- Collected talks, writings and messages -
A letter by Baba Sawan Singh published in the
April 1975 edition of Sat Sandesh.
The Supreme Creator and the individual spirit in
the creation are connected together through the Sound Current.
But Kal, also the creation of the Supreme Being, separates the
individual from the current by coming in between as mind and
forms.
Hence, the individual feels disconnected, but not so the Creator. There are three minds, and corresponding to these three minds are three kinds of forms. In Trikuti, the Nijman (innermost mind) or Brahm, and the Universal Mind cover the spirit. The forms here are made up of very pure Maya (mind); so much so, that a majority of the seekers have failed to see here the spirit apart from the Maya or Mind, and therefore considered Brahm as all pervading, etc. Lower down in Sahansdal Kanwal, the forms of Trikuti get another covering of mind and form—both coarser than the above, the Astral form here being governed by the Andi Man (astral mind).
In this zone, there are the hells and heavens and numerous other lokas (Regions). The tendencies of the mind are directed inward and are elevating. This mind behaves like a wise enemy (seeking to keep us here). Further down in Pind (region below the eyes), the Astral form gets another covering of coarse material, with which we are all familiar.
The mind that governs this form is called the Pindi Man (Pindi Mind). Its tendencies are outward and diffusive, and are most difficult to control. Now, a body actuated by mind and spirit cannot help performing Karma, and the Karmic Law, "as you sow, so shall you also reap" continues to work, and the account is complicated with time. The more one works, the more and greater is the entanglement, like a bird struggling in the meshes of a net.
So cunningly has Kal arranged the snare of forms and minds that it is well nigh impossible to escape from their working in these minds and bodies. No matter how goodly and godly we be, it will not take us out from these regions. Says Lord Krishma, "Good actions are as much binding as bad actions; good actions may be likened to fetters of gold and bad actions to those of iron, and both are equally sufficient to keep us tied." The escape is through the Sound Current which is the substratum at the bottom of these minds.
Only when the attention catches and follows the current does the mind become dormant and out of action. At all other times when the attention is off the current, the mind gets the upper hand. Through the long and indefinite time since the spirit separated from its Ocean and associated itself with the minds and bodies, not only has the upward passage been blocked, but the spirit has been so bewildered, entangled, and enfeebled, that it has lost all memory of it home, and is contented to live a miserable life in this wretched, material world.
Now, there are two ways of looking at this creation—The Creator's point of view; or in other words, from the top, and from the bottom end. From the top end, it seems that the Creator is all in all. He is the only doer and the individual seems like a puppet tossed right and left by the wire puller. There seems no free will in the individual and therefore no responsibility on his head. It is His play. There is no why or wherefore. All the Saints, when they look from the top, describe the creation as His manifestation. They see Him working everywhere.
Now, there are two ways of looking at this creation: from the Creator’s point of view and from our point of view—or in other words, from the top end and from the bottom end. From the top it looks as though the Creator is all in all He is the only doer and the individual seems like a puppet tossed right and left by the wire puller. There seems no free will in the individual, and therefore no responsibility on his head.
It is His play. There is no why or wherefore. All the Saints, when they look from the top, describe the creation as His manifestation. They see Him working everywhere. Now, looking at the thing from below, or the individual viewpoint, we come across variety as opposed to oneness.
Everybody appears working with a will, and is influenced by and is influencing others with whom he comes in contact. The individual is the doer, and is therefore responsible for his actions and their consequences. All the actions are recorded in his mind and memory, and cause likes and dislikes which keep him pinned down to the material, astral or mental spheres, according to his actions in an earlier move in the cycle of transmigration.
The individual in these regions cannot help doing actions and having done them cannot escape their influences. Individual is the doer, and therefore bears the consequences of his actions.
As stated above, the observations differ on account of the difference in the angle of vision. Both are right. The individual clothed in coarse material form sees only the external material forms. His sight does not go deeper than that.
If he were to rise up, the same individual from Sahansdal Kanwal will see the mind actuating all forms. The form will be secondary only; mind will be the mover in all. The same individual from Daswan Dwar will see the Spirit Current working everywhere and will see how the mind gets power from the spirit.
From Sach Khand the whole creation looks like bubbles forming and disappearing in a spiritual ocean. An individual is endowed with intelligence and does every action knowingly. It is therefore incumbent upon him to find a way of escape from this entanglement. To raise his spirit he must struggle against the mind; for he lives by struggle. And where there is a will, there is a way.
He cannot say this is no part of his duty.
Now, the Karmas are divided into three groups: Kryman or new actions; Pralabhad or Fate; and Sanchit or reserve. We take the case of a farmer. He prepares his land for seed. He has the option to sow whatever he likes. Suppose he decides on wheat and sows it. The crop matures and he gathers it. Some of it he keeps for his consumption during the coming year, and the surplus he puts in store. For the next year he will have to live on wheat, for he has nothing else by him.
If he now wants something else, say corn, he can sow that next season. Suppose he now sows corn and gathers his crop at the end of the year. Like his wheat crop, he keeps some for his consumption and keeps the surplus in his store. Year after year he is living on the previous year's gathering and increasing his reserve in store to be utilized in time of scarcity or need.
You will see that he is living and hopes to live, on what he himself sows and gathers. Similiarly, whatever we do in this life becomes fate for our next life; and some of this is kept in reserve by Kal to be given to us if by any chance (of course these chances are practically nil) we run short of Karma. Without Karma, Kal cannot keep down a spirit in a body, and without a body, no Karma can be performed.
It is open to Kal to add from reserve to Fate, or deduct from Fate for reserve. Like the farmer who is preparing his land for the coming season, and is living on the gatherings from the last season, with a confidence based on his reserve, so we are doing our fate, in which we have no choice. But we do have the choice to work anew as we please, for our future good. And we have a surplus, which is our reserve from cast lives, of which we have now no knowledge.
We are therefore at present doing a dual function. (a) In regard to fate, we are helpless; but (b) in new actions we have a free hand to sow for the future. To distinguish between these two types by intelligence alone is not easy for the individual; but a rough rule may be laid down, namely, that what comes in spite of our efforts, and spontaneously, is due to fate. But those whose attention is concentrated, and who have access within, can read their fate easily. It is an open book to them.
Now, in the physical body, actions are done from
the heart center. As long as the mind is centered here (in
ordinary individuals, the heart is the center of mind action),
it will be influenced by mind actions. The sensations of joy and
sorrow will be felt as the body is worked from this center. When
the mind has been elevated to the eye focus by concentration, or
in other words, when the mind has changed its seat or center
from the heart to the eyes; then the feeling used by outward
influences, working on the physical body, will be felt
imperceptibly.
Joys of the world will not elevate and its sorrows will not depress him. The fate actions are stored in the eight-petalled lotus, in Anda above the eyes. Their influence is felt forcibly as long as that center has not been crossed. When that center is crossed, and the Master's Astral Form is seen (for that Form resides there ), the influence of the fate actions will be perceived nominally. The mind has then become strong and it has the power to bear joys or sorrows without effort.
But fate cannot be effaced or altered; it will have to be borne. An arrow after leaving the bow, must find its mark. The reserve actions are stored at the top of Trikuti, and only when a spirit has crossed the third mmd, or Trikuti, is it said to be free from all Karma. Below this, the spirit suffers from the effects of Karma.
All actions are performed with a motive and the motive is binding. It is not easy to conceive of an action which is performed without a motive. The mind is consciously or subconsciously active, and it is ridiculous to talk of Karma without a counter-Karma. There is no escape from counter-Karma. By doing actions, however good, there is no escape. Charity, offerings, or pilgrimages must bring their reward, and the soul doing these things must receive the reward in one body or another.
Men are reborn and reincarnate with a span of
life pre-fixed on the Karmic reactions of our past lives—“no
more, no less.” Christ said, “Thy days are numbered.” The length
of life depends on the breaths we take. Proper use and misuse
thereof can prolong or shorten our lives on this earth. Normally
a man breathes fourteen or fifteen times in a minute, but in
passionate moments of life one breathes 24 to 26 times in a
minute. Thus the allotted breaths are exhausted in a shorter
period. If, however, you are of temperate habits and are
devoting time to spiritual practices—the number of breaths goes
down to four to six per minute. In this way life is prolonged.
Yogis control the breath in kumbhak for months and
sometimes years, prolonging their lives for hundreds of years.
The escape from Karma lies in the protection afforded by Saints. They are themselves Karmaless. Their actions are not binding on them, for their spirit works from Daswan Dwar, a center above the three spheres of mind and forms, as stated above. They show us the way out.
They say, let new actions be performed in the name of the Master, the individual working in the capacity of an agent only. The new actions, DONE IN THIS SPIRIT, will not be binding. The fate actions will have been undergone by the time the life comes to an end; the reserve actions Saints partly take upon themselves, and partly are undergone by the devotee as the Saints think proper.
They put the individual spirit in touch with the Sound Current, the substratum; and as the spirit catches it and rises up and throws off the influences of mind and matter it gets stronger and stronger. The more the individual works on these lines, the easier the Path for him. Otherwise the course becomes lengthy; but the Saints are pledged to see him through, after they have initiated him. The practice of the Sound Current cuts the root of Karma.
The Current acts like a magnet on the spirit. It attracts the spirit to itself, and if the spirit were not covered by the rust of mind and matter it would go up like a shot. The rust of attachments and impressions is removed by repetition. The repetition of thoughts of the journey within replaces our common day thoughts; and the mind instead of wandering outside begins to take rest and peace within; and when it comes in, the spirit comes in with it; and when the spirit is in, the Current in its turn pulls it up, and when the Trikuti has been crossed (which will only be when all Karmic accounts are settled) the soul never goes back in transmigration. It will go up to merge in its ocean.
—Dictated by Hazur Maharaj Baba SAWAN SINGH SAHIB
For an in-depth discussion of Karma see "The Wheel of Life"
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