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Chapter
XIII GENERAL
Q. Can you tell us what is Truth?
A. Truth in its truest form is the Eternal
Permanence. Spirituality and Truth are therefore the essence of the Absolute.
When one finds the Source of Truth, he finds the treasure of all Treasures. The teachings of the Masters tell us that
inner Truth is not designed for outward show but divinely meant to reveal our
real Self to us and open up to us the glories which God originally placed
within us. The Kingdom of God cometh not with observations; the Kingdom of God
is within us. A True Master can harmoniously disclose to us a direct Path
to our True Home. On this Path we may
being our ascent within as far as we permit ourselves to go.
Eventually,
according to the nature and degree of our own progress, we may move up to the
Source of Truth. From this Prime Focus
we hear the Spiritual Sound and see the Perfect Light. This Light and Sound
sustain the Infinite Universe and all the finite world. To extend our capacities
for receiving progressively upraising illumination may not always be easy; but
the Master is patient in His Wisdom, and from out of His vast Spirituality His
Assistance remains for ever at hand until we join Him in Sach Khand, the final
ever blissful Home of our true Spiritual Being. Q. If the disciple is one the way back to the
Father and under the guidance of a Living Master, why is it so difficult for
him to hear the Sound Current?
A. It is the scattered attention of the
initiate which does not allow him to hear the holy Sound Current. Besides, the overwhelming attachment to
worldly pleasures and sense-gratification stand in the way.. The living Master is Love Personified, and
as such loving devotion to Him is the factor which makes for better inner
contact of the Audible Life Stream. It
is rather the tendency of human mind which does not relish being chained and as
such it requires some discipline to be observed for having an inner conscious
contact of the celestial melody. At the
outset it is indeed difficult but by regular practice the soul feels an innate
affinity with the Sound Current, when inner bliss is experienced with the grace
of the Master. Q. Does loss of life fluid in sleep retard
progress?
A. It does affect spiritual progress. You
should avoid looking into the eyes
of the other sex and resort to the Simran of charged names all along your
vacant moments or loving remembrance of the Master, or listening to the holy
Sound Current if it has become audible. Such a schedule will be helpful for the
eradication of carnal desires. Besides, you should take your food much earlier before
retiring for sleep, so that it is well as the lower portion of the rectum,
should be washed with cold water before going to sleep. Q. Please tell us something of
the help which marriage partners might give one another, when both are
initiates, in the matter of helping balance and harmonizing the physical,
mental and emotional fields of energy of energy of individuals so as to
increase their receptivity towards Shabd. This could be very inspiring for
students yet to cone as well as for those already begun. A. Marriage is a sacrament and a companion for
life in weal or woe, during this earthly sojourn. It is a rare boon of the
Master when both the partners in life happen to be initiates. Both of them
should exhibit and inculcate a deep sense of loving cooperation and tolerance
for the right of each other. The physical, mental and emotional fields of
activity should be kept under check and control lest these degrade the soul in
pursuit of carnal satisfaction. To fall in sin is manly but to remain therein is devilish. The
vital sex energy should be rationally transmuted and sublimated by exercising
self-restraint and chastity. The procreation of children is one of the
legitimate functions of married life. The scriptures prescribe this sacred
purpose as and when such a necessity arises. The couple having such disciplined
lives will be an asset for spiritual progress. Q. To what extent would
intimate knowledge of planetary forces be a help towards attainment on the path
of Sant Mat? We note that Master Sawan Singh gave a discourse on 'The Twelve
Seasons of Man' and wonder if Master would care to comment upon this theme in
English for us. A. Right understanding in every sphere of life
is helpful if it is utilized for spiritual progress. It is not known wherefrom
you have quoted this discourse as having been given by Master Sawan Singh Ji.
Please quote reference to the context. He, however, gave a discourse on the
twelve months of the year. It may, however, be stated for your information that
in the case of those who rise above the starry sky or cone under the contact of
Masters who go higher than that, the planetary effects do not touch them. Q. How can we be truthful in thought?
A. Truthfulness in thought means sincerity of
purpose in various spheres of
non-violence, chastity, truth, humility, etc. Untruthful thoughts would
naturally mean the entertaining of opposite ideas which usually haunt the human
mind through sense perception. Human eye is usually inclined to look at other's
beauty and wealth with an unchaste attitude, and this should be considered as
blemish and shunned. Q. What part does intellect play on the path?
A. Very little, where the practical side is
concerned. But this does not mean that intellect is harmful to Spirituality. If
an intellectual man cones on this Path and really gives himself up to the
Master's Will, and does what he is told, then there is no better disciple for
this Path than he, for there he has an advantage over an ordinary practical
man, and that advantage is he will be able to give out Truth to other in many
ways in a language made with well thought out words that will convince the
intellectualists more easily than simple words uttered by a mere practical man. Q. Are the scriptures of any help?
A. Truth is given everywhere in theory in all
the religions of the world, but one may get lost in the various
interpretations. Sacred scriptures are
fine records of the spiritual experiences which the Past Masters had on the
Godward travel. Truly speaking, the
right interpretation thereof can be given by a Master who has that
experience. We cannot be satisfied by
merely reading of such experiences until we have the same experiences within
our own self. This experience is given
by a Competent Master at the time of initiation, and can be developed by
devoting time and attention regularly to the spiritual practices with loving
devotion in a correct way. Q. Why have women been regarded
and treated throughout as inferior to men and even warned against by some
spiritual teachers as the cause of temptation and downfall to men? A. Women are regarded as inferior to men, being
the weaker sex, and they are prone to temptation and, at times, are more likely
to fall prey to the environments than
men. The spiritual teachers who banned
spiritual development of the fair sex might have attributed it to their
aforesaid weakness. Both the sexes are
equally a cause of temptation and the Masters do not blame either in
particular. Q. Does intellect play any part in Self and
God-realization?
A.
Yes, intellect plays an important part in understanding the theory of the
problem of Self-realization. Once the
theory is grasped, there is not much left for the intellect to do. Thereafter remains the practice, with heart
and soul, to achieve the Goal by a process of Self-analysis for the Science of
the Self is essentially practical. Q. Can we penetrate into the Beyond by
intellect? A. No. Intellect is just one of the faculties
of mind, to wit, reasoning. The
intellect is earth-bound and so is reasoning based on intellect. How can the less the greater comprehend or
finite reason reach Infinity? For what would fathom God were more than He? The
scriptures tell us in no ambiguous terms that one cannot experience the Self
unless the senses are subdued, the mind is disciplined and the intellect is
transcended. Q. What is intuition?
A. Intuition means immediate cognition without
the aid of intellect and reasoning.
Such feelings, very often, arise all of a sudden, in moments of
quietness. There is nothing supramental
in it. Q. What is the difference between inner experience and intuition? A. The inner experience of the soul as is
granted by the Living Master at the time of initiation is direct conscious
contact with holy Naam¡ªthe Divine Sound Current and Light as coming from the
right side. Intuition, on the other
hand, is just a comprehension without resort to reasoning or analysis. Q. Can we be ever sure of God-realization
intellectually?
A. No. God-realization is not a subject of
intellect. It is a question of actual
experience, beyond the people of knowledge.
All our talk of God is but inferential and at the most a matter of
feelings and emotions all of which are subject to error. But seeing the inscape ( With the inner eye
opened) is believing, and admits of no uncertainty and scepticism. Q. Can the Living Master open
the inner eye of the disciple on initiation. A. Yes, the Living Mater can and does so, or
how else can the disciple have an inner experience on his own? But this He does only to the extent He
considers best for he neophyte. It is
for the recipient to perceive and say that he has received something, and to
bear testimony to what is within. Q. Can an ascended Master help
His initiates who are still on the physical plane? A.
Yes, a Competent Master is a Master to His initiates for all time, and does not
rest till He takes the souls to the highest pinnacle of blissful glory in Sach
Khand. He is not a physical being only
but Word personified, and on the higher planes acts as a Gurudev and Satguru,
which terms would become meaningless if His activities were to be confined to
the physical plane. If it were so, how
could He take charge of the souls of the initiates on death after His passing
away? A Master in essence never dies for the initiates. It is His troth to take them up to the True
Home of His Father, and inwardly His Light and Sound forms are permanently
implanted though He may have left the earth plane. Q. Kindly explain about the
visualization of Master's from during Simran. A. There is hardly any need to imagine or
visualize the Master's Form while engaged I Simran. Any suchattempt is likely to scatter the attention. Then there is another danger in doing so. What form you conjure up, will be a
make-belief, a projection of your mind and not the reality. When one is initiated the Master resides in
the initiate for all time. What is
already inside will automatically come in to view when you get in there fully
and completely, though it may take quite some time to adjust yourself to the
new surroundings, unknown before. God manifests of Himself more fully in some
human form in which he is working without any visualization. Q. Alcohol is not allowed to
the initiates. Does it apply to such
cases where it has to be administered under medical advice for the restoration
of health? A. An certain percentage is generally there in
most of the medicinal preparations for their maintenance and there is no bar to
the use of such medicines. All
homeopathic medicines are prepared in alcohol.
In both cases they have no intoxicating effect. But to take alcohol as
such for the so-called reasons of health, even when prescribed by medical men
as medicine, is prohibited, for every action has a reaction, and no amount of
alcohol can prolong life even by a jot or tittle when the sands of time are
running out. Do you think that alcohol
can stop the process, and if not; why prolong the agony by administering
deleterious substances? Q. Kindly define Nirvana
relative to Buddha's teachings. A. Nirvana is not Nihilism as is commonly
believed. It is a state of being much
superior to that of physical existence.
It is exactly opposite to what we know of the physical life, which
Buddha, the Enlightened One, characterized as a life of sorrow and misery-the
first of the four noble truths that dawned on him, and he according to his
lights found in eight-fold path of righteousness, to transform the course of
life into a totally different pattern.
One can well recognize what it could be? -not a state of nothingness,
but one of efflorescence into light. Q. Does Lord Buddha practise or Prescribe the
same path of the Masters as is being revived by Sant Mat.
A. The Masters generally divide their disciples
into two categories, (i) the ordinary disciples or novices who are yet in the
making stage and require a lot of discipline; (ii) disciples with some
grounding as a result of disciplines practised in the past---maybe in the
previous births. They constitute the
inner corps of their following. They
are the chosen ones, or the elect, fir for a higher part of the Master's
teachings. It was to the disciples of
this calibre that Buddha gave the practice of Light and Sound Principle as
taught by the Masters. To this chosen
class belonged Boddhisatvas, Mahasatvas and Arhats like Mahakashyapa,
Sariputra, Sammantbhadra, Metaluniputra,Mandgalyayana, Akshobya, Vejuria,
Maitraya, Avolokiteshvra, Ananda and the like, all of whom attained 'Diamond
Samadhi' of transcendental consciousness by concentrating upon Transcendental
hearing, listening to the Sound of Intrinsic Dharma'resembling the roar of a
lion etc. Please refer to the book Naam
or Word for more details. |