From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Thu Feb 12 03:23:04 1998
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: Naam or Word: A Study of the Sound Current (7/9)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 12 Feb 1998 11:23:04 GMT


                        

                             
                             NAAM OR WORD
   
                                  by 

                         Sant Kirpal Singh Ji

                             (1894 - 1974)                           


                               [PART 7]
                            


SOUND AND LIGHT
  
  In the world there are two things that serve as guides to
a weary traveler on a lonesome journey in a pitch dark
night; to wit, Sound and Light (Kalam and Nur). These
are the two aids also on the Path of Spirituality. Each of
them has Its own purpose. We have the divine Light in us
and from within It emanates Sound, and the two together
have been described as Flaming Sound or Sounding Flame.
    
    The mind when attuned with the Sound becomes
      detached and gets engrossed,
    In the heart of the Light within is a delectable Sound,
      that makes one fully absorbed in God. 52
                                 
                                               GURU NANAK
          
          
          Incomprehensible is the real thing. 53  
                                                             
          
                                               GURU ARJAN 

    
    Without the Light of Shabd, darkness prevails within,
    Nor do we get to the Reality, nor end with the gyres. 54               
                                                    
                                              GURU AMAR DAS
    

    Without Shabd it is all darkness,
    With Shabd manifested, the world came into being. 55
                                                 
                                              GURU RAM DAS


All life and all power come from It. From the sun to the
candle flame, all light comes from this grand powerhouse.
The energy of the scientist and the pranas of the yogins
are but manifestations of this life-stream which, like 
electricity in the air, is all-pervading and all-powerful.
    
    In Him was life; and the life was the light of man.
     And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness
     comprehendeth it not. . . .
    That was the true Light, which lighteth every man
     that cometh into the world. He was in the world
     and the world was made by Him, and the world
     knew Him not. 56
                                          
                                               ST. JOHN


St. Augustine tells us of the manifestation in him of the
Light in this way:
    
    I entered even into my inward self. Thou being my
      Guide and able as I was: for Thou were become
      my helper. And I entered and beheld with the eye
      of my soul (such as it was), above the same eye of
      my soul above my mind, the Light Unchangeable.
      Not this ordinary light which all flesh may look
      upon, nor as it were a greater of the same kind, as
      though the brightness of this should be manifold
      brighter, and with its greatness take up all space.
      Not such was the light but other, yea, far other
      from all these.... He that knows the Truth, knows
      what that Light is and he that knows It, knows
      Eternity.


Sant Kabir tells us that the soul without Shabd is blind
and does not know the Path:
    
    Without the Word one is blind and knows not the
      Way,
    With no way out, one endlessly wanders in the gyres.


Thousands of years ago, Zoroaster taught the worship of
the cult of Vital Fire and even today we see its traces in
the symbolic fire that the Parsis keep burning in their
homesteads. Gautama, when he became Buddha or the
Enlightened One, taught the Path of Life to his followers.
 All the Prophets of the East or the West, who practiced
the process of inversion and recession or withdrawal of
the Soul Current at will, speak of both the experiences of
Light and Sound. As soul proceeds on the spiritual path,
the gazing faculty precedes that of the hearing, for light
is faster than sound.
 
 Soul, though imprisoned by mind and matter, is yet
endowed with the gift of subtle faculties of seeing and
hearing independent of the sense organs; and when one
develops them both, one can withdraw the life-current
from the body and then can move freely on to higher
spiritual realms, thereby escaping forever from the 
bondage of the world.
    
    
    With the guidance of the gazing faculty, I shall reach
      Sat Lok.
                                           
                                      SWAMI SHIVDAYAL SINGH


In the beginning Light appears first and Sound comes          
afterwards. In practice, we do Simran and Dhyan in the
beginning, the reason being that these prepare the ground
for further development. Though each has Its own 
individual purpose, yet both of them are practiced for the
advent of Sound or Shabd, from where the real help
comes. Shabd then is the control keystone in the archway
of Simran and Dhyan, the two sides of the arch. Again, in     
the spiritual journey, there come stages where the soul
gets bewildered in the blinding Light that descends around   
it from all sides, and there nothing but the Sound helps
to pull it through.
      
      
      And thine ears shall hear a Word behind thee,
      Saying this is the Way, walk ye in it. 57
      
                                                     ISAIAH

Again, there are stages on the Way where utter darkness
prevails and there are regions of deep silence and 
solemnity where one is struck with awe and dismay, and there
too, the glorious Voice of God comes to the rescue as an
unerring guide and a never failing friend, saying,
      
      
      Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide,
      In thy most need to go by thy side.
                                                            
                                                   EVERYMAN


The importance of sound as a guiding factor is recognized
on all hands. A traveler on a desolate plain in a dark night
with no habitation in sight, anxiously and wistfully tries
to catch some sound, maybe the bark of some distant dog,
wherewith to guide his weary footsteps in the right 
direction; for the bark announces to him the proximity of 
some wayside hutments and encourages him on till he reaches
them. So do benighted stragglers try to catch the claptrap
of a horse's hoof or the tinkling of a bell round an 
animal's neck. This is the power of sound; unfailing and
deadly sure as it is, it acquires even more significance 
in the inner journey of the soul.


SHABD AND TRUTH ARE SYNONYMOUS

  Shabd is nothing but Absolute and Abstract Truth in Its
concrete form. It is an eternal and unchanging principle of
God's Power, working out His divine Will in all directions. 
Like Truth Itself, It was in the beginning where there 
was nothing else, It was the beginning of each cycle
of creation and It shall exist forever and forever.
 Guru Nanak tells of It as follows:
    
    The Word is the only symbol of Truth,
    And can be known and experienced through a perfect
      Master. 58

Guru Amar Das and Guru Arjan say of It:
      
      Bani or Shabd is Truth personified,
      O love this Truth with all your heart and soul. 59
                                                     
                                            GURU AMAR DAS
    
    Listen, O friend, to the all-pervading Voice of God,
    The Master has given you all True Word of God. 60
                                                        
                                               GURU ARJAN


SHABD IS THE WATER OF LIFE
  
  Again, Shabd is the Water of Life, that gives us 
immortality and blesses us with life everlasting.
   
   I tell you most solemnly, whoever keeps my Word
     will never see death. 61
   
   If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
   He that believeth in me . . . out of his belly shall 
   flow rivers of Living Water. 62
                                         
                                                CHRIST


Once Jesus when passing through Samaria came to Jacob's
Well and sat there awhile when a Samaritan woman came
to draw water and Jesus asked for a drink. But Samaritan
as she was, she hesitated to deal with a Jew, and thereupon
Jesus said to her, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and
who it is that sayeth to thee, give me to drink, thou
wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given
thee Living Water. . . ."
    
    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. 63
                                                              
                                                CHRIST


In the Book of Jeremiah we have:
    
    For my people . . . have forsaken me, the fountain of
      Living Waters. 64

In the Sikh scriptures we have:
   
   The Word of the Master is an elixir that does away
     with all desires,
   The mind gets dyed in Truth and is forever absorbed
     in Him. 65
                                                   
                                              GURU AMAR DAS


Without Shabd the whole world is in stark ignorance and
life goes in vain. It is only a devotee of the Master who
gets access to the Water of Life.
    
    The world is in ignorance of Shabd and life is value-
      less indeed,
    O Nanak! Shabd alone is the true elixir, and a devotee
      of the Master gets It. 66
                                                    
                                                GURU RAM DAS


The well of the Water of Life lies within us, but attached
as we are to the mind, we do not know of It nor partake
of It. Like a deer with musk hidden in its navel, we search
for It outside all our life and die in the attempt.
    
    Within the body the Water of Life is surging in 
      allness, but the mind-ridden do not taste It;
    With musk in its navel, the deer kills himself in 
      endless search for it without. 67
                                                         
                                                GURU RAM DAS


The stream of life is gushing within, and by means of
Shabd one can approach It and partake of It.
   
    The fount of the Water of Life is bubbling to the
      brim,                                       
    One who is really athirst can get to It by following
      the Sound. 68
      
                                               GURU AMAR DAS


SHABD IS THE ESSENCE OF ALL WORSHIP
 
 All our endeavors, practices and rituals are to achieve
Shabd. The devotion to Shabd is acceptable to God, and
He grants us Salvation thereby.
            
            The devotion is that of the Shabd. 69
                                                        
                                               GURU AMAR DAS
    
    
    The practice of the Master's Word is the essence of
      all worship. 70
                
                                                GURU NANAK


Nothing but the practice of the Shabd leads to the 
Reality. One cannot, by any means, get out of the 
world of attachments. In this context Guru Nanak says:
      
      
      In this world true devotion is that of Shabd,
      Without Shabd, one remains an egoistic fool. 71
                                   
                                             GURU NANAK


In the present age - Kali Yuga - the worship that is 
acceptable to God is that of Shabd.
    
    In  Kali Yuga, communion with the Word is the true
      Kirtan.
    It is the true devotion by which ye shall escape all
      I-ness. 72
                                                             
                                            GURU AMAR DAS


It is with Shabd that a Jiva is transformed from clay into
gold and from filth into a pure crystal.
   
   
   By listening to the Word of the Master, one turns
     from brittle glass into solid gold,
   By tasting the Word of the Master one is transformed
     from poison into Nectar. 73
                                      
                                           GURU RAM DAS


In this way one reaps the full benefit of his human birth.


    By contact with the True Word, a devotee earns his
      merit.
    The light of the soul dawns within and he lives in
      perpetual ecstasy. 74
                                                     
                                           GURU AMAR DAS


Shabd is identical with Hukam and Naam. In fact, all
these words mean the Expression or Power of God.
    
    He who accepts His Will, is acceptable to Him,
    With the help of the Master's Shabd, know ye the
      Naam. 76
                                       GURU AMAR DAS


Shabd is Soma Ras, very sweet and delicious:
               
               Sweet is the Word of the Master,
               Such an elixir one finds within. 75
                                   
                                           GURU NANAK


Shabd is an inexhaustible treasure and ever remains full.
    
    So long as His mercy lasts, the stream of life can
      never run dry,
    O Nanak! Shabd is inexhaustible, distribute It as thou
      wilt. 77
      
                                            GURU ARJAN


Shabd is Limitless and All-pervading. The angel of death
cannot come near It.
    
    Thou art the Omniscient friend and Thou alone can
      contact us,
    All praise to the Word of the Guru, It is boundless
      indeed,
    Even the Angel of Death cannot reach where the
      limitless Word prevails.s
                                    
                                            GURU NANAK


Shabd is All-pervading and Immanent:

   The Sun of Shabd illumined all the Four Ages,
   A devotee alone meditates on the Bani. 79
                                 
                                            GURU NANAK

Shabd spreads in Its fullness everywhere:
        
        Consider not that Hari is far off,
        He is the nearest of the near,
        He is ever in attention with eyes and ears,
        And spreads everywhere in fullness. 80
                                                       
                                             GURU AMAR DAS

Shabd or Hukam is the Controlling Power of God:
   
   Thy Command (Hukam) holds Its sway on all sides,
   Thy Word (Naam) reverberates everywhere,
   Shabd is immanent in all,
   The true God meets us if Thou so ordaineth. 81
                                 
                                            GURU NANAK


Shabd abides in the holy temple of the body and as such
may be found therein:
      
       Search for Shabd in the temple of the body,
       And get to the precious Naam therein. 82
                                                                  
                                            GURU AMAR DAS


Shabd can be contacted in the body by a process of 
inversion and self-analysis:
    
    Discipline the body to cross over the ocean of life,
    And meditate on the Essence of the Soul,
    The devotion to the Master grants perpetual ecstasy,
    The Shabd of all virtues dwells within, in abundance. 83
                                
                                            GURU NANAK


Guru Nanak tells us of the abode of Shabd:
    
    Cross over the Sukhmana, leaving Ida and Pingla
      aside, to comprehend the Incomprehensible,
    Far above these three the True Master manifests the
      Shabd. 84
                                           GURU NANAK



HOW TO CONTACT SHABD
  
  (1) By the Grace of God. God may, in His mercy,
     manifest Shabd in whomever He likes.
   By His glance of Grace, Shabd becomes manifest
     within, dispelling all skepticism,
   The body and the mind both get purified and the pure
     Sound of Bani (the Naam) is implanted in the
     heart. 85
                                           GURU NANAK
   
   None can understand Thee unless Thou doeth it for
     one,
   None can meet Thee unless Thou so decreeth,
   Then one sings of the Bani through Shabd all the time,
   And remains absorbed in the True One. 86
   
                                           GURU AMAR DAS


Those who come within the ambit of His favor, for them
Shabd is minted in His true mint and they alone engage
in the practice of Naam.

    Only in such a mint, can man be cast into the Word,
    But they alone who are favored by Him, can take
      unto this Path.
    O Nanak, on whom He looks with grace, He fills with
      everlasting peace. 87
                                          GURU NANAK

   
   (2) By the grace of Sant Satguru and Sat Sangat. God
      may, in His inimitable mercy, lead one to His 
      accredited representative on earth who links the 
      soul with Shabd by making Shabd manifest within.
     
     In the fullness of time, He leads one to a Satguru,
     Then one takes to the Path of Surat Shabd Yoga. 88
     
     The Perfect Master makes the Shabd manifest,
     Rising above the three Gunas one rests in Turiya. 89
   
   
   Satguru, the greatest Donor, manifests the Shabd,
   And then all restlessness ceases and one gets eternal
     rest. 90
                                         GURU AMAR DAS


Guru is Word personified, Word made flesh, and he alone
can make it manifest. It is, in fact, the gift of the Guru
and no one else can help in the matter.
    
    
    Why hold back what one holds in trust?
    There can be no peace until the trust is discharged,
    The Word of the Master can be implanted only by the
      Master,
    No one else can make the Word manifest. 91
    
                                         GURU RAM DAS


Shabd is an unspoken language emanating of Itself from
God, and like Him, the Master imparts the Power of God
in an unspoken language. In this context Maulana Rumi
says:
    
    The Master, like God, acts without any outer aids,
    And imparts knowledge to disciples in an unspoken
      language.

The Master, at the time of initiation, explains the 
wondrous and formless Word, and then, with the lever of 
His own life-impulse, raises the spirit up and contacts 
the initiate with the Naam.
  
  (3) By complete self-surrender at the feet of the Master
     in all humility after casting away the pride of birth
     and caste, riches and possessions, knowledge and
     wisdom.
   
   At once rid thyself of the pride of knowledge and
     penances,
   Take a single draught of the intoxicating wine.
                                                           
                                                    HAFIZ


So long as the soil is not ready and the seeds are not sown
in season, they do not bear any fruit. Similarly, until the
thorns and thistles of life are weeded out of the mind, it
cannot be stilled. However, It grows gradually domesticated 
by the practice of the Shabd, and in course of time gets 
rarefied or etherealized and comes to acquire single-
mindedness with the result that the Light of Heaven comes
to be reflected therein.
       
       
       So long the mind is swayed by passions,
       It is full of all kinds of pride and prejudices,
       It can neither relish Shabd nor love Naam. 92
                                                     
                                              GURU AMAR DAS


So inner cleanliness is far more important than outer
cleanliness, for without it one can hardly make any 
progress on the Path.


DEVOTION TO SHABD: WHAT IT IS 
  
  To attend and listen with a single mind to the Dhun
Atmak Shabd within is devotion of the right type. Shabd
is highly subtle; and until we rise to the same level of
subtlety we cannot possibly grasp or take hold of it. Shabd
or the Power of God is all-pervading in all-consciousness,
and if our spirit, which is of the same essence as God, gets
contact with Shabd, it is a contact with God; for God is
not different from His Power (Shabd).
       
       A contact with Shabd is contact with God,
       It is the crowning fruition of all endeavors. 93
                                                 
                                              GURU AMAR DAS


In order to establish a contact with Shabd, it is necessary
that the soul must first free itself from the prison house of
finite existence. It is only a perfect Master who can enable
it to break through the bondage of mind and matter, raise
it above body-consciousness and then link it with the
Over-soul-the life of all life-the Naam.

Shabd is the heritage of a rare devotee of the Master
Everyone wishes to see God face to face but only a rare
soul gets the holy communion through the Shabd.
    
    How many are pining to meet Thee?
    A rare soul realizes Thee with the Word of the
      Master. 94
                                              GURU NANAK


This body is the holy temple of God, with God's Power
working in and out of it. All persons, rich and poor,
lettered and unlettered, young and aged, man and woman,
anywhere and everywhere, irrespective of color, caste and
creed, are qualified to have a free access to that Power
within through the grace of some competent Master and
thus practice Shabd quite easily and naturally and reap the
fruit thereof.
   
   Holy temple of the body is His Emporium with the
     Shabd beautifully set within,
   A devotee of the Master may find the precious Naam
     therein. 95

   Without contact with the Shabd, the world remains
     in delusion and the human life goes in vain.
   O Nanak, Shabd is the Water of Life and a rare
     devotee of the Master gets to It. 96
   
                                              GURU AMAR DAS


A mind-ridden person, because of the oscillation of the
mind, does not recognize the Shabd and remains a total
stranger to this elixir.
       
       The restless mind knows not the Way,
       The filthy mind cannot recognize the Word. 97
                                   
                                              GURU NANAK
                 

        A slave of the senses knows not the Word and loses
           his self-respect,
        And he finds no delight in the Shabd as he remains
           engaged in the sensual pursuits. 98
                                                                   
                                              GURU AMAR DAS

             
SHABD: WHAT IT DOES
               
    Shabd is All-consciousness. It is just a wave in the 
sea of consciousness. Man is a drop of the Ocean of God, and
both are of the same spirit. While one is the Ocean, the
other is the wave and the third is a drop of All-conscious
God. The wave of conscious Shabd cannot but, like a powerful 
magnet, attract and draw to Itself the conscious drop of the 
spirit. The spirit finds no rest until, riding upon
the Sound Current, it reaches the heavenly home of the
Father and attains salvation. The sound is surging in Its
fullness and the spirit needs but to contact It to rise 
above all limitations into the limitless eternity.
               
    Surat and Shabd are naturally related to each other.
Shabd is characterized by Light and Sound principles,
wherewith the mind gets stilled and the spirit, freed from
the clutches of the mind, is irresistibly drawn by the 
Shabd and is taken to her native home from where the Sound
Current is emanating. On the other hand, those who take
up practices involving Pranas cannot go beyond the 
frontiers of Prana which extend to the mental or astral 
heaven (Chidakash). But a Shabd-yogin can go freely, openly 
and honorably to wherever he likes, because Shabd pervades
everywhere without any limitations, and reach the true
home of his Father.

        My God is everywhere and at all times,
        And becomes manifest by practice of Shabd. 99
        
                                             GURU AMAR DAS


Shabd is the means of finding God. A contact with the
Shabd means contact with God.
   
   A communion with the Word is union with God,
   And all endeavors then get crowned with success. 100
                                                      
                                             GURU AMAR DAS


Shabd is the only way that leads to the True King.
      
      In the living soul is the Life of life (Shabd)
      Which becomes an usher to the great King. 101
                                                      
                                             GURU RAM DAS


Shabd is the Way that leads to Reality. It is a barque that
can take the Jiva safely across the sea of matter to the
mansion of the Lord.
 
   The Absolute God and the spirit along with Shabd, the
connecting link between the two, constitute the holy trinity,
for the same Power of God is working simultaneously in
all the three. The spirit in man has no separate existence
independent of God.
      
      O Kabir! the spirit is of the essence of God. 102
                                          
                                                 KABIR


Though all spirits are of One Reality, yet each one of the
spirits feels that it has a separate existence.
 
   Sach Khand or the Kingdom of God is within us but
none can enter therein without proper guidance. For 
admittance thereto, we must invert and become a little 
child in innocence and purity, for then we can catch the 
saving lifeline of Shabd which leads Godward. By communion
with Shabd, we are freed from pleasure and pain, mind
and matter, and rise above the pairs of opposites, and
attain liberation from the cycle of births and deaths.
 
  Shabd is the live and conscious Life-current of God
which has both created the world and sustains it. It is 
the involuted seed that has evolved into a mighty tree 
laden with many colored flowers and fruits. Whatever now 
exists, exists in Eternity and whatever goes out of 
existence also goes into Eternity. Everything is in the 
great Deep, rising momentarily to the surface in the form 
of tides, waves, ripples, bubbles and the like, appearing 
and disappearing before our eyes-the Unmanifested 
manifesting Himself into so many forms and patterns.
  
  Shabd is the root-cause of the creation and the creation
is the resultant effect thereof. All that sprouts from and
comes out of the roots is already in the roots in a 
condensed form and in fullness of time grows and fructifies.
When a ray of the sun falls on a polished reflector, it
begins to reflect the sun itself. In the same way, when the
mind is purified and there is left not a trace of I-ness in 
it, it begins to reflect God's Light from within. Just as the 
ray of the sun is not different from the sun itself, so also a
spirit, which is nothing but a ray of God, is not different
from God and begins to manifest the hidden Power of God, 
with proper training and guidance in the Science of Shabd 
or Word.
  
   Shabd (Dhun-Atmak) is the true primordial Word as taught 
by St. John in his Gospel. It is responsible for creating 
the various grand divisions, divisions and sub-divisions of 
the universe right from the highest spiritual region down 
to the physical world in which we live. Emanating from God, 
the spirit current worked out the miracle of creation and 
is sustaining it and controlling it in all details. The 
practice of the Sound Current, as taught by the Masters in 
all ages and in all countries, is the highest religion and 
confers the highest boon - to wit, liberation from the 
bondage of mind and matter while still living. But contact 
with Shabd can be established only through the grace of a 
Master of the Sound Current and not otherwise.
 
   Shamas Tabrez, a Muslim divine, speaks of Shabd as
follows:
    
    There comes a Sound (Nida), from neither within
      nor without,
    From neither right nor left, from neither behind nor
      in front,
    From neither below nor above, from neither East nor
      West,
    Nor is It of the elements: water, air, fire, earth and
      the like;
    From where then? It is from that place thou art in
      search of;
    Turn ye toward the place wherefrom the Lord makes
      His appearance.
    From where a restless fish out of water gets water to
      live in,
    From the place where the prophet Moses saw the
      divine Light,
    From the place where the fruits get their ripening
      influence,
    From the place where the stones get transmuted to
      gems,
    From the place to which even an infidel turns in
      distress,
    From the place to which all men turn when they find
      this world a vale of tears.
    It is not given to us to describe such a blessed place;
    It is a place where even the heretics would leave off
      their heresies.


Truly, the Shabd is coming from the direction in which
the soul has to go. Without Shabd, the soul remains in
darkness and feels helpless.
   
   Without the aid of Shabd, the soul wanders blindfold
    in ignorance and knows not the Way out.
                                                                      
                                                   KABIR


All sages and seers have counted upon Shabd as the only
means of salvation. But one cannot take hold of the life-
line of the Sound Current without initiation into the 
esoteric teachings of the Masters from a competent living
Master-soul and practicing the process of soul-withdrawal
at the still point in the body between and behind the two
eyebrows. This is moving from the circumference of life
to the center of life and from here the soul, following the
lead of the Sound Principle, proceeds to her native home,
the Mansion of God, the source and fountainhead of the
divine Melody Itself.
  
  Shabd thus leads us to an altogether new life-life of
the spirit as distinguished from the life of the flesh. 
Christ too taught of this new life which our Christian 
brethren have forgotten with the lapse of time. St. John, 
in his Gospel, tells us,
    

     Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
      again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
    Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
      of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the
      kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is
      flesh; and that which is born of the spirit, is spirit.
    Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born
      again.
    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 everyone that is
      born of the spirit. 103
                                                            
                                                     CHRIST


In the Book of Ezekiel we have:

   A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will
     I put within you and I will take away the stony
     heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart
     of flesh. 104


This new life of the spirit begins from the day of initiation
into the mysteries of the spirit, call it what you like:
"Deeksha" as the Hindus do, "Baet" as the Muslims say,
"Baptism" as it is known among the Christians, or "Pahul"
as among the Sikhs. The Vedic seers gave it the name of
"Duey Janama" which literally means second birth. The
life of the spirit begins not with the theoretical exposition
of the spiritual science but by a practical demonstration on
the spiritual plane of the spirit-current made manifest.
Here the invisible and inaudible life-stream is made both
visible and audible to the spirit within, converting the
atheist into a theist in the true sense of the term. It is
imparting the life-impulse and making It throb in every
pore of the body. This coming back of the soul to the
realization of her true nature and rising into Universal or
Cosmic awareness beyond the walls of finitude is true
resurrection or coming to a new birth and a new life. To
die in the body while living, is to live in the spirit.
 
 St. Paul describes it thus:
  
  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not
     I, but Christ liveth in me. 105

The life of the flesh and the life of the spirit are two
distinct and separate things, exclusive of each other. This
is why it is said,
   
   He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth
     his life for my sake, shall find it. 106
     
                                                      CHRIST

Guru Nanak speaks of it:
    
    The birth in the Master releases one from the cycle
      of transmigrations. 107


Among the Muslims it is called "Fana-fil-Sheikh" or Death
in the Master which is just the same thing as Birth in the
Master for this death is but the beginning of a new life.
 
   Shabd thus takes us out of the ignorance which 
characterizes both mind and matter, purifies us through and
through and gives us a new lease on life-the life of the
spirit, which is unchanging and eternal-as one breaks
away once and for all from the body and bodily attachments, 
and sees the new world without the help of the outer eyes.
    
    
    Communion with the All-pervading Word of the
      Master is the highest virtue,
    And takes one to his native land to drink the elixir
      of life and to see the new world without the help
      of the outer eyes. 108
                                                   
                                              GURU RAM DAS


The early morning hours are best suited for practice of the
Sound Principle, for the mind is yet fresh out of sleep and
has not yet wandered into the daily routine of the physical
life.

    
    In the early morning hours, commune with the Word
     leaving aside all attachments,
    Nanak would like to be the slave of His slave who
      engaged in the Word and won what is lost to the
      world. 109
        
        At the ambrosial hour of the early dawn,
        Be ye in communion with the divine Word,
        And meditate on His glory. 110
                                                     
                                                GURU NANAK
   

                          [End of Part 7]
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