Excerpt from a Satsang by Dr. Harbhajan Singh in St. Gilgen, 7 August 1988
Published in “Sayings of Sant Kirpal Singh — 2013”
Dear brothers and sisters,
today let us decide for the higher noble cause, which is the heritage of everybody. Man comes in the world with positive views:
He has contentment, love and compassion;
he has awakening and discrimination,
and he has the intellect which has a direct link
with all those possibilities.
And the intellect is linked with the Spirit, with our Self.
By using them, we can become the men of actions.
Kabir says, that only the men of actions can cross the worldly ocean (Bhav Sagar — the terrible ocean of the three worlds). They make the best use of the talents which are Gifts from God.
You know, in the world there is everywhere misguidance. You know, we are more attracted by misguidance, as misguidance is the outcome of the attachments. This is somewhat a worldly way we are dragged. But this is not the right way.
Truth is like sugar in the sand,
an elephant cannot catch it.
Only an ant can take it.
So humanity and humility is needed.
I told you, contentment, awakening, discrimination, all those things are within the man, within this holy body. But all those talents and virtues will only work with your attention. You may go anywhere, you may remain anywhere in the world, you may remain with impious and sinners, but if your attention is working in accordance (with those talents), then you will not be affected.
You know, when children flying kites: they talk to their friends, they laugh, but their attention remains in the string (and the kite).
The girls (in India) bring water from the wells, they make joke, they make merry with each other, but the attention of each girl is fixed on the pot. The mother, whether engaged or unengaged in the home, but her attention always remains with her child.
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The men of actions do not care for the flattering from other persons, rather they don’t care whether they are called good or bad, because they know that they only came in the world for the Right Cause, for the Work (Mission) of their Father. Because once they have determined their life, no wind and storm of the world can shake them. And God wants such persons. From above He sees, who is broad-hearted, who is full of humility, who has the contentment, who loves all human beings, who sacrifices his wishes.
So I ask you, what He gives?
His purpose is to give the Right Understanding everywhere, though such persons are very rare in the world. But Masters tell in the Holy Scriptures, one person can move the world. One person can teach the whole world.
You know, the Christ Teaching is there. How many persons all over the world now believe in Christ! How many people believe in the Teaching of Kabir, Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh! I tell you, if we are alive in the world, if we have got the right of human birth in the world, it is due to them, it is due to Their Grace. Either we had this old contact with such Holy Persons or we had the wishes, we created the wish to see Them, we created the wish to follow Them. And thereafter this Power sent us with a promise.
So we have to become a man of action.
In the right sense it is our purpose to use our hidden talents,
to multiply our virtues, then to develop others,
and live ultimately 100% for others.
I tell you, if we misuse something and have lots of attachments, we cannot carry those attachments. The effect of the attachments remains with us and that is a big burden, much more burden than the burden of this whole earth on the soul. Soul is fully blackened, I tell you.
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Amir Khusro was a disciple of Nizamudin Auliya, a Sufi Saint. Every day by using his inner love towards the Master his thoughts became very potent. And with these potent thoughts, though within, he thought they get very shaky sometimes. And he thought what is the problem, and what is that due to? He thought over and thought over and thought over. Ultimately he could realize his mistake. He said, mistake is not from the God Power or from the Master, the mistake is always from the disciple. So he could realize his mistake. He started to correct those and ultimately he came to one conclusion.
He thought, it is better to remain unattached from the world, and he learned this subject from the Master. It is difficult to remain unattached in the world of attachments. But this is the only subject for what we came. One side is the negative and one is the positive. He took each and everything, put them on the camels and went straight to his Master.
One person who was poor and had no money, he had to perform the engagement for his daughter. He had to spend something (for the wedding), but he had not (anything). He went to his Master Nizamuddin Auliya and demanded something.
You know, Masters have the property, Masters have the money — Their property are Their disciples. Guru Arjan Dev Sahib says,
“The Sangat, the disciples are Their heritage.”
Nizamuddin Auliya said, “Okay, you stay here for some days, if money will come I will deliver it to you.” But few days passed, no one came. So He gave His old pair of shoes and said, “Sell it and you can engage for the marriage of your daughter.” He at once thought, “These old pair of shoes either nobody will like to take it or the price will be too little, it won’t serve my purpose.” But he trusted his Master. He said, “There is something, anyhow.” And he obeyed the orders of his Master and went.
Meanwhile Amir Khusro, the disciple of Nizamuddin, was coming. Once he decided to remain unattached, this vibration, radiation, the whole glory of the Master and His contact he started to realize from within and made him more and more light. He was very happy whole the journey. He was in full remembrance of his Master and he forgot the world. I tell you,
World is only due to the attachments!
Once you do not have the attachment,
what this world will have to do with you?
And Amir Khusro saw that person coming and thought, “This smell, this fine smell, this vibrating smell is coming from that side, maybe the man had some perfumes.” He went nearby and inquired, but the disciple said, he does not have anything. Amir asked, “What is that?” The other man said, “It is the pair of shoes of my Master.” — “Who is your Master?” — “Nizamuddin Auliya.”
Amir Khusro embraced him and said, “You are very fortunate that you got this pair of shoes of the Master. How could you get it?” The other one narrated the whole story and Amir Khusro said, “I cannot give you the price of that shoes, I can simply give you a little gift.” And he handed over to him everything he had. He said, “O.K., you engage for the marriage of your daughter. You help your business, you help all others whatever you want, and I think, this will be sufficient. But I only beg for this pair of shoes if you can give it.” He surrendered them and Amir Khusro went back with the pair of shoes on his head.
When Amir Khusro was close to the outer gate of the Ashram, his Master came out Himself and embraced Amir Khusro, loved him very much. His Master asked, “How much this pair of shoes cost to you?” He said, “Nothing, I am very happy to have it. Because of the attachments I had to suffer and I had to come back into the world to get those attachments back.” Because where our attention is there we must come. He said, “By the Grace of my Master I have been able to use it for the higher cause, for the eternal cause. I am benefitted in both the ways: here and here after.”
The purpose of Nizamudin Auliya was (to see:) “Is there any disciple of me who brings back my shoes (and really can surrender)?” That was His purpose, and so He had one (true) disciple. Everything with attachment is destructible, but this love and this incidence is ever living in the world. It is a refreshing contact which he could realize from His Master. So, he was a man of actions, he did it.
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Master does not tell you that you do like this, but you (should) learn how to rise above these things. We are sick, only due to the attachments. We have to learn, how to come out of it. I told you, it is a matter of attention.
Now your attention is working with your attachments, you have just to mould it to the Higher Cause, to the Right Cause. All those things we are miserably attached to, we are miserably identified into the world and beyond that, it is all due to lack of Right Understanding.
After all, how far or how long we will continue with those things?
These things will exist in the world, their lifetime is much more than us. But we are here for only a moment, because we have come for a Special Purpose. But the purpose of these things is to keep us in the world. That is a big illusion. So I mean to say, every one of us has to learn how to live in the world and it only matters if we learn to live with attention.
This is not the world where we have to live eternally. Our True Home is far away, is beyond all barriers. There is all the time life, there is no death. There is eternal happiness.
Kabir tells about the beauty of the True Home,
“The Grace of the Master is overflowing there
and there is gushing light,
this light is without sun, without the moon.
There it rains, it is a (rain of) bliss,
and that rains without clouds.”
He told of a lot of things. What else He said?
“Those who only glimpse of that place,
they would never like to come back into the world.
They would even never like to stay in the world.”
We have forgotten it and that is because our contact is self-created. This contact in the world is self-created, I tell you. It was never the wish of the Father (God) to leave the child (Soul) in this world. And Father is worried about the child.
The love of the Father for the child being unbreakable, so the Father sees the calamities, unhappiness. All those negative factors He knows. He comes lot of times, rather all the times to develop His child. Many times He sacrificed His life to save the child. But child would not understand. He is always crazy, he is silly. But the time comes when one has to weep because of his shortcomings.
When our last time (death) comes near, then awakening comes only for a moment. And within a moment he understands the full Purpose of his Human Life. And then he starts to weep. But this time nothing can happen, and he goes weeping. One side he now knows the Purpose of Human Life, which he never could know throughout his life, and the other side there are the forced factors by the negative power. The negative power does not spare anybody, has no love for anybody, its purpose is only to control everybody, to make everybody a servant of his wishes, a servant of his attachments.
The negative power created a wish before the God Power,
it wanted a separate kingdom from the God Power —
this is the negative power.
So we are living in the negative kingdom,
a separate kingdom of the negative power.
We are all in the exile, we are fully cut off from Him. But the Master Power comes to give that contact, He suffers, but He does all the times His level best to take us back. But once we lose the Golden Opportunity, then we no more stand on our legs. Then ultimately one has to weep over.
This is a Golden Opportunity, if you are reborn, if you solve the mystery of death. And this thing is available. But it is very rare (to find One who can give the inner contact) maybe One throughout the world. You know, God Power is One, and there is only One who can give you this contact.
Sometimes in the world there are two, but very rare. They have the different bodies, but the Power is One. They know each other, though they are living far away from each other, but they knew each other. They know their work, they have very fast contact also.
I mean to talk about the Christ Power, God Power or Master Power and not about those who are functioning in the world through different process (the false masters), they can be hundred thousands. Nothing to say about them. But my purpose is only to tell the Higher Values of Life.
You must learn what is the Higher Values of Life!
You must know what you want!
We are very wise in the world. Whatever you want, you will be strict to have it, you won’t accept anything else, you won’t accept less than that.
But why you accept the lower values of life?
Only due to ignorance, only due to lack of understanding, because we have not used our Right Understanding. So far we do not use our Right Understanding that is inherited in us and everyone is gifted with it. Those who use it, they are the men of actions. Those who do not use it, they are arrogant. They lose their life, I tell you.
Master says,
“Even do not believe the words of the Master,
unless until you see it with your own eyes,
because reading, writing, to tell some emotional things,
drawing inferences, all these things can be subject to error.
Only seeing is above all that.”
What is your heritage?
You must open it and look into it.
Christ said,
“Knock the door and it will be opened unto you.”
— Matthew 7:7
This door is here (at the Third Eye), but you must learn how to come out of the body and knock the door.
You are to be born in the Spirit, with the Spirit. The man is Spirit embodied, he has forgotten. He has forgotten his worth. Although knowing all those things we say, “O.K., it is right, but we cannot do it.”
Why they cannot do?
It is a flaw, it is a negative factor. The negative factor is so strong in man, it has clutched the man.
Master says,
“You learn to live in the world.”
Master helps you all the time, all the way. He gives you a practical hint to solve each and every problem, rather He makes you able to get those things with your Right Understanding, you are not dependent anywhere. You are dependent only upon the Master, upon the Christ Power, God Power which is within. And He is too near to us, so that even our clothes and this flesh is far away from us.
He (God) is the Life of our life.
He is our True Friend, only due to Him or due to that contact we are alive in the world. But we disobey and enjoy our attachment. So you can know where the discredit is. It is everywhere, wherever you go, you are discredited. You have to fulfill something higher, but you lose everywhere. This is what is going on in the world, I tell you.
We have to learn the Art of Life.
Sant Kirpal Singh never said, you do this or that, you do these outer ritual and rites. He always told the Higher Teaching — Christ Teaching, Master Teaching, God Teaching, and that is unique. It is only One Way (back to God).
You can identify with lot of methods, and the experiences of those persons differ from one book to another book. If you read those books, you will see that their experiences are different, because they are all going down and into the world. One could move this side, one could move that side, so they have diverted the human being. Somebody says, “He is our master, he is very good, he is higher than all.” Others say, “My master has shown this way, I like this way.”
It is all nonsense, I tell you.
The Masters’ way is only One,
They all have come from one and the same plane,
and we have also come from the same plane.
And we have to go back to the same (true) Home.
It is a time to discriminate, what is going on in the world and what is our Purpose. I tell you, that it is only due to this contact (with the God Power), that we are alive. We must not forget it.
If our attention starts to work in that direction, maybe it is only very little then it is like one example of one bean, a black bean (with one little white spot). Its contact is white there, this contact was due to this flower, and the flower was due to the branch and the branch is due to the tree, so this white contact in the black bean is only due to the tree.
Master says,
You must have attention, even if it is only a little bit,
but it should be all the time.
When your attention goes in this direction, Master Power from within helps you to go the right way. But when we forget this thing, then we will be the loser. You know, there is a very big shadow of the negative power, but when Master comes, He comes with Light and all this shadow is off.
So we are born as human beings and we have to remain human beings. To be a true Christian means to remain a human being, to be a true Sikh or a true Mohammedan, true Hindu, true Buddhist means, to learn the Art of Life and to remain true human beings. And we have to go back (to our true Home) as human being, this is our Purpose:
We have to follow our Masters, not only follow,
but to digest and to have that very experience which They got.
Their experiences written in the Holy Scriptures,
must become our experiences.
There was one poet, a very renowned poet from India — Iqbal. He met the son of Soami Ram Tirath, who used to work in coal mines. Iqbal said to him,
“Your father died digging the heaven
and you are digging the mines?”
You feel the difference?
I tell you, it is for wise person to discriminate. In the Satsang only the Right Subject is taught. The Satsang is a place where that Power (God) on Whose behalf something is told is there. And He looks after every child. He sees who is ready, who is fit, who tries to know Him, then He will give Grace.
So the vibration which we get in the Satsang that is not momentary. That is a life giving thing, I tell you. If people come in the Satsang regularly, they can attain the Godhood. But if you come to Satsang, then come in the real way. You need not to force yourself.
Once you have the vibration, let your attention work.
You should be very careful, then Master will attract you.
After all He needs His children.
You know, the Teaching of Sant Kirpal Singh is the same Teaching as that of the Christ or Kabir or of any other Master. Whatever they gave, He revived this Teaching. You won’t find any difference.
They gave the Bread of Life and Water of Life. He also gave the Bread and Water of Life. By taking it you are automatically detached from the world. The effect of the attachment will not effect you. Then you are free from it. And once you are reborn (in the Spirit), you are a new person. He opens your Third Eye, as it is said in the Bible:
“If thy Eye be single then your whole body
shall be full of light.”
— Matthew 6:22
And then you are reborn. When you are reborn, then you will take the Bread of Life and Water of Life. When you are reborn, you are unlinked from the world, your Contact (with the God Power) is established. When it is established, it is up to you to grow it more and more.
You know, just like a sapling, a little flower, you have to be very careful for the little flower, because a goat or a sheep can eat it. But when you care for it, it will grow like a strong tree. You can tie an elephant and it will not break.
Once you are reborn, then help is there, I tell you. Guidance throughout the life is there. Once Master gives you (the inner contact) He will never leave you, I tell you. You may leave Him, but He will not leave you. Because His hand is very strong. That is the same Hand as that of the Christ, I told you.
“I shall never leave thee, nor forsake thee
till the end of this world.”
— Hebrews 13:5
He will not leave, because He has the most potent Hand.
“Where the world’s philosophy ends,
there the (true) religion starts.”
— Sant Kirpal Singh
He (God) will catch you where?
Beyond the philosophy of the world. There you are bound with that Power with the Soul, with the Spirit. He also knows how to disconnect you from the attachment. He knows all those things. It is the wonderful job He does for the child.
Our Purpose is now to rely the Teaching, the Higher Values of Life, and to discard all other things. Lots of people are coming or pouring in, they teach, this is a good way, that is a good way. After all, how many good ways are there?
There is only one good way you have to follow.
There are many ways to spoil, there are thousand ways to go into the world or spoil our self, but there is only one way to come back. So we have to go through this way. We should remember it.
When Masters come in the world, they say one thing,
“Now it is a Golden Opportunity for all of you.”
A very good idea — Golden Opportunity for all of you, because He comes with all those Powers with Him. There is a demand, there is a supply. This method is always eternal, because nobody can prevent Him giving something. Because …
Spirituality is not taught, but caught.
Thousand people are sitting there, He can give it with attention. His purpose is to deliver those things with attention. He gives it with attention. He knows how to develop the (Inner) Eye, that Eye which can see the glory of God. When He sees the child that it is fit for this work, fit to know himself and to realize his Father, He gives him the Eye. He also does it with attention.
We can deceive the whole world, but we cannot deceive the Power that is within. We cannot deceive the Master Power, God Power. We must know that our contact is with the One who sustains all; in the body and from the same Power we are dependent. We are not dependent on the other forces, I tell you. Masters never say that we should follow them physically, Masters say that we should follow them spiritually, we should follow them with attention.
You know,
Where your attention is, there you must go.
Where there is love, there you will lose the head also.
When you give the heart, you lose the head, then you are a wanderer of the wood, you have nothing to do in the world. You will get the unique thing in the world, I tell you.
While living in the human body, really we have the Golden Opportunity and if this is lost, then we are lost. Body is to be lost, we have to lose the body. But why do we lose ourselves, that is one question? If we lose the body and the soul within, our self within also, it is a misfortune.
Where it is written?
Everywhere it is written, that you should . . .
“Learn to detach consciousness from the matter.”
Matter and consciousness, they are two. By the Grace of the Master they are living together, but if consciousness is withdrawn, matter is no more.
So we are due to whom?
Only due to Him. And this body is due to us (because our consciousness works). So it is a Golden Opportunity. And we have to make the best of this time.
Master says,
“What you have to do tomorrow, do it right now.”
Because that is the most urgent matter we have to do in this world. But now we are fully entangled in these side issues. This is a misfortune. Supposed one has to go tomorrow, what food he has with him? Simply he has to go very heavy-headed.
Master always says,
“Take your every day, every morning
that it is your last day in the world.”
Because nothing is fixed. Though your last day is fixed, but you do not know. So, take every day your last day in the world.