Death — our constant companion

Extract from a talk by Dr Harbhajan Singh, St. Gilgen, 30 September, 1989
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Audio Talk “Death, our constant companion” by Dr Harbhajan Singh (45:00)

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Dear brothers and sisters!

Death is our constant companion: ages upon ages death has not left us. Inspite of this inescapable fact we are not ready to accept this throughout our life. Most of the people say, “Okay, whatever will be, will be.”

Since we came in this world, everyone has to meet this end. We got this body from the world, made from dust and it goes back to dust, but life in it is eternal. It has an unbreakable and constant link with the God Power. Master says, “O God, my contact with you – as I could see – is unbreakable and ever fresh.” That means, once you come in contact with it, you at once recognize the purpose of human life.

This contact gives you consciousness within, and when the soul gets free from the outgoing faculties of the mind, it starts to develop within. Due to the shackles and the vestures the soul is under the impression that it cannot come out. But Masters always helps. Master says,

“The sound, the music of the spheres
that resounds at Thy threshold
and resounds at my forehead
gives constant vibration.
Coming from the source of vibration,
this sound comes in me, touches me inside
and leads me back to the source of vibration.”
— Sant Kirpal Singh

This Source of vibration, the Sound Current in man, reminds us to go back to home eternal and that we are not the inhabitants of this world. We have to leave it – no exception to the rule. We are not the body, we are the indweller of the body. This is a house, built by God Himself. He made the human body and lives in it. No place, no religion, no temple, church, mosque or gurdawara is higher than this holy body. It is called a wonderful house we live in, a true temple of God.

But how can we realize that we are really the temple of God? This secret was ever revealed by those who rose above the plane of senses and the shackles of the mind. They came in contact with the living God in man. All Masters say that we are the living temples of God. There is no other living temple of God on earth. This reminds us of the fact why we came, how we came and what is the purpose of human life. All competent Masters exalt over man as the temple of God, and we should also do so.

Our life in this body may be compared to a bird who perches on a tree; so short is the life in the body. It is for some moments only, not for all the time. It is beyond the knowledge, beyond the intellect of man, as when he has to leave. No one knows when he has to vacate this wonderful house. But it is the truth, it is a fact that one day we will have to vacate it.

A time comes when kings have to vacate their palaces and the poor have to vacate their huts. Just like a bee that enters into the garden, moves from one flower to another flower, so does the man in the body, driven by the senses; both die in despair and no one gets the essence of life.

Napoleon Bonaparte, by whose name whole Europe used to tremble, said when his last hour came, “The same person of whose name the whole earth used to dread cannot even open his eyes. Even if he wants to, he cannot do so at his last end.” So it also happened with Alexander the Great.

I mean to say, there is no higher work, there are no higher values of life than to know ourselves and to know God within. All Masters said in one and the same opinion, “It is thy turn to meet God.” Everything else in the world is a side issue. Masters say, “Do it (fulfill your worldly duties) but keep remembering the purpose of human life.” To remain attached to those (worldly) things is not the purpose of human life. To use those things is no problem but to remain attached to them and to the reactions of those things, is a sin. We are bearing the reactions of whatever our forefathers did, and our children will have to bear the reactions of whatever we will do now.

So Masters teach us how to live in the world, how to remain unattached in the world of attachments. This teaching has been written down with one opinion by all competent Masters of the world because the inner journey is one and the same for everyone. Going back is the same way for all. We all have come from the same source and definitely we have to go back to the same source. It is the real path.

But there is also the other path. We have come from the same source but if we are misled, our way becomes a different one. Having assumed the negative aspect of life without ever having tried to change it, we will go where? We will not go that path where all Masters went with one opinion. They showed us the light within, they showed us the way within. They made us “see”, they made us “hear”, and we realized that we are not the body, but we are the true temple of God.

And we should be in the continuous remembrance of the Master, the continuous remembrance of God within.

We, however, say, “Where is God?” We have a direct and independent contact with God. It is the God Power, the radiant form of the Master which enlivens the body. When this Power leaves, we are no more in the body, then this body is merely dust.

Even at that last moment, when we cannot help ourselves, there is a little time left for us, when we can be helped. If you have a spark of truth, if you have even a spark of realization in you, that can help the soul when you leave the body.
But if you have not got it, if you have been misled and you have never worried to turn your life, you never worried to know yourself, then nobody can blame any other. Nobody can blame God, then one has to curse oneself.

Everyone has to go the same way, no exception to the rule. Those who are learned now, they cannot be illiterate then, and those who are illiterate now, they cannot be learned after death.

So there are very hard and fast rules in the world. Those are laid down by the God Power and are obeyed by both the negative and Positive Power.

This world is a play-field
of the negative and positive power.
Both have their destination fully fixed
and they are doing their utmost.

It is very high time now; having got this human body is the right time to know what is what, to realize what we are and who we are.

It is right, we are the very life in this body but it is said that it must also be witnessed. Unless we come in touch with this, we cannot say we have realized it. Only the Master Power can help us on the very first day and give us an experience. When He raises us above the body-consciousness, then there is no doubt, we trust the word of the Master. As long as you do not come in contact with the true life within, you are direct under the illusion. If whole-heartedly you take up whatever you experience on the level of senses and you start to depend upon those things because you think there is life and joy in them, you are under illusion.

There are so many things to learn. But the next subject will only arise when you start from the home, from yourself.

When you have learned one lesson, then automatically the second lesson will start, then the next one, and so on.

Man must rise above. He must awake and see what the purpose of human life really is.

All holy scriptures contain the experience of the competent Masters. Whatever they saw is there with us in fine records. And that knowledge is from the human body, that is from within. That is also within you. The same experience which Masters got from their body is there within you.

But whatever is in the man-body that does not even exist in all the holy scriptures of the world. This body was called a wonderful house we live in. Wonderful house means that you can perform a wonderful task in it – the most wonderful task is to get the essence of life within.

There is everlasting joy, the source of vibration, there is that holy Light where you can stand without thoughts; there is no time, there is no space.

Those who go there get the eternal life. Why do such souls come into the world again and for what purpose? Those who get that essence of life in the body are withdrawn into the true heaven and from there they need not come again into the man-body – they can be sent. If they are sent into the world, they are sent for a different purpose – not to live like we are living now.

We are identified with the world so much so that we have forgotten ourselves. We are ignorant. Masters tell us, “O soul, you are the indweller of the heaven.” You know nothing about yourself. You have the source of vibration (in you), there is a vibration, an intoxication in you, that is limitless, it never ends.

And so Masters say,

“O soul, you should be ashamed
because you didn’t realize the work
for which you have come into the man-body.”
— Sant Kirpal Singh

How will you call a man who throughout his life works for others but does not work for himself? Either he is very foolish or he is like a child. He is ignorant about the truth.

As long as we are identified with the outgoing faculties of the mind, we are not conscious. Whatever we regard as consciousness, is only on the level of the senses. Intellectually we can be very conscious, but real consciousness is something else.

There is worldly knowledge and there is divine knowledge. Where the world’s philosophies end, there the religion starts. The world’s philosophy ends where you rise above the plane of senses, at the site where we leave the body. At the time of death we withdraw from there and we lose this body.

When the soul withdraws from the lower extremities and comes back to the seat of the soul, from there it takes upward and then inward trend.

Perhaps you have seen a person dying – this is what happens to everybody. One day will come, when it will happen to us also. Have we learned it?

Christ said, “Learn to die so that you may begin to live.” You can learn to die because as the indweller of the body you already live there and with your attention you come down to serve this body. You come down into the body to finish your give-and-take-process in the world and to fulfill your wishes that you created in previous lives. You have come into the world to wind up your karmas, but you have forgotten your purpose.

“O man, when you came into the world,
you gave a promise to the God Power
that this time you will fulfill the wish of the Father.”

The wish of the Father is to have the child back to His fold. How can a father be happy when his child is away from the home?

Our Father has not left us since we came in this world. He is watching our activities and is waiting for our arrival back over here (at the third eye). Death can snatch away the child from the Father. But the Father says, “Come as long as you are in the body so that you will not be touched by any outside effects.” He will make you learn how to rise daily, how to take the cross daily in this life. The teaching is really wonderful because of this experience. This experience is our heritage we are blessed with, and that is commissioned by God Himself. But as this is also a very attractive way of life for the so-called people (who have egoistic motives), lots of people pretend to be Masters.

This way of life is very simple, easy to understand, and easy to follow. It is the truth with which we have a direct link. There is no need of twisting it. But it has been twisted and thus has become very difficult for the people. They wonder whether it is the truth or not and ask, if they can get this experience or not. I tell you, it is not difficult.

The competency of the Master lies in the fact that He is able to give you some experience on the very first day (when you get the initiation). Then He helps you to understand more and more, He helps you to go inside and transcend, and to detach from those very hard facts without which (you think) you cannot live now.

He helps you to live in this world and learn the very art of life. The life of the Saints like Christ, Guru Nanak, or Sant Kirpal Singh was a very easy life, was a life of practice. The competent Masters live for all human beings, they love all children, and have no problem with nations, religions or countries. They come from a region that is beyond transitoriness, and they are limitless.

The attention of the Master goes beyond all barriers, and there is nothing in the world that can prevent it from anything; rather it is able to prevent everything from going its way.

Once this Power takes control of the disciple, it clears the way through all the stages and takes the soul from one step to the next higher step, and with His power He takes the soul back to home eternal.

The competency of the Master lies also in this holy body. It is a very strong fort of the God Power. When you know that your Father is stronger than all forces of the world, you will believe in the competency of the Master. There is no higher power than the power which is in this body.

Our soul is of the same essence as that of God, but being identified with the man-body, the soul has become very weak. But when it gets in a little contact with the source, it immediately gets very strong.

In the holy scriptures you read that by coming in contact with this force, the angle of vision is changed at once.

You experience a very new life within. Some people weep over their misfortune, over their misdeeds they did during their lifetime. They say that it was not a life, but instead all they did was a misfortune. By coming in contact with that Power, our angle of vision is changed. You can get that very thing in one moment which cannot be attained even if you live and seek for it in this world for all the times.

I only tell you about the Grace of the God Power. That Power is innate in the soul since it has created the whole creation. It is the indweller of the highest Heaven which God has made. That very Heaven is above the body-consciousness. If you rise above the body-consciousness and transcend with Master’s help through the third eye, you get the water of life and the bread of life. And this you can get only when you withdraw from the body. The true Heaven can only be reached when you withdraw from the body. But how is it possible to move into the highest Heaven? It is under the control of the Master.

It is said by the competent Masters that the journey which the soul has to experience (after death) is for one year. The soul has to remain with the angel of death, the negative power, for one year. During that time the soul seeks help from the world. The soul’s connection with the world remains for quite a long time.

One year is a pretty long time. Its link (with the world) is disconnected only after one year. Here are the hours, there the are years. The work which we can perform here in some hours, we cannot perform there in many years. So after leaving the body our work becomes very difficult without a competent Master. But when the soul is initiated into the mystery of the beyond by the competent Master, it withdraws and transcends from one plane to another plane and enjoys the bliss of the Master. It goes along with this bliss and is welcome in the Heaven.

I tell you, how the soul is welcome there! Holy scriptures tell us that it is beyond expression. Hundred thousands of people are born into the world and hundred thousands of people leave it again, but a very rare soul goes back to its home eternal. And that one who goes is welcome by gods, goddesses, and avataras. All those forces start celebrations in their regions just to welcome that one who is coming from the lower to the higher stages.

What do they say? Even the gods and goddesses pray to such a holy person, “Please, speak to your Master about our destiny that we may also be taken back!” But only the human being can go back, even gods and goddesses do not have this possibility. They have different duties to do. They are bound to work for man as servants of this holy human body.

Also avataras come into the world
to work as servants of man.
They keep the universe in order,
so their function is very different,
and they are not blessed as man is blessed.

My purpose is to say all this as we do not know the price of this man-body which has been given to us. What are we spending it for – for nothing! We don’t get its price back, we even lose each and everything. A time comes when we have to give it away. It becomes a useless vessel where Master cannot put anything inside. Normally, you clean a vessel and then only you put the milk into it, otherwise the milk will be split.

Those people who deny death, deny life. Those who accept it, also get the life. Anyhow, whether in the body or after leaving the body, a disciple of a real Master has the eternal life.

Outside we only see that someone is withdrawing from the body, but with the help of the Master it is very charming and beautiful. For such souls who go back with the help of the Master, who are given that experience to leave the body, there is nothing to worry about. Such souls can reveal the truth to others.

You can become a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan, you can guide humanity while you are in the body. And you can become a conscious co-worker on the higher planes and work with the Master and help the Master after you have left the body. In both ways you have sweets in your hands.

Under the protection of a competent Master one has not to die but one has to decide to go back. Such one is not forced to die but decides to go back. When Master appears and takes charge of the soul, definitely one has to go. This is the high time in the life of a disciple.

Many, many instances have happened in India. Long before they left the body such disciples foretold the exact day and time when they would go, and they said lots of things in the praise of the Master. There is no one in the world to prevent them from their path or to create any problem on their path.

Their give-and-take-process is finished, and the way is clear for them – they can go or they can come back. Blessed are those who have solved the mystery of death. There is nothing higher than that; it is the only thing of real value. During this sojourn of the Master, my main purpose and my main wish was to be with dying persons. I was happy to be of help to them, and that helped me very much.

How you can reveal this mystery is within your control. When the child accepts it (the truth), the Father comes to help. Work out a plan (for your life), then you are a wise son of the Father, and your Father can support you. He can give you help to work it out, when you have worked it out in a beautiful way, Master Power will give you something to start with it.

It is a very high time to accept the thing (you have heard) — for what? For our soul, which is kept in this very tight cage — imprisoned in the body in misery and distress.