Put into practice, what you read about spirituality.

[Guest guest]

From the age of 16 or so, I was a voracious reader of spiritual and philosopical books. Though i was not fully conversant with the terms, my interest in spiritual reading remained for many more years. After reading the books on Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Ramana and Ramatirtha, i started reading the books on saibaba of shirdi. Only in my 20th year, i came to know about Swami. Though my father picked up immediate interest in Him, i was very much sceptical about His announcement that previously He doned the Shirdi form. I was almost mad after Shirdi form to that extent, that i believed that none can equal to the stature of Him. Hence, when i read an article on Shirdi and Parthi Sai, in Indian express supplement, I was shouting literally that these 'fake babas' should be kept behind the bars. After these assertions, i returned to my native place for vacation. It so happened that one gentleman who was my father's acquintance brought the volume of "Sathyam Shivam Sundaram" as well as "Sathya Sai speaks" in my native 'tamil language. Casually i went through the books without any real interest. One day i have to travel to the town nearby by mofessal bus. There, i found that some people were arguing about Sathya sai baba and His styles etc. Somehow i got entangled in their conversation and admonished them for speaking about Swami so cheaply. I was really wonderstruck at the change of my heart without any visible happening. In retrospect, to day i understood that Swami being seated in our Heart pulls subtly the strings and our view or outlook of the world is immediately changed. But all these things happen without our awareness. Subsequently i visited Prasanthi Nilayam, and had 3 personal audience with Swami. During one of his interview, he told me, that there is no point in going on reading. Your brain will just resemble a library rack. Hence it was very clear from Swami's personal talk to me, that He was very well aware of my habit of reading from my 16th age, though i could see Him only during my 20th year. The valuable lesson i learned is "mere bookish knowledge is useless unless we practice it or adopt it in our day to day life. Sairam.