From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Mon Jan 25 00:23:24 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: The Wheel of Life (2/3)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 25 Jan 1999 08:23:24 GMT






                           THE WHEEL OF LIFE

                     The Law of Action and Reaction

                                   by
                         
                              Kirpal Singh

 
                              [Part 2 of 3]



                                  III


          THE way in which the Master tackles the intricate and
        baffling problem of Karmas, may briefly be stated as
        under:

          Sanchit or the seed Karmas: These are latencies lying in
        the store-house to one's account from endless ages, ever
        since the world began. No one escapes from them unless
        the same are worked off (without making any more addition
        thereto, which of course in the nature of things, is an
        impossibility), in innumerable lives that lie ahead. It is,
        therefore, not possible to exhaust this tremendous credit
        balance in one's account. Is there then no way to cross
        over the great chasm that lies between the conscious and
        the sub-conscious and again the gulf that separates the
        sub-conscious from the unconscious? Every wrong has a
        remedy; it may be a spiritual or a secular wrong. If one
        fries seed-grains in a pan so that they get puffed up,
        they lose their fecundity or power of fructification, that
        is to say the power to germinate and to bear fruit. Exactly
        in the same way, the Sanchit Karmas can be seared
        and scorched with the fire of Naam or Word and rendered
        harmless for the future, for then one becomes a
        conscious co-worker with the Divine Plan losing all
        contact with the unknown past.

          Pralabdh Karmas: These constitute one's present fate,
        his stock-in-trade or destiny as it is called. The fruit of
        these has got to be borne, no matter bow bitter or sweet,
        for one cannot avoid reaping the harvest already sown.
        The Master, therefore, leaves them untouched for man to
        endure with loving sweetness and to finish up during his
        present lifetime. If these Karmas were to be wiped out
        or tampered with in any way, the body itself would dissolve.
        In grappling with these, a disciple is, however, not
        left alone. As soon as the Master initiates, the Master-
        power takes charge of the disciple. He is helped a good
        deal at every step. By gradual spiritual discipline, he
        learns the process of self-analysis and withdrawal and
        grows strong in spirit with the result that the otherwise
        painful effect of these Karmas just blows over as a gentle
        breeze, leaving him unscathed. Even in serious and incurable
        cases, the Master-power brings into operation His
        Laws of Sympathy and Mercy. All the troubles of the devoted
        disciples are greatly mitigated and softened. Sometimes
        the intensity of bodily and mental troubles is increased
        a little to shorten the duration of the suffering involved,
        while at others the intensity is greatly reduced and the
        duration is prolonged as may be considered appropriate.
        But this is not all. The sufferings, troubles and diseases
        of the physical body accrue from sense-pleasures.
        Bodily troubles are, of course, to be borne by the physical
        body. The Master, as Word-personified or Polarized God,
        knows all about disciples, wherever they may be, either at
        a distance or near at hand. He may even take over by the
        law of sympathy the burden of the Karmas of His devoted
        disciples on His own shoulders to bear Himself,
        for the Law of Nature has got to be compensated in one
        form or another. This happens in very rare cases as the
        Master may think fit. Besides, no disciple would like to
        adopt a course, in which the Holy Master should suffer
        for his wrongs. On the contrary, a disciple must learn to
        pray to his Master sincerely and if he does so, all feasible
        help is sure to come to relieve him or to soften the
        situation and to minimize the resultant suffering; the soul
        itself becoming strong by feeding on the bread of life and
        by drawing sustenance from the water of life.

          There are, however, things over which a man has no
        appreciable control: (i) the sweets and bitters of life with
        comforts and discomforts, physical as well as mental; (ii)
        riches, opulence and power or destitution, penury and
        abjectness; (iii) name and fame or notoriety and downright
        oblivion. All these are the usual adjuncts of life on
        earth and come and go as predestined. All human endeavours
        are directed to gaining one or more of the sweets of
        life and in avoiding what is bitter, without realizing that
        life itself is as evanescent as a cloud, a shadow without a
        substance, a mere mirage and will-o'-the-wisp; ever flitting
        and eluding the unwary pilgrim on the scorching
        desert-sands of time. The Master-Saints by precept and
        practice bring home to the jiva the illusory nature of the
        world and all that is worldly, and manifest in him the
        perennial fountain of life; finding which one gets saturated
        to the very marrow of his bones and the fibres of his
        being and becomes fully satisfied, able to sing away life
        itself.

          Kriyaman Karmas: These are the Karmas that we daily
        do during our present sojourn on the earth-plane. In this
        respect, every disciple is enjoined to lead a strictly chaste
        and pure life hereafter in thoughts, words and deeds and
        to abstain from all that is evil, for any violation or
        disregard in this behalf is bound to bring trouble in its
        wake and the price of sin is nothing short of death, death at
        the very roots of life.

          The question here arises as to how Master-Saints take
        over some of the burden of Karmas of the jivas under special
        or rare circumstances and manage to rid them of the
        unpalatable effect. The Karmas connected with the physical
        body, as said above, are to be borne on the physical body.


          God clothed Himself in vile man's flesh, that so
          He might be weak enough to suffer woe.

                                               J. Donne


          We have in history an incident that occurred in the life-
        story of Baber, the first Mughal king in India. His son
        Humayun fell seriously ill and every one despaired of his
        life. The king in silent sympathy prayed to God that he
        might be permitted to take over his son's illness and
        strange as it may seem, from that very moment the tables
        were turned; the prince began gradually to recover while
        the king languished and died. This is just a single
        instance of vicarious suffering on the human plane.

          The Master is of the Lord of Compassion. In His kingdom
        which is boundless, there is no count of the deeds.
        Embedded in the divine, He grants contact to each individual
        with the saving life lines within, which serve as a sheet-
        anchor in times of distress. The ship may toss on
        the stormy waters of life, but being moored to the floating
        buoy it keeps steady on its keel, in spite of the stormy
        winds and waters around.

          Man is irresistibly forced to come on to the stage of the
        world blind-fold just to reap the fruit of his Pralabdh
        Karma of which he has no knowledge whatsoever. He is
        not even aware of the working of the physical plane, not
        to speak of higher regions. With all his professions and
        protestations, he renders a lip-service to God having no
        access to the inner Divine Links, the saving life-lines:
        the Light and the Voice of God. He does not even know the
        nature of his own real Self and spends all his time in
        sense-pleasures. He takes himself to be but a creature of
        chance and lives by chance, a mere puppet on the stage
        of life.

          A Saint, on the other hand, comes with a commission
        and a purpose. He is God's elect, His Messiah and His
        Prophet. He works in His Name and by the Power of His
        Word. He has no independent will of His own, apart from
        the Will of God; and being a conscious co-worker with
        Him on the Divine Plan, He sees the hidden hand of God
        in all the affairs of life. Living in time, He really belongs
        to the Timeless. He is Master of life and death but is full
        of love and compassion for the suffering humanity. His
        mission is to link such human souls with God as may be
        yearning for re-union and may be in earnest quest. His
        sphere of action is quite distinct from and independent of
        Avtaras or incarnations, for the latter work only on the
        human plane. Their job is to keep the world in proper
        shape and order. Lord Krishna has declared in no ambiguous
        words that He comes into the world whenever there
        is an imbalance in the forces of good and evil; the object
        being to restore the lost equilibrium, to help the righteous
        and to penalize the unrighteous. Similarly we read of
        Lord Rama in the Ram Chritra Mansa. He reincarnated
        himself when the evil in the world was in the ascendant.
        The Avtaras come to re-establish righteousness. They cannot,
        however, throw open the prison gates of the world
        and take the jivas out into the spiritual planes. This work
        falls purely within the domain of the Saints, who
        consciously act as co-workers with the Power of God on the
        Divine Plan and teach the worship of the Divine alone;
        for that alone puts an end to the effects of Karma. A
        Muslim divine says:

          At last it came to light, that in the Kingdom of
            Darveshs, Karmas count for naught.


        Again, it is said:

          A Master-Saint chases away the Karmas which fly as
            jackals do in the presence of a lion.


          No one can escape from the fruits of his actions - not
        even the ghosts and spirits; nor the giants, demons,
        kinnars, yakshas, gandharvas, devas and the gods. Those with
        luminous, astral and ethereal bodies enjoy the fruits of
        their actions in the region of Brahmand, the third grand
        division, above the first two, Pind and Und. They, too,
        aspire for and await a human birth to get out of the
        clutches of Karmic reactions; for in human birth alone
        there is the chance of contacting some God-man who may
        reveal to them the secret of the Divine Path, the Sound-
        Current or the Holy Word.

          It would require many years of patient meditation for a
        man to be able to understand in some measure the
        arrangement of God's mighty administration, and very little
        can be said to the inquiring seeker at this stage. It is also
        equally difficult to understand a genuine spiritual Master.
        But with all this, a Sant ordinarily plays the normal part
        of man while on this earth and He always speaks of Himself
        as a slave, a bondsman and a servant of God and His
        people.

          In taking over the burden of the Karmas of the devoted
        souls on His shoulders, a Master-Saint does not overlook
        or eliminate the "Highest Law." His position may be likened
        to that of a king in disguise, who for ameliorating
        the condition of his subjects freely mixes with them to
        understand their difficulties and at times even shares with
        them their joys and sorrows. So far as the human body is
        concerned, a Master-Saint makes use of the special Divine
        Concession. He may, in brief, reduce death by guillotine
        to a thorn-prick. At times, He allows His body to suffer in
        some slight measure which for an ordinary individual
        might have been a great travail. In this way, He shows
        man that all bodies do suffer, for this is Nature's law for
        all the embodied creatures. "Physical life is all misery,"
        declared the Sakya Muni, Lord Buddha. Sant Kabir also
        declared that he bad not seen a single human being who
        was happy for each one whom be happened to come upon
        was in misery. Guru Nanak graphically draws a pen-picture
        of the world as full of sorrow and suffering humanity
        except rare individuals who had taken refuge in Naam.
        It is because of this sad experience all around that
        we take the God-man for an ordinary being, like ourselves.
        In suffering bodily "pain" He plays the part of a
        man to all appearances, but internally He is always
        separate from the physical body. The constant contact with
        the divinity within Him enables Him to escape what may
        otherwise have been an unbearable sting for the disciple.

          Every one who has been put on this path and is engaged
        in the process of inversion, can withdraw his sensory
        currents from the body by concentrating them at the
        center at the back of the eyes. There may be differences
        in the time required by different individuals to achieve
        this, but the results are sure to follow, and are actually
        verifiable in each case. The devoted disciples on the path,
        even when on the operation-table, voluntarily dispense
        with the usual administration to patients of anesthetics.
        They withdraw their consciousness from the body and do
        not feel the effect of the surgeon's knife or lancet. Of Bhai
        Mani Singh, who was sentenced to death by cutting off
        each joint, it is said that he not only smilingly submitted
        to the process but even remonstrated with the executioner
        to stick to the letter of the order when the latter tried to
        get rid of the nefarious job and wanted to make short
        work by cutting down the body part by part, instead of
        joint by joint, as ordered.

          The Satsangis who study things with open eyes, very
        frequently come across several such cases. The souls that
        have an inner access remain absorbed in the great Self
        within, and do not make a show of their capabilities. This
        rule holds good for the simple reason that feats like these
        are calculated to pass for miracles and hence are to be
        avoided scrupulously. Saints do not display miracles nor
        do they allow any of their disciples to indulge in such
        vainglorious and empty baubles.

          Saints, when seemingly ill, are generally seen taking
        medicinal doses as may be prescribed by the physicians,
        but actually They do not need such treatment. This They
        do just to keep up the worldly order of things. In this
        way, They set an example to man to continue his worldly
        routine wisely and resort to proper treatment whenever
        necessary. It is, of course, expected of the disciples to
        resort to such medicines as do not contain products of or
        substances from animal sources; but some of the disciples
        who have an unshakeable faith in the benign power of the
        Master-healer within, usually avoid the so-called remedial
        measures, and allow nature to work on its own, for the
        healing power within is a part and parcel of the human
        system. The bodily disorders as they come should be
        accepted and borne cheerfully for they are generally the
        result of our own dietetic errors and can be set right by
        resort to proper hygienic measures and selective foods.
        Hippocrates, the father of the medical system, emphasized
        that food should be taken as medicine. Even serious
        illness, resulting from Karmic reactions, has to be tolerated
        with patience without grumbling or bitterness, because
        all Karmic debts are to be paid and their accounts squared
        here and now, and the speedier it is done, the better,
        instead of keeping any outstanding balances to be paid
        hereafter. In the time of Hazrat Mian Mir, a great Muslim
        devout and mystic, it is said that one of his disciples
        Abdullah, when down with an ailment, withdrew his sensory
        currents to the eye-focus and closed himself safely in the
        citadel of peace. His Master Mian Mir when He visited
        him, pulled Abdullah down to the body consciousness and
        ordered him to pay what was due from him for he could
        not indefinitely evade the payment by such tactics.

          Unlike most of us, the Master Saints do not devote
        much time to their bodily needs and cares. They consider
        the physical raiment as a mere rag to be cast off one day.
        They take to hard physical and mental labor as need be,
        seeking no rest and repose, not sleeping for nights on end.
        Such prodigious acts present a riddle to modern science,
        though it is common practice with Saints for They are
        conversant with, and make use of, the higher laws of nature
        of which we are quite ignorant.

          Deeds or Karmas may be grouped under the heads of
        individual Karmas and group Karmas. The latter are
        Karmas performed by a society or a nation as a whole and
        these are termed as Dharma. As an individual bears the
        fruits of his own Karmas (actions), so does a society, for
        it has to bear the fruits of the general policies it pursues
        with the result that innocent individuals have also to
        suffer for the wrongs arising from the wrongly conceived
        dharma of the society to which they belong. When Nadir
        Shah of Persia invaded India and ordered a general massacre
        of the people of Delhi, there was a general consternation
        among the populace and it was believed that the social
        wrongs of the nation had assumed the form of Nadir.
        A just retribution for the sins of commission or omission
        is the very essence of the law of nature and it visits
        in one form or another, call it what you may like; furies,
        eumenides or anything else.



                                  IV


          IN the scriptural texts, we have an apt story of Raja
        Prikshat who had heard that whosoever heard the
        Bhagwat recited by a Pandit became jivan mukat - a man
        freed from all bondage. One day he called his court-priest
        and asked him to recite to him the elevating text of
        the Bhagwat so that he might escape from the bondage
        of mind and matter, and commanded that if his recitation
        did not prove the truth of the sacred teachings, the priest
        would be put to the gallows. The priest was no better
        than any one of us. He felt dismayed for he saw death
        staring him in the face, as he knew full well that he could
        not help the king in attaining salvation. When he reached
        his home, he was down cast and extremely worried over
        his impending doom. On the eve of the day fixed for
        the recitation of the Bhagwat, the priest was half-dead
        with fear. Fortunately for him he had a talented daughter.
        On her solicitations, he revealed to her the cause of his
        miserable plight. The daughter consoled him and assured
        him that she would save him from the gallows, if he
        permitted her to accompany him on the following day to the
        king's presence. The next day she went to the royal court
        along with her father. She enquired if the king wanted
        freedom from bondage of the world and the king replied
        in the affirmative. She told the king that she could help
        him in his much-cherished desire if he followed her a
        advice and permitted her to do what she liked. She took the
        king and her father to the jungle with two stout ropes,
        and she tightly tied each one of them to a separate tree.
        She then asked the king to untie and free his priest. The
        king expressed his helplessness to do so as he was tied
        down himself. Thereupon the girl explained to him that
        one who was himself in the bondage of maya (illusion),
        could not take another out of the similar bondage. The
        recitation of the Bhagwat could certainly break the magic
        shell of delusion if it were done by a freed person, who
        had for himself broken through the delusion, and as such
        the king should not expect salvation from his royal priest
        who was as much in fetters as the king himself. It is only
        Neh-Karma or one not in the cobweb of Karmas, who is
        competent to make others like himself and extricate them
        from the deadly Karmic cycle.

          This in a way also illustrates that mere study of
        scriptures does not help much in giving Moksha or salvation;
        which is purely a practical theme and can be learned
        correctly from and perfected by practice under the able
        guidance of an adept in the line. The Murshid-i-Kamal
        or the perfect Master has first of all to piece together the
        broken tablet of the mind torn by countless desires and
        aspirations, and make it into a perfect whole and then to
        burnish it clean through and through so as to make it
        capable of reflecting the light and glory of God which no
        amount of book-learning would do.

          One cannot, of course, know and understand the true
        import of the scriptures unless the same are explained by
        some Master-soul who has Himself experienced within
        the laboratory of his own mind what the scriptures say.
        Thus, He can, from personal experience of His own, teach
        and guide the disciple in the highly esoteric teachings
        contained in terse epigrams which baffle the intellect,
        limited as it is in its scope and instruments of learning.
        This is why it is said: "God comes handy in the company
        of a Sadh" (or a disciplined soul). One who is a freed
        soul can free another and none else can. In this context
        it is said:


          The study of the Vedas, the Puranas and Etyntology
            leads to naught,
          Without the practice of the Holy Word, one ever
            remains in utter darkness.


          A practical man of realization is at once all the
        scriptures combined besides something much more than the
        scriptures, which, at best, contain the theory side in subtle
        language but are incapable of explaining the theory itself
        by word of mouth, and cannot vouchsafe an actual experience
        of the same as the Master does.

          Every one these days tries to put the blame or fault for
        his ills on the "times" and this complaint is the greatest
        complaint of all times. The present time as well as the
        time to come is no more ours than the time past. This
        world is a huge magnetic field and the more we strive to
        get out of it, the more are we caught and entangled in its
        meshes. Man dances in the net and thinks that nobody
        sees him. The wise feel the net but do not know where to
        sit easy. Thus, silently and ceaselessly revolves the huge
        fly-wheel of the Karmic mill, the giant Wheel of Life
        slowly but unmistakably pounding to pieces all alike.
        This mill of Nature grinds all slowly but surely. Some
        feel and say: "It appears that Nature made man and then
        broke the mould."

          No one, however, tries to peer through the why and
        wherefore of things, happenings and events for we take
        everything complacently as it comes along the current of
        time. We do not try to delve deep into them in order to
        trace out the links of the chain leading up to what we see
        and experience. Everyone in his dealings with others
        forgets that he has to pay for everything in this world.
        Even nature's gifts like space, light, air, etc. are not
        free to all alike to any appreciable extent. But each man
        thinks himself the sole custodian of the free gifts of God.
        He attempts to be as liberal as possible, comes across
        several ill-set diamonds (men) and is affected by the "Law
        of give and take." It is after hard buffeting that we learn
        that scales make no distinction between gold and lead
        but are concerned with the dead weight only. Every man
        knows that fog cannot be dispelled with a fan, and yet
        tries to do so and thereby makes the confusion worse
        confounded. A person bound hand and foot in the endless
        chain of cause and effect, cannot free others. When every
        one in the world is fast asleep, who is there to waken and
        whom? It is only a freed man who can free others if he so
        chooses, for the sins of commission and omission are of
        the very essence of the law of Nature and sooner or later
        visit the doer in one form or another.

          In caging birds and keeping pets collared, chained and
        imprisoned, one wrongly takes it for granted that these
        poor dumb creatures have no court of law where they can
        lodge their complaint. He thinks that he has a right to
        deal with them as he pleases. He neither dreads to kill nor
        pays any heed to the common Truth: "As you sow, so
        shall you reap." Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Every
        wrong has to be avenged. He that slays, shall be slain.
        He who lives by the sword, perishes by the sword. One
        has to pay with "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"
        which is as true today as it was in the time of Moses.
        Merry, no doubt, is the feast-making until comes the
        dreadful reckoning. We may shut our eyes to the laws of
        Nature, may repose trust in the efficacy of the priest-craft,
        but it will never do any good. One has to pay a very
        heavy toll for killing, blood-sucking, and the like. Those
        who live and thrive on the blood of others cannot have
        a pure heart, much less access to the kingdom of heaven.
        "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."

          Saints say that man occupies the highest place in God's
        creation and is endowed with superb intellect and must
        not, therefore, pass his limited span of time blindfolded
        like other creatures. The golden opportunity thus provided
        of returning and reverting to God's embrace and to his
        original Home should not be lost. Such a sublime
        opportunity comes only after one has completely seen
        through the "World Exhibition" and has successfully
        concluded his part in the Grand Drama of life. Man is
        usually lost in the attractions here below. In doing so,
        he loses the solitary chance given to him under the
        overbearing influence of Karmic reaction, after myriads
        of incarnations, for his return to the abiding region of
        the pure spirit. He is given one body after another in
        an endless series. He begins to feel the weight of all
        kinds of laws - social, physical, natural - which like
        heavy blocks bar his way at every step. He has no
        alternative left but to wait for his next turn as man,
        and who knows when it may come?

          Saints give a very simple definition of sin as "forgetting
        one's origin" (or God-head). Every thought, word or deed
        that keeps a man away from God is a veritable sin, and
        on the other hand whatever brings man nearer to Him,
        is pious and holy. A Persian divine while self-commenting
        on the nature of the world said, "World comes into play
        only when one forgets the Lord. By constant remembrance
        of God, one while living in the world among friends and
        relations is yet not of the world."

          Most of the sins, whether coarse or fine, are purely the
        invention of man under the sway of the mind. Finer ones
        are regarded as "pardonable weaknesses" by Saints Who
        are the living and moving images of God's law of love and
        mercy on this earth. So long as a person acts as a self-
        willed creature, he subjects himself to all the laws and
        their rigors. But when he surrenders his self-will to that
        of a God-man, he comes under the sway of God's mercy
        and love. This is the true aspect of sin in every day life.*
        (* For details. refer to Appendix II at the end.)

          Karmas are the most contagious form of invisible diseases
        to which a man is ever exposed. They are even more
        galloping, wasting and destructive than the deadliest and
        most poisonous germs transmitted into the innermost cells
        of the human system and worm their way most surreptitiously
        into the blood-system. In society, Karmas take a firm hold
        first in the shape of a change in view and thought of the
        so-called moulders of public opinion. Then they affect the
        disposition and temper, and afterwards take deep roots in
        the shape of habits which become "second nature" in man.
        The ancients and the elders were, therefore, always on the
        alert to advise us to refrain from bad company. "A good
        company breeds goodness, while the bad one breeds ill."
        A man is certainly known by the company he keeps.

          To crown all such difficulties, one has to share
        unwittingly the Karmic reactions, even in his own family
        where he is born and brought up. Thus virtues and vices
        play an integral role in the formation of culture. In this
        way, we daily and hourly contract Karmas from our
        surroundings. The only way to escape the Karmic influence
        is to stick to the path of God through godly Saints Who
        being embedded in the Most High, are far above the
        reach of Karmas and are in fact Neh-Karma and Jivan-Mukat.
        It is said that in the kingdom of a real Darvesh
        (God-man), one has not to render account of one's Karmas.
        A person takes a turn for the better when he takes
        to the company of a sadhu. However, man is naturally
        prone to accept evil easily rather than the illimitable
        goodness of Saints. The company of a Saint has marvelous
        effect in removing all traces of evil. The atmospheric
        range of a Master-Saint is a vast immensity which man
        can hardly imagine. The Saints come not for the good of
        human beings only but for the benefit of all active and
        inactive creation in the world at all levels, visible and
        invisible as well. The poor creature called man has no true
        friend. Even the mind with the three gunas (qualities of
        Satva or purity, Rajas or activity, and Tamas or inertia)
        ever working as man's accomplice, looks on him just as a
        cat casts a restless glance over a rat. Those who follow the
        dictates of the mind are invariably caught in its wiles, and
        are subjected to untold misery and harrowing terrors.
        "Mind," however, fears those to whom God is kind
        through His medium, the Satguru (God-man). Mind
        dares not intrude on the privileges and rights accorded
        to His Own loved ones and rather helps them as an
        obedient assistant does under orders from his superior.
        Like fire, it is a good servant but a bad master:

          In the company of a sadh, one has nothing to rue;

          In his company, one knows the Lord and follows Him true;

          In his company, one attains the highest gift of God-Head.


         This is why Guru Nanak emphatically declared:

          0 Nanak! Snap asunder all thy ephemeral ties of the
            world and go in search of the true ones.

          While all shall forsake thee in thy life-time, the True
            One shall accompany thee even up to the beyond.


         Again, -

          Be sure, 0 soul, that a God-man shall stand by thee
            before the judgment seat of God.


          Baba Farid, a Muslim Divine, said in almost the same
        strain:

          0 Farid! Hie in search of a freed-man for such a one
            would free thee (from the bondage of the world).


         Again, -

          The ever restless mind cannot find rest until it rests
            in some God-man.


         In Gurbani, we have:

          The wandering wits come to a halt in the company
            of a sadh,

          The stilled mind alone reflects the Light of the Lord.


          Every man is tied physically and mentally in the invisible
        bonds of Karmas. So long as one is under the sway of
        mind and matter, and has not sought the protection of a
        Saint, he is governed by all the laws of the various planes
        and is meted out justice pure and simple, untempered
        with mercy. He is liable to punishment for all his sins -
        unheeded, unnamed, and subtle. A friend, in a court of
        law, may be able to curtail the long and tortuous legal
        process, but before the judgment seat of the Most High,
        a Master-Saint alone is the true friend at the time of trial.
        In Jap Ji, Guru Nanak declares, -

          The Saint is acceptable at His Court, and is the Chief
            Elect therein:

          The Saint adorns the threshold of God and is honoured
            even by Kings.


         Again, -

          Satguru has given me the gift of insight and I see all
            doubts dispelled,               

          The angel of death can do unto me no more wrong
            when the very account of my deeds has been
             blotted out.


          The path of the Saints leads in quite another direction.
        There is no court of trial for the initiated ones. The Saint
        is present everywhere and His sway extends to realms
        undreamed of. He never leaves nor forsakes His disciples
        to the ends of the World. His solemn assurance is:


          Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide in
            thy most need to go by thy side.
                                             Everyman


          Like a kindly and gracious father, He Himself may
        administer a remonstrance to the erring child but would
        never send him to the police for correction.

          No one is in more bondage than the one who wrongly
        thinks himself to be free. The trap of the high-born spirit
        is ambition. Those who are well-to-do, in the worldly
        sense of the word, appear to us in comfort. They may
        have sown some good seeds in the past and are apparently
        reaping a rich harvest in the present; or they may now
        be acting upon the policy of "snatch, grab and hoard" and
        are thus building for themselves a hornet's nest for the
        future. All such people in affluence, unfortunately, forget
        that they in either case are wearing the "unseen fetters of
        gold," and are unknowingly heading for trouble.

          The common saying goes: "The walls and mansions of
        the mighty are built with the sweat and tears of the poor."
        Unless one has sown good in the past, be cannot reap a
        rich harvest in the living present. He may also be carrying
        imperceptibly the burden of some guilt right under his
        sleeves. If he does not sow good seeds now, how can he
        expect to enjoy seemingly good fruits in the future and
        for how long?

          Moreover, good deeds by themselves cannot absolve a
        person from the reaction of bad deeds, just as dirty water
        cannot and does not wash clean. With all our righteousnesses
        we are but filthy rags, says a Christian saint. None
        is clean, no, not one. Man is always subject to the law of
        give and take or compensation and retribution. Following
        the path of good works is decidedly something desirable
        and better than the path of evil deeds, but it is not all.
        A high ethical living may secure a paradise for a person
        for a lengthy sojourn, where he may comfortably enjoy
        heavenly bliss; but he is still interned therein in the
        astral or causal body and he has not freed himself from
        the cycle of births and deaths. So long as one feels that
        he is the doer, he cannot escape from the wheel of births
        and has to bear the fruit of seeds. It is the contact with
        the Holy Ghost, sacred Naam or Word that alone helps
        a person in his upward ascent to higher spiritual regions,
        far removed from the shadows of repeated births and
        deaths that ceaselessly move up and down in endless
        gyres with no way of escape therefrom.

          Hell and Heaven are the regions where the disincarnate
        spirits have to remain for a relatively long period
        according to their actions on earth, bad or good, as
        the case may be. The stay here, however long, is not ever-
        lasting and it does not take them out of the inexorable
        cycle of births and deaths. Paradise (Heaven or Eden) is
        the El Dorado of certain faiths. It is also termed salvation
        by many. But the fact of the matter is that after enjoying
        the paradisiacal bounties for as long as is determined by
        good deeds, one is given a human body once again for it
        alone provides an opportunity to gain merit leading
        ultimately to liberation. Even the ministering angels of God
        aspire to human birth when they feel that they have done
        their job. Thus, in following the almost universally
        acknowledged, widely believed and generally accepted path
        of good deeds, one ultimately finds himself, once more,
        caught in the web of insatiable desires and ambitions and
        with this glittering and ever-elusive firefly in front of him,
        he still remains an unwitting captive in the iron grip of
        Karmas. To achieve his objective, be performs Tapas
        (various kinds of ascetic austerities) which may bring
        him better lives. Even when he attains the sovereignty of
        a kingdom, his mind runs riot, he gives himself free reins
        and commits mighty deeds of valour and prowess, most
        of which are evil enough to earn him Hell. Again, after
        taking a bitter lesson from the hell-fires in which he is
        plunged, he tries to seek solace in Tapas. Thus he is ever
        caught and moves entangled in the vicious circle of
        temptations and lures from Hell to contrition and from
        contrition to sovereignty and from sovereignty to Hell again -
        one after the other - in an endless cyclic order, up and
        down the Wheel of Life. Thus, everyone for himself
        makes his own Heaven and Hell and remains through his
        own volitional deeds entangled in the gossamer web of
        life prepared by him.

          These regions of Hell and Paradise do not come in the
        way of one who follows the path of the Saints, the middle
        course, right between the two eye-brows, for be bypasses
        the path of a Karma Yogi. Even if a soul under the
        protection of a Master Saint may, for a while, go astray, it
        is sure to be rescued. Though Saints are living models of
        humility and do not speak of the great authority that is
        Theirs, yet at times They do indirectly refer to the saving
        power of the Saints gone before them. The scriptures reveal
        that Sant Satguru Nanak rescued one of His disciples
        who somehow wandered astray hell-ward. The Holy One
        had to visit hell for a lost sheep, and dip His thumb in the
        molten fires of hell, thereby cooling down the entire hell-
        furnace, giving relief not only to one but to many sinner
        souls howling piteously in great distress. Similar instances
        occurred in the time of Raja Janak and others as well.
        Once Hazur, my Master, too, had to pull out one of His
        disciples who was straying downwards. How then can
        there be redemption from Hell for the common man?


          Those who are devoted to the practice of the Holy
            Word, all their labours end,

         Their faces, 0 Nanak! shine with glory and many
            souls are saved along with them.


          Another region, named Eraf (or purgatory) by the
        Muslim Saints, exists and has both joys and terrors in
        varying degrees. Experiences of various kinds of fears and
        agonies of hell have been described by various Masters of
        different grades. This subject is not an imaginary mapped-
        out scheme but a serious one for reflection. Whether one
        believes it or not, the disciple of a Saint is not concerned
        with any of them. And so long as one is true to his Master
        Saint (Sant Satguru), no power on earth can injure a
        single hair of his head. A true disciple of a Sant Satguru
        verily says:

          I have my dealings with the Saints and my only concern
            is with them -

          With the stock-in-trade provided by the Saints, I am
            freed from all hallucinations,

          The angel-of-death cannot now touch a single hair
            of my head

          When the entire record of my deeds has been con-
            signed to the flames.


        Again, it is said:

          Invincible indeed is the Angel-of-death and none can
            subdue him.

          But he is powerless in the presence of the Sound-
            Current of the Master,

          The very sound of His Word strikes him with terror
            and he flees therefrom,

          For he fears lest the Lord of Hosts may strike him
            dead.




                                   V



           N0 ONE can be said to have been born for himself
        alone, for none can be an island unto himself. To
        serve the needy, sick and starving, is also a sideline, more
        effective than mere preaching. "Service before self" stirs
        and kindles the embers of sympathy, kindness and love.
        These virtues have a great purifying effect, and clean a
        person of all his dross, and entitle him to the highest
        knowledge of divinity. "Pleasure tastes well after service,"
        is a well known adage.

          Ahimsa or non-injury refers to man's abstaining not
        merely from killing, violence and injury but includes also
        evil thought and ill word. While it may not be so with
        brutes and beasts, ahimsa infuses strength in man which
        not only excels many virtues but is the highest virtue
        above all others. Service done to sincere seekers of the
        divine path is of far greater value than any other service.
        Helpful ways include, inter alia, distribution of alms to
        the really indigent and the needy, giving sweets to those
        engaged in extraordinarily arduous pursuits in inaccessible
        places, nursing the sick, and helping the afflicted ones.
        All these qualities are great aids in the Path and should
        be encouraged and cultivated by assiduous practice by all
        means possible. One should not, however, rest content with
        them alone, but one must push ahead with the help of these
        purificatory processes, on the way to freedom as enjoined
        by the Master.

          Love is the panacea for most of the ills of the world. It
        is the core of all other virtues. Where there is love, there
        is peace. Love, and all the blessings shall be added unto
        thee, is the central idea of the teachings of Christ. The
        entire edifice of Christianity is founded on the twin
        principles of "Love thy God with all thy soul, with all thy
        mind and with all thy might," and "Love thy neighbour as
        thyself." God is love and so is the human soul, being a
        spark from the same essence. St. John says: "He that
        loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love," and he
        who loveth God loveth his brothers also. Guru Gobind
        Singh likewise laid emphasis on the prime need of love:
        "Verily I say unto thee that God reveals Himself only to
        those who love." A Muslim Saint says:


          God created man an embodiment of love.

          For His glorification, His angels were quite enough.


          To crown all these virtues, comes truth and good living.*
        One should in the first instance be true to one's self.
        The trouble with most of us is that our mind, tongue, and
        actions do not move in unison. We have one thing in the
        mind, another on our tongue and still another on our
        hands. "To thine own self be true, and it must follow as
        night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man"
        (Shakespeare). You are in the body; God, the controlling
        power, is also in the body. If you are true to your own
        self, you have to fear none. Before you attempt to deceive
        any one, you first deceive your own self. "Rama cannot cheat
        Rama" were the words of Swami Ram Tirath when someone tried
        to warn him of the deceptive ways of the world. Truth is
        the greatest of all virtues; true living is greater still.
        We must try to lead a neat and clean life in the temple of
        the Holy Ghost and not defile it by falsehood and lusts
        of the flesh thus turning it into a money changer's den
        of the devil.

          (* For details, refer to Appendix I at the end.)

          It is commonly believed that prosperity is the source of
        peace, but it deceives the fools like a will-o'-the-wisp and
        endangers the rich. It lets go the bridle from off the
        mind. When once the mind gets off the right track, it
        recklessly contracts sins which entail dire consequences.
        To absorb the "self" whole-heartedly in the soil of worldly
        uncleanliness in mind, word or deed is a heinous sin and
        death is the reward thereof. The paths leading to worldly
        enrichment and to God lie far apart. One can take either
        of the two, as one may like. The mind is a single entity
        the body linking the body with the soul at one end an
        with the world and worldly riches at the other. Thus one
        has of necessity to choose between the two alternatives.
        Once the die is cast, one has perforce to apply oneself
        steadily to reach the goal whatever it be. Riches per se
        are no obstacle in the way of "spirituality," for it is the
        common heritage of all, the rich and the poor alike, and
        neither of them can claim it as a special gift for himself.
        All that is required for success on the Path is genuine
        desire, honesty of purpose, a pure living, and a steadfast
        devotion to the cause. A rich man has, of course, to see
        that he does not use unfair means in amassing his wealth
        and that he uses his honestly acquired treasures in fruitful
        pursuits and not on wasteful and ephemeral gains. He
        should always look upon his riches as a sacred trust from
        God, wherewith to help the needy and the poor, the hungry
        and the thirsty, the sick and the ailing, for all such
        people have a claim on him as human beings and children
        of the same Father. This was the advice given by the sage
        Ashtavakra to Raja Janak, when after granting him a
        practical experience in the Science of Soul, be returned
        to him his kingdom which the king had dedicated to his
        Master preceptor before initiation into the sacred path of
        practical spiritual experience. He was advised to consider
        it as a gift from Him (the Rishi or Cod-man) and to use
        it for ameliorating the condition of his people and his
        country which were consigned to his care by God. Unless
        the riches secured by fair means are utilized wisely and
        well, one is likely to go astray and become egocentric
        and a slave to his ill-gotten wealth and is unknowingly
        caught in the golden chains that keep him in bondage. To
        warn against this, Christ in no uncertain terms declared
        that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a
        needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
        T. S. Eliot, a Nobel prize winner, says, "Take no thought
        of the harvest; but only of proper sowing."

          The sowing then is of prime importance for quality of
        the harvest depends on the quality of the seeds sown.
        Next comes the proper tending, the humanizing process
        which usually takes quite a long time covering a few
        incarnations depending upon the past make-up of each
        individual. But with the right type of steadfast devotion
        and the grace of the Master-power, one can easily traverse
        the otherwise hard and tortuous path. "A perfect Master,
        conversant with the turns and twists of the road," says
        Kabir, "can, however, take the disciple through in no
        time." The pilgrim-soul with a competent Guide and honest
        endeavor, can easily swim over the ocean of the world
        even in the midst of worldly life.

          Those who do not daily engage in Bhajan and Simran
        are always in trouble. They float endlessly on the stream
        of lustful pleasures. Practice of vairagya does help one in
        the process of self-purification and gradually a disciple is
        enabled to cut the Upas tree of multitudinous desires first
        by cutting the branches and then striking at the root.

          No one is faultless. Man is the child of error; and error
        is always his creed. Though to fall in sin is human, yet to
        persist in it is villainous. It is not profitable to stock bad
        merchandise. It is good to be born in a temple but to die
        in it is a sin, for we have gradually to rise above all forms
        and formalities of the kindergarten class which all social
        religions provide and to grow into the sunshine of spirituality.
        We must study the path, if we wish to divine the
        future and awaken in the Reality beyond. One who takes
        no thought of the future will soon have to rue the present.
        The sins and sorrows are our constant companions and go
        cheek by jowl. The small foibles gradually let in greater
        ones, while those confessed are half-redressed. True
        repentance followed by good actions goes a long way in
        assuaging suffering. Man would do little for God if the
        devil were dead. A man living under the shadow of an
        impending calamity lives at his best for he strives the
        hardest. To find faults in others is quite easy but to reform
        one's self is the most difficult, for we see not the beam in
        our own eyes. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom
        and a danger foreseen is half-avoided. One who is fore-
        warned, is fore-armed.

          Persons who are bound to the physical plane, must
        obey the commandments of some "Freed" Master-Saint,
        if they want to free themselves from the delusion of mind
        and matter. Cast off the burden of your entire
        responsibilities at the feet of your spiritual Master and
        the deadly grip of sins will gradually but surely loosen its
        hold on you. "Leave all else and follow Me," was the
        exhortation of Lord Krishna. "Come unto Me all ye that labor
        and I shall give you peace," said Christ. The devoted disciple
        actually feels that even the chamber of sickness is a temple
        of devotion for him. A Master who is Himself well-versed in
        the practice of the Holy Word and is competent to initiate
        others into it, is the real Master and a perfect Guide
        (Murshid-i-Kamil). He would, like an able and efficient
        administrator, wind up all deeds and square the account
        and Jesus-like advises: "Sin no more." Similarly Hazur Sawan
        Singh Ji would, when a disciple in open congregation confessed
        a lapse on his part and craved indulgence, gently raise His
        right hand and say - "Thus far and no further."

          Should we then do nothing? How can that be? The reply is
        simple. So long as the mind rules, a person cannot but act
        and must act though he may restrain himself in his acts,
        according to the behest of his Master, and side by side
        cultivate the highest virtues. By doing nothing, man
        gradually learns to do ill and Pandora-like unlocks
        the evils lying buried in him. If one wishes to lie upon
        roses, he must strive to cultivate and grow roses for
        himself. But we always act haphazardly and for selfish ends.
        We do not know what we should do and what we should
        abstain from. The Master-Saint is the Divine Imperator of
        His time. By love, guidance, instruction, and example, He
        leads men to acts of devotion and reverence and love for
        the Divine Links (Naam, Word, the Inner Voice of God,
        Kalma or Kalm-i-Qadim, Akashbani, or Bang-i-Asmani)
        which He makes manifest in him.

          A Master cannot be respected by reason of His mansion
        but His mansion because of Him. So the Holy One is
        the most respectable, lovable, and worthy of all reverence.
        He gives the Divine contact and an experience of forgetting
        for the moment our physical self. Then we have visible
        glimpses of the Divine Links within us and by degrees gain
        more and more of the mystic experience. In His Satsangs or
        spiritual discourses, many past sins are given a quick
        shrift. In His company, maybe in thought, in correspondence,
        or in meditation, much benefit is derived so far as the
        Karmas and the sinful associations are concerned. Though
        there is no end to man's sins, yet at the same time there
        is no end to the immeasurable mercy in the vast treasure-
        house of God. In the journey of life, in whatever place,
        sect, country or society one may find himself, one's chief
        bag and baggage consists of Naam (the Holy Word); a contact
        with the living life-lines within; the Light of God and the
        Voice of God. The various names of God, that we usually know
        and frequently repeat, are mere words of our own mintage for
        the Nameless Reality which is one indivisible whole,
        indescribable, and ineffable.

          Sant Satguru or the Master Saint is the Holy Father. He
        comes from afar and for the benefit of all, the sinners and
        the virtuous alike, for both are equally bound in the
        worldly fetters, may be of steel or of gold. He loves all
        and love leads to forgiveness. Never fear to approach Him
        simply because you are a sinner. He would not allow or
        hand over any of His children to the reformatory or the
        prison-house for correction nor submit him to any of the
        third-degree methods. A loving and kindly father would
        never do this. The Master would Himself scold or give a
        little of bodily suffering to correct his erring child and
        would yet ever remain with him, although unseen, upholding
        him from within until the short period of trouble is over.
        He acts just like a master-potter who while gently striking
        the pitcher-on-the-wheel from without with a mallet to give
        proper shape to it, keeps the other hand inside to save it
        from breaking. The Master's love is unbounded. The kingdom
        of a Darvesh is one of grace.

          The duty of a superintendent in a jail is to keep the
        prisoners in prison, to chasten, and to reform them.
        Similarly, the aim of the deities and divine incarnates
        (Avtaras) has always been to keep men tied to themselves
        by showering the gifts of various ridhis and sidhis on
        them. (This refers to the granting of gifts, boons, favors,
        wealth, ease, and comfort in worldly vocations and giving
        super-human powers for doing good or ill.) These limited
        salvations and comforts they grant to their devotees are
        only up to the stage which they themselves have attained
        and they may ever permit nearness of sojourn in the various
        regions wherein they preside. They cannot help in the
        bringing about of union with the Almighty because these
        subordinate powers are themselves deprived of this highest
        privilege.

          The sidhis, or extraordinary powers referred to above,
        are yogic powers which of themselves come to aspirants
        after Truth with a little sadhan (practice) but these
        are positive hindrances in the way to God-realisation,
        for one is generally tempted to indulge in miracles like
        thought-reading, fore-telling, trans-visions, trans-
        penetrations, wish-fulfilling, spiritual healing, hypnotic
        trances, magnetic influences and the like. These sidhis
        are of eight kinds:

          Anima:     To become invisible to all external eyes.
          Mahima:    To extend body to any size.
          Garima:    To make body as heavy as one wishes.
          Laghima:   To make body as light as one may like.
          Prapti:    To get anything one likes by mere wishing.
          Ishtwa:    To attain all glories for the self.
          Prakayma:  To be able to fulfill the wishes of others.
          Vashitwa:  To bring others under influence and control.


          A practical Mahatma, on the other hand, having access
        to the highest domain, forgives, liberates, and grants
        admittance to the Kingdom of God during one's lifetime,
        provided, of course, one is completely determined to
        surrender one's self to Him and do His bidding with a loving
        and a sincere heart.* This is rather a difficult task for
        those who are in the habit of obeying the dictates of their
        own minds. It is the fluctuating nature of the uncultured
        and uncontrolled mind to accept one thing at one time
        and to revolt against the same at another time.
        (*For details. refer to Appendix II at the end.)

           The Saints like Maulana Rumi even go so far as to say:


          Come, come again, and still again, even. if thou hast
            broken thy troth a thousand times;

          For there is always a place for thee in the saving
            grace of a Master-Saint.


          Once you have become Master's own, He will never
        abandon you although you may succumb to weakness in
        a moment of trial and tribulation and leave Him or go
        astray from the Path. The Christ-power has declared:
        "I shall never leave thee nor forsake thee till the ends
        of the world." He has His own law of love and mercy to
        deal with every one at every moment, even though one may
        prolong one's course of self-discipline by spurning the
        Master's love. The source of all peace and glory lies above
        the physical body and inside man. One who has no inner
        peace, should give proper nourishment to the self, the
        mind and the soul. The Word or Naam is the true
        "Comforter," the peace-giver and the bestower of
        tranquility and salvation. The common dictionary meaning
        of the word "salvation" may not be taken as mere release
        from sin. It is freeing oneself from the cycle of births
        and deaths and union of the spirit with the Lord, and
        spiritual life in Eternity.

          The average man makes a hoax of salvation. So also do
        various sectarian circles. The founders of the various
        religious orders have related their own spiritual experiences
        of the inner regions to which they had had an access, and
        described them as the climax or the ultimate goal of
        salvation and life-everlasting. The Master-Saint is a visitor
        of all the heavenly regions and describes His actual position
        sometimes in the form of parables. He, in no ambiguous
        words, declares: "I am the light of the world; he that
        followeth Me, shall not walk in darkness but shall have
        the Light of Life." The Saints, then, stand for eternal
        salvation during one's present life, and not after death,
        for who knows what may happen then. Salvation after death
        may prove a mere mirage in the long run, and it is no good
        living one's life in a state of perpetual and continuous
        suspense. If death is a pre-condition, then salvation is but
        a figment of one's imagination. A real Saint releases the
        soul from all bondage of births and deaths right here and
        now. He trusts in the "death-in-life" or liberation in one's
        lifetime, which is technically called "Jivan-Mukti." The
        soul then can commune with the Ineffable One while in
        the body and ultimately merges in the Almighty God at
        the time of final snapping of the chords within.

          It is generally thought that one gets salvation after
        physical death. The term "death," however, means and
        includes temporary and volitional withdrawal of spirit-
        current from the physical body and not only final
        disintegration and decomposition of the component parts of
        the physical body as is accepted in common parlance. It is
        absurd to think that one who has been worldly-minded
        during his lifetime, will instantly become a freed soul
        at death. The morally disciplined spiritual devotees do
        attain to salvation while alive and thus conquer death,
        the last enemy of mankind, in life. "Nevertheless I live;
        yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," declared St. Paul. A
        Pandit in life remains a Pandit after death also, my
        Master used to say.

          To wind up Karmas and to relieve the soul of all its
        shackles, is not the portfolio of any politician, diplomat,
        statesman or minister or even of any government. Even
        the Avtaras (incarnations of the higher power) are
        helpless in this behalf. The gods and goddesses representing
        the lower powers of the Supreme Being also have, as stated
        before, to wait for human birth before they can attain to
        the highest.

          Those souls which have not come under the protection
        of a genuine Master or a Sant-Satguru, still carry the
        heavy load of the Sanchit, Kriyaman and Pralabdha Karmas
        on them. As for the destiny or the Pralabdha, the
        uninitiated into the Science of the Beyond get but a scant
        relief, for they have to tolerate these in full intensity with
        no relieving feature. As for the Kriyaman or deeds done
        during one's present lifetime by following the dictates of
        the mind, they will, without fail, have to reap in full
        measure the fruit thereof. This is a stringent and inexorable
        law, whether you believe in it or not. There is no exception
        to the law of Karma and relentlessly it works, grinding all
        alike in the treadmill of time.


          Our actions: good or evil, will be brought before His
            Court,

          And by our own deeds, shall we move higher or be
            cast into the depths.

          Those who have communed with the Word, their
            toils shall end;

          And their faces shall flame with glory,

          Not only shall they have salvation, 0 Nanak!

          But many more shall find freedom with them.


          It is, therefore, of paramount importance that we should
        seek a Master competent to wind up the otherwise endless
        cycle of Karmas, and seek refuge at His Lotus Feet and free
        ourselves of the bewitching influence of our deeds.


                         [End of Part 2 of 3]

----------------------------------------------------------------------


