Man-making

Question: Master, if I or if we followed your teachings exactly, how long would it take us to reach the inside?

Sant Kirpal Singh: There's no hard and fast rule for that. The more accurately you live it – you'll have quicker results. Some men come with background – they start – if they go on like that – regularly – then they will go on progressing. Another man – who has started here afresh – who has no background but is really on the Way ... If both of them go on regularly – that's all right. But if the one who has got background – goes by fits and starts, first runs like a hare sometimes, then sleeps sometimes; the other man who has started afresh and who's regular, will go ahead of him. You follow what I mean? Regularity pays. Even those who have got background will have more if they put in more time. If they have background and they don't put in more regular time then, naturally, the other man will go ahead. So there's no hard and fast rule for that. You can finish it all in this one birth! The proper guidance and help is there and you are to live up to that.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 21)

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Question: I think man's position should be, since he has got free will, to will such a life of praise to God – acceptable to God.

Sant Kirpal Singh: That comes when a man is fed up, when he comes to that ultimate urge within him. Naturally that would be a most fortunate day in the man's life when this urge comes up within him. Then naturally the help will come. Where fire burns oxygen comes to help. So it is a matter of your decision – decide one way or the other. When I left my school, educational career, I had to decide. What? There were two things before me – God and the world. It took me about seven or eight days, all alone at night, in a very lonely place, reflecting on what should be the aim of my life. I am speaking to you about a question that came up in 1912. I decided: God first and world next.

So if you have got some definite aim before you, even if you take one step towards that, you will be nearer the goal. But sometimes you are for God, sometimes for the world. Plus – minus nullifies everything. So decide finally what is your aim in life.

Question: Decision is important.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Surely. We have not decided yet. We are trembling here in the way. Sometimes here, sometimes there. And mind comes in like a very good gentleman. "Look here, this is your duty, why don't you do it?" Help your children, that's all right. I also will help your children. God has united you. Why have not others been united to you? It is the flowing pen of God that has united you, as brothers, sisters, wives, husbands. Attend to them properly. Pay off give and take. And? You have got the human life to know God. That's our ultimate goal. Don't sow more seeds. Wind up all your affairs. And Master helps you in that winding up, give and take, that's all. You simply live up to what He says.

Question: It seems so easy, simplicity leads you to eternity and complexity will lead you to perplexity, because you have too many things to distract you.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Simple food, simple living, simple life are helping factors. Once there was a chief minister of Akbar the Great, a great emperor in India. One day, as was the usual course, ministers keep standing up while the king comes in and sits down on his throne. But in that overcoat which he was holding over his arm there was a scorpion. Now out of respect, he could not move and the scorpion bit him here, there, then again. He could not move because that would have been disrespectful. When the king sat down, he said, "Well, look here, out of devotion to the king I have not even cared that the scorpion bit me so many times." Then he threw off his overcoat and ran away. "Thank God, God I will be your devotee." Akbar the Great said, "This is my chief minister, I rely on him for everything. Why has he run away?" So he sent a minister to request him to return. The minister pleaded, but he wouldn't return. "Oh no, I was Once his servant. I was doing everything he wanted. And now I have become the servant of God." Then the king himself came and told him, "Well dear Welli Ram, you are my chief minister. You are the big wheel of my empire." "Dear King, I was fully devoted to you for the time I was there; now I've changed my devotion to God." "How will you eat? .... I've got hands to eat. I don't need any plates." Yesterday morning – perhaps you were there – some people were eating vegetable on leaves, there were no plates. "Well what will you have for your pillow?" the king asked. "My hands." The king then asked, "Tell me what you want? Well I want you to be away from me."

So simple life is the ultimate. We take hours to make ourselves ready. We take hours to adorn ourselves. Give rest to the body, save it from cold or heat outside. That's good. Give it food. Give rest to the body, so that it may work properly, but not all twenty four hours. If you take too much work from a horse, you see, it will not help you.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 37)

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Question: When I'm doing my diaries, the last few days it seems I don't have much to put down and I felt that can't be possible, that I must not be looking hard enough.

Sant Kirpal Singh: I would say that's good if you've got nothing. What more do you want? When we can put nothing down then it's all right. But, still have self-introspection. Later you won't need it. On the way, we still need it, now and then something creeps up.

Question: When you say "self-introspection," you mean watch everything we do all day as we're doing it, to see what we're doing?

Sant Kirpal Singh: To see if you have love for all, no attachment, no ill-will against anybody. Naturally if you have no harsh words, you won't backbite; you won't call names; you won't strike anybody, is it not so? You feel and see God in every man, they're all chaste. You see Him in everybody, you'll love everybody. No hatred. You'll be of service to others. When you're serving man, you're serving God, then? This is what you have to come to, is it not? Diary is a blessing, I tell you, for all. I have been keeping one from my student life, too, you see. Firstly the number of failures grow more. Don't be afraid of that. It is not growing more; it is only that you are now becoming more conscious of those failures which you are doing. So, don't mind; there may be hundreds. Then weed out. When all failures are shorn, you'll have blessedness. You'll feel purity. You'll kiss your body. Body is the temple of God. Just as Saint Paul says, "It is not I, not now I, but Christ lives in me." So blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Purity means, to have no thought other than God. Then? This is true purity. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see . . . What is purity? Not only to be chaste, you see. But not to have any ill-will, any hatred. Don't deceive anybody. Don't usurp anybody's rights. Where you have love, all these things follow. But there's one difference between love and charity. Love begets attachment sometimes. You're bound. You're caught. But if you have got charity, then? That's the difference between the two. You now understand what is purity? Whose heart is pure, in which no other thought than God comes up, while eating, drinking, sleeping, anywhere. That's the ultimate, you will have the Ringing Radiance. It is going on already. But so long as these ripples are in the mind, in the reservoir of mind, you cannot see your face. If you are still, you can see your face there. So these are things on which you can keep notes. You won't find them given very clearly in books.

There's something very beautiful in what the Masters say. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. So purity lies in that thing. In few words, no thought other than God arises within, that's all. That's it, purity, true purity. When there's otherness also, that is not sufficient; there is duality.

Question: Master, I've heard of different aspects of your life from childhood but everything seems to be perfect, something like you have to be perfect all through life in order to reach God.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Love beautifies everything. When you see through the eyes of love, that beautifies; even the darkest thing will appear to be very beautiful. But really, man is in the make. Some come as made, some are made here. This fate awaits everybody. Every Saint has his past and every sinner a future. If you continue to have only thoughts of God, say for a few days, you'll feel blessedness. When you eat, thank God that you're remembering. When you go to sleep, all right, "I'm going in Your Lap." You're not to leave or go into the wilderness. We have to learn swimming in water, not on dry land. To be aloof, cynic-like, you won't learn then. That is why in the lives of very great Rishis there were failures. A cobra or a snake is very harmless but when you make him angry? You must be air-conditioned, that's all.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 30)

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Question: Master, we have desires, all of us have desires. They vary from person to person. But, is it necessary to live out the desires, to fulfill them, or can we by meditating... ?

Sant Kirpal Singh: What desires? Carnal desires should be avoided. How can you control yourself? Outward give and take as a reaction of the past, that is something else. Desire – you say you want to drink, then? You want to drink, you desire to drink.

Question: Drink what?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Wine.

Question: No.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Then? Be desireless, all Masters say this. Lord Buddha says be desireless. It is desires that drag you

Question: Sometimes I have read that you can't leave this world until all our desires are fulfilled.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Not desires but the reactions of the past. Never sow new seeds which will have to be reaped. Past give and take should be wound up. If you go on enjoying desires; they play hell like anything. If a butcher desires to kill animals, do you think it is all right? You are conscious entities, you are men, not animals. You have to know yourself, and the ultimate goal is to know the Overself. You have to leave all things that bind you to the outside. Let give and take be reconciled, that is another thing. But desires, carnal desires, I would say now, let me use the word carnal desires, or outward desires that bind you to the outside world, have to be used in a temperate way, so that they may not stand in your way to God.

Question: By meditation they can be washed away?

Sant Kirpal Singh: I told you just now, you become master of your outgoing faculties. For that you have been given a demonstration. Well, go on with it. You'll be absorbed into It, and outward things won't affect you. You will become air conditioned. This is the first lesson to be learned, and this is the first lesson given by all Masters the very first day, a demonstration of which is given. We do not appreciate the valuable thing we have received. You always revive outward desires. I just told you, mind is material, it will always drag you to the material things. Soul is not material, it is conscious. It will go to All Consciousness when it is cut off from all outside. Ultimately everything boils down to that.

Can you know yourself? Sometimes you have a dip, then you are dragged outside. You have not become the master of your body. The ABC starts when you rise above body consciousness. Body consciousness comes only through outgoing faculties. We are identified with the body and outside world so much so that we have forgotten ourselves. Go on, do it, and you will see the further way very clearly, and you'll run up like anything. It is worldly desires only that drag us down. If you are like that, you'll leave the body at death with nobody to care after you. Then you will have to come back. The initiates have a concession. What? You know what? It's given in the books. They won't come back lower than the man body. Yes, yes. Why?

Question: Because the seed is in them, the only way the seed could fructify...

Sant Kirpal Singh: That's all right. If he has love for, a ruling passion for the Master, then?

Question: Then he won't have to come back.

Sant Kirpal Singh: That's all right. He will go where the Maser will go. If He is not to return, how can you return? So this is what I was telling, you see. Don't ruminate over books, I would say now. Read, understand; but understanding intellectually also won't do anything, unless you live up to it. You sit in meditation – all right – the world is not there. But when you come out the world is there. It is you who make the world. Yes?

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 35)

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Question: Why can man lose his human position and go to lower planes?

Sant Kirpal Singh: God is all consciousness, and our soul, being of the same essence as that of God, is also a conscious entity. If this conscious Self comes in contact with higher consciousness, it will become more conscious. It won't return to lower planes. But if this conscious Self is identified with the material which is less conscious, naturally it will not go higher but to the same consciousness or to lower planes of consciousness.

All are conscious. Even the animals are conscious; birds are conscious; but there are lesser degrees of consciousness. Man is more conscious; animals are less conscious; birds are still less conscious. If our consciousness becomes identified with the material things, naturally it will be lowered and will have to go to a lower plane. In man body we have the privilege of coming in contact with All-Consciousness. If we do that, we won't even return to man body. But if it comes in contact with the material things, its consciousness will be lessened. It's a sort of death of the soul as the Saints have called it. It is not actually death but the consciousness being lowered. Word or Naam Power, that God-into-expression is All-Consciousness. If soul comes in contact with that Naam Power, it will grow more conscious, you see. If it becomes identified with lower, material things, naturally, that consciousness will become morbid and will naturally go to that lower plane.

If you come in contact with the Higher Consciousness, you will become more conscious. If you come in contact with, identified, or imbued with the lower consciousness or the material things, you might say, naturally your consciousness is lessened. Each man has to go to his own plane. But such cases are few. There are some, unfortunately.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 43)

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Question: Sometimes we repress. It's like sometimes a man exerts to get rid of his shortcomings, but that doesn't really rid him of his failures. It doesn't make him clean.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Why exert; what for? There's no question of exerting. At least you came to know the shortcomings you have. Then try to weed them out. Keeping a constant, vigilant watch over all your thoughts is what is wanted. If you fail five times today, try not to fail more than two times tomorrow. Weed out one by one. That's only [accomplished by] watching.

Moreover, you are not to think in the negative way. "I am a sinner. I am a sinner. I have done such and such." That won't do. You must try to reduce. "I am a sinner, well let me be sinner no more." What did Christ say to that lady who committed adultery? He asked the people what the punishment for that crime was in their law. They said that she should be stoned to death. "All right, if there is anyone who has not committed that act, go throw a stone on her." Who would dare? No one. Then he said to her, "All right; do no more." This is what is wanted. Always brooding, "I am a sinner. I am sinner." won't do. You are not a sinner; you have committed sin. You have besmeared yourself with filth. Wash it away. You are gold ore that comes from the mines. You are pure gold if you clean it [the filth] away.

So I told you, God plus desires is man. Man minus desires is God. If you watch yourself in that way for some time, you will have habit and habit will turn into nature. You won't dare to tell lies or anything like that.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 50)

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Question: Master, when we get discouraged a little, is this the ego involvement that I am doing it?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Again keep one thing in view. Rome was not built in a day; you cannot do everything in one day. A wrestler becomes a wrestler by working day and night for months, for years, not in one day. I will tell you my ignorance when I was reading in third primary. I heard one man talking very fluently, giving a lecture and thought, "From where is he reading?" I was a very voracious reader of books. I read one full library of my college – one full library on all subjects. I have read about three libraries altogether. You gather so many things. You have to work for it, it will not come in one day. Don't be discouraged. Go on with it; you'll become that.

These things should become an incentive to you to work for, not discourage you. I won't tell you that I fell down from heaven direct. I was born as a man, you see. So man is made; he is in the make. Regularity pays, mind that. If you do something daily like John Bunyan, even then you'll give to the world a Pilgrim's Progress. If you finish something daily, then still more wonderful. I'm not talking to you about spiritual matters now; this is daily living. Is it not? I told you the other day when I was writing in the high class, there were examinations given. I used to take foreign history. British history was one part of the subject. My point was, I read not one but two, three, four histories of the same country by different authors. All don't agree in detail. Some give more, the others less. The teacher gave notes on the main points, facts, then the examination was given. There was a maximum of 55 marks to be given out. I replied from references I had read in my own language. Another man gave out word for word from the notes dictated to him by the teacher. So he gave me 54 marks out of 55 and gave that man 35 out of 55. He complained, "I've given every word that you have dictated to me. Why did you give him 54 and not me? .... Because you have given word for word what I dictated. He [Kirpal Singh] has said what all historians say."

Teachers love you when you do work for them. Parents will love you. Your Guru will love you. Yes, in my official life too, in my student life too, I was loved. The teachers were proud of me. The teacher would even leave the class to me. I was reading in the tenth class when the teacher left the class and asked me to teach them. In my official life they were also confident. "Any new things that come up?" the officer said, "Give them all to him [Kirpal Singh]." My Master would also say, "Go to him [Kirpal Singh]. He will open all parts of the bayonet and then reassemble it and tell you how it works." This was through the greatness of Him, of course. So your parents will be proud of you, your teachers will be proud of you. Would you not like that? But all phases have to be developed. All right, God bless you all. Go wiser to your beds. God bless you.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 61)

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Question: It seems to me, habit plays a great part in man's life. If you're bound, fastened hand and foot, what can you do?

Sant Kirpal Singh: You can do nothing. You have to surrender. These outgoing faculties have bound us hand and foot. Having identified with the outside world, we have forgotten even our soul. So somebody should be there to unfasten you and give you some inkling or contact, then you maintain it. But again you bind yourself. Let yourself be bound by Master. Do not bind yourself. Let yourself be bound.

Question: That's the equivalent of saying it's His Will not my will?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Ah yes. Ultimately we have to come to that. When we see that, then we are Saints. When we can recognize His Will then we are Saints. We won't grumble. We are sent down here in the realm of time and space, the realm of the Negative Power. Rules have been made already. When you work here you must abide by those rules. You try to transcend, get out of that area, that's all. The strongest dungeon, stronghold, I would say, is man-body. If you rise above it, you are a little loosened. If you rise above the astral and the causal bodies then you are free. There you recognize His Will working too. So rising above body consciousness is most necessary. You will be loosened a little, it is not as tight as in the physical body. Even the rising above astral and causal bodies – this un-fastening or loosening of yourself, is done by Him, the God-in-man. If a donkey is there, laden with burden and stuck fast in mire, can he get out unaided? But if somebody takes pity on him, he would first unload his burden and then drag him out. There's some Power. We are helpless, have become helpless, you see. We have allowed ourselves to be bound and now we are very much bound. We want to be free but we cannot be freed unless somebody has pity on us. Who can pity us? After all, we're children of God. When man feels perturbed, very much in agony, he prays, "God, help me!" And God hears. He makes some arrangement to unloosen you, that's all. If He loosens you, then you again go headlong down into the mire; that is not wanted.

When you fly in an aeroplane you are given lifeboats. If anything comes up you have it on. But it protects only those who take seats in the aeroplane, not those who are out. Don't try to plunge out of the aeroplane. Even if you're thrown out by some misfortune, you've got the lifeboat, you see. This is one thing taught while you are flying in planes, is it not? Once when I was flying in Germany from one city to another, it so happened I saw a man fall out of a small aeroplane; the pilot turned round and caught him again in the plane. That's an actual instance. So the pilot won't let you fall out, even in stormy weather. On another occasion while I was traveling in Germany in a small plane there was a storm, hurricane, and we were tossing about like anything, here, there. Somebody injured his head, too. But the pilot brought us out safely. So a careful, competent pilot won't let you fall down, you see. But don't you plunge outside. We simply plunge out of ourselves. That was a strange event. He fell out of the aeroplane and the pilot turned around and caught him. So have faith in the Master, the God in Him, that's all I can say. God bless you.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 79)

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Man-making

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