Description
Stumbling Toward God: A Spiritual Memoir
“The Years With Kirpal”
by Russell Perkins
It is my privilege to announce that my new book, Stumbling Toward God: A Spiritual Memoir, subtitled “The Years With Kirpal,” has been completed and will be available soon.
The following is an excerpt from the Preface which explains the point of the book:
This book is my attempt to describe what it is like to know someone whose whole reason for being was to unite the way of earth with that of heaven: what it is like to be around him, to be loved by him, and to love him back: what it is like to recognize with your whole heart that this is what it means to be human; that any other endeavor is missing the point of our existence.
…The book is not in any sense a biography; it is, as the subtitle says, a memoir: the record of my personal encounter with a life-transforming colossus who combined power and compassion to an astonishing degree and to whom I related (to quote his own words) as to “a Will infinitely above me and yet infinitesimally careful of me.”
The volume is divided into nine books which include my life up to my leaving the evangelical Christian faith; the search for Truth on the part of my friends and me; our initiation; the events surrounding Judith and my coming together and the founding of the two New England ashrams; and most of the 1963 Tour.
Other topics covered are the twelve heavenly days in January 1964 at Mr. Khanna’s house; detailed accounts of three trips to India and the 1972 Tour.
A thoroughgoing account of the World Conference on Unity of Man from both a universal and a personal perspective is included along with a DVD incorporating archival footage of the Master at the World Conference on Unity of Man along with retrospective comments by Kent Bicknell and myself as interviewed by Don Macken.
There is also an Epilogue and an Appendix consisting of the Master’s 1967 Circular Letters and Messages, plus reflections written by other people which shed light on various aspects of the reality of Kirpal.
By keeping the focus on the personal, I have tried to maintain it within the scope of my limited ability. The years with Kirpal were what made my life worth living, what gave light, meaning, and value to everything before and after; and I have tried to do those years justice.