From our earliest years, we learned from stories, as our parents read us fairytales or from religious books. So with the massive popularity of self-help books telling everyone what to do, why has it taken so long for someone to teach us some of the most important aspects of our existence through the telling of a few stories?

Finally, someone has, in the new novel: “TEA: the Recipe for Stress-Free Living,” by Ratanjit S. Sondhe, and published by DiscoverHelp Publishing.

Despite the book’s name, TEA is not about the tea that we drink. But the theme of tea runs in a number of ways through this unique book, which is perhaps best described as a combination novel + self-help + applied spirituality. Tea is served at a gathering of friends on the west coast of the United States, where a monk from Kathmandu shares an afternoon with a group of people who have become stressed by the world they live in. During this “tea party”, the monk, “Swamiji”, informs them that the recipe to eliminate the stress in their lives is revealed within the word TEA, which is actually an acronym for the three words that provide this recipe. Each letter stands for something profound Truth-Expectations-Acceptance.

The novel relates the real life and interactive dialogue between Swamiji and his inquisitive audience, but most of the time is spent listening to a variety of his stories. They range from an adventurous Prince in early civilization to an Olympics Gold Medalist to a couple raising troubled children.

Each story is interesting and absorbing at its face value, but they all have deeper meanings and cause the stressed guests to understand why they are in their condition, and what they can do to change how they live their lives. Along the way, readers would identify with some of the very likeable characters, and what they are learning. But unlike most self-help books on the shelves today, the reader is never actually told what or what not to do. The stories merely present the logical reasons why certain attitudes and actions are in the readers’ best interest.

So, what is this secret recipe? It would be a great injustice if I tried to relate in a few words what this special book demonstrates so thoroughly. The message is complex, but with the help of the stories, it is demonstrated with great simplicity, and at a pace that is also calming, much like drinking a cup of tea. Even the book’s unique presentation of colors and spacing makes it easy to read, and more importantly, easy to understand.  

”TEA: the Recipe for Stress-Free Living” is available now on a pre-sale basis at Amazon.com, or at Ratanjit.com. It will be in bookstores in September in hardcover, and on audio CD.