into a decision recollecting the Hindu texts from Bhagavad Gita; ‘Do you really think you can kill anyone? Your hand is my hand, and it was already written that everything you are doing would be done. No one kills and no one dies.’

2^nd story: The story of the pencil

He writes about the qualities of pencil in one of the stories of like the flowing river. Here grandmother wants her grandson to become like a pencil.

One of the qualities of pencil is “You are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and he always guides us according to his will”.

It’s so beautifully penned that it would bring a sense of peace in your mind and bring smile in your face.