NOTHING HAS TASTE
NOTHING HAS TASTE: How Repetition Trains Desire, Habit Creates Preference, and Love for God Reveals What the Soul Was Actually Searching For Why does one person call a food delicious while another dislikes it? Why can one person not imagine life without coffee while another has no desire for it? Why does one person enjoy exercise while another experiences it only as suffering? Why does one person love silence while another becomes uncomfortable after five quiet minutes? Why does one person find happiness in simplicity while another constantly needs something newer, bigger, louder, and more expensive? Dr. Abhishek Gilara begins with a deceptively simple question: Does taste exist entirely in the thing—or is much of what we call taste developed inside us? From food and coffee to exercise and discipline, from smartphones and social media to luxury and comparison, from achievement and applause to silence and spirituality, Nothing Has Taste explores how biology, familiarity, culture, memory, association, environment, and repetition influence what we learn to desire. But this is not merely a book about habits. It is about something deeper. What are you practising loving every day? Every time you respond to boredom by reaching for your phone, you are training something. Every time stress sends you towards food, shopping, anger, or distraction, you are training something. Every time another person’s success sends you into comparison, you are training something. Every time difficulty sends you towards learning, exercise, reflection, a mentor, prayer, or God, you are also training something. The mind is learning. The body is adapting. The identity is being written. And one day, after years of repetition, we say: “This is simply who I am.” But what if some of what you call your personality is actually your practice? What if you have trained yourself to need things that no longer give you much happiness? What if you have become better at wanting than enjoying? What if constant stimulation has made ordinary life feel tasteless? And if taste can be trained in one direction, can it also be retrained? Can a person develop taste for discipline? For exercise? For simple food? For reading? For meaningful work? For silence? For good company? For gratitude? For Seva? For Satsang? For Naam Japa? For God? Across three deeply reflective chapters, Nothing Has Taste moves from the science and psychology of preference to the power of habit, and finally towards a spiritual question: What is the highest taste a human being can develop? Dr. Gilara does not argue that spirituality requires abandoning business, family, health, ambition, beauty, or achievement. His message is different: The world does not need to disappear. It needs to find its correct place. Build a great business. But do not ask business to become your God. Earn wealth. But do not ask money to purchase permanent peace. Love your family. But do not confuse loe with control. Train your body. But remember that the body is not eternal. Celebrate achievement. But allow gratitude to enter the celebration. Enjoy comfort. But do not lose the ability to live without it. Use the world. Serve through the world. Learn from the world. Create beauty in the world. But do not ask temporary things to perform an eternal job. Nothing Has Taste is a book about the hidden training happening inside every ordinary day. It asks whether your habits are creating freedom or dependence, whether your ambition is driven by purpose or restlessness, whether your social circle is improving your appetite or corrupting it, whether you are using technology or technology is training your attention, whether you are enjoying success or becoming addicted to the next success, and finally, whether God is present in your daily life—or has been reduced to an emergency contact. The mind is already repeating some-thing. Fear. Comparison. Desire. An insult. A worry. A number. A target. A name. A memory. The question is not whether you repeat. The question is: What deserves your repetition? Perhaps the same human being who trained himself to crave temporary things can gradually develop another taste. A taste for peace. A taste for gratitude. A taste for giving. A taste for remembrance. A taste for love. A taste for God. Because perhaps the final purpose of life is not Perhaps it is to transform the one who is tasting.
