It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” For Sharath Babu Nakka it is more than a nice-sounding cliché—it is a guiding principle of his remarkable life.
Sharath Babu Nakka, professor of theology and missiology at Spicer Adventist University in Pune, India, has lived in a world of total darkness for the past 55 years, but that has not deterred him, or robbed him of his zest for life. Instead, he greets each new day on the tiptoe of hope and expectancy, and with a smile as broad as his face. He is, without a doubt, one of the most positive and joyous Christians you will ever meet.
On a recent visit to India I observed him step out of the house, breathe in the fresh morning air, and exclaim, “Oh, what a beautiful day!” Though sightless, he sees more clearly than many of us who have eyes yet fail to appreciate the beauty around us. Psalm 118:24 best sums up his attitude toward life: “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”This day. Not tomorrow. Not the day after that, or some distant time when life will be perfect and beautiful again. But today, even amid life’s struggles and disappointments. For Sharath Babu, joy is not predicated on circumstances; it is rooted in the unfailing promises and faithfulness of God.
It Happened Suddenly
Sharath Babu was raised in the remote village of Srirangapatnam, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, in southern India. Surrounded by lush green rice paddies and luxuriant coconut palms, the place itself was little more than a scattering of mud huts with thatched roofs and narrow dirt roads. Few, if any, enjoyed the benefits of electricity and indoor plumbing.
Some might wonder what good could possibly come out of a place like that. But the young lad was a dreamer, and his dream of becoming a high school teacher someday took him to the Seventh-day Adventist boarding school at Narsapur. There he excelled academically. He was loving life and loving school, and showed early signs of a promising future. And then it happened.
Without any warning he lost all vision in both eyes. Overnight he was plunged into a world of complete darkness from which he has never recovered.
The oldest of four children—and the only son—born to Subhakara Rao Nakka, an Adventist village pastor, and his wife, Kamalarathnam, Sharath Babu was his parents’ pride, and their security in their old age (in the Indian culture a son means everything). “I was just 10 years old then, but I still remember everything that happened that day,” he recalls. He especially remembers turning to his grieving parents and pleading, “Please don’t cry. God will take care of me.”
The village doctors were baffled, and referred them to Christian Medical College in Vellore. There some of the best eye surgeons in the country worked on Sharath Babu, while his father sat outside the operating room, praying and begging God for a miracle. But the devil was there too, taunting him: “Aren’t you a pastor, a man of prayer? What good is your religion now? Where is your God when you need Him? How can you bear to see your blind son condemned to a lifetime of begging along the dirt roads of your village and at the local railroad station? You might as well kill yourself, and take your son with you.” His father needed no reminding of the miserable plight of blind individuals, especially in a place like India. The country leads the world in the number of blind and visually impaired persons. They are everywhere, begging for a few coins or a piece of bread to feed their empty stomachs.
His dad would later confess that he came close to taking his own life that day, recalls Sharath Babu. But in the providence of God, he heard other voices that day: sweet, melodious voices coming from down the hall where staff and patients at this Christian hospital gathered every morning and evening to sing and pray together. They were singing in the Tamil language, but he could follow some of the words: “In the time of your trials and troubles, God will see you through.” Buoyed by the message of that song and his son’s unshakable faith in God, Subhakara Rao Nakka began to believe too.
This same God who guides the moon across the traceless heavens—even through the darkest night—has promised to be your guide through your own dark night.
“Take him home,” said the doctors. “There is nothing we can do to restore your son’s eyesight. His optic nerve is damaged beyond repair; it’s the worst case we have ever encountered. It’s a miracle that he is still alive.” His young-boy dreams, just beginning to take hold, were cruelly snatched away. Before him was a desert of despair and hopelessness.
God Made a Way
Sharath Babu remained at home for the next two years, lost in a world that seemed darker than a thousand nights. Although helpless, he was not without hope. His faith in God remained unshakable. And God did not fail him. Providentially, he was led to a Christian school for the blind not far from home. It was run by a Pentecostal group. The school would become his home for the next five years. There he learned to read and write in braille and master basic life skills.
By the time he completed the seventh grade, he was already 18. But since he was a good student, he was permitted to skip the next two grades and go directly to the tenth grade. That year he appeared for the high school (pre-college) certificate exam administered by the state—and passed.
Spicer Memorial College (now Spicer Adventist University), the only Adventist college in all of India back then, was Sharath Babu’s next stop. Almost 1,000 kilometers (more than 600 miles) from home and in a totally different cultural environment, Sharath Babu found adjusting to hostel (dorm) life challenging. He was totally dependent upon others to take him by the hand and guide him from place to place— classroom, church, library, cafeteria. A senior student was assigned by the college administration to serve as his reader and to help with his homework. In the classroom he relied on a cassette player to record the lectures. By his junior year he had mastered braille sufficiently to keep pace with his professors. Soon his lecture notes were so complete and detailed that his classmates would often come to him for help.
Cut off from all extracurricular activities and distractions, he was able to focus entirely on his studies. Registering for 19 credits a semester and all summer school sessions, Sharath Babu was able to complete the bachelor’s in religion in three and a half years. But no one would offer him a job, so he decided to pursue a master’s degree at a public university close by. But God had other plans for his life. That same year Andrews University introduced the master’s in religion degree, offered entirely on the Spicer College campus. Sharath Babu was one of the first Spicer graduates to be admitted into the program. He graduated in 1985 with a master’s project titled “The Concept of Salvation in Hinduism.” Once again there were no job offers, but unbeknown to him, God was working behind the scenes.
June 21, 1990, is a day Sharath Babu will never forget. He heard his name announced over the college public address system. He was to report immediately to the president’s office. He knew that could mean only one thing: trouble! But his fears were soon allayed. “I know God has a plan for your life, Sharath Babu, but I don’t know what it is,” said the college president, M. E. Cherian. “In the meantime, I’d like to offer you a job. We lost several faculty this year, and we need to fill those slots. Starting tomorrow, you will be teaching in the Religion Department.” Today, 34 years later, he still teaches there, and loves every moment of it. Eschatology, Daniel and Revelation, church history, and the doctrine of the Sabbath are some of the courses he loves to teach; and, of course, Hinduism.
Miracles Compounded
There was another life-changing event that took place that same day, June 21, 1990. Sharath Babu was still in a state of disbelief as he stepped out of the president’s office—he had not applied for the job. Waiting for him was his sister Jeevana, who was then a resident in the women’s hostel on campus, and pursuing a master’s in English at Pune University. “Wait until you hear what I have to share with you, anna [meaning big brother],” she said, unable to contain her excitement. “I have a roommate.”
“Her name is Sumathi,” Jeevana continued. “She was orphaned as a young girl, but with financial aid through the Christian Children’s Fund and the support and encouragement of a loving Indian couple, K.S.D. Charles, and his wife, Seleina, she was able to complete her high school education and is now pursuing a degree in home economics.” Then came the words that would transform Sharath Babu’s life forever: “Sumathi has been observing you for a while, and she likes you, anna,” continued Jeevana. “If Mom and Dad are willing to accept her, she wants to marry you.”
And so it was that on June 21, 1991, exactly a year later, Sharath Babu and Sumathi Kisku were married in his native village of Srirangapatnam. For a whole 10 days leading up to the wedding, torrential monsoon rains had turned the village and its surroundings into a gigantic mudslide. It was too late to change the wedding date or arrange for an alternate venue. Miraculously (it could only have been the hand of God), the day before the wedding the rain stopped, and the sun beat down hard, rendering the mud roads and walkways passable once more. The first guests to arrive for the wedding had to wade through knee-high water and carry umbrellas—for rain was still coming down hard in the surrounding towns and villages. Srirangapatnam was the only dry spot for miles around.
The newly married couple set up home on the Spicer College campus, where Sharath Babu resumed his teaching responsibilities. Sumathi worked in the attendance office and later at the Ellen G. White center. In time, their precious daughter, Seleina, would complete their family of three.
Dream Fulfilled and Future
In 2007, with the support and encouragement of his wife, Sharath Babu launched an international ministry. It began with a 21-day evangelistic series in London that resulted in nine baptisms. That was to be the first of many visits to the British Isles. Soon invitations came pouring in from other distant places: Monze, Zambia; Manado, Indonesia; Kisii, Kenya; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a temporary interruption, but the invitations have picked up since; and at 64, Sharath Babu shows no signs of slowing down. Every year, during Christmas and summer break, he takes students along with him, traveling around the country, conducting revival meetings—something he has done since his undergraduate days. Also, every Monday for the past 10 years he has appeared on the GoodNews Television channel out of Hyderabad, India. And three years ago Path to Salvation (another non-Adventist TV channel) invited him to do a daily presentation on prophecy and last-day events. He also continues to be a regular on Hope India, a subsidiary of Hope Channel International.
“My dream was to become a high school teacher,” says Sharath Babu. “Today I am a college and seminary professor, training future pastors and teachers. I was a boy of 10 when the devil taunted my father that I was destined to become just another blind beggar on the streets of India. Fifty-five years later I still reside in a world of pitch darkness, yet God has used me to shine the light of His glory and grace in some of the darkest places on earth. To Him be all the honor and all the praise.”
When I asked him what the source of his strength and positive outlook on life was, he was quick to respond: “The numerous promises in the Bible, especially the hope of Christ’s soon return, help me keep things in proper perspective. My tribulations are only for a season; life will take hold again someday.”
In joyous anticipation he looks forward to that day when his sightless eyes will see once more—not the lush green paddies of his native village nor the coconut palms swaying gently in the breeze with the mountains in the distance. What he wants more than anything else is to look into the face of his loving Savior, who has been his constant and never-failing friend through all these many years.
“Next I want to see my dear wife, Sumathi,” he said, choking back tears. “We were married for 29 years [she died of a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2020], but I never got to see her face. She sacrificed a normal life for herself so she could be my hands and feet—and especially my eyes—in an often dark and cruel world. I owe everything to her.” He also longs to see his precious daughter, Seleina. “I’ve often wondered what she looks like. She too has sacrificed a lot, and continues to care for me with inexhaustible love, patience, and devotion.”
“Were it not for my blindness,” Sharath Babu reflects, “I might have been tempted, like so many others, to put self-advancement (power, position, prestige) ahead of the advancement of God’s kingdom. I have no such agenda. His business is my only business.”
Sharath Babu’s father lived to the age of 80, and had the joy of seeing his son marry and become a father, be ordained to the gospel ministry in 2000, earn a doctoral (D.Min.) degree from Andrews University in 2001, attain the academic rank of college and seminary professor, and be appointed an adjunct professor of religion at Andrews University, Michigan, USA. The devil is a liar.
Perhaps you are passing through a dark season—divorce, terminal illness, financial challenges, career disappointment, even physical blindness. Maybe you find yourself facing a night that seems to have no ending? Do not despair. The God who works the night shift, the God who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:3, 4), is by your side. This same God who guides the moon across the traceless heavens—even through the darkest night—has promised to be your guide through your own dark night.
Sharath Babu’s story is proof positive that night cannot win when God is on your side.
