Book Review: Ecstasy

This is the story of a village boy Gopal (symbolic representation of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa), coming in contact with sadhus residing in the rest house of his village, developing an interest in mysticism and reaching spiritual heights, quite unconventionally and rapidly. Another story of Vivek (representation of Swami Vivekananda) runs parallel who becomes disciple of spiritually enlightened Gopal, known as Ram Das Baba. While Gopal takes up his destined path of becoming a Yogi with a little resistance from his mother, Vivek had no idea of taking up spiritual path until his father’s death even though his horoscopes suggested that is his destiny.

This would have been a fictional biography of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, but author had made changes by setting up the story in a different time, so the protagonist characters become symbolic representations of the spiritual legends.