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To present the teachings of a past Saint who has left no compositions of
his own either in verse or in prose, and in whose time shorthand and the tape
recorder were yet unknown, is not an easy task. However, the bunch of letters
that Baba Ji addressed to his beloved "Babu" Sawan Singh Ji have been
preserved and are very revealing. (*1) Further, some of those who came in
contact with him have left suggestive accounts of his discourses. But most
important of all, Hazur Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj, to whom he passed on the
spiritual torch, has interpreted within living memory the message in its
essence of his great Guru. Piecing all these together, we can arrive at a clear
conception of the nature and scope of his teachings. (*1 Most of the citations
from Baba Ji's letters in the pages that follow are translated directly from the
Gurmukhi originals. The reader wishing to read his entire correspondence with
Baba Sawan Singh Ji may consult Spiritual Gems (Beas, 1958)). THE CREATION The Absolute Reality in its ultimate form was Nirakar, Nirgun and Anami
- Formless, without attributes, and Nameless - and could only be expressed in
negatives: "neither light nor darkness," "neither sound nor
silence " etc. It was incomprehensible, ineffable, infinite and
indescribable. It was this Supreme Reality that was responsible for everything
else. When it projected itself into form, it brought into being the purely
spiritual realms of Agam, Alakh, Sat Naam, etc.; Light and Sound appearing as
its primal attributes. Thence as it descended downward, it brought into
creation the material current or Kal which gained in predominance as it moved
lower and still lower. The countless regions that were created below the purely
spiritual realms of Sat Desh could be divided into three grand divisions:
Brahmand, Und and Pind - the causal, the astral and the physical, or the
spirituo-material, the materio-spiritual and the material. So long as one lived
in the plane of the relative, one was caught in the web of Maya. One desire was
succeeded by another and pleasure was followed by pain. There could be no
lasting rest, no lasting joy. God, in filling the cup of man's earthly
blessings, had left out happiness and contentment, to insure that His creature
did not wholly forget his Maker. The only way to attain beatitude lay in
transcending the realm of relativity and reaching the regions of pure spirit
where the soul merged in the Absolute, became lost in the Ocean of
Consciousness, and was freed from all failings and desires.
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