Excerpt from a Satsang by Dr Harbhajan Singh, St. Gilgen, 10 July 1988
(Published in “Sayings of Sant Kirpal Singh” edition 1996-1)
Listen to the whole Satsang (1:14:27)
As a result of my readings, I arrived at the conclusion
that man-making is the highest ideal of all.
— Sant Kirpal Singh
He who meditated from the beginning,
I bow to Kabir-like Saint forever.
Of what greatness of Karunamae (1) may I speak?
Who reminded Draupadi (2) the way to my Lord?
Munindar (3) prayed to Kabir
To shower blessing over blessing in this world.
Kabir said, “He who will be the Gracious One (4)
Will bless with the Ocean of Grace (5) in the world.”
— Dr Harbhajan Singh
Spirituality is the science of the soul and directly deals with the soul and not with the physical organs, mind, or intellect. All Masters speak in one opinion about this subject and their experiences are written down in the holy scriptures. But we do not attend to them. Only what we have listened and also digested that matters to us. What we learn and forget or do not digest, is not the food for the soul. We must attend to these things and we should realize, what is written in the scriptures and what is our subject. But that we have forgotten. We trust only that very subject which suits us and serves our purposes, or we want to attend to those who tell us the way how to fulfill our wishes and be happy in the world.
Masters do tell us how to overcome all those things and then to create a strong wish or a ruling passion in our life which may give us eternal happiness and to realize our self and make us realize the Overself. There are instances from the lives of various great personalities who came in the past, who sacrificed their worldly wishes and who preferred the higher values of life. Their teachings are with us. They sacrificed for the cause of Truth, for the welfare of others, to maintain the humanity in the world. And they created humility out of their self-sacrifice. They lived in the world but they were no burden to the world. Burdens are only our attachments and wishes. You can read beautiful examples in the holy scriptures how they lived in the world. They knew very well that what they had got was a gift from God and their purpose was to distribute and flourish it everywhere. I mean to say that we should take those great personalities as an example.
Let us not do something only to please us ourselves but to learn how to sacrifice our wishes and to change from bad views to good views, to leave the worldly background and to have the contact with the spiritual background that is innate in everyone of us. A time comes in the life of every person when he is given a chance to realize his purpose. If we misuse that very time, we lose a great opportunity in our life. Therefore we should regard this Satsang for which we have come together here as a golden opportunity. We should forget the world, we should forget each and everything, otherwise it is not going to leave us.
You may try to run after Maya (illusion) – you cannot catch it. You may try to love it, but it won’t come under your control. But if you try to forget it and you use the worldly things for your necessity only without caring too much for it, it will surrender and bow down before your feet – this is what Kabir says.
It includes everything in the world: your wishes, your attachment, (the attachment to) your children, everything worldly! But we are to think, what is of first, second, and third preference to us. We have to differentiate what we need and what we do not need, where we have to help and where we have to withdraw our attention, what is for others and what is for God. All that we have to realize ourselves.
Now you see, there is a physical and a spiritual aspect of life. Physical aspect of life means the worldly aspect of life. By the way how we live the worldly aspect of life we have to justify our position to maintain the spiritual aspect of life. Only while living in the world we can learn that aspect. If you want to run away from it, you won’t be able to learn it.
The world is a play-field for the play between your mind and your soul, and you are the player. You are not the mind, you are not the body. You are the soul, you are the player in this game.
How to play this game in the world? We simply have to learn to live with right thoughts, not with the outgoing faculties of the mind, because by living with them, we are miserably misled in this play-field and we are losing the game all the time. We have to win the game because this game is only played by us, by ourselves. But we have to play it because we caused reactions. We came into the world only to justify our position in the play-field and to finish with this game.
Various great Masters did a wonderful job in this play-field. They always were the winners. As I told you, you are the player and it is your game. You must not be the loser of this game any more because the power (which is keeping the game a going) is only given by you. You are giving the power and you are the main player therein.
Master has given beautiful references from His life, and most of you have read His life-history. He was a very good player. He did each and everything that favoured Him. And through the way He played this game He taught a spiritual lesson to everyone.
He played the game very exactly. How? For worldly purposes He did everything in the name of God and thus He credited God. He didn’t want to take the credit out of it. But for us, if in some way we make a mistake, we should take it upon ourselves. We should think over what more efforts we have to put in to credit the Master, to credit our soul. Each day we can learn something in our life. You can also learn a lot of lessons from the lives of other people. You can see how they played the game, how they ware miserably misled and failed in their games. You can very easily know that it is not good for you to play this game in that way Thus you can keep away from those affairs.
This world is a world of attachment. Though it is very difficult to remain unattached in this world of attachment, you have to be carefree wherever you are needed. Carefree means: Whatever the worldly things may be, you have not to worry for them. While doing your daily job, you always try to justify your Master. If you have the sweet remembrance of your Master, you will not have the negative effect of that play. This game in the world is just like entering a coal mine. You may try to be very vigilant but even then your clothes will get a little bit black. Such are the things going on in the world. I don’t mean to say that you should not do anything for the world, but you should learn how to handle all those things. Lessons are there. We have read a lot of books how the Masters lived in the world, and you can differentiate very well how we are living and how they lived.
If you learn those things by heart, then you can know the real difference. The difference is very vast and wide. I’m telling you all these things, since we have got the birthright to have His power – right from the beginning. But we were not taught all that, maybe due to the negligence of our parents, maybe due to the bad effects of the world, or due to some so-called teachings. But now you are given the chance to sit here (in the Satsang) – it is God’s grace.
Christ said, “Where more than two sit in my name, there I am.” Your purpose of coming here is unique: Only to realize your self and to realize the Overself. And that is a golden opportunity now. So let this be a new beginning in your life. The sooner you understand, the sooner you can attain this Godhood. You can have a stand and then you start to live with it, so that you can justify (the Master). We have to learn how to live in the world. Mind does not belong to you, mind is your servant! Like fire, it is a good servant but a bad master. You have to watch it. When your senses are affected, you take it as granted that it is due to the mind.
Why do you put the hand in the fire? Just try to come out of it. For a right person, whose life is a lesson for all people, it is very hard to see what is going on in the world. But you can be one of them. Everyone can be of that status. How much time does it take? Master says, you can change your life with the twinkling of an eye. Just determine yourself! You must know that with each breath you have to live a pure life. If you do not attend to these things now, then you won’t be able to do it for a long, long time. After all, what is the value of each breath that you take in and that you give out? Each breath that you breathe out should go out with vibration. Each breath which you take in should come in with the sweet remembrance of the Master. Then only you know what the result of it is. The result is a vibration that will keep you pure and above the effect of the world.
You know, there is a stage where Christ said, “I and my Father are one.” There a little poison can kill a man. Even if one (negative) thought comes up there, one is dropped down to the lower stages. Such is the effect for a conscious person. A conscious one is he who is having no sign of dirt in him. This reflects in himself, this reflects everywhere, in the heart of every person. His words are full of vibration, they would never have an ill effect on anybody. You know, thoughts are very potent. Thoughts are going on with each breath. You are sleeping and thoughts are going on because those thoughts are already connected with your mind. We have to discontinue them at all, they should not have any link with the mind. You have to use the mind: Give a thought to it and let it do that. Not the mind should create a thought so that you are compelled to go after the mind and bear the consequences of your thought. It is a very delicate subject but I tell you, to get rid of even the least possible negativity in us, we can only start from that point. We have to be very careful each moment of our life. Since in your daily life your thoughts are the outcome of your mind and are controlled and released by the mind itself, you get angry, you get emotional, and you create problems for yourself. You create problems for your soul because you give the power to the mind and you yourself are affected (by the reactions) and not the mind. This is what happens in our daily life. There is this very potent way to control it right from the beginning: Don’t become the prey of the thoughts of the mind. If you want to work positively, there is a wonderful way within: You release the thought (from the soul) and let the mind work. You know how to take work from the mind.
In the beginning it seems to be difficult for those who do not prepare for it, but he who prepares for it can start right now. There is no problem, because it is not such a big reaction which you have to overcome that you need much time. You simply have to put your attention to it in order to start with it and then all that has passed finishes. Forget what is past, forget what has happened, but start right now.
Those who want to be successful in their life, in their worldly pursuits, and in the spiritual way of life, they have to start it from within and not from outside. Outside factors won’t help you when you do not prepare them from within. You have to prepare the outer effects from within and not from outside. Inside is the preparation, outside is the positive effect for the worldly things.
It is not so difficult as we may think now. To do it practically is not difficult because whatever you have to do that is possible for you. Suppose, you want to prepare the food – everything is in your kitchen – so you can do that. In the same way – whatever you need, that is within, not outside. For those who want to do, help is there already. The one for whom you are going to do all this is waiting for you, He is waiting for your arrival. You simply go there and start with it. First your help is needed, and then Master will give you His help. I am telling you this very secret of life of those who have solved the mystery of death. It is only possible now because He wants to give His hand. Otherwise, it is very difficult.
You are in the Satsang, you don’t see Him, but He is with each one of us. These words are not spoken without His permission, rather these words come direct from Him. If He says something, He gives the solution to do it. Don’t take it as a theory – it is a practical subject which you can do right now. It is a matter of feeling (the necessity) now. Let it be something theoretical – but start with it and then it will become something practical. These are life-giving words because, at least, Father needs His children. Children may not need their Father, but He needs them because He is responsible for His promise. We have forgotten the promise but He has not forgotten that promise. We are ignorant, because we are misled. If we turn round, then there is no problem for us and for the Master – both are happy.
If you don’t give food to the mind, it will die. It will beg something from you, you only give that much food to it that it needs. Let it feel hungry and thirsty all the time. Let the mind be at your command. In order to survive in the man-body it must come and demand something from you. It should never get emotional or make you emotional because mind is matter but by getting the power from the soul it gets stronger than the soul. Soul becomes the servant and mind becomes the master.
How beautiful it is when you remember any good incidence in your life! You feel happy, and in that state you do the worldly work and you forget yourself so that work becomes easy for you to do. But how many such incidences are there in our life? Whereas each moment in our life can become such an incidence. We have to collect all those things. Each moment we can learn a lesson and deliver it for the right purpose to others. That is what Masters do. Every moment they are getting something from within that is unique and always very high. They deliver it to us and that teaches us the higher values of life.
I remember, while sitting with Master for a very long time, His face was changing each moment, and each moment we learned something new from Him. That is what Master said, “When you sit by such a Power, keep silent and attend to Him, and see what He will give to you.” If you keep sitting with your attention at the tongue of thought, controlling how the thoughts are pouring in and out, as I told you, that will give you a way to right understanding, a way to become conscious, a way to be a conscious co-worker of the divine plan.
We have to justify ourselves. To justify in the eyes of others is a second job, that is but natural, if we have justified before our Father. Then it is the work of your Father to justify your position and condition everywhere because He needs you and He wants to make you conscious co-workers of the divine plan. He will give you all feasible help all the time. He doesn’t want to keep anything with Him because whatever He has, He has for the child. He doesn’t need anything, this is a gift, and He Himself is above any gift. He brings that gift only for us and not for Himself.
You know, a man who is identified with the mind and the outgoing faculties of the mind moves everywhere in search of peace, but he doesn’t get it. Moreover, he loses his goodness here and there until nothing belongs to him. It is lost, it is lost forever, and it is very difficult to get it back. Heart is one, it is like a mirror, if it is broken into hundred pieces, it is very difficult to bring it into its original shape again. This is the condition of the worldly people. Then a time comes in their life, when they weep and there is no one to hear them. This is perhaps the most miserable time in the life of a person when he goes after the wishes and wishes run away. Wishes do not accompany him, even bad things, the worst things will hate that person.
What does the world need from you? Your goodness. Once the goodness is spoiled, you are not the friend of anybody. You are the loser and you go on weeping for it. This is the ultimate goal of a man who is always identified with the world through the outgoing faculties of the mind. He is never the friend of good persons.
If an ordinary person who doesn’t have much money with him starts a little business, he is very careful as what will be a profit or a loss to him. Every day he counts what he has earned and what he has spent. Suppose, he doesn’t earn the due amount for his livelihood, he leaves that job. He says that business is not the right thing for him. That is the worldly way. But how far we have justified in that way? We have not thought over the positive or the negative facts in our life. But we have to do that every moment. If each day we count and reckon, we see that most of us have become the loser. Master’s grace alone is it that maintains us.
What is Satsang? (In Satsang we learn) to discriminate between good and bad. It is our purpose to discriminate what is good and what is bad for us. We ourselves have to realize. Can anybody do this for us? No! Even Master says, “This is your job.” And the next step you take that will help you to be near to the Master and to get help from Him.
The first step is to be taken by the disciple, then He comes with millions of steps forward, Master says. It depends upon your receptivity. More you are receptive, more He comes forward.
References:
(1) Karunamae was the name of the Almighty Power in last Copper Age
(2) Draupadi was the wife of the Pandava princes and a disciple of Krishna
(3) Munindar was the name of the Almighty Power in last Silver Age
(4) Kirpal means “Gracious One”
(5) Kirpal Sagar means “Ocean of Gracious”