From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Sat Feb 20 20:26:26 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: Excerpts from Letters of Kirpal Singh - Part 1
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 21 Feb 1999 04:26:26 GMT






                     EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS OF MASTER

                     KIRPAL SINGH JI TO HIS INITIATES

                        IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA


                               [Part One]

                                *  *  *

        The precious gifts of initiation should be developed
        from day to day by regular, faithful and accurate
        meditation.

        Satsang is a great helping factor for imbibing the
        teachings in their right perspective and fostering
        inner devotion. Besides you will be able to enjoy
        the overwhelming bliss from the charged atmosphere
        wherein loving life impulses are radiated by the
        gracious Master Power for the spiritual benefit of
        the dear ones.

        Please be lovingly and regularly devoted to your
        meditations with deep faith and sacred earnestness.
        Master Power working constantly overhead will be
        extending all feasible help, grace and protection.

        I an happy that you are attending all meetings of
        Ruhani Satsang. These meetings provide a fence
        for holy meditations and are conducive to rapid
        progress on the spiritual path.

        I observe from your spiritual diaries that you are
        not devoting sufficient time to meditations. Please
        try to increase the time for meditations so as to
        come to the target of two hours daily to ensure rapid
        progress. Please don't get impatient or discouraged
        so soon and sit in meditations for longer spells to
        attain better results.

        It is only when you have progressed on the spiritual
        path sufficiently and come face to face with the
        Radiant Form of the Master that you can talk to Him
        about all your affairs and get His Supreme Guidance
        direct.

                                *  *  *

        The short meditations can be stretched to the
        target periods by earnest and steadfast efforts.
        For evading sleep during meditations, you should
        resort to some such tune when you are quite fresh,
        buoyant and wide awake after your normal sleep and
        rest. Besides you should keep your inner gaze
        fixed in the middle of inner divine light, and
        continue repeating charged names, mentally, very,
        very slowly, may be at intervals, so that the
        inner gaze is not disturbed. You will find that
        it is only during the slackening of inner gaze
        that the outside stray thoughts or sleep overtakes,
        which can be eliminated by careful vigilance.

        Practice has mastered many a hard way. It is
        simply setting aside some fixed moments when you
        are all alone, fresh and buoyant and free, and be
        devoted lovingly to your holy meditations which
        are so simple, easy and interesting. All else
        will come of itself with the grace of the Master.

                                *  *  *

        Indeed it is a rare privilege to be accepted and
        initiated into the Mysteries of the Beyond, for
        travelling back to the Home of the True Father
        during lifetime, under the protective guidance
        of the Living Master.
                                
                                *  *  *
                        
        These precious gifts of initiation from the gracious
        Master are to be developed from day to day by faithful,
        loving and accurate meditations.

        The holy sound current is the astral form of the
        Master, and as such should be listened to with
        rapt attention.

                                *  *  *

        Frugality in speech is conducive to meditation.
        As a matter of fact, all the senses are granted to
        us for their legitimate use, and when the limit
        is exceeded, it results in bondage and suffering.
        The spiritual aspirants need practice strict
        discipline for controlling the senses of speech,
        audition and vision, which dissipate spiritual
        energy.

                                *  *  *

        You are advised to start again with fresh zeal and
        patience. The Holy meditations must not be overlooked,
        as it is during these precious moments of silence
        and serenity when you are near the fountainhead of
        divine wisdom and intelligence. The inner celestial
        manifestations will have a soothing effect on your
        disturbed mind. Know it for certain that everyone is
        responsible for his/her deeds, actions or thoughts.
        Every pleasure has its price. It is the Divine Law.
        The divine dispensation will demand all liquidation
        in due course.

        Successful Simran means repetition of the charged
        names with the tongue of thought or mentally which
        seemingly looks to be a simple affair but requires
        some labour and patience. Mental Simran may be
        preceded by vocal Simran if the mind is too turbulent,
        side by side fixing your inner gaze in the
        middle of light or darkness, with austere patience
        and loving humility, just as a baby looks for the
        darling mother. You should be positive about the
        fact that the gracious Master is awaiting you within
        behind this dark veil. Such an attitude will grant
        you complete rivetting within. And the trouble with
        regard to the slipping of your mind can be overcome
        by keen vigilance, and careful supervision. Mind
        does resent inner stillness but it has to be enchained
        by this process. Practice attains proficiency.
        Concentration is learnt by concentrating, concentrating
        and concentrating regularly.

                                *  *  *

        Yes, you should give your full attention in meditation,
        so much so that you become one with the gaze: there
        should be no effort on your part. Leave all and
        everything in the Master's hands. All desires should
        be stilled, even the desire for transcension.

                                *  *  *

        The difficulty with concentration will be overcome in
        due course by regular, faithful and accurate meditations.
        Proficiency certainly demands persistent and patient
        efforts. The time for the listening of sound current
        should be increased gradually, which will grant you
        ineffable bliss and harmony. Prayer is the anguished
        cry of the soul, but self-pity sometimes stands in
        the way. When you pray, pray earnestly and when you
        [sit in] meditation, meditate accurately without
        any clutching on your part to have one thing or the
        other. He knows and sees your inner condition and
        rewards your efforts in whatever manner it is deemed
        fit. Please note that all your endeavors are recorded
        behind the veil.

                                *  *  *

        The sincere never give up the long battle with the mind
        and always relish to struggle hard for maintaining the
        sacred schedule. A real seeker never gives up nor yields
        to the dictate of the mind. You will find the gracious
        Hand of protection of the Master always with you.

                                *  *  *

        If for certain physical disturbance on account
        of your spine you cannot sit for long in meditations,
        you should do so as long as you possibly can and
        then do it by lying in bed fully relaxed but remaining
        inwardly wide awake and conscious.

                                *  *  *

        The difficulty with fixing inner gaze shall be
        overcome by fostering inner loving devotion for
        the gracious Master Power and patient practice.
        Practice makes a person perfect.

        The key to success is "love" and "devotion."
        More of these, more of progress.

        The divine way back to God during life time, i.e.
        the way you have been put on, is unlike other man
        made sciences, definite, practical and unchangeable
        science of Nature. The inner experiences and speed
        of progress may vary with different individuals
        according to one's past background and devotion. So
        one should continue patiently and the Master Power
        will always be extending all feasible help.

                                *  *  *

        Thoughts are the root of Karma. Kind thoughts
        supported by kind words and deeds bring in a life of
        righteousness, wherein the holy seed of initiation
        thrives most.

        Self-discipline means self-restraint and self-control.
        An army without a general is likely to run into
        confusion. The senses are to be kept under strict
        control which will be helpful for spiritual progress.
        Spirituality is a subject more of heart than head.
        Please refer to the chapter of "Right Living" in
        "The Wheel of Life" which will give you an exhaustive
        explanation of the subject.

                                *  *  *

        You should know that perfection walks very slowly,
        yet each step under the protective guidance of the
        Master, in the right direction is a step forward,
        and shortens the long arduous journey ahead.

                                *  *  *

        The initiates are certainly the chosen few who
        are commissioned for entry into the regions of
        unalloyed bliss and harmony. The holy initiation
        is the climax of divine mercy, and is a sheer grace
        from the Providence.

        The maintenance of self-introspection diary is very
        much helpful for spiritual progress within. It is a
        slow but sure process for having gradual progress. By
        keeping this one becomes regular and moreover one can
        have guidance wherever necessary.

        The shortcomings in human behaviour are the result of
        reaction of past Karma, yet much can be accomplished
        by resolute will and earnest fortitude.

        The winding up of Karmas of the initiates is governed
        by a higher divine law which is beyond the ken of
        human comprehension, yet for your right understanding,
        you may please note that the present earth life is
        chiefly based on the reactions of past Karma, which
        determine life span, pain or pleasure, opulence or
        poverty, fame or ignominy. Those who are privileged
        to come to the holy feet of the Living Master and are
        initiated into the Mysteries of the Beyond, their
        Karmic account is transferred from the Negative to
        the Positive Power which is represented by the Living
        Master for the ultimate dissolution, and the gracious
        Master Power commences the Karmic liquidation
        as best as it can possibly be. It is on this score
        that some of the dear ones after initiation happen
        to pass through various vicissitudes of physical life,
        which make them pass through unbearable endurance, but
        all this is flavoured with divine mercy all along from
        the Master Power.

                                *  *  *

        The fate Karma on which the present life is based is
        left untouched but future karma is controlled by
        becoming conscious co-workers of the divine plan
        under the guidance of the competent Master. The
        Audible Life Stream burns down the seed Karma, which
        does not bear fruit like the burning of the seeds,
        which renders them infructious for germination. On
        initiation, the Master draws a big line of action in
        the present life for future seeds, which must be of
        virtuous and reposing nature.

                                *  *  *

        The mind, as you know, works in subtle ways - too subtle
        for an ordinary man to detect and then to detect rightly
        and in time before the mischief is done. It is from the
        abundance of heart that all actions, oral as well as
        physical, proceed. We have, therefore, to be mentally
        alert about our thought-waves, so as to be able in time
        to mark their ebb and flow and then bypass them by the
        process of concentration, forgetting all about the mind
        and the mental states, including even the pure mind
        essence which gossamer-like envelops the soul. I hope,
        you are now in a position to understand something of the
        causes that lie behind the shortcomings. It is the
        memory of our experiences in the distant past and in the
        living present that constantly and irresistably follows us
        at our heels and since we have not yet learnt how to
        keep aloof and above them that the lapses occur in spite
        of us. The enumeration process is just the first step to
        be cognizant of our doings, which we are likely to overlook
        in our self-righteous assertiveness.

        Once we are able to rise above the body consciousness,
        we enter into an awareness of the higher order, which
        lies behind the reach of philosophies and psychologies,
        for then you are on your way to the causeless cause, the
        Mother of all Causes, knowing which everything else
        becomes known of itself, like an open book. This then
        is the Alpha and Omega of the Religion of the soul,
        which begins where all religious philosophies and
        polemics end. Here all thinking, planning, imagining and
        fantasy fall off like autumn leaves.

        Desire is the root cause of all disturbances and suffering.
        You will become desireless by regular listening to the
        Holy Sound Current for some time. It is the tried panacea
        for that. It is the mergence of the soul in the Holy Shabad
        which grants such an ineffable bliss and harmony, that the
        roots of desire are crippled for good. It is the self-control
        and self-discipline which counts most for having such a
        steady schedule of holy meditations.

        Likes and dislikes are again the attributes of human
        mind. As a matter of fact it is simply an attitude of
        your mind when you like something or hate others. A sense
        of equanimity or equipoise when established by inner
        communion with the Holy Naam will create an indifference
        for all these matters.

        Simran is the basis of all spiritual evolution.
        You will please appreciate that it is the constant
        thought of worldly pursuits which has been the
        cause of present human birth, and for attaining
        liberation from the cycle of birth and death, the
        very thought pattern is to be revolutionized by
        replacing it with divine thoughts.

                                *  *  *

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