THE OUTER AND THE INNER The way to salvation lies not outside; it is within. Outer rituals are
of no avail and, though it is desirable to honor the memory of past Masters, to
be lost in the worship of their samadhs, statues or pictures cannot be of any
substantial use. One must hold up their lives as a model and like them
concentrate upon the world within. Baba Ji himself would spend weeks in Bhajan
and Simran with only short breaks for food. He always encouraged his disciples
to give as much time as possible to the sadhnas he had taught. Constant
remembrance of the Lord was the best protection against attachment and Maya;
and one should maintain the five-fold Simran all the hours of the day. No less
important was Bhajan, which needed more concentrated attention. Whatever the
matter, however preoccupied with outer duties, the disciple must find some time
every day - be it ever so little - for Bhajan. Only through maintaining the link with Shabd could anything be gained
and once a disciple had strengthened the link through constant practice, the
inner music flowed in incessantly at all hours of the day, becoming a clarion
call forever inviting him within and deftly lifting him like a silken robe from
off the thorns of earthly desires. In short, Baba Ji taught spirituality as a
non-sectarian inner discipline which was accessible to all. He always emphasized that the matter was not one of outer forms and
sects: it was entirely a question of inward purification and practice. He who
could find a true Master, grow into an apt disciple, and unfailingly pursue the
sadhna he had been taught, would without doubt sooner or later reach Sat Lok. The Satguru's task was to take the soul to the Sat Purush, on beholding
whom it realized itself to be of the same essence, and saw the Satguru and the
Supreme Lord as one and indivisible. There it merged into the Sat Naam, with
whose help it receded further into the Alakh, Agam, Anami (or Radhasoami) and
even to a Wonder Region beyond as will be evinced from one of the letters of
Baba Ji (presented in Spiritual Gems), each marking a further stage of the
soul's absorption from name and form into the Nameless and the Formless, the
final stage being beyond all forms of light and sound and therefore wholly
indescribable in terms of human experience. One could succeed in this path irrespective of one's social or religious
background. True to Swami Ji's injunctions, Baba Ji attempted to interpret
spirituality in as non-sectarian a manner as possible. He did away with many of
the older outer practices, chief among them being bhaint or tribute to the
Guru, leaving it entirely to the wishes of the disciple to subscribe toward the
running of the Satsang. Nor did he encourage the adoration of any particular
mode of salutation that might tend to grow into the mark of a creed. While at
Murree, Bibi Rukko once (under the influence of a recent visit to Agra)
instructed the Satsangis to greet Baba Ji when he came with the word
"Radhasoami." Baba Ji was far from pleased: "See that in the future you do not repeat the mistake," he
admonished. "We spirits come not to create new sects and creeds. We are
here to dissolve all differences. Why distract these simple people with these
outer slogans? My task is to take them within and let them greet me each
according to the traditions of his community." As we have already seen, he had a nucleus of Muslim disciples and he
never gave them the feeling that they had in any way to renounce their own
faith. It was only a field of study like mathematics or astronomy that people
all over the world could take up and master, and what he taught them were the
very same truths that the greatest of the Sufis - Jalal-ud-Din Rumi, Hafiz,
Shamas Tabrez, Inayat Khan - had given out to their disciples. This task was carried further by Baba Ji's spiritual son, Hazur Sawan
Singh Ji. During his ministry, Baba Ji's prophecy was fulfilled and the Satsang
expanded tremendously. The message of the great Master was carried across the
seas and men of all faiths sought shelter in its fold. In conformity with these
new developments and to suit the changing spirit of the age, Hazur Sawan Singh
Ji began to interpret the timeless message as an inner science. More and more
of the outer ritual was shed, and practices like charan-amrit or mukh-amrit and
arti completely disappeared. Like Baba Ji, he was ever willing to meet the spiritual leaders of all faiths; and Dr. Johnson, one of his American disciples, records in his "With a Great Master in India" how he would visit the |