The term �spirituality � is hard to define. The scope and extent of the subject is so vast and varied in its many aspects that it can hardly be put into so many words. Suffice it to say that it deals with the immutable and eternal facts of life-the active principles that are enlivening the entire creation.

The quest for the �Spirit� and for the �Laws of Spirituality� has ever been in the human breast from the dawn of consciousness in man; yet with all its hoary antiquity, the subject retains its freshness as ever before and shall continue to do so. The Spirit or Soul is the vital flame in man, in the light and life of which he lives and has his being, and no wonder that in every clime and in every age, the leaders of spiritual thought- the sages and seers, the saints and sadhus-have attempted to solve the mystery of life.

The subject of Spirituality is concerned purely with problems connected with the Spirit or Soul-to wit, its origin or source, what it is, its seat in the body and its relation thereto, how it functions in the physical world; whether it is possible to separate it all will from the body and bodily adjuncts, the mind and the senses, and if so, the various processes connected there with. It deals with the spiritual journey through different spiritual planes and the spirit�s capability of traversing the same, the ultimate goal or destination to which this journey leads, and other allied topics, such as the welfare of the spirit, how to feed it and with what, for on its health depends the health of the body, These are some of the vital question that fall within the purview of our inquiry.

God is in the soul

and the soul is in God,

as the see is in the fish

and the fish is in the sea,

-St.Catherine-

Spirituality is more a practical science than a mere the critical dissertation. The various scriptures of the different religions of the world provide us with the theoretical aspect only and cannot give us a demonstrative experience of the Reality in the laboratory of the human body. Writings like the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Avestu of the Zoroastrians, the Tripatakas of the Buddhists, the Gospels, the Quran, the Adi Granth, Triratans of the Jains, and other canonical literature and extra-canonical works, with their commentaries, etc., medieval and modern (the Mahabhasyas, the Angas and Upangas, etc), all might point the Way but have no power to take us there. Their chief merit lies in the spadework they do in creating an interest in the aspirants for Paravidya or the knowledge of the Beyond. But the Transcendental Experience can be gained only from a Living Master, a Murshid-I-Kamil, well versed and competent in the practical aspects of Spirituality. Life and Light can come only from the Living-impulse of a Master Saint, whose glance of grace is more than enough to quicken higher life in the disciple.

The greatest teachers of humanity make use, according to the individual needs of the disciple, of all three methods: (i) Anva or gross, that is, imparting spiritual instructions by word of mouth; (ii) Shakta or subtle, that is, instilling higher spiritual consciousness in the disciple without his having to go through the external, that is, raising the disciple, in infinite mercy, to the highest stage of Realization without his having to do anything at all. As an unerring guide on the inner spiritual Path, he appears in his Radiant Form [Guru Dev] and accompanies the spirit when it transcends the body consciousness while living or at the time of death, and as a veritable Master of Truth [Satguru] he works out the Divine Plan. The need for such a Master soul who can at once work on the various lanes, as Guru, Guru-Dev and Satguru, cannot be over-emphasized.

In a nutshell �Spirituality� contents itself only with �Self Realization� and �God-Realization�. It has, therefore, nothing to do with institutionalized religions or religiosity, the out-ward show of religion that we mostly make nowadays.

Spirituality may be distinguished from sectarianism. While most of the great religions of the world tend to become more and more sectarian in their outlook, Spirituality ever remains universal, with its appeal to people of all religions who can come to and join this Stadium Generale or Universal Mystery School for practical training. As opposed to the sealed or codified religions, Spirituality is an open book of God, with the living touch of the Masters who present it from age to age in the spirit of the age. In this scientific age, it is presented as any other science, with mathematical precision and results verifiable on scientific lines.

The term �Spirituality� is not �to be confused with:

[i] Spiritism, or belief in the existence of spirits apart from matter, which, when disembodied, haunt the

�� nether regions as ghosts, or the lower planes of the astral regions as angler.

[ii] Spiritualism, or belief in the survival of the human personality and in communication between the

�� living and those who have �passed on�, in the form of spirit rapping, planchette writing, etc.

[iii] Mesmerism, or producing a state of trance by the consciously exerted �animal magnetism� of the

�� operator so as to subordinate the will power of his subject.

[iv] Hypnotism, which produces a kind of deep sleep in which the consciousness is suspended and the

�� patient is made susceptible to the suggestions of the hypnotist.

Spirituality, on the contrary, is the science of developing Higher Consciousness in Man on the level of the soul, and making one transcend from mere body consciousness into Cosmic Consciousness and further on into Super Consciousness, so as to enable one to understand the working of the Divine Plan.

With these few words, I would request the seeker after Truth to carefully pursue and study the pages that follow, so as to understand the true significance of the most important and yet mostly neglected subject, the subject of Spirituality.

Kripal Ruhani Satsang

361-A, Mall Road, Amritsar.

Kripal Sagar

The foundation of Kripal Sagar was laid by Sant Kripal Singh Ji Maharaj on his last tour to Punjab. He visualized about, this place that in the forth-coming time. �It� will guide mankind in spiritual form and the spiritual activities of man will co-operate a man in physical, social behavior in completion form of Spiritualism. We are all brothers in God. First of all human beings then Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs etc. Kripal Sagar is a common place for all, is respective of caste, color, creed and religion. Every religion is respected here without any criticism. Man is supreme of all because he goes higher to the physical contacts which made him and he can achieve him.

God made man, and man made the religions. Religions are made only to connect man with God.

Outer religions based on rituals, colours, caste and creed and religions beliefs, but internal religion man happy and easy from the subject of behavior, So there is written in every religious book of the world that enlightened persons with God power preached the self realization of innate soul. Their experience can be made our own experience. Man has gained the real knowledge from God. To understand the real aim of life and adopt and practice it in life. To adopt this subject in life is always the subject of Gurus.

OBJECT AND MISSION:

� The object and mission of Kripal Sagar is to connect the people with God. To unite the different religions uplift of mankind. This object will be completed by man service, land service and service to mankind.

FORMATION OF MANKIND:

a) To enable the man to achieve God through spiritual reservoir which is in our innate soul and make the man perfect and control the instincts of mind.

b) The make the man truthful in the real sense and make him pure in thoughts, in good words in the truthful living because it is the footstep of spiritualism.

c) To awake love and compassion in man so that he should treat all the living creatures with love and toleration.

d) We have forgot the comparative study of all religions in which thee is always a unity.

e) We should see and feel the brotherhood in the form of God.

MAN SERVICE:

a) To put and encourage the mission in the different languages of India and foreign so that the different people of different languages should understand each other and unite with peace and harmony.

b) �To develop and lay the foundation of ashram for the old maided and helpless people in the society so that they can lead a peaceful life without any mental strain on mind.

c) To lay the foundation of free and charitable hospital in which every poor and needy patients will be treated without distinction.

Land service in Kripal Sagar will be progressive assistant in which agriculture and Dairy farming will work on scientific ways.

SPIRITUALITY

Man is older than all philosophies and religions, which in fact were originally intended, and later on fashioned and developed, for his moral and spiritual well-being so that he may ultimately attain salvation or freedom from the bondage of mind and matter. But in spite of riches, moral codes, and the vast acquisition of learning, knowledge and wisdom, he is not really satisfied with life, because he has not been able to realize the Fundamental Truth of Love which lies at the core of all religions.

God made man and man made religions. Religions, then, are for man and not man for religions. The various religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and other, came into existence in course of time to serve the primary human need according to the exigencies of the then prevailing conditions. If we travel back along the stream of time, we find no trace of the Sikhs beyond five hundred years, of the Christians beyond two thousand years, of the Buddhists and Jains beyond five or six thousand years. Before the advent of the Aryan tribes many races appeared and disappeared on the scene of life. But man has ever remained a man, the lord of created things, in all times and in all climes, whether in the east or in the West, always and everywhere the same, an ensouled body or embodied soul with no distinctions of caste, creed or colour in his essentral nature. The inner self in him is of the same essence as of God.

��The spirit in man is of the same essence as the All Pervading Spirit��� - Gond Kabir

��All creatures are products from one and the same Jauhar (Essence)�� - Sheikh Saadi

Every country and every age has had its sages and seer. Corruption and deterioration are the natural features of times and prophets appear time and again to set things in order. All religions owe their birth to the teachings of such master-souls. The aim and purpose of the various religious orders has ever been the same - to provide a Way-back to God, to find the missing link between God and man. They are thus a means to an end and not the end in themselves. But in actual practice we find that none of them affords any high degree of satisfaction./ The fault lies not with the religion but with those who administer them to the people.

II

TRUE RELIGIONS IS UNIVERSAL LOVE AND

REMEMBRANCE OF GOD

What is true religion? This is the most natural question with man, and each one is confronted with it at one stage or another. We have with us hundreds and thousands of scriptures and treatises dealing with the vital problems of life, but they are not at one in their reply to this baffling question. We have, therefore, to carry on our investigation and our search for a correct solution, and there can be only one. But before we launch upon this quest, we must first know the purpose of religion or Dharma. The objective which all the religion place before us is, however, ond and the same Divine Beatitude and the beatific Vision of the Lord. All religions, then aim at the same target, like so many archers. If we are really sincere in our profession of love for God, we must have love for God�s creation, because the Creator and His creation are identical. We cannot love the one and hate the other. All the saints and sages work on this principal and love humanity as such, no matter whether one believes in God or does not, for they draw no distinction between theists and atheists or agnostics. They believe in the one great family of God and all are dead to them, in spite of seeming differences in non-essentials of life.

But what do we actually see in the world? Having forgotten the basic truth of love working at the root of all religions, we are cut off from the sheet-anchor and are afloat rudderless on the sea of life. Each one of us tries to catch at a straw to save himself. The natural result is that after a brief struggle with chance winds and waters, we sink into the great oblivion, without solving the riddle of life-whence we come and where we are bound, or the why and wherefore of human life.

Love, then, is the only true religion. Saint Paul, addressing the Galatians, said; �By love, serve one another.� (Galatians V: 13). Leigh Hunt declared: �One who serves his fellow men, loves God and is the true beloved of God.� Similarly Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in the his famous poem Rime of the ancient Mariner, informed us:

�He prayeth best who loveth best,

All things both great and small,

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all�

�St. John in his Epistle (I John IV: 8), wrote: He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is Love.� Christ, the great apostle of peace, emphatically laid down a cardinal principle of life in his memorable words: �Love thy neighbor as thyself.� And again he emphatically declared: �Love, and all things shall be added unto thee.�

�Sheikh Saadi, a Muslim divine, taught the same thing: �as the limbs of a body are knit together so are the children of God. They are born of the same essence. Should any one of them suffer from ague, the others too become restless.�

�Sheikh Farid and other saints also repeated this truth in the same strain: �If thou wishest to meet thy Beloved (God), injure not anyone�s feelings.�� - Shalok Farid

Guru Gobind Sing, the tenth guru of the Sikhs, stated: �Verily, verily, I say unto thee that God manifests Himself to one who loves.� God is Love, our soul is of the same essence as of God, so it is Love, and the Way back to God is also through Love.

Again, it is said: �The Creator and his creation are one. Do not injury to His creation. O Nandlal, and incur not the wrath of God�.�� -Bhai Nand Lal

All the holy and pious devotees have but one religion, the religion of devotion to God and love for His creation. A man is no better than a sheep or goat if he is not actuated by feelings of love and affection for his fellow men and does not share in their joys and sorrows, and lends not a helping hand in their toils and troubles. If instead of human sympathy, we are filled with ill will, hatred, jealousy, envy and animosity, and are charged with greed, avarice and self-love, and are swayed by pride and prejudices, we cannot have a pure heart capable of reflecting the light of God in us, nor can we have true happiness and bliss.

Man is the roof and crown of the creation endowed as he is with the spirit of God. The more one loves his fellow beings the nearer one gets to the Creator. All the creation is His manifestation, and His spirit is immanent in all forms and patterns. All colours take their hurl from Him, All-Pervading, His spirit works everywhere and there is no place without Him.

�All reflect the Self-Source Light,

Oh, none is good or bad.�� -Parbhati Kabir

�The part is in the whole, and the whole in the part,

Where then the difference, when both reflect the One?�� -Parbhati Kabir

The difference in forms, in modes of life, in clothing and in outer observances are all due to physiological conditions and cannot affect the inner working of the soul; and the fade into vaporous nothing when one rises above the body consciousness and enters the Divine Ground at the seat of the soul.

�Christ always taught: �Love the Lord, the god, with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.�

�Love thy neighbor as thyself�� Love thine enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be children of your Father which is in Heaven. Be ye perfect even as your father which is in Heaven is perfect.�� -Matt 5:44-48

�This, is in fact, is true religion, true devotion and� true meditation.��

The human heart is the seat of god. It has been given to man in trust. It must therefore be kept neat and clean, for then alone can it reflect His light and make life truly blessed. The body is the temple of God. We keep man made temples meticulously neat and clean but pay scant attention to the holy temple of God which we really are.

There is just one Creative Principal for the entire creation. All are born of the light of God and the same light shines forth in all; and, as such, none of His creatures can be dubbed �evil�. Thomas a Kempis, in Imitation of Christ, writes: �From One Word Proceed all things and all things tell of Him.� The Hindus call this Creative Principal �Naad�, �Truth is one and only one, though sages describe it variously�, is the memorable Upanishadic text.

�Sheikh Saadi tells us: �No religion is higher than the service of the people. The rosary, the altar and the apparel give not any merit. My Beloved is in all hearts and no heart is without him. Blessed indeed is the heart that manifests Him. Know for certain that God resides in all hearts and hence every heart needs to be respected�.

�No better than quarry stone is the Kaaba of Khalil,

The Kaaba of the human heart provides God a seat.

Of all pilgrimages, the one to the human heart is true,

��

It gives more of merit that the countless Mecca trips will do.�

This is what the great saint, Maulana Rumi, advise, �O man, circumambulate the secret Kaaba of the heart, unlike the Kaaba of Khalil - for God made the Kaaba of the human heart.�

This is what a great saint, named Maghrabi Sahib, gave out: �the performance of countless austerities and penances, each followed by acts of charity; the observance of innumerable fasts, each attended with thousands of prayers and keeping of sleepless vigils for myriads of nights, will not be of any avail so thee if thou injurest the feelings of a single individual.�

Again, Hafiz cautions: �drink wine to your heart�s content, burn down the holy Quran and consign to the flames even the sacred Kaaba id you will, but injure not the feelings of any man.� The things referred to are considered as sins, but Hafiz says that it is much better to commit them than to injure the feelings of any man, which is the most heinous sin of them all.

Sheikh Saadi, a Muslim divine, reaffirms:

�The Grace of God never descends until ye love His creation;

ALL MEN HAVE EQUAL PRIVILEGES FROM GOD

All persons irrespective of sex, colour, caste or creed; all men rich or poor, high or low, come into the world the same way. Born, as he is, from the mother�s womb by the union of perm and ovum, each one sees the light of the day after a period of gestation.

�Kabir Sahib, a great Indian saint, while addressing a high caste priest, told him: �O Brahman, should you claim high birth and on that account special privileges, you ought to have been born in a way different from that of the rest.�

Again, there is amerced likeness in the physical attributes of all men whether in the East or west. Each one is gifted with an equal number of organs and senses. All are moved and actuated by similar impulses and instincts. The weather conditions affect them all alike. All enjoy freely the gifts of Dame Nature and participate in her boundless bounties - light, air, water and food, etc.

In every way, similarity runs through the entire creation. All persons, irrespective of their nationalities or colours, are gifted with bodies composed of five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether, and live alike on this earth under the canopy of the blue sky. Disease, decay and death come to all in just the same way. No one escapes the ravages of time. So also do the remedies work in each case. God has made no distinction between man and man. Man alone is responsible for all kinds of distinction and differences of caste, colour and creed, splitting humanity into narrow grooves of classes, groups, sects and nationalities.

RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES

All apparent religious differences are man-made and are the result of narrowness and bigotry.

Saints and seers have one common message for the entire world. Their message is one of Universal Love. No one, indeed, can prove his love of God unless he knows how to love his fellow beings. Just as physical maladies wreck the human body, so do mental perversities. The latter so poison the circulatory system, in the body, that one is badly affected by greed, selfishness, hatred, ill will and animosity, which in turn lead to perverted outlook on life. Thus man is dragged down to the level of beasts, nay, at times, man descends even lower than the beasts. Very often, the result is social and economic disintegration.

Whenever Master-souls come into the world, they tell us that all religious differences are the outcome of ignorance, individual whim, religious vanity or spiritual egotism. So called leaders in every religion suffer from misguided fervour and narrow prejudices, so that they cannot possibly take a detached view of things around them. On the contrary, they see the world through the smoke-coloured glasses they have provided for themselves. They have no toleration for things and conditions that are not in accord with the rigid creeds of their organized sectarian or religious orders.

There is only one world-embracing universal religion, the religion of love, based on the great fundamental truth --- the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. We have, through self-interest, petty prejudices and befogged understanding, carved out narrow sectarian principalities. We have raised around us hedges and walls of hatred and antagonism, thus dividing man from man, class from class, nation from nation, and country from country. In the connection, Hafiz, a great Mohammedan saint, stated:

�One Reality shines both in Islam and Kufar (the man of faith, and a heretic) and all the seeming differences in the various orders are, in fact, vapourous nothings.

�It is through sheer prejudice that the Brahmans and the sheikhs �(religious heads of Hinduism and Islam, respectively) have now different drinking bowls, though in a wine bar there is only one butler (the God-man), dispensing the same wine (of divine Love) from the same fiagon to the various tipplers at the table.�

Saints tell us that there is only one God of the entire universe. The Upanishads say the same thing: �Truth is one, though sages call it variously.� He is the god of the whole creation and not of one religion or the other. There is, in fact, no difference between Karta (the One true Creator) of the Hindus and Karim (Merciful) of the Muslims, Ram (sustainer of the Hindus) and Rahim (Compassionate of the Muslims). All these names are descriptive of the various attributes of god and were coined by sages, saints, rishis and munis of different denominations in their own respective languages. The Nameless Reality is One but responds to the calls of all by any name by which any individual may invoke that Power.

�The Nameless One has many names. He doth attend, by whatsoever name He is addressed.�� - Maulvi Rumi

�One must carefully avoid the dangers of doubt and skepticism. God alone need be worshipped and adored. He is the God of all, and each one is His manifestation. The same life impulse works in all, and each is lighted by the same light. The entire humanity constitutes a single class by itself. Guru Gobind Singh says in this contest:

��Some keep shaven crowns, while others robe themselves in flame-coloured apparel, and still others call themselves Jogis (a sect that wears wooden earrings in their ears and are on the march from stage to stage). Again some are observing celibacy in quest of the Lord, while others perform penances and strict austerities. Some are Hindus and some are Turks, while others are Imams, Rafzi or followers of any saint. With all these differences in nomenclature, they at the root are all One-mankind-to wit, men born of and embedded in God. Call Him the Creator the Merciful, the Donor of Rahim, for that makes no difference at all-take this as a settled truth and be not therefore bewildered by diversity in names. They all serve and worship the same God, the same Lord and Master of the Universe. All of them manifest the image of the same God and exist simply by His Love and Light alone. Many a name has the Nameless One; addressed in any, He doth attend.�

REMEMBRANCE OF GOD

Remembrance of God is the main thing before us to find the Way back to him. The purpose of all devotional exercises, places of worship and pilgrimages is the same. The human body is the veritable temple of God.

There is one and only one common objective of the various forms of devotion as prescribed in different scriptures. How to love the Lord and how to realize Him. Various writers, in different times and in different climes, have in their own way pointed out this Path leading to God. It may be likened to a game of archery in which so many archers participate and discharge their arrows at the common target. An Indian saint said: �Each one in his own way talks to us of his own Beloved. O Rajab! The target is one but the archers are countless.�

In the holy Quran (Surat Nahal - 5th Raku) it is mentioned that from time to time different forms of worship were introduced by God-sent Master-souls according to the needs of the age in which they lived. Omar Khayyam, a great Persian Sufi poet, discloses: �The temples and the mosques, or the churches and the synagogues, are alike for the worship of God. The Gong and Conch perpetually produce therein-rapturous strains of the Music of Life. The Arch in the mosques, the Cross in the churches, the Altar in the temples and the lamp in the synagogues are just different symbols for the worship of the Divine Beloved.�

God cannot be realized outside oneself, even in the holy places of worship, no matter what their denominations might be. To realize Him, one has to enter into the laboratory of the human body which in the truest sense of the word is the temple of God. Real worship and devotion are purely internal and mental processes, unconnected with and independent of any and everything outside the human frame. All that is required is purity of mind. With an ethical background, one can worship God anywhere under the blue sky, for the whole world is a vast temple of God, and there is no place without Him, including the specific places of worship described above. In fact, wheresoever devotion kneels in humility, that place becomes sanctified.

In the holy Quran (Albukar) it is mentioned: �All the universe is His. Turn wheresoever one may, East or West, one would face God, for He is both Omnipresent and Omniscient.� Again: �For the ignorant, God lives only in man-made temples, mosques or churches, but the really awakened find him only within themselves-the God-made temple of the human body.�

��

Al-Nisaee sahib affirmed: �for me the whole world is a holy mosque; wherever the fixed time of prayer comes up, my followers may perform their prayers then and thee.�

��All is holy where devotion kneels.� - H.O.Wendell

�Maghrabi sahib tells us: �Thy beloved is within thee but thou art ignorant of it and goest to find Him without, from place to place. To go to a mosque in search of one who is the very soul of thy soul, is nothing short of tragic waste of time. The ignorant bow down before a mosque, while the wise are engaged in purifying the mind, which is the wise are engaged in purifying the mind, which is the throne of God Himself.� The former is just sham and tinsel, and the latter is the actual reality.

The true Kaaba or the altar of worship is, therefore, the Satguru - a personality in whom the light of God shines. Tulsi Sahib says: �Woe be to thee, O indweller of the God-made mosque, for thou goest for worship to the man-made temple.� Kabir Sahib also speaks thus: �As Kabir proceeded on a pilgrimage to Mecca. God met him on the way and he reprimanded him and sternly enquired as to who told him that He was there and not here.� Guru Amar Dass said: �This body is the veritable temple of God. In it alone shines the Light of God.� (Parbhati M.3). Christ also stated: �Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you.� (I Corinthians 3:16). And again, �Ye are the temple of the living God.� (II Corinthians 6:16).

Hafiz of Shiraz spoke in the same terms: �The object of my going to the temple or the mosque is to unite with thee, O Lord! Except this, there is no other idea in it.� Again he maintained: �Say not that Kaaba is better than a temple. In fact, that place alone is the best where one may witness the glory of his Beloved.�

Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, clearly puts it down thus: �There is no difference between a dera and a mosque between Puja (Hindu way of worship) and Namaz (Mohammedan form of prayer), as both serve the same purpose. All mankind are one and the same and the idea of diversity is but a myth. The same God has created the Angles and the Spirits, as also the Turks and the Hindus, and in fact, men of all denominations. The outer variety in mankind is the result of physiological conditions prevailing in the various parts of the world. Yet, all of them are on the same pattern, with similar eyes, ears, bodies, and their physical structure is made out of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Allah of the Moslems & Alekh of the Hindus are the names of the same Entity. The Puranas and the Quran speak of Him alone.�

In fact all religions extant on earth point to the same Reality. In all scriptures it is said that a search for Him in the outside world is of no avail, and it is only through the Grace of a master or the Guru that the Lord is made manifest within. All Places of worship, wherever these may be, are made of water and clay. When God is Omnipresent, why need one seek Him in temples and mosques alone? He is right within us, nay, is the very soul of our soul and we live and have our being in Him. But this Truth draws only when a Sant-Satguru (Master0soul) helps in bringing it home to us through actual experience.

�Where shall I go, when I see His glory within?�� The mind saturated in Him has no distractions.�� One day greatly obsessed, I prepared a sandal paste,�� And started for the abode of Brahma, when the Master told me that he dwelt in the folds of the mind.� �Wherever I go, I see houses of water and clay;�� And yet I see Thee in fullness in everything.�� I have searched for Thee in the Vedas and the Puranas, and all scriptures repeat the same.�� Why should I wander elsewhere when Thou art right here?�� O Satguru! I would like to make a holocaust of myself at Thy feet.�� For Thou hath saved me from all delusions and snapped all bonds.�� Ramanand now lives and rests in Brahma.�� The Word of the Master burns to ashes myriads of Karmas.�� - Basant Ramanand

�

Guru Arjan stated: �Some address Him as Ram and some as Khuda. Some call Him Gosain and others Allah. He is the Kaaran and Karim or the Kripa Dhar Rahim. �He is the creator giving out merciful glances all the world over. Some go for a bath to the sacred rivers, while others go for a Haj (pilgrimage to Mecca). Some worship Him and some bow their heads in silent adoration. Some engage in the study of the Vedas and some read books of other religion. Some put on white raiment�s and some the blue apparel. Some are called Hindu and others Turk. But O Nanak! One who has known His will (by becoming a conscious co-worker with Him), he alone may know the mystery of God.� -Ramkali M.5

The sacred lore of the Hindus is in Sanskrit or in Hindi, and that of the Mohammedans, in Arabic or in Persian, Guru Granth Sahib of the Sikhs is in Punjabi, while the Bible of the Christians is in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English. The various expositions, the commentaries and annotations of these are in the different languages that were in common vogue at one time or another. All these scriptures, whatever their language (for language counts not with god), simply serve the purpose of creating in us a desire, a yearning, a craving, a longing and love for god. They are the means and not the end, for God is an Unwritten Law and His is an Unspoken language. He is beyond all tongues, for none can reach Him. No particular tongue has any special merit, for it is just a vehicle of expression and nothing else, so that one may narrate and listen to the loving stories of God. Hafiz therefore beautifully indicates:

��G Hafiz! In the matter of love, there is no difference between Turkish and Arabic or other languages. The tales of love may be narrated in any of the languages that may be known to thee.�

The various peoples of the different lands are just like so many sons of the same Father and flowers of the same garden, though gifted with different colours and fragrance. Living in the lap of the same divine Nature and under the same blue canopy, we have narrowed ourselves through petty prejudices and shortsighted vision, into various religious sects and orders. Religion, as the word literally implies, is a �way-back� or relinking with the source. Instead of vouchsafing liberation, religion has, like the proverbial �Blanket-bear�, taken hold of us in its iron grip, from which it is not possible to escape.

To explain the proverbial expression �Blanket-bear� � A bear was swimming down a river, when a man standing on the bank mistook it for a blanket, and jumped into the water to fetch it out. But when he caught hold of it he discovered his mistake, and when he wanted to swim back, he could not do so, for the bear caught hold of him instead in his strong grip and would not let him go. Those standing on the said of the stream asked him to come back. He said he would like to come back, but the blanket-bear would not let him go. Such is the condition in which the people of the work a day world are drifting these days. The awakened ones revolt at this sad state of affairs. When both the mosque and the temple constitute the house of God and are lighted by the Light of God, why should there be so much bother about them?

The object of worship in a temple or in a mosque, or in any other religious place, is to find out the same Beloved. When, in spite of apparent differences in from, shape and colour, two stones if struck together, produce the same sparks, it is strange that to different types of worshippers fail to produce the same result. It is simply because neither of them has understood real worship.��

All religions have as their ideal, self-knowledge and God realization, but in the very name of their respective religions, the Brahmans and the Sheikhs (the religious heads of the Hindus and the Mohammedans) and the heads of other sects-all preach hatred and ill will against one another.

The institution of paid preachers has in these days converted religious centers into commercialized markets with stock-in-trade of falsehood, hypocrisy and deceit, truth, faith and devotion have been banished from them. True lovers of God, therefore, dissociate themselves from such a horrible state of things.

Bulleh shah pathetically describes this sad state of affair of his time as �Dharamshalas (places of worship serve as entrepots for the swindlers, and Thakur-Dwaras (houses of God) as houses for the thugs and cheats. Mosques shelter merciless butchers, while the true lovers of God stand apart from all these.�

The seeds of enmity and hatred between man and man are sown by the very people who themselves are victims of stark ignorance. Pandora-like, they know not what mischief they unleash into the world by their thoughtless utterances. Such persons are styled in the scriptures as Manmukh, or the mouthpiece of the mind, for they do things thoughtlessly and their actions are all steeped in and saturated with selfish greed. Their tongues wag, cutting deep chasms right and left into the very vitals of the people, and injecting poison into the depths of their minds. Whosoever comes into contact with them and drinks of their words, not only catches the infection of discord and in harmony, but also becomes bloodthirsty towards his own kith and kin, Mohammedans call such persons Kafirs (heretics).

The sole object of such Manmukhs or kafirs, there are the Gurmukhs (or the mouthpiece of Guru). They are the prototype of philanthropy and the reservoirs of love, shedding the beneficent light of love around their fellow beings. They recognize the essential unity of all humanity embedded as it is in the root cause of God. Islamcally such people �Momins. �They have regard and respect not only for the Prophet of Islam but for the prophets of all other religions whose names have been mentioned in the Quran, as also for those whose names have not been mentioned therein.� They see the essential unifying link that runs through all, and do not look to the seeming differences in non-essentials.

THE FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS

�These are common in all religions and point the same way. Religious truths, whether social, ethical or spiritual, have a common ideal and a common objective. Man should lead an ethical life, serve mankind, be of help to all others in this earthy sojourn, and should know himself and then develop God-knowledge and God-consciousness leading ultimately to God-head. The word religion, as the term indicates, is a great binding force that links man back to his Creator. Whom he, by his entire absorption in the mundane affairs of life, has entirely forgotten through having become identified with the world. Love of man and love of god, as also faith in god and living contact with �God-in-action� or the �Holy Ghost�, Ekaunkav� of the �Word�, is the universal religion that has been given to the world by the saints from age to age. It is eternal and unchangeable for all times.

All the scriptures, the world over, teach the same thing, namely, that one should engage in good and pious acts, take hold of the saving life-chord within and, riding on the sound current, reach the home of his father. God is the Ideal and one should worship Him with love and devotion, and people should serve one another with love. St. Paul always exhorted mankind: �By love serve on another�. The Vedas tell us to remember and worship God in congregations (Atharv Veda: 3:30-5). There is no virtue higher than to have firm faith in God, to commune with His holy word and to render loving service to His creation. This, in fact is the true and universal religion, common for mankind, eternal and unchangeable.

Guru Arjan, speaking of the highest and holiest Truth at the core of all religions, refers to contact with the �Shabd Dhun�, the Sound Principle which is the primal manifestation of god and the causeless Cause of the entire creation.

��The highest and the holiest in all religions enjoins communion with the Word of God, and good actions.� -Gauri M.5

�There is no virtue higher than to sing of the Lord (the Divine Melody) and to associate with his elects.

O Nanak! These boons one gets only through the writ of the Most High and not otherwise.� -Sorath M.5

It was because of this that Guru Arjan, while compiling the sacred scripture of the Sikhs, the Granth Sahib, collected therein the sayings of the various Master-souls-Hindus, Mohammedans and Sikhs-without caring for their vocation in life, high or low. In it we find the sayings of Sant Kabir (a weaver by profession) Nam Dev (a calico-printer), Ravi Das (a cobbler), Dhanna Jat, Baba Farid (a Mohammedan), and others of the Kshatriya class. Such godly souls come into the world, untrammeled and free, with a specific mission, the dispensation of the Saving Grace of the Lord for those who listen to them and follow their teachings. It is a proof positive of the fact that Reality is one, though it has been named differently by different sages in different places and at different times. Such Master-souls, whenever and wherever they appear on the scene of life, impart to the erring humanity lessons in humanitarianism and godliness and instill in the people the love of man and God, but above all put them on the Path leading Godwards. They, imbued with the spirit of God, are freethinkers and try to make mankind free from the watertight and narrow limitations of fossilized religions and religious beliefs, so that they may bask in the sunshine of God and sing of His glory.

Saints look after and take charge of the souls and not of the raiment of the body, with its various denominational hallmarks. Then try to form and cement the brotherhood of man and tell us of� �The Way Out� of the body, by the process of �Soul-withdrawal.� And �The way in� to the spiritual world beyond, by means of a contact with the Holy Ghost or Naam. They come to unite individual souls with God and not to disrupt this relationship wheresoever it is already in existence.

Their sole object is to unite all mankind in the silken bonds of love and not to create schisms and splits. Maulana Rumi tells us that God, speaking to Moses, reprimanded him with the words.

��I sent you into the world to unite people unto Me,

And not to lead astray such as were already united with Me.�

No religious barriers stand in the way of God-men. They serve as beacon lights in the stormy sea of life. In fact, they have love for all religions and actually give life and light to them all, without which these gradually, in course of time, grow dull, drab and lifeless like a body without the life-giving Spirit.

Guru Nanak, for instance, went on pilgrimages to far-off Mecca in Arabia, to Sangladip, or Ceylon, in the South, and Burma and china in the East. He gave to the people everywhere the benefit of his teachings the same as he did to Hindus in Benares and Hardwar, the sacred places of Hindus. He carried the same message of Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man to every place. God-men love all the saints, past and present, irrespective of creed or colour. God-intoxicated people sit together as tipplers in the tavern of God. There existed a fraternal relationship between Arjan, Hazrat Mian Mir and Bhagat Chhajju. Guru Har Gobind provided a mosque for worship for the Muslims. Guru Gobind Singh had equal love for the Hindus, the Muslims and men of all other denominations. When he was hemmed in by the Turks on the plain if Machhiwara, it was the Muslims who helped him out of the trying impasse and saved his life. Bhai Kanahya Singh, one of his followers, supplied drinking water and tended alike to the wounded Muslim and Hindu soldiers on the field of battle. When complained against by the ignorant Sikhs for his alleged treacherous conduct, he told the Master that as he flitted about on the field with his water-skin to serve the thirsty and the dying, he witnessed in one and all alike the same light as was in the Master. The Guru thereupon blessed him for having correctly imbibed his teachings.

��When once the ignorance is dispelled, all distinctions between the Hindus and the Muslims, and in fact among all the sectarian people, drop off and vanish like airy nothings.�� - Guru Gobind Singh

God is the substratum and life-principle for the entire creation-even of the heretics and the agnostics. As He loves all, so do saints who are dyed in His very colour. Once Moses, sharing a meal with someone, felt a rude shock in the depth of his heart when he saw that his companion had offered no grace before taking the food; but God reprimanded him, for he had no business to be dissatisfied with one whom He (God) in his unbounded mercy provided with food. Such Master-souls have great and unbounded love for one and all, no matter if some of them be the worst of sinners, the most despised and hated by society. No person has a right to address God as Father, unless he is prepared to love his fellow beings as his brethren. All life springs from His and, as such, there should be no discrimination between high and low, the faithful and the heretic. One may not know the Father; that is a different thing, but he is born of the Father and that is all one need know and act upon.

��

III

IDEAL MAN

�Man is essentially a social being He is born in society and cannot live without society. As such, the Master-souls do not interfere in his social conduct and religious mode of life. They tell us to lead a life of purity and chastity within the framework of the social order in which we are born or to which we are born or to which we belong, but that we should not dehumanize our human nature, which has been given to us as a sacred trust from God. The outer differences of apparel and mode of life, social or religious, should not affect and interfere with the inner life in man, which is the same within the folds of every human breast. They emphatically deal with man as man as man (an individual as opposed to a social being) and try to inculcate in him the importance of cultivating qualities that go make him an ideal man full of love for God as Father and His creatures as his brethren. They say that man should engage in honest pursuits, making an honest living, both for himself and his family, love all sentient beings, and treat them with loving sympathy.

Man is the roof and crown of the entire creation. He is an embodied soul. From the bodily point of view, he must live and act as an ideal man would, and also from the point of view of the spirit, which is in essence the same as God. Kabir informed us: �Soul is the same essence as that of God.� He must manifest Godhead or God�s light. Christ therefore declares:

��The light (of Spirit) shineth in darkness (body) and the darkness comprehendeth it not.� -St. John 1-15

��Take heed that the light which is in thee be not darkness.� -Luke 11-35

��Be ye perfect as they Father in Heaven is perfect.� -Matt. 5-48.

Man and God are fully embedded in each other. It. Therefore behooves man to reflect the light of God around him. God is the soul of his soul, and his body is the veritable temple of god. Without the light of His life, a human body is just like a husk without a kernel, useless and inconsequential trash, fit to be cremated or consigned to the grave.

��Man is an embodied Truth, for Truth is his very life. Without the light of Truth, how can man live?�

Again:

��God speaks through a human pole, without such a pole, how can He speak?�

Hazrat Attaar, a great Muslim divine, says: �O man! Thou art the very center of creation. In fact, the very macrocosm is in the microcosm of they body. Thou art the living book of God, for in and through thee alone, God speaks, and reveals Himself.

If man were to take care of his latest Godhead and make it patent, a practical workday principle, this mundane world full of evils would become a veritable Garden of Eden, or Muqam-I Haq or Sach Khand. Then his kingdom would come on earth as it is in Heaven, for which the Christians and others so fervently pray from day to day.

It therefore behooves us to convert this world into a veritable land of the pious, peopled by persons with purely human instincts in them, unalloyed by feelings of hatred and animosity, pride and prejudices, and impervious to satanic influences and animal passions which degrade man to the level of a beast. It would then be a world of free and loving persons, each respecting the rights of others, with no room for courts to adjudicate disputes nor police to keep the peace, nor armies to keep down aggression. The inhabitants of the word would then be the living embodiments of the life and love of God, walking freely and fearlessly in Heaven�s light, dressed in pure godliness, in the land of the pious and the pure (Pakistan) and the really righteous (Khalistan). The ideal of the saints is not to depopulate the world but to humanize it.

The only ideal for man is to be perfect and complete. This would distinguish him from the imperfect and mutilated man, completely ignorant of the Godhead in himself, torn as he is by petty jealousies, avarice, greed, deceit, enmity, recriminations and all types of vices a true abode for Satan as at present. Saint Paul states: �Ye are complete in Godhood,� Every religion enjoins the worship of perfected beings who are at one with God. In the Bhagvad Gita, it is mentioned that the roots of the creation are set down in heaven, but its branches spread as far as the earth. So is the case with man. His roots too are implanted in Godhood, though he moves about and works on earth. Behind the apparent consciousness that works in the world lies the entire mystery of the Motor Power-the great dynamo without which this outer consciousness cannot operate. We are aware of this outer ocean of consciousness only so far as it operates on the plane of senses, but the major part of it lies hidden at the root center of the soul in the eye-focus within, and of which we are totally ignorant. It is nor wonder, then, that the master laid great stress on self-knowledge and preached that one should know of his conscious self before anything else.

From time to time, Master-souls come into the world and place before it the fundamental truth of the ideal man, that one must acquire all-round perfection. �Know Thyself!� has always been their slogan and a clarion call to the society steeped in stark ignorance and dead to the higher spiritual powers lying dormant in man, �Gnothi Seauton� was as much an article of faith with the ancient Greeks s �Nosce Teipsum� was with the ancient Latins. Their cry has been; �Awake, arise and stop not, until the goal is reached.� All the ten Singh Gurus, from Guru Nanak down to Guru Gobind Singh, placed before the Indian society the ideal of a Sikh (a true disciple), and of a Khalsa (the pure one) who render selfless service to humanity born of genuine love for mankind. These constitute the bedrock of spiritual life and quicken the latent spiritual aspiration in man by gradually freeing him from narrow bigotries and sense of false pride.

The Muslims gave to the world the ideal man in the form of a Momin, and the Christians, in the form of a Puritan. In fact, all Master-souls have emphasized the need of developing an ideality in man so as to raise him to the level of a superman, far above the plane of senses. Iqbal, a great Urdu poet of the Punjab, relates; �Moses went to Mount Sinai to witness the glory of god, because he was not aware of the great mystery within. O thou, the seeker after truth, seek out an ideal man-for God, too, seeks one who can truly manifest Him in the world.�

All the scriptures and all the world teachers have laid emphasis on the greatness of man for he has vast potentialities in him, which he can, if he can, if he will, develop to any extent he may like, leading to Godhood. The self and power of the world are nothing in comparison to the spiritual treasures lying within man, while he, in ignorance, is like a mendicant roaming about in search of pebbles, and in the end barters away his precious life for such trash.

Ruskin, too, likewise expresses this idea: �There is no wealth but life, life including all its powers of love, joy and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings. That man is the richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.�

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SPIRITUALITY: ITS NEED

Wheresoever one may turn, one finds extreme tension anxiety and suspense prevailing everywhere. The root cause of this universal chaos is restlessness in individual minds. Man has made tremendous progress in various spheres of life, but unfortunately has not cared to know anything about the spirit within and is altogether ignorant about it. He has unraveled the mysteries of the starry welkin, sounded the depths of the seas, delved deep into the bowels of the earth, braved the blinding blizzards of snowy Mount Everest, and is now out exploring space so as to establish interplanetary relations, but sad to say, has not found out the mystery of the human soul within him. He has always ignored the question of questions and has studiously avoided the vital issues of life regarding self-knowledge, or the knowledge of the soul, and of no consequence.

A person may possesses all the riches of the world, but id he does not know anything about his own soul, it is all in vain. The ultimate purpose of all knowledge is that one should know oneself. A Muslim divine, in this context, pronounces:

�The be-all and end-all of knowledge is but one,�� That one may know the real worth of one�s soul,�� Thou knowest the value of everything else,��

But what a folly that thou knowest not thine own value.�

What a pity it is that we have made wonderful progress in all walks of life, but woefully lack self-knowledge, in the light and life of which we actually live and have our very being. By ignorance of the vital reality in us, it is no wonder that we have made fools of ourselves. Christ also spoke of the same thing:

�What does it profit a man to gain possession of the whole world and to lose his own soul?�

A part remains just a part until it merges into the whole and loses its own individuality in its fountainhead or source. A mountain stream in its downward course bubbles hard, frets and fumes, until it falls into the ocean. So is the case with an individual spirit. Not knowing its essential nature, it knows not even its own source and so it frets and fumes, as its stram of life splashes along its stony bed, strewn with big boulders and submerged rocks. Individual restlessness is reflected in the restlessness that we see among the peoples of the world. Man has forgotten the great fundamental truth-the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, class an class, society and society, and country and country.

The crying need of the hour is to give a new orientation to the ancient science of spirituality and to tell the people how to live a spiritual life. The entire humanity is steeped in ignorance. Most of the people in the world live a life of selfishness and are bent upon enriching themselves at the cost of others; but they, too, stand bewildered as if trapped between two milestones: (i) Truth scientifically explained and taught by the Masters, and (ii) the rigid creeds, or the fossilized remains of religion, taught mostly by ignorant religious fanatics. The so-called teachers and preachers who should guide aright the erring mankind are themselves victims of the grand Delusion and know not where they stand and what they have to do.

Most of us are attracted and irresistibly drawn by the glamour of the outer life, the life of the senses and honestly believe in the Epicurean doctrine of �eat, drink and be merry.� We see no need of God at all, the very substratum of the Universe. We have our faith pinned to the walnut shell and do not see the kernel within. We want to swallow the shell and not the sweet and delicious kernel it protects within its hard case. Our so-called search for God, too, is on the plane of the sense, in the world without. We look for Him on snow-capped mountaintop, in waters of the sacred rivers, in burning desert sands in temples, mosque churches, and there we find Him out. The more we search for him without, the more He eludes us; He is now practically lost to us, and we have lost all faith in Him.

�O seekers after God! You have lost God.�� You have lost Him in the very whirlpool of the senses.�

In such a sad predicament, Master souls come into the world from time to time, to lead the erring humanity. Their message is one of hope and not of despair. They come not to break the law but to fulfil the law - the law of Redemption through Grace. They have unbounded love for all the religious and utter not a word against any. On the other hand, they try to reorientate all religions alike, transfuse fresh blood into their anemic vitals, resuscitate the decaying nerves and tissues, infuse a glow of life-impulse and to restore them to the high pedestals from whence they have fallen. They simply give the correct lead and point to the right path, which lies within and not without, the path that is the most ancient (Sanatan) and is coeval with creation itself, and which is the most natural (Sahaj). It is the Path laid down by the Creator Himself and is not man-made. They tell us that God exists and that all religions, as made by man. They tell us that God exists and that all religions, as made by man, have one object only: an approach to God.

The word religion is derived from a Latin root ligare with its derivative, ligament, which means to bind. The prefix �re� denotes again. So the word religion connotes to bind again, what has been sundered, separated and detached, i.e, bind back the soul to the Oversoul or god or whatever name we may give to the Source-the Fountainhead of all life. True religion, in this sense, is a common heritage of mankind; and he alone is truly religious, a true Bhagat or devotee, a true Sikh or disciple, a true Mohammedan or a true Christian, who has linked his soul with the Power of God within him. The redeemers tell us that the human body is the true temple of God, for God made man after His own image. Both the spirit (the soul) and God (the Oversoul) reside in this body, but, unfortunately, the two are separated from each other by an iron curtain or egotism, or the self-assertive will in man.

��Together do the two dwell in close association, in the same abode.

But strange as it may seem, the two have never conversed with each other.� - Gauri M.5

In other words, it may be said that the bride (soul) and the bridegroom (God) are lying together on the same bridal bed, but have not, through the ages, seen each other�s faces.

��On the one and the same bed lies the beloved, but woe betide the spouse that snores deeply while the consort watches over her all the time�.� -Suhi M.5

All religions, in course of time, unfortunately, lose sight of the original idea and become just a code of social conduct or at the most a compendium of ethical and moral principles. Saints, therefore, do not interfere with fossilized remains of the religions, for many, of necessity, must conform to and live in one or the other social order. They point to the original common ideal of all religions: the Inner Path leading to God, and tell us how to reach God.

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V .

RELIGION: WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT HAS BECOME

Religion, far from being a manual of spiritual truths, is nowadays conceived to be: the study of scriptures, epics and biographies of ancient sages; the inferential, needed knowledge about the existence of God, dissertations and expositions of the various schools of thought as propounded by philosophers in different times and in different climes. Some people are engaged in reconciling the new thought with the old, while others lay stress upon the rules of social conduct and ethical principles as the be-all and end-all of religion. The so-called and self-styled leaders of religious thought are engaged in shouting about the importance of one or the other tenets to which they tenaciously cling. Still others consider that salvation can be had by blind faith in the ancient Master-souls who have already played out their respective roles and have left this sub-lunary planet hundreds or even thousands, of years ago. Each one of these is so zealous in his own way that he ahs lost sight of the real truth, and the result is religious bigotry, persecution, inquisitorial courts, pillory, burning at the stake - and the worst of it is that all this is done in the blessed name of religion.

Religion, in fact, is the Way back to God or linking the soul with Oversoul. It is the Way, the Path, that should lead the soul to god. But ala! Through narrow prejudices, befogged understanding and petty -mindedness, it is now considered enough that one should conform to the observance of certain rites and rituals, performance of deeds of merit, wearing of particular type of apparel, keeping certain distinctive marks on the body, and following various rules of social conduct from birth till death, or reciting specific mantras and chanting verses on particular occasions.

While the whole world is busy with outer pursuits of one kind or another, the Kingdom of God lies neglected within - a lost province - and no one turns towards it. The Master-Souls point to this Kingdom, and the scriptures also speak of it in unambiguous terms. But owing to a dearth of practical persons who have realized the Truth by transcending the bodily and mental limitations, the Reality has slipped through our grasp. Religion, in the true sense, has lost its significance and has become encrusted with a mass of ceremonial and ritualistic verbiage.

There is hardly a person who can tell us of the way within the body, the method of approach to it, the prerequisites for the aspirants, and above all, be an unerring and a sure Guide on the Way from plane to plane, until the goal is reached. On the contrary, many teachers who every day cross us by the multitude, cannot help us to get out of the Grand Delusion. They simply ask us to pin our faith to the teachings of one or other of the ancient sages, but cannot instruct us about the way whereby those sages, realized the Truth and how we can do likewise. Or else they declare that one or the other of the scriptures is a direct revelation from God, and prescribe is study as a course of discipline for the soul, little knowing that a mere record of the spiritual experiences of their authors cannot give us the benefit of the same unless we are able to make those experiences our own. The scriptures may tell us of the Way out and may even describe the spiritual journey, but they cannot actually put us on the Path, resolve our doubts & take us from plane to plane-all of which lies far beyond the scope of words; nor can they save us from the pitfalls and dangers that lurk on the way. Learned as they are, they can quote scriptures in support of what they allege, but are utterly lost when it comes to practical training and guidance required for self-realisation and God-realisation, of which they are as ignorant as are their audience or their followers.

The truth is that unless a person, in full consciousness, can link his soul with Oversoul or God, all his deeds and acts individual or social), howsoever meritorious in themselves, cannot be of much avail to him. God is the Ocean of utmost and restful silence. So long as we cannot have this restful silence within us, the soul cannot listen to the Voice of silence arising out of the greatest depths of silence. By following that voice we can reach the source and fountainhead of the Great Silence called God, and be blessed forever. This Grand Silence is the Reality, the Unchangeable Permanence, the Truth or God, call it whatever we may. It can be realized and experienced by the individual soul but cannot be comprehended by the mind or the intellect, limited as these are by time, space, causation, etc., working in the outer world, characterized by these alone. One may bathe in the Limitless Ocean within, but cannot, even by flights of fancy, have any idea of it.

��One cannot comprehend Him through reason, even if one reasoned for ages,

One cannot achieve inner peace by outward silence, not though one sat dumb for ages.�� Jap Ji: St.I

While confined in the sensual plane, we cannot experience God. Only when we transcend the senses, the mind and the intellect, far beyond the physical, the, the mental and the causal planes, can we have the realisation of the grand Beatitude.

�Exalted is the Lord, and exalted His abode,�� More exalted is His holy Word.�� He who reaches His Height,�� He alone may Glimpse Him.�� -Jap Ji: St. 24

It is only with the wings of love and devotion that we can reach God, and not by intellectual wrestlings and flights of imagination. By constant practice we have to acquire, in the first instance, a state of pure consciousness, untrammeled by vacillation of the mind and thought-currents, which are constantly and imperceptibly breaking in upon the soul and restricting it to their grasp alone. Spiritual life means a union of the soul with Oversoul, It is not an intellectual subject, although that is a stepping -stone or a means to an end.

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VI

SPIRITUALITY VIS-�-VIS RELIGION

Spirituality is another name for Surat Shabd Yoga. In other words, it means union of the Surat (consciousness or soul) with the Shabd (Sound -principle sound-current or God-in action). It is an inner experience of the soul and far transcends what various creeds and faith have to tell us, or promise to give. This science is known as Sant Mat or Path of the Masters. It tells us of the fundamental of spirituality. It far excels religions as known in this age, for these teach us merely theories and beliefs, and dabble in jugglery and supernatural powers, etc. a science is not a true one if it does not reason out conclusions. A blind faith or a blind belief has no place in a spiritual science, which should work out results with mathematical precision, as any other science would do. Wherever and whenever persons have experimented in this science, they have, one and all. Given their experiences and come to the same conclusions.

Spiritual life consists in peeling off layer by layer the various Koshas or sheaths, physical, astral and casual, enshrouding the spirit, until it shines forth in its pristine splendour (self-luminous and shadow less), and comes into it own and says: �I am soul,� �Aham Brahm Asmi,� or �Tat Twam Asi (I am Brahm, or I am as thou art) I am a drop of the ocean of All Consciousness.�

It is only after this consciousness dawns on the spirit, that it rushes headlong towards its Source or Fountainhead-the Ocean of Eternal Bliss. This is called Jiwan Mukti (salvation in life or life eternal). When dyed in the very colour of God, a person manifests veritable Godhood in thoughts, words and deeds. He becomes a perennial source of life, love and light for the entire humanity.

��Father and the son are dyed in the same colour and administer the same Law unto mankind.�� -Rag Bhairon M5

��Poor Nanak is the mouthpiece of His Beloved.�� -Rag Gauri Sukhmani M5

��O Lalo! I open my mouth simply to express or give vent to the thoughtlessly within me�� - Rag Tilang M.1

��Whenever a Mater-soul opens His mouth, He does so to utter the words of Allah or God, though the voice may seem to be human.� -Mouluna Rumi

��I and my Father are one�All things are delivered to me of my Father�. I am in the Father and the Father in me. The words I speak unto you I speak to myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the work.�� -Christ

When a drop of water loses its identity in the ocean, it becomes an integral part of the ocean itself. In the same way a spirit, when it once enters into Godhood or merges in God, no longer remains an individual spirit for the rest of the allotted span of its physical existence but is an integral part of God, the very Ocean of Life. All this can be achieved only through the grace of a Master-Soul; and thus the tedious journey Homeward is accomplished quite easily and smoothly. It is not given to man to achieve this by himself, unaided by a Satguru.

�It is the fundamental law of God, that no one can move Godward without the aid of a satguru.�� -War Bihagra. M.4

There is one and only one way Godward, for all alike, rich or poor, high or low, learned or unlettered, Oriental or Occidental Laplanders of the North of Bushmen of the south. It is the most ancient and the most natural way, universal in its appeal, since it is ordained by God Himself for His children, no matter wherever in the wide world they may be or whatever religion they may profess, and whatever be their colour, caste or creed. This in essence is the scope of spiritual science as taught by Master souls from time to time, according to the needs of the age in which they lived and in the then common language of the people. Hence the basic similarity in their teachings.

��Truth is one, though the sages describe it variously,� states the Upanishadic text.

Saints work as pilots in the stormy sea of life. They take upon themselves the burden of steering the righteous souls clear of shoals and submerged rocks, and do not rest contented until they are safely taken back right to the home of their Father. They come from afar from a purely from a purely spiritual realm, with a set purpose and mission-to ferry the world-weary pilgrim soul anxious for a reunion with the Source and Fountainhead of life.

��They are godly souls clothed in human bodies and come God�s knowledge.

They come from unknown places to trade in souls and ever look backwards,�� -Maulana Rumi

The scriptures are full of the spiritual experiences of such high souled saints and constitute a common heritage for mankind. Their instructions are for all alike, for theirs is a universal appeal to humanity and not to this or that social sect or order. They speak from the level of the soul to all embodied souls, irrespective of denominational emblems and nomenclatures, for god belongs to them who claim Him as their own.

��He is peerless and unconcerned, but bound to His devotees. All others are attached to the world and have no devotion for the Lord.� -Sorath Ravidas

Surat Shabd Yoga aims at a direct union of the soul with God. The Master at the time of initiation gives to the aspirant a first-hand inner experience; howsoever of the lowest order it may be, of spirituality. This can, in course of time, by regular Sadhan or practice of spiritual discipline, be developed. All scriptures give a fine record of the teachings of this Natural Yoga, which is not the reserved right of any particular sect or religion. as God is for all mankind, the Masters of this science are also for one and all. as one proceeds on the spiritual path, unknown vistas open to view, revealing undreamt of spiritual realms. But such experiences are possible only through the Grace of a Satguru.

In brief, no one can possibly travel on the God-way all by himself without the aid of an unerring guide call him what one may-a God man, Murshid-i-Kamel (perfect Master), or Rahbari-i-Haq (Guide to the realm of Truth). It is, then, absolutely necessary that a seeker after truth make a quest for some Perfect Master well versed in the theory as well as the practice of Surat Shabad Yoga. It is immaterial that one may have to spend his entire life span in search of a really competent Master, and may in the attempt, have to wander from place to place, in all the ten directions of the compass-for strait is the path, sharper than the razor's edge, narrow is the gate and few there be that find it. A perfect Master veritably leads the soul from darkness to light, from untruth to Truth and from death to immortality. He is a never-failing friend, both here and hereafter.

"He remains ever with you whether you live or die,

And no matter whether you are here on earth or in the hereafter."� - Maulvi Rumi��

Again; "Even at the place of reckoning, He shall stand by thy side."� -Suhi M.I��

It is therefore said:� "O Nanak! snap all worldly ties and search for a true friend.

The one shall leave thee even in life, while the other shall accompany thee into the Beyond."� -Maru War M.5

In their company one can transcend body-consciousness and rise into Cosmic Consciousness and then on into Super consciousness, which lies far beyond the limits of the Grand Dissolution and is eternally the same. all our toils and troubles are the result of our separation from the Power of God. It is through the fault of the Primal Man (Adam) that we lost the Garden of Eden, and it is through the Primal Man (the son of God), behind the otherwise impenetrable veil of darkness (Bajjar Kapat) at the back of the eyes, and enjoy eternal beautitude while basking in the light of Heaven.

Farid, a Muslim saint of great renown, emphatically directs : 'O farid, start on a world-wide quest for some master-soul. carry on a ceaseless search, high or low, right or left, in short anywhere and everywhere, for once you are able to find out a Man of Grace, you, too, shall have Grace." such a one not only tells us of the Way and is with us always, but naturally accompanies us on the Way, as a Guide from plane to plane-from mundane physical world right up to Sach khand, or the Abode of Truth.

When a spirit transcends the physical body and crosses over to the preliminary regions of starts, the sum and the moon, it comes face to face with the luminous form� of the Master, and it is then said to have taken a second birth. from here the Master takes charge of the soul and takes it on from plane to plane. Christ, too, speaks of it as follows: "Unless you are born anew, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God." This is the Birth of the Spirit, �as distinguished from the Birth by Water. While the latter is of the Corruptible seed, the former is of the seed Incorruptible.

Henceforth, the spirit or the soul is under the charge of the Master and no power of darkness can tempt it.

The teachings of the saints are, as said above, the most ancient and the most natural. They are the most suited to all ranks and ages, and no all types of persons irrespective of sex, caste, colour or creed. This natural way has never been changed, and is learnt from a competent Master only. Every individual soul can verify the truth of these teachings by accepting them, even as an experimental measure.

IX

THE IDEAL OF UNIVERSAL RELIGION

The crying need of the time is to set up one universal religion for the entire mankind which should be a compendium of all that is good in every religion. But is it possible? Owning to differences in temperaments and modes of thinking, it is well-nigh impossible to lay down rules of worship acceptable to all, and to direct their varying thought-currents into one channel. With all this diversity, there is yet one thing which is common in all humanity. It is the Divine link with which the entire creation came into being, and is being sustained. All religions, in spite of apparent differences in external forms and rituals, are at bottom embedded in essentials which are exactly alike. The Divine Ground on which each of them rests is the same, and the huge mass of superstructure has been raised in each case on the bedrock of Divinity itself.

The problem that confronts us is to find a way whereby it may be possible to reach that Divine Ground-the bedrock of Divinity. The essential roots of the all religions are now lost to view and utterly forgotten under the camouflage of ancient verbiage, the encrusted dust of ages and the dogmatic creeds of the priest craft. all that we need now is to present Truth,onceagain, to the scientific modern world, in a scientific setting. Religion, instead of being a source of solace to souls, has now become an instrument of separation, hatred, ill will and tyranny. In the blessed name of religion, fire and sword are oppressing humanity, innocent blood is being spilt and the fair face of earth is being detailed with destruction and ruin, simply because over-emphasis is laid no non-essentials and external shells. The result is that people all� the world over have come to have a kind of horror for the so-called religion which has failed to serve the common needs of humanity. religion should bring union between man and man, nation and nation, knitting the world in common bonds of all embracing love, fellowship and brotherhood.

Let religions now be confined to the ethical codes of social conduct and social order, to which they have already sunk. Let people be free to remain in the labeled categories in which they are born and to which they belong, but it is most important that they should try to find out and understand the essential roots of all religions. By delving deep within the soul in each individual should try to rest on the Divine Ground and take hold of the common link running through the entire creation - the Source and Fountainhead of all life. Unless all this is presented as a science, in theory as well as in practice, people are not willing to listen to and to� accept the fundamentals of all religions. They have to rise above the ritualistic forms and traditions, to which they have been wedded since time immemorial and to which they so tenaciously cling.

Religion in the real sense of the word means reunion with God. The saints are always in union with God. Whatever spiritual experiences they had in the spiritual realms are recorded in the sacred scriptures for the benefit of mankind. "One has no right to dub the scriptures as fantastic or false, for false is he who does not ponder over the actual writings and does not try understand theist import." - Kabir.

Whosoever has an experience with God, loves the entire humanity. He feels within him a realisation of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. It may therefore be taken for certain that those who preach hatred and sow the seeds of ill will in God's creation , have not yet had anu experience of the Creator.

The personal experience with God which a soul has, is in reality a true religion. Unless the spiritual experiences a recorded in sacred lore are actually had by us, through the Grace of a living Master, we continue to be atheists or agnostics and know not what religion is.

God has made man after His own image. Hence, it behooves man to be as perfect as the Father. This becomes possible only when a person learns to understand His Will, and works in accordance with it. This is the true religion and true faith, while all else is sham and tinsel.

If we were to analyze the sacred books of all religions, we would find that the spiritual truths as contained therein, are the fine records of actual spiritual experiences of their founders. These Master-souls have always emphasized the spiritual aspect of human life and have emphatically declared that in the human body there is a separate entity called spirit, which is unchangeable Permanence. They hold that this entity called sprit, which is unchangeable Permanence. They hold that this entity could be as well developed as are other faculties, physical mental and intellectual, within the ever-changing physical raiment of the material world,

The enjoyment of worldly object is not an ideal state. Realization of the self should be the goal of man. all religious books tell us of the way whereby a spirit can have an experience of the vast consciousness and super consciousness and thereby lead a truly spiritual life, which, however, does not consist in blind beliefs, faithful performance of rites and rituals, and scrupulous observance of social and ethical rules of conduct, to know the truth, is the be-all and the end-all of all religions. the fundamental teachings of all center upon the realization of Shabd, Naam, Kalma or Word, all of which are different names for one and the same thing: Godhood, God-in-action, or the holy Ghost. Spiritual advancement is possible and can be achieved only when the spirit contacts this Naam or Shabd; hence, this type of union with the Sound-current is know as Surat Shabd Yoga.

We must study all religions with the love and devotion, adopt and accept, as a workable formula, the common Divine Ground underlying each. The different religious book, such as the Vedas, the holy Bible, the sacred Quran, Sri Adi Granth Sahib, and all other scriptures, are so many� pages of the interminable Book of God, to which others may be added from time to time. In this materialistic age, it is necessary that the common spiritual truths be collected in one place and presented to mankind as a beautiful bouquet. Awakened people all over the world are realizing the truth of this and are forming world conferences of religions to place before mankind the basic ideas common to all religions, so that spirituality may be placed on the footing of a regular science to which all seekers after truth may turn, regardless of their castes of creeds, and without disturbing the social order to which they belong. The present-day attempt to hold an All-World Religious conference, to establish a world fellowship of religions, to set up institutions for the comparative study of all religions and to conduct investigations into the cardinal principles of Truth, Love and non-violence, are steps in the right direction and point to the time the whole world will be knit together in the silken bonds of one universal religion of love and humanity.

��

A PEEP INSIDE

We spend most of our time in admiring the outer surface of worldly things, and care not to see the very soul of the matter that lies hidden underneath and bespeaks the great creator, the creative life-principle, without which even the surface beauty cannot exist for a fraction of a second. Again, the outer raiment of everything is subject to disease, decay and, in course of time, to dissolution; while the ultimate truth at the core is the only unchangeable Permanence. We, however, choose to analyze the husk of chaff of the matter, probe into its mysteries, try to conquer and harness it to our benefit. To a great extent, we have succeeded in our endeavors to press Nature�s gifts into our service. But we have no cared to find out the immanent presence that pervades everything and is the alpha and omega of the entire creation, that person alone is wise who takes the pearl out of the oysters shell and is not concerned with the latter. All outer covering are provided by Nature for lodging therein something precious, something of intrinsic value. Would that we could first peep within before evaluating the things of the world. We have at present no idea whatsoever of the higher values of life, and have not yet been able to separate the grain from the chaff. Ignorant as we are, we act like fools, dazzled by the surface glamour, and are deluded by shapes and forms, color-designs that meet our gaze, little knowing that we are like bloated bubbles which shine for a while and in the twinkling of an eye vanish like airy nothing into thin air.

The Saints and seers have referred, in their precious writings, to the spiritual treasures that lie buried within each individual and tell us of the way whereby we can delve deep and find them out. the secret of the very macrocosm, and knowledge of the latter is the mother-knowledge of Master-key that unlocks the steel portals of all knowledge, physical, intellectual and spiritual, with the grace of the Master. The ancients rightly put before man the great question: �What is that wisdom or knowledge, by knowing which all else becomes known?� And in the same breath replied: �Self-knowledge or Atmaviday.� Know thyself, or Gnothi equation or Nosce Teipsum, has always been advocated by the ancient Greeks and latins as the highest type of knowledge. It is also termed Paravidya, or the knowledge of the Beyond something that lies Beyond the grasp of gross senses and the intellect and is the inner science of the soul.

Apparently, a person is endowed with fives senses faculties; sight hearing, plate, smell and touch. Of all these faculty of sight is the most important. Eyes are therefore rightly spoken of as �window of the soul.� Eyes do reveal the inner state of the mind � whatever it be, of peace and tranquility, or of anger and unrest. It is through the power of the eyes that a mesmerist or a hypnotist controls his subject. Some reptiles, too, transfix and paralyze their prey, making it immobile by causing their strong gaze on it. So it is the case with an osprey or the fishing eagle. The wizard and enchanter works with their black art through the eyes. Even the domestic animals find comfort from the loving gaze of their Master, poets sing of the laughing eyes, sparkling eyes, liquid eyes, languishing eyes wonderful indeed. Words fail to convey the expressiveness of the eyes. With no words, the eyes are still eloquent. Their silent speech and their appeal are universally acknowledged and go the very heart.

In a state of wakeful consciousness, the seat of both the mind and spirit is located behind the center of teaching two eyebrows. In the dream state of semi-consciousness, this seat is transferred to the place of the thyroid gland in the throat, and in the state of deep slumber, or sushupti (unconscious state), it goes still further down the navel. Since to the path of the Saints ( the science of the spirit) deals with a state of Super consciousness, the real search begins from the third eye or Nukta-I-sweda or Divya Chakshu and goes upwards ( and not downwards) from stage to-stage, until Sach khand or Muqam-I-Haq, the True Home of our Father, is reached.

This body is the temple of God. this kingdom of God is within us. The whole of the macrocosm is said to be locked up in the microcosm. The true knowledge of the former can only be had with the knowledge of the latter. �A tap inside,� is the wonderful dictum of the American philosopher, Emerson. Both the macrocosm and microcosm have been divided into four planes; (i) Pinda, or the physical body. (ii) And (mental or astral body), (iii) Brahmand (causal or seedbody) and� (iv) Sach Khand (the eternal abode of Truth or soul). All the planes below Sach khand are liable to destruction at the time of dissolution or Grand dissolution, as the case may be. The idyllic home of the Saints and the Master-souls is located in Sach Khand to Pind, the reflection of the six centers in each of the higher planes may be seen in the corresponding centers of the lower planes, just in the same way as reflection of the sun may be seen in the number of pitchers full of water, and again of the latter, in turn, on a wall nearby. The six ganglionic centers of the body are (i) guda (rectum), (ii)indri (procreative organ) (iii) Nabhi (Navel), (iv) hirdey (heart), (v) Kanth (throat or thyroid), (vi) aggya (behind the eyes).

The yogis, after Hatha Yogic exercises of dhoti, neti, Basti, etc., first purify the physical body and then by constant practice, involving pranas, gradually pierce through the various ganglionic centers described above. They thus come up to aggya chakar behind the eyes � the whole process beginning from guda chakar, or rectum center, and passing through the spinal chord by means of Kundalini Yoga, or the serpentine power. This type of yoga is a very arduous and is the best with difficulties and dangers. In it the pranas, or the vital airs, have to be controlled, regulated and directed properly, which is not easily done, and especially for an average householder aspirant to achieve it successfully is very difficult and time-consuming. The Saints do not recommend it in this age, when, physical. People are not fit to undertake this type of yoga. They altogether ignore the reflexes in the Pind. Or the body, and start right from the aggya chakar at the union of Pind and And. This is very center is the seat of the soul in a state of wakeful consciousness. They enjoin mental Simran, with undivided attention and loving devotion, of the electrified of highly magnetized and charged names of God given by them By use of these words, one forgets the world around him, even his immediate environment and his very body, with the result that all his sensory currents are concentrated and focused on the Divine Ground, which lights up, becoming all aflame.

Saint Matthew, in the gospel, referred to this state in the following words: �The light of the body is the eye, if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.� Matt VI:22

Sant Tulsi Sahib also pertinently remarks in this context; �In the pupil of the eyes there is a hollow center called Til, and in that center lies the entire secret of spiritual, which thou canst find, if thou were to peep inside � behind the steel curtain of darkness.�

Hazrat Moeen-ud-Din-Chisti, a Muslim Saint of higher order, stated �Open thy inner eye so that thou witnesseth the glory of God. close thy ear and thy mouth and become just all. Eye so as to behold His glory.�

The eyes, as said before. Are truly the windows of the soul � opening casement of fairylands of old. Swamiji says: �These eyes are windows that opens unto you the abode of God.�

Guru Nanak, too, speaks of them as �In the palace of the soul (human body) there are two windows through which peep Lord Shiva and his consort Shakti� (Parvati). Just open the eyes and see the blessed God within.�

Sant Kabir also observed: �If thou were to attune thine eyes into one center, a wonderful sight would meet thy gaze.�

The light of the two eyes passing through the optic nerves meet at a point called third eye (Tisra Til, Shiv Netar, or Nuqta-I-sweda), which too is illumined with a light which is shadowless and uncreated. From here the spirit enters the Sukhama or Sharag, lying between Ida and Fingala, and hears the sound of celestial strains (or the sound-current) which is the very life of the universe. This process is instrumental in sustaining and guiding the spirit on its onward journey.

�Listen ye to the holy melody in the Sukhman by attuning your attention in the deep silence.

By attending to the ineffable music of the sound ye shall be rid of all desires and longings,� � Malar War M.I

�In this age pay heed to the inner Music,

by devotion to this, ye shall be freed from all pride�

-Asa M.3

As the spirit transcends the physical plane, it has to pass through various realms characterized by stars, the sun and the moon. There it is greeted by the luminous form of the Master, who takes charge of the spirit, with whom he proceeds by the sound-current to reach the true home of our Father. The path of the Saints is neither a religion nor a creed. Whosoever, whether a Hindu or Muslim or a Christian, reaches the abode of bliss or Truth, is termed as Saint. Everywhere there are two types of Faqirs orders of holy men of piety:

- Those who belong to the lower order, or Darja-I-sifli they remain attached to ganglionic centers of the Pind, or the physical body, as the yogis do.

- Those of the higher order or Darja-I-Ulvi. Their Sadhan, or spiritual discipline, begins with the aggya chakar, behind the eyes.

Some of the Muslim Faquirs belonged to the highest order. Hazrat Ibrahim says that he came across the Great Star and continued on his onward journey. Guru Nanak also refers to this Inner Star, which the Master in his grace might show to the aspirants.

� \ bright star appearing on the horizon comes to view through God�s grace;

A devotee by good fortune may see it with the Master's word.� Tokhri M.1

The wise men of the East also followed a Bright star which led them to Bethlehem and brought them to Christ. Tulsi sahib also speaks of the Brilliant star that meets the spirit at the threshold of Gaggan, or entrance to the astral plane. Hazrat Mohammed tells us that he did Shakul � ul � Qamar (struck the moon in Twain), which is significant enough and figuratively connotes that a soul went Beyond this realm of the moon. Everyone who makes a journey to the spiritual realms has, or course, to do this Shak-ul-Qamar by passing through the moon.

Great is man. He has in him a drop of the Divine Consciousness like everything else in the creation, Though apparently he looks like a puny child of clay, yet he has untold possibilities hidden in him. He was made by God after his own image. He has the latent spiritual treasure buried in the depth of his mind. If he has a grain of faith in his powers, he can, as affirmed by Christ, move mighty mountains off their base, and may command the winds and the waters, as great soul did in every age. Thought force is the motor power behind all our acts. The very world is the results of his will. God commanded: �Let there be light, and there was light.� At His bidding the various elements sprang into motion and completed the work of creation.

The spirit, a spark from the Divine Fire, is also great and has similar possibilities with its scope. Unfortunately, its power is frittered away through mind and outgoing faculties. The rays of the sun do not burn anyone, but if they are passed through a convex lens, they converge at one center and set on fire the things on the other side. So the spirit when mind-driven identifies itself with the bodily senses. It never thinks that it is apart from them, and is, in fact, the ruler and governor of the universe.

It is the great activating force and dynamic power behind all our thoughts, words and deeds. Even the heavenly bodies like the stars, the moon and the sun, move with its motion. All energy, physical or metaphysical, mechanical or electrical, magnetic or gravitational, atomic and nuclear, is the partial manifestation of this Primal energy of God. It is creating, destroying and recreating endless systems and universe in the twinkling of an eye. But, unluckily, we do not realize this invisible power and are concerned only with its working, and we do not see the hidden hand behind the puppet-show of the world. We are trying all the while to understand the phenomenon� of shadowy things, but know next to nothing of noumenon. The spirit has thus completely and tragically forgotten its godhood, its Divine origin and latent Divinity, which needs awakening before coming into its own, before it can work wonders and perform miracles like the Master-souls. Ignorance is the roar cause of this deplorable state of things. Many do not know that the �Life spirit is more than the meat, and the body more than the raiment,� as Christ said.

It behooves man to turn aside from worldly enjoyment. So that he may be blessed with heavenly gifts. Like the beautiful Joseph, driven into the well by his brethren, spirit has fallen into the well of the body, with mind and senses, and is in a helpless state. We could climb up if we could take hold of the wonderful Rope-ladder provided by the Father, God, within each one of us. It is the sound current that can pull us up out of the blind and abysmal depths into the kindly light of God, and leads us into the manifolds spiritual worlds, which are invisible to us at present.

The physical eyes can see only physical things, and both of these are subject to decay and death. But if our inner eye could be opened, we would be able to see immortal and imperishable planes. �An animal with his head downwards may well think of eating and drinking all the time, but fie on man, with his head erect, if he were not to look upward.� (Shamas Tabriz). So long as a person does not rise above the sensual world, he remains ignorant of the higher Heavens meant for his blessedness.

�So long as a spirit does not rise above the body-consciousness,

It remains a stranger to the spiritual realms Beyond.�

- Maulana Rumi

Once a spirit transcends the physical realm, it inherits as its birthright the spiritual kingdom � for the kingdom of God lies within.

�If you would not leave the caravanserai of the body, how can you reach the true Home of your Beloved?�

- Haviz Hirazi

This transcendence of the spirit from the senses is technically know in Sant-Mat as death in life (self-annulling), and in the Vedantic terminology as self-analysis. Christ calls it second birth or birth anew, and Muslim term it as �dying before death.� This immersion in God is true resurrection, or coming into new life. It is possible only through accepting the path of any Master-soul � which is none other than that of the sound-current.

The Master dwells amongst us as world Personified, or as the gospel tells us of Christ, that �the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.� He, by transmitting his own life-impulse, temporarily raises us above the body consciousness and grants us a direct inner experience of the light-cum-sound principle, which by regular practice from day to day, can be developed to any length one may like.

This gradually leads the spirit from physical to astral or mental plane, then to causal or seed plane, and so on to the purely spiritual plane � Sach khand � the true Home of our Father.

When ultimately the soul at its journeys end reaches the True home of the Father and sees the splendour of Godhood in the ineffable resplendent light, one begins to see God in everything in the universe. When Christ and Buddha rose above the body consciousness, they referred to the way as leading to the kingdom of God and the Nirvana pad respectively. The Muslim calls it Muq-am-I-Haq, and the Christians, New Jerusalem. Thereafter, Christ used to say: �Behold the Lord.� And Guru Nanak would exclaim; �The Lord or Nanak is visible everywhere.� The sage of Dakshneswar, Sri Rama Krishna Parmhans, when questioned by young Naren, as Swami Vivekananda was then known, whether he had seen God, replied: �Yes, my child, I have seen Him as clearly as I see you; Nay, more than that.�

�Lord of Nanak in his fullness is present all things and everywhere.� Suhi M.5

�The invisible, the incomprehensible, the inaccessible, manifests itself in full effulgence to the true devotee.� � Sri Rag M.4

�God of Nanak is immanent in all forms and colors whether visible or invisible.� � Suhi M.4

Greatest God who is absolute, imageless, indescribable and peerless. He is neither sound nor light. in himself, he is what He is; but in common parlance, he has to be expressed in words of limited import, coming out of the limited import, source of the finite intellect.

�God, the infinite, of course, has to be described in finite terms;

How can I know that he is?� � Saroth M.5

When the absolute power came into being and became God-in-expression, there was vibration, which gave rise to light and sound principles, called by all Saints as light and Udgit. God absolute cannot be seen or heard, for nobody so far has seen God. God-in-expression, by way of light and sound principles can, however, be seen and heard. This can only be experienced by the spirit, through inner vision and inner audition. Which function when you rise above the body consciousness: the Saints function when you rise above the body consciousness. The Saints also call the Absolute and the God-in-expression by the name of Mahadayal and Dayal respectively. This sound current is responsible for the various creations, the spiritual planes and all the realms in varying degrees and orders. This sound-current descends, making pure spiritual, spirituo-material, materio-spiritual� and material planes. The last three of which dissolve in the dissolution and Grand Dissolution. Each of these planes has it's individual presiding deities: Jot Niranjan, for example, is the Lord of And, the subtle or mental plane, and is the creator of the material and physical universe, which is next below in the hierarchy. Onkar is the Lord of the causal or seed region and the creator of the lower region and, or subtle universe. Other deities preside over other planes, in the ascending order of the system of creation. All of them, of course, derive their authority from Satguru-purush or Satguru Naam, or Dayal or Ekankar, the highest region.

The spirit, as it withdraws from the body proceeds by degree from one plane to another, until it reaches Sat Naam or Haq. From what has been said, it should be clear that so far the spirit is an entity quite apart from Sat Naam. The over-Lord of all is called Khasum (Lord or all), Swami, Hari ai , Maha-Dayal, or Nirala, unique, in himself and indescribable. The spirit gets merged in Him just as a drop of water loses itself in the ocean; or a ray of light in the sun.

�As water mingles with the water, so doth light merge in the light.� �Gauri M.5

�As a ray of light gets absorbed in the sun and a drop in the ocean,

So doth the light of the spirit, in the Great Light.� � Bilawal M.5

This state baffles all description. The Muslim Saints declare this condition as �Hairat, Hairat� and the Hindus, as �Ashhraj, Achraj,� and the Sikhs, as �Waho, Waho,� all of which are expressions of wonder. The teachings of most of the Saints amongst Hindus and Muslims refer as far as Brahm. Very rarely do we find in them references to Parbrahm. The Master have as their ideal something far Beyond the latter � a stage safely Beyond the way of dissolution and grand dissolution.

SPIRITUALITY

XI

EXPERIENCE OF IDEAL RELIGION: AN INNER ACHIEVEMENT

For the unifying experiment of soul with Oversoul, one has to enter into the laboratory of the human body, just as a student of science enters the science room for a scientific experiment and closes all the doors and windows, so that the noise and stir from outside may not disturb him in his work. Again, on the table before him are arranged various articles and instruments, all neat and clean for handling, before he, under the guidance and instructions of the science Master, stars making the experiment he moves with a single minded purpose, a well pointed attention and a whole- hearted devotion. He may fail once or twice, but he does not lose heart in his endeavors and repeats the process over and over again until he succeeds. In exactly the same way the spiritual experiment is to be carried on in the human body, after closing down all the physical senses, so as to keep out the noise and bustle of the world.

This process of going � in, consists in withdrawal of the sensory currents and focusing them at the seat of the soul, or consciousness, at a center behind and the two eyebrows. In other words, the spirit, which at present is pervading the entire body from top to toe and is identified with the world, is gathered up and collected at one place, until one loses the very idea of having a body at all. Having closed down all the outlets of attention, the spiritual experiment is now to be started in the presence of the Master-soul and under his guidance and instructions, the whole process to be gone through with scrupulous attention and loving devotion.

Then you are longer in physical entity but a pure spirit. So also is the luminous form of the Master � sound personified � Naam, Shabd, Sruti, Naad, hidden music, or call it what you will, to link the spirit with it can only be done when the mind is freed from mental oscillations and the intellect is at perfect rest, so that a halcyon calm is established both within and without.

Mere washing of the body can be of little avail. Inner cleanliness must precede outer cleanliness. The mind must first be cleansed and purified of all desires, anger, hankering, attachment and egotism, before you start with the spiritual experiment.

�By washing outside, without washing the mind within, one loses both here and hereafter,

Ever tormented by lust and anger, he is lost and bewildered.�

- Asa M.5

Prophet Mohammed, too, laid great emphasis on the purity of the mind. He used to say that Namaz (prayer) was the key to Janat (Paradise), and the purity of heart was the key to Namaz; and again, that chastity was more than half-way house on the path god wards.

St. Matthew tells us: �Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.�

But inner cleanliness cannot come by washing the body alone. the bodily dirt can, of course, be washed off by the water, the pollution can be cleansed by means of soap, but the sinful mind is cleansed by communion with the word. Guru Nanak therefore tells us:

�When the limbs of the body are besmeared, they are washed clean with water;

when the clothes get dirty and polluted, they are cleansed by soap;

when ones mind gets defiled by sins, it can be purified only by communion with the word.� � Jap Ji St. 20

we can commune with and practice the word by linking the inner consciousness with the sound-principle, but for this one has, in the first instance, to subdue the mind the senses.

�He who can control the ten senses, he may see the light of Heaven,� �Gauri M.5

The spirit which alone is to make the experiment can do nothing when it is altogether lost in the stormy seas of passions. It is tossed on the billows like a leaky boat with no rudders to guide it's course and is driven helplessly by the chance winds and waters around it.

Unless one gets an actual experience of the self and of God, one cannot believe and have unshakable faith in the existence of God. The Saints and Master-souls do, in fact, transcends the limitations of the three bodies, physical, astral and causal, and really get the experience of, and a contact with the reality within. As such, they are competent enough to guide mankind on the high road to God, for they do speak from actual experience and not from hearsay or secondary knowledge gathered from ancient texts or through learned priests and pandits.

�Listen ye to the true testimony of Saints;

they give out what they actually witness.� Ramkali M.5

Again, such God-men never ask a person to have just a blind faith in their teachings. On the contrary, their clarion call is: �Believe not the word of a Master-Saint unless thou hast an actual experience of he saith.�

�Until I see the truth with my own eyes, I cannot be fully convinced of what the Master says.�

- swamiji

�when I saw (the truth) with my own eyes,

Then in truth I put faith in the Master's words.� � Tulsi Sahib

The Master-soul believes in the direct testimony of the experience spirit. They, like Rishi Astha Vakar, are capable of delivering good right here and now. The Master do not hold out empty promise, which may or may not come true, nor give false hopes, which may or may not materialize. Their religion is one of pure gold at the counter, and not one of mere credit. Why, then should one engage in observance of rites and rituals, and performance of meritorious deeds, in the hope of securing some posthumous and uncertain rewards? Human birth is too precious and human life, alas, too brief to be frittered away in useless pursuits that may bear no fruit in the long run.

XIII

PATH OF THE MASTER'S

The only True Religion � Paravidya, or knowledge of the Beyond

A person may have a short of a long vision. One may see right under one�s nose and another may be able to penetrate into the far-off heavenly regions. There is a world of difference between these two. We should, therefore, seek out a person who is fully established in Godhood or Divinity, and who is a conscious co-worker with God. then, we may be able to know and understand from Him God�s ways and have access to an actual experience of God-realisation.

God-knowledge is an inner science of the soul, and is hence knows as Paravidya, or the knowledge of the Beyond, as contradistinguished from Apravidya, or experience and knowledge on the level of senses. All scientific knowledge, with it's vast scope, unlimited extent and untold possibilities, is, after all, a knowledge of the physical, material world, and does not constitute the fundamental knowledge. It tells us only of the material creation and provides food for the intellect, while paravidya is concerned with the creator or the Reality behind the creation, and provides food for the soul or spirit. Apatavidya deals with the objects within the range of the human senses, the laws governing their growth, and how� the same can be conquered and pressed into service for the benefit of mankind. Paravidya deals with the active life-principle, which works in the creation and through which we feel the life-impulse in all animated creation. Through which we feel the life-impulse in all animated creation. One may know a lot about the world and yet be altogether ignorant of the fundamental and basic life-principle working within him, which is the very life of his life of his life and the very soul of his soul. Self-knowledge, then, is the key that solves all the problems of life. the knowledge of the world is of little avail if we know not what we are learning and knowledge do sharpen the intellect and expand the field of it's activity co-extensive with creation itself (should it be possible), but the more one may express himself outwardly, the farther he is removed from the ideal of real life � the life of spirit. Bu Ali Qalander started: �All that we see is a great optical delusion, a mere chimera and a mirage with no actual existence. All that we know is stark ignorance.�

Swamiji averred: �A man of intuition and realization is an adept in the inner science, while a merely learned person is just an ignorant fool groaning under the dead-weight of books.�

Science may tell us of physical objects and their interrelations, but it is totally ignorant of the creative power behind them. The goal of life does not consist in mere book knowledge and book learning, but consists in knowing the life-principle that is working in the entire creation: the Word, the Kalma or the Naam, whatever name we may like to give it. According to Master-souls, real knowledge finds it's efflorescence and fulfillment in contacting the sound-current, Shabd or Naad, and not merely in the reading of scriptures or other books.

The science of the Master is purely an inner science and has continued as such from time immemorial. It is called Paravidya, which is knowledge self-existent and not dependent upon any other knowledge. It is the most ancient, the most natural and the most perfect science, but cannot be had from books alone. the scriptures have no doubt, made an attempt to deal with the spiritual science at some length, but all such efforts have proved abortive, since reality, infinite as it is, could not be confined in the dead and dry leaves, nor is thee any model outside with which it can be compared. Moreover, the writers with finite words and the limited intellect have no means to describe it adequately.

The Master � souls have always advised meticulous abstention from learned disputations or philosophic polemics, as reality lies far Beyond the range of the senses, the human mind and the human intellect. Indulging in intellectual pursuits does not change one�s life. The Master �souls emphatically enjoins and ordain: �Be the doer of the word and not the hearer alone.� Their teachings are ready cash and do not admit or credit bargains. It is a practical science and not a mere theoretical reasoning. One must learn the theory first, say goodbye to one�s logic, and then practice and see what one gains,

�The secret of success lies in practicing the discipline and not in reasoning and arguments;

Leave off all discussions and dissertations, and do the things and take the reality.� � Swamiji

In Mandyuk Upanished it is said that once a person Shounack by name, went to the sage Bhardwaj and questioned: �Master tell me of the knowledge that may make one Omniscient, or all-knowing.� The sage replied: �O Shounack! The knower of Brahm tells us that in the world there are two types of knowledge. Apravidya and Paravidya. The former consists in the study of Vedas and other scriptures and all kinds of physical sciences, like astronomy, grammar, etc., but it does not bring one face to face with Brahm. The latter � Paravidya � is knowledge of the Beyond, with which Brahm, the unchangeable Ashkar, is found. It is a practical subject and deals with self-knowledge and God knowledge, both of which lie Beyond the pale of senses, mind intellect. It can be realized by pure Atman or spirit, only after it has, by right contemplation, freed itself by peeling off layer by layer the various koshas, or coverings, enshrouding it, and has actually transcended the physical, the subtle and the causal bodies. While the one is purely a bookish knowledge of the world, the other is a science of inversion, or withdrawal of the spirit from the world and from world objects and relations and this is the root of all knowledge.�

XIV

APRAVIDYA (OR KNOWELEDGE OF THE WORLD):� IT'S VALUE

The scriptures are indeed wonderful and precious records of the personal experience of the great souls in their quest for Reality, and as such are worthy of respect and adoration. The study of the scriptures has it's own value. To a certain extent, these books awaken in us a desire for knowledge of God. By reading then, we too are moved to experiment in the science of life, to seek out some living Master competent to initiate us into preliminaries of this science, for such a one can help and guide us on the spiritual path from the plane to plane. But Beyond this, the scriptures cannot help.

The real help comes from a living Master alone, who makes us repeat the experiment of old. For our satisfaction, he refers us to recorded results and conclusions for a general check-up with our own. Again, it is the living Master who can correctly interpret to us the ancient texts, and impart to us the right import. Linked as he is with the powerhouse of reality, his utterance are those of God Himself, no matter if the words may appear to be coming out of a human mouth.

�His words are the words of Allah (God), though seemingly these come from Abdullah (the servant of God).�

Guru Nanak explained; �O Lalo, I open my mouth just to utter words that come to me from my beloved (God).� such words of divine wisdom, coming directly from God-men are more precious than the most wonderful thought recorded in the holy books. All these have no other value except that of creating in us a desire to know God, but cannot actually help us to introvert; to tap within. To withdraw and recede back and be linked with word, Naam or Kalma. �But unfortunately, the people of the world get entangled in the books, wholly and solely depend upon them as their mainstay in life. without attempting to do what the books say: �Get attuned with God.� without this attunement, one gets entangled in the world, tied to the scriptures, and one finds no bliss. The Srutis and Puranas all speak of the way. But instead of freedom, one sinks deeper in the morass.�� - (Ramayrna by Tulsi Dass)

All living Master, on the other, hand, point, to us a �Way � out� and put us on the �grand trunk road� leading to the Infinite. He becomes a guide to the weary soul torn by life�s struggle in the world, a work which no book can possibly do.

Man is the most ancient of all sentiments creatures on earth. All religions and all sacred texts came into being only after his advent. All religions were made for the benefit of man, and man was never intended for any religion. God made man and man made religions. man is the author of all scriptures, but the grand mystery of life, which the latter describes, ever lies within the human breast. No one can know and solve it unless some Master soul points the �Way-In� and helps the soul to withdraw and transcend all limitations, physical, astral and causal, before it is enabled to have a glimpse within, and to listen to the inner Divine music.

Man is ever engaged in the recitation of scriptures and in expounding the sacred texts to huge congregations, but the pity of it is that he remains all the time far from the reality that he studies for himself, preaches to others, and makes so much noise about.

�He studies the sacred texts for the sake of disputations, without knowing the reality.

And reality cannot be know but through a Master-soul who gives the true way to the True One.� � Maru M.5

There is a vital difference between man and scriptures. The former is a sentient being, endowed with consciousness and reason, and is aware of the same; while the latter are insentient and do not know that they are inert and lifeless and cannot impart correct knowledge without a true interpreter. How can the sacred books speak to, reason with, and try to convince, a living entity. With his book-knowledge and learning every person feels that he knows Reality, little realizing that the infinite cannot be comprehended by finite means. It's power can be felt by the spirit alone, if properly attuned and adjusted under the guidance and instructions of some living Master-soul.

As long as we do not have an inner experience of the soul, we remain in utter darkness. Bookish knowledge becomes a headache as it draws the mind out into the world through the senses, and makes us feel identified with the senses by constant association with the world, and by always thinking in terms of the body and bodily relations around us. On the contrary, self-knowledge satisfies the innate craving and hunger of the soul for peace and happiness. all that we need learn is the book of man, for the greatest study of man is man.

When once a person is able to open the pages of the soul and see the great and immense possibilities lying hidden therein, there drawns in him a new kind of awakening and new light, shadowless and uncreated. This is called regeneration or rebirth or resurrection. It puts an end to his otherwise endless suffering, tribulations, want and miseries, and he becomes established in his native Godhood and Divinity. The soul thus freed from world ties comes into it's own knows it's truly Divine Nature, and tries to understand and find it's source and Fountainhead, the Great Ocean of consciousness, containing the three vital elements of life, Light and love. Attaining this supreme Truth, there comes to the soul eternal bliss and perfect calm forever. But all this process of spiritual evolution, blossoming into the universal consciousness, comes only through the grace of some God- man and not otherwise. That is the fundamental law since the dawn of creation and admits of no modification. Just as there is one God and one reality, there is also one path leading to Him � the path of the Master. This nothing else but Surat, Shabd; Yoga, or yoga of the Sound current. A Muslim Saint, therefore affirmed:

�Consign all thy books to the flames, and by constant remembrance of the Lord, transform thy mind into a veritable garden of Allah (God).�

The Vedas and Upanishads tell that Atma Siki. Or self-realisation, cannot be attained by the study of, or listening to the scriptures. As self lies far Beyond the scope of both the mind and the intellect. It can be achieved by intuition, and integral experience of the soul, through the grace of some Master-soul.

In verse 39 of Sukat 164 of Mandal I of Rig Veda, and in Verse 8 of Chapter IV of Swetarshweta Upanishad, it is stated that a person who knows the Primal Causeless cause, Self-existent and Immanent, which is the very soul of the Vedas and in whom all God and goddesses are deeply rooted, will not have anything to do with the Vedas. Those alone have real peace who are engrafted to Him.

Even if a person were to be well-versed in the four Vedas, eighteen puranas, nine Viyakaranas, the six Shastras ( six schools of Indian philosophy), and all other sacred scriptures of the world, he would be lost in the maze of the scriptures and remain a far removed from God as ever before, so long as the human does not come in contact with Shabd or Word (God in action), it wanders in the world like a Chandool (parrot), who on the spur of the moment begins imitating whatever it hears.

All philosophic disputation are the offsprings of dull and drab intellect and the source of headache. It would certainly be better, by far, if one were to leave off all knowledge and learning and grasp the one and the only pivotal stillpoints � reality � the bestower of all bliss and happiness. Bulleh Shah, Guru Nanak and others speak in the same terms.

�Why do ye bother with so many books, for these are a source a headache;

learn ye the mystery of the center, and leave off the vicious circle of endless and idle talk.�� - Bulleh shah

�One may read cart-loads of books and carry a heavy load on his head;

All such studies forge but strong fetters and keep one bound therein.

One may read endlessly from year to year, and from month to month, nay, every moment of his life;

O Nanak! Only one thing counts, and all the rest but make one self-conceited.�� - Asa War M.1

�The study of the scriptures, including the Vedas, far from freeing the mind of shackles, makes one all the more egocentric.� � sorath� M. 5

Hafiz, a well-known Persian poet, goes to the extent of saying that so long as a person does not leave off intellectual wrangling he remains ignorant of the reality. Man must take note of one thing � that he must transcend himself if he wants to escape from all limitations and shortcomings.

If any problem has to be solved, one must apply himself heart and soul to it's solution. The Upanishads, with a clarion call, declare that Atmavidya, or self-knowledge, drawns only when the senses are at rest, the mind is stilled and the intellect, too, is equipoised. Learning and knowledge may be additional assets for a spiritual person, but certainly constitute a crown of thorns of the worldly wise.

�knowledge may adorn a spiritual adept, but it is a headache for the carnal mind.� � Maulana Rumi

In Brihadaraniak Upanishad it is mentioned that an unlettered person is steeped in dark ignorance, and a learned one is still greater darkness. Why? Because a man of great learning can hardly know the glory and greatness of the Saints and their saintly teachings.

The Saints and sages, therefore, lay stress on a life of spirituality. Book-learning has no real value for them. The hearsay words of wisdom and knowledge derived from books are all lifeless, and, as such, cannot transmit life-impulse to others. It is just like talking of sweet and not partaking of them. Should a person go on repeating on the various ingredients that go to make a pudding, he cannot relish the pudding nor can experience have any satition unless he actually eats it.

Bhai Gurdas says the same thing, in this context;

�By repeating the words Sugar, one tastes not the sweetness of sugar,

By repeating the word fire, one is not rid of the cold,

By repeating the word physician, one is not cured of the malady,

By repeating the word suffering, one never escapes therefrom.

By repeating the words sandalwood, one never enjoys it's fragrance.

By repeating the words moon, one never gets it's soothing light,

By repeating the word Jnana, one never gets out of ignorance,

It in only the actual practice that brings in Heavens light.�

- Kabir Sawai 452

PATH OF THE MASTER: IT'S THREE FUNDAMENTALS

Success in spiritual depends on three factors:

(1) Satsang (spiritual congregation).

(2) Satguru (living Master-soul).

(3) Sat-Naam or Shabd (Word).

(1) SATSANG. The term is comprised of two words: Sat, meaning God � the Unchangeable Permanence, and Sang denoting Union. It stands for contact with God. it can be had the soul only when it shakes off all the trappings, physical, astral and causal. It also means an association with a living Master-soul who I'd an embodiment of the awakened life-principle in Him. Sat or live, in it's fullness, is manifest in Him. He teaches nothing but spirituality, which is the source of all life and without which people lead merely a deluded and unsound existence on the plane of the senses. He tells us that beside the senses, mind and intellect, there is yet another power, greater than all these, for it quickens them with life, namely, the spirit or soul. It is, in fact, the only motor power in the body, and the pity of it is that we are altogether ignorant of it and have never even given a thought to it. It is the problem of problems, the most important and vital, and yet the most ignored. An association with a Saint, a sag or a Master-soul will directly dye an aspirant in the color of spiritual in� just the same way as proximity to fire gives warmth and nearness to ice, cold. The fact is that �God does not live on the highest heaven nor in the depths of the earth, for no space is sufficient to contain him. But he truly resides in the bosom of a God-man.� Maulana Rumi

�My mind is like a bird flew heavenwards,

the paradise was all deserted as the Lord resides with his Saints.� Kabir

It may be said that such a person is as much a Polarised God as an electric switch is as polarized powerhouse, or a safe sea-beach is a suitable place where one can have a comfortable dip in waters of the sea. The true criterion of such a Satsang is that talks delivered there are always confined to spirit, it's Nature, it's place and value in human life, it's perennial source and how to gain the same. The God-man thus shows how to escape from sufferings, decay and death, which are rampant in the world and to which all living creatures are subject.

SATSANG IS OF TWO TYPES: OUTER AND INNER

Outer satsang: it is Satsang externally. It denotes the company of a Master-soul, attending his discourses and talks on spiritual, wherein he describes Atma Sadhan, or spiritual disciple, and in an inimitably loving way, peculiar to Him, exhorts the aspirant to devote some time for Atma Sidhi, or self-realisation, which is teaching first and last essential for God-realisation, which is the first and last essential for God-realisation. This part of his work may, for the sake of convenience, be termed theory of spiritual science.

�In a gathering like this, one gets a true clue to God,

for verily God shines therein through the God-man.� � Math M.4

�In a spiritual congregation, one hears of nothing but Naam, and Naam alone is discussed therein, in all it's varied aspects.� � Sri Rag M.1

�No congregation can be termed a Satsang

unless it is presided over by a Master-soul.� � Maru M.3

Inner Satsang: this is Satsang within. It consists in entering the laboratory of the human body, according to the instructions of the Master, withdrawing the sensory currents from the body by means of Simran and Dhayan (remembrance and concentration), and finally in linking the soul with the Dhun, the eternal Sound-current in the body, through Bhajjan, attuning the direct link between the individual� soul and Oversoul. The soul thus attains by degrees Moksha, or liberation from sufferings, decay and death � the most deadly foes of all mortals. This part of his mission may be termed Surat Shabd Yoga, and it constitutes the practice in spiritual science.

(1) SATGURU

Sant, or Satguru, is the living embodiment of God, for life, light and love �the three attributes of Godhood � are fully present in him. He is charged through and through with Sat, or true life, true light and true love. He is a fountainhead of Godhood and love, and is competent to lead all the aspirant Godward. He is a true guide on the grand road of spirituality. He is a God-man. the contact with God can be established only through his grace, for no one else can do this. The scriptures may tell us much about spirituality, for constitute a wonderful storehouse of recorded spiritual experience of ancient sages and seers, but they cannot give us a living touch and actual experience of spiritual, which may be caught like an infection from the love-laden eyes of a person imbued with spirituality. Just as a lighted candle can light the unlighted candles, so also spiritual life-impulse can be transmitted by a spiritually living person.

�He alone lives who is in touch with God within,

O Nanak! All the rest are really dead.� � Majh War M.1

A God-man is truly the mouthpiece of God. God speaks through Saints and seers, and reveals Himself through His prophets. The nearness of a living Master is the greatest blessing that one can have. A loving gaze, a kind word from him, are enough to unlock a thrill of Divine happiness in any human soul. He may at any moment open the floodgates of spirituality and overwhelm a shriveled soul with the waters of life, he is the Bread of life and the water of life, and whosoever partakes of it, enjoys everlasting life and ever after walks in the light of God.

Christ says: �Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give shall never thirst; but the water I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.� � John 3-14

�I am the light of the world, and he that followeth Me, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.� � John 8-12

but much depends on the simplicity and sincerity of the seeker, his loving devotion and faith and, above all, his receptivity, for he who comes brimful already cannot possibly take in anything else.

The Guru, or the God-man, is the ideal. His body is just a transmitter pole, from which the radioactive waves of Godhood makes themselves manifest in the world, and are felt by all who come near the pole.

(2) SATNAM

This is the original name of God-in-action, the great and grand motor power behind the entire creation. Saint John speaks of it:

�In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. and the light shineth in darkness and darkness and comprehendeth it not.�

The Muslim call it Kalma, and declare that the 14 Tabaks or divisions (into which they consider the universe as divided) were created by it. the Hindus term it Naad, and ascribe to it the manifestation of 14 Bhavans, or regions. The Sikh scriptures call it Shabd or Bani, the Upanishads speaks of it as Udgit, and the Vedas give it the name of Saruti or Akash Bani. The Saints refer to it as Naam or Shabd, and there is no place where the vibrations thereof are not felt. This Naam or Sat-Naam is; then, the controlling power of the universe. It is the great cementing force whereby various elements, so very divergent in Nature, are held together in the wonderful mosaic of the many-coloured dome of universe. It is the string of life running through the entire creation, and thus, the connecting link between the creator and His creation. Kabir Sahib says:

�Ram Naam is the only Reality, and anything besides is subject to decay and dissolution. Always meditate and concentrate on this reality, for death knows no calendar and may at home or abroad pounce any moment upon there with it's murderous claws.�

�He who alone knows of Naam as I would like him to do, I take hold of him and support of him and support him through.

The natural inner music is continuously flowing of itself, but only a rare soul knows of this communion;

The all-pervading spirit surges through every pore of the body.

The true Simran consists in perpetual attuning of the soul with the inner music, without any outer aid (of lips, tongue, throat or the heart).

He who contacts this hidden crest-jewel, is our true friend.� � Kabir

�The all-pervading spirit of God saves one from births and deaths.

A communion with the word ferries one across the sea of life.� � Gond M.5

This is the �Voice of the silence,� as the Theosophists describe it, for it can be heard only in the silence of the soul. The �lan vital, or the vital currents of life, can be felt in the inner depths of the minds. It is something subjective and can be experienced and felt only within, through the kindness of some Master-soul.

XVI

THE PATH OF THE MASTER:

The three Practices of Methods Prescribed

There are distinct entities in the composition of a person (i) Physical body. As made mostly of solid matter; (ii)mental body, as made of subtle matter, and (iii) causal, or the seed body, that holds the first two.

The spirit or soul works through all the three bodies. The various bodies, sooner or later, are bounded to disintegrate and dissolve, while the soul is indestructible, an ever-living entity Beyond the sway of Kaal (time) or death. It is the spark from the Divine Forge, at which the Life Current is forged to shape the world and to bring it into being. The human body is the veritable temple of God, and this microcosm simply works on the lines of the macrocosm.

�Macrocosm is in the microcosm, and he who seeks the macrocosm must find it in the microcosm.� _- Dhanasari Peepa

Truth, or Naam, alone is imperceptibly working both in man and in the universe. God and his spirit are but one in essence. To know God, one must first know the self within. Without self-knowledge, through self-analysis, the realization of oneness within and without does not dawn. The Mohammedan Saint also impart that Alam � I �saghir (The greater world).

Thrice blessed indeed is man. He is the roof and crown of things! To be a complete man is the culmination of human existence. �Be ye perfect as thy Father in heaven is perfect,� is one of the cardinal principles in Christianity. Kabir says that the devotee should be like God himself. This perfection must, therefore, be three-fold: Physical mental and spiritual. To a certain extent, one has to depend on his own individual� effort, but much depends on outer aid In Nature fruit trees fructify in a much shorter time if they are scientifically fed than if left to themselves. The same principle works with still greater force in the case of sentient and conscious human beings. A person with the help of a Master-soul can more readily, more easily and more quickly gain spiritual attainment than otherwise. But the association and aid must be sought from a perfect Master, well versed not only in the theory but also in the practice of the science of spirituality.

Again, an aspirant has to be very particular in the matter of his food, his conduct, his environment, all of which exerts a powerful influence on his body and mind. A simple Satvik diet (barring meat, fish, fown and eggs). Abstinence from all intoxicants, idle talk and idle pursuits, a spirit of detachment from the glamour of the world, are therefore enjoined as discipline on the spiritual path. With this background, the Sadhak is the initiated into practices that are conducive to his spiritual welfare: (1) Simran, (ii) Dhyan, and� (iii) Dhuni Abhyas (Charged repetition, spiritual contemplation, and sound current absorption.

Our mind at present is engaged in the Simran of the world and worldly object, so much so that we are completely identified with them, we know� not if we have a separate existence apart from these things. Howsoever hard we may try to introvert the mind, we cannot do it. The thoughts of friends and relations, of offices files and records, of law courts and law books, or medicines and disease, of profits and loses, or wages and strikes, etc., come up on the mental screen as in a motion-picture house. In order to wean the mind from these, one has to do Simran of God�s names, and to meditate on something else. The Saints, therefore. Enjoin for a Sadhak, or aspirant, Simran with the tongue of thought and Dhyan with the eye of thought. With these two mental processes, the mind gradually learns to get realization and there comes a lull in it's ever-vacillating tendencies lastly, one has to listen voice of the silence with the ears of thought.

Shabd or Naam or word is continuously� vibrating within each one of us, for we live by it. The soul and Sound-current are one in essence. There is such wonderful music in it that the Hydra headed serpent of the mind, on hearing it, gets altogether docile. The attention (the focus of the spirit), hitherto a slave to the mind, is attracted, attuned and absorbed in the inner strains of music. It is no longer capable of serving under the mind, and the result is that the latter is rendered helpless and falls off as a carcass. The spirit, thus drawn by the sound-current from the ocean of physical existence, loses it's separate entity and becomes one with the current. Though one may hereafter continue to be in this world, to spin out his allotted span of life, he is Jiwan Mukta (a liberated being or a depersonalized spirit). He is no longer a bonded slave of the mind and the senses, but is now firmly established in Godhood, basking perpetually in the Divine inner light, listening to the divine Music in his soul. The detailed instructions in the three-fold Atma Sidhi, or spiritual practice, are given by the Master to every Sadhak (aspirant) at the time of initiation.

By Simran and dhyan the sensory current in the body gradually get collected and concentrated at the center of the spirit between the two eyebrows. From here, the spirit is led on by the sound-current and, after traversing the various planes, reaches it's Native Home, Sach Khand or Muqam-I-Haq, which is the source and the Fountainhead of the sound-current itself. This is Moksha Nijat, Nirvana or salvation, in the true senses of the word.

CONTENTS

TO THE HONEST SEEKER

Kripal Sagar

II

Their different Forms and Their Values

IDEAL MAN

VI

IX

XI

XII

RIGHT TARGET

XIII

PATH OF THE MASTER'S

The only True Religion � Paravidya, or knowledge of the Beyond