From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Thu Feb 12 03:14:00 1998
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: Naam or Word: A Study of the Sound Current (4/9)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 12 Feb 1998 11:14:00 GMT



                        
                             
                             NAAM OR WORD
   
                                  by 

                         Sant Kirpal Singh Ji

                             (1894 - 1974)                           


                               [PART 4]
      
                               

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY

The Jewish and Christian scriptures abound with references 
to the Word as the creative aspect of God, and as the means 
by which He is reached. In the very beginning of the Bible 
we read:
    

    In the beginning God created the heaven and the
    earth . , . And God said, Let there be light, and there
    was light.
                                                GENESIS 1


This is elaborated by St. John as follows:
    
    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
    with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
    the beginning with God. All things were made by
    him; and without him was not anything made that
    was made. In him was life; and the life was the light
    of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the
    darkness comprehended it not. . . . That was the true
    Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
    world . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
    among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of
    the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and
    truth.
    
                                        JOHN 1: 1-5, 9,14


Christ further explained the initiatory aspect of the Word
in one of his most famous parables:
    
    Behold, there went out a sower to sow; And it came
    to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and
    the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And
    some fell on stony ground, where it had not much
    earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had
    no depth of earth:  But when the sun was up, it
    scorched; and because it had no root, it withered
    away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns
    grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And
    other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that
    sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some
    thirty, and some sixty, and some a hundred. And
    he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him
    hear. . . .
      
      The sower soweth the Word. And these are they
    by the way side, where the Word is sown; but when
    they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and
    taketh away the Word that was sown in their hearts.
    And these are they likewise which are sown on stony
    ground; who, when they have heard the Word, 
    immediately receive it with gladness; and have no root
    in themselves, and so endure for a time: afterward,
    when affliction or persecution ariseth for the Word's
    sake, immediately they are offended. And these are
    they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the
    Word, and the cares of this world, and the 
    deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things 
    entering in, choke the Word, and it become unfruitful. 
    And these are they which are sown on good ground; such
    as hear the Word and receive it, and bring forth fruit,
    some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.

                                         MARK 4:4-9, 14-20



Following are some of the many references to the Word
or the Audible Life Stream found throughout the Old and
New Testaments:*

(*For a complete discussion of the teachings of Christ in this connection,
 see The Crown of Life (Delhi, 1970) by the same author, pp. 204-213.)


    By the "Word of the Lord were the heavens made . . .
    For he spake and it was done.                                          

                                        PSALM 33:6, 9


    
    Forever, O Lord, thy Word is settled in heaven. . . .
    Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto              
    my path.
                                        
                                        PSALM 119:89, 105
    

    
    The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous
    runneth into it and is safe.                                            
                                
                                        
                                            PROVERBS 18:1O
                                                                          
                                                                         

    The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word                  
    of our God shall stand forever.                                       
                                                             
                                               ISAIAH 40:8
    
    

    I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but
    he that cometh after me, mightier than I, whose shoes
    I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize (immerse)                     
    you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.
                                                
                                               MATTHEW 3:11
    
    

    Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word
    that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
                                                  
                                               MATTHEW 4:4
    
    

    The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest
    the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
    cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that
    is born of the Spirit.

                                                JOHN 3:8


    Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my
    Word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath ever-
    lasting life and shall not come into condemnation; but
    is passed from death unto life.
                                                  
                                                JOHN 5:24



    Now ye are clean through the Word which I have
    spoken unto you.

                                                JOHN 15:3



    I have manifested thy Name unto the men which
    thou gavest me out of the world . . . I have given
    them thy Word . . .
                                                   
                                             JOHN 17:6,14



    Sanctify them through thy truth; thy Word is truth.
                                    
                                               JOHN 17:17



    Who being the brightness of his glory, and the ex-
    press image of his person, and upholding all things
    by the Word of his power . . .
                                                    
                                                HEBREWS 1:3



    For the Word of God is quick (living), and powerful,
    and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
    to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of
    the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
    thoughts and intents of the heart.
                                                   
                                                HEBREWS 4:I2


    Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of
    naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted
    Word, which is able to save your souls.
                                                      
                                                JAMES 1:21

    

    Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of 
    incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and
    abideth forever.
                                                
                                                I PETER 1:23
   

    And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount
    Sion, and with him a hundred forty and four thousand, 
    having his Father's name written on their foreheads. 
    And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice
    of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder:
    and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their
    harps: And they sung as it were a new song before
    the throne, and before the four beasts and the elders:
    and no man could learn that song but the hundred
    and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed
    from the earth.

                                        REVELATION 14:1-3



The testimony of Christian saints of all traditions 
(Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox) confirms and clarifies 
the scriptural references:
   
   Those in whom the eternal Word speaks are delivered
   from uncertainty. From one Word proceed all things
   and all things tell of Him.
   Love the Word better than the world.

                                        THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
   

   The Word of God became man that you also may
   learn from a man how a man becomes a God.

                                        CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
   

   Absolutely unutterable and indescribable are  the
   lightning-like splendors of Divine beauty; neither can
   speech express nor hearing apprehend. Shall we name
   the brilliance of the morning star, the brightness of
   the moon, the radiance of the sun-the glory of all
   these is unworthy of being compared with the true
   light, standing farther from it than does the gloomiest
   night and the most terrible darkness from midday
   brightness. This beauty, invisible to bodily eyes, com-
   prehensible to soul and mind only, if it illumines
   some of the saints leaves in them an unbearable
   wound through their desire that this vision of Divine
   beauty should extend over an eternity of life; 
   disturbed by this earthly life, they loathe it as 
   though it were a prison.

                                        ST. BASIL THE GREAT


The Writings Of Jacob Boehme, the Lutheran cobbler-mystic 
of seventeenth-century Germany, center around the
Word and offer conclusive evidence that the esoteric
teachings of Christ (Surat Shabd Yoga) had not been
completely forgotten:
    

    If you should in this world bring many thousand sorts
    of musical instruments together, and all should be
    tuned in the best manner most artificially, and the
    most skillful masters of music should play on them in
    concert together, all would be no more than the 
    howlings  and barkings of dogs in comparison of the
    Divine Music, which rises through the Divine Sound
    and tunes from Eternity to Eternity.

                                                THE AURORA


    For all whatsoever has life, liveth in the Speaking
    Word, the Angels in the Eternal Speaking and the
    temporal spirits in the re-expression or echoing forth
    of the formings of time, out of the sound or breath of
    Time and the angels out of the Sound of Eternity,
    viz., out of the Voice of the Manifested Word of God.

                                                MYSTERIUM MAGNUM


    The Disciple said to his Master; How may I come to
    the super-sensual life, that I may see God and hear
    him speak?
    
    His Master said: When thou canst throw thyself but               
    for a moment into that where no creature dwelleth,
    then thou hearest what God speaketh.
    
    Disciple: Is that near at hand or far off?
    
    Master: It is in thee. And if thou canst for a while
    but cease from all thy thinking and willing, then thou
    shalt hear the unspeakable words of God.
    
    Disciple: How can I hear him speak, when I stand
    still from thinking and willing?
    
    Master: When thou standest still from the thinking
    of self, and the willing of self; "When both thy intel-
    lect and will are quiet, and passive to the impressions
    of the Eternal Word and Spirit; And when thy soul
    is winged up, and above that which is temporal, the
    outward senses, and the imagination being locked up
    by holy abstraction," then the Eternal hearing, seeing,
    and speaking, will be revealed in thee; and so God
    "heareth and seeth through thee," being now the
    organ of his spirit: and so God speaketh in thee, and
    whispereth to thy spirit, and thy spirit heareth his
    voice. Blessed art thou therefore if that thou canst
    stand still from self-thinking and self-willing,  and
    canst stop the wheel of imagination and senses . . .
    Since it is naught indeed but thine own hearing and
    willing that do wonder thee, so that thou dost not see
    and hear God.

    

                OF THE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE
                
The following is the spiritual experience of Eliphas Levi,
a Catholic priest:
      
      A particular phenomenon occurs when the brain
    is overcharged by Astral Light; sight is turned inward
    instead of outward; night falls on the external and real
    world, while fantastic brilliance shines on the world
    of dreams; even the physical eyes experience a slight
    quivering and turn up inside the lids. The soul then
    preceives by means of images the reflection of its
    impressions and thoughts. 
    
    This is to say that the analogy subsisting between idea 
    and form attracts in the Astral Light of reflection 
    representing that form, configuration being the essence 
    of the vital light; it is the universal imagination, of 
    which each of us appropriates a lesser or greater part 
    according to our grade of sensibility and memory. 
    Therein is the source of all apparitions, all 
    extraordinary visions and all the intuitive phenomena 
    peculiar to ecstasy.
      
      The appropriation or assimilation of the light by
    clairvoyant sensibility is one of the greatest phenomena 
    which can be studied by science. It may be understood in 
    a day to come that seeing is actually speaking and that, 
    the consciousness of light is a twilight of eternal life 
    in being. 
    
    The Word of God Himself, who creates light, and is 
    uttered by all intelligence that conceives of forms and 
    seeks to visualize them. "Let there be light." 
    
    Light in the mode of brightness exists only for eyes 
    which look thereon, and a soul enamored with the pageant 
    of universal beauty, and fixing its attention on that 
    luminous script of the endless book which is called 
    things manifest, seems to cry on its own part, as God 
    at the dawn of the first day, the sublime and creative 
    words: Fiat lux . . .
      
      . . . To understand the cause of this force, but
    never to be obsessed and never overcome thereby, is
    to trample on the serpent's head. In such secrets are
    contained all mysteries of magnetism, which name can
    indeed be applied to the whole part of antique 
    Transcendental Power. Magnetism is the wand of miracles,
    but it is this for initiates only; for rash and 
    uninstructed people, who would sport with it or make it
    subserve their passions, it is as dangerous as that 
    consuming glory which, according to the allegorical fable,
    destroyed the too ambitious Semele in the embraces
    of Jupiter.
      
      One of the great benefits of magnetism is that it
    demonstrates by incontestable facts the spirituality,
    unity and immortality of the soul; and these things
    once made certain, God is manifested to all 
    intelligences and all hearts. Thereafter, from the 
    belief in God and from the harmonies of creation we are 
    led to that great religious harmony . . . 
    . . . it follows from this revelation from the ancient 
    world that clairvoyant extasis is a voluntary and 
    immediate application of the soul to the universal force,
    or rather to that light-abounding in images - which
    radiates, which speaks and circulates about all objects
    and every sphere of the universe. This application is
    operated by the persistence of will liberated from the
    senses and fortified by a succession of tests. 
    
    Herein consisted the beginning in the light, the adept 
    became a seer or prophet; then having established 
    communications between this light and his own will, 
    he learned to direct the former, even as the head of 
    an arrow is set in a certain direction. He communicated 
    at his pleasure either strife or peace to the soul 
    of others; he established intercourse at a distance with 
    those fellow-adepts who were his peers, and, in fine, he
    availed himself of that force which is represented by
    the celestial lion. 
    
    Herein lies the meaning of those great Assyrian figures 
    which hold vanquished lions in their arms. The Astral 
    Light is otherwise represented by gigantic sphinxes having 
    the bodies of lions and the heads of Magi. Considered as 
    an instrument, the Astral Light is that golden sword of 
    Mithra used in his immolation of the bull. And it is the 
    arrow of Phoebus which pierced the serpent Python . . .
    
      The Astral Light as a whole, that element of electricity 
    and of lightning, can be placed at the disposition of 
    human will. What must be done, however, to acquire this 
    formidable Power? Zoroaster has just told us; we must 
    know those mysterious laws of equilibrium which subjugate 
    the very powers of evil by sacred trials, must have 
    conquered the phantoms of hallucination and taken hold 
    bodily of the light, imitating Jacob in his struggle 
    with the angel. 
    
    We must have vanquished those fantastic dogs which howl
    in the world of Oracle, we must have heard the light
    speak. We are then its masters and can direct it, as
    Numa did, against the enemies of the Holy Mysteries.
    
    But in the absence of perfect purity, and if under the
    government of some animal passion, by which we are
    still subjected to the fatalities of tempestuous life,
    we proceed to this kind of work, the fire which we
    kindle will consume ourselves; we shall fall victims to
    the serpent which we unloose and shall perish like
    Tullus Hostilius . . .
      
      Pythagoras defined God as a living and Absolute
    Truth clothed in light; he defined the Word as number
    manifested by form; and he derived all things from
    the Tetractys-that is to say, the tetrad. He said also
    that God is supreme music; the nature of which is
    harmony.
      
      It is related furthermore that beasts were obedient
    to Pythagoras. Once in the middle of the Olympic
    Games,  he  signaled to  an eagle winging its way
    through heaven; the bird descended, wheeling 
    circlewise, and again took rapid flight at the master's 
    token of dismissal. There was also a great bear ravaging in
    Apulia; Pythagoras brought it to his feet and told it
    to leave the country. It disappeared accordingly, and
    when asked to what knowledge he owed such a marvelous 
    power, he answered:  "To the Science of Light." 
    
    Animated beings are, in fact, incarnations of
    light. Out of the darkness of ugliness forms emerge
    and move progressively toward the splendors of
    beauty, instincts are in correspondence with forms;
    and man, who is the synthesis of the light whereof
    animals may be termed the analysis, is created to
    command them. 
    
    It has come about, however, that in place of ruling as 
    their master, he has become their persecutor and 
    destroyer, so that they fear and have rebelled against 
    him. In the presence of an exceptional will which is at 
    once benevolent and directing, they are completely 
    magnetized, and a host of modern phenomena both can and 
    should enable us to understand the possibility of miracles 
    like those of Pythagoras . . .
     
      The Astral Light is the Living soul of the earth, a
    material and fatal soul, controlled in its productions
    and movements by the eternal laws of equilibrium . . .
    
    This light, which environs and permeates all bodies,
    can also suspend their weight and make them revolve
    about a powerfully absorbent center . . .

                    
                        
                           ISLAM

  Among the Muslim Sufis, it is known as Sultan-ul-Azkar
(the king of prayers). Another order of Sufis call it Saut-
i-Sarmadi, (the Divine Song). They also call it Kalam-i-
qadim (the Ancient Sound), and the Kalma or "Word,"
Nida-e-Asmani (the Sound coming down from Heaven).
The fourteen Tabaqs (regions) were made by the Kalma
-the Word.
  
  Khawaja Hafiz, a great divine, says:
    

    From the turret of the Heaven, a call bids thee Home,
    But fallen into the snares thou listeneth not.
    No one knows where the Mansion of the Beloved lies,
    But sure enough, the chiming of the bells proceeds
      therefrom.


Again,
    
    Take the stop-cock from thy ears, and hear thou the
      voice of emancipation coming to thee,
    Attach yourself not to the material world,
    The elixir of life is showering from above.
    The beat of Love while sounding in the Heavens,
    Sends blessings to the souls of the devotees.


Jalaluddin Rumi, in his Masnavi, says:
    
    Grow not skeptical, but attune thyself to the Sound
      coming down from the Heavens,
    Thy soul shall have revelations from afar.
    What are these? the glimpses of the Unrevealed; were
      I to speak of these sweet melodies,
    Even the dead shall rise from their graves.


Again,
    
    Rise above the horizon, O brave soul, and hear the
      Melodious Song coming from the highest heaven.


Prophet Mohammed said that he heard the "Voice of
God" as any other sound.
  
  Shah Niaz, another Muslim devotee, says:
    

    Soul is the Will and the Secret of God. Its meditation
      is carried on without the help of tongue and palate.
      Alas! thou art stuck fast in the physical bondage
      and do not hear the Holy Sound of God. My Beloved 
      is speaking to thee all the while, but woe to
      thee for thou heareth not the Voice.

Again,
    
    The whole universe is resounding with the Sound, and
      thou hast only to open the door of thine ears.
    For opening the ears, it is sufficient to stop hearing
      the outer sounds. If you do this, you will hear the
      perpetual and unending Sound. It is infinite and
      has no beginning nor end, and on account of that,
      It is called Anhad (i.e., without any limits). 
      Without this Word - the Eternal Sound - an expression
      of the Infinite, the world could not have come into
      existence. Hold communion with the Melodious
      Sound and lose yourself in it, O wise man.
      O God! show me that place from where the Kalma
      (Sound Principle) proceedeth without Words.

                   

                           
                            BAHAISM

Here are a few extracts taken from the "Hidden Words"
of Baha-Ullah, a mystic saint of Persia:
    
    O Son of Love!
    Thou art but one step away from the glorious heights
      above and from the celestial tree of love. Take
      thou one pace and with the next advance into the
      Immortal Realm and enter the Pavilion of Eternity.
      Give ear then to that which hath been revealed by
      the pen of glory.
    
    O Essence of Negligence!
    Myriad of mystic tongues find utterance in one
     speech, and myriads of mysteries are revealed in a
     single melody; yet, alas! there is no ear to hear
     nor heart to understand.                      
    
    O Children of Negligence and Passion!
    . . . Open your ears that ye may hearken unto the
     Word of God, the help in peril, the Self-Existent.
    
    O Son of Dust!
    . . . hearken unto the mystic voice calling from the
     Realm of the Invisible.
    
    O Son of Bein
    Thou art My Lamp and My Light is in thee. . . . I
     have created thee rich. . . . and within thee have I
     placed the essence of My Light.
    
    O Son of Spirit!
    . . Alas! How strange and pitiful, for a mere cupful,             
    they have turned away from the billowing seas of
    the Most High, and remained far from the most
    effulgent horizon.
    
    O Offspring of Dust!
    . . . up from thy prison ascend unto the glorious
      meads above, and from thy mortal cage wing thy
      flight unto the paradise of the Placeless.

    O Son of spirit!
    Burst thy cage asunder, and even as the phoenix of
      love soar into the firmament of holiness. Renounce
      thyself and, filled with the spirit of mercy, abide in
      the realm of celestial sanctity.

    O Son of Man!
    Ascend into My heaven, that thou mayest obtain the
      joy of reunion, and from the chalice of imperish-
      able glory quaff the peerless wine.

    O My Servant!
    . . . This is the river of everlasting life that hath
      flowed from the well-spring of the pen of the
      merciful; well is it with them that drink!
    
    O Son of Passion!
    Cleanse thyself from the defilement of riches and in
      perfect peace advance into the realm of poverty;
      that from the well-spring of detachment thou
      mayest quaff the wine of immortal life.
    
    O Son of my Handmaid!
    Quaff from the tongue of the merciful the stream of
      divine mystery . . .

       
       
                  THE TEACHINGS OF THE MASTERS
    
    Without the Word, Sound or Eternal Song, the soul
      sees not. Where could she go? As she cannot
      fathom the mystery of "Word" she is wandering
      from place to place.
                                             KABIR SAHIB
    
    

    Mind hankereth after evil; through the Word the
    Master restraineth it.
                                          GURU TEG BAHADUR


    Through the medium of the Word, soul doth cross the
      endless ocean of matter. Lowly Nanak, therefore,
      glorifies His Naam (the Word). 99


    The Word is both earth and ether. These had their
      being through the Word. This Word expressed
    Itself in other aspects as well. The whole creation
      sprang up after the Word. O Nanak, the endless
    Word is reverberating in each heart. 100
                                       

    The all-pervading Word has attracted all my mind.
    What else have I to think of? Communion of the
      soul with the Word creates everlasting Bliss. At-
      one-ment with the Lord procures the Essence of
    Joy and Peace. 101


    I am emancipated. The God-man has unfettered me.
    Through the communion of soul with the Word,
    I have gained the resplendent seat of honor. 
    O Nanak!  the All-pervading Naam or the Word
      dwelleth in the hearts of all. The company of the
    Gurumukhs procures communion with it. 102


    Far off, on the other shore, is my Beloved. The God-
      man's Word alone carries the soul across. In the
      company of the saints, man is in bliss and never
      repents. 103


    How can the ignorant get to the principle of union
      of soul with the Word? Without communion with
      the Word, soul comes and goes. O Nanak! the
    Gurumukh who is himself emancipated, is met by
      the merciful Writ of the Lord. l04
    
                                                GURU NANAK


    The creation and the ultimate dissolution of the 
      universe is caused through the Word. Again, through
      the Word, it takes its existence anew. 105

                                                GURU AMAR DAS


    By good luck, the Lord Consort has become ours.
      The Endless Song (the Word), resounding 
      everywhere, gives a clue to His Court. 106


    The Word made all the earthly and heavenly 
      systems. 107
    
                                                GURU ARJAN


    He is the true saint, who talks about the secret of the
      Divine Word (Eternal Sound). Having scrutinized
      the Unknowable and the Unthinkable, He has real-
      ized the Bani (the Eternal Sound).

                                                TULSI DAS


       Word is the lock and Word is the key thereto,
       With the chains of the Word, all are bound.
       The Lord resideth in the form of the Word,
       I bow my head at His Feet.

                                                DOOLAN SAHIB



    Ever since I heard the Limitless Divine Song (Anhad)
      reverberating throughout,
    The indriyas (organs) have become tired of going out,
    And the mind has shed all its ramifications,
    All desires have been satisfied; like a madman, I
      have lost myself in the Word, and obtained com-
      plete oneness with It.

                                                CHARAN DAS



    The Sound of the Word is the prime cause of all. It is
      also the be-all and the end-all. The three regions
      and the fourth were made by It. The Word and the
      Spirit are of the same origin and both spring from
      the essence of the Nameless One. It is both the
      cause and the effect, and all were created by It.
      The Word is the preceptor as well as the disciple
      and is resounding in the heart of everyone. The
      Word is water and It is the fish also. Kabir speaks
      only of this Word. Nanak and Tulsi proclaimed the
      same Truth. The king and the minister, both are
      Word personified. Radha Swami (the Lord of the
      Spirit) says: My brave son, listen to It.
    
                                          SWAMI SHIVDAYAL SINGH



3. A STUDY IN NAAM

The Word (Sound) is echoing and re-echoing in the
whole of creation. There is no place without It. It is 
resounding in the living temple of the human body.
                        

THE RICHES OF NAAM ARE LASTING AND INEXHAUSTIBLE
  
  The treasure-house of Naam is perfectly secure and
eternally the same:
    
    While worldly riches come and go, the riches of Naam
      are eternal and everlasting,
    Fire cannot destroy It nor can It be stolen. l08

                                           GURU AMAR DAS

Therefore it is said:
    
    Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
      moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves                 
      break through and steal;                                      
    But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where              
      neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where
      thieves do not break through nor steal;
    For where your treasure is, there will your heart be
      also. 109
                                                  CHRIST   
    

    I am possessed of the treasure of Naam,
    Whosoever gets It, is emancipated,
    It can neither be stolen nor destroyed,
    It is tax-free and is not affected by the ravages of
    time. 110 
                                              GURU NANAK



ATTRIBUTES OF NAAM 
  
  The fountain of Naam is eternal and perennially full.
It springs from Sant Satguru (One established in Truth)
and becomes manifest in a Gurumukh (One who scrupulously 
follows the teachings of the Guru). He who realizes and 
experiences It within himself becomes truly blessed.
      
      We have the treasure of Naam in abundance,
      Satguru transmits his own Life-current,
      May he live eternally. 111

                                            GURU RAM DAS
    

      Word is an inexhaustible treasure and resides 
        in the heart of a Gurumukh. 112
                                             
                                            GURU ARJAN
    

      The riches of Naam never run out and are inestimable,
      With the gift of Naam one verily shines bright
      And becomes the knower of Truth. 113
                                                
                                            GURU AMAR DAS
    

      Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
        him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall
        give him shall be in him a well of water, springing
        up into everlasting life. 114
                                                
                                                CHRIST


The wealth of Naam is truly great and is surging every-
where:
   
      Verily, verily the wealth of Naam is truly great,
      It is surging full and free within each individual. 115
                                                               
                                               GURU NANAK



NAAM IS HUKAM AND SHABD:
    
      He who attunes with the Will of God (Controlling
      Power of Naam ) is truly acceptable,
      The Master's Shabd gives a clue to and is indicative
        of the Naam. 116
                                                
                                             GURU AMAR DAS


Naam is the heritage of the devotees; Guru is the 
Treasure house and Sikh the dealer in this merchandise:
    
    The devotee's true capital is the treasure of Naam.
    This he spends quite freely. 117
                                                
                                              GURU ARJAN
    
    
    Verily, verily, blessed is the merchant that deals in
      Naam,
    For his disciples buy this commodity and through
        Shabd cross over the Sea of Life. 118
                                                
                                         GURU RAM DAS


GOD IS TRULY THE KING OF NAAM:
    
    Hari Naam is thy crest jewel,
    Thou hast a monopoly in this respect and Thy 
    disciples trade in It. 119

Naam is the greatest support for ensouled bodies; Naam
is the only prop. Devotees have a friend in Him and are
able to get single-minded devotion through the agency of
Naam.
    
    O Nanak! Naam is the mainstay of the Jivas, and
      without It there is no support,
    Let the universes appear and disappear but one who
      is devoted to a Gurumukh remains steadfast like
      a rock in the changing panorama of life. 120

                                           GURU RAM DAS
    
    The Name of the Lord is a tonic for the mind,
    By its use the Pranas and the senses get steady,
    Naam is my all in all and everything to me,
    He is my constant friend and guide and helps me to
      safely cross over the "Sea of Life." 121
                                                
                                             GURU ARJAN
    
    The True Naam is my staff for It helps me always and
        satiates all my cravings. l22
    Listen ye, O saints, says Nanak, and make friends
       with Naam for It is his only Pole-star. l23
       
                                           GURU AMAR DAS

    Thy name alone is a great blessing for the world,
    For me It is a sure support and a sheet anchor. l24
                                    
                                             GURU NANAK


THE SPIRITUAL PRACTICE OF NAAM

  The correct and accurate method of spiritual sadhna is
explained by a Master-soul at the time of initiation. The
Science of Naam is coeval with creation and the most
natural. No human agency has any hand in It. It is an
eternal Kirtan or Song Celestial, which comes to a person
as a free gift from a Master-soul like the free gifts of
Nature such as water, air, sunshine, etc. It involves 
transmitting of actual life-impulse from one to the other 
and comes through the grace of the Master. At initiation, 
he gives some experience of rising above body-consciousness
by opening the inner eye and ear to see the light of God
and to hear the Sound principle.
 
 The Sadhna of Naam is the easiest and the quickest as
it is the most natural. It is to be done with the tongue of
thought. Religious beliefs and national feelings do not
come in its way. It is Sehaj Yoga and everyone irrespective
of color, caste, or creed, sex or age, profession or 
avocation, can practice it and derive benefit from it. It is 
an old old wine, but ever fresh, presented in new bottles to 
suit the needs of the age. In this scientific age it is 
presented purely as any other science, verifiable as 
scientific truths are with mathematical precision.
             
           Truth never gets old nor rusty. 125
                                           
                                           GURU AMAR DAS


It is so natural and so easy that one can take to it as a
matter of routine. It involves no intricacies and 
mysterious practices and one can safely go ahead on the 
path with ease and comfort. It is a Grand Trunk Road to 
God. One may with a little labor gather a rich harvest. 

What the Rishis of old achieved with much labor extending 
over centuries can now be gained easily with sincere 
devotion from day to day, without any physical penances 
or tortuous practices.
 
 To start with one has to take care to devote time regularly 
at fixed hours in some solitary place. But as soon as
inner experience becomes a regular feature with the aspirant, 
then all restrictions as to time and place drop off and
one can hear the Divine Symphony all day long, even in
the midst of most strenuous work, without any effort on
his part.

    
    Sleeping or awake, sitting or standing, Kabir remains
      ever at his post within.
                                              KABIR


With the Dhun Atmak or inner Sound Current ever reverberating 
audibly, spirit gets ever absorbed in It. All his worldly 
acts hereafter become a part of his one interminable Sadhna. 
Always in contact with the light and life of God, one lives 
in and feels His immanent presence.
  
  Paramhans Ramakrishna, the saint of Dakhshineswar,
when questioned by Naren (afterwards Swami Vivekananda) 
if he could see God, unhesitatingly declared, "Yes, my 
child, I see Him as plainly as I see you." Guru Nanak
says, "Nanak sees his Lord visibly."
 
 Having once witnessed face to face the glory of God
within, one becomes ever conscious of His presence. In
tune with the Infinite, whatever one does forms a part of
worship. Kabir Sahib gives a beautiful pen-picture of this
state:
    
    Peerless is the natural form of meditation,
    With the grace of the Master, I remain attuned all
      the time;
    Wherever I go and whatever I do, it is all worship,
    At home or abroad makes no difference to me;
    Renouncing all, I listen to the Transcendental Music
      within,
    Awake or asleep and at all hours I am deeply en-
      grossed;
    Why close the eyes, stop the ears or undergo pen-
      ances,
    When with open eyes I see the Lord in so many
      forms?                                                              
    This is how Kabir leads his life and he tells this
      openly to all.
    Beyond the realm of duality lies the region of eternal
      bliss.
  
Guru Arjan says in this context:
    
    The Lord which cannot be described by any scripture,
    Is visibly seen by Nanak permeating everywhere. 126                 



HOW NAAM IS REACHED
  
  (i) Through the pure and simple grace of God:
      Naam would sink deep into the heart of one whom
       God would like to be blessed with. 127

                                                GURU AMAR DAS
    
    He alone gets to Naam, as God may so ordain. 128

                                                GURU ARJAN
        
        There is no treasure greater than Naam,
        That comes through the grace of God. 129
                                                
                                                GURU AMAR DAS
  
  (ii) Through ordination of God:
       Such alone get attached with Hari Naam who are so
         ordained by God; for they get peace and hear
         within them the unceasing Divine Melody. 130
   

       Naam means and includes the merit of all Japas,
       Tapas* and orderly living, for without Naam there
         cannot be purification of the mind,
       It is in the fullness of time that one gets hold of the
       Divine Link of Naam and merges into It. 131

                                                GURU AMAR DAS
   
      (* Repetition of mantras or verbal formulae, and 
         performance of austerities and penances.)
       
       O Nanak! it is with mighty good fortune that one gets
       Naam. 132
       He alone engages in Naam who is so destined. 133

                                                GURU RAM DAS
 
 (iii) Through the grace of Sant Satguru or one estab-
         lished in or grounded in Naam:
       Through Naam the whole creation came into being.
       The experience of ambrosial Naam comes through a
       Satguru. l34
    
       
       Whatever Thou doest, that alone is true. The nectar
         of Naam is bestowed by a Satguru. 135
                                                
                                                GURU NANAK
       

       None but the Satguru is the munificent Lord,
       For He gives us the support of Naam. 136

                                                GURU AMAR DAS

       
       Worship Naam in full faith and devotion,
       O Nanak! this can be done with the Sadh. 137
       Virtueless as I am, God has still been merciful,
       O Nanak! Sadh alone can make Naam manifest. 138

                                                GURU ARJAN


Life originates only from life. A living Master and no one
else can transmit a life-impulse to others. The sages and
seers have always emphasized that Naam should be made
manifest within by whoever may be able to do it; and then
the experience obtained from the competent Master-soul
must be developed.
    
    Go wherever thou wilt to get contact with the Divine
      Link,
    And then with the grace of the Guru develop this
       experience. 139

                                                GURU NANAK


A Muslim divine says the same thing:
    
    Should you like to go on a Haj (pilgrimage to Mecca), 
    take with you a Haji (one who has been to Mecca) for 
    a guide, no matter if he be a Hindu, a Turk, or an Arab.
                                         
For an experience of the Divine Link it is necessary to
contact a Sant Satguru, for he alone can explain the theory
and grant a practical demonstration of the Reality within
each one of us. The charged words of the Master, his
magnetic influence and the life-giving rays emanating
from him, quickly help in withdrawal of the sensory currents 
from the body; for unless the spirit, surging downwards and 
rushing headlong into the world through the outgoing 
faculties, is concentrated at its own seat, behind the 
two eyebrows, it cannot reflect upon itself. 

It is a practical experience of self-analysis or separating 
the inner man (Soul or the higher self) from the outer man 
(lower self consisting of mind and material body). By force 
of age-old habits we are unfortunately clinging to the 
outer man and are reveling all the time in the outer world 
with which we have identified ourselves. There is a regular
process of inversion or receding, tapping inside, as Emerson 
puts it, or conversion into a little child, as Christ called
it; and none but an adept on the spiritual path can help
in cutting the Gordian Knot and separating the spirit, for
a while, from the mind and outgoing faculties. 

It is, in other words, a supramental experience of the spirit 
on a super-sensual plane and can successfully be imparted by
a Master-soul. This experiment cannot be practically performed 
by reading scriptures and holy books, for they can neither 
speak nor explain their true import; nor can they be a guide 
to the spirit as it transcends the physical plane and 
traverses higher regions, most of which are fraught with 
subtle dangers and difficulties from which the Master in 
His luminous form can protect and lead the spirit safely
from plane to plane. 

Those who take up the Way without a competent Master are 
likely to be deceived by the Negative Power and misled. 
In Surat Shabd Yoga, the importance of the Master cannot be 
over-emphasized. He is in fact the central figure, from the 
beginning to the end, in life and after life, helping visibly 
and invisibly beyond the ends of the earth, right up to the 
Judgment Seat of God and even beyond.


    Naam is the heritage of the Gurumukh
    All are engaged in the repetition of names,
    But one gets to Naam only through the grace of a
      Master-saint. 140
                                          GURU AMAR DAS


Spirituality can neither be bought nor taught, but may be
caught like any infection from a spiritually infected person, 
a Satguru, a Sadh or a Sant. An adept in spirituality may 
in compassion and grace grant a spiritual experience of 
Naam, now lying buried within each one of us. We
have of course to develop a receptive attitude and then the
grace flows in automatically. 

The riches of Naam or Word come to a Gurumukh and not to a 
manmukh, who constantly grovels on the sensual plane.

    Search within for everything is within,
    Only a devotee of the Guru can unearth Naam,
    And remain in touch with It all the time.
    Inexhaustible as is the treasure of Naam, It 
    comes to one so ordained. 141

                                         GURU AMAR DAS

    Nothing comes up to Naam,
    O Nanak! a rare Gurumukh gets this gift. 142

                                            GURU ARJAN


    By communion with the Naam one gets to know the
      value of the Naam,
    By communion with the Naam, one is cleansed of the
      sins and knows Truth;
    By communion with the Naam, O Nanak, one be-
      comes luminous,
    But one gets this communion through the grace of a
        Guru. 143
                                            GURU RAM DAS
   
   
    Escaping bondage one attains salvation and remains
      absorbed in Truth,
    Naam is a rare thing in this world, only a true devotee
      may get to It,
    Nanak would make a sacrifice of himself for one who
      is devotedly attached to his Guru. 144
   
    A worldly-wise man knows not the Naam,
    And without Naam, loses his respect here and here-
      after.
    He derives not the benefit of Naam,
    Engaged as he is in other pursuits. 145

                                            GURU AMAR DAS


The philosophy of Naam cannot be explained in words.
A mere talk on Naam is not helpful at all, for the Naam
can only be contacted through an inner experience.
 
 If we were to ask a professor to get us an M.A. degree
in return for cash, he would refuse. We have to work for
it and qualify for it. The Power of God is within each one
of us, but through the grace of a Master-soul and some
spiritual discipline it can be made manifest and developed.
But all creation whatever the source (Andaj, Jairaj, Setaj,
Utbhuj) and all modes of Japa worship (Baikheri, Madh-
ma, Pashianti and Para) are far removed from Naam and
are nothing but a grand delusion.
    
    All creation and all modes of worship remain in 
    delusion without Naam. 146
                                          GURU AMAR DAS
      

A contact with this Naam comes only through devotion to
a Master-soul and not otherwise.
    

    The Kingdom of God cometh not by observation. The
    Kingdom of God is within you. 147
                                               CHRIST


Be ye the doers of the Word and not the hearers only, was
the advice of Jesus to his followers.
  
  Human life is a great privilege, for every individual is
gifted with an ethereal element in his constitution that
gives him the power of discrimination - judging right
from wrong and evaluating life's essentials and non-essen-
tials. On this Path two things are absolutely necessary: 
A true Guide or an Adept traveler of the Path, and the 
practice of Naam or the spiritual Sadhna as enjoined by 
that Adept. But one who has not yet freed himself from the
world and worldly entanglements cannot achieve anything
in this sphere. 

The Divine Link within us is the very life of our life, 
yet Its contact comes through the grace of the Master-soul; 
and without an actual experience of the God-head within, 
all creatures and all Sadhnas or religious practices are 
of no consequence whatsoever.
    

    All creation and all devotion is a noisy game without
      the saving Grace of Naam.
   

   Contact with Naam is possible through the Grace of
some living Master, for without his help and guidance one
simply cannot have this inner experience of the soul.
    

    I got Hari-Naam through the compassion of a living
      Master,
    Without a Satguru to help him through, one can have
      no experience of It at all. 148
                                        GURU AMAR DAS


It is, however, extremely difficult to meet a genuine Mas-
ter of Truth.
    

    God Himself has ordained that no one can even 
      conceive of Him except through a Satguru. 149

                                        GURU AMAR DAS

                            
                            [End of Part 4]
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