KANHU CHARAN PATRA is Professor HAG in the Department of Civil Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India. He has PhD from IIT Kharagpur, M Tech, PG (Diploma) from IIT Roorkee, and B.Tech from NIT Rourkela. He was the 1st class first and the overall topper of the entire IIT Roorkee in 1987. He has received more than 20 Awards/Gold Medals/Honorary Certificates, including the Best Scientist Award, among others. He has wide experience of 42 years of service in various positions. Over the last 22 years, he has been teaching as a Professor (HAG) at NIT Rourkela. Earlier, he worked as a Reader at CET, OUAT Bhubaneswar for 9 years, and prior to that, he had worked in the Government of Odisha for about 12 years. He has authored 20 books, out of which 7 are textbooks in water resources and hydraulic engineering [published by the CRC Press USA, Alpha Science UK, and Narosa India], which are used as reference books in over 100 countries. Besides, he has edited 2 books and authored 11 more book chapters. He has more than 260 research papers to his credit. He is also a member of many national and international organizations/societies.
With a spiritual bent of mind, he has ventured to write this book with the hope that the book guides at least a single person towards his path and lets people understand the meaning of life.
The first chapter gives a brief outline of the journey of the soul (Aatma), while the second chapter discusses the essence of karma in life. The third chapter discusses the evolution of life on Earth, starting with the creation of the Universe, the galaxies and the stars. The next three chapters (4-6) discuss the existence of life on the exoplanets with links to life on Earth. Our life in these realms after our departure from Earth is discussed with a link to our Karma. Chapter 7 discusses our Karma and yoga, while some personal examples of karmic effects are given in Chapter 8. Chapters 9-12 discuss Mantras and their practices, Yantra and Tantras with inter-relationships, including a good discussion on Vedas-Upanishads, Puja, Samadhi, and other terminologies that I am sure should be interesting to the readers. Finally, the book introduces in brief the life of some great enlightened spiritual masters who have guided the people at large from time and again.