From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Sun Aug 15 00:05:34 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: The Mystery of Death (3/6)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 15 Aug 1999 07:05:34 GMT





                             MYSTERY OF DEATH

                                   by

                              Kirpal Singh 

                              [Part 3 of 6] 



                                   II

                           THE LIGHT OF LIFE

            We all have come down to the distant land
        called earth, like so many prodigal children of God,
        carrying with us the potential of our Father, which
        we are frittering away, day by day and moment by
        moment, in exploring the ephemeral beauties and
        glories of this region, losing all recollection of our
        divine origin and the blissful parental home, and of
        our ancestory together with the great heritage that
        is ours. 'Born of the flesh,' and living in the flesh we
        have lost our touch with the saving life-lines within,
        and as such are spiritually dead - dead in spite of
        the hectic life on physical and mental levels and the
        wondrous achievements in the fields of art, science
        and technology. With all the comforts of life that
        Dame Nature has provided to her foster-child, man,
        we yet live in a state of perpetual fear and distrust
        not only of others but of our own self for we find
        ourselves helplessly and hopelessly adrift on the sea
        of life without any moorings to hold on and keep
        our barque on a steady and even keel on the tumultuous
        waters.

            Man is a microcosm, a replica of the macrocosm
        (universe). The two - the individual and the universal
        - are intimately inter-related, part to part. All
        that is without is also within and the spirit in man
        despite the heavy load of physical and mental trammels
        has the capacity to break through the thick enshrouding
        veils and peep into what lies beyond - the perpetual
        sway of the Supreme God, the eternal self-existing
        Truth, perennially the same from the beginning of time.

            We have, in this respect, the testimony of a
        number of mystics:

            Thou while living in space, hath thy roots out
              of space,
            Learn thou to shutter down this side, and soar
              into fields infinite,
            For so long as one does not rise above the world
              of senses,
            One remains an utter stranger to the world of
              God,
            Strive on and on, till thou art completely out of
              the cage,
            And then shalt thou know the vanity of the
              realms below,
            Once thou art above the body and the bodily
              adjuncts,
            Thy spirit shall bear testimony to the glory of
              God;
            Thy seat is verily the throne of God,
            Fie on thee that thou chooseth to live in a hovel.
            Thou hath a body even when out of the body,
            Why then art thou afraid to get out of the body?

            O friend! bypass the life of the flesh
            That thou mayst experience the Light of Life,
            Thou verily art the life of all that exists here,
            Nay, both the worlds, here and hereafter art in
              thee,
            It is from thee that all wisdom hath descended,
            And it is to thee that God reveals His mysteries,
            In short, though thou appeareth but so small,
            And yet the entire universe resideth in thee.

            Equipped as thou art with a human body and
              an angelic sprite,
            Thou canst at will roam the world over or soar
              in the sky
            What a great fun it would be to leave the body
              here below,
            And wing thy way to the highest heaven above,
            Quit thou thy elemental house of flesh and
              blood,
            And take with thee thy mind and spirit far
              above.

            If you could but come out of the tabernacle of
              the flesh;
            It may enable you to go to the place where flesh
              is not;
            The life of the flesh is from water and food
              alone -
            For on earth you are clothed in the raiment of
              self-same stuff;
            Why not go you nightly out of the charnel-house?
            For you possess hands and feet that are not of
              of this earth;
            It may suffice you to know,
            That there is in you an ingress leading to thy
              Beloved.
            When once you get out of the prison-house of
              the body,
            You shall without any effort land into a new
              world.

            The Perfect Master, time and again, tells us of
        our lost Kingdom lying within, neglected since long
        and altogether forgotten in the mighty swirl of the
        world of mind and matter in which we have been
        drifting all the time. This is the God-given
        opportunity for us to tread the untrodden path and to
        explore the unexplored, and to rediscover within us
        what is already our own, the real inner being in us.
        Human birth is a rare privilege indeed. It comes at
        the end of a long evolutionary process, beginning
        from rocks and minerals, then passing through
        vegetable kingdom, then the world of insects, reptiles
        and rodents, next the feathery fraternity of birds and
        fowls and penultimately beasts and quadrupeds. Man
        has in him an element which all other creatures lack
        or have just in infinitesimal measure - the skyey or
        ethereal element that gives him the power of
        ratiocination and discrimination, enabling him to
        distinguish right from wrong, virtue from vice, and to
        understand and to practise the higher and nobler
        values of life with freedom of will to choose and
        adopt the same for further progress, so as to be 'born
        of the spirit,' adding new dimensions to his
        consciousness by arising into supra-mental awareness
        - first cosmic and then of the Beyond. All this is a
        certain possibility, though we may not know of it at the
        moment.

            "Our self," says Jung, the philosopher, "as the
        container of our whole living system, includes not
        only all the deposits and the sum of all that has been
        lived in the past, but is also the starting point, the
        pregnant mother-earth from which all future life will
        spring; the presentiment of things to come is known
        to our inner feeling as clearly as is the historical
        past. The idea of immortality which arises from
        these psychological fundamentals is quite legitimate."

            Imprisoned in the clayey mould and domineered
        by the mind, man is yet a puny child of clay in the
        vast creation, insignificant in stature and strength.
        But he is limitless and all-pervading in soul; the
        seemingly individualised spirit in him is a priceless
        crest-jewel of inestimable value. So says Bheek, a
        mystic sage:

            O Bheek I none in the world is poor for each
              one has tucked in his girdle a precious ruby;
            But alas! he knows not how to untie the knot to
              get at the ruby and hence goes abegging.

            "God," says the sage of Dakshneshwar (Ramakrishna
         Paramhans), "is in all, but all are not in Him."
        Guru Nanak tells us of the way out - way to unravel
        the great mystery and to acquire mastery over everything
        else - "By conquering the mind, you conquer the world"
        is his simple device. The mind as at present is torn
        between countless desires of diverse nature, pulling in
        different directions. It has, by degrees, to be
        reintegrated and made whole - an undivided whole - with
        the love of God surging in every fibre of its being;
        for then alone it would become a willing instrument to
        serve the spirit instead of dragging It down and without,
        as it does now, into tight bottleneck corners, here,
        there and everywhere and at all times. Unless this
        hydra-headed monster is trained and tamed it, like the
        sea-god Proteus, continues playing wild antics, under
        different guises and various shapes, putting on,
        chameleon-like, the varying ground-colours of its
        own choosing. So long as it keeps attached to the
        earth and all that is earthly, it keeps waxing in
        power and strength derived from the mother-earth.
        It has, therefore, to be lifted high into the air and
        held aloft, as Hercules did with Antaeus, to get rid
        of the giant, who was invincible as long as he
        maintained his contact with the mother-earth from
        whom he derived his strength. Once the mind gets in
        touch with the Divine Melody that comes wafting
        from above, it is lifted up, losing for good all interest
        in the down-pulling sense-pleasures of the world.
        This gradually leads to a virtual death of the body
        that is now left far below as well as of the mind that
        goes up some way to merge in chit-akash - its native
        habitat, the great storehouse of memories from times
        immemorial and from where it descended with the
        blowing down of the vital airs (pranas) on the pure
        consciousness, wrapping it with a two-fold covering
        (mano-mai and pran-mai koshas), constituting the
        mental apparatus befitting the soul for functioning
        on the earth-plane, through yet another covering -
        the physical covering (ann-mai kosh) of the body
        fitted with gross sense-organs, so very necessary in
        the world of sensations.

            While confined, cabined and cramped in the
        magic box of the body, we are not chained to it
        though all the time we think and act as fettered
        prisoners, for we do not know how to unhook the
        indwelling spirit in the body and how to rise above
        it. All the Masters from ages past have been telling
        us with one voice 'to go within and look inwards'
        for the beacon light, the 'Light of Life' uncreated
        and shadowless, All-luminous in Its own luminosity,
        the only ray of hope and deliverance in the enveloping
        darkness of the murky prison-house in which we dwell.
        Of this it is said:

            And the light shineth in darkness; and the
              darkness comprehendeth it not.
                                            -St. John

            Take heed that the light which is in thee be
              not darkness.
                                            -St. Luke

            It is this light which is acclaimed as the 'day-
        star' that serves as 'a lamp unto the feet' of the
        faithful, enrapturing both the mind and the spirit
        which alike are unwittingly attracted and begin
        drifting upward into realms of higher consciousness,
        super-consciousness, along the lighted current of life,
        the Audible Life Stream (Shabd), carried as it were
        on the wings of the Divine Music springing from the
        holy Light, metaphorically described as pegasus, the
        white winged horse of the gods or barq (the lightning)
        that is said to have carried the Prophet to heaven
        (almiraj).

            The great Masters in all times, and in all climes,
        speak of this unique and wonderful house, the human
        body, the veritable temple of God in which dwell
        the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Unless the
        Son (the human spirit) is, by the grace of some
        God-man, baptised with the Holy Ghost (the Power-
        of-God made manifest in the flesh by a God-man),
        the prodigal Son, wandering among the wonders of
        the wondrous world without, cannot by himself
        find his way out of the labyrinth, to the Home of his
        Father (God), for the eternal and fundamental law
        is: "It is in flesh (clayey mould) and through flesh
        (Word-made-flesh) that we come to Him who is beyond
        the flesh." (St. Augustine). Within us is the Light
        of Life. Day and night burneth eternally this
        celestial lamp in the dome of the bodily shrine.
        'Whosoever comes by this Light of lights, to higher
        realms, he soars unfettered.' This is the truth and
        leads unto Truth. "He that knows the Truth knows
        where that light is and he who knows that light,
        knows eternity, (St. Augustine) knowing which (Truth)
        shall make you free" (free from all the impregnable
        bondages, regrets of the past, fears of the present
        and terrors of death in which we constantly live).
        (John 8: 12). The Word or the Holy Ghost is the
        great Truth at the bottom of all creation: "All things
        were made by him (the Word), and without him was
        not anything made that was made," says St. John.
        "The entire world sprang from Shabd," is what Nanak
        tells us. Again, "With one Word of His, this vast
        creation blossomed into being; and a thousand streams
        of life sprang into existence." In Upnishads, it is
        said, 'Eko-aham, Bahu syaam' meaning, 'I am one and
        wish to become many.' The Mohammedans speak of the
        Word as 'Kun-fia-kun' - He willed, and lo, all the
        universe sprang up. Thus it is God-in-action Power
        (Light and Life - The Melody of God), All-pervading
        and All-powerful, immanent in all that is visible
        and invisible, creating and sustaining countless
        creations. Speaking of creation, Nanak tells us:
        "And countless Thy planes; unapproachable and
        inaccessible Thy innumerable heavenly plateux."
        Even by the word countless, we fail to describe Him.
        The words count and countless are indeed of little
        consequence for the Almighty. He who is immanent
        in everything and is the very life of the creation
        itself, knows every particle thereof.

            To come to a better understanding of the higher
        life, the life of the spirit, one has to actually cross
        the trans-frontiers of the earth life and pass through
        the gates of what is called death, and be reborn in
        the ethereal unearthly world beyond. "That which is
        born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said
        unto thee, ye must be born again." (John 3: 6-7).
        It is this contact with the 'Light of Life' as manifested
        within by a God-man that brings to an end the
        peregrinations of the soul in the ever-revolving wheel
        of births and rebirths. The entire creation is believed
        to be divided into eight million and four hundred
        thousand species (84 lakhs); (i) water creatures
        - 900,000 (9 lakhs), (ii) air creatures - 1,400,000
        (14 lakhs), (iii) insects, rodents and reptiles etc.-
        2,700,000 (27 lakhs), (iv) trees, shrubs, herbs and
        other vegetables and creepers etc. - 3,000,000 (30
        lakhs), and (v) all kinds of quadrupeds and animals,
        human beings including gods and godesses, demi-gods
        and godly powers, demons and wandering spirits etc.
        - 400,000 (4 lakhs). A jiva-atman or an individual
        soul unless liberated (becomes an atman), keeps
        revolving in one or other material body by the
        compulsive force of karmas and impressions gathered
        from life to life. This then is a prelude to real life
        and life eternal, coming, as it does from contact with
        the 'Voice of the Son of God (i.e. inner Music made
        manifest by Him) and they that hear (though dead
        to It now) shall live (and live eternally by us)'
        - John 5: 25 - for it is said: "Then the eyes of the
        blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf be
        unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and
        the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness
        (of the human heart) shall waters (of life) break out
        and streams in the desert." (Isiah 35: 5-6). "For now
        we see through a glass; darkly but then face to face:
        Now I see part; but then shall I know even as I am
        known." (I Cor. 13-12). "The spirit, when attuned to
        the Sound Current" says Nanak likewise, "begins to see
        (the Light of God) without eyes (of flesh), to hear
        (the Voice of God) without ears, clings on (to the
        Divine Music) without hands and moves forward
        (Godwards) without feet." Again, the great teacher
        goes on to explain: "The seeing eye, see not (the
        reality) but by the grace of the Guru, one begins to
        discern (the Power of God) face to face. It is why
        a worthy and worshipful disciple can perceive God
        everywhere." Our sense-organs are so formed as
        may help us in the physical world alone and that too
        imperfectly, but they fail us when we come to the
        supra-physical level. 'By seeing we see but do not
        perceive, by hearing we hear but do not understand,
        and we have a heart that has neither feeling nor
        understanding.' But a complete change, a marvellous
        change comes about only when one learns how to
        invert and undergo practically a process of voluntary
        death while living. So the exhortation: Learn
        how to die (die to the earth life) that you begin to
        live (live freely and fearlessly in the living spirit,
        free from the limiting adjuncts of the bodily sheaths).
        One has, therefore, to 'forsake the flesh for the spirit.'
        Love not the flesh more than the spirit, is the age-old
        advice of the Prophet of Galilee.

            As long as we are 'at home in the body, we are
        absent from God.' And, 'the more one withdraws
        from himself, the nearer one gets to God.' Nothing
        in creation compares with the Creator, for what is
        not God is nothing. With the transference of
        consciousness from the earth-plane (death as is
        commonly known) to the spiritual plane (rebirth or
        second birth-birth of the spirit, as it is called),
        through contact with the Master-power flowing in
        the body, one never perishes. 'When all others desert
        (you), I will not abandon you, nor allow you to perish
        the last.' "He that overcometh (transcendeth the
        physical in him by transhumanising the human),
        shall not be hurt of the second death" because 'if
        ye are led by the spirit ye are not under the law
        (the law of action and reaction or cause and effect
        leading to repeated incarnations).'

            All this is not a mere theory but a fact - the
        'fact of life' for 'the flame of life' cometh with
        every individual from the moment of one's birth, and
        it is given unto every man to know the secret of the
        flaming Sound and "the mysteries of heaven (the
        Kingdom of God)." (Matt. 13:11). In this science
        of the Beyond, logic and reasoning have no place.
        Actual seeing alone brings in faith and belief. The
        Light of light, the Father of lights 'swayom jyoti
        swarup Parmatma' (self-effulgent God), 'nooran-ala
        noor' (the great celestial Light), and the spirit in
        man (the spark from the divine light of the universal
        spirit, a drop of consciousness from the ocean of
        consciousness, appearing as individualised spirit clothed
        in various mantles), are all within the human body
        (nar-naraini deb); but strange as it may seem that
        though living in so close proximity to each other, one
        has not seen the face of the other; because we have
        mistaken the arid wilderness of the world as our real
        abode. The Master-souls not only apprise us of the
        reality and the rich heritage to which we are entitled,
        but Christ-like proclaim: "I will give unto thee the
        keys of the Kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 16:9). Nanak
        also tells us: "The Master has the key for the mobile
        house of soul chained to the body and the mind; O Nanak!
        without a Perfect Master, there is no way of escape from
        the prison-house." But how many of us have put faith
        in their solemn assurances, and how many of us are
        prepared to take and accept the keys of the Kingdom and
        more so to unlock the steely portals, behind the eyes?
        And much less to hear the Word (the Holy Word) of
        which Christ says: "He that heareth my Word ... is
        passed from death unto life," (John 5:24) in spite
        of our vehement daily prayers for being led from
        untruth to Truth, from darkness to Light and from
        death to Immortality. It is indeed a strange paradox,
        more paradoxical than the riddles ever propounded by
        Sphinx, the monster of Thebe to the Thebans or the
        enigmas of life. put by Yaksha, the demon-guardian of
        the pool of refreshing water, to the Pandva princes who
        went, one by one, to slake their thirst but could not
        do so (except Yudhishtra, the prince of dharma) and were
        turned into stones for their inability to solve the same.
        Are we not, in fact, leading a stark and stiff life,
        stiff in death as it were, like many insensate things,
        awaiting the advent of the Prince of Peace, to raise us
        once more into life (life everlasting) by conquering the
        Sphinx and the Yaksha of old - keeping a dragon-like
        strict watch over us lest we, lured by the legendry Golden
        Fleece, escape, Jason-like, with the much coveted
        prize, from his domineering sway. This then is the
        great enigma of life which has got to be solved, for
        without solving it our brief existence here is dwarfed
        and stunted.

            The majority of us simply lead an animal existence
         - living like them a blind life in the brain. We
        have never risen above the emotional and mental
        worlds which we ourselves have cast around us and
        which now hold us in their iron grip. The 'heaven's
        light,' is to most of us a figment of human imagination
        and not a reality:

            While with us in the body, we see Him not,
            Fie on a lifeless life like this,
            O Tulsi! everyone is stark blind.

        Kabir tells us:

            The entire world is groping in darkness,
            If it were a question of one or two, they could
              be set right.

        Nanak also speaks likewise:

            To the Enlightened One all are purblind,
            For none knows the inner secret.

        Nanak then goes on to define blindness:

            They who lack eyes are not blind,
            Blind are such as see not the Lord.
            And eyes that see the Lord are quite different.

        Again, it is said:

            The eyes of flesh see Him not, but when the
              Master illumines the eyes within,
            A worthy disciple begins to witness the Power
              and glory of God within himself.

        How is it that we do not see Him with all our
        earnest and well-meant endeavours?

            Enveloped in darkness we strive darkly for God
              by deeds not less dark;
            Without a Perfect Master none has found the
              way nor can one do so;
            But when one comes across a Perfect Master,
              one begins to see Him with an eye opened in
              the closet of his heart.

            It is only by direct Communion with the Name
        (the Holy Word) that one comes to know that by
        knowing It nothing else remains to be known. In
        Jap Ji, the great teacher recounts the innumerable
        benefits which spontaneously begin to flow and one
        becomes the abode of all virtues:

            By Communion with the Word, one can attain
              the status of a Siddha (1), a Pir (2),
              a Sura (3), or a Nath (4);
            By Communion with the Word, one can understand
              the mysteries of the earth, the supporting
              bull (5) and the heavens;
            By Communion with the Word, the earthly
              regions, the heavenly plateaux and the nether
              worlds stand revealed;
            By Communion with the Word, we can escape
              unscathed through the portals of death;
            O Nanak! His devotees live in perpetual
              ecstasy, for the Word washes away all sin and
              sorrow.

            By Communion with the Word, one can attain
              the powers of Siva, Brahma and Indra;
            By Communion with the Word, one can win
              esteem from all irrespective of one's past;
            By Communion with the Word, one can have
              yogic insight with the mysteries of life and
              self all revealed;
            By Communion with the Word, one can acquire
              the true import of the Sastras (6), Smritis (7)
              and Vedas (8);
            O Nanak ! His devotees live in perpetual ecstasy,
              for the Word washes away all sin and sorrow.

            By Communion with the Word, one becomes
              the abode of Truth, contentment and true
              knowledge;
            By communion with the Word, one gets the
              fruit of ablution at sixty-eight pilgrimages (9);
            By Communion with the Word, one wins the
              honour of the learned;
            By Communion with the Word, one attains the
              stage of Sehaj (10);
            O Nanak! His devotees live in perpetual ecstasy,
              for the Word washes away all sin and sorrow.

            By Communion with the Word, one becomes the
              abode of all virtues;
            By Communion with the Word, one becomes a
              Sheikh, a Pir, and a true spiritual king;
            By Communion with the Word, the spiritually
              blind find their way to Realisation;
            By Communion with the Word, one crosses
              beyond the Limitless Ocean of illusory matter;
            O Nanak! His devotees live in perpetual ecstasy,
              for the Word washes away all sin and sorrow.

-----
1. Sidha: A man endowed with supernatural powers.
2. Pir: A Muslim divine or a spiritual teacher.
3. Sura: A god.
4. Nath: Yogin, an adept in yoga.
5. Dhaul: It is the fabled bull, supposed to be
   supporting the earths and heavens.
6. Sastras: The philosophical treatises of the Hindus.
7. Smritis: The ancient scriptures of the Hindus.
8. Vedas: The earliest books of human and divine.
9. Ath-sath: Literally, these two words mean eight and
   sixty, i.e. sixty-eight. Nanak is once again making
   use of the Hindu belief that ablutions at 68 places of
   pilgrimage purify all sinful acts.
10.	Sehaj: This term refers to the state when the turmoil
   of the physical, astral and causal worlds with all their
   enchanted panorama, are transcended and the great
   principle of life is seen within.
------

            Thus we see that the secret of success both here
        and hereafter lies in attuning the 'self' within to the
        Overself or the Sound Current which is the be-all and
        end-all of all existence. Nanak, therefore, exhorts:

            It is by a great good fortune that one takes a
              human birth and one must make the most of it,

            But one goes down in the scale of creation by
              deliberately breaking away from the saving
              life-lines in him.

            It is, indeed, a sad plight for one who gains the
        possessions of the whole world but loses his own soul.
        Far from having any profit, he incurs a dead loss,
        irreparable and irretrievable, whereby he suffers for
        ages before he comes again to the human level. Once
        the opportunity is allowed to slip through the fingers,
        the gains made so far go overboard and one hopelessly
        flounders on the shoals and sand-banks of the stream
        of life. The fall from the top rung of the ladder of
        life is a terrible fall indeed!


                          [End of Part 3 of 6]

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