By Dr Harbhajan Singh
(from “Sayings of Sant Kirpal Singh” edition 1989-1)
The Teaching of the competent Master is not taught, but caught. And when it is caught, it has a direct effect on the heart. Heard through the ears, it vibrates through the soul. Those who feel that contact, they will definitely get consciousness. With little consciousness, you stand on your feet. But more grace comes, the grace multiplies, consciousness multiplies.
Who is the Master – who can lead us on the higher path? It is a very big secret because those who claim themselves to be a Master, as per holy scriptures, they can never be the Master. Those who see that their Father is doing, can never claim that they themselves are doing. When they see that their Father is the doer they can never become the doer. But those who do not see their Father — they always say they are the ‘master’ and therefore they are the ‘doer’.
Guru Nanak was asked, “Who is your Master?”
He answered,
“The Word is my Master
and the soul in the body is the disciple.”
The same question was put to Kabir. Clarifying more, He said:
“Soul in the body is the disciple and the Word resounding within
is the Master, and to have a contact within is the subject.
The radiant form of the Master (Gurudev) within is the Master.”
— Kabir
And that Power is the Christ Power which never leaves. That has created the whole world and is sustaining it. He is responsible for the Creation. If that Power withdraws, then there is a dissolution — a Grand Dissolution.
When Guru Gobind Singh was asked, He said one and the same. He said,
“The Creator who came into the world to establish it
is my Master and I feel my contact with Him.
There is only one Master and we are the children of Him.
There is no second Master in the world.
This Christ Power, God Power, or Master Power is the Master.”
— Guru Gobind Singh
This is the Higher Value of Life. People in the world are identified with the physical ‘masters’. If they say they are masters, then they rely on it. But He who has the permission and who has got the power, He would never say that He is the Master, because He begs something from the Higher Power, or that Power gives it directly.
I told you, that Master said,
God takes the work in three ways:
1. He prepares someone and then takes the work;
2. He guides someone and takes the work;
3. He sits within and takes the work.
And that one, in whom He sits to take the work, is the blessed one because he can never be in error. He is simply the Mouthpiece (Gurmukh) of that Power and he has to say only what his Father says. He does not speak from himself. He just works like a pipe — water comes through and He is afraid that this water may not be controlled. He is dependent upon that water that overflows. He is dependent upon His Father, I tell you! He is never independent. He is the borrowed servant of His Master.(1)
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Now everywhere in the world much propaganda is going on. I think it never was like this before. Even at the time of Master there was not so much as it is now. Everybody claims something. But we must know what we need for us. You should see what you are going to get from them. You can analyse, “Is it food for the mind or is it food for the soul?” You can verify these systems by way of intellect as well.
Master says,
“There are very rare (spiritual) personalities in the world.”
To know such a personality is a matter of experience. About the theoretical aspect of life everybody says one and the same thing. But when they give, they give something else. They teach something but they are not able to give anything; if they give you something, they will give you something very cheap.
You know, if a friend of you comes and says, “Okay, this thing is lying there for you, but don’t look into it,” habit is to open it and look into it to see what is there. It is a man’s habit. We say, “Okay, let us see what is there.” But I tell you — let them open it and give it to you.
Therefore, I would request those who are new that they should come regularly to the Satsang. They should have a ruling passion to gain the higher values of life. But if someone has a good thing with him (if he has found something better), he should tell and we will follow him.
When Master gave the initiation and He used to say,
“I have given to you and I have told you each and
everything whatever my Master has given to me.
If you have anything better than that, please,
don’t go alone, take me also with you.
But you can get this only when you rise above the
plane of the senses, when you leave the outgoing
faculties of the mind, rise above the body-consciousness
and you are no more in the body.”
Master’s experience is to take you above the body-consciousness to the tenth door where you enter when you are leaving the body. Master takes you to that door (the Third Eye) on the very first day and it is opened unto you.
There are lots of ways, thousands of ways to start here (at the seat of the soul) and come back into the body and a lot of ways will open to you. You can lose the whole of your life but still you are only wandering in the chakras of the physical body. You cannot get rid of the body. Such a person has very difficult periods in his life. The soul wants to transcend but one has only learned how to go back into the body. So when this system (of the physical body) breaks, one loses his life forever, and remains in those spheres forever.
All these philosophies written by such ‘masters’ only keep us in the man-body. Only the philosophy taught by Christ and all other competent Masters will take you above the body-consciousness on the very first sitting, on the very first demonstration that will open your Third Eye and will make you reborn — reborn in the next world. When you come back you feel that you are reborn, you have a fresh life. You have something which you could see with the help of the Master; that is not your work, it is the work of the Master. All other work is your personal work. To come back into the body, you don’t need the help of anybody; it is very easy to come there. The negative power says, “Everyone should accept and come here.” It is no problem to come into their spheres, and the whole world is meditating on it, I tell you.
Blessed are the very few persons who have learned the art of life. They know what is what, what is good and what is bad for them and where this system will take them. They know each and everything. If you look at their disciples: when they die, they die the death of an ordinary person. Whereas, the disciple of a competent Master is going back with the help of the Master, and he will even give you a lesson.
He will say,
“I am going, please, my Master is not only the
physical Master, He is the Word-personified form,
He is here and He is everywhere, and He helps
the soul till He takes the soul back into the Beyond
(the eternal Home).”
He doesn’t leave us.
“I shall never leave thee nor forsake thee
till the end of the world,”
that is what Christ said.
There (on the Third Eye) only you can get the Bread of Life and the Water of Life, and nowhere in the body. The body needs the physical world and the physical water. Your soul is thirsty, and for how long has it been thirsty? Since it came into the world it has been thirsty and hungry, and we have not given food to the soul. Once it comes into contact with the water of life and the bread of life, your angle of vision will change, and then Master’s work starts.
If you want to see the Master as God, then do whatever He wants from you. Take a step and see His glory within. I tell you He is somewhat very different; He is not simply the body. He exists everywhere. He is not the Master of a few people of the world, He is the Master of the whole world.
When Master visited Pakistan, a muslim who was in search of God told the people that inside he is getting the form of one gentleman: He was Sant Kirpal Singh. When Master visited Pakistan, he said that “He is that person” although he had never seen Him before. There are many examples, I tell you. I gave those examples a lot of times in the Satsang, and you can read them.(2)
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You need the help of such a person who is your first companion here and afterwards. He may leave the body but He will not leave you. He is the Master of His own word. If He says something, then He fulfills it. He will never give you a wrong information. He will never give you a wrong promise. He will only give you that very promise which is divine in nature, and that exists within you. He never tells you something that is not within you. He does not simply tell the theory, He will only tell you what comes out of practice.
Christ was such a personality, Guru Gobind Singh was such a personality. Kabir came, Guru Nanak came, Maulana Rumi and all other Masters came like this. But if you have to rise above the body-consciousness you must follow exactly what is written in the Holy Scriptures and not what is going on in the world.
What is being taught in the world?
You read the Bible, you read Guru Grant Sahib — where are these different yogas?
Accept that Light and Sound Principle! But even all those yogas and inferior types of meditations are condemned for all the times to come. It can be the subject of those persons who want to influence the individuality in the heart of other people. They want to flourish with ego, they want to become the doer. They suffer and make all other people suffer. They create suffering in the world. Their purpose is lost and their work for all others, too. I tell you, this dirty game is being played in this play-field everywhere. And who is the winner? No one is the winner, everyone is the loser.
You may put thousand questions, the answer is there. But if you put one unique question to these people, they will not answer you. They will divert your attention, in lovable ways they will try to attract your attention. By the various influences they got while doing their kind of meditation they can convince a weak person, but not a person who has a little bit of right understanding. So knowing the right purpose of human life is a must.
Now if you want to know or if you want to realize how your Father loves you, that is a wonderful thing. This will give you a vibration. Even after years you remember that. This vibration will stand there, it will not leave you. One instance of the Master given to you as a gift will serve you throughout your life. And for that reason He keeps the soul with Him. He binds the soul of His child with the Father, this is His work. It is a time to be sole and wholly with Him and forget what is going on in the world. We are born in this world to be out of the world.
And we came with the promise that we will fulfill it. If we are born into the world to live (a worldly life) in the world, we are the sinner, we are the loser, and the Father is never happy.
We need Master as what He was and what He still is. He was a man but when He gave the practical experience, people took Him as Word-personified form. When He started to guide the souls, they took Him as radiant form of the Master. Then He makes the soul merge into the Ocean of Grace, overflowing and rowing through the gushing Light and going towards the Godhood. That is His work that takes us back to the destination, and we lose the identity there.(3)
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Question: How to come in contact with the Master and to rise above body-consciousness?
So far this contact is not there, you should not believe anybody. There are a hundred thousand masters — whom do you believe? They all claim to be the Master. That one, however, who gives you that practical experience, He is the servant of the Master. He would never say that He is the Master, I tell you.
So you need a contact. Contact is a thing which is blessed by the Master. Don’t search for the Master, but pray for a contact, pray for His grace. He is within, He will arrange it for you. A blind person cannot search the other one. It is the one who has eyes, he will find you.
How can you find a Master?
Is there something written on His forehead?
In the Guru Grant Sahib it is said,
“Those who claim themselves as Master,
they are never a Master.”
Even Master said,
“Even those who are perfect Masters say,
that they are sinners.”
They called themselves sinners, they only got the help of their Master, and they became “man” in the world.
One person came to me and told me lots of things; really he had digested the theoretical aspect of life. He said, “I am ready (for initiation).” — He who says, “I am ready,” he is not ready.
He had come to India for that, but I said, “I will give you the initiation after six months.” I said, “This is how a true experience must be: Someone is needed who withdraws you through the Third Eye.” I told him each and everything, how the experience would be, and said, “You go and search a Master (who can give you that experience).”
He went and came again after three months. He had gone to many masters, but each one had said, “This experience is not possible on the very first sitting; this needs a meditation of many, many years.”
I said, “Now you can have it – sit and have it,” and he got that experience.
This credit goes to the Master, I tell you. How can a servant call himself Master when he knows, when he sees that his Master is there, that his Master is working through him? How can he take him(self) as Master?
Master is the Power, Christ Power, that is within you and the same Power is in the Master. We need a contact with it. Now there are thousands of masters, a hundred thousand masters, but teaching tells us that…
“There is none in a Million,
maybe one in a Billion.”
How you can recognize that one, who exists in one Billion?
That has become a problem for the world. That is what I have been telling you for the last many many years,
“Those, who do not get the experience from anywhere,
they should come and have that experience;
everyone is getting it.”
— Dr Harbhajan Singh
Those who leave the body, they are guided, they tell beforehand that they are going.
What more is needed? It is the solution to our problem.
Today I could not tell you much about the Higher Values of Life, time is too short. We can read more about it in Master’s books. Beautiful references are there because He was practical in all. Theory came out of the practical and not the practical through theory. Practical is there first, theory is there afterwards. You need the experience.
Who is the Master?
The radiant form of the Master (Guru Dev) is the Master. Masters of the higher category all told one and the same thing — that radiant form of the Master within is the Master. If you see Him within and also see Him outside, then He is the Master. If He is able to give that contact with that radiant form of the Master, He is the Master, but He would never say that He is the Master.
I tell you, these so-called ‘masters’ are doing for themselves.
Do you find anyone who is working for Master, for Him, for God?
The Holy Scriptures say, “Is there anyone who is working for God, who is doing His work?” People do their own work. Grace is there for that person who does His work.
I see my Father working everywhere, in each one. While giving initiation, He does a wonderful job with each one.
He (Master) told me,
“Your work is in the outside, mine is inside.”
How beautiful it is!
The whole world is being manipulated by this problem that exists in the world, that exists due to the (so-called) ‘masters’, I tell you.
Never did a competent Master create a religion whatsoever. Religion came into being only after the physical departure of those Masters by the so-called followers of the faith.
Now these religions are being multiplied like anything, man is dividing day by day. Problems are forwarding, problems are not minimizing.
Everyone says that his master is right, his master is greater — but God is greater. (It seems) that Power has left us altogether. We are not working for that Power, we are working for those physical masters, I tell you. It is a big slap on our part what the people are doing because they are miserably misled by these so-called ‘masters’. Those who claim themselves to be Masters, they never can be. Only with ego one can say, he is a Master. It is the ego that is working in them and that makes them claim themselves to be Masters.
Question: What about the experience of light without initiation?
That is the background. But without the attention of the Master, that can also bring a negative effect. You need the guidance, because in this body there is pitch-darkness. Without the holy Light, you cannot move forward. A stage comes when the soul has its own light, that of the sixteen suns, and without the Master a pitch-darkness is there. When our Third Eye is opened, the light, entering through the Third Eye, that light, which shows us the way, that is the holy Light.
Light below the seat of the soul is negative. That takes us only into the body and what we realize out of this light is illusion. When you are reborn, immediately that Light guides you within. And when are you reborn? When you rise (above) the plane of the senses and the Third Eye is opened; the Light that immediately starts within, that is the holy Light that works wonders.
Comment: He means that first you have to know your body, you must know your feelings and he thinks that it is very dangerous to think about going above body-consciousness, and it may even be you get mental.
You can get mental while being in the body, but when you leave the body you will not get mental.
Who is mental?
He who is not conscious. By this teaching which has been given to you I have told all about consciousness, and how to leave the mind, to leave the intellect, to leave the outgoing faculties of the mind — where is the problem then? Where is the mental problem there? You rise above those problems. There is life in it, I tell you.
One gets mental when one is not conscious. When one is conscious, there is no disease any more.
If you have any problem, do you pray somewhere?
You pray to the Overself and if you contact that Overself — God, then what will happen with you, tell me? Just to get rid of this problem you pray to this Overself. You pray to God and that Overself is there. If you get in touch with that Power, all your problems will go.
How can you feel it?
I tell you, this is not a worldly subject, it is not a bodily subject; this is entirely a different subject. That is a subject of your own. Try to understand, read some more Holy Scriptures, read the Bible if you can. Try to understand those teachings by sitting in the company of those who have solved the mystery of death. Only then you can understand. It is not a worldly subject, it is above the worldly level. When you are mental, your eyes are blind, but if your eye is opened — what a vast difference! It is a difference like that of earth and sky.
You may put thousand questions — the answer is there because you are the source of that answer. The reality is in you. It is no problem; we simply have to come in close contact. You need many things to digest, I tell you. This is only a first subject that has been given. If you digest the Higher Values of Life, you don’t try to get Initiation. If you really know the higher values of life, you will weep and cry for initiation.
Such persons should come forward who have the Higher Values of Life; they solve the mystery of death for themselves and they work for thousands of people. They can save the lives of thousand people, because then your spirit, your soul will manifest in the world. Now your mind is identified with the world. When your soul will start to identify with the world, you will work for others, you will help others.
Spirituality is not taught but caught.
You cannot get this initiation right now or after some time. You have to digest many things. It is a little intoxication (that you feel), but you need much intoxication. By knowing those things you are intoxicated; without initiation you get some drops of intoxication that will work wonders in you and that will give you eternal life. Initiation is a different thing, I tell you. If you only know the higher values of life and you self-introspect yourself, you will become a wonderful man in the world. You should first forget the Master and the initiation; first you should develop yourself. Master says,
“Wanted reformers, but not of others, but of themselves.”
So I would request you: the Higher Values of Life are innate in each one of us. If we make the best use of those values, we can become (true) men in the world, and only thereafter contact (with the God Power) is possible, not beforehand. This is possible, that is given to all, no problem, but only to the one who is fully prepared, not beforehand. This is not the work of one day. The more you become receptive, the more easily it is given. If you don’t become receptive throughout your life, this God Power will not help you at all. You have to be receptive for it. How is it possible otherwise? This is another subject, this is not a subject that can be forced on you. It is your own heritage that you have to get back.(4)
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Question: Without initiation has one not got so much of Master’s love and protection?
No, definitely you would have both, it is up to you how you take the Master. It is up to the individual how he takes the Master. You know, Master got that Power directly, it is His experience. He prayed to the God Power to manifest in Him and He gives His glorious vision within, and He got it. It is a matter of yearning. He comes to those who yearn for Him. He has not to come from outside, He is already within. Master said,
“There is no non-initiate in the world.”
— Sant Kirpal Singh
But those who got (the contact directly) like this, they had different qualifications.
Something more: the Master’s view is to give a general Right Understanding everywhere. And those with Right Understanding will definitely get together. They won’t tolerate the indifferent attitude of the world.
So the teaching deals with Right Understanding. Those who are gifted with it, they need not worry. They may live anywhere — they are attached with Him. There are many incidences that happened during the time of the Master and even after the physical departure of the Master.(5)
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Master used to love all people. This you learn from His teaching. And those who have seen Him practically, they know how He used to behave to others.
It is just like travelling in a train: all those travellers are sitting there talking and lovably they make their journey together. Though someone drops out at this station and the other at that station, they have love (for each other). But to go to the right destination — the higher destination — we have to read in the same class, and that is a must.
Question: Is this meditation, which you told us about, only possible after initiation?
Yes — otherwise it would be a direct grace from the Master. Protection is a must. If He gives you direct contact, His protection is also a must, because without Initiation you cannot get free from the sphere of the negative power.
These things go side by side. The negative power is not far away, the positive power is also not far away. Mind is there, soul is there — both are there in the body.
Question: When does one know that he is initiated?
I tell you, there are very hard and fast rules for meditation. When you fulfill those rules, then you will be given. If Master has authorized someone (to give the instructions for Initiation), it is still His work. Master does it.
When you are initiated, you should think that you are initiated, because through initiation you can be helped. A real Satsangi is one who becomes the conscious co-worker of the divine plan. But you know, once one has been initiated, Master takes the karma of the disciple and then He is responsible for us. So we have to prepare ourselves for our selection.
When Initiation is given physically, you should think that you belong to the Master (God Power) and not to the world. You are initiated! It is a positive proof that you are being given something to start there. What more experience do you need? Master gives something to everybody to start with. That is initiation. If you go to a so-called ‘master’ you don’t get anything; it is no initiation. Contact with Light and Sound Principle is Initiation.(6)
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Comment: Master said, “No one will ever love you as I do — why then go to someone else (after Master’s physical departure)?”
Yes, this is right. Whatever we tell you is right. We always say that Master has not left. We simply have to do.
In 1976, I was in Mexico and spoke with the group-leader there. I asked her about these people, about the disciples, “Are you making Satsang?” Yes, she was making Satsang. “What about their experiences?” She answered, “No, I am not giving instructions for meditation.” — “You are not giving further initiation, that is all right, but what about the meditation?”
She said, “No, I am very much afraid of it. I dare not do it.” I told her, “Did Master write you any letter saying, ‘I am leaving the body and you stop the work?’” She answered, “No.”
I told her, “Master told me, ‘I have not left the body and I will not leave the body, and my work will go on like this.’ So, you please start, if you follow my advice! These are not my words, they come from the Master.” She said, “No, I will not do it.” Then I said, “If you don’t do, I will do it!”
There were twenty-four persons. I said, “Okay, you have instructions from the Master — let us sit in meditation.” Only three persons could get a very weak light and all other persons could not get any experience. Then I asked each one, “What was the problem with you?” Everyone whom I asked told his problems (during the meditation): “I could not concentrate, and so on.”
So next day, maybe at the same time, many more came. Only three or four persons had weak light; all others got beautiful experiences. Some saw the sun or the moon. They were all old initiates who had those experiences. There was so much grace of the Master.
Then next day nearly seventy persons came, and I told the group-leader, “You are not the doer — Master is the Doer. You are given some duties, you have only to oblige to the Master. Now it is time. Don’t forget that Master has not given you any instruction to leave the work. Go on with it! If you do it, Master will give due consideration — don’t worry and come up! You are not even the mediator, He is everything, He is the Doer.”
She told me, no, she was very much afraid. I said to her, “After all, if Master has to work directly, then there is no need (for a Master), He can take up all the karmas of the whole world and can take everyone back. It is a law. He needs some persons (to work for Him). He has already multiplied His hands, and He doesn’t want to finish with it. Why then do you finish with it?” I told her lots of things, but nothing could go into her head.
Then many persons, also new ones, came there. I told them all to sit in meditation. There was also a boy — hardly eleven or twelve years old — he could not get any place, as there were nearly seventy persons sitting in meditation. So he was sitting in the door. Afterwards I inquired all what experiences they had got; all people had made beautiful experiences.
When I asked this boy, he said, “I could not get any experience, but I saw the Master with open eyes. Master passed through the door where I was sitting, and His feet touched my knees. From here Master went to this place over there where an old woman was sitting, and He touched her forehead.”
This woman was not initiated. I said to her, “Mother, did you get some experience?” She answered, “Yes, it was like this, that there was a darkness and thereafter sky came, and then I could not concentrate.” I asked her, “And what happened then?” She said, “Then stars and the moon came, but I could not concentrate. I am very unfortunate that I could not concentrate.“ I asked her, what had happened next. Then she said, that the sun came, but she could not concentrate. I said to her, “Master came and you could not talk to Him.” — “Yes, yes, this thing also happened!”
I asked her, “You witnessed the Master all the time?” She answered, “Yes, when meditation was given, then at once the Master was there, and He was always there. Then He touched the forehead of someone; it was a man.”
This man told that Master did not come to him, but this group-leader appeared to him. “She smiled a little bit and then her whole face was turned, and she went into the Master — and Master appeared. (She had become one with Master).” I asked the group leader, “Is this experience right?” She answered, “Yes, it is right, I will do it in future.” (7)
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Sant Kirpal Singh was such a personality, who used to give the experience on the very first sitting. And this credit goes to Him, when now it is also possible on the very first sitting, as He used to give before. It is due to His promise, it is due to His guarantee that He gave.
His work still goes on, and this work is for everybody. The Master of all human beings is one and the same, that is this Word within. If Master is there in a human pole, and He gives you some experience to rise above the body-consciousness, and opens your Third Eye, then you take Him as “Word-made-flesh.”
When He starts to guide you within on the higher planes, you realize Him as the “Radiant Form of the Master.”
When He merges your soul back into the Ocean of Grace and there you ride into the Ocean overflowing, rowing through the gushing light, going back home. That is His work. It is not a little work, it is a big work, but that is very easy with one who is competent.
He does this job wonderfully. It is His work, He does it, and He comes for all human beings, I tell you. But He would never say, that He is a Master. Those who claim to be Masters, they are never Masters.
The one, who can give you the experience, He is a servant of God, He is the servant of His Master. When you know that your Father is working, your Father has made all, you would never say, “This is my work.” You would always say, “This is the outcome of my Father.” Those who see that their Father is working, they would never say that it is he himself who is working.
It is a Universal Teaching, and your contact
with the God Power is direct and independent.
If this contact is given to you, it is a blessing.(8)
References:
1 from tape 52/88 – 17.07.88
2 from tape 40/88 – 10.07.88
3 from tape 41/88 – 10.07.88
4 from tape 43/88 – 11.07.88
5 from tape 28/88 – 03.07.88
6 from tape 29/88 – 03.07.88
7 from tape 33/86 – 27.07.86
8 from tape 43/88 – 11.07.88