Excerpt from lectures by Dr. Harbhajan Singh at St. Gilgen, 8 June 1992 and 23 Dec. 1990
(from “Sayings of Sant Kirpal Singh” edition 1998-2 — see full title below)
He who finds the love within himself shall have no rival in the world
Dear brothers and sisters!
We have just heard the tape of Master’s Satsang. He beautifully described the very art of love.
Love is defamed in the world, because what we call love is not love. We love the perishable things, and our love perishes along with them.
But the love of God is unperishable, that lives forever. This love gives us eternal life, a constant, unbreakable contact with the God Power. It is ever fresh and does not change at any moment.
When you are embedded somewhere, you begin to grow there. Master says, “When you live in the heart of someone, naturally he will also start to live in your heart.”
Those two powers, my self (soul) and the Father, live in this holy body.
So where are we to go to have this love?
In this man-body, not outside. It is said,
he who finds the love within himself,
shall have no rival in the world.
All his hardships are finished, he has no enemy, for him there is no problem in the world, because he has found the source of love within himself.
What is the condition of such personalities?
Their attention is fully imbued with love. Their love within is overflowing and when it comes outside (and through the attention works) in the world, it also brings this love to everybody.
That is the condition of the one who is in constant love, in constant touch with the Master Power, the God Power within. Love beautifies everything.
Who gets this love?
Those who surrender all their wishes are gifted with this love; God loves them.
To whom shall we surrender our wishes?
Unto God. He who does so is loved by the God Power.
❊
It is said that Majnu loved Laila very much, and the king thought, “Laila must be a very beautiful girl, if Majnu loves her so much, if he is so fond of her.” When he saw Laila, he said “She is just a simple girl!”
But somebody said, “If you want to see the beauty of Laila, you must see her through the eyes of Majnu.”
❊
If you really want to see the love of God, and you want to experience the love of God in your heart, then sit in the eyes of that one who is already intoxicated with love, whose eyes are overflowing with the love of God. There is no other way.
How to get this grace, how to get this love?
Master tells us, if the cup is below the pitcher, it will be filled, but if the cup remains above the pitcher, it will not be filled.
Guru Nanak says, “O God, this whole world is burning in flames!” Which flames? It is not the outer fire, but a fire working like the outer fire but created by the mind. Mind is creating the fire on the level of senses.
So He asks, “What is the remedy to it?”
He says,
“If anyone raises his head,
put Your gracious hand on him!”
When He puts His gracious hand on our head, then He is very kind to us, and we can demand everything from Him. (This happens) when one becomes receptive and makes a prayer to Him, “O God, I need You, I don’t need anything else in the world.”
Because the whole world is suffering miserably from the attachments.
So this is one way (to get His help, His attention).
The second way is a continuous prayer. Continuous prayer means to remember Him breath by breath. Every moment we should remember that Power. But now our heart is filled with worldly attachments.
How can we bring in the sweet remembrance of the God Power?
Two things will not exist together: Either He will remain (in your heart) or the world will remain.
When you remember Him, He will try to settle in your heart, then He will be settling inside and everything else will leave you. Sweet remembrance, very sweet remembrance (is the way to Him).
At the time of Kabir there was one king, Ibrahim Adam, who was the king of Buchara. He was in a condition of continuous sweet remembrance of the God Power. It was midnight of a moonlit night, when the king was on the roof of his palace remembering God, “O God, meet me!”
Whereas everyone else was sleeping, he was awake. So his prayer was heard, and Kabir materialized and manifested there (on the roof of the palace).
If someone is awake, the Master Power comes to him. It is very difficult to awake. Who can awake? Who rises above the plane of senses. When others are sleeping, he is awake.
In which condition do we pass our nights?
In passions, in deep sleep, and in dreams, dreams of the world. All this happens to us day by day, so we do not remember the God Power.
But when does the God Power hear us?
When all are sleeping and we are awake, only then He hears us. It is said, whose nights are perfect, he is perfect. Whose nights are spoiled, he himself is spoiled with the nights. Those who reached something, they utilized their sleeping-time, the nights. How beautiful is it to be awake at night – there everything is calm, it is serene everywhere. What you are looking for that is available.
You want the sweet love of God?
He (God) is searching for someone who is really awake.
So Kabir materialized (on the roof of the palace). At once the king turned to Kabir and asked, “Who are you?” Kabir said, “I have lost my camel.” — “How can a camel come on the roof of my palace?”
Then Kabir said, “If my camel cannot come upon the roof of the house, you can also not get the love of God who is within you, unless you come down from your palace.”
Then Kabir gave him His address, “If you want to know something more, come to India, I am residing here.” Then He went away and mixed with the air.
You know, the Master Power can materialize and manifest. He can transmit into hundred thousand forms at one and the same time – this is a Master. He is called the Word-personified-form who has the power to transmit everywhere. He is the God-into-action-Power.
He is said to be “God-into-action-Power” because His action is going everywhere in the world, not only over here, but in all the three worlds. So this Power has all possibilities to transcend His power, to transcend His attention anywhere in the whole creation. So He is the God-into-action-Power. And that Power was personified in Kabir at that time.
This king came to India, and there he started serving in the kitchen of Kabir. After he had worked there for six months, the wife of Kabir said, “Well Master, after all, he is a king, and all people of his country are waiting for him, he must go back, you should give him the initiation. I think that he is fit for initiation.”
Kabir replied, “No, he is not fit for initiation. Early in the morning, when he goes out for a walk, throw some dirt from the roof of the house on his head and listen to what he will say.”
She did so, and the king stopped and shouted, “If you were in my kingdom in Buchara, I would have you punished and put to death!”
Kabir said, “This ego of kingship is still there in his heart. He has not lost the pride of his kingdom, he still needs some more time for initiation. Initiation will be given to him, but it will take some time.”
Six months more passed, then Kabir said, “Now he is developed.” And Mata Loi, His wife, said, “Master, for me he looks the same.” Kabir said, “Now along with the dirt put urine and all these things on his head.”
She did so, and the king stopped and said, “O God, I am worse than all that, bless me!” Then Kabir gave him the initiation and he was sent back to his kingdom.
He was a disciple now, but he was the personified form of love, he got all love from his Master. He said, “Why should I go back to a kingdom which is so narrow, when the whole creation is lying before His feet and is standing at His order?”
This is love. Love means that it intensifies.
❊
But what is our condition?
Our mind is identified with the world and so it brings us in lots of problems. A conscious co-worker of the divine plan, who is identified into the world on the level of the soul, distributes love and brings love everywhere, but he does not get anything. If he meets hatred, he knows how to put it there, he knows how to convert hatred into love.
When Masters come into the world, they bring a great revolution.
What kind of revolution?
They bring a revolution into the heart of man. They do not change the man from outside. They say, “Well, you remain where you are (the community you were born in), but you must change from within.” Then naturally all signs of the image of within will also appear outside. Such is the condition of true love.
❊
If an addict goes to the city, hardly anybody knows that he is addicted to alcohol. But someone who is also addicted will know him by his eyes.
Straightway he will go with him and ask, if he has anything to drink. This is quite natural. Even if he finds only a little spark of intoxication in his eyes, he can recognize him very easily. (It is the same with someone who has got this inner intoxication.)
Otherwise it is very difficult to find someone who has the spark of love in him. Only he who yearns for it will know, others will not know.
This is the right approach, and this will start from ourselves. If we really yearn for it, we will get it. But not if we need it only because we see others have got it, therefore we also must get it. We must have a real yearning for it, we must have a passionate yearning for it, a ruling passion in our life.
❊
The thing we are searching for is within, but if we search for it outside, this will delay us.
How can we find it outside?
Some people try to judge the Master Power, but they cannot judge Him, because He is beyond all judgement. He is beyond all limitations. It is only a matter of surrender.
What you desire from Him, that is what matters. What you desire from Him, that will be given to you. You don’t know, what others desire from Him, but you must know what is your desire. If you really want God, you will definitely meet Him.
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At the time of Kabir there was a man called Dani Daram Das — one of the richest persons in India. In spite of being such a rich person, he was very lovable, honest, and very pious in all his deeds, and he who has all those virtues will definitely think of God. So he had begun with the traditional way of worshipping God.
Now the Master Power staying above sees where there is a heart that demands for Him. So Kabir went to the house of Dani Daram Das, who was just making prayers to the gods and goddesses made of stone.
Kabir took the idols one after the other, held them up and said, “This one is heavy, this is lighter, and this is heavier again.”
Dani Daram Das said, “Who are you to interfere with my prayer?”
But when after the twinkling of an eye he looked round, he saw nothing there. He thought that some ignorance was removed now. God had appeared to him to show him his ignorance, otherwise he would have had to face that very ignorance after death.
Kabir appeared to him a second time and asked for Dani Daram Das, while he was taking the food inside the kitchen. His wife told the old man, “He is just taking the food, after some time he will meet you.”
But again Kabir called for Dani Daram Das. His wife said, “You are a sinner, you do not know how to behave when you come into a house!”
Kabir replied, “I am not the sinner, you are sinners because in your kitchen many insects are burning in the decayed wood.” At that moment they were very alert because they even used to wash the wood before burning it in the kitchen. But inside of the decayed wood there were thousands of insects which were burning. They could see that in the kitchen.
Dani Daram Das felt very angry with his wife, “You did not do justice to this old man. He was God who had come to us.” And Dani Daram Das deeply repented all. His wife told him, “A rich person like you need not bother, you can perform some Yajnas (religious festivals where it is the pious custom to give food to Sadhus and holy men, to the poor and needy). There can be lots of flies on the molasses.” And he started to do that only to get this holy person back to him.
Such a Power may constantly remain beside you but you may not be knowing Him throughout your life. Because it is up to Him alone if He awakes somebody, otherwise nobody can help himself. After having made so many Yajnas, they became bankrupt.
They had no money left, they had even no food to live on. Their attention had got focused so much on the very right view of life that they had even forgotten their business. They wanted to finish with everything for the sake of truth. This view, which was very opposite (to that of the world), was given to them by Kabir.
At last, both decided to suicide by drowning themselves in the river. Both went to the river Ganges, and just when they wanted to throw themselves into the water, Kabir appeared, got hold of their arms and asked, “Where are you going?” — “O Master, now when we do not have anything to eat, You come, You had better come beforehand so that we could have also served You.”
Kabir said, “This is not that fly which sits on the molasses, this fly is from Desh.” Desh means from the eternal home.
Later on, after initiation, Dani Daram Das asked Kabir, “This difference of our condition, which had been created by Your grace, what is this due to?”
Kabir replied, “Beforehand your condition was like that of a dog who is barking at his own reflection in the house of mirrors – that was a big ignorance.”
He further said, “Your condition was like that of a monkey.” A monkey holds the branch firmly (when you try to catch him), because he takes the branch as attachment. He thinks that this branch will not leave him.
And Kabir said, “Your condition was like that of a lion: when he sees his reflection in the well, he jumps into the water and loses his life there. Your condition was like that, it was due to your ignorance.” Man commits all those things due to his ignorance, and this is why he is bound to the world.
❊
If you do everything with right understanding, there is no problem. Everything will become as bright as you would think. In the sunshine everything appears in its original condition. With right understanding we can watch our shortcomings, and at the same time we can help ourselves to overcome them.
I told you that we have to justify our Master. Because the question who we are, from where we came, and what the purpose of human life is, that is a very big question with us, it is the foremost question in our life.
We are a drop of (the ocean of) the God Power, we are of the same essence as that of God. We are merely wearing the flesh (of the body) and even that is not ours. We have got it from the world, it is only dust.
It is just a heap of dust, and we love it; this is our ignorance. It is not our companion (it will not go with us); as long as we live in it, we beautify it, but when we withdraw from it, it is not more than a heap of dust.
God is love, and the way back to God is love.
And what is love?
Love starts from separation. We are separated (from God), and we must go there again, that is what we yearn for. When we yearn for it, we are going to finish this separation. This is only possible through this yearning and through this ruling passion; then only one can attain this way, there is no other way.
In the Koran it is said, “If you want to go to Mecca, then always go by the sea and not by land.” Nowadays people go by air, so they cannot find anything relevant in this saying. They say, they have to reach Mecca, they may go by sea or they may go by aeroplane, it is no difference.
But what does it really mean?
It means, you should go by sea, the tears of yearning, if you really want to reach Mecca (our inner destination).
You should start yearning for Him, with tears in your eyes. You should always think of that Power. You should never think where you stand, but think where you have to go. That is what you should always think. You should think about your destination because a time will come, when you have to leave this body, when you have to leave this place, all your attachments, all your relatives and children, everything.
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Who or what will accompany you?
Only what you have earned inside while you had this manbody.
If you have not earned anything and you do not have anything at your disposal, then what will you spend there?
How will you please your companion? What will happen then? — We will be separated from our companion.
Who separates us?
The angel of death, the negative power who always keeps us in this world, that separates us from our Beloved.
Everybody wants to go along with the Beloved. We want a relation with Him, but if we are separated, how it pains! So that is the condition of the soul at the time of death, when forcibly it is withdrawn from its source.
At that time it feels, “O, my Beloved is waiting for me.”
One has a short glimpse of that Power, and then he weeps because he is snatched in the death-trap and is snatched from the Source (God). It is a very tragic death when one is snatched away from the Source to which everybody wants to go.
This is what I meant when I told you yesterday that we are without any (spiritual) base (which will carry us when we have to leave this world).
If someone has created this base, this foundation, he is a worthy person in the world. But he who has not created this base for himself, is standing on shaky legs. At any moment he may leave this world, but he will go empty-handed.
Kabir says, “In both hands I have the sweet.” His hands are full of sweet, whereas people come (into the world) with empty hands and go again empty-handed. Kabir says,
“I have bargained with my Beloved.
If I win over Him, He belongs to me.
If He wins over me, then I belong to Him.
If I lose the game, then I am in His hand,
otherwise I keep Him in my hand.
So both the ways I have the sweet in my hand,
my hands are never empty.”
— Kabir
So we must have something in our hand. This is only possible, when we keep Him in our heart. You have to yearn for Him.