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THE GOD-WAY The Way back to God is not of man's making but of God's, and it is free
from artifice and artificiality. God draws man back to Himself through His
chosen elect, the Godman, to whom the secret of the Path (the God-way) is
revealed directly or made manifest by some Sant Satguru, for the benefit of the
people. The Masters, the Messiahs, the teachers and prophets all the world over
fall into two categories with a separate mission assigned to each. There are,
on the one hand, those whose sole purpose is to keep the world going
harmoniously; and on the other hand there are those who are commissioned to
lead back souls who are ripe for home-going, and yearn for an early return to
the Source Spiritual from which they parted long ago before drifting downward
to the material plane. In the first category fall all the reformers, and in the
second such Sants and Sadhs as are competent to reveal the knowledge of God and
to make manifest the power of God in man. The process of ascent back to the Source is just the reverse of that of
descent down to the physical plane, and one has therefore to reintegrate
himself, to gather all his wandering wits at the still point of the soul - in
between and behind the two eyes - where time and Timelessness intersect, before
the spirit comes to its own and launches upon the Sea of Life for an inner
journey homeward. This, in fact, has been the sole theme of all sages and seers
everywhere. None of them, however, wanted to set up any new creed or
institutionalized religion. While referring to the existence of so many
religions and creeds in the world, all bristling with bewildering theories and
conflicting dogmas, Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj used to remark,
"There are already so many wells all over, why should one dig any more
pitfalls and make confusion worse confounded?" God made man in His own
image; and man made religions, each in his own image, and in his zeal made
fetishes of them all. True religion in its inception is fresh and simple, like
a newly-born babe bubbling over with vital life, but in course of time, like
any other thing, it develops into an Institution; and with that it begins to
deteriorate, tends to lose its native vital elasticity born of the living touch
of the Master-spirit, and gradually comes to acquire a socio- economic
appearance. Instead of serving as a silken bond of love between man and man, it
becomes a source of constant strife, rancour and ill will, tearing class from
class and nation from nation. When the cup of human misery is filled to the
brim, then comes the Saviour with the message of hope, redemption and
fulfillment for strife-torn humanity. He
tries to redress the festering social wounds and preaches oneness and equality
to man in order to restore the equilibrium in the scales of human values. Alongside this, his main objective is to save human souls for a higher
purpose: a true life of the spirit as distinguished from that of the flesh. Such
indeed has been the goal of great Masters like Zoroaster, Mahavira, Buddha,
Christ, Mohammed, Kabir and Nanak, each in his own time, according to the then
prevailing conditions and people's aspirations; for they always try to lead
them from the line of least resistance, and dole out the basic goodness in
terms that may readily appeal to, and fit in with, their mental make-up for a
step higher in the process of evolution or unfolding of the spirit. This is what Saints do for the general run of mankind, deriving their inspiration from the great
reservoir of the spirit within, which is the same for all.
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