Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am speaking to you from Ruhani Satsang, Sawan Ashram, Delhi, on this auspicious day of the Birth Anniversary of the Great Master Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj. I had the privilege of sitting at His holy feet for over 24 years. Many people are said to have seen Him. But very few were there who really saw Him in His Pristine glory.
Some people saw Him from a physical point of view, working as an ideal householder, some as a good world citizen helping all high and low in their various status of life by word and example, The others saw Him as an intellectual man, finding out the same Truth garbed in the holy scriptures of all denomination viz., Hindus, Sikhs, Mohammedans and others and laying the same before the seekers after Truth. They saw Him from their different angles of vision.
Very few were there who saw what He actually was. Just as one day Jesus asked the disciples as to who the Son of man was. All present there did not recognize Him. It was Simon who saw Him in His true self, and said “Thou art Christ, the son of the living God.”
Christ said,
“Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven.
And I say to thee, Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
— Matthew 16:18
Further it is spoken of Philip that he said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Farther, and it sufficeth us.”
Jesus grew indignant at his demand and said to him.
“Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;
and how sayest thou then, ‘show us the Father’ ?
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself;
but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me.”
— John 16:8-11
Guru Arjan of the Sikhs also spoke in the same terms.
“I have the highest abode, and have innumerable words to live in.
My rule reigns throughout the universe. All creation is subject to me.
People sing my praises from home to home, and people owe their loving devotion
to me in all the world over.
My Father has appeared in me and Father and the son both are working as one.
O Nanak! Father was pleased so much so that
Father and the son have taken the same colour.”
— Bhairon Mohalla 5
One night I and Dr. Julian Johnson both were sitting at the feet of Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj. He was in a gracious mood. He said,
“Whenever we come, we bring our working staff with us.
When we have done our work allotted to us successfully at one tour,
we are sent to the other fields.”
How beautifully He puts His coming to the world, though in very sweet terms full of humility, giving an inkling that He came with an authority from God.
Kabir also said in the same way.
“We are the knowers of the mystery of the Most High
and have brought the orders of the God
to be given to the world at large.”
Baba Sawan Singh was not a man of the world, and was not bound to the bondage of the body. He used to leave the world and its environments and traverse to the higher planes at Will whenever He wanted. He gave eyes to the seekers coming up to Him so as to see the Light of God and strength to enable them to rise into the higher planes. He was Word-Personified and dwelt amongst us. He was Love-Personified. He was an incarnation of Peace and Joy. Blessed were they who sat at his holy feet or whom He took under His care, and who sought Him and Him alone.
The Great Master preached with a clarion voice that there are thousands of lovers in all denomination, seeking the same beloved God. Although, there are different religions, but they all aim at the same common Goal before us. In fact there is one Truth working in all. The differences in religions are man made, due to the various customs and climatic conditions but their main purpose is the same. His aim was to unite all humanity into one Whole. Unfortunately due to the bigotry and narrow-mindedness brothers are being separated from brothers.
The Great Master made a common ground for all high or low to sit together in His holy presence, irrespective of any caste, creed or colour and work to see God. Thousands of people of all castes, creed and colours ran up to Him from far and wide for spiritual satisfaction. I remember at one monthly gathering I went to the common kitchen where all the visitors were served food free of charge, to find out as to what quantity of salt was spent in preparation of the pulses in one day–and I found more than ten maunds (approx. 373 kg or 820 lbs) of salt was spent that day. Just imagine how strong the gathering would have been!
He revived the Science of Surat Shabd Yoga, which was lost sight of by even the present preachers of all religions. He taught practically self-analysis viz., to liberate the soul from the bondage of mind and matter and know oneself and know God, by contacting the soul with the Divine link of Naam or the Word within every man which is the way back to God.
There is a search in every heart to find out permanent peace and joy. He seeks it in objects of the senses and he fails. There are some requirements for achieving the object of life, viz., contacting God within. The seeker should be desirous of seeing God. His heart has become dissatisfied with the worldly attachments which are temporary and turns to find things everlasting, not subject to decay.
For this purpose a Living Teacher is needed. This aim cannot be achieved by simply reading the Holy Scriptures. Those books give experience of what the Masters, who came in the past, had on their way back to God. They are worth tons in gold no doubt, but this is a practical subject of self-analysis and rising into the Beyond, the practice of which can only be learnt from a Living Master.
Mere devotion to the past Gurus and Teachers whom we have not seen in person cannot help us in that way. We might contact the Great Masters when we learn to transcend into the Beyond. When we meet such a Living Master we must have full faith in His wisdom and competency as faith is the root-cause of all religions.
We need not have blind faith. Try to grasp the theory first, as theory precedes practice. When you are satisfied with the theory, you may take up the way as an experimental measure. When you receive first-hand experience, however little it may be, from the Living Master, you will be confident to develop the same from day to day by regular devotion of time to the spiritual practices.
The devotion of time to the spiritual practices with loving devotion and full faith in the Master will give you splendid progress from day to day. He has to develop love and esteem of the Master by implicit obedience to His Commands — as Jesus said,
“If ye love me keep my Commandments.”
— John 14:15
In this way you will develop receptivity to receive the grace of the Master in abundance. Jesus pressed the need of developing love of the Master so as to receive full benefit from the Master. He said,
“Abide in me and I in you.
As the branch can not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine,
no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches:
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit
for without me ye can do nothing.”
— John 15:4-5
St. Paul states about his love of the Master which gave him a sense of Oneness with Him.
“I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me.”
Hafiz, a Mohammedan Saint spoke in the same terms —
“The Master has filled me so much so
that I have forgotten the existence of my very self.”
As you think so you become. The Master leaves the body at will and traverses to the high planes. By developing intense love with the Master, your soul will begin to leave the body of itself without any strenuous efforts on your part.
Master Sawan Singh Ji when shaking off His mortal coil, ordered me to start a common ground on which all seekers after truth of all denominations should sit together. So to say to start a school or college of ethical life and spirituality wherein all can find a golden opportunity to develop spirituality while living in their social religions. That is what you find in Spiritual Satsangs now before you.
As Master Sawan Singh Ji loved me I also have love for you. Abide in the love of the Master and you will be amply rewarded in the spiritual way. My hearty love and best wishes are ever with you.
July 21, 1954
Kirpal Singh