His Holiness Sant Kirpal Singh left the Delhi Palam Airport on June 8, 1963 at 10:45 p.m. on the first stage of his world tour. The purpose of the 1955 world tour had been to re-introduce the forgotten Science of the Soul to sincere seekers after Truth and to give them practical experience of the Light and Sound Principle, teaching them how to realize themselves so that ultimately they can realize God. This is the task of a spiritual Master. However, the tour of 1963 carried even greater meaning. The basic purpose was the same: to awaken spiritual seekers by linking the soul-consciousness with the Oversoul or God. But the Master was also to shoulder the additional burdens of presenting the purpose of the World Fellowship of Religions to the West, and to meet the religious, political, and social heads of major countries in order that they may be given the ageless message of peace and goodwill by the grace and authority of a Living Master.

This last mentioned purpose had shown itself as an ever-increasing need. Since the termination of World War II and the revelation of the enormous power locked within the physical core of the atom, many attempts had been made to solve the distressing impasse in world affairs. Many thinkers had stressed the need for sweeping changes in the political, economic, religious, and social life of humanity. Others had urged the re-establishment of old-fashioned creeds and institutions, and this revivalist spirit—-a reaction against the revolutionary movements of our times —has found many adherents, particularly in the field of religion.

However, whether we happen to cherish the ideals of revolution or those of revivalism, neither a violent social upheaval nor a modern, super-charged religious revivalism will bring a lasting and satisfying solution to the dire needs of our time. Although a new framework of society may call for new movements and new institutions, the answer to our global problems does not lie in the formation of these things. Nor does this solution have any basis in the return of a disillusioned humanity to obsolete, worn-out forms of religious or sociological dogmatism. It is the man and woman who are awakened to the Living Word—the God-in-action Power or Holy Spirit—who will ensoul the new social forms of this nuclear age. The primary change must be an inner change. It is the spiritually-focused consciousness of men and women—collectively and individually— that will clarify and solve the needs of our time and of the future. Mankind still lives in the Iron Age—the Kali Yuga, age of darkness and spiritual ignorance of Eastern mysticism—and very little can be achieved by reforming present institutions. To awaken the religious, political, and social leaders to this consciousness; this was the task of Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj.

Before his final departure from the world Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj had informed his beloved spiritual successor: "You will travel all over the world, and your name will spread from one corner of the earth to the other. I see you in the great assembly halls with the nobility of the world bowing before you." From its commencement this tour became a fulfillment of that prophecy, for Kirpal Singh's name was made known to the great and small, and he was received in the great palaces, parliaments and government buildings of the West.

Those great leaders who were awakening to this spiritual realization have the opportunity to guide and reeducate humanity, morally, mentally and spiritually. They must not lead their people into new global conflicts, but should promote a new education based upon spiritual knowledge, altruistic behavior, universal goodwill and non-violence. Such a new spiritual education could be introduced by men and women who have realized the living validity of its laws and principles within themselves. The basic technique of the new spiritual education is to be found in the ageless principles of the Science of the Soul, adapted to the needs of the present age by Sant Kirpal Singh. These principles were propounded and given practical demonstration by the great Master-Saints of past ages. Christ manifested the conscious release of the soul from the blinding limitations of matter. Kirpal Singh brings this supreme science to more people than ever before in recorded history. To this great work he adds the task of transmitting an ordered inflow of the energy of universal love into the consciousness of the leaders of the West.

Kirpal Singh found a heightening of consciousness in the West in 1963. It was a definite increase in spiritual awareness which had grown since his last visit to the West in 1955. It was as though the Western world had realized that it could be standing on the threshold of a new spiritual age—rather than the edge of nuclear destruction—a transfiguration stage of the present racial consciousness from materialistic intellect to spiritual intuition. Metaphysical students were drawing parallels with the fact that the present crisis in the evolution of humanity was alle-gorically related in the Evangelical record of the Christ Drama, and physically symbolized by the release of nuclear energy in the mid-twentieth century.

Kirpal Singh came to the West when physical indications of the present point of global crisis were found in the racial disturbances and changes in the climactic conditions of many countries. He came when further signs of epochal change in planetary and human evolution were to be seen in the geological displacements which affected immense areas of our planet. He came at a time when both planet and man were demonstrating the transience and impermanence of manifested life in the lower worlds. Facts of cosmic significance, culled variously from outer-space experiments, the discoveries of astro-physicists and the interpretations of modern mystics have revealed this unreality of the material world: a veil of maya—or illusion—covering the permanent reality. But the physical world has its place in the divine Plan: to be born in a physical body was the blessed first step to returning to our True Home. The great Master knew that the mass insanity of modern power-politics threatened to tear away the privilege of physical-birth, by destroying great areas of the earth. He knew that humanity must meet the twofold challenge which had been set forth on one hand by the incredible advances in nuclear physics, and, on the other hand, by the spiritual bankruptcy which had been so much in evidence within the organized creeds and religions of the world.

Kirpal Singh came to the West in order that all "who had eyes to see and ears to hear" would awaken to the conscious reality of the Living Word within. The dormant faculty of the human soul—blurred by the mirage of mind and matter—should be re-awakened. This is the divine birthright of all mankind, a greater mode of living which is firmly based upon the realization of our true selves and our true, primal Home: the undying Plane from whence flows all Love, Light and Wisdom. It is a consciousness, hitherto rarely experienced by the vast majority of men and women, which, when manifested through enlightened devotees of the Master, will solve the frightening problems of humanity. This is the purpose for which Kirpal Singh made the great journey across the Western world: Man, know Thyself!—and be free.

The keynote of the message which Kirpal Singh brought to the West is in transmutation from one mode of living to another. This does not mean that one should alter his or her present mode of employment, family affairs and religion, just so long as all these are based upon honesty and morality. Under the purifying influence of the Audible Life Stream the disciple will have the negative and warring elements in his or her personality removed completely. The resultant energies will be of the Master-Power—the Word—and will be a unified force of spiritual service. By his presence in several European trouble-spots, Kirpal Singh transmuted the negative elements used by unwitting exponents of human separateness and merged these elements into the positive stream of divine love: the cleansing waters of Naam which dissolve all negation and error.

To many leaders of the West, Kirpal Singh brought new predominant qualities which are needed to build a new and noble society. They were shown the qualities of spiritual steadfastness, the inner courage to stand firm within the ranks of men and women of higher vision, and the ability to face the future fearlessly in the consciousness of universal truth. Self-analysis, meditation and selfless service were novel and revolutionary concepts to many of these leading personalities. They were shown to be practical measures in overcoming the barriers of negative thought which blind men to the ever-present reality of the Supreme One.

In his meetings with the leading political figures of the West, Kirpal Singh made no differentiation between various political factions. He made no statements against one side or the other. He showed that great power was vested in the hands of political and religious groups, who have wielded this temporal power in a way which has often been negative and irresponsible. He demonstrated to these heads of state that they were responsible for the well being of millions of God's children. This also applied to those who were totally imbued with the concepts of privilege and the exploitation of other living beings, all false ideals of a dying age. Kirpal Singh showed no bias towards the diehards of political Right or Left. He saw men from the soul-level. Rabid capitalism and revolutionary communism, greedy finance and hidebound labor; these are meaningless concepts on the soul-level. The Master sees men with the responsibility of controlling mental energies and natural forces which should be used for the benefit of all mankind. He wishes to see that men of enlightenment and altruism control the social institutions of a new and better age.

The primary purpose of Kirpal Singh's coming to the West was to give people a method whereby they can enter the Kingdom of Heaven during their lifetime, liberating them from the prison-house of materiality. Its practice by the leaders of Western thought could also serve in the transformation of institutions of education, religion, and social administration. The externalization of the spiritual energies of goodwill and enlightenment, brought by a competent Master into the spheres of social leadership, must have a dynamic effect on individuals, institutions, communities and countries alike. This release of power from the inner-man, the nuclear soul-center of his being, is found in the highest science of spirituality: an eternal cure for the soul-deadening diseases of negation and separativeness which have held mankind in bondage through the ages.

Kirpal Singh found many true disciples in the West— as he had in the East. Progressive-minded men and women were freeing themselves from the bonds which limit them to the service of narrow, selfish and sectarian interests. He found people who were not concerned with the advancement of a chosen political or religious creed; nor were they working within the limited interests of any particular nation, republic or empire. He found new devotees of the Science of the Masters, people who could not dedicate themselves to any form of service which was derogatory to any part of the totality of life. These devotees were not limited by outer vows of allegiance, but are spiritually-guided by their intense love and obedience to the Will of the Master, a living God-Man who incarnates as the Living Word made Flesh!

Initiation into the Science of the Soul enables the individual to function harmoniously in his or her environment whilst yet devoting time to spiritual practice, to be in the world and yet not of it. Through the sharing of the darshan—or holy vision bestowed by the Master—the devotees are able to grasp more fully the urgent need for human liberation from illusion and error. They are presented with an unclouded picture of reality. Kirpal Singh came to present the reality of our spiritual center or nucleus in the nuclear age. The material, negative parallel to such an ordered release of spiritual power can be found in the release of electronic power in the nucleus of the atom. Modern science has effected the means of tremendous destruction. The full inner significance of the atomic explosion in Alamagordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, and the subsequent cloud-wreaths over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the many "H-bomb" tests, has yet to be realized by humanity. Kirpal Singh spoke gravely on the possibility of a new global holocaust; he presented the only answer to this tremendous challenge.

The positive, nuclear soul-power of creation can be contacted at the center of man's being. World leaders and scientists, together with their fellow humanity, can become oriented towards the spiritual truths of life. Man has thrust himself through the veil of material appearances into a new region of limitless forces and energies. The great power that our civilization has unleashed can only be safely used by a humanity which lives according to the highest spiritual laws. Before we are fit to govern the revolutionary results of external changes we must undergo a profound inner change. The method of attainment of this inner life has been given out by the great Masters throughout history. Kirpal Singh gives the same science to humanity in this day and age.

So, on that fateful day in June, 1963, leaving an airport thronged with thousands of disciples who lamented at their physical separation from the Master, Kirpal Singh set forth for the West. He came to a continent which was perilously poised between two mutually antagonistic political ideologies, with an uneasy leavening of liberal and radical elements set between the two camps. He came to countries where the dark fear of the future dwells in the hearts of individuals and communities. He came to countries where—in spite of the creation of international welfare organizations—each nation was still mainly concerned with the development and extension of its own sphere of political and economic influence. He came to countries where selfish and separative trends of human thinking were creating new problems and new contacts.

Sat Guru Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 9, 1963. He was accompanied by Madame Hardevi Raja Ram and Princess Devinder Bir Kaur Narendra, daughter of the late Maharajah of Jind, both of whom were concerned with many of the multilingual press-reports and tour-data, dietary and social arrangements, and other administrative aspects of the tour. Miss Eileen Wigg, a disciple from Toronto, Canada, acted as an indefatigable Tour Secretary throughout the European stage—and through part of the North American stage—of the tour. As the June dawn proclaimed a new, sunny day in Germany, Kirpal Singh arrived in the West. It was to prove a signal augury for the tour: the Sun of spirituality had risen in the East!

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