Unlike many of the great spiritual figures of the time, Shri Dada remained in the world as a family man, earning his livelihood and bearing his share of life's trials. His short sermons, and his response to events and to people, give the surest indication of how to advance one's spiritual progress in daily life, 'intent on expanding your limited experience of a fraction of the finite world to consciousness of infinity, perfect peace, bliss and love'.
Shri Dada was known as the Saint Universal, who saw that all religions lead to the same goal, and for whom 'Hindus and Moslems, Christians and Jains are waves and bubbles of the same water of love'. There are several interchanges with people of other faiths, and the book is an antidote to religious narrowness of any kind.
About the Author
Hari Prasad Shastri (1882-1956) was a distinguished scholar of Sanskrit and other classical literature. From an early age his main interest was spiritual practice and its ideal of enlightenment. He learnt the traditional methods from his own teacher, the Mahatma Shri Dada of Aligarh, and Yogis and Mahatmas living in the region of the Himalayas, and thus became a teacher in the direct line of one of the oldest teaching schools of the classical spiritual practices, Adhyatma Yoga, the way of Self-Knowledge. He taught at centres of learning and spirituality in India, Japan and China, before settling in London in 1929. There he gave hundreds of lectures on the non-dual teachings and produced many original writings and translations. He combined wide knowledge of contemporary thought and culture together with a direct knowledge of the spiritual ideal, and his writings provide reliable guidance for men and women in the modern world seeking to realize the highest potentials for fulfilment and illumination. He founded Shanti Sadan, a centre where the teachings continue to be practised and passed on in the traditional way.