The True Master
and His
This
talk was given by Sant Kirpal
Singh in Hindi
at Sawan Ashram, Delhi
Once Raja Parikshat
asked his minister as to why in times of a moral crisis or a calamity God
Himself comes to the rescue of His children even when He has innumerable
attendants at His beck and call and can direct any of them to do the job for
Him. The minister replied that a loving Father, as God is, cannot help coming
down to help His children. The Raja asked the minister to substantiate his
statement, and the latter promised to do so in course of time.
After some days,
the minister made a doll that looked just like the Raja's son and dressed it in
the fashion of the prince. He placed the doll on the bank of a pool in the
garden where the Raja used to go for a walk. The doll could be manipulated to
move with strings from a distance. When the Raja next went to the garden with
his minister, he saw the prince sitting on the bank of the pool. While he was
wondering as to how his son was there, he saw the prince taking a plunge into
the pool. The Raja could not bear this heart-rending sight and instantaneously
jumped into the pool to save his son from drowning. To his great surprise, the
Raja found that it was a doll and not his son. The Raja called for an explanation
from the minister, who humbly replied that the farce was enacted to
substantiate the truth of what he had said sometime ago about God coming down
to save His children in critical moments.
We all are children
of God, fashioned by Him in His own image. The soul in man is of the same
essence as God. Kabir says: "The soul, though
embodied, is but a part and parcel of the All-Pervading essence enlivening the
universe." It is nothing but a drop of the sea of All-Consciousness.
Environed on the physical plane by the limiting adjuncts of mind and matter, we
have completely identified ourselves with the world and all that is worldly so
much so that we have forgotten our truly divine origin. The natural result of
this forgetfulness is pain and suffering. Physical life is all misery, declared
Buddha, the Enlightened One. The ever-loving Father, when He hears the piteous
cries of His children for a way out of this magic maze of the world, cannot but
descend in the garb of a man to reclaim the lost sheep back to His fold.
God is the Guru of
soul, for soul is of the same essence as God. When in agony, it cries for help
and God comes down to its rescue. When in deep anguish, one yearns for a
way-of-life, the Word, or the Power of God, materializing in the form of a Godman, call Him what you may. He comes to give all
possible help and to lead the world-weary and heavy of heart back to His own
Kingdom. We are here in this world on probation. When the time comes, God makes
arrangements through His "Elect," or the Chosen One, to establish a
spiritual contact with Himself. Nanak has drawn a beautiful pen picture of a
soul suffering the pangs of separation: "Having forgotten the real source
of life, the soul in perpetual delusion is bewailing her lot."
In our descent to the
earth plane, we have so wrapped the "self" in us in mantles of mind
and matter of varying degrees of density peculiar to the different levels of
our existence - causal, mental, and physical - that we are completely lost to
the self and are endlessly wandering in delusion in the mighty maze of the
world. In spite of brief momentary awakenings, we are prone to go astray by
force of habit that has become our nature. Our condition may be likened to a
woman who, having been deserted by her husband, goes back to her parents and
lives there forgetful of her husband. The husband may still be
loving her, but she has no knowledge of it, nor does she try to know her
own weaknesses which brought about the forced separation between them.
Howsoever the parents may provide her with dainty comforts, yet she is in
exile. How different would be the picture if she were to reform herself and
render herself worthy of her consort. Most of us are in such a plight.
We all are children
of the Father-God, the God of us all; and our souls are essentially at one with
the Divine Principle sustaining the universe. The Lord Himself is the consort
of all the souls, but how sad it is that, while in exile here on the physical
plane, we have altogether forgotten Him and while dwelling with Him in the same
body, have not had an opportunity of coming face to face with Him. We are
separated from God, have forgotten our true Home, and by constant association
with mind and matter are completely lost in the enjoyment of sense pleasures.
We are ever a prey to all kinds of deadly sins. Like a spider we are
inextricably caught in the web of lust, anger, greed, and attachment, and are
obsessed with the ever-assertive ego, all of which conspire to lead us further
away from God.
We have two
alternative courses before us. There is a class of persons who believe in a
life of worldly enjoyment - eat, drink, and be merry. They are even worse than
those who are merely ignorant of their true self and of God and are leading a
quiet life of blissful ignorance. The former are in a pitiable condition. They
might appear to be enjoying life, but how long will they do it? The pleasures
of the world are ephemeral and end in smoke, leaving you a wreck - physically,
mentally, morally, and spiritually. The bliss you get from the love of the
Lord, you cannot get from anywhere else, not even from parents and others whom
you consider as near and dear ones and on whom you so fondly rely. Should this
awakening arise in you, then friends and relations will look like messengers of
death. If we are able to create such a state in us, it is but natural that the
Lord Who is already within us, befriending and sustaining the soul, will
definitely heed our wailings full of pain and anguish.
In the words of
Guru Nanak, the soul bursts forth:
"O my Beloved, attend to my woebegone tale
of sorrow.
While Thou art happily settled in Thy ever blissful state,
I am confined and entombed in a mold of
clay."
All Masters say the
same thing. Swami Ji says: "O spirit, thou wert a ray of the eternal Truth."
The soul in us is a
scion of the Royal Blood. It has a glorious origin. But alas, by constant
association with the mind and senses, she has degraded herself to this wretched
state! Verily mind is an abode of sense-pleasures and the various sense organs
are full of filth; but we are so blinded by lusts of the flesh, that we do not
see what is underneath the surface. If the soul were to become aware of its
true home - the home of eternal bliss and existence - it would naturally strive
to get back there, and a cry of anguish from the depths of the heart is sure to
move the Lord of Compassion. It is nothing but an earnest prayer, a
supplication from the torn and tormented spirit and cannot but move Him to pity. But our attention is all the time running
out and downwards through the nine portals of the body - eyes, ears, nostrils,
mouth, rectum, and procreative organ quite unaware of the tenth opening or center in the brain that provides us access to the Kingdom
of God within. Howsoever we may try to escape from the body, we cannot do so,
as we are subject to the great Controlling Power of God - the Holy Word or Naam - of which we are yet quite ignorant.
Nanak, everything rests in Naam;
but it
is in the fullness of time that one gets to it.
It is the
God-in-action Power (the Holy Word) that is controlling and sustaining all that
is visible and invisible. One who realizes this great truth cannot but wander
restlessly in quest of it. All the Great Souls have emphatically spoken of this
vital Life-Force. Maulana Rumi
says:
Shame to thee, that hast heaven as a true abode,
and yet are happy with shadowy
forms and colors.
How
long wilt thou be playing in dust,
and whittle away life like
children.
Please remember
that the heart which is stirred by this awakening for inner life gradually
begins to yearn for it; and this yearning in course of time assumes the form of
a ruling passion, so much so that day and night he piteously cries for it until
God, the great Ocean of Mercy, is stirred to His very depths and provides him
with the means of a way out of His magic house of the body and draws him to
Himself. This then is the power of a prayer coming out of the depths of the
heart.
What should I say
and to whom shall I turn? This is then the cry of a bewildered soul when it
comes to its own. It turns around and sees no comfort on any side. As a last
resort it calls upon the Lord God, the True Comforter and Savior
of us all. Prayer, as you know, is the last weapon in the armory
of man and also the most effective weapon. It is in these hopeless moments of
despair that hope comes to illumine the way. The Power of God then appears in
the garb of a Godman and says: Follow me. I am the
Way, the Truth, the Life. I am the Imperishable Way,
the Infallible Truth, the Eternal Life. I am the most
Noble Way, the Ultimate Truth, the True Life, blessed and uncreated.
But when does God
take pity and appear in the form of a Guru? The answer is very simple. The
Master comes to the aid only when one abstains from all the lusts of the flesh.
Christ assured
forgiveness even to the worst of sinners if they desisted from future wrong
doing. He cried a halt to His followers, put a dead line to the past, and
commanded: "Sin no more." Tulsi Sahib also
said: "Adopt truthfulness, humility, and respect for womanhood; surely
then shalt thou have God, and I stand guarantee for
that."
Such a soul then
pleads:
O thou who have access to the Kingdom of God,
carry the
message from one in exile;
Tell Him to take pity on one who is waiting all the while
with
eyes full of tears.
With tearful eyes saying Thy praises and nothing to recommend,
how can
I approach the Beloved Lord?
Thus, the soul in
the pangs of separation from the Lord cries to the Divine Messengers Who have a free access to His court and seeks Their help in
this sad predicament.
The soul now pleads
her inability to reach the path Godwards of which she
has no knowledge and hence conveys her helplessness through God's Elect. Clouds
always precede the showers. God's grace descends when the soul is in utter
agony and cries in bewilderment with eyes full of tears and heart throbbing
with love. In mystic language this is called the dark night of the soul on the
threshold of beatitude:
The sacred books are aids to the Master,
and by
following Him one is ferried into the beyond.
Unless a Master-Soul reincarnates on the earth plane,
none can
even get at their true import.
- Gurbani
Although the Divine
Principle of the Light of Life is present in all human beings, It lies dormant unless It is reactivated. And Who does this? The One Who has made it manifest within
Himself may make it manifest for us. Herein lies the
competence of a Satguru - a chosen human being in
which the Power of God works for the benefit of mankind. Call Him man-in-God or
God-in-man, for it is one and the same. This is how God works out His plan of
redemption. "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,"
said Jesus. And again: "No man knoweth who the
Father is, but the son, and he to whom the son will reveal Him." The Guru
or God-in-man appears only when the disciple is ready is an age-old saying:
"The merciful Father hath commanded: Give unto my children whatever is
desired."
If we do yearn for
God in all sincerity, there is no reason why God shall not provide means to
manifest Himself. There is always food for the hungry and water for the
thirsty. Where there is fire, oxygen must come to keep it alive. Christ says:
"Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and
ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Similarly, we have
in the Holy Koran: "Whatever my child shall ask, that shall be
granted." Here we must pause for a while and see what we ask for. We never
ask for God from God. We ask from Him success in our worldly endeavors, advancement in life, name and fame, escape from
illness and the like. In short we ask for worldly things and the same are
provided, no matter if now or in the future. The wheel of life, thus, is ever
on the move. If we ask for Him, He will come into the world Himself; and we
shall not have to be reborn again and again in evolutionary search for Him.
Like King Parikshat, He will take the plunge Himself,
for that is the law. Man is the teacher of man. God, too, has to assume a human
form for teaching human beings. His power and glory shine from the human pole
from where He works for the uplift of mankind. Such are the Chosen Few, or the
Elect, that appear from time to time in response to the crying need of the hour
and the place. My Master used to say that like attracts like and, as such,
God-in-man alone leads man's soul.
Should you chance to meet a real Master,
surrender thy
all unto Him without any scruples.
- Gurbani
When we do meet a
competent Master, we have our own part to play. Generally speaking, there are
three kinds of mental reservations with us; and those act as a positive
hindrance in our progress. We do not shed our bodily pride, pride of
possessions and riches, and lastly pride of intellectual attainments pertaining
respectively to tan (body), man (mind), and dhan
(wealth). This is why emphasis has been laid to surrender them all at the feet
of the Master. It may, however, be noted that a real Master does not need any
of these things, not the least. It simply means that these are to be considered
as gifts from Him and must be kept as a sacred trust from Him and used in the
best possible way in the service of the children and the family for repayment
of karmic debts, the society and the country, the truly needy, the
indigent, the sick, the hungry and thirsty. The acts done in the dedicated
spirit of an agent of the Master will hardly have any binding effect on you,
and you will easily and readily escape from the otherwise inexorable law of
karma - as you sow, so shall you reap. This will render you spiritually clean
in all your actions - physical, mental, and moral. This will endow you with
true humility and a spirit of selfless service or service before self, all of
which are so very necessary for a pilgrim on the path of love.
Filled with the Power of God,
The Master doles out the Holy Word.
- Gurbani
When we free
ourselves of attachments to all created things and dissolve our will in the
Divine will of the Master, then the Holy Word, already within us, comes
uppermost in our consciousness or, in other words, is revealed and can be
practiced by actual communion.
Raja Janak once called a convention of all the pandits and religious leaders of the realm and asked
if anyone in that exalted assemblage could impart to him the Divine Contact,
but none could do so except Yajnavalkya who could
just explain the theory of Spirituality but was unable to give a practical
demonstration. Sometime later, another similar conference was convened for the
same purpose, and the king desired that anyone competent to give a direct and immediate
inner experience to him in a short time taken in riding a horse should come
forward. It was, of course, granted to the king by the sage Ashtavakar,
an oddly deformed person with eight humps on His body as His name indicates.
Herein lies the greatness of a competent living
Master. It is easier said than done. There may be many who can give learned
discourses, expound the scriptures, recite vedic
hymns, narrate epics; but a rare soul can lead you within and give a direct
contact with the Light of Life in you - the Light that "shineth in the darkness and the darkness knoweth it not." A real Godman
is God - incarnate in flesh - Word made flesh, as Christ puts it. Tulsi Sahib has said: "I adore a Satguru
Who can lift me above body-consciousness in a short
time of three hours."
This then is the
touchstone for judging a genuine Master, for otherwise there is no dearth of
the so-called Masters. Of the competent Master, it is affirmed:
It is the magnetic pull of the Guru that can effect
a withdrawal
of the
sensory currents from the body.
- Swami Ji
God resides in
every heart. His Light shines in and enlivens the body, and we possess the
lift-of-life in the Music of the Soul; but have we ever experienced these
saving lifelines: the Light of God and the Voice of God, upholding all that
exists? A real Master grants an actual experience of a direct inner contact
with these saving lifelines.
Who then can effect such a miracle, the miracle of linking us with the
Music of the Soul? He alone can do this Who Himself is Word-incarnate for He is
filled with the Word from top to toe.
Now let us consider
the price that one has to pay:
Surrender thy body, thy riches, and thy mind to the Guru:
Follow His instructions implicitly and then shalt
thou get.
- Gurbani
When Raja Janak asked for God experience, the sage Ashtavakar in turn demanded of the royal disciple his
ceremonial and customary dues as a preceptor, and laid claim to the king's
body, mind, and all his possessions. The king being anxious for the highest
mystic experience readily agreed to do so. Thereupon the sage ordered him to
get down from his throne and sit at the far end of the court, right at the
place where the shoes of the courtiers were lying. It was too much for the king
to do, but as he had stipulated to surrender his body and mind and all to the
Guru, he could not help complying with His behests. Not content with this, the
sage inquired of the Raja as to where he was sitting, and the latter had to
affirm before his court that he was occupying the meanest place. The object of
the Guru was to dispel from the mind of his disciple the pride of place and
status. Having done this, He commanded Janak not to
interfere in the worldly possessions, riches and wealth, which were now his
(Guru's) - not even by entertaining thought of the same for they were no longer
his (Janak's) as he had given away the same to his
Guru.
Janak felt perplexed as
he looked at his erstwhile pomp and glory and heard the voices of his
courtiers. To escape from all these, he shut his eyes
and closed his ears. But the force of habit is terrible indeed. In spite of
shutting his eyes and ears and his best efforts to keep his thoughts under
control, his mind was yet in all those things - palaces, courtiers, and royal
pomp and splendor, his queens and children. On being
questioned about his mental state, be replied to the Guru that his mind was at
that moment just like a bird perched on the mast-staff of a boat on high seas,
attempting to fly again and again; but finding no place of rest on the waters,
it returned to the mast. The Guru then commanded him to stop all mental
vibrations as the mind which projected those thought waves was no longer his (Janak's); and he had, therefore, no business to use it.
The words went home
and momentarily Janak felt in him a mental vacuum for
the Rishi by His own thought force pulled the
disciple's consciousness from out of his bodily mold
into the Great Beyond above the plane of senses. This is what a real competent
Master does. He gives a practical mystic experience by means of concentration,
after gradually weaning the mind of the disciple from the world and all that is
worldly, collecting the sensory currents of the body at the eye focus, and
retaining them there for some time.
God is where there
is nothing. We have to disenfranchise the self in us by stripping it of the
person or the marks of the bodily adjuncts of mind and matter before we can get
a spiritual experience. The Guru does not need your body, mind, and
possessions. They all remain with you as ever before, but enriches you a
thousand-fold by providing you with subtle spiritual riches of inestimable
value. We have to "forsake the flesh for the spirit, for flesh and blood
cannot inherit the
This is the price
for attaining divinity and it has to be paid without any mental reservation.
While in the midst of plenty, consider your all, including your mind and body,
as belonging to the Guru and never employ them for gratification of the senses.
The more you will empty yourself of the love of the created things, the more
will you be filled with the love of God and verily come into greater communion
with the Holy Word.
So when we
earnestly implore for divine beatification, God in the garb of a living Master
instantly comes to our aid for that is the law. Christ when questioned as to
where He was going, replied: "I have yet many
sheep to look after."
One day in the
month of June, I happened to be with my Master at
This earth plane is
a vast prison house. It is not the true abode of the virgin soul. It is here
temporarily till it gets reconciled to the Divine Consort and is called back
from the forced exile here. Whenever a soul in an alien land feels the pangs of
separation, God plans a way out through a God-realized Saint,
a Saint Who is filled with the unseen Power of God, a living embodiment of the
Divine Word:
Satguru is
the Immaculate One Himself,
though in
human form.
Again it is said:
The servant of God is God-like in spite of his physical raiment.
- Gurbani
We all are in the
making. We are gradually striving towards perfection. This world is a training center towards that end. Suffering is the best
teacher. It awakens in us a yearning for crossing the limitation of the flesh
so that we may attain a state where there is perfect serenity. Whenever we feel
helpless in our struggle, and we do feel helpless in diverse ways, we call for the
unseen hand of God to our aid. When we do so, the Power of God is stirred. Some
Man-of God, endowed with His power, comes our way, consoles us in our misery,
offers His helping hand to us, and lifts us up from the mire of despondency,
puts us upon our feet, and offers to lead us Godwards.
A Godman, then, is not a man of this world as we are, nor is
His spirit bound down in the prison house of the physical body as ours is. At
one with the supreme Power of God, His spirit knows how to vacate the body at
will and soar into the spiritual realms beyond mind and matter. Wonderful
indeed is the house we live in. It is given to man to transcend the limitations
of the flesh and to work wheresoever we may like in
the material world, the materio-spiritual, the spirituo-material, or the purely spiritual, unlike all
other creatures who are tied to the body only. The
microcosm is fashioned on the pattern of the macrocosm.
But we have
altogether forgotten our capabilities in the mighty swirl of the world and have
come to identify our great self with the physical raiment, not knowing how to
rise above body-consciousness into the cosmic and super-cosmic consciousness. A
divinely gifted person not only reminds us of our vast potentialities, but also
gives us an experience thereof, no matter at what level and encourages us to
develop the same to whatsoever extent one may like to do. He, in brief, tells
us: Learn to die so that you may begin to live. We are certainly a drop from
the
God is the Soul of
the universe. He willed to manifest Himself into so many forms of different
patterns and colors. From one current of His power,
multitudes of creations came into being. The soul in us, too, has innumerable
capabilities but is engaged in outer pursuits. Master-Saints tell us to gather
in and collect the outgoing spiritual currents at one center,
the eye focus. They give us an experience of the withdrawal of the life
currents. By daily practice we get into a habit which in course of time becomes
a second nature. Surdas says: "As one proceeds
along, the mind follows suit."
We wish to do this
but have not the will to do it. We need some competent Master to help us on the
Path - One Who has trans-humanized the human in Him, and has become the
mouthpiece of God. Nanak says: "Nanak opens His mouth only when He Is bidden to do so." Similarly, Christ says the same
thing: "I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak
these things."
A Master-Saint by
His own life impulse gives a green signal to the human spirit lying smothered
under the dead weight of mind and matter, and gives to it a glimpse of the way
up. We, too, have been gifted with that power but are helpless as our life
currents are every moment flowing downwards and outward into the world of
matter and towards all that is material. A competent Master, like a powerful
magnet, pulls the spirit currents up and magnetizes them into a living and conscious
soul. In this temple of the body, we dwell along with the spirit of God.
The human soul is
like an over-loaded donkey, burdened with karmas of the past, out of memory,
and incurring more and more karmas from day to day, it is deeply stuck in the
quagmire of sensuous life. In this sorry and woebegone state it is well nigh
impossible to take a single step forward unless some kindly Godman
takes pity, lightens the smothering karmic load, and pulls us out of the
quicksand of life. We are filled to overflowing with the thoughts of the world
and all that is worldly and are so enchained hands and feet that we cannot
possibly find a way out. In this sad plight of utter hopelessness and
helplessness, we do stand in need of some powerful Friend Who
may be able to lend a helping hand and infuse in us courage and persistence
through His Grace. He, at a single sitting, by His concentrated attention,
helps a gathering of ten, twenty, or hundreds of persons and gives a practical
inner experience to all as the sage Ashtavakar gave
to Raja Janak. It is the work of some God-centered Saint Who can make us
transcend the self-conscious Self-hood to witness the clear Light of the void
(Beyond). With this initial experience, we can develop our inner life, which at
every step opens out new vistas into the innumerable realms beyond. Being
anchored in the Power of God, He does not lose anything by imparting His life
impulse. An ocean would suffer no loss if millions of creatures were to drink
from it to their fill. The yogis and munis
and the rishis with all their laborious
practices for years and years never had a glimmer of the inward Light. But a
truly great Sage may, by His kindly glance, open the inner vision. In the
Gospel of St. Matthew we have: "For verily I say unto you, that many
prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and
have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye
hear, and have not heard them."
I remember how my
son, when at the age of four or five, once accompanied me to Hazur and made a request for initiation. Hazur gave him some sweets and he was satisfied. Next time
when he went again, he prayed for that gift which had been granted to his
father. Hazur took him inside, made him sit in front
of Him, and asked him to concentrate and see within. In an instant the lad
witnessed a star-spangled sky and Hazur asked him to
open his eyes saying that it was enough at that stage. He came running outside
saying that he had got Naam as far as the stars and
inquired up to what stage had I been taken. Herein lies
the greatness of a Saint.
While soaring into
ethereal regions, He remains true to the kindred points of heaven and earth
which are verily linked by the Power of God working in Him in a manifested
form. He is the human pole from where the invisible hand of providence works
visibly. Whosoever comes in contact with Him and implicitly follows His
instructions, he, too, is alchemized or transmuted from dross into sterling
gold. The Master is sent into the world to salvage souls for the
This much that man was made like God before,
But that God should be made like man much more,
God clothed Himself in vile man's flesh, that so
He might be weak enough to suffer woe.
- John Donne
Being one with the
Divinity, a true Saint gives us first-hand knowledge of His experience with the
Divine. All the scriptures of the various religions are nothing but fine
records of the spiritual experiences of Their authors
with God. In fact, a living Saint is much more than all the scriptures put
together for He, being in direct contact with the God Power, is able to impart
God-knowledge directly, and grant actual experience of the saving life line. He
gives us a correct import of the ancient scriptures. While reconciling the
seeming inconsistencies, He presents an integrated picture of the science of
the soul which has eternally been the same and shall be the same in spite of
linguistic differences born of geographic variations and historic backgrounds:
Attend ye to the true testimony of the Saints,
For They tell us of Their own actual
experiences.
- Gurbani
It may be taken as
gospel truth that none can know in fullness the greatness of a Saint. With all
our learning and worldly wisdom, we cannot rise to His level, much less know of
Him. Godman is vastly different from a mere human
being. "Nanak has met the Guru Who manifested the glory of the God beyond. "
Guru Arjan declared that He searched the entire universe (Brahmand) but could find none who could come up to the
level of His Master (Guru Ramdas). Guru Arjan saw in His Master, God Himself clothed in human form.
We, living on the plane of the senses, cannot understand the significance of a
Master- Soul. But those whose inner vision is opened know and see what in
reality a Guru Power is. Maulana Rumi
says:
The hand of the Pir (Guru) is no less than the
hand of God;
His hand is not apart from the Power of God.
His gracious hand is outstretched beyond seven heavens.
As the sway of the
Master extends to the highest heaven, so do follow the sincere seekers after
Truth when in company of the Master. The great Maulana
beautifully describes this by means of a parable. A small mouse was running on
the ground when a pigeon flying in the air happened to see him. The pigeon
inquired of the mouse as to where he was running so fast. The mouse replied
that he was on his way to
Entangled in the
clutches of mind and matter, our spirit cannot by itself escape from the prison
house and reach the purely spiritual region (beyond Pind,
And, and Brahmanda -
physical, astral, and causal) which is our true home. As I have just said that
a donkey overloaded with burden cannot be extricated from a marshy swamp unless
he is first relieved of the load and then pulled out. Similarly, when a seeker
comes to the Master, the latter, by His words of encouragement and attention,
momentarily lightens the load off his mind and makes him see things clearly in
their true perspective. The Master then directs him to enter into the
laboratory of his body for an actual experiment. By doing so, the disciple gets
some inner experience that he is asked to develop by daily practice. His basic
instruction to the disciple is to rise above body-consciousness. He tells him
how to do it and helps him. This is how He gives him a way up and pulls him out
of the mire of sensuous life, in which he has been stuck for endless ages ever
since he wandered away from his native home, the Garden of Eden, and went into
self exile on the plane of mind and matter. He comes to heal the spiritually
sick and suffering humanity. Mohammad Iqbal, a great
Urdu poet of
O Power invisible, manifest Thyself but for once,
that I
may offer myriads of salutations to Thee.
When such a piteous
cry spontaneously escapes from the heart, the Power of God, which is
All-Pervasive, reveals Itself in some human form.
When is the Word,
or the Power of God, put on the covering of flesh? It does so when children of
God restlessly yearn for Him. If a child begins to cry, the mother gives him a
toy; and, if in spite of it he persists in crying, she brings still another and
yet another; but when nothing satisfies him, the mother leaves off everything,
lifts the child into her lap, and hugs him tenderly.
If we have a
genuine yearning for Him in our hearts, He shall reveal Himself, for like a
loving father He is keenly waiting and watching for the moment when we turn our
eyes towards Him. This is how He appears in the form of a great living Soul to
meet His children and to shepherd them back to His eternal mansion, Sachkhand - the perennial Abode of Truth. It is well
nigh impossible to comprehend a Godman and His
greatness, much less to describe His powers, limitless and ineffable as they
are. He is just a conduit for the Power of God to work in the world in a
manifest form and serves as a prefatory note to the Book of God. To come in
close and living touch with Him is to come near God. Without Him we cannot
possibly know of God and much less come in direct contact with the Power of God
working within each individual and sustaining the entire creation - hence the
paramount need to search for and contact a living embodiment of the Godly
Power. To know something of Him is to know something of God. If He is God
personified, or Word made flesh, He will surely attract our soul, as it is of
the same essence as of God. The more we think of Him, the more we will begin to
love Him and become like Him. "As you think so shall you become" is a
well-known adage.
When Master-Saints
come to the earth plane, people are attracted by the Divine Glow of Their eyes
and the soothing radiance They emit from the pores of
Their body. At first sight, They appear to be
dignified gentlemen. As one comes nearer to Them, one
finds something unearthly about Them. Gradually this changes
into the light of other-worldliness which in time forms a divine halo around
Them until They look nothing short of God, for one begins to see the Power of
God working in Them. They are then God-in-action, manifestations in flesh of
the Absolute God Whom no one has seen or can see. In a state of divine ecstasy,
Bhai Nand Lal, a great mystic poet, says: "Here and hereafter I
sacrifice at the feet of my fair-faced Beloved." He goes on to explain as
to why he does so: "None of them can compare with the beauty of a single
hair of Him."
Hafiz, a Persian
mystic, speaks in much the same strain when he says: "Should that
ravishing beauty of Shiraz (Murshid) accept my suit,
I would just for a mole on his check give away the Kingdoms of Smarkand (meaning both worlds here and hereafter) in dower
unto Him."
If ever any beauty I did see,
which I
desired, and got,
it was
a dream of Thee.
- John Donne
This then is the
vein in which the devotees speak of the really great Saints, for they get from
a single glance of Theirs an ecstatic intoxication
which even thousands of barrels of the purest wine would not give. They come to
serve divine vintage to the thirsty by imparting Their
own life impulse. The sacred books, however great, are mighty bloodless
substitutes for life. They constitute a valuable treasure house of the recorded
experiences of their authors, experiences that they had in their search of
their own inner self and of God. They, of course, inspire us and encourage us
to emulate the sages and seers of the past, but by themselves, cannot impart
the life experience which comes only through the grace of a living competent
Master. Spirituality cannot be taught, but It is
caught as an infection from a God-infected soul.
I saw Kaaba (house of God) whirling round and
round an entrance
to an
avenue where Lived a Man-of-God;
O God, what type of man is he? Is he really a man
or an
enchanter practicing black magic?
- Maulana Rumi
One is really
astonished at such strange utterances. But they contain a marvelous
truth in them. A Godman is a mouthpiece of God
Himself:
God Himself speaks through a Sadh (an
Enlightened One).
- Gurbani
When such a Master
accepts you, He will never leave you. He is always with you wherever you may
be. He becomes a constant friend and companion, a sure and unerring guide in
the most unpredictable and bewildering situations, even after the much dreaded
physical death that ends all worldly connections. Even before the judgement
seat of God, He appears as an intercessor and leads the soul on its upward
journey, bypassing all perilous pitfalls and warding off dangers. He never
leaves the soul even for an instant until the soul reaches the mansion of the
Lord and is safely enthroned there. He is commissioned from God to gather the
lost sheep and to bring them to His fold. After having discharged His
commission in one part, Christ went to another remarking: "I have yet to
tend many more sheep." Every Saint, like a good shepherd, has to tend to
many a sheep, here, there, and everywhere. From place to place, He moves the
world over, administering to the spiritual needs of the hungry souls,
regardless of personal hardships and privations, public taunts and rivalries,
and open persecutions and indignities. All these trials and tribulations He
undergoes and to what end? Just to help the helpless, to soothe the lacerated
hearts, and to put people on their own feet on the path of self knowledge and
God-knowledge. We can only have a fleeting glimpse of Their
inner greatness and grandeur, occasionally and in passing as They may drop a
hint here and there, just as Kabir did: "Kabir knows fully well the divine mysteries, and He has
come with a message from God."
Other Saints, too,
have spoken likewise. Hazur also gave such like
hints: "When we come into the world, we bring our staff with us. When our
work is finished at one place, we are commissioned to go elsewhere."
"It is His pleasure that He should now reveal Himself to the
Americans."
Human birth is a
precious privilege. We must make the most of it. First things should come
first. Our foremost duty is to realize God. How can we do this? We must make
friends with one Who is God-realized so that He may
help us to be likewise. God's Power or the Word of God shines in fullness in
one who has realized Him. What is electricity after all? Can we separate it
from the bulb through which it illuminates? If one bulb gets fused, we replace
it by another. Electricity itself never dies.
Christ Power is
eternal and shines forth from time to time to meet the needs of the people.
Whosoever comes in contact with the Christ Power, through the agency of God's
Elect, wherever He may be, the Agent never rests until He delivers the goods to
His principal (God). Who would not like to find the Elixir of Life and be a living
soul forever? The people of the world befriend us so long as we are capable of
serving their interests. They leave us one by one when we become helpless on
account of poverty and indigence, prolonged sickness and disability,
or otherwise when we cannot be of any use to them. Even the so-called nearest
and dearest friends and relations whom we proudly claim as our very own may not
stand by us till the last moment. They, too, can be of no avail to us when we
are in the throes of death and gasping for breath. All that they can do is to
pray for our easy and speedy exit from the world. We, therefore, stand in need
of such a one Who may be our constant companion here
and hereafter and be with us everywhere we may happen to be: in the deepest
depths of the sea, on the snow-capped mountain tops, in the burning desert
sands, suspended in midair, in wild forests, or even before the judgment seat
of God.
Take hold of the garment of a brave soul,
One Who moves freely between earth and heaven.
- Maulana Rumi
We do need a friend
capable of working on all the levels of existence so that we may have the
benefit of His instructions and guidance here in this life, as well as in the
life hereafter, on realms astral, causal, and spiritual and who will take us to
the home of our Father. Who then can do all this? None else than God Himself
and He is the true guide and Master:
One Who stands supreme from beginning to end,
Take Him to be our guide and friend.
Swami Ji also says:
The Lord of the soul graces the earth plane in the garb of a man so as to
guide the humanity Godwards.
Once Sahib Ji Maharaj of
He who
sent thee here, now calls thee back;
Return ye to his eternal Home and live in peace.
Such kindly Souls
come from afar, from the very bosom of God Himself. They hold a Divine Mandate.
Why do They come? It is His will is the only answer They give. From One proceeds all
things according to the Divine Will. When They come to
the earth plane, They abide by the laws of the land where They live for the time
being. We, too, do likewise here on earth and live accordingly. But here we are
the bondage of the karmic law of action and reaction throughout the ages ever
since we separated from Him. When we suffer, and at times we suffer terribly
under the heavy load of accumulated karmic burden, we feel helpless to get out
of the magic maze of the Lord of this universe and piteously cry for help. When
the Father-God within hears our tale of agony and torture, He is stirred to His
very depths, takes pity at our woebegone state, and manifests Himself in the
form of a Saint to lead us back to Himself. Thus, He Who
sent us (from time out of mind) comes to call thee back. What does He do? He by
suitable instructions reminds us of our ancient lineage, gives us a glimpse of
the saving lifelines provided by God in each individual. He connects our spirit
with them and gradually helps us to untie the Gordian knot between the body and
the soul, until we become free from the body and capable to travel into higher
planes along with Him in His radiant form (Divya Sarup). Mind that all this is done by a voluntary process
of practical self analysis under His guidance while living and without total
disruption of the silver cord which finally takes place at the time of death
(or dissolution of the material body). A true Saint is the greatest gift of God
as much as God is the greatest gift of the Saint. It is said: "God is
All-Wisdom; and when He manifests Himself on a human pole, He is known as a
Saint. "
Can we see God?
This is the next question and here is an affirmative answer:
In the company of a Saint one sees the Lord in Himself.
In the holy
Gospels, we have:
All things are delivered to me of the Father:
and no
man knoweth the Son, but the Father;
neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son,
and he
to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
- Matthew 11:27,
Luke 10:22
Nanak emphatically
declares: "God of Nanak is All-Apparent." And Christ in no ambiguous
terms says: "Behold the Lord." Guru Arjan
tells us: "On land and in the water, He is in His fullness."
He pervades the
very fiber of all beings. This is how Guru Arjan sees the All-Pervading Power of God vibrating
everywhere. Can we see likewise? Yes, we, too, can by becoming a Gurumukh (i.e. by implicitly following the instructions of
a Guru - a God-realized being). Is it then possible to see God with the two
eyes that we have?
O Nanak, the eyes that see God are quite different from what we have.
The eyes of the
flesh can only see things of the flesh, for mortal eyes perceive only what is
mortal. It is the inner eye that can witness the glory of the Lord. It is
"Divya Chakshu"
of the Hindu Saints, "Single Eye" as termed by Christ and the "Nukta-i-Sweda" of the Muslim divines. A Master-Saint
like an ophthalmic surgeon helps in opening this inner eye which is now
shuttered. Shams-e-Tabrez, a great Saint, tells us
that He provided eyes to thousands of congenitally blind. So far as the
experience of God goes, we are all blind. We have all our life been reading of
God in sacred books and hearing of God from others but never had a personal
experience of God. This is how we are blind, leading a blind life in the brain.
Nanak so beautifully defines a blind man:
They are not blind who have no eyes on their faces;
but
such as are alienated from God are blind indeed.
All the founders of
the various religions in the world are one on this point. We have been gifted
with inner perception and audition, independent of the sense organs; for
perfect knowledge is an action of the soul. The soul is, however, smothered
under the deadweight of mind and matter for myriads of ages, and has never had
an opportunity of attending to the Divine Light and the celestial strains of
the Inner Music. A Master-Saint helps in lifting the karmic burden and thereby
releases the soul, freeing, it gradually from the various enveloping koshas or enshrouding veils and different limiting adjuncts
until it comes to its own, disengaged of the love of all created things and
becomes a disembodied soul, shining in its own luminosity and capable of
thinking and acting independently on its own.
Hence the soul cannot be possessed of the divine union
until it
has divested itself of the love of created beings.
The means for effecting this union are the Light of God and the Voice of
God. God is self luminous Light (Swayam Jyoti Swarup), Father of all
lights as the Christians speak of, and Nurun-ala-Nur
(the light of Lights) of the Muslims. He is also spoken of as the Song of the
Soul, the Voice of the Silence, the Music of the Spheres, the Shabd, the Vak, the Word, the Nad - all signifying the same
thing. Both these saving life lines are within each individual. We live and
move and have our very being in and through them, but like the proverbial fish
in water do not know what water is: