Today Walking Home with Baba: The Heart of Spiritual Practice comes out. This is a huge step for me. I have been practicing what Baba taught me all these 30 years since he left his body.
When I first went to Baba I was not enamored of the trappings around him, but I was attracted to him, not really knowing what “him” was. Then, at a retreat, Baba revealed to me that he had what I had been looking for all along; the Truth of who we are. This was not through his public talks, where Baba expressed the Truth in simple and overarching language. This was through the experience of “knowing” beyond thought, which can so often cloud the Truth.
From that moment on I have followed Baba while he was in his physical body and then all these years since. Living the internal practice that underlies all traditions, the practice that Baba taught me, has brought me to today. Baba did not allow me to get attached to any trappings or external practices; he did not allow me to be repulsed by them either. He pushed me to stay neutral, focused on the Real.
This helped me so much when, after Baba’s death, I returned to the United States to a culture I had never lived in. With a small baby and in a purely Christian environment, I was able to practice without anyone ever knowing. This practice was in fact the same one that Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, St Teresa, Thomas Merton, St Anthony, and St Symeon all practiced. Baba had given me what I had gone to him for: the internal practice beyond the senses, beyond the mind, where the will orients back to the Heart. He taught me this not as a nice idea but as a reality. It is a bridge that takes us Home, where our individuality is dissolved back to who we really are.
So today, after years of distilling and teaching what I learned, in Baba’s honor, I bring forth this offering to share with everyone what this great Guru taught me and continues to teach me. I believe in my Heart that Baba is happy with this offering to him. I pranam to Swami Muktananda my Guru. Sat Gurunath Maharaj Ki Jay!
Below is a picture of my book today in Blackwell’s Bookstore in Oxford, UK. To be in this bookstore is an honor and allows me to give appropriate homage to Baba.
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