From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Thu Mar 04 02:59:50 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: Excerpts from Letters of Kirpal Singh - Part 15 of 15
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 4 Mar 1999 10:59:50 GMT





                     EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS OF MASTER

                     KIRPAL SINGH JI TO HIS INITIATES

                        IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA


                             [Part 15 of 15]
         
                                *  *  *


                                GENERAL


        Your problem of wanting something from others might be
        attributed to sane habit forming attitude all along
        during past, which should be corrected carefully. It is
        rather wrong to accept anything from others when you do
        not repay it. However, to accept gifts from your parents
        is alright, yet you must repay adequately lest these
        result in karmic debt.

                                *  *  *

        I have noted about your problem for which you are advised
        to draw a thick curtain over the past and just forget
        everything which has since passed as no amount of
        repentance or resentment can do it. You must start a
        new pattern of life, the commandments which would enable
        you to progress physically, mentally, and spiritually with
        the grace of the Master.

                                *  *  *

        There is nothing to fear you should forget all about your
        past and start anew. Just learn to live in the living
        present and making best use of time at your disposal. The
        precious moments of earth life spent in meditations and
        honest work, count much for inner spiritual progress.

                                *  *  *

        You are furthermore advised to please refer to the
        various circulars and messages since released from time
        to time which will enrich your spiritual understanding
        and many things will become clear to you with the grace
        of the Master.

                                *  *  *

        Too much talking dissipates spiritual energy. You should
        try to control your speech by resorting to Simran of the
        Names silently. You will be able to tide over the
        difficulty and improve in due course. Think twice before
        you speak. Think out as to what you speak is true, kind
        and necessary.

                                *  *  *

        Forgive and forget is the best motto.

                                *  *  *

        I have noted your thoughts about others. You may please
        note that all are not perfect as yet. Nobody should stand
        between you and the Master. You are advised to refer to my
        Birthday Message since released and sent to Mr. Khanna
        for arranging its distribution amongst all your dear ones
        over there. A sense of close fraternity and brotherhood
        amongst the children of the Father brings in more of inner
        joy and jubilation, much sublime and serene in essence.
        When two lovers of the Master get together in His Name,
        both foster inner loving devotion and humility.

                                *  *  *

        You should not grieve at the loss of divine presence
        of the Master Power, but try to consolidate your scattered
        attention by attuning within with the Holy Naam. An
        intense longing of the soul and burning desire to meet
        the Lord within invokes His mercy. When the heart wells
        up and involuntary tears flow, much of the inner dirt
        and dross of the mind is washed away.

                                *  *  *

        Pride should be replaced with a keen sense of self abnegation.
        You should try to increase the time for meditations gradually
        so as to have the target of two hours every day in the
        larger interests of your spiritual progress.

                                *  *  *

        It is high time you should bid farewell to your skepticism
        and devote yourself to holy meditations with great zeal,
        deep faith and renewed earnestness in accordance with the
        instructions given in my letter of January 31.

                                *  *  *

        Your present trials and tribulations are a passing phase
        and you will soon overcome them with the grace of the
        Master. You will gradually have greater control over your
        feelings and emotions, such as vanity, greed and lust,
        and develop instead virtues of humility, contentment,
        chastity and love. You will give up your habit of judging
        others and start adjusting yourself to their weakness,
        shortcomings, either by overlooking or affording
        constructive help to them. By this adjustment, you will
        bring much sunshine and happiness for yourself as well
        as for all those around you. If you think with a calm and
        cool mind, you will realize that most of us have not
        became perfect as yet. Nobody should therefore stand
        between you and the Master. A sense of close fraternity
        among the children of the Father will lead to inner joy
        and bliss so sublime and serene in essence. When two
        lovers of the Master get together in His Name, they foster
        inner loving devotion and humility.

                                *  *  *

        Disobedience to the holy commandments by the child
        disciple affects inner progress adversely. An implicit
        faith and obedience invokes divine grace.

                                *  *  *

        If there is no other alternative (on innoculating child)
        and medical law enjoins these may be had if absolutely
        necessary as a safeguard for health. I think there may
        be some alternative in Homeopathy.

                                *  *  *

        Faith evolves in gratuitous hearts full of divine bliss
        and harmony. Any moment you feel depressed you should
        resort to the counting of manifold blessings granted to
        you by the gracious Master Power. It is a great blessing
        to be accepted and initiated into the Mysteries of the
        Beyond when you pass your earth life joyously under the
        protective guidance of the Master and insure perpetual
        bliss in the Beyond.

                                *  *  *

        The letters should be short and to the point on which
        further clarification is required.

                                *  *  *

        The looking into the eyes of others should be avoided
        lest you are affected by their radiation. Eyes are the
        windows of the soul. It helps you a lot to remain aloof
        from the harmful effects of others lives when you can
        attune within with holy Naam undisturbed.

                                *  *  *

        Forget the past and never care to probe into it lest you
        be caught in unnecessary hallucinations thereby breeding
        morbidity and gloom. Always look ahead for the very best
        you can achieve by sincere and honest effort...

                                *  *  *

        There is no objection to your using one of the Master's
        quotations on the back of your personal calling cards.

                                *  *  *

        It is difficult to go through life without going through
        the motions of give and take. It is this very give and
        take which has to be worked out by the pilgrim soul that
        brings us back to this world. There is no harm in
        accepting small gifts from those with whom you come into
        contact in your business or family connections provided
        that you have been or are in a position to do them some
        service in a direct form. For example, your boss may
        give you a token of his esteem at Christmas. Likewise,
        small gifts may be exchanged during this season of goodwill
        among a family. However, it is not wise to accept gifts
        from acquaintances, business or otherwise, who are outside
        your areas of immediate contact with whom you have no
        give or take.

                                *  *  *

        Man has got himself so enmeshed in mind and the outgoing
        faculties that his release from them can only be brought
        about by struggle and perseverance. - His plight is, in a
        way, similar to that of a bird that has been kept in a
        cage for so many years. Even if you should open the door
        of the cage, the bird will be loathe to fly out. Instead,
        it will fly from one side of the cage to the other,
        clinging with its talons to the wire mesh, but it does
        not wish to be free and fly out through the open door
        of the cage.

        Similarly, the soul has become so attached to the body
        and the outgoing faculties that it clings to outside
        things and does not wish to let go of them. It does not
        wish to fly through the door that has been opened by
        the Master at the time of holy initiation, at the
        threshold of which the radiant form of the Master is
        patiently waiting to receive the child disciple.
        True discipleship does not start until one has risen
        above body consciousness.

        It is from this point that the disciple will feel not
        only comfort, but will begin to experience the joy and
        bliss that awaits him in the Beyond. He will have as his
        companion the charming radiant form of the Master, who
        is ever at hand to impart the guidance that is so
        necessary in order to avoid the pitfalls on the way.
        Until this point is reached, the disciple is, as it
        were, on probation, but such probation that cannot be
        severed. It is during this probationary period that
        the soul will feel some discomfort. It has become so
        besmeared with the dirt of the senses that it has lost
        its original purity of heart and is not fit to be raised
        up out of the prison house of the body.

        Even though the door has been opened, it is so attached
        to the things of the outside world that it does not wish
        to be free. It is only when the soul begins to regain
        its original purity of heart and mind that it can at last
        want to be free of the desires of the flesh and outward
        attachments. The loving Master tries to avoid all
        possible discomfort to the child disciple by explaining
        what are the vices to be avoided and the virtues to be
        developed in order to regain this purity.

        Unfortunately, more often than not the words of the
        Master do not sink in and little or no action is taken
        by the disciple to amend his ways. Therefore, the Master
        Power must take firmer measures to bring home to the
        disciple the importance of the truths that have been
        explained in words. Hence the discomfort that is
        sometimes felt by the dear ones in their day~to-day
        living. If implicit obedience would be given to the
        commandments of the Master, all difficulties and
        discomforts would vanish. If a child gets itself so
        dirty that only way the mother can wash it clean is by
        using a scrubbing brush, can it be said that the child
        will feel comfortable during the scrubbing process? It
        will only feel comfortable after the scrubbing has
        ceased and it is shining clean and pure.
                                
                                *  *  *

        Help and protection is always extended by the Master
        to His followers. He looks after their comforts in every
        way, both outer and inner. Even the effects of the
        reactions of the past -- from the gallows to an
        ordinary pin prick -- so much concession is given. As
        the mother sacrifices everything for the sake of her
        child, even so does the Master sacrifice everything for
        the sake of His children. The follower in fact does not
        dream of what the Master does for him. He fills his
        followers with His own thought, with His own life impulses.
        When we remember Him, He remembers us with all His heart
        and soul. He is not the body. He is the Word personified,
        the Word made flesh. To get the full benefit of the
        Master Power, the disciple must develop receptivity.
        It is impossible to develop receptivity until implicit
        obedience is given to the commandments of the Master.
        When you pay heed to the Master's commandments, then that
        is a sign that you are growing in love for Him and the
        more you grow in love for Him, the more receptivity you will
        develop.

        When you begin to develop this receptivity, all
        discomfort will vanish and you will truly begin to tread
        the Path in the firm assurance that you are on the right
        way, together with the loving companionship of One who
        will demonstrate more and more his greatness and His power
        on each step of the way until you find that it is the very
        God Himself who is your Guide and mentor, who will never
        leave you until he has safely escorted you back to the
        true home of the Father.

                                *  *  *

        While on the way, one of the main functions of the
        Master is to wind up the back karmas of the disciple. It
        is through conscious contact with the sound current only
        that the karmas of back lives can be burnt away. This
        process is started at the time of holy initiation, at which
        time the disciple is given a contact with the light and
        sound principle, or God-into-expression Power. To avoid
        opening a new account of bad deeds, the disciple is enjoined
        to lead a clean life and weed out all imperfections in him
        by self-introspection from day to day. This is the sublime
        principle behind keeping the diary, which the disciple is
        asked to maintain in order to become aware of the
        shortcomings which stand in his way to God.

                                *  *  *

        Ego is the self-assertive Principle in man that makes him
        feel that "I do this, or I do that." When one rises above
        body consciousness and knows himself and he becomes a
        conscious coworker Of the Divine Plan, he sees that he is
        not "the doer" but is a mere puppet in the hands of God,
        he will cease to be responsible for his actions and will
        become Jivan Mukta, or a free soul. The ego in man is part
        of the grand delusion that he is laboring under. It will
        cease to act or will be nullified only when a great degree
        of purity has been attained by the disciple, in which all
        of his actions will reflect the Master in him. Like Christ,
        he will proclaim "I and my Father are one."

                                *  *  *

        All beauty and glory lie within you. Once you have learned
        to rise above body consciousness and transcend into the
        Beyond, you will regain the knowledge of former lives. The
        Overself or God, which is the Controlling Power in the body,
        is within you. The Master is also within you. You have but
        to invert your attention within to find that both are one
        and the same. The main helping factor to realize this Truth
        is to give implicit obedience to the commandments of the
        Master. It is the work of the Master to give His children
        that which is in their best interests.

                                *  *  *

        Everything will be given to you in due course of time if you
        follow His behests and live up to what He says - Every day
        you are given tasks which are intended to help your spiritual
        growth. Unfortunately, most people look for a very special
        assignment to be given to them by the Master personally before
        they accept it as a task from the Master. They do not see
        that their day-to-day dealings and behaviour with other
        people in their work, the responsibilities they have to
        assume in their other mundane duties and how well they
        fulfill them, are all tasks given by the Master. If you
        watch closely your reaction to situations that confront you
        in life you cannot but be aware of how much you have grown
        spiritually. This is the most important part of spirituality
        as far as the disciple is concerned. He must first complete
        his course in "MAN MAKING" with full honors before he can be
        given higher tasks to carry out.

                                *  *  *

        All those who are initiated into the Mysteries of the
        Beyond by a Living Master were destined to become His
        disciples. It is not a question of one choosing the Path
        or the Path choosing the disciple, but rather one of the
        disciple's background.

                                *  *  *

        You are correct in your assumption that the Path of the
        Masters is the path of pure bhakti. The pearl of divine
        knowledge can be preserved securely in the casket of
        bhakti -- or loving devotion. Bhakti in its pure and
        pristine form is Love Divine.

        But one must practice the elements of all Yogas (though
        not in their extreme degrees) in order to obtain the
        fruits of this Path. For example, the practice of Hatha
        Yoga is inherent in the fact that we must lead a clean,
        chaste life, living in accordance with the laws of
        nature by eating satvic foods, to ensure that the body
        gets a reasonable amount of exercise and abstain from
        all harmful habits of activities that will affect our
        physical health. Similarly, the arts of Gnani Yoga, and
        Raja Yoga are inherent in the diary form that you are
        asked to maintain every month. The observances of
        non-violence (control of anger), truthfulness, and
        chastity are all qualities that must be built into the
        mental habits of the mind and become second nature,
        before the mind will be purified from its present dross
        and dirt. The correct practice of these ennobling
        virtues will give you the full fruit of Gnani Yoga,
        which is self-knowledge.

        The form of Bhakti that you are asked to develop has
        nothing to do with the emotions. You are asked to
        develop love for and faith in the Master and to obey
        his commandments. If you can do this (and it is by no
        means easy to obey the commandments of the Master),
        you will have that Bhakti which will give your soul its
        freedom far quicker than the most accurate practice
        of Raja or Gnani Yoga can give you.

                                *  *  *

                               --<end>-

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