SPIRITUAL MAN

A divine dissertation for zealous spiritual devotees.

Impassioned author and sage-in-the-making Gandhi doesn’t just talk the talk and walk the walk, he has become the path. Dilettantes beware, as Spiritual Man is not for the weak-muscled, shallow-minded or faint-hearted–readers must get real, get a guru and get God. This is the hard-work, soul-first way of the disciple–meditation, detachment from worldly illusion and sloughing and scrubbing one’s inner being until it’s squeaky clean. Through devotion and dedication, the author writes that followers will be “completely drunk with the unbroken experience of the nectar of Bliss.” In true relationship with Self, the author writes, one recognizes that fruitless action begins with a negative thought. An essential transformative practice is Pratipksha Bhavana, which involves suppression, substitution and sublimation–through willpower, one contains the negative thought, replaces it with that which is positive and by continued practice observes the diminishing of all negativity. Occasionally, one of Gandhi’s sentences echoes the work of Tolle, such as, “Remain as the Self of the thinker, and there is an end of thoughts.” Elsewhere, stirring passages herald the ecstasy of the enlightened man–“He may become simple and innocent like a dove, dynamic like a hawk, elevated and detached like a swan.” Nowhere does the author state his credentials, suggesting less an error of omission than an act of genuine humility. Though the book’s terminology is exhaustive, readers can easily refresh their memories by using the glossary. Spiritual novices will quiver in the depths of Gandhi’s teachings, and serious students may shiver at the absence of chaff. It is sometimes unclear whether certain information is the author’s or teachings of ascended masters, such as Sri Ananda Mayee Ma and Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Still, it’s worthy of being repeated.

An inspired, technical work for daring seekers of the sacred and sublime.