From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Sat Mar 27 16:40:35 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: (6/7) Jaimal Singh - A Great Saint
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 28 Mar 1999 00:40:35 GMT




                              A Great Saint
                         
                 BABA JAIMAL SINGH: HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS   
                                          
                                    by

                            Sant Kirpal Singh Ji
                              
                               [Part 6 of 7]
                                            


THE LIFE WITHOUT
 
   The seeker who had found a true Guide and who had
begun to develop the right kind of love and faith in him,
would naturally attempt to fashion his life according to
his Satguru's Will, and Baba Ji laid great emphasis on
the need to transform our lives. It was not necessary,
he maintained, to leave the world in order to pursue the
inner Path. What was needed for spiritual progress was
inner detachment, and he who had surrendered himself
completely to his Guru was free from all earthly ties.
Some of his disciples would at times express the desire for
complete renunciation, but he always kept such tendencies
in check:

  You say you wish to give up home and service and
  devote yourself exclusively to Bhajan. Home or service or
  wealth - are they really yours? Turn it over in your mind.
  It is all a magician's game and the world is a dream.
  Then why worry about clutching and relinquishing?
                              
                                  (18th September, 1902)


The ideal he always held up before his disciples was that
of the royal swan that had its home in the water yet rose
up from it dry and untrammeled. If he would not have his
disciples attached to the world, he would not have them
neglect their worldly duties either. When Baba Sawan
Singh wrote that he would be taking ten days leave and
spending it at Beas, Baba Ji replied:

  When you come on ten days leave, you should first
  proceed straight home, and then on your way back
  drop in Saturday at about 5 p.m. at the Dera from
  where you can proceed to duty the following day
  after attending the Sunday Satsang. You must go
  home for there are many things awaiting your
  attention there for the last two or three years.
  Therefore please go straight home. I will be very
  pleased if you first go home and then come here.

When on one occasion his beloved disciple was unable to
secure leave for seeing him and offered to come over
nonetheless, Baba Ji was far from happy and strictly
forbade any such step.  "Please never write such a thing
again," he answered, "that you would come here without
taking leave," and added, "The work that you are doing,
that is also the work of Radhasoami, the work of the
Lord."

 However, while living in the world one had to follow a
very rigorous discipline. The road to the New Jerusalem
was a narrow and difficult one. "Your way of living," said
the sage of Beas to his disciples, "must be different from
that of other people." And how exacting was the discipline
he demanded becomes clear from one of his letters:
 
  You do not seem to understand that when your social
  duties are over, you are not to talk to anyone. In
  the evening between 6 and 8, you should sit for Bhajan
  as long as possible - be it half an hour, an hour
  fifteen minutes or an hour and a half and keep the
  surat on the inner planes. Then hold Satsang from 8
  to 10 p.m., after which you may go to sleep or talk
  as you please. Then at 4:30 in the morning you are
  to sit for Bhajan and continue up to 5:30. Then
  throughout the day you have to attend to your social
  routine and may, if you like, talk during those hours.
  But as soon as you are free from office duties, you
  must not waste time in idle talk or in the company
  of non-satsangis. You should have your meals in
  private ... You are never to have meals cooked from
  non-satsangis in your kitchen, especially if they take
  meat and drink. If you associate with non-satsangis,
  you will have to suffer from the effects of their
  company.
                                  (l7th October, 1902)

Abstinence from non-vegetarian food and intoxicants was
a prime condition for taking to the spiritual path. Baba
Ji laid equal stress on the need for honesty. In the same
letter we have quoted above, he wrote:
 
  If you are offered anything free, never accept it for
  how will you repay it? If you do not adhere strictly
  to this rule, you will never attain the highest
  spiritually.

One must not be led away by the world but look upon each
object with discrimination. "The entire world is tied with
the ropes of the love of parents, children, wife and earthly
relations," and one must free oneself from this slavery.
Running away to the jungles was no solution. It had to
be an inner detachment, and this inner detachment could
only come through the love of a true Master. Hence the
great value of Satsang, for it was only through association
with him that one imbibed the true values of life, learned
of the delusions of Maya, and imbibed a love that displaced
the love of the world. Peace and blessing radiate from
the person of a Saint and whoever came under his spell
was freed from worldly tensions, ambitions and jealousies.
He saw all creatures as of his own essence and knew all
worldly gain to be a passing shadow. Such a man alone
could cut through the meshes of Maya and reach out
toward the worlds beyond.


THE LIFE WITHIN

  The perfection of outer conduct was essential as it was
only an indispensable means for reaching the inner goal.
Love and faith for the Satguru, self-surrender and the
ethically unimpeachable life all converged on this center.
Man's ultimate goal was at-one-ment with the Absolute
and if this was not achieved the rest was not of mnch
benefit. It was this question of actual spiritual
ascension that was Baba Ji's main concern as a teacher.
He did not expend much time on matters of theory. Why
dispute? Why argue? he would say. Turn within, go inside
and see for yourself. His correspondence with Baba Sawan
Singh Ji is one long exhortation to leave the outside world
and to retreat to the world within, and each of his letters
has something valuable to say on the actual practice of
spirituality.

   Since the soul had fallen a victim to Maya through the
Mind and the senses, the way of liberation for it lay
through its withdrawal from them. The two sadhnas that
Baba Ji gave for practice, as his predecessors had done,
were Simran and Bhajan. The first, involving the repetition
of the sacred names of the Lord, was to be practiced at all
hours of the day. "Always keep the Simran in mind," he
enjoined, "even while moving or busy at work." Constant
thought of the Supreme One was the greatest security
against worldly thoughts and desires. It helped the mind
in keeping itself free from its usual preoccupations and
when done with full attention at the time of abhyasa
or meditation, it enabled a speedy collection of the
currents of consciousness at the spiritual center between
and behind the eyebrows. Once such concentration or Dhyan
had been attained, one could get in touch with the Sound
Current, and Dhyan (resulting from Simran) led naturally
to Bhajan or absorption into the Shabd Dhun:

  When you are doing your Bhajan or Simran, do not
  have any worldly cares in your mind nor let yourself
  be distracted by any thoughts. First do your Simran
  for a quarter of an hour, then gradually fix your
  attention in the music of the Shabd Dhun. Then give
  up Simran and anchor your mind and soul in the
  Shabd. You will then experience great bliss and
  Supreme Grace will descend on you from the highest
  region.

Such was the general pattern. The details, of course, were
adjustable. The time factor could vary, but daily abhyasa
was to be maintained at all costs:
 
  Listen to the Shabd Dhun, calling in your heart, every
  day with great love and devotion, for fifteen minutes
  or ten minutes or five minutes or an hour or two,
  according to the time at your disposal. But you must
  listen to it every day for a while. (*3)

(* 3 Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji also laid great stress on this:
... no matter in what circumstances one finds himself and what
new problems one is facing, a devotee should not miss his
Bhajan. He may give only fifteen minutes or even five minutes
to it daily, but he should be on it without a break."
(Spiritual Gems, p. 462))

There was great beauty in the Shabd. It had a music that
was beyond any music created by man and which drew
the soul toward itself. It was forever calling the spirit
toward its Divine Home and though it was not heard by
ordinary men, yet those who had developed, through abhyasa
and the grace of a Satguru, the capacity of inner hearing,
could hear its melody every minute of the day, now
growing stronger as the mind focused itself at one point,
now dimming and fading away as one's thoughts scattered
in various directions and attention was dissipated. It was
Shabd that was the true anchor of the seeker. It was the
conscious power that had brought everything into creation
and it was also one's real Master - the Shabd Guru - for
the Satguru in his human form was its physical
manifestation. Baba Ji once said:
 
  Shabd Dhun - that is our real form. This physical
  body is only a garment. Nobody could keep it forever
  and nobody ever will ... Believe, O devout ones,
  that the Shabd form of the Satguru, which has no
  beginning and no end, is within the body.

Once one had developed a constant link with this inner
music, it worked as a shield against worldly afflictions and
sorrows. Misfortunes visited everyone and one's past karmas
had to be paid for; but for the man who had rooted himself
in the Shabd Dhun, they had lost their sting. Baba Ji,
speaking mostly to simple villagers, drove home his
teachings through examples and similes based on village
life. Thus explaining the protective power of Shabd, he
would say:

  The body is like a village or city and the Shabd Dhun
  is our own house. When somebody dies or there is
  some great suffering in another house, everyone in
  that house is very unhappy but we, in our own house,
  are quite contented.

Again, clarifying the magnetic power and hold of the inner
music, on another occasion he wrote:
 
  ... the Shabd Dhun will pull it (mind) and keep it
  in the same way as animals, like goats or cattle, are
  kept tied by means of a rope.

The greatest obstacles to the seeker were the mind and
the senses. It was through their agency that the soul had
been caught in the nets of Maya, and the soul had to
disengage itself from them in order to be free. Shutting
out sense experience was not so difficult. Even when the
gates of the senses had been shut, the mind continued to
disturb and distract. It was the root of the ego principle
and, therefore, the chief cause of the jiva's isolation
from the Universal Lord. How was this restless dragon to
be conquered? Baba Ji maintained that the chief remedy lay
in meditation on the form of the true Master and absorption
in Shabd:
 
  You ask me how to hold your mind. It is held only
  through Shabd. Hear its music daily and meditate on
  the form of Satguru. Then the mind shall cease to
  wander and one day, borne on the Shabd Dhun, the
  soul shall reach Dasam Dwar (the third inner plane
  and home of the Universal Mind). Thus, leaving the
  mental apparatus behind, the soul shall unite with
  the pure Shabd and through the grace of the Satguru
  reach Sach Khand. Have no doubt, it shall reach
  there.
                                  (7th January, 1901)


Once the mind had been brought under control and it no
longer doubted and wavered:
 
  Then the Radiant Form of the Master appears within.
  There is no difference between it and the physical
  form. It is like a reflection in a clear mirror. So
  long as the glass is not clear, nothing can be seen
  reflected.


The mind was indeed a glass, which, when sullied by the
muck-flow of worldly attachments, blurred and hid
everything; but the moment this film was cleansed, it
imaged the Universal in itself. The surat, collected by
Simran at the Tisra Til, shot through it with the aid of
the magnetism of Shabd. As it entered the inner realms,
it was met by the Radiant Form of the Master that
welcomed it and thenceforward guided every step of its
inner journey.
 
  Once the soul had won access to the Master in his
Radiant Form within, its major task was over. The rest was
a matter of time. It could of course be taken directly to
higher planes by the Satguru, but he worked out the
progress gradually for else, as was the case with an
insistent pundit, the shock and strain of it would be too
great. The Sanchit Karmas (actions of past lives to fructify
in future births) and the Kriyaman Karmas (actions in this
life also to fructify in future ones) had of course been
rendered ineffective the moment the Master had accepted one
in his fold. But the Prarabdha Karmas on which the present
life was based had to be worked out, else death would
immediately ensue. The Master sought to exhaust these as
swiftly and as smoothly as possible.

When Baba Sawan Singh Ji's leg was fractured, Baba Ji
revealed that it was the result of no mere accident but of
past karmas whose fruit could not be avoided. But his
suffering if not wholly canceled had been mitigated through
his Satguru's intercession. "Whatever suffering has come
to you," Baba Ji wrote, "is only a fifth part, four parts
have been condoned," and went on to add:

  Suffering and troubles are blessings in disguise for
  they are ordained by the Lord. If our benefit lies in
  pain, He sends pain, if in pleasure He sends pleasure.
  Pleasures and pains are tests of our strength and if
  one does not waver or deflect, then the Almighty
  blesses such souls with Naam.
                                  (8th May, 1897)


Whatever troubles befell his disciples, Baba Ji told them
to be of good cheer. The sooner their accounts were cleared
the better, and special grace was theirs in the hour of
trial:
 
  Sickness and pleasures are the fruits of past actions.
  All those who are sick are extended special grace.
  Let them, therefore, have no worry, but bear it with
  equanimity. During suffering, the mind wanders not
  and turns to Bhajan readily in sorrow. So blessed are
  the periods of sickness when the mind is turned
  toward Bhajan. This is a special gift to Satsangis.
  So whenever sickness and pain afflict you, accept them
  as the Lord's Will and devote yourself to your spiritual
  exercises. So long as the surat is absorbed in the
  Shabd Dhun, pain will not be felt ... Has it not been
  said: "Pleasure is the disease and pain the remedy."
                                 
                                  (l7th October, 1902)

"Once one meets a competent Satguru, one learns the
complete inner way and launches on the spiritual journey,"
Baba Ji would say, "there is then only the liquidation of
give and take that limits its flight. The soul is then not
pure enough to catch the Divine Shabd and must be first
freed of all karmic reactions. The Satguru must free it
from the chain of karmas in this life itself so as to
safeguard against the necessity of taking further births
for their repayment."
 
  Hence the inevitability of suffering, but fortunately
for Satsangis "years of pain are liquidated in a matter
of days." The Shabd Dhun was one's guiding angel, one's
protecting charm. If one took refuge in its richness,
one's karmas were steadily burnt away in its purifying
flame. As the mind grew calmer and the karmas got
exhausted, the soul was progressively released from Maya
and guided by the Radiant Master within, penetrating to
ever higher inner planes. The disciple had not to worry.
His task was only to abide by his Guru's commandments,
and labor according to His Will. It was for the Satguru
to crown his efforts as he considered fit and appropriate,
for he was the best judge and did what was best for the
disciple:
 
  What the Lord considers best He is doing. Do not
  bring yourself into the picture. Live by the words of
  the Master and continue performing your earthly
  duties. When the fruit is ripe, it will fall of its own
  accord without injury to itself or the bearing branch,
  and the ripe fruit is held in great value. But if we
  pluck the unripe fruit forcibly from off the tree, the
  branch is injured and the raw fruit shrivels and is of
  little use. Meeting a competent Master is the
  fulfilment of human birth: this is the fruit of life.
  To live by his commandments ensures its proper nurture.
  Daily Simran and Bhajan to the maximum possible
  are its best food and nourishment, and mergence with
  Shabd is its ripening and falling off.
                                   
                                  (3rd March, 1899)

Such was the progress of the soul. Its ripening was a
matter of steady growth. Supported by the words of the
Master, nourished by Bhajan, and borne on the Shabd Dhun,
it transcended realm after realm until it left all coverings
of mind and matter behind and reached Sach Khand. This
was its True Abode, the realm of pure spirit. From there,
merging into the Divine, it receded progressively into the
Formless, until, passing through the Alakh and Agam, it
reached the Anami, the Nameless and Formless source of
all that moves and has its being.
 
  With some, as in the case of Baba Ji himself, the entire
journey, owing to the spiritual proficiency they had gained
in past lives, was accomplished at what seemed to their
fellows a phenomenal and amazing speed. There were others
who, through their intense devotion and abhyasa, reaped in
a single life the fruits of many births. But the overwhelming
majority consisted of those who took to spirituality as a
passing phase of idealism and who did not make Shabd the
sheet anchor of their lives, but turned to it only
intermittently. For such people success in a single life
was not assured. But the seed once sown by a Master could
not go to waste, and that which had not sprouted in one
birth could blossom forth in the next, under the guidance
of the living human manifestation of the Shabd Power
working at that time. And even this was unnecessary if
one had already before death contacted the Naam current
and washed away all earthly desires, for then one could
work out the rest of one's salvation from supraphysical
planes.

Once a true Satguru had taken one in his fold, one was
assured of deliverance and sooner or later would reach
one's Eternal Home. Even if he left his earthly frame his
guidance and protection continued unaffected. There was no
need for those who had been initiated by him to seek
initiation from any other; for if the Guru's physical form
was mortal, his Shabd form was eternal and ever
reverberating. One could of course seek elucidation
on knotty points from the fellow disciple who had been
chosen by one's Master to succeed him. But as for inner
guidance, that continued to remain the sole responsibility
of one's preceptor even if he was physically alive no
longer. The disciple's sole duty was to follow the
practices enjoined by his Guru and it was for him to
crown them with success.

Had not Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world?" And did not Swami Ji on the last day
of his mission on earth assure his devotees: "Have no fear
whatsoever. I am forever with each one of you and your
protection and care shall be even greater than before?" (*4)
 
(*4 Jeevan Charitrar Swamiji Maharaj, p. 112. It is relevant
to point out here the controversy initiated by Shri S. D.
Maheshwari in his Radhasoami Faith, History and Tenets (Agra,
1954), Chapter 22, regarding paragraph 250 of Sar Bachan (prose).
The volume was not written by Swami Ji himself, but was based on
dictations and notes taken by disciples, and published several
years after his death. When Baba Ji undertook to have it
republished at Beas, he strictly adhered to the Agra text but
for paragraph 250 which, he was convinced, gave an erroneous
picture of Swami Ji's teachings. Swami Ji had always said that
once a true Master had taken a disciple under his wing, he would
never forsake him whatever the matter. Even if he left the
physical plane, his guidance continued; we have already quoted
his last words on the subject. Nor should it be forgotten that
when referring his disciples to Rai Saligram, he expressly
stated that if they desired "elucidation" (not initiation) on
any point, they could consult "Saligram" for it.
Keeping the above in mind, Baba Ji had paragraph 250 of the
Agra edition, which stated that a disciple could make no
progress after the death of his Guru until he sought out his
successor (a point not always easy to settle), deleted, and
substituted for it the following, to accord with Swami Ji's
original teachings:
  If anyone is initiated by a perfect Satguru, having love
  and faith in Him, serving Him devotedly, and before he has
  advanced far the Guru should depart, he should continue to
  contemplate His form and perform all of the exercises
  prescribed by the Guru. The same Satguru, in the same
  Radiant Form, will continue to carry on the work as he had
  commenced it, and will carry it on to final success, as if
  he were still in the body.
Stated in this form, Bachan 250 fits in perfectly with Bachan 254,
which fails to harmonize with it in the Soamibagh version.)
 

AN ANCIENT SCIENCE

  Baba Jaimal Singh gave out his spiritual message not as
something new, but as an ancient science. Its traces were
to be found in the scriptures of all faiths, but it came
into full blossom in known history with Kabir and Nanak.

Their writings reveal unequivocally that they had realized
the inner science to its full potential. The great tradition
that these Master-souls had established was continued by
Nanak's successors and then, as we have already seen earlier
in this study, passed on to Tulsi Sahib of Hathras and
from him to Swami Ji of Agra, before returning with Baba
Jaimal Singh to the Punjab.
 
  The Surat Shabd Yoga was not merely a faith, but a
science. It had not been confined to India alone, but was
known to the greatest of the Sufis; and historical records
suggest that the two movements, in India and in the Middle
East, often met and intermingled. It was a path open to
all men and most suited to our times. Swami Ji in giving
out his message was not teaching anything new. He was
doing what his great predecessors had done: revitalizing
and reinterpreting for his times the truths given out of
old. Baba Ji strongly resisted any suggestion that his
Master had discovered a wholly new path, as some people
came later to suggest. Had he not himself declared in Sar
Bachan after stating his tenets:
   
   
    Jo mun maen pateet na dekhe
    To Kabir, Gur Bani Pekhe,
    Tulsi Sahib ka mat joi,
    Paltu, Jagjivan kahen soi.
    In santan ka daeon parmana
    In ki Bani sakh bakhana.
   
    He who cannot realize this fact
    Let him refer to the teachings of Kabir and the
      Sikh Gurus.
    Tulsi Sahib also taught those truths,
    While Paltu and Jagjivan point to the same.
    I refer the skeptic to the testimony of such
      mystics,
    For their teachings are in accord with what I
      say. (*5)

(*5 Sar Bachan (Beas, 1950), p. 350.)
                                     
And did he not often base his discourses on the writings of
Kabir, Tulsi Sahib, Bhikha, and especially of Guru Nanak?
 
  Any hypothesis that Swami Ji while beginning in the
footsteps of his predecessors suddenly, after 1858-61,
transcended to some higher realms unknown to any before
him, could at best only misrepresent him. His poetical
compositions were the fruit of the last years of his life,
and in them he had said, while stating that the Satguru
was identical with the Sat Purush:
   
   
    Sewa kar puja kar un ki,
    Unhi ko Guru Nanak jan.
    Vohi Kabir Vohi Satnama
    Sab santan ko vohi pahchan.
    Tera kaj unhi se hoga,
    Mat bhatke tu taj abhiman.
   
    Serve and worship the Guru for he is Nanak;
    Kabir is also in him, and even so is Sat Naam.
    Truly, every Saint is the embodied form of the
      Formless;
    Your emancipation will be wrought by Him and
      Him alone.


In the light of such recorded statements - to say nothing
of what Swami Ji directly told his disciples - how could
one be so obtuse as to claim a new invention for him?
 
  The Agra Saint, Baba Ji pointed out, in spite of what
came to be laimed later (about a decade after his death),
had always initiated his disciples into the Simran of the
Panch Shabd. Indeed, this was the primary ground of
difference on account of which Baba Ji was unwilling to
join the Central Administrative Council at Soamibagh in 1902.
The greatest Saints of the past had put their disciples on
the Panch Shabd, he said, as was clear from their writings:
  
  
   Kabir through the agency of the Five Words is
     now ever merged in the silence of the Form-
     less.
                                    KABIR

   Know him to be a true Master who can open in
     thee the way back to God,
   And guides thee in the spiritual path with the
     clarion call of the Five Sounds. (*6)
                                        
                                    GURU NANAK

  
   Without the Satguru one finds not the secret of
    Naam,
   Sweet is the elixir of Shabd that flows through
     the Simran of the Five Words. (*7)
                                       
                                    GURU AMAR DAS

(*6 War M.1.                                    
  7 Maru M.3.)
   
    Blessed indeed is one who through the grace of
      the Master
    Unfolds the eternal melody of the Five Sounds. (*8)
                             
                                    GURU ARJAN

(*8 Ramkali M.5.)

Tulsi Sahib also referred to the same explicitly in his
writings.
 
  Swami Ji respected and revered them and pursued the
same course as theirs. In Sar Bachan he clearly stated at
one point:
   
   
    Panch Shabd ka Simran karo
    Siam set main surat dharo.
   
    Keep repeating the five holy Words, and focus
      on the dark spot within.


When Swami Ji began using the term Radhasoami brought
into vogue by his devoted and beloved disciple Rai
Saligram, he did not, Baba Ji affirmed, begin a new faith
or creed. He simply accepted the word as yet another name
for the Unnameable Infinite; interpreting it on the outer
plane to stand for the disciple (Radha) and the Guru
(Soami), and on the inner plane for the soul current
(Radha) and its source (Soami). When Baba Sawan Singh Ji
objected to the use of this new word at Murree in 1894,
Baba Ji, as we have already seen, picked up a copy of Sar
Bachan and read out the verse:
   
   
    Radha aad surat ka naam
    Soami aad Shabd nij dham.
   
    Radha is the name of the primal soul current
      (surat);
    Soami is the name of the primal source of Shabd
      or the Word.
 

He explained that the Absolute in His ultimate form was
formless and indescribable, yet Saints in their zeal to
point Him out to their disciples had given Him countless
names. Had not the authors of the Vishnu Sahasranama and
the Jap Sahib coined hundreds of names for the All-Merciful
Creator?  Then why object to "Radhasoami"?
 
   The Reality which Swami Ji attempted to point out by
the term "Radhasoami" had been referred to by his
predecessors by other names, like Khasam or Soami (Supreme
Lord), Maha Dayal (All Grace), Nirala (the Mysterious),
Nirankar (Formless), and Anami (Nameless). Thus Kabir
once said:
   
   
    Kal Akal Khasam ka keena
    Eh parpanch badhawan.
   
    Time and the Timeless both spring from a single
      source
    And are vital for His manifestation.


And Nanak had declared:
   
   
    Kot Brahmand ka thakur Soami
    Sarabh jian ka data reh.
   
    Soami is the Lord of all creation and the Master
      of all the souls.


Tulsi Sahib had spoken in a similar vein:
   
    Sab ki aad kahun main Soami.
   
    I address as "Soami" the Creator of all that is.


Swami Ji himself, like his Master, invoked the Supreme
Reality as "Soami" or more often still as "Sahib Soami"
and "Satguru Soami." He used those terms freely in his
discourses and letters rather than the word "Radhasoami."
It is just likely that these occurred in his original
poetical compositions as well, but that the word "Radhasoami"
was substituted for them, for purposes of homogeneity, when
these poems were collected some six years after his death
along with many of Hazur Maharaj Rai Saligram's compositions,
in the volume entitled Sar Bachan (poetry), in which
"Radhasoami" word stands either for the ultimate goal
- Soami or Anami - or for the Guru.
 
   Baba Ji was prepared to go thus far and no farther. He
respected the term "Radhasoami" as yet another attempt
at naming the Nameless, but could not accept the special
mystic significance that began to be given to it after
Swami Ji's death. Had not the Agra Saint himself said in
Bachan 115, Part II of Sar Bachan prose:
 
  Naam is of two kinds: Varanatmak and Dhunatmak.
  Innumerable are the benefits of Dhunatmak Naam
  and hardly any of the Varanatmak Naam. (*9)
 
(*9 In the light of Swami Ji's Bachan 115 quoted above,
which Shri S. D. Maheshwari himself cites (Correspondence
with Certain Americans, Agra, 1960, p. 193), one fails to
realize how the latter could commit himself to such patently
self-canceling statements as: "Radhasoami Naam is resounding
in all refulgence in higher spheres" (p. 192); "Like the
word Om, Sat Naam is resounding at the seat of Sat Purush
(True Being). In the same way the Shabd or Sound Radhasoami
is resounding in the Radhasoami Dham" (p. 266). It is indeed
interesting to learn that Hindi is the lingua franca of the
transcendent worlds. One had thought that the inner Shabd
was Dhunatmak (musical and irreducible to speech) and
not Varanatmak; and further that the Anami or Radhasoami
realm was beyond Naam and Form, the Parent and Creator of
Shabd (which came into full manifestation only at Sat Lok)
and not its seat and center. It is not irrelevant here to
point out that mystics have attempted to describe the music
of Shabd only up to the fifth plane - speaking of the bell,
the conch, the drum, the kingri (one-stringed harp), the
flute, etc. - but beyond that have been forced to utter
Herat! Hernt! Herat!  "Wonder! Wonder! Wonder!" Form
and Shabd, as we have already stated, progressively
disappear after the fifth plane, and what finally remains
is the Ocean af Blissful Consciousness that defies all
description.)

All names that could be brought into verbal expression
were Varanatmak and were therefore outer, and subject to
variation from person to person and from people to people.
The inner Shabd was the same in all ages and the same for
all people. It was wholly musical, defying verbal
expression or description, and was the source of all
creation and therefore the sole object of the seeker's
abhyasa. Any word prepossessed in one's mind appears to be
reverberating in that Sound principle. Baba Ji, abiding by
the spirit of his great Guru, unhesitatingly declared,
"Any word which may possitily be brought into utterance
and writing could not be an internal spiritual Sound which
is the unspoken and unwritten law and order of the whole
creation." How could the word "Radhasoami" be Dhunatmak
when it had been brought into outer expression, and how
could it be said to be "resounding" in the highest
spiritual plane where form did not exist and where the
Shabd itself had not yet come into manifestation?
 
   His Master, Baba Ji explained, had always held his
teachings to be those of Kabir and Nanak and had never
claimed to have entered realms unknown to any man before
him in human history. Had not the greatest mystics of
the past left definite testimony of their access to all
the eight inner planes? And did not one read in Nanak:
                                       
    Sat Lok ke oopar dhave
    Alakh, Agam ki tab gat pave
    Tis ke oopar Santan dham
    Nanak das kio bisram.
   
    He who transcends the Sat Lok
    Alone knows the essence of Agam and Alakh,
    The Saints have their abode above them
    And poor Nanak too is a resident there.

Swami Ji's last words placed his adherence to the
traditional path beyond any shadow of a doubt. He had
made it clear that he had nothing to do with "Radhasoami"
developed as a cult. His path was that of Sat Naam and
the Anami, and if he did accept the term "Radhasoami"
it could only be as another Varanatmak name for the
Unnameable One.

 All names like Sat Naam, Onkar, etc., given for Simran
were in like manner Varanatmak. Their sole functions
were (a) to help build up Dhyan or one-pointed
concentration, and (b) to serve as passwords for crossing
from one plane to another. The soul's task (and the
Satguru's) was to reach the fifth plane, Sat Lok, and for
this five passwords, one for each realm, were needed. Once
the soul entered the regions of pure spirit, no further
passwords were necessary. As it beheld the Sat Purush, the
deity of Sat Lok or Sach Khand, and the first definite
manifestation of Naam and Form of the Formless and the
Nameless, it realized that He (i.e., Sat Purush) and the
Satguru were not distinct but one and the same, and that
it itself was also of their very essence. Its search for
the Absolute was at last over and it began to merge in Him.

As it entered deeper and deeper, being absorbed from Form
into the Formless, it passed through Alakh (indescribable)
and Agam (inconceivable) until it finally lost itself in the
Ocean of Bliss and Consciousness that is the Ultimate
Reality beyond any name and form, ineffable, immaculate,
indescribable, and immeasurable.

It was what it was and nothing more could be said of it.
The only way left for describing it was through negatives.
It was neither light nor darkness, neither sound nor
silence. No Shabd could be said to be resounding there, as
Shabd had not yet come into manifestation, and to say that
the strains of "Radhasoami" could be heard vibrating there
was a contradiction in terms.
 
   All past Adepts in the Surat Shabd Yoga had taught as
such. Any perceptive student of their writings could see
that they all regarded the entry into the fifth plane as the
goal that both disciple and Guru must set before themselves.
For achieving this, the Simran of the five sacred names
was essential; and once the soul had entered Sat Lok it
remained the Sat Purush's task to merge it into Himself
and permit it to recede further and still further into
the Formless and the Nameless. It was this very two-phase
process that Swami Ji underlined when he said, "My path
was the path of Sat Naam and the Anami Naam," and at the
conclusion of Bachan 26 in Sar Bachan (poetry), while
describing the soul's entry into Sat Lok and its journey
beyond, he made the whole method very clear indeed and
left not a shadow of doubt:
  
    Pushap madh sae uthi avaza
    Kau tum hoe kaho kaja
    Satgur milae bhed sub dina
    Tis ki kripa daras hum lina
    Darshan kar ut kar magnani
    Sat Purush tub bolae bani
    Alakh lok ka bhed sunaya
    Bal upna dae surat pathaya
    Alakh Purush ka roop anoopa
    Agam Purush nirkha kul bhoopa
    Dekh achraj kaha na jaye
    Kaya kaya. sobha varan paye
   
    From the lotus there arose a voice:
    "Speak! Who are you and what brings you
      here?"
    "My Satguru gave me the key to this realm
    And through His grace I am blessed with thy
      darshan."
    Beholding the Lord it was lost in ecstasy;
    Thereupon the Sat Purush spoke
    Giving forth the secrets of Alakh Lok
    And by His own power raised it further.
    The form of the Alakh Purush defies description.
    Agam Purush, the Lord of all creations,
    His wondrous sight cannot be described
    And His glory cannot be rendered in words.


Baba Ji strictly adhered to his Master's original teachings
and assured his disciples that if they lived by his
instructions they most certainly would "reach Sach Khand,
and, passing through Alakh, Agam, Anami Radhasoami, get
merged in the Wonder Region." Saints in the past had
attained the highest state through the agency of the Five
Names, so why change them now? Why travesty Swami Ji's
message merely for starting a new cult? The Surat Shabd
Yoga was an ancient science and it had not changed
overnight. Before his last day, Baba Ji called all his
disciples then present at Beas and declared: "It is the
Will of Din Dayal Swami Ji Maharaj that I open the doors
of the spiritual treasure house even more widely than
before. My Master wishes that I give you in even greater
detail than before an account of the inner realms, the
first five and the last three, so that you should not be
put in doubt and say that one who was favored of Swami Ji
passed away in silence." He then spoke at length on the
wonders of the worlds within and ended with the words we
have already cited in the conclusion to the biography:
"All my life I have only sought to serve my Master, and
now whatever he had to accomplish through this poor
physical frame is over."
 
   It is impossible to reduce to bare statement the outer
teachings of a great man. The task becomes doubly difficult
in the case of a Saint of the eminence of Baba Jaimal
Singh Ji. Such spirits speak from a wisdom that we cannot
understand and act not as limited human beings but as
the agents of the Lord:
 
   Jaisi maen aavae Khasam ki bani
   Taisra kari gian wey Lalo.
  
   What my Lord speaks within me, O Lalo,
   That alone I utter. (*10)
                                      GURU NANAK

(*10 Tilang M.l, 722)

Their message lives in every little word they speak and in
every little gesture. The abstract statement of their
philosophy is but the skeleton of bone and cartilage that
misses altogether the flesh and biood of their direct impact
on their disciples. Who can now recall those words of wisdom,
of peace, of consolation, of reassurance, of encouragement,
of loving reprimand that Baba Ji uttered as he moved among
his disciples? And who can now record those little acts of
selfless kindness and superhuman love that unconsciously
brought home to those around the unquestioning conviction
of the truth of what the sage taught? If ever there was a
problem that could not be solved, he sat wrapt in meditation,
and when he returned from the inner planes the answer was
with him. But all that beyond a few brief recorded accounts
- is lost forever, the meaning spoken and the meaning left
unspoken and expressed through the agency of the eyes, the
words of advice on every conceivable subject to the never-
ending stream of disciples and seekers; and it is gone beyond
recall. We can only give the husk, the skeleton, and leave
the rest to the reader. And for his better remembrance and
convenience we summarize here some of the main features of
his message - the most ancient, and yet, in his hands as in
those of every great Saint, the most new and the most vital.


SURAT SHABD YOGA

   It is the highest form of Yoga which takes the soul to
the very source, the source of all life and creation, the
Formless and Nameless Anami. It is the most economical
and quickest way, and can be practiced by all, young and
old, children and women, householders and non-house-holders.
In fact, it is the best suited for our times when other
yogic forms, so slow and exacting, are well-nigh impossible
to practice. Swami Ji made no mistake when on his last day
he said, "In this yuga (time cycle) nothing can avail
except devotion to a true Master and the practice of
Naam." (*11)

(*11 Jeevan Charitrar Swamiji Maharaj, p. 112)


THE SATGURU OR THE TRUE MASTER

  He is an embodiment of the Sat Purush in human form,
having become one with Him. "Word was made flesh and
dwelt amongst us." Without the active aid of such a
living Master, nothing is possible. Past Masters may have
ferried their contemporaries across, but they cannot be
of much use to us. The Shabd Guru must always be contacted
through the agency of its living manifestation. The only
infallible test for competence in this field is the
Satguru's ability to give some first-hand experience which
may be later developed. Once one has found a true Master,
one should concentrate on inner discipline. His guidance
is always with us and continues even after he has left the
physical plane.


                      [End of Part 6 of 7]

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