Some stories are not written on paper. They grow quietly inside you until they find their own voice.
Perhaps that is why Yakub Mathew’s life itself feels like a long yet not-so-gentle story—one shaped by the quiet power of observation, emotion, and memory.
And slowly, those silent observations began turning into stories.
In those early scribbles lay the beginnings of a writer who would someday be called an author.
Author Perched at the Edge of the World
Yakub tells Lotus, “I didn’t have to invent the book but simply remembered it”. That was the gift—turning his memory into literature without losing the truth of it.
Yakub wasn’t dazzled by big stories or heroic plots but was drawn instead to what most people overlook—the small, simple things which are basic truths, and believing that the deepest stories lived inside people, not around them.
His debut book, ‘Seeking The Infinite: Maha Kumbh 2025’, was completed quietly, and its launch in New York last month was also announced with quiet intensity. It is the story of the Maha Kumbh 2025, attended by 660 million people, which Yakub captured simply and presented brilliantly as an interfaith message.
The 250-page volume made both readers and critics pause. Who was this writer capturing humanity and oneness with such sharpness? The answer to this question came again and again in the days and weeks following the book’s release by Sadhguru at the IAAC Literary Festival amid an elite audience of 600 on November 16, 2025.
Recognition has never changed Yakub; he continues to live with the same inward-looking honesty that shaped his childhood and life.
The book’s characters are sadhus, sufis, saints, spiritual luminaries, royalty, politicians, actors, and cricketers, as well as ordinary people carrying their own extraordinary emotional worlds. Through them, Yakub explored the power of faith and the message of oneness, which eluded most other writers who have chronicled the Maha Kumbh.
Yakub’s life is a rare understanding of belonging and displacement. This duality shaped his writing, especially since he has lived away from his home country for four decades, walking the corporate corridors of high finance.
“My book brings out the victory of India’s spirituality, and sends a message, in the soft power way, of a deep culture of multi-faith and diversity into a divided world.”
~Yakub Mathew
Watching India from a distance sharpened Yakub’s vision even more. India is no longer just a place where Yakub once lived—it became a shimmering landscape he remembered, reimagined, and wrote about with soul.
Writing is not about fame or money for Yakub. It is about understanding the human heart. He believes that every person carries unspoken stories, and it is the writer’s duty to listen to them and interpret them.
Yakub wrote ‘Seeking The Infinite’ not for applause, but from a deep, private need to express the truth.
The book found something far more powerful – the unifying message of “Ek Onkar” (Oneness of Divinity).
“Seeking The Infinite” is written by Yakub as if one is at the edge of the world, quietly watching everything, then capturing it with grace and precision.
Yakub, take a bow as the ambassador of hope, unity, and diversity.
The Story So Far
As A Lotus In the Mud previewed the book launch a month ago, Yakub Mathew is a New Yorker hailing from the Syrian Christian community of Kerala. In January this year, he embarked on a pilgrimage to Prayagraj (erstwhile Allahabad) with his wife, Shilpa, and took along a diverse group of friends from around the world to the Maha Kumbh at the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati.
Through words and pictures, Yakub and his group sought to capture memories of the once-in-144-years event, and the largest-ever congregation of humanity. But the exercise accosted them to confront life’s most elemental questions: Who am I? What is the nature of consciousness? What is the purpose of existence? Writes Yakub in the book, “As we dug deeper, we realized that the story of the Maha Kumbh ties all our existential questions together and gave us, the seekers of the truth, an occasion and an opportunity to look harder for the answers that have eluded humankind since time immemorial.”
Multifaith Voices from a Broad Spectrum
Since the search for the divine is a universal experience, Yakub enriched his personal narrative with insights from renowned people from across religious and spiritual traditions. Through its essays, dialogues, and interfaith encounters, the contemplative anthology offers a meditative lens on India’s spiritual heartbeat and the global soul it awakens.
Says Yakub, “My book brings out the victory of India’s spirituality, and sends this message, in a soft power way, of a deep culture of multi-faith and diversity into a divided world.” His Holiness the Dalai Lama has blessed it, anointing it with some gravitas.
The book launch at the prestigious International House in Manhattan drew seekers, scholars, and movers and shakers from the US, India, and other countries. It offered a profound exploration of faith, transcendence, and the enduring spiritual energy that characterized India’s Maha Kumbh Mela.
Inspired by the coffee table book’s unusual treatment of the Maha Kumbh 2025, the book launch in the standing-room-only auditorium was followed by a panel discussion on the intersection of faith, religion, and spirituality.
Religion vs Spirituality Panel Discussion
Moderated by the Indian marketing guru Suhel Seth with his characteristic irreverence, the mutlifatih panel comprised, besides Yakub Mathew, Diana Eck – founder of The Pluralism Project at Harvard; the Very Rev. Winnie Varghese – Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC; Rabbi Scott Matous – Executive Director at the MAKOR Center for Judaism in New York; and spriitual master Sri Anish from Dharamsala in India.
The take-off point for the panel was Yakub’s aptly titled book, ‘Seeking the Infinite’. Its contents encourage a shift in perspective, from viewing the sea of humanity at the Maha Kumbh as merely a spectacle to be consigned to coffee-table books to seeing it as a “crucible of human yearning—for meaning, belonging, and transcendence.”
“The Infinite is not a place to reach. But a truth to remember—that within you lies a horizon without end.”
~Yakub Mathew
The thought-provoking discussion was conducted in the spirit of honest inquiry and resonant interfaith dialogue. Rev. Winnie Varghese, while agreeing that religion gets misused as a tool of social control and generates violence, said, “It comes from a very pure place.” Sri Anish sought to resolve the religion-vs-spirituality question, “If your version of religion or truth makes you transformational… it is working.”
Yakub shared that he took the spiritual journey to Maha Kumbh to celebrate the completion of his 60th year on earth (after a near-fatal health scare at age 58), which inspired deep reflection on life’s eternal questions. In the process, he became an accidental author.
Banker-Turned-Interfaith Interlocutor
Yakub Mathew, known globally for his financial leadership at institutions such as HSBC, Citi Private Banking, and currently as Managing Director at Wells Fargo Advisors – New York, told the audience that he will be introducing the Maha Kumbh book at the opening day of the Jaipur Literature Festival on January 15, 2026, in New Delhi on March 1, then to Dubai in March, London and Vatican in April and finally at the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in May – all happening because of the “grace of God”.
After the event concluded, I was amazed to see a long line form in the foyer waiting for him to sign copies of his book, which ran out pretty fast. I could tell that the cost of the two-pound book plus shipping would considerably exceed the $75 price tag.
But then, Yakub has an important message to convey through his first book, “The Infinite is not a place to reach. But a truth to remember—that within you lies a horizon without end.”
That note is for individual souls. Collectively, the book’s message of coexistence and shared spirituality is particularly relevant in today’s fractured world.
‘God is Love and Love is God,’ Mother Teresa told me
By Yakub Mathew
Edited from Yakub’s remarks at the panel discussion that followed the launch of his book, ‘Seeking The Infinite: Maha Kumbh 2025’.
On the religion vs spirituality question, may I say — and I am not promoting myself–– that many masters were either invited or came into my life, whether it was Jiddu Krishnamurti, Mother Teresa, or Bishop Paulos Mar Gregorios, who went on to become President of the World Council of Churches. He was family. Mother Teresa was family, too. So, one day I asked Mother, “Who is God? She looked at me and said, “Son, God is Love and Love is God.” I never went to Christianity or Buddhism or any ism. All I understand is that if you give till it hurts, it matters because you get the satisfaction of having done some good. When I asked Mother, “Where does God stay?” she replied, “In the eyes of the poorest of the poor.” She further told me, “Go and give to people who can’t thank you.”
So all I know is, for me, there’s no religion. The religion I have practiced is just giving. That’s why I love Sikhism and its sacred tenet of seva (selfless service). I go to India 3-4 times a year – feeding the poor. Serving the poor and promoting education are very important to me.
It was during one of the trips in India that I faced death. I was 58 and visiting the Ajmer Sharif dargah when I got a pancreatic attack. Somehow, they brought me back to America after 11 days in an ICU in Delhi. I didn’t fight; I accepted death. So, now I live every day completely – laughing, enjoying, serving.
To find out more about the book and how to buy it, go to www.seekingtheinfinite.org
Also see our earlier article on Yakub Mathew’s Maha Kumbh book:
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