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L. Gurney Parrott CONVERSING RECENTLY with a friend, I happened to
mention the living perfect Master, which brought the immediate question, “how
do you know he is a perfect Master?” to which I replied, “How do you know the
sun is shining?” and them more, specifically, went on more or less as follows: It is not a matter of opinion. Differences of opinion
are permissible, indeed, are the natural outcome of human thought on almost
every subject under the sun, save one: TRUTH. Truth is an absolute, without qualification; it cannot
be modified; it is synonymous with God. The perfect Master is the embodiment of
truth, not because I or anyone else believes it, but because I or anyone else
believes it, but because he gives clear and unmistakable evidence in his
person, in his life, and in his exhortations, written and verbal. When a Master cannot be faulted in any one of the
following essential qualities, and if, in addition, he teaches and demonstrates
the way back to God through the word, or audible life current, then he becomes
self evident as truth –a perfect Master –and one’s whole being responds in
joyful recognition. 1. HUMILITY. He evinces a natural, inborn humility,
not acquired, which is strikingly evident, though never consciously evident,
though never consciously exercised. Like the scent of a rose, or the color of
its petals, it is innate, not assumed. 2. LOVE. He is the embodiment of love for all living
creatures and the entire humanity, above all distinctions of race, color or
creed. 3. PURITY. Godliness and spirituality flow from him,
expressed in every thought, word and action. His purity is not the result of
pious of pious words and religious activity, but, again, is effortless, as the
reflection in the surface of a still lake. 4. A GIVER. He is always the giver, never the
recipient, living on his own resources and not on the charity of others. He
gives spirituality free; it flows from him as naturally as a river flows down
from the mountain source to the valleys below. 5. APPEARANCE. He has no affectation in dress, no
outer indication entitling to special respect. He does not need it, for his
mere presence evokes instinctive recognition in the beholder of his spiritual
stature. 6. POWER. He does not perform miracles to attract
followers although all Power is his; but he exercises his Powers always under
the divine will as necessity may arise, avoiding publicity or sensationalism of
any kind. 7. TEACHING. His teachings are in strict accord with
those of all the great Master in the past. Our Master, Sant Kirpal Singh, is a perfect exemplar
of all the seven prerequisites in a perfect Master, but he can be credited with
yet another, an eighth. This last proof of his spiritual stature and greatness
is his crowing glory, clear evidence of his statues as divine ambassador with a
special commission from God to free embodied souls from their material prisons
and lead them back to Him. This is the Power to open the eyes and ears of those
who go to Him, that they may see the Light of God and hear the voice of God,
linking them with the shabd, or word, or the celestial music –what we in
Christian countries would call “The holy spirit” –which carries the spirit,
under his guidance, to its native home. It is this manifestation of the Word, which
distinguishes the perfect Master from Masters of any and every other kind. None
but a perfect Master has the authority and power to do this marvelous work. There are Masters in the world of every sort and
degree, true and false, and some may be able to help souls to a certain extent,
consistent with their own level of attainment; but they cannot liberate souls
from the wheel –the endless cycle of coming and going in these material regions
–nor lead them to the highest, for they themselves are not free; and such
Masters, and their followers alike, must continue in the round of rebirths
until release by perfect Master. All this, of course, is well known to satsangis who
have studied and teachings of our Master and his predecessors, and the reader
may well ask why this article has been written. My object, in addition to sharing one or two problems
later, is to stimulate and encourage fellow pilgrims who have not had the
privilege of meeting the Master, and who, through circumstances beyond their
control, may never it in this world. The joyous fact and unique feature on this path is
that while to meet the Master in the flesh is an immense blessing, failure to
do so does not it, any way prevent or hidden one’s spiritual progress after one
has been initiated. Indeed, there is a danger that to have been with there is a
danger that to have been with the Master may result in some complacency and a
tendency to think that future effort is thereby rendered less mandatory. The immensely encouraging promise in this teaching is
that if the aspirant so orders his outer life and carries our accurate the
inner exercises as directed, his receptivity to the Master’s radiation will
become more and more perfect until he reaches the pint where he meets the
Master in his radiant form on the inner planes. This is the point, which we are
all expected to reach, with Master’s grace. Compare with this wondrous
achievement, whether we have or have not been with the Master in the physical
body is of little importance. Fellow satsangis will have experience the curious fact
that, even when ear is given to such a statement as this, accompanied by a
careful study of the Master’s wonderful written expositions and those of his
predecessors –nay, more than this: even if many satsangis add their experience
with the Master, there is not an immediate rush to become his disciple. The pure teaching itself is so perfect, answering
every intellectual problem, that one would expect any honest seeker to leap at
it. Formal religions and the host of parasitical or splinter societies know
nothing of the inner experiences know nothing of the inner experience of the
soul, or of the grand scheme of finer subtler worlds leading upward from this,
the coarsest material expression, to the highest region of pure consciousness
and the supreme Lord. They only give vague hope of a future “heaven” as
indicated in books; none of their teachers have any personal experience of the
beyond. The path of the Masters- the grand trunk road to
spirituality –along which the living perfect Master is ready and willing to
guide us, offers something so incredibly wonderful that one would naturally
think the whole world would seize the opportunity. Why do they not? Hundreds of
thousands have done so, but relative to the population of the world the
response is small. If many are called certainly few are chosen. The answer is threefold: (a) the Master has repeatedly
stated that those who come to his is in this life are predestined to do so; (b)
our karmic fate, or destiny; and (c) the fact that the Master is the “doer” and
will drawn to himself those whom he has come to seek. We, therefore, are not
the doers; it is all his work, and if he uses us as a link to take any soul to
Him, it is a privilege granted to us for our advancement and not his need. So we should not feel discouraged if we meet with
resistance, or indifference, for it is not the time for such souls to meet the
Master, nothing can bring it about. At first, immediately after my initiation in 1966, I
was very disappointed and worried when I met with no response, or with only a
little flicker of interest that quickly died. The Master put me right and now I
understand enough to stand aside and have no sense of personal responsibility
or of “proselytizing zeal.” I expect all Satsang will have met this problem. There
are others, but one in particular may be worth discussing in the people that
sharing experiences may help. In the application for initiation into Sant mat, one
is required to “note that practices involving breathing for meditation,
spiritual healing (instantaneous or otherwise) are forbidden by the Master, and
all other forms of meditation that may have been practiced should be
discontinued.” It is astonishing to find some initiates still
hankering after former practices, especially spiritualistic mediumistic and
occult ones. Some still read books published by various society or individuals,
and even continue to profess allegiance to one or the other, or even to more
than one, as well as to the Master. But “no one can serve two Master; and he
who is not for me is against me,” said Jesus, having evidently met the same
phenomenon among his followers. (1)
What is Sant
mat, or the path of the Master? It is royal way back to God, our father. It is
the true high way of spirituality and dates from the dawn of humanity. It was
designed by the creator himself. (2)
Along this
grand highway are lay byes, cul through sacs, by the, country lanes of
interminable length losing themselves in a vast jungle; secondary roads leading
to scenes of great beauty; major roads leading to wondrous realms. Without the
perfect Master, pilgrim souls are lost in these enticing deviations. (3)
The positive
pole in creation lies in the realms from sach khand –the filth inner plane
–upward, and it is from here that the perfect Master descends and operates in
the regions of the negative pole (casual, astral, physical). (4)
The Master
task or mission is to take souls to the highest and the whole science of the
Master is so designed. (5)
It follows
that to achieves success we must give ourselves entirely to this objective. Can
we think that this wondrous goal is gained so easily that we can afford to
squander time and energy in any other direction? (6)
The above
mentioned deviations may have a lot of good in them and do in rare cases take
souls to quite advanced states where they imagine they have reached the goal.
But the Masters (who know because they have gone higher) sate categorically
that they are still within the sphere of the negative Power. The only way to
the highest is by the sound current or shabd. When we need water, do we take a
sieve to the well? (7)
It is true
that Master says that one may stay in whatever society we are in, with no need
to change one’s religion. Surely this means that if one sincerely practices
one’s religion. One must automatically reach the point of inner ascension where
the Master point of inner ascension where the Master takes over without any
conflict at all. The Master could have millions of nominal followers,
as many religions can claim, but he would rather have five hundred (or five)
really sincere and genuine disciple. Isn’t that the trouble with our world of
today –the gap between professional and execution –between words and deeds? So the conclusion of the matter is: if we are sincere
and loyal to the truth, and if we want to succeed on this royal way, we must
give ourselves up wholly to the quest. Acquaintance with various spiritual
cults in the world and some discriminating knowledge of the countless books
with people; but to become attached or absorbed in them is to dissipate the
Powers of the soul which should be concentrated on the true target. The Master gives us a yardstick by which to assess
these fascinating intellectual bypaths. They are so cleverly constructed that
they look very much like the main thoroughfare, or offer promising short cuts;
but let us not be deceived and risk losing our ways in the forest of doubt and
the jungles of intellectual titillation to which they lead. We should give high priority to the study of the
Master books and teachings and not be tempted or lured into activities which
will hinder our progress. Counterfeit currency is very hard to detect, but “by
their fruits ye shall know them”; and the simple test is to stop, if we are
involved with such, and inquire, “where do they stand?” if, after many years or
even a long life of study of some religious cult, we find that their hierarchy
has only books knowledge and theoretical acquaintance with oriental teachings,
it would be foolish to continue wasting precious time and effort toying with
fascinating intellectual speculation and getting nowhere. |