What can other people know of the condition of one’s heart? If the enigma of the mystery of life enters the heart, the person knows no peace until it has been solved.

Sant Kirpal Singh

Misery and pleasure defined

From the book "Jap Ji – The message of Guru Nanak", written by Sant Kirpal Singh


It is a matter of common experience that we lose ourselves when we are fully engrossed in anything. This blessed state of self-forgetfulness comes only with the fixity of attention and the moment we are forced out of it, we become sensitive to our surroundings and feel upset even with the trivialities of life. Since all our lives we have been seeking pleasure in worldly pursuits and objects, we have become identified with them. Thus, we know nothing of the real and permanent bliss that lies far from them, in the depths of one's own self or soul. We cannot possibly wean ourselves from the so-called pleasures of the world until we are made to introvert and taste something better within.

The whole world is going astray in its search for the centre of true happiness or bliss. Material objects cannot give us bliss on account of the constant change to which, by their very nature, they are subject, every moment of their existence. Again, external objects per se have no pleasure in themselves, but it is our attachment to them that gives us pleasing sensations. But these objects, on account of their ephemeral nature, have to follow the changing panorama of existence. By these kaleidoscopic changes, the mind naturally gets bewildered, distracted and very often feels miserable. Everlasting Bliss or True happiness can be had only by attachment to something that is permanent, unchanging and eternal. The evanescent charms of Dame Nature cannot afford man any happiness in the true sense of the word.

Guru Nanak says:
Whosoever searches for Joy Eternal, let him seek that in All-Pervading Spirit (Naam).
Shalok M.9

To relieve the mind from the outgoing senses, it must be attuned to the sweet symphonies of the inner Music of the soul, the Word, reverberating in and through all. As this is eternal, so also will be our attachment to It and we will know no change and no pain. The mind will no longer wander away to external objects, once it gets steeped in the strains of the Eternal Song. With Its help, the world-weary soul rises into the higher spiritual planes. The Word has Its own innate effulgent Light and Song – ineffable and sweet.

Where there is vibration, there is sound. It is a scientific truth. Light is also the inevitable result of vibration as both light and sound go hand in hand.

Where there is scintillating Light, there the Limitless Song is sounding.
Sorath Namdev

Guru Nanak has dealt with the countless benefits that accrue from communion with the internal Sound – the Word – from stanzas VIII to XV of Jap Ji.