Light in Darkness

The late Indra Devi, a popular yoga teacher of of the United States, counseled thousands of students, including many public figures and celebrities; taught her methods in China and India; and founded the Yoga Center in Rancho El Cuchuma, Tecate, Baja California, Mexico. Here she describes how she came to Bhagavan Baba.

The idea of starting a Meditation Crusade for “Light in Darkness” was born on the dark day of November 22, 1963, when President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas. i happened to be there at that time and was supposed to be introduced to him, to present to him my books on yoga and to suggest that asanas [yoga positions] and deep breathing exercises would enrich his `physical fitness’ program and make it most effective.

At the shocking news of his assassination, i remained in my hotel room pondering what could be done to prevent the commission of all kinds of crimes that had become a daily occurrence in most of the big cities in the United States. It seemed to me that we all must make an additional individual effort to make our immediate surroundings a happier and friendlier place to live in. It then occurred to me to start a crusade by conducting meditations on the light in one’s own heart, realizing that it is a part of the eternal divine light and begin to act, think and live in a different manner, starting from small daily matters, like finding a kind word and a smile for everyone, from human to animal.

In addition, every evening after meditation [one should] ask oneself, “What did i do today to make the light a little brighter and the darkness a little less dark?” This, i hoped, might bring an illuminating and practical message to the fear-ridden, mentally disturbed, and spiritually forlorn world of today.

To carry out this plan, i decided to dedicate the rest of my life to it and to give up teaching yoga, which i had been doing for the past 28 years, ever since i had to leave India for Shanghai, where i opened the first yoga school according to the wish of my teacher Sri Krishnamacharya. I had been living in Bombay for 12 years, where i got married to a foreign diplomat; plus, i am a Russian-born American citizen with an Indian name registered even in my passport. The only trouble was that i did not know how to go about starting the crusade. Conducting meditations at our yoga center in Tecate on the border between California and Mexico and speaking to various people about my idea did not get me too far, in spite of everyone’s sympathetic feeling toward it.

Finally i decided to start the crusade in my spiritual motherland, India, especially after Clara Schuff, a clairvoyant in Los Angeles told me that i would be going to India shortly and would there take a first step toward something that would be my life’s mission, for which i was born into this world. She added that there i would meet “an unusual Swami of a very high order who would play a prominent part in my life and help me to carry a spiritual message to the world.”

Two months later i was in India where, on March 4, 1966, i presented the perpetual flame, which we carried all the way from Tecate, to the Prime Minister. This gave me an opportunity to conduct meditations on light with hundreds and hundreds of people, both in Delhi and Bombay, from where i was going to Saigon, to see my old friends the Yuvarani of Mysore and Dr. Sivakamu in Adyar near Madras. It was there that i first heard of Sai Baba from an Australian writer, Howard Murphet and his wife, Iris, who were very surprised that i had not known anything about the Sai Baba of Shirdi and His Avatar, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. They immediately showed me His photos and a ring with an image of the late Shirdi Sai Baba, produced by the present Sai Baba and told me many a story about His incredible and miraculous powers to which they were witnesses. However, my program in Saigon made it impossible for me to stay on and i left for Vietnam.

Shortly before my departure from there, my host, the Indian Consul General, suggested that i open a center in India, for which he offered his palace in Kathiawar (he is the Thakore Saheb of Kotha Sanghani). I seized this idea of returning to India—to look at his palace was only a pretext. So i advised our director, Mr. Candia, who was accompanying me, to return to Tecate, and he gladly agreed.

From Calcutta, i immediately headed for Madras instead of Kathiawar, as the desire to see Sai Baba became very intense. On the way to Puttaparthi, we met another car from the same company returning from Prasanthi Nilayam with Dr. Sen, Vice-Chancellor of the Jadavpur University. We greeted each other, and upon learning that this was my first visit to Sai Baba, Dr. Sen said, “You may never want to leave from the place once you get there.” “But you are doing so,” i answered, “i shall have to do the same.”

A charming Swiss schoolteacher, Gabriella Steyer, gently took me under her wing. My plane was departing the next day, and so i had to leave pretty soon. Baba was gracious enough to grant me an interview. To describe everything that happened during that hour would make a story in itself, and i may relate it at some other time. It will suffice to tell that what i saw and heard made an indelible impression upon me—it was more than kindness, more than goodness, more than grace. It was something i could not even name. “Call Me whenever you need Me,” He said, at parting. “I shall be with you.”

Happy to have come to see Him, i left for Bangalore the next morning feeling fresh and rested. But soon a feeling of great longing seized me and i remembered Dr Sen’s phrase, “You may never want to leave the place once you get there.” This nostalgia dulled my senses. i didn’t care to speak to the driver, to distribute sweets to the children, or to feed the monkeys, dogs, and bullocks. In fact, i didn’t care for anything—all i wanted was to be back in the Nilayam and to listen to the powerful chant of Om coming from hundreds of throats and to the beauty of the Sanskrit Suprabhatham [morning recitation].

Back in my room in the Bangalore Palace, i automatically closed the suitcases, forgetting to pack the rest of my belongings—something that has never happened to me in all my travels anywhere in the world. In Bombay, four other places were offered to me for establishing our centers, but i was still in Puttaparthi in my thoughts. The day before my departure, i wrote a letter to Sri Sathya Sai Baba saying how glad i was to have returned from Saigon to meet Him but that i felt miserable now, which is foreign to my nature. I had asked Him to help me to get over this feeling.

The same afternoon, standing on a busy street corner with Enakshi Bhavnani, a friend from olden days, and waiting for a taxi, i suddenly felt a stream of brilliant light pouring on me and giving me a tremendous sense of _.joy and happiness that was filling my entire being. “Thank you, Baba,” i whispered in gratitude.

Carrying this radiant light within me, i left for Hong Kong to conduct meditations and address meetings, before i returned to Los Angeles and Tecate.

And now that i am about to begin the ‘crusade for light in darkness’ in April, in San Diego, California, with the co-operation of its Mayor, Council of Churches, and Civic Leaders, i had to come to Puttaparthi to get the blessings of Sri Bhagavan, without whose help i did not want to undertake this mission of awakening the light in the hearts of people so that it may shine there now and forever.

From the unreal to the real,
From darkness to light,
From death to immortality.
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

~Indra Devi
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, March 1967