‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho
By Dipti Savla Gala
Conscious Parenting Coach & Founder
Confident-U Child Enrichment and Parenting
Mumbai, India
‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist is an inspirational story of a shepherd, Santiago who lived in Andalusia. The book is about his journey to find the hidden treasure in the Pyramids of Egypt. Paulo Coelho, the author tries to explain to the readers the four major obstacles of “Why we don’t follow our personal calling?”, “Why don’t we have the courage to confront and achieve our dreams?”
- From childhood we have been told that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea and this gets ingrained in the form of fear and guilt over the years. All our personal callings and dreams get buried in our souls and become invisible. We turn a blind eye to it while it’s still sitting there in some corner of our hearts and soul.
- Love – We may hurt people in order to pursue our dreams.
- Fear of defeats – All kinds of fear which stops one from achieving the goal. All Ifs and Buts.
- Leave our dreams just a step before, by giving up when all we had done is sacrificed and lived up for them, nurtured them and fought for them. We make stupid mistakes and never reach the goal when it is only a step away.
Through the story of Santiago, the author is trying to tell that when you want something with all your heart, that’s when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It’s called the “Soul of the World”. And when you strongly desire to achieve your dreams, Universe tries to help you by sending you signals through Omens. This Shepherd meets the old king, a gypsy wizard, a crystal merchant, Melchizedek (King of Salem), Fatima, Camel driver, an Englishman, the Monk who step by step come into his life and teaches him or guides him which takes the shepherd towards his goal, the Hidden treasure.
The book that most interested the boy told the stories of the famous Alchemist. They were men who had dedicated their entire lives to the purification of metals in the laboratories, they believe that, if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties and What was left would be the Soul of the World.
The boy learnt that the
- Liquid part of the Masterwork of heating the metal is the Elixir of life which symbolizes the lessons or happiness in doing the tasks to reach the goal and the
- Solid part of the Philosopher’s Stone (the person you become in the process)
The Alchemists spent years in laboratories, observing the fire that purified the metals. They spent so much time close to fire that gradually they gave up the vanities of the World. They discovered that the purification of metals has led to purification of themselves.
Likewise, the journey towards your inner calling or dreams brings you back to your own soul and you can divide your mastery into Liquid and Solid States as in the case of metals. (Lessons learnt and the person you become). We all learn alchemy in our daily lives but seldom can we bifurcate into Elixir of life and Philosopher’s stone. The author is very happy that the Shepherd could do that for his life.
“Every second of the search is an encounter with God,” the boy told his heart. “When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I’ve known that every hour was a part of the dream that I would find it. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I’ve discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve.”
The book also teaches us that before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved towards that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’
“Every search begins with a beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor being severely tested”. The boy remembered an old proverb from his country. It said that the darkest hour of the night came just before dawn. The secret of life, though, is to fall Seven times and to get up the Eighth time.
Santiago never failed to get up, he thought of leaving the journey half-way and return back to his nomadic life with sheep, but he trusted his instincts every time and followed his passion deeply so much so that when he actually reached the pyramids, he understood he already had the treasure. While achieving your dreams the destination is important, but more important is the Journey. For Santiago the journey and the person he became in the process was the ultimate treasure.
By Dipti Savla Gala
Conscious Parenting Coach & Founder
Confident-U Child Enrichment and Parenting
Mumbai, India
Dipti Savla Gala is a Conscious Parenting Coach. She is a certified counsellor and landmark curriculum graduate along with graduation in Commerce and Interior Designing. She is The Founder/Designer at Confident-U (Child Enrichment and Parenting). She is The Founder of Your Child – Your Treasure and is on a mission to help 100,000 parents consciously raise next generation leaders.
She firmly believes:
Leaders of tomorrow live in the schools of today so INVEST IN THEM. She also believes “Our responsibility as parents is not only to raise our kids, but it also lies in giving good humans to society”.