Sixteen Spiritual Summers
by Indulal Shah
Paperback, 150 pages, Rs 40
Sri Indulal Shah is known to many as the former worldwide servant who lead the Sathya Sai Organisation in India. He has, with the help of the former Sathya Sai World Council, also guided devotees worldwide. He is currently International Advisor to the Sri Sathya Sai Organisations. Sri Indulal Shah has authored many books, and this title was the first. Subsequent books by Indulal Shah include We devotees, I, We, HE, and The Seed is Sown. Earlier titles have been combined into an onimbus issue called Reprogramming our Spiritual Sadhana.
In the preface to this book, Indulal Shah states that it is is more for surface devotees - whom Baba describes as "part time devotees", so that all may sit at the Lotus Feet and derive strength for putting into practice Sathya Sai Baba's teachings, so that all may derive strength from Him, and become worthy instruments in the mission of restoring righteousness and right conduct to the Earth on a firm footing.
Nine chapters form the framework in this title, and the headings are
- Dawn of Spirituality
- Gifts of Grace
- Heart Blossoms
- Miracles in Divine Mission
- A Unique Organisation
- Spiritual Renaissance at work
- Namasmarana Movement
- Social Service Spiritualised
- The Silent Spiritual Revolution
Indulal Shah speaks about the first All-India Conference of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations, held in what was then called Madras in 1967. He was part of the organising committee framing rules and regulations for conducting organisational work on a uniform basis all over India. During a meeting, Baba was present and speaking in Telugu. Indulal Shah was the only one in the room who did not speak Telugu. One man volunteered to translate for Indulal Shah. Baba interrupted and gave Shah an pat on the head, saying 'No, there is no time, he understands Telugu', and from that moment, Indulal Shah had a perfect understanding of Telugu.
The author makes reference to Baba's avatarhood, and his early experiences. Due his experience of a miracle at the Joy Ice Cream factory, Indulal Shah began to have extremely strong imtimations of the divinity of Baba. Instead of doing organisational work with love and dedication, he acted with fear and care; fear of the omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence of Sathya Sai Baba.
Baba responded: People do puja, they do meditation, they carry out various rituals, but they do not carry the same devtotional attittude all the twenty four hours of the day with them. All this is confined only to the puja room and no further. What is the use of all this without understanding the purpose, without understanding how to make use of all these spiritual exercises?
Thus, the author learned that there are two wires, one positive, one negative (the divine and the human) and both are required to carry the current of devotion, 24 hours, every day. Baba's grace, like sunshine, falls on all alike, provided that our door of Faith and windows of devotion are not bolted from inside by ego, doubt and insincerity.
Indulal Shah goes on to examine what it means to be a devotee:
The word devotee brings before our mind's eye a person regularly going for bhajans, naga sankirtan, doing puja, meditation, visiting temples and so on. Baba says, "Do not think that only those who worship a picture or image with a pompous paraphernalia are devotees. Whoever walks straight along the moral path, acts as he speaks and speaks as he has seen, melts at another's grief, revels at another's joy, is also a devotee".
Against this background, Shah defines a devotee as "One who has conqureed the senses and sublimated his ego is a real devotee". He goes on to simply this further by saying:
- Let our eyes do good,
- Let our ears do good,
- Let our tongue speak softly,
- Let our hands do good things,
- Let our legs be ready to go to good places to do good deeds.
Shah then goes on to examine the three dimensions of devotion: personal sadhana (individual spiritual exercise), family sadhana (spiritual exercise jointly with members of the family) and community sadhana (spiritual exercise together in society).
Shah has chosen nine important aspects of being a devotee in a unique spiritual organistion which is the direct instrument of the avatara called Sri Sathya Sai Baba. That organisation is the instrument of personal transformation and the discovery of the inherent divinity within. At the same time, it is the instrument of social transformation and world transformation.
It is a book which combines personal reflections on experiences and miracles near the Avatar; each reflection is examined in the light of the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba and the activity of the devotee, the organsiation, the personal self transformation.