Est. 1964 · Mumbai1964 – 2025 · every issue, digitised
Parsiana
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Book Notes

Meditation manual

By Sherene Vakil · April 21, 2016
Pestonji K. Sholapurwala (pictured), a scientist attached to Bombay’s Haffkine Institute who after retirement joined Dr Cyrus Poonawalla’s Serum Institute of India, was a practitioner of cognitive meditation, a term which he had coined himself. He believed that "meditation is the skill behind all other skills and (among) its modern uses is the excellence it brings to our professional activities.” Having put down his theory and practice in a manual titled Meditation for the Modern Man, A short introduction to ‘Cognitive Meditation’, he did not live to see it in print. The book was published "in loving memory of our dear Pesi Kaka” by his nephew Firdosh Sholapurwala along with a slew of other nieces and nephews.
In his Foreword Poonawalla describes the author as his "dear friend, philosopher and advisor Pesi” and the book as "a celebration of free thinking, uncluttered by the fetters of religion or standard practice of cults or godmen.”
Taking the reader through the theory of cognitive meditation, the author explains its effect on psychosomatic and psychological health, and provides guidance on how to gain the self-awareness gifted by nature. It then progresses to explain the dynamics of the method, its actual practice and techniques to be used. Enriched by a useful glossary of terms and an extensive bibliography, the book is intended to share with others a method unique to its creator.
Dedicated to his mother Tehmina, whom the author describes as "a great observer of the world” (she lived an active life until the age of 107), the 323-page book, whose price has not been mentioned, has been brought out by Partridge India. Copies are available at orders.india@partridgepublishing.com
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