Book Review-Shattered Dreams (Ramayana: the Game of Life, # 2) by Shubha Vilas

Shattered Dreams (Ramayana: the Game of Life, # 2) by Shubha Vilas

Source- Goodreads

Shattered Dreams is the sequel to the national bestseller, Rise of the Sun Prince, in the new spiritual and motivational series Ramayana - The Game of Life. Twelve joyful years have passed in Ayodhya since the wedding of Rama and Sita at the end of Book 1.

Now, in Shattered Dreams, Shubha Vilas narrates the riveting drama of Rama’s exile. Through tales of Rama’s unwavering and enigmatic persona, the book teaches us how to handle reversals positively; through Bharata’s actions, it teaches us to handle temptation; and through Sita’s courage, to explore beyond our comfort zone. This complicated family drama provides deep insights on how human relationships work and how they fail. 

With Valmiki’s Ramayana as its guiding light, Shattered Dreams deftly entwines poetic beauty from the Kamba Ramayana and Ramacharitramanas, as well as folk philosophy from the Loka Pramana tales, to demonstrate how the ancient epic holds immediate relevance to modern life. Experience the ancient saga of the Ramayana like never before.

Review-

No matter how many times you read mythological stories, they always have new and different pearls of wisdom to impart. The great Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata ,are among such gems that people of all age love listening to the tales of heroism and the righteousness and how good always wins over the evil in the end.

Last year when I read the book Rise of the Sun Prince by Shubha Vilas, which is the first part among the series- Ramayana: The Game of Life #,  I was bowled over by the detailing and the footnotes which enlightens on how the inherent wisdom from the beautiful tale can be imbibed in the present modern day. While the first book concentrated on the birth of Rama and His training under Vishwamitra and ends with Lord Rama’s marriage with Sita, the second book describes in detail about Rama’s coronation as Ayodhya’s king and the following schemes by Manthara and Kaikeyi to halt King Dasaratha’s plans and send Rama to exile.  It also illustrates Rama’s righteousness and his unyielding dedication to carry His father’s orders despite His family’s and His followers appeal to come back and rule His kingdom of Ayodhya.

As I have said before in my review of Part 1 of this series, what makes the book different are the footnotes which are full of wisdom and knowledge on how this great epic can teach us to live a morally correct life. Apart from this, the author, Shubha Vilas also emphasizes on the various virtues of an able leader and his responsibilities towards the people under his government.

The narration is seamless and upholds Rama’s virtues of absolute honesty and his undeterred devotion to His parents. The only drawback I found, compared to the first book in the series, was it seemed slow paced because the first part had a lot of little anecdotes about Rama and Lakshmana’s adventurous journey. I hope the next part of the series introduces Ravana, who forms an integral and interesting character in the great epic. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Rating – 4