From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Mon May 31 04:38:14 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: "Godman" - Kirpal Singh (7/10)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 31 May 1999 11:38:14 GMT





                                 GODMAN

                                   by

                              KIRPAL SINGH

                                [Part 7]



                           CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

                       ONENESS OF GURU, GURU DEV,

                           SATGURU AND MALIK

                       (THE VARIOUS FORMS OF TRUTH)


          IN SCRIPTURES, we read that God is Formless. He sees
        without eyes and does His work without hands, moves
        about without feet and hears without ears.

          He pervades everywhere, but cannot be seen. He is
        beyond all thought, comprehension and apprehension.
        Man with his limited intellect and finite understanding
        cannot reach Him. How then can we see God and love
        Him? Love and longing always exist between creatures
        of the same class at one level. Birds of the air fly
        together in flocks; and there is love between animals of
        the same type, and they move about in herds. Man by nature
        is gregarious and cannot but live in society with his
        fellow beings.

          Contemplation means concentration of human faculties
        at one center or focus. But if the center and the focus
        are not apparent and visible, how can there be any
        contemplation at all? To satisfy this fundamental need of
        mankind, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna (the manifestations
        of Kal or the Negative Power*) had to come in the garb
        of man and so did Master Saints who manifest Sat Purush
        (the Positive Power) - Truth - the substratum of all
        that is visible and invisible, the entire universe with
        its grand divisions and subdivisions; right from Sach
        Khand or Muqam-i-Haq to Kal Desh, the physical world,
        which is subject to decay and death. A Muslim divine has
        beautifully described Him:

                If He is Khud-aa (Self-Moving God), let Him
                  come by Himself (to teach us).

* The same Power manifests in different ways to maintain life at
various levels, just like electricity which produces fire at one
place and ice at another.

        In fact, He has to come down to the level of man for
        then alone can man know of Him.

          In the garb of a Master Saint, He works His Will by
        giving instructions to the souls that long for Him but
        cannot reach Him.

          He tells them that He is not a physical body and He
        instructs all the embodied spirits how to transcend the
        limitations of the physical body, and by a gradual
        transmission of His power, He pulls them out of the physical
        raiment and becomes their friend and guide.

          Thus the Formless has to assume a form, adopt a pole
        for the manifestation of His Godhead, for the suffering
        and helpless humanity; He tells us of our native worth
        and how to regain the lost Kingdom, the Garden of Eden,
        from which we have been exiled since the beginning of
        time.

          God's power in fullness works at the pole of a Master
        Soul and he may therefore be truly described as polarized
        God come into the world with happy tidings to announce
        God and God's Kingdom, both of which he says are
        near at hand and can easily be gained by a little practice
        in the right direction.

          He who has known Truth is Satguru. In fact, Satguru
        is Sat (Truth) personified. Word really becomes flesh
        and dwells among us, and by his instruction and guidance
        takes us along with him, until we, like him, become
        Word, a conscious principle working in harmony with
        the Divine Will on the Divine Plan.

                Know ye for certain that Guru is not apart
                  from God.
                Whatever his wishes, they are acceptable to
                  God.





                            CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

                           THE NATURE OF ONENESS  

          VERILY A SATGURU (Master of Truth) is one with
        Sat or Truth, as he is embedded in and revels in
        Truth. Truth is infinite and all-pervasive, while it
        manifests itself and works among people from a human pole
        - call it what you will: Master, Satguru, etc.

          He is a beacon light that sheds the light of Truth on
        the tumultuous sea of life, to guide yearning humanity.
        He may be likened to a live switch that has behind it the
        entire energy of the powerhouse, but doles it out in such
        measure as may be needed by each individual according
        to his or her requirements.

          Like a magnetized pole or a live switch, he possesses
        a raiment, but in fact is not the raiment, but the Power
        inside the raiment. Exactly so is the case of jivas or
        embodied spirits.

          We too are in fact not what we possess and apparently
        seem to be - physical entities - but spirits or souls that
        enliven the physical bodies.

          A spirit or soul is purely of the same essence and
        power that works in the Master, though clothed in
        countless raiments or sheaths and hedged in by numberless
        limitations.

          But when it is able to transcend the various bodies and
        become a spirit untrammeled and free, it can then witness
        the glory and greatness of the Master, for he is the
        horizon where the earth and heaven meet and the sun
        of God's Light rises and illumines all space.

                A veritable sun lies hid in him.

        We cannot have any adequate idea of God's beauty,
        grandeur and greatness by looking at the physical form
        of the Master. For an actual experience of Him, we
        have to rise to His level.

                Unless we rise to the level of God, we cannot
                  know of God.

        As God is spirit, we too, by self-analysis, must be able to
        separate the spirit in us from the material sheaths or
        raiments enshrouding it, for spirit alone can see and
        experience spirit; not the physical senses nor even the
        intellect or mind.

          The eyes of a Master are charmed casements that open
        within on Infinity and without on the finite. In them,
        one can get glimpses of Divine Light unparalleled in this
        world - a shadowless Light that never is found on sea
        or land.

        Maulana Rumi tells us about him:

                A Godman is ever in a state of intoxication
                  without a drop of wine. He is ever satiated
                  without a morsel of food.

                His eyes are the eyes of God; his hands are the
                  hands of God.

        While living in the world, he is not of the world, nor
        he a prisoner in the prison of the body, as we are. He
        a free entity and at will crosses over into spiritual realms
        and is competent to grant this power and capacity to
        thousands of jivas, if he so wishes.

          A living Master of Truth is one with Truth, and has
        in him Truth in fullness, whereby he carries on the work
        of salvation entrusted to him.

          In spite of his form, he is formless. He is Word
        personified, a great fountainhead of love, bliss and
        peace. Man has to learn from man and, in accordance with
        this natural law, Word becomes flesh and dwells among
        us to impart spiritual instruction and guidance. Again,
        by transmitting his own life impulse he enables us to go
        homeward.

          While doing this work among us, he every day at his
        sweet will escapes to his heavenly abode of Truth, so as
        to take rest in Nij-anand or imperishable bliss.

          Master of Truth and Truth are one; for he is polarized
        Truth.

                He is beyond everything, beyond Brahma, the
                  primal principle;
                Nanak has met with such a Guru.
                The Master of Truth is eternally the same. He
                  neither comes nor goes.
                He is the imperishable Life Principle that
                  pervades everywhere.

        With all our paeans in praise of the Master, we can
        never do justice to him; for he existed when nothing was
        and from him everything came into being at each cycle
        of creation.

                Who can sing praises of the Master? He is the
                  source of Truth.
                He is eternally unchangeable, the source of all
                  life from age to age.

        In Gurbani, it is mentioned that after careful scrutiny
        within, one comes to an irresistible conclusion that Master
        is Truth and Truth is Master, with no distinction whatever
        between the two.

                When churning the great sea within, one thing
                  has come to the surface: Guru is Gobind
                  and Gobind is Guru. O Nanak! There is no
                  difference between the two.

        The Almighty in fact resides in the garb of a Saint and
        works His plan through him.

                The Kartar (primal principle) resides in the
                  Master and he becomes the means of salvation
                  for many a soul.

                One knows nothing of love without a Master,
                  for everyone is devoid of love. Hari resides
                  in the Master, and blessed Master becomes
                  the connecting link between a jiva and Hari.

        Kabir Sahib tells us that he is one with God:

                Now I am one with Thee and feel satiated and
                  blessed.
                Having reached the highest abode, I am one
                  with Him; so much so that one cannot
                  distinguish Kabir from Ram.

        Similarly, Shamas-i-Tabrez speaks in the same strain:

                We have become so united, like body and soul,
                  that hereafter no one can say I am different
                  from Thee.

        Christ, too, says:

                I and my Father are one.
                                                JOHN 10:30

                He that hath seen me hath seen  the Father.

                                                JOHN 14:9

        God and Godman are indeed just like a sea and its tides.
        Momentarily as the tides rise and fall, they appear as
        something different, but they are of the same essence as
        the water of the parent sea.

          Exactly the same is a drop of water. When separated
        from the sea it is a drop, but the moment it goes into
        the sea, it loses its apparent individuality and becomes
        part and parcel of the sea.

          God is formless, while in Godman He assumes form
        for instruction and guidance of the people.

                Nanak has after careful study of the Vedas and
                  scriptures come to the conclusion that there
                  is no difference between Parbrahm and
                  Guru.

        God is the primal Sound Principle, which He gives to
        the thirsty through a Godman.

                God resides in a Guru and releases the Sound
                  Current among the aspirants.
                Established in Truth, Master revels in Truth.

                He is at once the Master of Truth and Truth
                  itself.
                In every age, He comes down for the benefit of
                  the devotees.

        In the Holy Bible, we read:

                The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us
                  ... full of grace and truth.
                                                JOHN 1:14

        In Gurbani, we have:
                                                      
                There is not the least distinction between Satguru
                  and Swami (God-in-action and God).
                A contact with the former leads to devotion for
                  the latter.

                A man of God is called Satguru or Sat Purush
                  and he speaks of Hari alone; whoever listens
                  to him attains salvation.

        Guru being one with the Almighty is the doer of everything
        and sustains the entire creation including the jivas.

                Guru is the doer and does everything; he is
                  the true Gurumukh.
                Guru is a conscious co-worker with God and is
                  the sustainer of the entire creation.
                Guru is the bestower of peace and comfort and
                  he is the Kartar (great motor power),
                  O Nanak! We live and have our being in him
                  alone.

        Gosain Tulsi Das, the celebrated author of the Hindi
        Ramayana, speaks of the Guru:

                Salutation to the Lotus of the Guru, who is the
                  ocean of mercy and God Himself in human
                  form. His kindly words dispel in us the
                  darkness born of blind attachments.

        In the Holy Bible, we read that Jesus once asked his
        disciples, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man
        am?" And Simon Peter answered and said: "Thou art
        the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to
        Peter:

                Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and
                  blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
                  Father which is in heaven.

                And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter,
                  and upon this rock I will build my church;
                  and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
                  it.
                                        MATTHEW 16:13, 16-18

        On another occasion, he spoke more clearly to them:

                Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father
                  and it sufficeth us.
                Jesus saith unto 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?
                                                JOHN 14:8-10

        Guru Arjan has in very explicit terms told us of his
        oneness with God:

                My temples are in the highest heaven, and my
                  Kingdom is limitless. My sway is eternal and
                  countless is my wealth. My glory is known
                  through the ages and my people live everywhere.
                  I am worshiped by all and sundry and everyone
                  is devoted to me. My Father is manifest within
                  me and now the Father and the Son work together.
                O Nanak! The son has become a conscious
                  co-worker with the Father and there is now
                  no difference between the two.

        In the Hindu scriptures, we have:

                Guru is Brahma, Guru is Vishnu, Guru is
                  Shiva, and Guru is the veritable Par Brahm;
                  and we offer our salutations to the Guru.

        In Mandukya Upanishad, it is stated:

                As the various mountain streams after passing
                  through different plains fall into an ocean
                  and lose their names and separate existence,
                  so do the knowers of Brahma merge in the
                  Illustrious Self-Lustrous Being, losing their
                  names and forms.

        Here a question arises as to how an all-pervading spirit
        can come to occupy a limited space in a human body. In
        Discourse 7 of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna thus
        sets at rest this question:

                Not knowing my transcendent, imperishable,
                  supreme character, the undiscerning think
                  me who am unmanifest to have become
                  manifest.
                Veiled by the delusive mystery created by my
                  unique power, I am not manifest to all; this
                  bewildered world does not recognize me,
                  birthless and changeless.
                                                SHALOKS 24-25

        Again, in Discourse 9, Shalok 11, the Blessed Lord says:

                Not knowing my transcendent nature as the
                  Sovereign Lord of all beings, fools condemn
                  me incarnated as man.

        Muslim divines also seem to corroborate this, according
        to Maulana Rumi:

                The arm of a Pir (Master) is in no way shorter
                  than that of God, and the veritable Power
                  of God works through the former. His long
                  arm stretches as far as the seventh heaven;
                  his hand is in the hand of God and no one
                  besides him shows His greatness. In fact, an
                  effulgent sun lies hid in him and the greatest
                  good lies in knowing him, as he is.

        Again, the Maulana says:

                The Light of Truth shines in the heart of a
                  Wali (Godman) - If you are a momin
                  (Guruman) you may see this as it is.
                The Prophet once declared that God Himself
                  told him that He far transcended the highest
                  heights, the lowest depths, the earth, the sky
                  and all the heavens; but strange as it might
                  seem, He could comfortably rest in the heart
                  of His devotees, and he who wished to meet
                  Him could find Him there.
                Though he (the Murshid) lives on the earth,
                  yet his soul spreads out in the limitless
                  beyond, which all reasoning and philosophy of
                  the religious cannot reach.

        Shamas-i-Tabrez tells us in this wise:

                The King of Kings is enthroned in us, behind
                  a dense curtain. In the vile garb of flesh, He
                  comes to grant us access to Himself.

        Bulleh Shah says:

                Maula (God) becomes man so as to pull men
                  up (from their deep slumber).

        We have in Gurbani many references to this effect

                God Himself assumed the name of Ram Das.*
                Greatly intelligent is our God. He Himself
                  assumes and takes for Himself the title of a
                  Saint.

                O Pipa! Pranva (the Sound Current) is the
                  only Reality, and becomes embodied as a
                  Satguru for our instruction and guidance.

                Satguru is Niranjan (pure, immaculate); do
                  not consider him as a human being.
                A devotee of the Lord himself becomes the
                  Lord, but man knows not this mystery.

*The fourth Guru of the Sikhs.

        Bhai Gurdas likewise says:

                 Ek Onkar (the one God unmanifest) becomes
                   Akar (the manifest) and assumes the
                   appellation of a Guru.

        He who can tell you of the Reality (impersonal) and
        put you in contact with Reality (Truth eternal and
        unchangeable permanence), is no other than personal
        Reality (Truth personified). He truly is the primal
        Sound Current emanating from the Most High.

          In order to teach mankind, this Sound Current becomes
          materialized in the form of Saints. How else can men
          have spiritual instruction unless the Spirit of God,
        which the Sound Current is, takes a human form and
        lives among them, talks to them face to face of mysteries
        both human and divine? This is why Kabir says:

                Brahma cannot speak as Brahma alone. He too
                  needs a human agency for His self-expression
                  (among human beings). We, as human entities
                  encased in flesh and bones, cannot have an idea
                  of that attributeless Formless One, unless He
                  assumes a likeness to our own, on this material
                  plane, and becomes for us a living God capable
                  of being seen, heard and understood. He is at
                  once both God and man, and may be called
                  Godman. He works as a means to an end, a
                  link between man and God. He is Word personified
                  so that He may impart instructions about God
                  and guidance toward God.

        Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, was anxious to learn
        shipbuilding and the art of navigation, so he went to
        Holland disguised in the garb of an ordinary laborer. In
        the Dutch dockyards there were many other Russian
        laborers, working for their living, and Peter worked with
        them, talked to them of Russia their native land, and
        often asked them to return with him.

          These poor people were exiles from their country and
        would heave sighs because they could not go back however
        much they wished. Peter told them that the mighty Czar
        himself was known to him, and he might be able to secure
        them a pardon. But very few could imagine that a person
        in tattered clothes like their own could have anything to
        do with the Czar.

          When Peter started on the journey homeward, after
        completing his training, just a few who believed his
        words accompanied him. When he entered Russia, he
        was received royally from place to place. When the outlawed
        laborers saw the honor given Peter, they felt encouraged
        and confident that he would be able to have the Czar
        reverse the decree of outlawry against them. When at
        last they saw Peter enter his capital and ascend the
        throne, they were astounded at the change in their
        co-laborer.

          The Master, like Peter the Czar, is the King of Kings.
        He comes into the dockyard or prison-house of this world
        just as an ordinary laborer or prisoner like us. He also
        earns his living as we do, talks to us of our native land,
        infuses in us a longing and desire to return home, and
        offers to be our companion and guide on the way. A few
        who put faith in his words begin to act on his advice,
        and they are taken out of this vast prison back to the
        throne of God, where they find the Master in his Radiant
        Form, more lustrous than thousands of suns and moons
        put together.

          Guru Arjan tells us that He who sent us into exile is
        now calling us back to His Kingdom as His true inheritors
        and legatees.

          Again, when Queen Indra Mati completed her course
        of spiritual discipline and reached Sach Khand, she
        found her Master, Kabir, in the seat of Sat Purush (the
        True God). Seeing this, she said, "Master! Why did you
        not tell me before that you were Sat Purush yourself? I
        would have believed you." Kabir, smiling, replied, "I
        could not have convinced you then."

          All Saints who reach Sat Lok or Anami Desh become
        one with God and as such rank equal to each other; and
        none can be said to be greater than the other.

                He who tries to distinguish a Saint from a
                  Saint starts headlong for hell.

        Generally, thousands of people congregate around a Satguru
        and listen to his discourses, but each one sees him
        according to his own mental and spiritual make-up.
        Some consider him as a person of piety; some take him
        for a philosopher, and some as just a man of learning.
        Others regard him as an ideally moral man, and still
        others as a selfless worker. Rare indeed are the jivas who
        find God in him.

          Thus each one finds in him a reflection of what he
        himself actually is or wishes to become, and so gets from
        him that quality, for he distributes to each what he
        merits.

          As a man in physical raiment his foremost duty, of
        course, is man-making; and as God personified it is
        revealing or manifesting God. So it all depends on one's
        own preparedness through the ages. Blessed indeed is the
        man who is ready for immediate transformation into
        God, for to such an individual he at once reveals his
        Godhood; as Krishna revealed his oneness with Kal to
        Arjuna, when through ignorance he hesitated to perform
        his duty as a Kshatriya prince.

          A blind man cannot see one with eyes nor can he take
        hold of him, unless the man with sight compassionately
        takes him by the hand and leads him aright.

          Similarly, no one can see in a Master the Master of
        Truth or Truth itself lodged in him unless he reveals
        his real self to him. Even those who constantly live with
        him, including his close relatives, can seldom recognize
        in him the hidden Godhead.

          Without the gift of special merit one can never know
        of the really intrinsic nature of a Saint (his Godhood)
        He who can see and recognize God in him has indeed
        found God, for He not only resides in him but manifestly
        works through him.

          He is the pole from where the power of God shines
        forth and works out the Divine Will.

        Bhai Nandlal says:

                God is ever present before thee; see thou His
                  blessed form.

        Guru Nanak similarly says:

                The God of Nanak is ever before him.

        In the same way, when Naren (later Swami Vivekananda)
      first met Sri Ramakrishna, he asked him, "Master, have you
      seen God?" And Ramakrishna replied, "Yes, my child! I have
      seen Him as I see you."

        Thus it all depends on our inner vision. If one is gifted
      with this, or if Satguru so wishes, he may see the flashes
      of God's Light coming through the Master. The purpose of
      all spiritual discipline is the restoration of the lost
      vision to the inner eye, so that we may be able to see God,
      both as all-pervading in the Universe and as deeply
      concentrated behind the mighty breakwater of the Master.

        This revelation then depends upon the sweet will of
        God and no one can claim it as a right. It is just a
        pure and simple gift from Him to one who has prepared
        himself through the ages.


                             [End of Part 7]

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