GOD POWER, CHRIST POWER, MASTER POWER
A
talk given at the St. James Episcopal Church, Houston Texas on December 25,
1963 by (Ek Onkar) Param Sant Kirpal Singh and
later published as the booklet: Dear Friends: I have the great pleasure to address you
on the evening of this day which is considered most sacred among the
Christians. Today we are celebrating in sweet remembrance the Christ Who
appeared at the pole of Jesus. Thousands of other men are born daily,
in all countries, in all towns, but not very many remember their births and
deaths; yet the lives of the Masters, so few in number, can never be forgotten. Christ was born as Jesus. Jesus was the
human pole at which the Christ-Power manifested Itself, and the Christ-Power
never dies. Once that Power takes possession of us or takes us under His care,
He does not leave us. Christ said, "I am with you always, even unto the
end of the world." When I came here on my last visit in
1955, people asked me: "When is Christ returning?" I asked them:
"Has He ever left you?" I quoted to them the very words: "I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world." If He has not left us,
then where does the question of coming back arise? The reason we ask these
things is because, perhaps, we have not gone far enough into the mystery of
Christ. What was Christ? God-Power appears from
time to time at the human pole to guide the child-humanity and give it the Way
Back to God. The question is: Who can give us the Way Back to God? No son of
man can do it; God alone can lead us to God or give us a contact with Him. He
has no equal; no brother, no father, no mother; and that God resides in every
heart. Thus, have you ever considered who is
the one who points the way back to God and who at times refers to himself as -
"I and my Father are One." "I am the Light." "I am the
Way." All Masters tell us that the Incarnated
Masters are all Children of Light. They are all Sons of God, and whoever
follows Them, meets God, for he is given contact with God. Masters have been
coming from time to time; and to all intents and purposes, outwardly, They
appear to be men. They were born the same way and Their bodies are constructed
the same way. What then is the difference between such a Personality and the
average man? It is in His being a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan, for
He sees it is the Father working through Him. Jesus asked His disciples: "What
say you that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "Thou art the Son of the
Living God." Jesus told Peter: "No earthly power has revealed this to
you, but my Father Which is in heaven." Then again a disciple said:
"It would suffice if they would be shown the Father." What did Jesus
reply? He grew indignant and asked: "Have I been so long with you and yet
you never saw that it was the Father working through me?" Then he went so
far as to say: "whoever has seen Me has seen the Father." And,
"No one comes to the Father except by Me." These statements are
paraphrased from the Bible to make the purpose of them clear. Christ is the
God-Power or so-called Guru-Power Which appeared as the son of man who was
called 'Jesus'. During a talk I gave last month at the Unity Temple in Los
Angeles, I expressed these thoughts and then asked the minister for his
opinion, which I wanted to hear--not because I was doubtful, but because men
are evolving and awakening to the truth. He answered: "Who is Jesus Christ?
God's Son made manifest to man to teach him and to show him the Way and the
Truth and the Light. He came to show man how the Father would live if He were a
man. He was God in Man." Then he explained: "Jesus was the
transcendent Incarnation of God." And continued: "What is the
difference between Jesus and the Christ? Christ existed long before Jesus.
Jesus is the born man who perfectly manifested the Christ in Himself, and
Christ is the Divine Nature of this God-Man. Thus Christ, the Spiritual Human,
existed long before His earthly birth." Do you comprehend ? The Christ-Power or
God-Power or Guru-Power is the same, and manifests Itself at the human pole to
meet the demands of His children: those who feel hungry for Him, those who feel
thirsty for Him. There is food for the hungry and water for the thirsty; demand
and supply is the law of nature, and where fire burns, oxygen comes to help.
When man has hunger for God in his heart, God manifests Himself at some human
pole to guide the child-humanity. "No man knows the Father except through
the Son and he to whom the Son reveals Him." As I told you, this Christ-Power existed
ever since the world began and has manifested Itself from time to time at the
human pole of the various Masters. We can recognize this fact through the study
of comparative religions, where we shall find the same teachings given by the
Masters of all religions and the same assertions made by Them. Someone told me on my last visit here
that Christ is the highest since He had said: "I and my Father are
One." "That's all right," I said, "but if other Masters
also uttered the same words, how would you consider them?" I then quoted
what other Masters had said in their own languages in their own times. The fifth Guru of the Sikhs said:
"The Son and the Father are dyed in the same color and the Father and the
Son have taken up the same business." The tenth Guru of the Sikhs said:
"God ordered me, 'Go, I make you my Son to guide the child-humanity.
'" Many others as well spoke the same. This
is only to evidence that Christ lived even before He entered the sinless body
of the mother. We have regard for that perpetual Christ-Power which existed
before birth and continues after it, and for the Sonship that is perpetual.
That power lies in every heart and is revealed when a human pole at which the
Power is manifest, meets us and gives us a contact with God. No son of man, no
human, can do it, except the manifested God-Power in some human pole. When we
meet Them, these human poles are competent to raise our souls from the bondage
of mind and the outgoing faculties and to grant us contact within. Thus, we
have regard for all human poles which give that Christ-Power Its birth from
time to time. We are, then, fortunate that we are gathered here on this blessed
Christmas day. What is the purpose of the celebration
of such birthdays? The aim is to understand the teachings of the Masters, to
revive those teachings and to see if we are following them. Blessed be all
Masters. We are proud of Them; but the question arises: Are They proud of us ?
The true celebration of a great man's birthday is to understand his teachings
and live up to them. II Christ said, "Because I live, you
shall live also." Christ was able to give everlasting Life. He referred to
Himself in our recorded Scriptures as: "I am the Bread of Life... This is
the Bread which cometh down from heaven... If any man eat of this Bread, he
shall live forever." God is Light; God is Life; God is Love. What was this
Bread of Life He gave ? In another instance, Jesus went to a
well to have a drop of water. He requested a Samaritan woman at the well, who
was carrying a pitcher of water on her head, to give Him some water to drink.
Out of an inferiority complex, she said, "You people have no dealings with
us; why then are you asking me for water?" Jesus answered: "If you
knew Who was asking for water, you would have asked for, and I would have given
you the Living Water of Life. This water which you carry quenches thirst for a
while, yet one is again thirsty; but whoever drinks of the Living Water which I
give, will never thirst." Let us go a little farther into it. Who was
Christ? (Blessed is the human pole at which Christ appears. ) He behaved like a
man; He behaved also like God. He behaved like an average man and His greatness
lies in this fact. In His Grace, He behaved both ways--as a man and as God. St.
John describes Jesus as, "The Word made flesh and dwelt amongst us." What is Word? Word is definable as the Word which has
made all heavens. St. John said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God and the Word was God." That is the Cause of all
Creation. In the Psalms, we find, "Thy Word is settled in heaven."
This is what Jesus referred to as the Bread of Life which is come from heaven. What is that Word and what is the outer
manifestation of the Word which was personified and made flesh in the human
pole of Jesus? The Psalmist said: "The Word is a Lamp unto my feet,
and a Light unto my path." Jesus expressly said: "I am the Light of the World." Do you follow now, how great He was ? He
was God-Power manifested in the human pole, and He had great regard for that
human pole at which He was manifested, but He always differentiated between the
son of man and the God-Father in Him. This is no peculiar distinction in the
case of Christ, because all other Masters, among Them Guru Nanak and Kabir,
expounded this same Truth in Their own languages. Because we are not aware of the
teaehings of the other Masters, we think perhaps that the teaching of Jesus is
the only truth. Truth, however, is One. Truth is clothed in Light. Truth is the
Harmony--the Music of all harmonies. All Masters Who came in the past referred
to It. The Sikh Scriptures contain the same assertion: "The Word was made
flesh and dwelt amongst us.", that I quoted to you. They said that the
Word was personified in human form Which guided the embodied souls and gave
them contact back to God. I have respect for all human poles at which that
Christ-Power dwells from time to time. III You will find very specific teachings
from the Masters. They taught first of all that the highest aim of a man's life
is God first, and the world next. We live, however, for the world first and God
next, and we have faith in God only insofar as we get worldly things from Him.
If sometimes for some reason or other we do not receive those things, then our
faith is broken. Jesus said: "Except a man be born
again he cannot see the Kingdom of God... The Kingdom of God cometh not with
observation... The Kingdom of God is within you." By observation is
meant--ways which are related to the outgoing faculties. God is Spirit and we
must pray to God in Spirit alone. God does not reside in temples made by man,
but in the God-made temple of the Man-body. Within that Man-body temple, Jesus
said: "Because I live, ye shall live also." He did not refer to the
outer son of man, the perceptible body, but to the Inner, which gave Light and
was the Way back to God through Love. God made man after His own Image. God is
All-consciousness and Light, and we are also Children of Light. We are
conscious entities, environed by mind and matter, and we are kept in the body
by the God-Power controlling us. So long as that Power is in the body, we are
functioning in it; when that Power is withdrawn, we have to leave it.
Similarly, that very Power is controlling the whole universe and when It is
withdrawn, dissolution and grand dissolution set in. There is a Maker of this universe; it
did not just come about by itself. But the Maker Himself is unchangeable,
permanent, and the world created by Him, being made of matter, is changing and
impermanent. I would say that the best way to
celebrate Christmas day is to celebrate the lives of these great Lights daily,
with every breath. We do not miss or forget the lessons and the teachings They
gave us and we should live up to them daily. We should see the same
Christ-Power in ourselves. It is in everyone and It is to be developed through
the help given wherever It manifests--call It by any name you like. Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God
could be had only by entering within the Man-body or the true temple of God.
(God is the controlling Power sustaining us in the body. ) The import of these
teachings is that so long as we are in the body, we are identified with the
body and outside things, causing us to forget our inner selves and fall under a
grand delusion. How can we be liberated from this delusion? The attention, which is the outward
expression of our soul, is diffused in the world through the outgoing
faculties. First we have to withdraw that attention within, and then rise above
body-consciousness, above the senses. Only then can we be extricated from the
grand delusion that we are the man-body instead of being the Indweller of the
man-body. Only then can we emerge from our ignorance of some higher Power
keeping us in the body. What happens at the time of death? Life withdraws from
the feet and rises to the back of the eyes and then darkness appears. While
living, you can learn how to rise above the senses, withdraw from the outside
to the back of the eyes, which is the seat of the soul in the body, and have
your Inner Eye opened. You can see the Light of God, that Light of God Which
was personified and called Christ-Power, Guru-Power, or Master-Power. Jesus told Nicodemus, "Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." Nicodemus then said,
"Lord, I am an old man. How can I enter the womb of the mother and be
reborn? Jesus replied: "Flesh is born of the flesh and Spirit of the
Spirit." Our first birth is in the man-body; the
second birth is that of being born anew into the Beyond when we learn to die
while living. This birth is called the Birth in Christ. Birth in Guru-Power or
Birth in God-Power. You must live and die in God-Power. You must be born in
Christ, in the Guru-Power or God-Power. Simple wearing of the outer badges of
certain schools of thought or performing specific rites and rituals does not
make you be born in Christ. Such practices or beliefs may be the preparation of
the ground for being born in Christ, but this Birth can be had only if you take
up the cross daily. Man-body is the cross. I was very happy to learn from the
newspapers today that Pope Paul is making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. We know
that Jerusalem is a place of pilgrimage for all Christians, and perhaps Pope
Paul is the first man to go into Jerusalem to revive that memory. I read that
he will go down to Jerusalem, take a wooden cross over his shoulders and walk
on the ground where Christ walked one day. These things serve to remind us of
the great Personalities Who came in the world to guide us. Only because Prophet
Mohammed was born in Mecca does each Mohammedan yearn to perform his Hajj or
pilgrimage to it. Similarly, we have respect for the birthplaces of all other
Masters as reminders to us of Their having come. We bow our heads in respect to
Them and try to learn the lessons these Masters taught. Unfortunately, these
tributes later become conventional and stereotyped social functions, and we
forget that the true way to celebrate any great man's life is to understand
what he was and taught, to derive the lesson and try to live up to it. Jesus clearly says that no man knows the
Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son reveals Him. That Son is the
Light of God Which exists forever. Son-ship continues. The sum of all that I
have to convey to you is that Christ lived as the Man-body of Jesus, at whose
pole He appeared, and that He resides in every heart. Yet He cannot be realized
by mere feelings, by mere emotions, by merely drawing inferences, or by
intellectual wrestling to arrive at a conclusion. It is a matter of seeing God
- Who He Is. Christ said, "I am the Light of the World." Can you see
this Light? Jesus said, "The Light of the body is the eye: If thine eye be
single, thy whole body shall be full of Light." How can the two eyes be single? This is
a practical question and one that can be answered practicably&&&,
for this occurs when the Inner Eye which is within each man is opened. Even a
blind man without eyes to see the physical has that single Eye but it is
closed. We can only see Him, the God-in-action
Power, Which is the Light called Christ, when we shut the doors of the temple
of our body and our eye becomes single. Our attention has become diffused upon
the outside world through the bodily doors of the two eyes, the two nostrils,
the two ears, the mouth, the excretory and genital organs, and it has
identified itself with them. We have to withdraw our attention from the
outside, enter within the laboratory of the Man-body which is the true temple
of God and rise to the back of the eyes, where the seat of the soul is located
in the body. There lies the tenth door where the eyes become single and where
we find the Light of God. There we see the Christ in expression. This is an example of what I mean by
true celebration through the understanding of the Personality of the Master and
His teachings, and living up to them. Jesus said that we must have the Bread
of Life and the Water of Life. That Bread of Life and Water of Life lie in the
actual contact with the God-into-Expression Power of Light and "music of
the spheres." At any human pole at which the God-Power is made manifest,
that manifested God-Power is competent to raise our souls--bound under mind and
outgoing faculties, and identified with them -- and open the Inner Eye to see
the Light of God and open the Inner Ear to hear the Voice of God. This is what is meant by coming into
contact with the God-into-Expression Power of the Light and Sound principle;
that is, the true Bread and the true Water of Life. Thus, any human pole at
which that God-Power has manifested Itself, can give you contact with the Bread
and Water of Life. This is referred to by Guru Nanak and
the other Masters Who say that we are fortunate to have the Man-body and that
the purpose of having it is to obtain the Bread of Life and the Water of Life
-- the True Elixir of Life Everlasting, for whoever drinks of It shall never
die. Remain in any religion you like, but for
the Bread and Water of Life, go to a Master who is the human pole of the
God-Power or Christ-Power, for no son of man can give you everlasting Life. The greatness of the Master lies not in
His advising you how to say prayers or perform certain rites and rituals -- any
man can give lectures after a little training -- but in the fact that He is
able to give you a sitting in which your soul is first with drawn from the
outside and then raised above the senses; your Inner Eye is opened and you see
the Light of God and your Inner Ear is opened and you hear the Voice of God;
you testify yourself that it is so. Through the parallel study of religions
you will find the same truth imparted by almost all Masters, in Their own
languages, of course. In the Christian literature, you will find that St. Paul
says, "I die daily." Other Masters say: Learn to die a hundred times
a day. That death is the withdrawal of the soul from the physical body and
rising above it into the Beyond; that is, into the Kingdom of God where you are
reborn. "Marvel not that I say unto you, ye must be born again." These are the teachings given by all
Masters from time to time. The difficulty in truly experiencing them, however,
lies in the way that our souls are under the command of mind, and mind is under
the command of the outgoing faculties. We have abandoned ourselves to the
pleasures of the outside world so completely that we have identified ourselves
with them, and we remain awake on the outside but asleep from within. You must
know that the God-Power is keeping us in the body and, if you are to find this
Power, you have to invert and withdraw behind the eyes, and gaze into the dark
expanse before you. When you are able to see within that expanse, you will also
see the actual God-Power everywhere. Here is how we can find the Christ
already within us. First enter the laboratory of the Man-body, the true temple
of God, then rise above it until we leave all else behind and enter the Kingdom
of God. There are so many mansions in the House of our Father; the macrocosm is
in the microcosm of the Man-body, and consists of physical, astral, causal, and
super-causal planes, and beyond all these are the pure spiritual planes, the
true Home of our Father. The first step thus starts when we rise
and are reborn above the Iron Curtain of this physical body. If anyone can rise
above by himself, blessed is he; but if not... consider that even in outward
occupations a person needs someone proficient and expert in that particular
line... how much more is it necessary to have someone competent where the
world's philosophies and outward faculties do not work! Do you not need someone
to help you there? You will decide this for yourselves. In the true terminology
of the Saints or Masters, a blind man is defined, not as one who has no eyes in
his head, but as one whose Inner Eye is closed. Those who do not see the Light
of God are all, excuse me, blind. When they come to a Master and He gives
them a sitting, the Inner Eye is opened and they see the Light of God. When
they return, they are men with the Inner Eye opened. Similarly, before going to
a Master, a man is deaf. When the Master gives him a sitting, he begins to hear
the Music of the Spheres and he becomes aware. These are the Gifts of God. The
greatness of the Master lies in His competency to give you the Bread and the
Water of Life and to help you to be reborn -- to open the Inner Eye to see the
Light of God and to open the Inner Ear to hear the Voice of God. There were few such Personalities in the
past, and even now there are few; but the world is not without Them. All
humanity are the children of these Masters. The same God-Power, Christ-Power,
has worked ever since the world began and continues for those children who are
hungry and seek the Truth. When that hunger and thirst arises in anyone, God
Who resides in every heart makes arrangements to bring him to wherever he can
be duly contacted with his own Self. Can any son of man do it. No. Only the God
manifested in Him has that Power. Such a person is called a Master. "Blessed are ye who see things that
the old prophets and righteous men could not see, who hear things which the old
prophets and righteous men could not hear." These are references in the Scriptures
that our Eyes are sealed and our Ears are sealed, and that unless these seals
are broken, we cannot see the Light of God and hear the Voice of God. Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Master, was
asked: "God resides in every heart, but who can see Him?" He
answered: "Those eyes are different, and are other than the eyes of flesh
and bone, which can see the Light of God." Another Saint, Shames Tabriz, said, "We must be able to see God with
our own Eyes and we must be able to hear the Voice of God with our own
Ears." The true definition of a Master is given
by all Masters as One Who can make audible for you the Music of the Spheres
within and Who can remove the veil of darkness you see when you close your
eyes, and reveal the Light of God. Such a person is called a Master. IV A life of continence and control over
the outgoing senses is enjoined by all Masters as the qualification that
enables one to follow their teachings. Jesus, in the Sermon of the Mount, said:
"Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." All other
Masters, or those who have realized themselves, have said the same thing; for
God is One and Truth is One. (If there are any differences among us, these are
all man-made and are due to our lack of personal experience of the Truth.
Christ and other Masters have grieved that although They have seen, that They
can bear testimony to It, yet the people have not believed Them. Masters see
and then not only say but are competent to give us an actual specific
experience.) Purity of life is required. You will
find that chastity is life and sexuality is death. This body is born of
corruptible seed and we are born into the Beyond by the incorruptible seed. We
should examine these scriptural references to find their truth. The Man-body is
the highest in all creation and blessed are we that we have the Man-body. The
highest aim before us is to know God. God resides in us; there is nothing that
we need to introduce within from the outside. The various scriptures extant contain a
fine record of the experiences of the Masters; yet we need Someone Who has had
this experience and is competent to give us the same: tasting the Bread and
drinking the Water of Life -- bringing Them into existence. Guru Nanak said:
"Do not be deluded because you have taken one form of religion or the
other. You must follow the teachings to their original intention." All religious teachings are based on the
spiritual experiences of the Masters Who came from time to time, and the right
import or understanding of these experiences can be had only from those who
have had these same experiences. We have due deference for all Masters Who came
in the past, and great respect for all scriptures for they are worth tons of
gold and emeralds; but we do need Someone Who knows the Way and can open our
Inner Eye to see the Light of God. The lives of Christ and all Masters are
examples of putting God first. The Kingdom of God is within you. You cannot
have It by observation. You can have It only by learning to die while alive,
for you enter the Kingdom of God only when you are reborn. In the East they say
you have to be twice-born, but reborn or twice-born amounts to the same thing.
The first birth is in the physical body and the second is into the Beyond. The
Masters were competent to give an experience of how to rise above
body-consciousness, and disclosed the mantra meaning to rise above the
physical, astral, and causal bodies, to see the Son of Light -- the Light of
the Sun -- already ablaze within you. As I said before, purity is a stepping
stone to Him, and, in addition, is Love of God. Misdirected love, called
attachments, is keeping us in the body and is the cause of our coming again and
again. We go where we are attached, for that is the nature of attachment. True
Love, called Charity, is already engrained in our souls and, when directed
towards God, is truly Loving. God is Love, and our Soul is Love personified,
and the Way Back to God is also Love. All Masters say: Love God with all thy
heart, with all thy strength, and love thy neighbor and all creation. On the
wings of Love we can fly to heaven, but with the chastity of life. It is recorded of Christ that He was
chaste-born, sinless born. Similarly, in the East, the Masters were the
embodiment of chastity and pure lives. Married life is no bar to spirituality,
if conducted according to the Scriptures. It means taking a companion in life
who will be with you in this earthly sojourn through weal and woe; the husband
and wife should help each other to know God and to fulfill the highest aim of
man's life. One duty may be that of begetting children, but, bear in mind, that
is not 100% of our duties. The Scriptures say that husbands should love their
wives as Christ loved the Church. In the lives of all Masters, we find two
great things: They have contact with God and are the mouthpieces of God. They
speak as inspired from God rather than from the level of the intellect,
feelings, emotions, or by drawing inferences. They see and say and ask you to
become. They say: Be still, physically and intellectually,
and know that you are God. We have great respect for all Masters,
all sons of men or human poles at which that God-Power, Guru-Power, or
Christ-Power worked, and continues to work, to guide the child-humanity. We are
blessed. I wish you Happy Christmas, but in the
way that I have advocated to be the true celebration of Christmas Day.
Understand who the Masters were, their teachings of how to learn to die, how to
be reborn, how to open the Inner Eye and see the Light of God. Christ was the
Light and the Way. I have had the great pleasure to present
to you for your consideration this Christmas Night, truths which I have come to
know through experience and by study of comparative religion. As I said previously, remain in any
religion you like. Unless you sit at the feet of some human pole at which the
God-Power has manifested Itself, the purpose of your joining various schools of
thought has not been served, because you want to see God. The Masters do not destroy any religion
or introduce new ones. When They come, They come for the whole world. They
consider all humans alike and want us to unravel this mystery of the Man-body.
Great is man. He lives in this body in which God controls him; and within the
microcosm of it, exists the macrocosm. We know so much about the outer subjects
but, for want of practical people, we know little or nothing about ourselves,
the great boon, the great blessing that we have in the form of the Man-body --
the Golden Opportunity. Param Sant Kirpal Singh (Ek Onkar) |