THE LIFE WITHIN The perfection of outer conduct was essential as it was only an
indispensable means for reaching the inner goal. Love and faith for the
Satguru, self-surrender and the ethically unimpeachable life all converged on
this center. Man's ultimate goal was at-one-ment with the Absolute and if this
was not achieved the rest was not of mnch benefit. It was this question of
actual spiritual ascension that was Baba Ji's main concern as a teacher. He did
not expend much time on matters of theory. Why dispute? Why argue? he would
say. Turn within, go inside and see for yourself. His correspondence with Baba
Sawan Singh Ji is one long exhortation to leave the outside world and to
retreat to the world within, and each of his letters has something valuable to
say on the actual practice of spirituality. Since the soul had fallen a victim to Maya through the Mind and the
senses, the way of liberation for it lay through its withdrawal from them. The
two sadhnas that Baba Ji gave for practice, as his predecessors had done, were
Simran and Bhajan. The first, involving the repetition of the sacred names of
the Lord, was to be practiced at all hours of the day. "Always keep the
Simran in mind," he enjoined, "even while moving or busy at
work." Constant thought of the Supreme One was the greatest security
against worldly thoughts and desires. It helped the mind in keeping itself free
from its usual preoccupations and when done with full attention at the time of
abhyasa or meditation, it enabled a speedy collection of the currents of
consciousness at the spiritual center between and behind the eyebrows. Once
such concentration or Dhyan had been attained, one could get in touch with the
Sound Current, and Dhyan (resulting from Simran) led naturally to Bhajan or absorption
into the Shabd Dhun: When you are doing your Bhajan or Simran, do not have any
worldly cares in your mind nor let yourself be distracted by any thoughts. First
do your Simran for a quarter of an hour, then gradually fix your attention in
the music of the Shabd Dhun. Then give up Simran and anchor your mind and soul in the Shabd. You will
then experience great bliss and Supreme Grace will descend on you from the
highest region. Such was the general pattern. The details, of course, were
adjustable. The time factor could vary, but daily abhyasa was to be maintained
at all costs: Listen to the Shabd Dhun, calling in your heart, every day with great
love and devotion, for fifteen minutes or ten minutes or five minutes or an
hour or two, according to the time at your disposal. But you must listen to it
every day for a while. (*3) (* 3 Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji also laid great
stress on this: ... no matter in what circumstances one finds himself and what new
problems one is facing, a devotee should not miss his Bhajan. He may give only
fifteen minutes or even five minutes to it daily, but he should be on it
without a break." (Spiritual Gems, p. 462)) There was great beauty in the Shabd. It had a music that was beyond any
music created by man and which drew the soul toward itself. It was forever
calling the spirit toward its Divine Home and though it was not heard by
ordinary men, yet those who had developed, through abhyasa and the grace of a
Satguru, the capacity of inner hearing, could hear its melody every minute of
the day, now growing stronger as the mind focused itself at one point, now
dimming and fading away as one's thoughts scattered in various directions and
attention was dissipated. It was Shabd that was the true anchor of the seeker. It
was the conscious power that had brought everything into creation and it was
also one's real Master - the Shabd Guru - for the Satguru in his human form was
its physical manifestation. Baba Ji once said: Shabd Dhun - that is our real form. This physical body is only a
garment. Nobody could keep it forever and nobody ever will ... Believe, O
devout ones, that the Shabd form of the Satguru, which has no beginning and no
end, is within the body. Once one had developed a constant link with this inner music, it worked
as a shield against worldly afflictions and sorrows. Misfortunes visited
everyone and one's past karmas had to be paid for; but for the man who had
rooted himself in the Shabd Dhun, they had lost their sting. Baba Ji, speaking
mostly to simple villagers, drove home his teachings through examples and
similes based on village life. Thus explaining the protective power of Shabd,
he would say: The body is like a village or city and the Shabd Dhun is our own
house. When somebody dies or there is some great suffering in another house,
everyone in that house is very unhappy but we, in our own house, are quite
contented. Again, clarifying the magnetic power and hold of the inner music, on
another occasion he wrote: ... the Shabd Dhun will pull it (mind) and keep it in the same way as
animals, like goats or cattle, are kept tied by means of a rope. The greatest obstacles to the seeker were the mind and the senses. It
was through their agency that the soul had been caught in the nets of Maya, and
the soul had to disengage itself from them in order to be free. Shutting out
sense experience was not so difficult. Even when the gates of the senses had
been shut, the mind continued to disturb and distract. It was the root of the
ego principle and, therefore, the chief cause of the jiva's isolation from the
Universal Lord. How was this restless dragon to be conquered? Baba Ji
maintained that the chief remedy lay in meditation on the form of the true
Master and absorption in Shabd: You ask me how to hold your mind. It is held only through Shabd. Hear
its music daily and meditate on the form of Satguru. Then the mind shall cease
to wander and one day, borne on the Shabd Dhun, the soul shall reach Dasam Dwar
(the third inner plane and home of the Universal Mind). Thus, leaving the
mental apparatus behind, the soul shall unite with the pure Shabd and through
the grace of the Satguru reach Sach Khand. Have no doubt, it shall reach there. (7th January, 1901) Once the mind had been brought under control and it no longer doubted
and wavered: Then the Radiant Form of the Master appears within. There is no
difference between it and the physical form.
It is like a reflection in a clear mirror. So long as the glass is not clear, nothing can be seen reflected. The mind was indeed a glass, which, when sullied by the muck-flow of
worldly attachments, blurred and hid everything; but the moment this film was
cleansed, it imaged the Universal in itself. The surat, collected by Simran at
the Tisra Til, shot through it with the aid of the magnetism of Shabd. As it entered the inner realms, it was met by the Radiant Form of the
Master that welcomed it and thenceforward guided every step of its inner
journey. Once the soul had won access to the Master in his Radiant Form within,
its major task was over. The rest was a matter of time. It could of course be
taken directly to higher planes by the Satguru, but he worked out the progress
gradually for else, as was the case with an insistent pundit, the shock and
strain of it would be too great. The Sanchit Karmas (actions of past lives to
fructify in future births) and the Kriyaman Karmas (actions in this life also
to fructify in future ones) had of course been rendered ineffective the moment
the Master had accepted one in his fold. But the Prarabdha Karmas on which the
present life was based had to be worked out, else death would immediately
ensue. The Master sought to exhaust these as swiftly and as smoothly as
possible. When Baba Sawan Singh Ji's leg was fractured, Baba Ji revealed that
it was the result of no mere accident but of past karmas whose fruit could not
be avoided. But his suffering if not wholly canceled had been mitigated through
his Satguru's intercession. "Whatever suffering has come to you,"
Baba Ji wrote, "is only a fifth part, four parts have been condoned,"
and went on to add: Suffering and troubles are blessings in disguise for they are ordained
by the Lord. If our benefit lies in pain, He sends pain, if in pleasure He
sends pleasure. Pleasures and pains are tests of our strength and if one does
not waver or deflect, then the Almighty blesses such souls with Naam.
(8th May, 1897) Whatever troubles befell his disciples, Baba Ji told them to be of good
cheer. The sooner their accounts were cleared the better, and special grace was
theirs in the hour of trial: Sickness and pleasures are the fruits of past actions. All those who are
sick are extended special grace. Let them, therefore, have no worry, but bear
it with equanimity. During suffering, the mind wanders not and turns to Bhajan
readily in sorrow. So blessed are the periods of sickness when the mind is
turned toward Bhajan. This is a special gift to Satsangis. So whenever sickness
and pain afflict you, accept them as the Lord's Will and devote yourself to
your spiritual exercises. So long as the surat is absorbed in the Shabd Dhun,
pain will not be felt ... Has it not been said: "Pleasure is the disease and pain the
remedy."
(17th October, 1902) "Once one meets a competent Satguru, one learns the complete inner
way and launches on the spiritual journey," Baba Ji would say, "there is then only the liquidation of give and take that limits
its flight. The soul is then not pure enough to catch the Divine Shabd and must
be first freed of all karmic reactions. The Satguru must free it from the chain
of karmas in this life itself so as to safeguard against the necessity of
taking further births for their repayment." Hence the inevitability of suffering, but fortunately for Satsangis
"years of pain are liquidated in a matter of days." The Shabd Dhun
was one's guiding angel, one's protecting charm. If one took refuge in its
richness, one's karmas were steadily burnt away in its purifying flame. As the
mind grew calmer and the karmas got exhausted, the soul was progressively
released from Maya and guided by the Radiant Master within, penetrating to ever
higher inner planes. The disciple had not to worry. His task was only to abide
by his Guru's commandments, and labor according to His Will. It was for the
Satguru to crown his efforts as he considered fit and appropriate, for he was
the best judge and did what was best for the disciple: What the Lord considers best He is doing. Do not bring yourself into the
picture. Live by the words of the Master and continue performing your earthly
duties. When the fruit is ripe, it will fall of its own accord without injury
to itself or the bearing branch, and the ripe fruit is held in great value. But
if we pluck the unripe fruit forcibly from off the tree, the branch is injured
and the raw fruit shrivels and is of little use. Meeting a competent Master is
the fulfilment of human birth: this is the fruit of life. To live by his
commandments ensures its proper nurture. Daily Simran and Bhajan to the maximum
possible are its best food and nourishment, and mergence with Shabd is its
ripening and falling off.
(3rd March, 1899) Such was the progress of the soul. Its ripening was a matter of steady
growth. Supported by the words of the Master, nourished by Bhajan, and borne on
the Shabd Dhun, it transcended realm after realm until it left all coverings of
mind and matter behind and reached Sach Khand. This was its True Abode, the
realm of pure spirit. From there, merging into the Divine, it receded
progressively into the Formless, until, passing through the Alakh and Agam, it
reached the Anami, the Nameless and Formless source of all that moves and has
its being. With some, as in the case of Baba Ji himself, the entire journey, owing
to the spiritual proficiency they had gained in past lives, was accomplished at
what seemed to their fellows a phenomenal and amazing speed. There were others
who, through their intense devotion and abhyasa, reaped in a single life the
fruits of many births. But the overwhelming majority consisted of those who
took to spirituality as a passing phase of idealism and who did not make Shabd
the sheet anchor of their lives, but turned to it only intermittently. For such
people success in a single life was not assured. But the seed once sown by a
Master could not go to waste, and that which had not sprouted in one birth
could blossom forth in the next, under the guidance of the living human
manifestation of the Shabd Power working at that time. And even this was
unnecessary if one had already before death contacted the Naam current and
washed away all earthly desires, for then one could work out the rest of one's
salvation from supraphysical planes. Once a true Satguru had taken one in his fold, one was assured of
deliverance and sooner or later would reach one's Eternal Home. Even if he left
his earthly frame his guidance and protection continued unaffected. There was
no need for those who had been initiated by him to seek initiation from any
other; for if the Guru's physical form was mortal, his Shabd form was eternal
and ever reverberating. One could of course seek elucidation on knotty points
from the fellow disciple who had been chosen by one's Master to succeed him. But
as for inner guidance, that continued to remain the sole responsibility of
one's preceptor even if he was physically alive no longer. The disciple's sole
duty was to follow the practices enjoined by his Guru and it was for him
tocrown them with success. Had not Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of
the world?" And did not Swami Ji on the last day of his mission on earth
assure his devotees: "Have no fear whatsoever. I am forever with each one of you and
your protection and care shall be even greater than before?" (*4) (*4
Jeevan Charitrar Swamiji Maharaj, p. 112. It is relevant to point out here the
controversy initiated by Shri S. D. Maheshwari in his Radhasoami Faith, History
and Tenets (Agra, 1954), Chapter 22, regarding paragraph 250 of Sar Bachan
(prose). The volume was not written by Swami Ji himself, but was based on
dictations and notes taken by disciples, and published several years after his
death. When Baba Ji undertook to have it republished at Beas, he strictly
adhered to the Agra text but for paragraph 250 which, he was convinced, gave an
erroneous picture of Swami Ji's teachings. Swami Ji had always said that once a
true Master had taken a disciple under his wing, he would never forsake him
whatever the matter. Even if he left the physical plane, his guidance
continued; we have already quoted his last words on the subject. Nor should it
be forgotten that when referring his disciples to Rai Saligram, he expressly
stated that if they desired "elucidation" (not initiation) on any
point, they could consult "Saligram" for it. Keeping the above in
mind, Baba Ji had paragraph 250 of the Agra edition, which stated that a disciple could make no progress after
the death of his Guru until he sought out his successor (a point not always
easy to settle), deleted, and substituted for it the following, to accord with
Swami Ji's original teachings: If anyone is initiated by a perfect Satguru, having love and faith in
Him, serving Him devotedly, and before he has advanced far the Guru should
depart, he should continue to contemplate His form and perform all of the
exercises prescribed by the Guru. The same Satguru, in the same Radiant Form,
will continue to carry on the work as he had commenced it, and will carry it on
to final success, as if he were still in the body. Stated in this form, Bachan
250 fits in perfectly with Bachan 254, which fails to harmonize with it in the
Soamibagh version.) |