‘The Asura Way’ book review: Serving the self

An obese king, eager to lose weight, is asked by the physician to not think of a green elephant when he’s taking the medicine.

A snake, much revered by local villagers, listens to the advice of a monk and becomes the epitome of humility. Vishnu and Brahma fight over who is greater, and Shiva, turning into a massive pillar of light, dares them to each find one end of the pillar. Sudama, driven to desperation by poverty, goes to his old friend, Krishna. These are all stories from folk, religious and mythological sources that most Indians have grown up with.

Anand Neelakantan, in his debut non-fiction book, The Asura Way: The Contrarian Path to Success, however, turns mythology on its head and shows that it may not be the most advisable path to follow, in today’s age, for success. He writes at the beginning of the book: “After all, we are said to be living in the Kali Yuga, or ‘the age of Kali’. Most of the Puranas belonged to different yugas. What they advise may have been true for those eras, but for the age of Kali, isn’t the path of Kali more relevant?”

After a brief introduction, he discusses nine different pieces of “false advice”: precepts that, according to him, are best disregarded in modern times. From krodha (anger) to kama (desire), from mada (pride) to lobha (greed) and moha (attachment), from being content with what you have to working without the thought of the result, Neelakantan examines these age-old ideas. Using his own example, of how he progressed from a thankless job to being a bestselling writer, he shows how these ‘virtues’ can be vices in the modern world, holding people back.