Shabd: Its blessings

Shabd brings in untold blessings. It is the powerhouse of all energy of force in any form, form Pranas down to electricity and magnetism. Every form of life is the manifestation of Shabd. All that is, is of Shabd and nothing is that is not of Shabd--life-current pulsating in and out of space. Those who commune with Shabd and live in and by Shabd are verily the children of the Supreme One, the life of ife and the light of light. Shabd is the very Bread of Life which comes down from Heaven for all those who hunger after righteousness and the very Water of Life for those who thirst after Self-knowledge and God-knowledge. True love, wisdom and power are the greatest gifts that one gets by basking in the sunshine of Heaven's Life.

1. Mind grows docile and is purified of the lusts of the flesh. There is no remedy to control the oscillationsof the ever-restless mind. One may resort to all the known methods-to wit, penances and austerities, rites and rituals, fasts and vigils, pilgrimages and circumambulation, purificatory baths in the holy rives, charitable and philianthropic acts--but cannot thereby achieve innerpeace. On the contrary, all these help in developing the egotistic instinct which is the root cause of all evil. Sage Vashisht, while teaching Rama, tole him that he could for a moment believe that one had lifted the mighty Himalayas, or had drunk the oceanic waters to the lees but the sage would neve believe it if anyone were to say that he had subdued the mind. But by listening to the Sound Current one is rid of all Karmic impressions of the past. The contact with the Shabd acts as a spark of fire that burns down al impurities of the mind as a heap of hay is burnt down to ashes in an instant. The storehouse of unfructified Karmas is blown off like a powder-magzine, and once released of this gigantic load, the mind and soul get attuned with the Heavenly Music, lost to the world around like a moth before a candle.

Mind runs after pleasurable sensations, most of which fall into two groups: froms and patterns on the one hand and sweet symphonies of sound on the other. The Shabd too has both these characteristics--the heavenly Melody and the divine Light--and once that Sound or Light principle becomes manifest, mind is paralyzed, losing all faith in the transitory charms of the world that gradually lose their glamour and grow dull, insipid and lifeless.

With a draught of the Water the mind grows still, for there is no other remedy to still it but that of commning with the Sound Current.

Without the Word o the Master, the mind remains restless. *111

Our restless mind becomes steady when engrossed in the Shabd,

And this is the highest worship and the greatest virtue. *112

GURU NANAK

By practice of the Shabd, ripples cease to float on the lake of the mind.

All the oscillations of the mind cease wih the practice of the Shabd and it gets pacified of itself. *113

GURU AMAR DAS

Mind keeps running in space--high and low--so long as it does not come in contact with the Shabd. *114

GURU NANAK

Shabd is sharper than a two-edged razor and cuts asunder all attachments of the world, conquers the five passions and frees one of bondage from all that one holds dear; and the spirit when freed, flies unfettered toward her native Home in Heaven.

Being rid of the five deadly sins, one remains engrossed in the Lord. *115

KABIR

2. Shabd is the remedy for egotism from which all the world suffers.

Egotism is the greatest ill oppressing all,

Without Shabd, one cannot get rid of this malady. *116

GURU NANAK DAS

Egotism is an age-old disease but it can be remedied by practice of the Master's Word.

Egotismis an age-ole disease and its remedy too lies within, Should the Lord so favor, one takes to the practice of the Master's Word. *117

GURU NANAK

The poisonof egotism is rendered ineffective by the Shabd of the Master. *118

GURU AMAR DAS

O Nanak! Shabd burns away egotism. *119

GURU NANAK

Shamas Tabrez also prescribes medicine of Shabd to cure one of his egotism:

When thou shalt hear the trumpt-blast,

Thou shalt be rid of all pride and passions,

When the harmonious sound shall fall on thy ears,

Thou shalt be freed fro the life of the senses,

3. Shabd brings in inner peace and satiety. Everyone is a desperate search for peaceful rest and repose but does not get it. All the comforts of the flesh are but pleasures of an evanescent nature, floating like the clouds in the sky. The sensations which seem pleasurable for a while are the result of our own fixity of attention and apart from that have no real and independent existence. Out case is like that of a dog who while munching a dry bone hurts his mouth, and his own blood trickles down his his plate to his tongue giving him relish and he is deluded into the belief that all this is from the dry bone.

Spirit or Soul is a conscious entity. It cannot possibly derive or get any happiness from inert, material and lifeless things--that is, things in which the life-principle is in a dormant or a latent state. It is only from the fount of higher consciousness that the spirit can get her food and sustenance. The Sound Current which the Master makes audible is an active life-principle (stream of life), and contact and communion with It gives the sou real happiness and bliss.

The practice of the Master's Word grants immunity from all ailments,

And the devotee of the Master is freed from all sufferings. *120

GURU AMAR DAS

Shabd has an exhilarating and exulting influence which charms the body and mind, both of which acquire ineffable serenity:

The fires of lusts play havoc within but the Master lets in a stream of refreshing Music,

Hearing which the body and the mind feel blessed and are saved from all maladies. *121

GURU RAM DAS

The Master's Word is an ocean of serenity,

It is the Path of salvation and destroys all egotism. *122

GURU NANAK

When a sou contacts Shabd, it gets saturated in the Power of God and feels truly blessed.

The contact of Shabd with soul produces joy supreme,

A dip in the Power of God gives true happiness. *123

GURU NANAK

Day and night, an unceasing bliss descends,

Whenone remains devoted to the great Word. *124

GURU RAM DAS

The Word of the Master is a source of great happiness,

Blessed indeed is the birde (soul) that lives saturated with love of the Beloved. *125

GURU ARJAN

4. In the Sikh scriptures, one reads of innumerable benefits that accrue from Shabd.

Shabd kills, root and branch, all longings and desires, mental vibrations and subtle attachments.

Shabd extinguishes the fires of desires,

And quietly drives away all delusions. *126

Shabd sings all aspirations and cravings,

And one remains attuned with the Lord. *127

GURU NANAK

Shabd burns down all material longings and attachments,

The body and the mind live in eternal peace in love of the Master. *128

GURU AMAR DAS

When once the life-stream becomes audible, one never feels longly; for he hears its reverberations wherever he may be, at home or abroad. The Voce of God keeps reminding him of the true home of his Father. The practice of the Sound Principle rids one of all troubles and afflictions, the five deadly passions, the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, leaving the soul in pristine transparency, detached from al that is of the world and worldly. Shabd is the supporting staff both in the journey of this life and of the life hereafter. With the experience of transcendence beyond the confines of the body, one becomes fearless of death; and when the allotted span of worldly existence comes to an end, he throws off, once and for all, the mortal coils of the flesh, as easily and happily as one does his old and worn out garments, and is freed from the cycle of births and deaths and goes openly and honorably to his home in heaven.

The practice of and communion with the Word brings in heaven's light and one feels divinely blessed. It gives intuitive knowledge of the Self and God and one experience within himself the integral realization of the soul as one common life-principle extending everywhere, in and around him, without any barriers and limitations of time and space, for all life is one, from eternity to eternity, irrespective of the many forms and patterns through which it may manifest. The moment one rises into the Timeless, he himself becomes timeless. This in fact is true meditation and true devotion leading to the true love of God and his creation, his own self expanding and coinciding with that of his Creator. This is Jivan-mukti or salvation while living in the world, like a lotus flower, above and aloft in the muddy pool in which it stands, unaffected by the dirt or squalor of the water below. Woe betide those who do not get contact with Shabd, for they ever remain between the millstones of God's negative Power and endlessly go up and down in the giant Wheel of creation, according to the merit and demerit of their Karmas whatever they be. Born in the gyres, they come and go in the gyres, with no way to escape until they contact some Master of the Word who may lead them to the Path of the Word, the Way out, and bring about their salvation.

The waters of Life (Hauz-I-Kausar or Prag Raj) lie hidden in the deepest depths of the soul and the way thereto lies in utter silence through the Word. Living in the hustle and bustle of life, if we try for It at all, we seek it, like other things, outside us, and miserably fail in the endeavor. But those who search for it the right way and are put on the Path by some competent Word incarnate may drink of this elisir and taste of this manna and gain immortaility.

I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst…

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever… *129

CHRIST

Word is the panacea for all ills. *131

GURU ARJAN