CHAPTER SIX

THE NEED OF A MASTER





   THE formless God pervades the Universe in the form of Shabd or Word; but we cannot feel blessed unless we are enabled to contact It within.
   The entire atmosphere is charged with electricity but one cannot derive any benefit from it so long as one cannot reach out to an electric switch that controls the energy coming from the power-house.
    Once this contact is established, it gives us light, hot or cold breezes as we may need, and helps us in innumerable ways in sweeping the house, cooking our food and the like. It carries huge industrial loads like the proverbial demon and does work that a thousand persons put together cannot do.
   In exactly the same way, if one could but reach out to some human pole where God's energy in the form of Shabd is manifest, one can become truly blessed and reap a rich spiritual harvest beyond all measure. Saints, prophets, seers, and Master Souls are such manifested poles that radiate God's Light, Life and Love.
   They are the Children of Light and come to give Light to the world which is steeped in utter darkness. They are Shabd personified and, so to say, polarized God within the world.

        Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

                                                                                                                                              II PETER I:21

        The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his Word was in my tongue.

                                                                                                                                         II SAMUEL 23:2

          Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path.

                                                                                                                                          PSALM 119:105

   Satguru or Master of Truth is then the pole wherefrom God's energy works for the Divine Will. This energy or Shabd is the Subtlest Form of the Great Unknown and the Unknowable. It is through the Satguru that one can know even this much and come into contact with Shabd.
   It is from the physical that we move to the subtle. The Master and the Master's Sound Current are the means to the end. They alone can lead the spirit Godward. The Master solves for us the mystery of God and saves us from the tentacles of mind and matter.
   His long and strong arm pulls a spirit out of body and mind consciousness and makes it Spirit Consciousness by linking it with the Sound Principle.
   The Radiant Music next leads the spirit to the source or region from which It is emanating. The Master and the Sound Current are not two different entities; they are but two aspects of the same thing.
   As he works on the physical plane, he has to assume and work through a physical vehicle, without which spiritual instruction cannot be imparted. But as soon as he disengages a human spirit from the various sheaths and coatings, he also assumes and works through a subtle Form - luminous and resplendent.
   This process goes on until the spirit of man becomes identical with that of the Master. This is the grand purpose for the fulfillment of which Masters come into this lowest region which is so full of misery and woe. Armed with the Saving Grace of God, in the form of the Holy Ghost - variously called Shabd, Word, Naad, Bani or Kalma - the Master saves such souls as are ripe for redemption, listen to him, and work out their salvation by following his instructions.
   Unless God comes in the garb of man and dwells among us, we cannot know of God in spite of His immanent presence everywhere.
   Someone must churn clarified butter from milk, and strike fire out of the granite blocks, before we can know that butter is hidden in milk and fire in stone. "Word," therefore, becomes flesh and dwells among us, as we learn from the Holy Gospel.
   When spirits grow restless from their long exile into the physical plane, helplessly cry out for homecoming and see no way out of the clutches of Kal's all pervading limitations of time, space, and causation, the Saving Grace of God is stirred by the piteous appeals and comes into the world in the form of a Sant Satguru (Master of Truth) to help them out of the impasse.
   It is the living Master who can do this job. No one else can. It is through the Voice of the Silence that He speaks. His is an unwritten law and an unspoken language.
   Scriptures, however sacred and authoritative, contain bare references to spiritual regions and record the experiences of their authors, but can neither impart spiritual instruction nor be a guide on the spiritual path.
   The Word of the Master works as an "Open Sesame" to the heavenly regions. He holds the key that unlocks the Kingdom of God, now a lost province to us. It is out of compassion and love for the lost sheep that the Shepherd comes out of his fold, treads the stony path in an endless search, picking up lost souls here and there.

        I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
         but shall have the light of life.
                                                                                                                                                     JOHN 8:12



Chapter Seven  Contents