Book of the week - Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Absolute Sole Lord of Life and Death

[Guest guest]

Book of the weekJune 30, 2004

 

Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Absolute Sole Lord of Life and Death

By Krishna Nandan SinhaNew Delhi, Sterling Publishers (1966 - Reprint 1998)180

pages; ISBN: 8120715640

Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Absolute Sole Lord of Life and Death

 

This work is a sensitive, intimate and transparent appraisal of Sai Baba--The

Absolute Lord of Life and Death as only God can be. The sub-title of the book

is the first line of a Hymn to Saint Teresa, a dedication by Richard Crashaw,

the 17th century metaphysical poet. Saint Teresa was fired by the ember of

divine love, while she was still a child of six and wanted to go to the Moors

to embrace martyrdom for the love of Christ.

In this work also, the author expresses the supreme continence of affirmation,

as he is touched by the terrors of death and learns, through experience, the

lesson of a lifetime's death in love, ardour, selflessness and self-surrender.

Written in the first voice and giving resonance to the true voice of feeling,

it reads like a novel and is likely to have a universal appeal for all those

who are seized with the passion of divine love.

 

Professor Krishna Nandan Sinha seemed destined to write this book as he was

inspired in mysterious and inexplicable ways to put it together. With a

doctorate in English literature from Arkansas University, USA, Professor Sinha

formerly headed the English department at University of Bihar, Muzaffarpur and

Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning at Prasanti Nilayam University in

Andhra Pradesh.

 

 

Absolute Sole Lord of Life and Death- Review by Kan Narayan

The book is a collection of experiences with divinity, as lived through by the

author (K N Sinha) himself and his family, in their sojourn towards Swami’s

Lotus Feet. Each incidence narrated dramatically and vividly reiterates that

Baba loves all, without condition and restriction. First he leaves his visiting

cards, in the form of beautiful materializations of Vibhuti and Kumkum, to adorn

the family altar. From there, the author goes on to describe some miraculous

occurrences, such as when Baba, as Shirdi Sai, steps out of the picture frame,

to help his daughter face a terrifying battle of mind and spirit.

 

In the midst of it all, all she knew was that her father and preceptor was Baba

and He alone. This book traces a journey of such steadfast and unflinching

faith, and its pages resonate with the passionate and yearning desire to serve

the Lord, as His instrument, as the vehicle for His sweet and lilting music.

When the professor himself faces the lord of death, seemingly at the

culmination of his journey, Swami miraculously gives him another chance of

life, to complete his mission.

 

The book also carries an invaluable appendix, consisting of ‘Sai messages for

one and all’. This review, and indeed this life, would be hopelessly incomplete

without their treasured wisdom: “Bring your heart to Me and win My heart. Bring

your promise to me and I shall give you My promise but first see that your

promise is genuine and sincere. See that your heart is pure."

http://www.saibooks.org/newsletters/2002/jun02.htm

 

 

Contents

 

Preface

1. Be Absolute for Death

3. The Nessus Shirt: The Shirt of Flame

3. The All-Knowing Fountain of Love

4. Oft to a Narrow, Homely Room

5. Temporary Reversion: From Grief to Relief

6. All This and Heaven too

7. The Impossible Union of Spheres of Existence

Appendices

I. Sai Messages for One and All

II. The Figure that an Avatar makes: Some Images of the Divine made Human

 

 

The book is available at:

 

Sri Sathya Sai Book and Information Centre, Toronto, Canada

http://www.saibooks.org/

 

Sri Sathya Sai Books, UK

http://www.srisathyasaibooks.org.uk/

 

Sathya Sai Book Center Of America, Tustin, Californiahttp://www.sathyasai.org/inform/tustin.htm

 

South Asia Bookshttp://www.southasiabooks.com/

 

Nataraj Bookshttp://users.erols.com/nataraj/SAIBABA.html

 

Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/8120715640/qid%3D1088595900/104-0973247-7565525