Amazon johnkunnathu.com Createspace Category:  Inspirational ISBN-10:  1451555490 ISBN-13: 9781451555493 This book is an orientation to human life. Written specifically for young men and women, it will help every reader to make their life meaningful, successful, and easier. Addressing fifteen basic questions about life, this book takes the form of a conversation in a setting that is common for the three major Semitic wisdom traditions in the world. The conversation happens in ancient Alexandria before Christ between a wise man and some young people. The wise man quotes from the first three chapters of the book of Genesis, which is commonly accepted by all the Semitic religions. When you start working in a new organization or company, you will need an orientation of what it does, and what your role is. Well, when we enter this world, the biggest of organizations, we need an orientation with the same purpose. We need to know what this organization is, what our role is, how we are related to others, etc. An orientation will help us live our life much more easily and successfully. When I was growing up, I craved for such an orientation to life, but I was disappointed. As nobody gave me a satisfactory orientation, I took the initiative to orient myself. I began to ask questions to everyone I met. Some of the questions amused them, but some others angered them. At the age of five, I asked my older sister if the Sun rose because of our morning prayer, which was as regular as the Sunrise, and it certainly amused her. But when I asked my mother why a girl is different from a boy, it angered her. As I grew up further I began to ask more serious existential questions. Soon I found that the people around me were as ignorant as I was, which made me turn to books. I became a voracious reader hoping to find bits of wisdom from each of the books I read. I had to spend years before I could formulate a set of answers to my questions.  If reading helped me to collect bits of wisdom, it was writing that helped me to organize them, and continue my search further. I remember writing a full length book in my early twenties with the title “The world, a family”. It was a very good exercise which helped me read and write further, but I have lost the manuscript . In my thirties, when I was a school teacher in Ethiopia, I started writing a book that answers the basic questions of life. I named it “The Questions of Life and Death” and continued working on it even after reaching the US. For a few years it stayed within the hard disc of my computer before I had a chance to read it again recently. I was amazed to find that I was fully in agreement with everything in there in spite of the knowledge I have acquired over the past decade. I also realized that the questions answered in this book are timeless, and that this book would be of tremendous help to any young person struggling with similar existential questions.  That is how I decided to publish this book under the title An Orientation to our Life. Excerpt The Setting of the Stage Our story is set a long time ago, before Christ, in ancient Egypt. A large number of Jewish people had settled in Alexandria, the most prominent city in Egypt. They used to gather in their synagogues (their place of worship) every Saturday to worship Yahweh (their name of God), and to learn their Holy Scriptures. The one who led the teaching sessions was called a rabbi. In a synagogue in Alexandria, there was a famous rabbi called Solomon. He was well known for his wisdom, openness, and kindness. He was often equated to Solomon, the wise emperor. After the worship session, the rabbi used to conduct special study meetings every Saturday for the young people in the synagogue. All the young people of the synagogue liked to attend the meetings. No one needed to be persuaded, for they all enjoyed the rabbi's conversation. Anybody was free to suggest a topic related to his/her day-to-day life. The rabbi referred to their Holy Scriptures occasionally as an aid to giving answers to their questions. There were several large trees around the synagogue, and they preferred to sit in the cool shade of a tree in a circle when they had the discussions. An average of fifteen people attended the meetings. Their group included both men and women, and they were between eighteen and twenty-five years of age. Some of the active participants were Yohanes, Martha, Ezekiel, Esther, and Ahaz. Esther used to keep a record of their weekly meetings. She took notes while attending the discussion, and later she elaborated it at her home in the form of questions and answers. In the following pages, we shall see how Esther recorded some of their discussions. ************** 7. How can we Mend Broken Relationships? Ahaz came today with a gloomy face. It was clear that he was upset about something. We asked him what was wrong, and he spoke. Ahaz: Well, there was an incident at my home, and my father got very upset about me. He had asked me to water some of the plants in the mornings as he goes to work very early in the morning. Although I did it for some time, I have not been that regular lately. Without enough water, many of those plants couldn’t survive. He asked me about it, and I had to tell him what happened. He got very upset. After listening to the story, the Rabbi asked him a question. Rabbi: So, what did you do then? Ahaz: Well, there was not much to do. I just can’t face him. I am trying to hide myself from him. Rabbi: Ahaz, your story sounds like another version of the story of Adam and Eve. They were living in God’s garden just as you live in your father’s home now. There was a certain agreement between them and God. In your case the agreement with your father was that you would water the plants every morning. In their case the agreement was that they would take care of a garden but would not eat the fruit of a certain tree. They broke the agreement just as you did. You feel like you can’t face your father, and you try to hide yourself from him. That is exactly what they did: they hid themselves behind a tree. A relationship between any two parties involves an agreement. Whenever an agreement is broken, the relationship is broken. You don’t have the same relationship with your father any more—that is what makes you feel that you can’t face him. When Adam and Eve ate those fruit, they broke their agreement, and it broke their relationship with God as well. Ahaz: Is it possible to mend a broken relationship? Rabbi: Though it is hard, it is not impossible. The party that broke the agreement has to apologize sincerely, and promise that anything like this would never happen again. If the other party is willing to forgive, their relationship will be re-established. This did not happen in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve did not apologize for their mistake. They were quick to place the blame on someone else. Hence, they could not mend their broken relationship with God. Adam placed the blame on Eve and God when he said, “The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit.” This broke his relationship with God and Eve. He should have apologized to both God and Eve to mend the broken relationships. Instead, he only justified himself. Eve was not willing to take the responsibility either. She placed the blame on the snake, and thereby God for letting the snake be in the garden. She didn’t apologize either. At the end of the story we see them with all relationships broken. Hearing this Ahaz had tears in his eyes. Ahaz: I understand my mistake now. I am going to see my father right away, and apologize to him. I am sure he is going to forgive me. This way I can re-establish the broken relationship. Rabbi: This is something all of us need to do in our everyday life. We are human beings, and we all do mistakes. The all-knowing God is the only one capable of avoiding mistakes. We break agreements with our fellow beings as well as with God in our day-to-day life. However, we should not let our mistakes break our relationships. We should be willing to apologize as soon as we realize the mistake. Similarly when someone apologizes his/her mistake to us, we should be willing to forgive him/her right away. Imagine how the world would be if all people in the world are willing to apologize and to forgive! That is when the world becomes the family of God! Yohannes: Will our world ever become that way? Rabbi: When I learn to apologize and to forgive, I experience being in the family of God in my own personal life. I will also extend it around me wherever I am. It seems that we, human beings, are here primarily to learn this lesson. We don’t know if all the people in the world would ever become willing to apologize and forgive. However, as more and more people learn to do this, it can become the standard behavior of a community or nation. Our meeting and discussion today was a transforming experience to all of us! ***********

An Insightful Learning Experience
I was intrigued by the title of this book "An Orientation to our Life." I was even more fascinated to learn that it was written in a conversational style. So, I decided to order the book.

15 basic questions are asked within the pages of this book, such as Why do we Live?, How can we Identify Good from Evil?, Does God exist? and so on. They are discussed in a meaningful and insightful manner within a conversational group venue between a Rabbi and young adults. Though this title does not adhere to any one Religious group it will provide insights into different scriptures and beliefs.

I found the book fascinating, contemplative and inspirational. I think it would make for a fantastic learning experience for anyone, not just young men and women. It engages the reader with thought provoking analysis of one's own beliefs and thought process. It will have you asking yourself questions and contemplating your own life and beliefs.

A short but good and educational read for everyone.

A thought provoking read
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A thought provoking read, April 4, 2010
By Vineeth Philip John - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: An Orientation to Our Life: A Guide to Young Men and Women (Volume 1) (Paperback)
The mark of a genius is in the kind of questions one would ask oneself. In John Kunnathu's " An orientation to life" , I found those kind of questions , if asked by anyone at the prime of their youth, could alter the course of the questioner's destiny. Written in a simple and unassuming style, the book encourages the reader to be an eager witness to a series of discussions between a learned man, Rabbi and a group of young inquisitive people. The main focus of the book is to focus on some of the most intriguing existential queries which have perplexed most philosophers and thinkers for thousands of years. To give you a example, Rabbi and his group grapple with questions like" Why do we live?, How can we identify good from evil?, Where will we go: To Heaven or Hell?" . The answers are based on scriptural truths, free any narrow religious leanings. The style is conversational, the language smooth and flowing and the content extremely thought provoking. This book serves as an essential map to one's journey of life with it's focus on the most pertinent aspects of our existence in this world.

An excellent book for Sunday School teachers
This book is a very easy read and is short in length and therefore it should serve as an excellent primer for teaching youngsters who are curious to learn about human life, and its purpose, though it is explained strictly within the limitations of an Abrahamic faith-framework. Its emphasis on educating the young folks using simple language and concepts in tackling many issues central to human existence is commendable. From that point of view, the author has succeeded in developing a good teaching tool.

The book should serve as a good philosophical introduction for youngsters of Abrahamic faiths to understand the value of pluralism. But, I doubt very much whether the "orthodoxies" ingrained in the custodians of the churches, synagogues and mosques will allow a book like this to be used as a primer in educating their youth. Despite that reservation, my sincere congratulations to the author in producing a helpful book that can aid the youngsters of Abrahamic faiths to understand the purpose of human existence.

The book's value would have been enhanced in my view, if the Rabbi (teacher in the book) had also delved deeper into the wisdom literature of the eastern faiths such as Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Taoism etc., in order to highlight the conceptual congruences between the Abrahamic faiths and other eastern religious tributaries that empty into the same and only "River of God". The latter's characterizations of heaven, hell, sex, purpose of human existence etc., would have been equally challenging for youngsters on this increasingly inter-dependent world to ponder over and see the syncretic features contained in all the great religions of the world. Never the less, the openness shown by the Rabbi to the spirit of pluralism as the underpinning needed for the preservation of a purposeful human community is indeed laudable.

C. Alex Alexander