My artical on a book translated in Gujarati as 'Sagar Pankhi'

Jonathan Livingston Segal: An insatiable Quest for knowledge and Progress
Even a single reading of the story ‘Jonathan Livingston Segal’ reveals it to be a powerful motivating allegory. At the very outset it is necessary to define the allegorical elements. The translator has defined Jonathan as a human soul. Rather than indulging into metaphysics, I would call him an individual- a human being. She has compared Jonathan with Mahavir, Krishna, Jesus Christ and Gandhiji. Instead of such comparison I would let a lay man identify himself with Jonathan as cultivating from a common creature. When Jonathan is identified with incarnations, it creates an effect of alienation and a common man would never be able to identify with him and get inspired. The sky where he makes his flights is the symbol of life. The community of the birds stands for the embroiled social medium replete with self-centered society where each member is determined to make progress and get comforts at the cost of others.
Other birds are obsessed with the idea of finding their prey and feeding themselves but Jonathan is looking for something different, something new. For them flying is a means of nourishing themselves, while Jonathan takes it to be an end in itself. The thought of being a common segal haunts him and inspires to have his wings on fire. At one juncture, he feels that he does not have owl-like eyes to see in the dark nor powerful mind like other birds nor short wings to fly. What strikes us most is his effort to excel in flying in spite of these limitations. In his efforts to fly higher and swifter, he discovers the aim of his life. He perceives life to be an endeavor to be free: to get free from the stranglehold of limitations laid down by flesh, society and even by nature. This realization results into an exaltation for the rest of his life. Paradise has been demythologized and it has been portrayed with a different perspective. Paradise is not bound by the dimensions of place and time. On the other hand, it is an endeavour to strive towards completeness. It is an endless and herculean task since the nature of pursuit of completeness is fathomless.
Jonathan is not ready to accept the limitations. All the time he emphasizes that body is only a thought. Thoughts do not have any limitations and therefore no one can be bound up by limitations. There is so much urge within Jonathan that even the sarcasm and hostility of his community cannot dishearten him. He has the quest to be better than the best. He is full of “indomitable will and courage not to yield or surrender.” The good thing about Jonathan is that he does not become a prey to self-complacency. As soon as he masters one skill he is eager to learn the other. Jonathan reaches to the excellence no one can imagine, but yet he is replete with compassion. He even feels pain for his fellow members and attempts to uplift them. To be precise, the story teaches us to transcend all the limitations to achieve our goal and never to be satisfied and thereby be static but to be in motion.