About The Author: Dr. Gupta (PhD, Wharton School) is an expert in international management, strategy in a global context and also teaches study abroad business in China, India, Middle East and Europe courses at CBPA.
Read more about him: https://www.csusb.edu/pace/degrees/mba-online-professionals/meet-your-faculty/vipin-gupta

With a thoughtful title and a catchy subtitle that is bound to make readers pick this book up, What is Trading Factor? – Mathematics Beyond Einstein is a thought-provoking, eye-opening, highly philosophical but engaging read. The subtitle with Einstein’s name on it in parallel to Mathematics which is a dreaded subject by many stores the crux of this book. It is a sort of decoding of trading oneself, one’s emotional self rather, for higher freedom. That’s right! While the title and subtitle can be a bit deceptive, the book is highly philosophical though the philosophy is attained through logical, rational and scientific means. This is the ninth book in the series of 12 books that make up project VIPIN as formulated by Dr. Vipin Gupta.

VIPIN is an acronym for vastly integrated processes inside nature. The project is motivated by the question: What makes life meaningful? It seeks to attain higher understanding of human action in this life and to connect the dots with the larger purpose of human existence that is guided by the intellect which makes humans supremely gifted living beings. However, if this intellect is not used and exploited properly then it will put life on hold in terms of making life meaningless by leading a futile existence. This is what Dr. Vipin Gupta terms as the key difference between being a meaning maker and a meaning shaper. This is riddle with a dichotomy of whether one should make meaning in life through the path of centering attention on oneself or on others. Once this question is answered then Dr. Gupta notes that the universe becomes the guiding spirit that elevates human understanding, helps decipher complexities and ease everyday living by giving it a sense of direction and purpose. This does not take away from the fact that the book is highly technical with a lot of Sanskrit words in it like much of the other books in this series.

The introduction is indispensable to the book that gives a better understanding of this project and the entire series of books that make up this project at large. This is followed by a list of abbreviations and a list of tables that have been used by the author in the book. Meticulously arranged, from the very beginning of the book, the information is put down in a systematic manner. Dr. Gupta breaks down the difficult concepts and rather vastly abstract notions into simple terms through detailed explanation. The use of colour-coded boxes, illustrations, and charts or tables is very interesting and breaks the monotony of the book. The preface of the book is essential and cannot be skipped. It provides crucial points that help in the understanding of the text better. There are some striking arguments made in the preface to this book. One such is the idea that ego is a natural outcome of emotion. Again, the bulleted points make a lot of change from the paragraphs that follow one after the other with detailed information about the topic of exploration. The gripping turn takes place once the role of trading factor is explained. It is done in a meticulous, elaborate but extensive manner in the lines: “One may trade oneness with the desired one in three ways.

Take the desired one as one’s reality. Recombine one with the

“reality” (Vastavikta, 7) for knowing one’s “essential nature”

(Svabhav, 8) that subtracts the reality from one. When one

feeds one’s reality to a zero, the zero trades the reality, and

the one trades the oneness with the serviced reality. One is

no longer reality but the illusion of reality.”

One is bound to absolutely love the writing style of Dr. Gupta. The book can be easily read as a single pick even if the previous books in the series have not been read. The book is whole in and of itself and stands alone in a room with strong arguments and reasoning. For 462 pages, the book is slightly lengthy. It is a difficult read and will appeal to the students of philosophy and science both but it is meant for attentive and avid readers who have the genuine interest to get through the concepts and attain clarity of the subject. In comparison to the previous books in the series, this book is extremely technical with whole pages consisting of significant terminology with their corresponding Sanskrit terms. Most of these concepts are put in the green boxes. The goal of the book is to empower readers and make them understand that trading factor is not an abstract numerological combination of the universal elements in human emotional states but something that is innate within every individual.

So where does Mathematics comes in all this? Well, it is embedded in it all as the calculations and equations help readers derive the mathematical angle of human emotional existence. This gives a metaphysical taste to an otherwise logical and scientific topic. Hence, readers should not feel deterred by the use of Mathematics or Science in the book and focus on making the most of this one of a kind read that is about living life on one’s own terms and creating the best and making the most of one’s circumstances. It is about understanding what limits the freedoms of life, and strengthen oneself.   

Book Name: What Is Trading Factor
Author: Dr. Vipin Gupta
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewed by: Tasnima at Criticspace