From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Mon May 31 04:22:29 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: "Godman" - Kirpal Singh (1/10)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 31 May 1999 11:22:29 GMT





                                 GODMAN

                                   by

                              KIRPAL SINGH

                                [Part 1]


                    No man knoweth the Son, but the
                    Father; neither knoweth any man
                    the Father save the Son, and he to
                    whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

                                                MATTHEW 11:27


                          First Edition, 1967
                          Second Edition, 1971
                           (not copyrighted)
                          


                               Dedicated
                            to the Almighty God
                working through all Masters who have come
                      and Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj
                            at whose lotus feet
                     the author imbibed sweet elixir of
                            Holy Naam - the Word




                              INTRODUCTION

          ACCORDING to some religious traditions we are living in
        the Kali Yuga - the final age of development on earth.
        People of all sorts and needs are entering society to make
        the final attempts toward Divine Realization. Central to
        these efforts to expand consciousness naturally is the Guru.

          The Guru is much more than teacher in our sense, rather he
        is "The Spiritual Father." This enlightened presentation of
        the Guru should clear up many questions which have arisen in
        the minds of those who have their feet on the Path.

          One vital point for the religious seeker today is the need
        for a Guru. One might say that the "Inner Guru" is the ultimate
        refuge; why bother to search in that jungle outside for a Living
        Guru?

          True, the Inner Guru is the ultimate refuge; but in our age
        we all too often find the inner world a confusing labyrinth while
        the external world is our familiar playground. It is for this
        reason, to provide pathways through this labyrinth, that this
        book is so vitally necessary for our time. We are here told how
        to find our way among the welter of teachers and sects to find
        the True Guru, the Sant Satguru - the Inner Light and Word.

          Even for the intellectually oriented western mind, these
        discourses on the Guru enlighten us on one major mystery which
        the Christian Church finds insoluble. That is, how can the
        incarnation be both God and man? This problem is solved here and
        in a most universal way, clear and timely for our age, yet as an
        answer very ancient to India.

          The universality of this message cannot help but be a benefit
        to our age and be the groundwork for a much needed universality
        in religion. I would certainly commend this to every seeker.

                                                WILLIAM BEIDLER, PH.D.
                                                Department of Philosophy
                                                Queens College
                                                Charlotte, North Carolina




                              AUTHOR'S PREFACE

          FOR TWENTY-FOUR short, beautiful, inspiring years, it
        was my blessing to be under the love, guidance, and
        protection of a Godman, Supreme Master Hazur Baba Sawan
        Singh Ji Maharaj.

          Introducing the zealous seeker after Truth to a Godman
        is answering the perennial queries:
                
                What is God?

                How can His creation know Him?

          It is my privilege to relate the mission of a Godman:
        Commissioned from above to give free to suffering humanity
        the gift of Naam (Shabd) the effulgent melody - the symphonic
        radiance which leads the jiva (embodied soul) back to his
        Father's Home.

          If only the atman (soul) could be contacted with the Shabd
        this "string from the Nameless Lord" would lead to His door.
        But the spiritual faculties are so fogged and cloaked with
        gross coverings of mind and maya (illusion), that even though
        Shabd is reverberating within and around, the Soul cannot hear
        Its music nor see Its glory. How can man once again revive
        his link with his Maker?

                Dhur Khasme Ka Hukam Paya;
                Bin Satguru Chaitya Na Jai.

                (Such is the Will of the Lord; He cannot be
                  known except through a living Satguru.)

                                                VAR BIHAGRA 556

          Without the enlivening touch from the living Satguru, the
        soul cannot awaken from Its slumber and get attuned to Naam.

        We are familiar with:

                In the beginning was the Word ...
                And the Word was God.

        And:

                Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

          So, Godman is the Word, the Logos, the Naam (Shabd),
        the Kalma, the Akash-Bani, the Sraosha, and the Udgit
        of the various religions of the world.

          To the lovers of the Scriptures, the explanation is
        given of scriptural limitations.

          To those who adore past Saints, historical evidence
        is given on their just immortality.

          His controlling power and solicitude inspire the jiva
        to surrender at his feet to be forever guided by his Word.

          May the indefatigable seeker after the Mystery of Life
        find eternal rest in his Naam.

                                                      KIRPAL SINGH



                             TABLE OF CONTENTS


        	Introduction 

        	Author's Preface

                1.  Guru: What He Is
                2.  Guru is Shabd 
                3.  Gradations in Mastership
                4.  Guru: One or Many 
                5.  Present Master 
                6.  The Need of a Master 
                7.  Past Saints 
                8.  Without a Guru All is Darkness
                9.  Historical Evidence 
               10.  Before and After Guru Nanak
               11.  Scriptures and Their Value 
               12.  Guru is Superman or Godman
               13.  Master and the Homegoing of Jivas
               14.  Master and His Mission 
               15.  Master and His Work 
               16.  Master and His Duties 
               17.  Guru is Godman 
               18.  Gurudev 
               19.  Perfect Master
               20.  How to Find a Perfect Master and Know Him
               21.  His Life and Conduct
               22.  The Physical Form of the Master
               23.  The Influence of the Master
               24.  Oneness of Guru, Gurudev, Satguru & Malik
               25.  The Nature of Oneness
               26.  The Blessings of God and the Master
               27.  The Solicitude of the Master 
               28.  Master and the Controlling Power 
               29.  Surrender to the Master
               30.  The Words of the Master




                Thou art the pilgrim's Path, the blind man's Eye,
                The dead man's Life; on Thee my hopes rely;
                If Thou remove, I err, I grope, I die.

                Disclose Thy sunbeams, close Thy wings, and stay;
                See, see how I am blind, and dead, and stray;
                Oh Thou, that art my Light, my Life, my Way.

                                                  FRANCIS QUARLES



                                  GODMAN

                                CHAPTER ONE

                             GURU: WHAT HE IS


                'Tis much that man was made like God, before,
                But, that God should be made like man, much
                  more....

                God clothed Himself in vile man's flesh, that so
                He might be weak enough to suffer woe.

                                                       JOHN DONNE


          IT is well nigh impossible to know the Master and to
        understand his greatness. We have not the eyes where-
        with we may behold his Reality. A prophet alone can
        know a prophet. We, the embodied spirits living on the
        plane of the senses, simply cannot know him.

                What Thou art we know not;
                What is most like Thee?

        Again:

                How can the lesser the Greater comprehend?
                Or finite reason reach Infinity,
                For what should fathom God were more than He.

                                                DRYDEN

          In Jap Ji (the daily morning prayer of the Sikhs),
        it is mentioned:

                Unless one rises to His level, one cannot know
                  of Him (God).

        A Master Soul may be likened to a skylark, which is
        described as:

                Ethereal Minstrel! Pilgrim of the Sky.

         He who can soar as high as the skylark and follow her
        course may know something of the ethereal pilgrim;
        but poor crows and doves cannot. The Master is, however,
        not a pilgrim of the sky, but a denizen of the highest
        Spiritual Realm, and he comes down to sing to us the
        "Ethereal Song," and to take us along with him to his
        heavenly abode. While on earth, he is:

                Type of the wise, who soar, but never roam;
                True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home.

        He is far beyond the limitations of the three bodies
        (physical, astral, and causal) ; of the three innate,
        natural and native propensities or instincts (Satva, Rajas,
        and Tamas; i.e., of righteous actions, worldly actions,
        and inertia or inaction, or actions born of ignorance and
        darkness); of the five elements of which the entire creation
        is made (earth, water, fire, air, and ether); and of the
        twenty-five Prakritis (i.e., subtle forms of varying
        degrees of which the elements are compounded); and
        also of mind and matter.

        Shamas-i-Tabrez therefore describes him as:

                He is a lark that lays a golden egg;

        that is, an egg that shines like solid gold; the reference
        being to the Light of Naam or Word that is bestowed
        on each individual at the time of his Initiation.

                He rides the high heavens every morning.
                When he races, he covers all the solar systems,
                And when he goes to bed, he makes pillows of
                  the Sun and the Moon.

        In other words, when he is not engaged in any worldly
        pursuits he crosses over into higher regions for rest.

                O Shamas-i-Tabrez! by just one kindly look,
                He can give sight to thousands of stark blind
                    (i.e., make them seers and prophets).

        Such Master Souls are in fact one with God, but come
        down into the material world at His behest to fulfill
        His divine purpose. Out of compassion for the world-
        weary souls, thirsty and hungry, moaning for reunion
        with the Beloved, God has to make provision for their
        homecoming.

          As man alone can be a teacher of man, God has to
        send forth His Elect with a direct commission to lead
        back those who will listen to God's Message. He works as
        a means to an end.

          Standing on the top of a hill, as it were, he can locate
        the smoldering fires of love in the various human hearts,
        and like a great and powerful magnet or lodestar, he
        draws all such individual souls as come into his sphere
        of influence, and by personal instruction and guidance
        works out the Divine Mission.

          Each soul gains in spiritual grace in proportion to her
        receptivity. The more a person develops this receptivity,
        the more he experiences grace and spiritual benefit.
        Gifted with a limitless spiritual wealth he generously
        bestows it on all who aspire for it. Each gets according to
        his need and capability, and gradually develops the seed
        sown in him.

          Sheikh Mueen-ud-din Chishti says:

                They (Master Souls) live in the world, but
                  their spirit is ever in the High Heavens;
                Imprisoned in the tentacles of the body, their
                  spirit soars high above.

        Maulana Rumi also says:

                Never take a Godman at a human level; for he
                  is much more than he seems.

        Apparently, and in generalities, all men look alike,
        though each differs from the other in inner development.
        It is this background that helps each individual on the
        spiritual path and determines the measure of every step
        he takes, and, consequently, each one has his own time
        factor.

          A Master Soul in human form cannot be rightly
        comprehended. He is a limitless ocean of Sat or Truth-
        ever the same from the beginning of creation and from
        age to age. As it is not possible to do justice to God's
        greatness, so we cannot do justice to God's elect.

          A Persian Saint tells us:

                He is beyond comprehension, apprehension,
                  conception, and even conjecture. He outstrips
                  the faculties of sight, hearing, and
                  understanding. All the glories that one can sing
                  of him all his life cannot do any justice
                  to him.

        Again:

                If all the mountains were pounded into ink and
                  mixed with the waters of the oceans and the
                  whole earth were a sheet of Paper, one cannot
                  record the greatness of a Guru or Master.

        He is the King of Spirituality, and we, groveling like
        insects in the muck of the world, cannot know him and
        his greatness.

          Maulana Rumi says:

                If I were to sing praises of His countless blessings
                  till Eternity, I can hardly say anything of them.

        Whatever we say of him, we perforce do so at an intellectual
        level, which has a very narrow and limited scope.
        All our efforts in this direction are bound to discredit
        him rather than to give him any credit.

          Guru Arjan, therefore, says:
  
                Thou art a King, and I address Thee as an
                  "Elder-Man";
                Far from doing any honor to Thee, I bring
                  Thee discredit.
  
        The highest and subtlest intellect attempting to describe
        him is just like a toddler standing before his mother and
        saying, "Oh darling, I know you!" How much can he
        know of his parent when he does not know anything of
        himself? His sweet lisping words cannot do any justice
        to the deep motherly love and affection that lies in her
        bosom. We too cannot sing the glories of the Master,
        for we cannot know, at the bar of the intellect, him who
        is beyond all-barriers and limitations.

          Blessed indeed are we, for Master Souls, as and when
        they do appear, at times tell us of themselves. It is from
        their rare utterances that we can know something of
        their greatness and of the potential power that works
        through them.

          In innumerable little ways, in parables and otherwise,
        they tell us of what they are, what is their mission, from
        where they come and how they carry out God's Plan.

          It would be advisable for us to go to them and listen
        to what they have to say about themselves.




                                CHAPTER TWO

                               GURU IS SHABD

                        (Master is Word Personified)


          THE Gospel of John begins with the memorable words:

              In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
                was with God, and the Word was God.
                The same was in the beginning with God.

                                                JOHN 1:1-2
              
        Guru is Shabd or Word personified. The Word was made
        flesh and dwelt among us, says the Gospel. Shabd or
        Word is just a ray from God or the great Ocean of
        Consciousness, and this one ray is responsible for the
        creation and sustenance of all the planes comprising the
        universe.

          In the Gospel of John we read further:

                All things were made by him (i.e., the Word)
                  and without him was not anything made
                  that was made.

                In him was life; and the life was the light of
                  men.

                And the light shineth in darkness; and the
                  darkness comprehended it not.

                                                JOHN 1:2-5

        Dryden in his poetic fantasy refers to It as Harmony (or
        Sound Principle):

                From Harmony, from Heavenly Harmony
                This Universal frame began;
                Through all the compass of the notes It ran,
                The Diapason closing full in man.
                  
        In Gurbani, we have:
                  
                Word is the Master and spirit is the disciple of
                  Word.
                Word is the Master and the Prophet, full of
                  wisdom, deep and profound. Without Word,
                  the world cannot exist.
                Between Word and the Master, there is no
                  distinction. Word indeed is the Elixir of Life,
                  and whosoever follows the Word according
                  to the instructions of a living Master, safely
                  crosses the ocean of life.

        Tulsi Sahib says:

                Spirit is the disciple, and Word is the Master.
                  It is only after the spirit is linked with the
                  Word that she finds the way Godward, by
                  rising into the beyond and entering into the
                  inverted well.
                  
        Bhai Gurdas speaks of spirit as:
                  
                It is only after the spirit faithfully and
                  conscientiously accepts Dhunni (Sound Current
                  or Word) as Master, that she becomes a Gurmukh
                  and knows that the Word and the Master
                  are in fact One.
                  
        Saint Kabir likewise thus explains:
                  
                Where is the Master, and where does the
                  spirit dwell? How can the two unite? For
                  without union, spirit has no rest.
                  
        He himself then answers:
                  
                Master is in the Gaggan, and so is the seat Of
                  the Spirit.
                When the two are united, there is no separation
                  thereafter;
                Accept the Word as Master; all the rest is
                  sham tinsel;
                Each selfishly engaged wanders from place to
                  place.
                  
        Thus Word or Shabd is a World Teacher from the
        beginning of time.

          Blessed are the pure in heart, for in them the Word
        of the Master manifests Itself. This Word is the Real
        Saint and can act as a living guide. It is "God-in-Action"
        and is expressed in abundance in Master Souls who are
        one with God.

                When I churned the sea of body, a strange
                  phenomenon came to Light;
                God was identified in Master, and no
                  distinction could Nanak find.

        He who is a doer of the Word is called a Saint, or a
        Master Soul. This Truth dawns only when one studies
        the significance of the term Guru. It is derived from the
        Sanskrit root Giri, which means One who calls; thus he
        who always hears this call within himself, and is
        devotedly attached to the call and can make it manifest
        in others, is described in Gurbani as Guru.

                Accept as Master one who can make Truth
                  manifest;
                Give expression to the Inexpressible by means
                  of Sound.

        Again:

                O Nanak! verily Truth alone is True.

        Kabir Sahib says:

                We do obeisance to all teachers, whatever their
                  creed;
                But the Adept in Sound Principle is greatest
                  indeed.

        Again:

                Teachers there are of degrees vast in variation,
                But the one of Sound Current is for highest
                  adoration.

        Tulsi Sahib also exhorts:

                He who can reveal Sound Current is verily a
                  Saint;
                By analysis of self, one locates the Sound
                  within.

        Kabir Sahib has challenged that whoever calls himself a
        Satguru or a Saint should enable us to see the Unmanifest
        Manifested.

        In Sar Bachan we have:

                Master brings the message of Sound; He serves
                  nothing but the Sound;
                Perfect Master is ever engaged in Sound; Be
                  thou the dust of the feet of the Master of
                  Sound.

        Satguru is a veritable Veda. He is endowed with Sach
        Naam and thus possesses the Elixir of Life. He distributes
        Shabd, which works as an "Open Sesame" to the Heavenly
        regions and grants free access to pilgrims on the Master's
        Path.

          The Theosophists call It the Voice of the Silence; its
        reverberations can be heard from plane to plane.
	In the terminology of the Masters, a real Saint is one
        who can teach of Shabd. Without an adept no one
        can have the gift of Shabd or Naam. It may be likened
        to a rope ladder leading directly to God, and a spirit by
        taking hold of It can easily ascend Godward.

                Contact with Shabd is contact with God; and
                blessed is one who contacts Shabd within.

        Again:

                God in Guru distributes Shabd; By contact
                with Truth one merges in Truth.

        And again:

                O Nanak! all Saints from the beginning are
                  embedded in Shabd;
                Blessed is Master Ram Das who too has
                  contacted Shabd.

        In the Holy Bible we have:

                The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

        It is from an adept in Shabd that one gets a true life
        impulse. He himself is one with that true Life Current,
        from which everything animate derives life. He is a
        resident of the egoless region, he is Shabd personified.
        He lives and has his very being in Shabd, having crossed
        far beyond the sway of Kal or Time; he lives life
        everlasting and is competent to pass it on to others who
        contact him and follow his instructions.

          The human spirit at present lies buried under an
        immense load of mayaic or material pressure. It does not
        even know that it is spirit. It can be awakened to Reality
        and made aware of its greatness only by means of Shabd.
        This Life Principle of Shabd already lies in each one of
        us, but only in a latent form.

          It has to be made patent or audible to the spirit, so
        that it may by sheer affinity grow conscious of its rich
        spiritual heritage and claim it as its own.

          This contact of the spirit with Shabd can be brought
        about and is firmly established by the Master (who is
        Shabd personified) and no one else can do it.

                Shabd is a sacred trust with the Master, and is
                  scrupulously discharged;
                Shabd of the Master, a Master alone can
                  manifest;
                And none else is competent to do so.

        It means that Shabd or Word is under the control of
        the Master. He alone can manifest It or make It audible
        by pulling the spirit out of the physical sensory organs.
	This contact with Shabd comes as a gracious gift
        from the Master. No amount of meritorious deeds performed
        within the limitations of time, space, and causation,
        can merit such a priceless gift, so vast and so limitless
        as Shabd:

                All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

        And again:

                By works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

        The Master may grant the gift of Shabd out of extreme
        compassion and grace if he so wills.

          The moment a helpless child tries to pull himself
        toward his mother, she fondly runs toward him, tenderly
        picks him up, and lovingly hugs him to her bosom.

                It cannot be had by endeavors nor by service;
                But may come when fully reposed without
                  clutching;
                Out of the Great Grace of the Lord, one takes
                  to the instructions of the Master.

        It does not mean that a person should not try to exert
        himself. He must on the contrary work zealously according
        to the Master's instructions. The success, however,
        depends on the will of the Master alone, for he is the sole
        arbiter of the manner and measure of His Grace.

        Christ said:

                If you love me, keep my commandments.

        To mold one's life in terms of the Master is a necessity
        on the path of the Master.

                He who verily follows the Master is ever
                  engaged in hearing the Divine Music. As the
                  Naam develops, one gets absorbed in it.

        Though this Anhad Bani (Ceaseless Sound Current) or
        Naam (Word) is the Life of our life, yet we cannot
        make It manifest or audible by ourselves; an approach
        to It is always through a Master Saint or Ustad-i-Kamil:

                Ceaseless Sound is a Treasure within, with an
                  approach through a Saint;
                Without a Master, even Sidhs and Sadhaks
                  have failed to get Naam.

        Shabd is the mainstay of Saints as well as of all living
        creatures, the difference being that of conscious awareness
        in one case and unconscious ignorance in the other.
        While the former have not only an experience of "Sonship"
        but truly live in that relationship, the latter have
        no idea of it at all.

        Christ says:

                I am the Son of God.
                I and my Father are one.
                Whatever comes from me comes from my
                  Father.

        In Gurbani we also have similar references:

                Hari (God) does what His Saints wish for.
                What they (Saints) desire, that comes to pass;
                  none can deny their wishes.
                Father and son are dyed in the same color.

        Maulana Rumi tells us:

                An Aulia (Godman) is competent enough
                  even to divert a bolt from above.

        It does not mean that Saints in any way question the
        authority of God, or run a parallel administration of their
        own. Far from this, they act as agents and hold His
        Commission. In the world God acts through them.
	Egoless as they are, they become fitting instruments
        of Godly Powers. Allied closely with Shabd, they receive
        from and transmit direct messages to God; and in
        relation to the world, they are just polarized God:

                The Father and the Son are One, and administer
                  the same law.
                O Paltu! In the domain of God, there is no
                  other manager than a Saint. The two are so
                  closely and indissolubly knit together that the
                  Saint appears to be running the whole show.

        Maulana Rumi speaks of It in this wise:

                Aulia or Godmen are the chosen of God.
                They have full knowledge of all that is visible
                  and invisible.

        Again, God speaks through Saints:

                O Lalo! I simply speak out what God makes
                  me speak, said Nanak.
                Sadh is the mouthpiece of God.

        In the garb of man, God comes into the world for the
        sake of suffering humanity, and through His Saving
        Grace He takes upon Himself vicarious responsibilities
        for their shortcomings:

                See God descending in thy Human frame;
                The Offended, suffering in the offender's
                  name;
                All thy misdeeds to Him imputed see,
                And all His Righteousness devolv'd on thee.

                                                        DRYDEN

        A living Master is the only hope for the erring mankind;
        a kindly Light to guide their faltering footsteps and
        a Saviour for the sinful. With the help of limitless Naam
        or Shabd, of which he is a vast treasure-house, he helps
        the jivas or the embodied spirits to cross safely over the
        ocean of life and gain Life Eternal.

          Inwardly linked and embedded in Shabd, outwardly
        he works like a Teacher or a Guru and gives spiritual
        instructions to the aspirants on the physical plane, and
        then passes on at will to the subtle and the causal plane
        and beyond, as the jiva progresses on the spiritual path
        and guides him at every step. He does not stop until he
        leaves the Sadhak in his native home from where Shabd
        originates and which, in fact, he is.

          One who has known Sat Purush (or the Primal Cause),
        is a Satguru (or Master of Truth). He is beyond the sway
        both of Dissolution (Kal or Time) and of Grand Dissolution
        (Maha Kal or Greater Time), and is competent to lead the
        aspirants to this stage. A Master of this caliber alone
        can save the jivas and nobody else can.

                He Who is One with Truth, is the Master
                  of Truth;
                He can liberate spirits and Nanak sings His
                  praises.

                More safe and much more modest, 'tis to say;
                God would not leave mankind without a way.

                              [End of Part 1]

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