Sumaa Tekur’s Inner Light is a neat hand-holder for those who wish to get in touch with their latent spirituality, and those who wish to find their place of calm. As also for those who are seekers, but want more details on what to go looking for and where. As for those of a cynical bent of mind, The Inner Light is an interesting read, of the most non-sermonising kind.
The reader is taken gently led through the compact chapters, shown how to find their personal brand of spirituality, tap into it, explore it, start meditating, pick a spiritual mentor or avoid picking one.
The book helps them navigate what is virtually an intimidating ocean of spirituality out there, sift the material from the spiritual in their lives, handle religion as viewed through the spiritual lens, and master the art of seeking spirituality alone or in a crowd. Learning how to balance spirituality with sexuality, and going on pilgrimages, internal is also part of the book’s experience.
The text contains frequent sprinkles of vibrant case histories, examples of people who run the whole gamut: people who have become evolved souls, people struggling to get to that point, people who tried, then gave up.
There is also the well-known and still fascinating account of New Jersey’s Sri Kumare (Vikram Gandhi) who, in 2012, made the big reveal that he was no guru, that he had been conducting a social experiment, which involved creating a spiritual organisation and earning a (huge) follower base.
If the light is in your heart, you will find your way home, quoth Rumi. The light is something inherent to all of us, says the author, it’s just a matter of recognising and acknowledging it for what it is. Tekur attempts to do just that, help the reader find the light or recognise the light already in them.
Popular myths are deconstructed, but gently. Spirituality does not help you fix yourself, the author states succinctly, it helps improve or refine ourselves. Tekur tells us to build a structure to our seeking, to zero in on the essentials, to practise regularly, to drop anchor, and to focus.
What stood out for this reader was the sound common sense in the advice the author had for readers. While walking the path with a guru, she states, it is wise to use our better judgement as we navigate the large grey areas of the mind and consciousness. Walk with your eyes wide open, in other words.
Elsewhere, Tekur acknowledges that where spirituality is concerned, it is not, cannot, be a case of one-size-fits-all. To that end, we read of a variety of seekers walking along different paths. Tekur employs a writing style that is akin to gazing into another’s eyes: sharp but not lancing, direct but never judgemental.
While not a dense book, it isn’t really an easy one to immediately grasp, either. Except, Tekur does make it sound like a walk in the park. The Inner Light is such a breezy read that it takes time to register that the reader is learning something on the way.