Raminder Bajwa, a computer engineering coordinator by trade, shows off his introspective side in Enlightenment. The works come under the headings of: Love, Truth, Secrets, Prayers, and Enlightenment. Of love, Bajwa offers a love song and considers what his love means to him. He suggests “Love--it’s a business of loss, not gain.” In his "Start of a Romance," he offers that “Life’s short, as if from God a loan.” In the section on Truth, in the work entitled "Our Species," Bajwa opens with: “Of people types, I’ve found mainly three: working, jobless, and ones looking for free.” This section also includes poems centering on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, those responsible (“Meanwhile, don’t compare monsters with animals; you degrade latter.”) and those who rose to defend their nation in response. Moving on to the section “Secrets” comes the poem for which the entire collection is named, “Enlightenment.” Here Bajwa offers: “Whoever displays compassion and mercy is righteous, free, and salvation-worthy.”

I know personally a gifted poet who shared with me one day her understanding that too often poets muddy their works with illustrations and pictures, taking away from the core art (that is, the poems) that they intend to share. In doing this, they unwittingly make their poetry “secondary.” I am happy to say that Raminder Bajwa did not make this mistake in Enlightenment. Rather, he has provided a series of poems that are centered around timeless issues, that offer interesting word-pictures and turns of phrase, and that leave the reader thinking and asking for more.

What a beautiful book of poetry! Enlightenment by author Raminder Bajwa covers so many important, everyday topics with honesty and warmth. The book contains sections such as Love, Truth, Secrets, Prayers, and Enlightenment, and each section is filled with short poems on each theme. The section on love tells of love stories, kisses, and the beginnings of romance. The poems gets a little deeper as the book progresses, with poems about God, life and death, religion, and the truth in all of this. The central theme was of learning to love without war or violence, and the book does wrap up with an afterword about love. The themes are never overdone, but constructed with care and meaning. Each little poem evokes a particular blend of emotion, and the reader can’t help but think of these topics after the book is closed.

One thing I enjoy when reading poetry is finding one or two poems that are my favorites. In Enlightenment, my favorites were “Just Keep on Walking” and “Get Enlightened.” To me, these two poems summed up the overall message of Raminder Bajwa’s poetry, which is not to fear situations, but to have courage and learn about them. These were honest poems about our current world situation, the “evolution of genes, new technology,” and the fact that we need to defeat fear and “keep walking” while passing through hell. The theme of enlightenment carried through the book with short and to-the-point poetic lines. I would recommend this to poetry fans and those who wish to learn more about the honest themes presented in the book.

Enlightenment by Raminder Bajwa is a collection of beautiful poems that celebrate and ponder life and its many mysteries. The poems are presented under five different segments - Love, Truth, Secrets, Prayers and Enlightenment - covering life in its entirety. Although they are presented in different sections, one will right away discover that the poems from each section cross over to touch on the emotions and topics in another sections; they are entwined in meaning and in emotions - after all, all five topics form an intricate part of each other.

On starting to read Enlightenment by Raminder Bajwa, I was right away graced with a sense of bliss that held true throughout the entire time. Irrespective of the topic or emotions portrayed by each of the poems, there is a certain serenity to be found in reading them - a beautiful acceptance of sorts. Becoming immersed in the beauty of Raminder Bajwa's soothing words was an amazing experience. I was stunned by the simplicity and yet immense depth of the words Raminder Bajwa used to bring the messages to life.

Reading these poems will open your soul up for better understanding and acceptance, and send you on a journey to true fulfillment. Each poem is filled with amazing views on the mysteries of life, presented in a compelling and inspiring way. There is real depth in Raminder Bajwa's words that will set you on a path to deeper understanding of life and a more meaningful living, urging you to search deeper for realization and to embrace it all. Raminder Bajwa's Enlightenment is a beautiful, blissful and inspiring read.

Enlightenment by Raminder Bajwa contains probably some of the most skillfully worded and beautiful poems I have ever read in my life. This collection contains poems on subjects that relate to the inner world and the path to enlightenment, as the title suggests. The poems are divided into various categories of Love, Truth, Secrets, Prayers, and Enlightenment. Each category includes short, beautiful poems that rhyme perfectly and have a very lyrical and at times mystical flow to them. Some of my favorites include A Poet’s Confession, The Unlawful, Inexplicable One, Claim Your Wings, An Unfinished Business, A Prayer of a Kurd or Yezidi, Don’t Ask Why, Damn Proud, and many, many more. Ultimately, this collection inspires and leads one to pause and ponder over life and its mysteries, death and beyond, love and heartbreak, and the universal soul where it all ends.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Enlightenment by Raminder Bajwa and the poems surpassed my expectations. It is rare to come across a book of poems where almost each and every poem is truly a gem, and I already want to go back and re-read some of them. I also liked the philosopher’s quotes included at the beginning of each section and found them to be inspiring. Ultimately, Enlightenment deals with the themes of the fleeting mortality of life, death, faith, religion and how religion does not necessarily equate to true belief in God, belief in a higher power and spirituality, love, hopes and dreams, and ultimately peace and the path to knowledge and enlightenment which comes from within. A must-read book.