[Part
One]
The
precious gifts of initiation should be developed from day to day by regular, faithful and accurate meditation. Satsang is a great helping
factor for imbibing the teachings in
their right perspective and fostering
inner devotion. Besides you will be able to
enjoy the overwhelming bliss from the
charged atmosphere wherein loving life impulses are radiated by the gracious Master Power for the spiritual
benefit of the dear ones. Please
be lovingly and regularly devoted to you meditations with deep faith and sacred
earnestness Master Power working constantly overhead will be extending all
feasible help, grace and protection. I an happy that you are attending all meetings of Ruhani Satsang. These meetings provide a fence for holy meditations and are conducive to rapid progress on the spiritual path. I observe from your spiritual diaries that you are not devoting sufficient time to meditations. Please try to increase the time for meditations so as to come to the target of two hours daily to ensure rapid progress. Please don't get impatient or discouraged so soon and sit in meditations for longer spells to attain better results. It is only when you have progressed on the spiritua path sufficiently and come face to face with the Radiant Form of the Master that you can talk to Him about all your affairs and get His Supreme Guidance direct. The short meditations can be stretched to the target periods by earnest and steadfast efforts .For evading sleep during meditations, you should resort to some such tune when you are quite fresh, buoyant and wide awake after your normal sleep and rest. Besides you should keep your inner gaze fixed in the middle of inner divine light, and continue repeating charged names, mentally, very, very slowly, may be at intervals, so that the inner gaze is not disturbed. You will find that it is only during the slackening of inner gaze that the outside stray thoughts or sleep overtakes, which can be eliminated by careful vigilance. Practice has mastered many a hard way. It is simply setting aside some fixed moments when you are all alone, fresh and buoyant and free, and be devoted lovingly to your holy meditations which are so simple, easy and interesting. All else will come of itself with the grace of the Master. Indeed it is a rare privilege to be accepted and initiated into the Mysteries of the Beyond, for travelling back to the Home of the True Father during lifetime, under the protective guidance of the Living Master. These precious gifts of initiation from the gracious Master are to be developed from day to day by faithful, loving and accurate meditations. The holy sound current is the astral form of the Master, and as such should be listened to with rapt attention. Frugality in speech is conducive to meditation. As a matter of fact, all the senses are granted to us for their legitimate use, and when the limit is exceeded, it results in bondage and suffering. The spiritual aspirants need practice strict discipline for controlling the senses of speech, audition and vision, which dissipate spiritual energy. You are advised to start again with fresh zeal and
patience. The Holy meditations must not be overlooked, as it is during these
precious moments of silence and serenity when you are near the fountainhead of
divine wisdom and intelligence. The inner celestial
manifestations will have a soothing effect on your disturbed mind. Know it for certain that
everyone is responsible for his/her deeds, actions or thoughts. Every pleasure
has its price. It is the Divine Law. The divine dispensation will demand all
liquidation in due course. Successful Simran means repetition of the charged names with the tongue of thought or mentally whichseemingly looks to be a simple affair but requires some labour and patience. Mental Simran may be preceded by vocal Simran if the mind is too turbulent, side by side fixing your inner gaze in the middle of light or darkness, with austere patience and loving humility, just as a baby looks for the darling mother. You should be positive about the fact that the gracious Master is awaiting you within behind this dark veil. Such an attitude will grant you complete rivetting within. And the trouble with regard to the slipping of your mind can be overcome by keen vigilance, and careful supervision. Mind does resent inner stillness but it has to be enchained by this process. Practice attains proficiency. Concentration is learnt by concentrating, concentrating and concentrating regularly. Yes,
you should give your full attention in meditation, so much so that you become
one with the gaze: there should be no effort on your part. Leave all and
everything in the Master's hands. All desires should be stilled, even the
desire for transcension. The
difficulty with concentration will be overcome in due course by regular,
faithful and accurate meditations. Proficiency certainly demands persistent and
patient efforts. The time for the listening of sound current should be
increased gradually, which will grant you ineffable bliss and harmony. Prayer
is the anguished cry of the soul, but self-pity sometimes stands in the way.
When you pray, pray earnestly and when you [sit in] meditation, meditate
accurately without any clutching on your part to have one thing or the other.
He knows and sees your inner condition and rewards your efforts in whatever
manner it is deemed fit. Please note that all your endeavors are recorded
behind the veil. The sincere never give up the long battle with the mind and always relish to struggle hard for maintaining the sacred schedule. A real seeker never gives up nor yields to the dictate of the mind. You will find the gracious Hand of protection of the Master always with you. If for certain physical disturbance on account of your spine you cannot sit for long in meditations, you should do so as long as you possibly can and then do it by lying in bed fully relaxed but remaining inwardly wide awake and conscious. The
difficulty with fixing inner gaze shall be overcome by fostering inner loving
devotion for the gracious Master Power and patient practice. Practice makes a
person perfect. The
key to success is "love" and "devotion." More
of these, more of progress. The divine way back to God during life time, i.e. the way you have been put on, is unlike other man made sciences, definite, practical and unchangeable science of Nature. The inner experiences and speed of progress may vary with different individuals according to one's past background and devotion. So one should continue patiently and the Master Power will always be extending all feasible help. Thoughts are the root of Karma. Kind thoughts supported by kind words and deeds bring in a life of righteousness, wherein the holy seed of initiation thrives most. Self-discipline
means self-restraint and self-control. An army without a general is likely to
run into confusion. The senses are to be kept under strict control which will
be helpful for spiritual progress. Spirituality is a subject more of heart than
head. Please refer to the chapter of "Right Living" in "The Wheel of Life" which will
give you an exhaustive explanation of the subject. You should know that perfection walks very slowly, yet each step under the protective guidance of the Master, in the right direction is a step forward, and shortens the long arduous journey ahead. The
initiates are certainly the chosen few who are commissioned for entry into the
regions of unalloyed bliss and harmony. The holy initiation is the climax
ofdivine mercy, and is a sheer grace
from the Providence. The
maintenance of self-introspection diary is very much helpful for spiritual
progress within. It is a slow but sure process for having gradual progress. By keeping this one becomes regular and moreover
one can have guidance wherever necessary. The
shortcomings in human behaviour are the result of reaction of past Karma, yet
much can be accomplished by resolute will and earnest fortitude. The
winding up of Karmas of the initiates is governed by a higher divine law which
is beyond the ken of human comprehension, yet for your right understanding, you
may please note that the present earth life is chiefly based on the reactions of
past Karma, which determine life span, pain or pleasure, opulence or poverty,
fame or ignominy. Those who are privileged to come to the holy feet of the
Living Master and are initiated into
the Mysteries of the Beyond, their Karmic account is transferred from the
Negative to the Positive Power which is represented by the Living Master for
the ultimate dissolution, and the gracious
Master Power commences the Karmic liquidation as best as it can possibly
be. It is on this score that some of
the dear ones after initiation happen to pass through various vicissitudes of physical life, which make
them pass through unbearable endurance, but all this is flavoured with divine
mercy all along from the Master
Power. The
fate Karma on which the present life is based is left untouched but future
karma is controlled by becoming conscious co-workers of the divine plan under the guidance of the competent
Master. The Audible Life Stream burns down the seed Karma, which does not bear
fruit like the burning of the seeds, which renders them infructious for
germination. On initiation, the Master draws a big line of action in the
present life for future seeds, which must be of virtuous and reposing nature. The
mind, as you know, works in subtle ways - too subtle for an ordinary man to
detect and then to detect rightly and in time before the mischief is done. It
is from the abundance of heart that all actions, oral as well as physical,
proceed. We have, therefore, to be mentally alert about our thought-waves, so
as to be able in time to mark their ebb and flow and then bypass them by the
process of concentration, forgetting all about the mind and the mental states,
including even the pure mind essence which gossamer-like envelops the soul. I
hope, you are now in a position to understand something of the causes that lie
behind the shortcomings. It is the
memory of our experiences in the distant past and in the living present
that constantly and irresistably follows us at our heels and since we have not
yet learnt how to keep aloof and above them that the lapses occur in spite of
us. The enumeration process is just the first step to be cognizant of our
doings, which we are likely to overlook in our self-righteous assertiveness. Once
we are able to rise above the body consciousness, we enter into an awareness of
the higher order, which lies behind the reach of philosophies and psychologies,
for then you are on your way to the causeless cause, the Mother of all Causes, knowing which everything
else becomes known of itself, like an open book. This then is the Alpha and
Omega of the Religion of the soul, which begins where all religious
philosophies and polemics end. Here all thinking, planning, imagining and
fantasy fall off like autumn leaves. Desire
is the root cause of all disturbances and suffering.You will become desireless
by regular listening to the Holy Sound Current for some time. It is the tried
panacea for that. It is the mergence of the soul in the Holy Shabad which
grants such an ineffable bliss and harmony, that the roots of desire are
crippled for good. It is the self-control and self-discipline which counts most
for having such a steady schedule of holy meditations. Likes
and dislikes are again the attributes of human mind. As a matter of fact it is
simply an attitude of your mind when
you like something or hate others. A sense of equanimity or equipoise when
established by inner communion with the Holy Naam will create an indifference
for all these matters. Simran
is the basis of all spiritual evolution. You will please appreciate that it is
the constant thought of worldly pursuits which has been the cause of present
human birth, and for attaining liberation from the cycle of birth and death,
the very thought pattern is to be
revolutionized by replacing it with divine thoughts. |