Book Review

‘A Great Saint, Baba Jaimal Singh – His Life and Teachings,’ by Kirpal Singh. Delhi, Ruhani Satsang, third edition 1971. 152 and xvi pages, three photographs. Paperback, $2.00.

When the Masters come a sublime Light is shed and the most intense Love is fragrantly filtered out into the world.

Divine Light was found in all fullness in Baba Jaimal Singh Ji, the Great Saint of the Punjab, and His story is vividly brought to life by One in Whom that very Life-Impulse now shines.

The Master catches the Spiritual Thread which came down from Guru Nanak and Kabir, as it passed through the ages appearing at last in Swami Shiv Dayal Singh of Agra at Whose feet Baba Jaimal Singh received Supreme Enlightenment. As the Master traces the life story of Baba Ji, we begin to witness the most remarkable of adventure stories. Yet the reality remains far beyond our comprehension. The study of the progress of the mystic is beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, and those that have been on the Inner Journey can only speak in metaphor and parable, for how can the language of common humanity be compelled to express that for which it was never fashioned? The history then of a Master-Soul, as fired by a restless zeal, which moves from plane to plane, must remain an unwritten one; at best it can only give the husk of outer events and happenings to suggest the unusual nature of the Spiritual Experiences They unfold.

It is to this state that the Master beckons us with charged words.

Bringing a rich Spiritual Heritage into this world, Jaimal Singh imbibed the greatest of India’s scriptural texts and then set out on His quest, ever keeping before Him the Highest Goal as stated by the Saints, that of the Five-Sounded Word or Shabd. Unfaltering amidst the bitter trials and heartaches of the world we trace Baba Jaimal Singh’s meeting with many Great Yogi teachers, taking the best from them, yet always seeking One Who could unveil the mystery of the Word.

Indeed the book is a testament to the Greatness of the Word, and to the Surat Shabd Yoga as compared to all other ways, as demonstrated practically by a Great Mystic Who Himself did try and experience all the ways.

The Master conveys to us the inspiration extended to the lives of Baba Jaimal Singh’s disciples with some of the wonderful stories that must have been legion. The greatest of these was of Baba Sawan Singh Ji, Who became Baba Ji’s successor and the Guru of the Living Master. Finally the book gives so lucid an outline of Baba Jaimal Singh’s teachings as to be breathtaking. Numerous quotations are taken from the letters of Baba Ji to His Gurumukh disciple, Baba Sawan Singh, which give a unique view of Sant Mat.

Michael Raysson