From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Thu Feb 12 03:24:39 1998
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: Naam or Word: A Study of the Sound Current (8/9)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 12 Feb 1998 11:24:39 GMT


                        

                             
                             NAAM OR WORD
   
                                  by 

                         Sant Kirpal Singh Ji

                             (1894 - 1974)                           


                               [PART 8]
                            


SHABD: ITS BLESSINGS 

    Shabd brings in untold blessings. It is the powerhouse
of all energy or force in any form, from Pranas down to
electricity and magnetism. Every form of life is the 
manifestation of Shabd. All that is, is of Shabd and nothing 
is that is not of Shabd-life-current pulsating in and out of
space. Those who commune with Shabd and live in and by
Shabd are verily the children of the Supreme One, the life
of life and the light of light. Shabd is the very Bread of
Life which comes down from Heaven for all those who hunger 
after righteousness and the very Water of Life for those who 
thirst after Self-knowledge and God-knowledge. True love, 
wisdom and power are the greatest gifts that one gets by 
basking in the sunshine of Heaven's Light.
     
    1. Mind grows docile and is purified of the lusts of the
flesh. There is no remedy to control the oscillations of the
ever-restless mind. One may resort to all the known methods 
- to wit, penances and austerities, rites and rituals, fasts 
and vigils, pilgrimages and circumambulations, purificatory 
baths in the holy rivers, charitable and philanthropic acts 
- but cannot thereby achieve inner peace. On the contrary, 
all these help in developing the egotistic instinct which is 
the root cause of all evil. Sage Vashisht, while teaching Rama, 
told him that he could for a moment believe that one had 
lifted the mighty Himalayas, or had drunk the oceanic waters 
to the lees, but the sage would never believe it if anyone 
were to say that he had subdued the mind. But by listening 
to the Sound Current one is rid of all Karmic impressions of 
the past. The contact with the Shabd acts as a spark of fire 
that burns down all impurities of the mind as a heap of hay 
is burnt down to ashes in an instant. The storehouse of 
unfructified Karmas is blown off like a powder-magazine, and 
once released of this gigantic load, the mind and soul get 
attuned with the Heavenly Music, lost to the world around 
like a moth before a candle.
  
   Mind runs after pleasurable sensations, most of which
fall into two groups: forms and patterns on the one hand
and sweet symphonies of sound on the other. The Shabd
too has both these characteristics-the heavenly Melody
and the divine Light-and once that Sound or Light principle 
becomes manifest, mind is paralyzed, losing all faith
in the transitory charms of the world that gradually lose
their glamour and grow dull, insipid and lifeless.
 
  With a draught of the Water of Life the mind grows still, 
for there is no other remedy to still it but that of 
communing with the Sound Current.
    
    
    Without the Word of the Master, the mind remains
        restless. 111
    Our restless mind becomes steady when engrossed in
      the Shabd,
    And this is the highest worship and the greatest
       virtue. 112
                                             GURU NANAK


By practice of the Shabd, ripples cease to float on the lake
of the mind.
    

    All the oscillations of the mind cease with the practice
        of the Shabd and it gets pacified of itself. 113
                                                      
                                             GURU AMAR DAS
    
    Mind keeps running in space - high and low - so long
        as it does not come in contact with the Shabd. 114
                                                          
                                             GURU NANAK


Shabd is sharper than a two-edged razor and cuts asunder
all attachments of the world, conquers the five passions
and frees one of bondage from all that one holds dear;
and the spirit when freed, flies unfettered toward her
native Home in Heaven.
    
    
    Being rid of the five deadly sins, one remains en-
     grossed in the Lord. 117
                                                                   
                                                KABIR

   
   2. Shabd is the remedy for egotism from which all the
world suffers.
    
    Egotism is the greatest ill oppressing all,
    Without Shabd, one cannot get rid of this malady. 118
                                                        
                                            GURU AMAR DAS


Egotism is an age-old disease but it can be remedied by
practice of the Master's Word.
    
    Egotism is an age-old disease and its remedy too lies
      within,
    Should the Lord so favor, one takes to the practice of
     the Master's Word. 119
                                                       
                                            GURU NANAK
    
    The poison of egotism is rendered ineffective by the
      Shabd of the Master. 120
                                                        
                                            GURU AMAR DAS
      
      
      O Nanak! Shabd burns away egotism. 121
                                                       
                                            GURU NANAK


Shamas Tabrez also prescribes medicine of Shabd to cure
one of his egotism:
    
    When thou shalt hear the trumpet-blast,
    Thou shalt be rid of all pride and passions,
    When the harmonious sound shall fall on thy ears,
    Thou shalt be freed from the life of the senses.

    
    3. Shabd brings in inner peace and satiety. Everyone is
in a desperate search for peaceful rest and repose but does
not get it. All the comforts of the flesh are but pleasures
of an evanescent nature, floating like the clouds in the sky.
The sensations which seem pleasurable for awhile are the
result of our own fixity of attention and apart from that
have no real and independent existence. Our case is like
that of a dog who while munching a dry bone hurts his
mouth, and his own blood trickles down his palate to his
tongue giving him relish and he is deluded into the belief
that all this is from the dry bone.
 
 Spirit or soul is a conscious entity. It cannot possibly
derive or get any happiness from inert, material and 
life-less things-that is, things in which the life-principle 
is in a dormant or a latent state. It is only from the fount 
of higher consciousness that the spirit can get her food and
sustenance. The Sound Current which the Master makes audible 
is an active life-principle (stream of life), and contact
and communion with It gives the soul real happiness and 
bliss.
    
    
    The practice of the Master's Word grants immunity
     from all ailments,
    And the devotee of the Master is freed from all
      sufferings. 120
                                                       
                                             GURU AMAR DAS


Shabd has an exhilarating and exulting influence which
charms the body and mind, both of which acquire ineffable
serenity:
    
    The fires of lusts play havoc within but the Master
      lets in a stream of refreshing Music,
    Hearing which the body and the mind feel blessed
       and are saved from all maladies. 121
                                                        
                                             GURU RAM DAS
   
   The Master's Word is an ocean of serenity,
   It is the Path of salvation and destroys all egotism. 122
                                
                                             GURU NANAK


When a soul contacts Shabd, it gets saturated in the Power
of God and feels truly blessed.
   
   The contact of Shabd with soul produces joy supreme,
   A dip in the Power of God gives true happiness. 123
                                
                                             GURU NANAK
   
   Day and night, an unceasing bliss descends,
   When one remains devoted to the great Word. 124
                                    
                                             GURU RAM DAS
   
   The Word of the Master is a source of great happiness,
   Blessed indeed is the bride (soul) that lives saturated
      with love of the Beloved. 125
                                
                                             GURU ARJAN
 
 
 4. In the Sikh scriptures, one reads of innumerable
benefits that accrue from Shabd.
 Shabd kills, root and branch, all longings and desires,
mental vibrations and subtle attachments.
       
      Shabd extinguishes the fires of desires,
      And quietly drives away all delusions. 126
      
      Shabd singes all aspirations and cravings,
      And one remains attuned with the Lord. 127
                                
                                              GURU NANAK
    

    Shabd burns down all material longings and 
       attachments,
    The body and the mind live in eternal peace in love
       of the Master. 128
                                                    
                                              GURU AMAR DAS


When once the life-stream becomes audible, one never
feels lonely; for he hears its reverberations wherever he
may be, at home or abroad. The Voice of God keeps reminding 
him of the true home of his Father. The practice of the Sound 
Principle rids one of all troubles and afflictions, the five 
deadly passions, the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, 
leaving the soul in pristine transparency, detached from all 
that is of the world and worldly. Shabd is the supporting 
staff both in the journey of this life and of the life 
hereafter. With the experience of transcendence beyond the 
confines of the body, one becomes fearless of death; and when 
the allotted span of worldly existence comes to an end, he 
throws off, once and for all, the mortal coils of the flesh, 
as easily and happily as one does his old and worn out 
garments, and is freed from the cycle of births and deaths 
and goes openly and honorably to his home in heaven.
  
  The practice of and communion with the Word brings
in heaven's light and one feels divinely blessed. It gives
intuitive knowledge of the Self and God and one experiences 
within himself the integral realization of the soul as
one common life-principle extending everywhere, in and
around him, without any barriers and limitations of time
and space, for all life is one, from eternity to eternity,
irrespective of the many forms and patterns through which
it may manifest. The moment one rises into the Timeless,
he himself becomes timeless. 

This in fact is true meditation and true devotion leading 
to the true love of God and His creation, his own self 
expanding and coinciding with that of his Creator. This 
is Jivan-mukti or salvation while living in the world, 
like a lotus flower, above and aloft in the muddy pool 
in which it stands, unaffected by the dirt or squalor of 
the water below. Woe betide those who do not get contact 
with Shabd, for they ever remain between the millstones 
of God's negative Power and endlessly go up and down in 
the giant Wheel of creation, according to the merit and 
demerit of their Karmas whatever they be.

Born in the gyres, they come and go in the gyres, with no
way to escape until they contact some Master of the Word
who may lead them to the Path of the Word, the Way out,
and bring about their salvation.
 
   The waters of life (Hauz-i-Kausar or Prag Raj) lie
hidden in the deepest depths of the soul and the way 
thereto lies in utter silence through the Word. Living in 
the hustle and bustle of life, if we try for It at all, we 
seek It, like other things, outside us, and miserably fail 
in the endeavor. But those who search for It the right way 
and are put on the Path by some competent Word incarnate 
may drink of this elixir and taste of this manna and gain
immortality.
    
    
    I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall
      never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall
      never thirst. . . .
    
    I am the living bread which came down from heaven:
      if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for
      ever . . . 129
    
    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. 130
                                              CHRIST
           
           Word is the panacea for all ills. 131

                                              GURU ARJAN


SHABD: ANHAD (LIMITLESS) OR ANAHAT (SELF-EXISTING)
 
 Shabd is of two kinds: Ahat and Anahat. Ahat is that
sound which is produced when two or more things contact
each other. All the outer sounds, all the world over, fall
in this category. Anahat is that Sound which does not
depend on "hat" or contact of two or more things; It does
not depend on anything whatever. The Muslim divines
call it Anhad, meaning unceasing, eternal or limitless as
the term literally means. Shah Niaz speaks of It thus:

        Hear thou one continuous and unending Music,
        A music that is eternal and beyond the confines of
           death.
           
Again,
                        
        When It has no beginning and no end,
        It is therefore called Anhad or endless.


The Absolute Truth is both imageless and soundless, for
all images and sounds lie dormant in that state of complete
fullness within the eternal seed.
                     
        He is the Ruling Power over all that exists,
        The unstruck Music too is His manifestation. 132
                                                                         
                                                 GURU ARJAN
                   

        With no form and no lineaments, His Music doth flow
           ceaselessly,
        Shabd or the Sound Current is the creative life-
           principle of the Immaculate One. 133
                                                                         
                                                GURU NANAK


        In the Shabd there is light giving rise to music:
        Sit steadily in the cave of the mind and then shalt
           thou witness the sounding fire within. 134
                                                                     
                                                GURU ARJAN
                       
        
        There the unending melodies float,
        And the mind drinks the nectar thereof. 135
                                                 
                                                GURU NANAK


This Anahat Dhun (self-existing Music) is going on all
the time and is eternally endless:
    

    The self-existing Music is eternal and continuous,
    Be ye saturated in the ineffable sweetness of the
      Sound Current. 136
      
    Night and day the ceaseless strains float down. 137
                                   
                                                GURU NANAK


The melodious strains of the unceasing music are ineffably
sweet and charming:
    
    Countless are the notes in the unending Melody,
    The charming sweetness whereof is ineffable indeed. 138
                                   
                                                GURU ARJAN


Innumerable are the melodies that are going on before the
Court of God:
    
    The sorrows and afflictions of the ages are blown
      away,
    The endless Music plays continuously at His Court. 139
                                   
                                                GURU ARJAN
      

    What is there to indicate the abode of God?
    There plays the heavenly Music all the time. 140
                                   
                                                GURU NANAK
    

    The All-pervading Music is going on everywhere,
    In the heart of all, the Divine Music flows. 141
                                   
                                                GURU ARJAN
     

    Its reverberations are heard in the Gagan,
    And charmingly sweet is the eternal Music. 142
                                  
                                                GURU NANAK


One can contact the Heavenly Music only when he transcends 
body-consciousness:
    
    When the soul currents withdraw from the sensory
      plane in the nine outlets and get concentrated at the
      still point in the body in the tenth door at the back
      of the eyes,
    It is only then that one, with the guidance of the
      Master, is able to contact the heavenly Music that
      plays interminably. 143
                                                     
                                                GURU AMAR DAS

              
        Close thy outgoing faculties,
        And hear the eternal Melody. 144
                                                            
                                                KABIR


Bhai Gurdas Ji says thus:
          
          When the soul is absorbed in the Word,
          It gets lost in the sublime Music.
          When the soul is engrossed in the Word,
          The unending Music floats down. 145


The communion with the Anhad Shabd is the only source
of perfect knowledge, true devotion and the endless Song
that glorifies God and man.
    
    For perfect knowledge and devotion and the story of
      the great God,
    Listen ye ever to the Anhad which is the food of the
        devotees and destroys all their fear. 146
                                                         
                                               GURU ARJAN


Anhad Shabd can be contacted beyond the plane of the
senses; none can reach It by his own unaided efforts, 
without the grace and guidance of the true Master. Its 
manifestation comes as a pure gift from the Master (Gur
Parsad).
       
       
       Anhad Shabd is very exhilarating,
       But one gets to It by the Master's grace. 147
                                                         
                                               GURU NANAK

    
    O Nanak! one who has access to a perfect Master,
    He alone is enabled to contact the eternal Music. 148
                                                       
                                               GURU ARJAN

 
The Anhad Shabd is the only way that leads to God and
one begins to relish and enjoy God-intoxication only after
 the eternal Song is manifested within.
     

    The eternal Song becoming manifest within, one is
      united with the Beloved,
    The lowly Nanak is now in perfect bliss, for he has
      found the merciful Lord. 149
                                                       
                                              GURU ARJAN

 
It is only a devotee of the Master in whom the divine
eternal Melody may become manifest.
     
     
     The worldly wise cannot reach It.
     The Creator has ordained it as a fundamental law,
     The eternal Song can be heard through communion
      with the Word,
     It is made manifest in the devotee of the Master and
       in no one else,
     In the mighty swirl of the mind one forgets It and the
       Godman reminds of It,
     This Law has been in operation throughout the
        ages. 150
        
                                            GURU AMAR DAS

 
With the practice of the eternal Sound Current, one is
purified of all sins and lusts and is washed clean of the
karmic impressions of all previous births, and with the
light of Self-knowledge and God-knowledge he rises into
Brahm and Par Brahm and reaches far beyond into the
Kingdom of God, his eternal heritage. The "Lost Word"
comes back to light and life only through the grace of a
competent Master, as a free gift to whomever He may
choose to grant it.


PANCH SHABD OR THE FIVE MELODIES 
 
   The unending strains of Music are of a variety of 
types, and become manifest through a competent Master:
       
       
       Various are the unending dulcet Melodies,
       One cannot describe their delicious strains. 151
                                  
                                             GURU NANAK


Bhai Gurdas Ji tells us in this context:
   
   By listening to the countless strains of the limitless
     Song, one is struck with ineffable wonder. 152
   

Out of these, only five melodies are considered of immense
value, and the scriptures speak highly of them:
    
    The five-sounded Melody keeps reverberating and my
      soul is ever attracted by It as a Sarang is ever after
      water.
    O the Formless One beyond all knowledge! I worship
      thee with all my heart. 153
                                                  KABIR

    The five sublime melodies become manifest through
      the grace of the Master,
    And a rare soul gets attached to them. 154
                                                  
                                              GURU RAM DAS
      
      The five sublime strains become distinguishable,
      The drum, the conch, and the thunder. 155
                                                          
                                              BENI JI


As these five melodies proceed from God's throne, God is
described in the scriptures as "Panch Shabdi" (i.e., Lord
of the five-sounded Melody).
      
      The glorious consummation takes place,
      When the Lord of the five Melodies comes. 156
                                                         
                                              GURU NANAK


     The five Melodies constituting the Word come from Him
     and become the means of reuniting us with Him. The
     saints also adore the Word; in the Jap Ji we have:
                                                         
     The saint lives by and meditates on the One Word. 157
                                           
                                              GURU NANAK
         
Bhai Gurdas Ji tells us that it is only after one transcends
body-consciousness that one gets contact with the five-
sounded Song.
               
     When the spirit crosses over the world of matter,
     The five-sounded Melody comes to greet her. 158
     
It is only a rare devotee of the Master that practices the
five Melodies and thereby reaches the Kingdom of God.


     The soul of a true devotee can listen to the five-
       sounded Music,
     The Song of the Master is characterized by five 
       distinct strains. 159
                 
        God Himself dwells in the five Sounds,
        And the five Sounds give a clue of Him. 160
                                                                     
                                                BHAI GURDAS

All saints and sages have taught the five Sounds. Hafiz, a
great mystic poet, speaks of the five Naubats:
             
     Be attentive and listen to the five drum-beats, coming
        down from the high heaven;
     The heaven that lies beyond the six ganglionic centers
        and is far above the seven skies.
         

The teachings of Shamas Tabrez, as well, centered round
the five-sounded Melody:
             
     Every day the five drums play at His door to 
        announce His greatness,
     If their Music were to fall on thine ears, thou wouldst
        be rid of all thine I-ness.
     

Again, the saint tells us that one can hear the five 
melodious tunes only when one puts up his tabernacle in the
seventh region (i.e., rises above the six chakras of the
Pind and comes up to the first astral plane, behind and
between the two eyebrows).
    
    Thou shalt meet the five Naubats in the seventh
      region;
    As soon as you take your bivouac far above the six
      planes.
                                                     
                                             SHAMAS TABREZ


The audible Sound Current is in fact only one continuous
creative life-principle which, emanating from the 
Immaculately Pure One, steps down from plane to plane for 
the purpose of creating five regions below: pure conscious,
great causal, causal, subtle and physical, and as It passes
through varying degrees of density, peculiar at each place,
It acquires a distinctive sound and hence has come to be
known as Music of the five melodies or Sounds. There are
two distinct sounds up to Trikuti and two more are added
up to Sach Khand and the fifth sound is that of Sat Lok.
In Sat Lok, all the five melodies are completed in their
fullness and richness. The mystery of the Sound Principle
is revealed by some Sound-incarnate Master and it is by
practice of and communion with the five melodies that the
soul is gradually led to the Lord of the five-tuned Music.
    
    
    It is by the Grace of the Master that one devotes
      himself wholeheartedly to this practice,
    And meets the All-Merciful, by listening to the five
      Shabds. 161
                                                      
                                             GURU AMAR DAS


All the five Sounds are characterized by a delectable 
harmony; and whoever concentrating his spirit current, 
recedes back and rises above body-consciousness is sure to
meet them.


   In the temple of the body whoever sings, and sings of
     the Lord,
   He, while singing, hears the five Melodies in the body
     and gets the highest glory. 162
                                                  
                                            GURU RAM DAS

In the scriptures it is said that the reverberation of these
tunes becomes manifest in the forehead:
   
   For ages past I have been Thy devotee; how can I
     now be separated?
   The harmony playing at Thy door, becomes manifest
     in my forehead. 163
                                            KABIR


Where then is this harmony to be located? In which part
of the forehead? This harmony can be traced between and 
behind the two eyes in the Sukhmana and one can hear It
only there.
   
   
   Listen ye to the divine Music in the Sukhman,
   Attend ye to It with all attention. 164


The Muslim divines and darveshes have spoken of it as
Shah-rag and the Mehrab, meaning thereby the life-chord
in the great archway of heaven (i.e, forehead).
   
   When in meditation I see Thy beloved form, O
     Master!
   A great Harmony (Sound) springs up in the central
     archstone of my forehead.
                
                                                  HAFIZ

Bulleh Shah says,
      
      God is much nearer than even the life-chord.
        

In the Koran it is said,
         
         I am nearer to thee than thy life-line.


   Those who practice the Surat Shabd Yoga under the
guidance of a competent Master, begin to unravel the mystery
of Self and of God and begin to see the All-pervading
Truth both within and without. Secondly, from the varying 
sounds he learns at what region he is in his spiritual
journey, for they serve as milestones on the Path and thus
save him from wandering astray.
    
    
    And thine ears shall hear a Word behind thee saying,
      this is the Way, walk ye in It, when ye turn to the
      right hand, and when ye turn to the left. 165
                                                             
                                                 ISAIAH


One can find his way to the five Melodies from a 
competent Master, by practicing his Word.
    
    The five Sounds become audible by following the 
      instruction of the Master,
    A person with a great good fortune can hear the
      Limitless Sound Principle. 166
                                                    
                                           GURU RAM DAS


A detailed description of the five Sounds relevant to the
five regions is given by the Sant Satguru at the time of
initiation, and the disciple, as he advances in practice,
verifies the truth of the Master's words as he moves 
forward from plane to plane.
 
 Blessed indeed is the temple of the body in which the five
Sounds become audible and the Way to God opens up.
    

    Fortunate is the house, the body, where the five
     Sounded Word becomes manifest,
    Blessed indeed is the sacred house which stands by
       It. 167
                                        
                                          GURU AMAR DAS
    
    The wondrous Music of the five melodies,
    God Himself may make audible if He so wisheth. 168
                                    
                                          GURU NANAK
    
    The five Shabds peal continuously and overflow in
      their fullness,
               
               
    Peerless are the five Sounds and unceasingly do they
      sport about. 169
                                                                    
                                          BHAI GURDAS
    
    Five Sounds make the perfect Harmony,
    And the limitless Song brings in wondrous 
    intoxication. 170

                                          GURU ARJAN
               
    
    The unending Melody is ever rich in Its fullness. 171
                                                                         
                                          KABIR
            

The five symphonies combine together to make the subtle
Word perfect which lulls the mind to sleep forever and
frees the soul from the trigunatmac bondage, never to   
return to the cycle of births and deaths.
               

    Learn from the saints to live in harmony with the   
       sublime Word,
    The Word made perfect by the five symphonies 
       constituting it. 172
                                                               
                                          BHAI GURDAS
                 
    
    Now that One Word abides in me                     
    There can be no more coming into the world. 173
                                                              
                                          GURU NANAK
               

     My Beloved has taken me beyond the three Gunas
     And I remain ever absorbed in the sublime Word. 174
                                                           
                                          GURU AMAR DAS
                    

        Day and night I live in perfect bliss,
        Attuned as I am with the Word. 175

                                          GURU RAM DAS
            

Those who live in tune with the one Word are worthy of
our highest esteem and adoration:
                  
        O Nanak! they deserve the greatest homage,
        Who live in harmony with the Word. 176
                                                              
                                          GURU NANAK


                          [End of Part 8]
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