CHAPTER TWO

 

GURU IS SHABD

 

(Master is Word Personified)

 

 

THE Gospel of John begins with the memorable words:

 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word

was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

 

JOHN 1:1-2

 

Guru is Shabd or Word personified. The Word was made

flesh and dwelt among us, says the Gospel. Shabd or

Word is just a ray from God or the great Ocean of

Consciousness, and this one ray is responsible for the

creation and sustenance of all the planes comprising the

universe.

 

In the Gospel of John we read further:

 

All things were made by him (i.e., the Word)

and without him was not anything made

that was made.

 

In him was life; and the life was the light of

men.

 

And the light shineth in darkness; and the

darkness comprehended it not.

 

JOHN 1:2-5

 

Dryden in his poetic fantasy refers to It as Harmony (or

Sound Principle):

 

From Harmony, from Heavenly Harmony

This Universal frame began;

Through all the compass of the notes It ran,

The Diapason closing full in man.

 

In Gurbani, we have:

 

Word is the Master and spirit is the disciple of

Word.

Word is the Master and the Prophet, full of

wisdom, deep and profound. Without Word,

the world cannot exist.

Between Word and the Master, there is no

distinction. Word indeed is the Elixir of Life,

and whosoever follows the Word according

to the instructions of a living Master, safely

crosses the ocean of life.

 

Tulsi Sahib says:

 

Spirit is the disciple, and Word is the Master.

It is only after the spirit is linked with the

Word that she finds the way Godward, by

rising into the beyond and entering into the

inverted well.

 

Bhai Gurdas speaks of spirit as:

 

It is only after the spirit faithfully and

conscientiously accepts Dhunni (Sound Current

or Word) as Master, that she becomes a Gurmukh

and knows that the Word and the Master

are in fact One.

 

Saint Kabir likewise thus explains:

 

Where is the Master, and where does the

spirit dwell? How can the two unite? For

without union, spirit has no rest.

 

He himself then answers:

 

Master is in the Gaggan, and so is the seat Of

the Spirit.

When the two are united, there is no separation

thereafter;

Accept the Word as Master; all the rest is

sham tinsel;

Each selfishly engaged wanders from place to

place.

 

Thus Word or Shabd is a World Teacher from the

beginning of time.

 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for in them the Word

of the Master manifests Itself. This Word is the Real

Saint and can act as a living guide. It is "God-in-Action"

and is expressed in abundance in Master Souls who are

one with God.

 

When I churned the sea of body, a strange

phenomenon came to Light;

God was identified in Master, and no

distinction could Nanak find.

 

He who is a doer of the Word is called a Saint, or a

Master Soul. This Truth dawns only when one studies

the significance of the term Guru. It is derived from the

Sanskrit root Giri, which means One who calls; thus he

who always hears this call within himself, and is

devotedly attached to the call and can make it manifest

in others, is described in Gurbani as Guru.

 

Accept as Master one who can make Truth

manifest;

Give expression to the Inexpressible by means

of Sound.

 

Again:

 

O Nanak! verily Truth alone is True.

 

Kabir Sahib says:

 

We do obeisance to all teachers, whatever their

creed;

But the Adept in Sound Principle is greatest

indeed.

 

Again:

 

Teachers there are of degrees vast in variation,

But the one of Sound Current is for highest

adoration.

 

Tulsi Sahib also exhorts:

 

He who can reveal Sound Current is verily a

Saint;

By analysis of self, one locates the Sound

within.

 

Kabir Sahib has challenged that whoever calls himself a

Satguru or a Saint should enable us to see the Unmanifest

Manifested.

 

In Sar Bachan we have:

 

Master brings the message of Sound; He serves

nothing but the Sound;

Perfect Master is ever engaged in Sound; Be

thou the dust of the feet of the Master of

Sound.

 

Satguru is a veritable Veda. He is endowed with Sach

Naam and thus possesses the Elixir of Life. He distributes

Shabd, which works as an "Open Sesame" to the Heavenly

regions and grants free access to pilgrims on the Master's

Path.

 

The Theosophists call It the Voice of the Silence; its

reverberations can be heard from plane to plane.

In the terminology of the Masters, a real Saint is one

who can teach of Shabd. Without an adept no one

can have the gift of Shabd or Naam. It may be likened

to a rope ladder leading directly to God, and a spirit by

taking hold of It can easily ascend Godward.

 

Contact with Shabd is contact with God; and

blessed is one who contacts Shabd within.

 

Again:

 

God in Guru distributes Shabd; By contact

with Truth one merges in Truth.

 

And again:

 

O Nanak! all Saints from the beginning are

embedded in Shabd;

Blessed is Master Ram Das who too has

contacted Shabd.

 

In the Holy Bible we have:

 

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

 

It is from an adept in Shabd that one gets a true life

impulse. He himself is one with that true Life Current,

from which everything animate derives life. He is a

resident of the egoless region, he is Shabd personified.

He lives and has his very being in Shabd, having crossed

far beyond the sway of Kal or Time; he lives life

everlasting and is competent to pass it on to others who

contact him and follow his instructions.

 

The human spirit at present lies buried under an

immense load of mayaic or material pressure. It does not

even know that it is spirit. It can be awakened to Reality

and made aware of its greatness only by means of Shabd.

This Life Principle of Shabd already lies in each one of

us, but only in a latent form.

 

It has to be made patent or audible to the spirit, so

that it may by sheer affinity grow conscious of its rich

spiritual heritage and claim it as its own.

 

This contact of the spirit with Shabd can be brought

about and is firmly established by the Master (who is

Shabd personified) and no one else can do it.

 

Shabd is a sacred trust with the Master, and is

scrupulously discharged;

Shabd of the Master, a Master alone can

manifest;

And none else is competent to do so.

 

It means that Shabd or Word is under the control of

the Master. He alone can manifest It or make It audible

by pulling the spirit out of the physical sensory organs.

This contact with Shabd comes as a gracious gift

from the Master. No amount of meritorious deeds performed

within the limitations of time, space, and causation,

can merit such a priceless gift, so vast and so limitless

as Shabd:

 

All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

 

And again:

 

By works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

 

The Master may grant the gift of Shabd out of extreme

compassion and grace if he so wills.

 

The moment a helpless child tries to pull himself

toward his mother, she fondly runs toward him, tenderly

picks him up, and lovingly hugs him to her bosom.

 

It cannot be had by endeavors nor by service;

But may come when fully reposed without

clutching;

Out of the Great Grace of the Lord, one takes

to the instructions of the Master.

 

It does not mean that a person should not try to exert

himself. He must on the contrary work zealously according

to the Master's instructions. The success, however,

depends on the will of the Master alone, for he is the sole

arbiter of the manner and measure of His Grace.

 

Christ said:

 

If you love me, keep my commandments.

 

To mold one's life in terms of the Master is a necessity

on the path of the Master.

 

He who verily follows the Master is ever

engaged in hearing the Divine Music. As the

Naam develops, one gets absorbed in it.

 

Though this Anhad Bani (Ceaseless Sound Current) or

Naam (Word) is the Life of our life, yet we cannot

make It manifest or audible by ourselves; an approach

to It is always through a Master Saint or Ustad-i-Kamil:

 

Ceaseless Sound is a Treasure within, with an

approach through a Saint;

Without a Master, even Sidhs and Sadhaks

have failed to get Naam.

 

Shabd is the mainstay of Saints as well as of all living

creatures, the difference being that of conscious awareness

in one case and unconscious ignorance in the other.

While the former have not only an experience of "Sonship"

but truly live in that relationship, the latter have

no idea of it at all.

 

Christ says:

 

I am the Son of God.

I and my Father are one.

Whatever comes from me comes from my

Father.

 

In Gurbani we also have similar references:

 

Hari (God) does what His Saints wish for.

What they (Saints) desire, that comes to pass;

none can deny their wishes.

Father and son are dyed in the same color.

 

Maulana Rumi tells us:

 

An Aulia (GodMan) is competent enough

even to divert a bolt from above.

 

It does not mean that Saints in any way question the

authority of God, or run a parallel administration of their

own. Far from this, they act as agents and hold His

Commission. In the world God acts through them.

Egoless as they are, they become fitting instruments

of Godly Powers. Allied closely with Shabd, they receive

from and transmit direct messages to God; and in

relation to the world, they are just polarized God:

 

The Father and the Son are One, and administer

the same law.

O Paltu! In the domain of God, there is no

other manager than a Saint. The two are so

closely and indissolubly knit together that the

Saint appears to be running the whole show.

 

Maulana Rumi speaks of It in this wise:

 

Aulia or Godmen are the chosen of God.

They have full knowledge of all that is visible

and invisible.

 

Again, God speaks through Saints:

 

O Lalo! I simply speak out what God makes

me speak, said Nanak.

Sadh is the mouthpiece of God.

 

In the garb of man, God comes into the world for the

sake of suffering humanity, and through His Saving

Grace He takes upon Himself vicarious responsibilities

for their shortcomings:

 

See God descending in thy Human frame;

The Offended, suffering in the offender's

name;

All thy misdeeds to Him imputed see,

And all His Righteousness devolv'd on thee.

 

DRYDEN

 

A living Master is the only hope for the erring mankind;

a kindly Light to guide their faltering footsteps and

a Saviour for the sinful. With the help of limitless Naam

or Shabd, of which he is a vast treasure-house, he helps

the jivas or the embodied spirits to cross safely over the

ocean of life and gain Life Eternal.

 

Inwardly linked and embedded in Shabd, outwardly

he works like a Teacher or a Guru and gives spiritual

instructions to the aspirants on the physical plane, and

then passes on at will to the subtle and the causal plane

and beyond, as the jiva progresses on the spiritual path

and guides him at every step. He does not stop until he

leaves the Sadhak in his native home from where Shabd

originates and which, in fact, he is.

 

One who has known Sat Purush (or the Primal Cause),

is a Satguru (or Master of Truth). He is beyond the sway

both of Dissolution (Kal or Time) and of Grand Dissolution

(Maha Kal or Greater Time), and is competent to lead the

aspirants to this stage. A Master of this caliber alone

can save the jivas and nobody else can.

 

He Who is One with Truth, is the Master

of Truth;

He can liberate spirits and Nanak sings His

praises.

 

More safe and much more modest, 'tis to say;

God would not leave mankind without a way.