Preface

Sant Kirpal Singh, the author of this book needs no introduction. For the last decade and over He has been, at the Sawan Ashram, Delhi and throughout the length and breadth of the country and abroad carrying aloft the torch of pure Spirituality for the upliftment of humanity. The call comes to many but few choose to be chosen. All of us are so absorbed in meeting the demands of mundane existence on physical and mental levels that we have little time and thought left for higher things of the spirit. The talk of self-realisation and God-Realisation more often than not sounds as mere empty verbiage with no rational content and substance. The world is too much with us.

A book like this can be truly helpful in awakening in us the desire for treading the Path that leads to enlightenment and liberation from the cycle of birth and death. It is not merely a brief life story of a Great Man but of a Godman Whose impeccable purity, deep humility and ceaseless devotion to the God-Path at the bidding of a Great Master, Which lifted Him to peerless Spiritual Heights, can serve as an inspiring example for innumerable souls puffing and panting in the struggle of life and wishing to be freed from the bondage of mind and body.

A truly Great Man needs no other tribute than an account of His life and work. An attempt has been made to collect in this volume the main events of Baba Ji’s life-history and an outline of His teachings as they have been recorded in His letters and in published and unpublished accounts left by His disciples and admirers, chief among them being Maharaj Sawan Singh Ji, His Spiritual Heir, Baba Surain Singh, Gyani Partap Singh, etc.

It is a story marked by an amazing intensity of Spiritual Yearning in its first movement, an equally amazing application and one-pointed concentration in the next and a no less remarkable humility and selflessness allied to supreme Spiritual Exaltation in its last and concluding phase.

The author characterises the Sant Mat practised and preached by Baba Jaimal Singh Ji, as a science, and well He might, because He Himself is a distinguished exponent of it, Who has been initiated into its mystique at the feet of a Great Saint, and Whose mastery of it is widely acknowledged and acclaimed, as demonstrated by His election as President of the World Fellowship of Religions on the crest of a wave of Universal Ovation and Applause in which the sages, scholars and savants from several parts of the world lustily joined.

The book is an endeavour to present for the first time in English the biography of one of the most outstanding Saints of our times, One Who deserves to be better known than He is. The story is a memorable one and is of permanent value in the annals of man’s Spiritual History. It deserves to be read by every seeker after God. I am confident that those who read this book will not fail to be inspired and uplifted, and will begin to see that Spirituality is not what it is generally supposed to be, but is a science whose Masters have appeared at all times and in all places and which may be learnt at the feet of an Adept wherever He may be found, irrespective of sects and gaddis; the final touchstone of His competence being His ability to give direct Inner Experience to His disciples here and now and not in some future life.

Radha Krishna Khanna
New Delhi
8 August 1960