Mind Bomb by Lokesh

Lokesh became a sannyasin in March 1975 and also spent some time with HWL Poonja in Lucknow. He was one of the co-creators of the first sannyas disco in Koregaon Park sanctioned by Osho: Caravanserai. He still DJs to this day. He is currently working in conjunction with a photo journalist on a book titled ‘Once Upon a Time on Ibiza’. Lokesh and his beloved wife, Prita, are long-distance swimmers and in summer swim daily, together with a small group, out into The Big Blue. They live on Ibiza.

Online bookseller delivers globally: fantasticfiction.co.uk

Mind Bomb is available worldwide from numerous online booksellers. Amazon’s international outlets offer the book in three formats, hardcover, paperback and Kindle. The paperback and Kindle editions are both revised editions and therefore the ones to go for. Note that all profits from Mind Bomb sales go to Cambodian landmine victims, a cause that Lokesh is passionate about.

Review
Dubbed by one award-winning Amazon reviewer as, and I quote: ‘One of the best books I have ever read.’ Mind Bomb, by Scottish author, Luke Mitchell (Swami Anand Lokesh), really is quite a special novel.

The story begins one evening on a deserted Cambodian beach in 2005, when a Scottish tourist, Hamish Macleod, decides to sit down beneath a coconut tree to smoke a cigarette. It is undoubtedly the worst decision in Hamish’s otherwise well-planned life, because he sits on top of a landmine. In an instant he is thrown into a situation wherein, if he moves, he will, in all probability, be transformed into pink mist. The intensity of his predicament soon gains enough momentum to catapult him out of his mind into dimensions beyond the known.

Angus Macleod is Hamish’s twin brother. He is a multi-millionaire with a nefarious past, who runs a luxurious meditation resort with his beautiful wife in Sri Lanka. Angus is everything Hamish is not and a man who has lived life to the absolute max, and it is this life that Hamish suddenly finds himself reliving. And so it happens that Hamish Macleod, sitting on a bomb on a moonlit beach, becomes the launch pad to blast off into Angus Macleod’s life; a life far more adventurous, exciting and completely over the top than the life that Hamish has more or less managed to sleepwalk his way through.

Hamish’s mind transports him back to where it all began, Scotland’s holy isle of Iona. It is there that he and his twin brother are separated at birth, after both parents die on the day he and Angus are born. Hamish is taken to mainland Scotland and set on a path that will bring him into a life of middle-class conformity. Angus remains on Iona and has a number of fascinating experiences that help shape his subversive personality. He moves to Glasgow as a young teenager in the early sixties. Glasgow is an extremely violent city that he soon adapts to. He becomes a petty criminal and ends up in prison. Back in the free world, he and his two best friends rob a bank, discover LSD, become drug dealers and make a fortune, most of which is stolen by a gang of thugs at gunpoint, an incident that leads to a brutal murder. The love interest in the story is Jenny, a sexy advocate of love and peace, who makes Howard Marks look like a novice when it comes to rolling joints. Running parallel to the story’s main thread are recollections of conversations held between Hamish and modern-day Angus. These dialogues cover various topics, ranging from the state of the world to the meaning of life.

In essence, Mind Bomb is a compelling coming-of-age story, an adrenaline and drug-fuelled romp through the hedonistic sixties in Glasgow and a humorous enquiry into the concept that everything that happens to one in life is decreed by fate. What will be of special interest to sannyasins is how Osho is used in a fictional context to help present some of the writer’s ideas. One of the chapters in the book begins with a description of an Indian Guru being cremated. Although not named, anyone who knows about Osho will recognize that it is him being described in a very positive light. An exchange with Advaita Vedanta teacher H.W.L. Poonja is also described, although once again he is not named. In the sequel to Mind Bomb, Borderline Dreamtime, Osho is introduced into the story and is named as such. It is pretty much guaranteed that if you reach the end of Mind Bomb you will wish to read the sequel immediately. Borderline Dreamtime is a truly remarkable book that deserves a separate review all of its own.

My favourite quotation from Lokesh’s work, which is taken from his second book and perhaps says more about me than anything else is the following:

‘You have a guru?’

‘Yes,’ answered the swami, ‘his name is Sadguru, the supreme master, and he resides here in my spiritual heart.’ Swami Ram patted the centre of his chest. Perceiving rightly that the young man sitting cross-legged before him was puzzled by his declaration, he elaborated. ‘The light which shines peacefully and eternally in the innermost shrine of our heart is the real guru. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a deceiver.’

So, put on your crash helmets and prepare to tumble through the maya on what for me was an unforgettable literary ride.

Kaiyum, Osho News

Video spoof about Mind Bomb: