Q. Can you tell us what is truth?

A. Truth is its truest form is the eter­nal per­for­mance. Spir­i­tu­al­ity and truth are there­fore the essence of the Abso­lute. When one finds the source of truth, he finds the treas­ure of all treas­ures. The teach­ings of the Mas­ters tell us that inner truth is not de­signed for out­ward show but divinely meant to reveal our real self to us and open up to us the glo­ries which God orig­i­nally placed within us.

The king­dom of God com­eth not with obser­va­tions; the king­dom of God is within you.

A true Mas­ter can har­mo­ni­ously dis­close to us a direct path to our true home. On this path we may begin our ascent within as far as we per­mit our­selves to go. Even­tu­ally, accord­ing to the nature and degree of our own progress, we may move up to the source of truth. From this prime focus we hear the spir­i­tual Sound and see the per­fect Light. This Light and Sound sus­tain the infi­nite uni­verse and all the finite worlds.

To extend our capac­i­ties for receiv­ing pro­gres­sively uprais­ing illu­mi­na­tion may not always be easy; but the Mas­ter is patient in His wis­dom, and from out of His vast spir­i­tu­al­ity His assis­tance remains for ever at hand until we join Him in Sach Khand, the final ever bliss­ful home of our true spir­i­tual being.

Q. If the dis­ci­ple is on the way back to the Father and under the guid­ance of the liv­ing Mas­ter, why is it so dif­fi­cult for him to hear the Sound Cur­rent?

A. It is the scat­tered atten­tion of the ini­tiate which does not allow him to hear the holy Sound Cur­rent. Besides, the over­whelm­ing attach­ment to worldly pleas­ures and sense-grat­i­fi­ca­tion stand in the way. The liv­ing Mas­ter is Love Per­son­i­fied, and as such lov­ing devo­tion to Him is the fac­tor which makes for bet­ter inner con­tact of the aud­i­ble life stream. It is rather the ten­dency of human mind which does not rel­ish being chained and as such it requires some dis­ci­pline to be observed for hav­ing an inner con­scious con­tact of the celes­tial mel­ody. At the out­set it is indeed dif­fi­cult but by reg­u­lar prac­tice the soul feels an innate affin­ity with the Sound Cur­rent, when inner bliss is expe­ri­enced with the Grace of the Mas­ter.

Q. Does loss of life fluid in sleep retard progress?

A. It does affect spir­i­tual progress. You should avoid look­ing into the eyes of the other sex and resort to the Sim­ran of charged names all along your vacant moments or lov­ing remem­brance of the Mas­ter, or lis­ten­ing to the holy Sound Cur­rent if it has become aud­i­ble. Such a sched­ule will be help­ful for the erad­i­ca­tion of car­nal desires. Besides, your should take your food much ear­lier before retir­ing for sleep, so that it is well digested. Also the hands, feet and face as well as the lower por­tion of the rec­tum, should be washed with cold water before going to sleep.

Q. Please tell us some­thing of the help which mar­riage part­ners might give one another, when both are ini­tiates, in the mat­ter of help­ing bal­ance and har­mon­iz­ing the phys­i­cal, men­tal and emo­tional fields of energy of indi­vid­u­als so as to increase their recep­tiv­ity towards Shabd. This could be very inspir­ing for stu­dents yet to come as well as for those already begun.

A. Mar­riage is a sac­ra­ment and a com­pan­ion for life in weal or woe, dur­ing this earthly sojourn. It is a rare boon of the Mas­ter when both the part­ners in life hap­pen to be ini­tiates. Both of them should exhibit and incul­cate a deep sense of lov­ing coop­er­a­tion and tol­er­ance for the rights of each other. The phys­i­cal, men­tal and emo­tional fields of activ­ity should be kept under check and con­trol lest these degrade the soul in pur­suit of car­nal sat­is­fac­tion.

Q. To fall in sin is manly but to remain therein is dev­il­ish.

The vital sex energy should be ration­ally trans­muted and sub­li­mated by exer­cis­ing self-restraint and chas­tity. The pro­crea­tion of chil­dren is one of the legit­i­mate func­tions of mar­ried life. The scrip­tures pre­scribe this sacred pur­pose as and when such a neces­sity arises. The couple hav­ing such dis­ci­plined lives will be an asset for spir­i­tual progress.

Q. To what extent would inti­mate knowl­edge of plan­e­tary forces be a help towards attain­ment on the path of Sant Mat? We note that Mas­ter Sawan Singh gave a dis­course on ‘The Twelve Sea­sons of Man’ and won­der if mas­ter would care to com­ment upon this theme in eng­lish for us.

A. Right under­stand­ing in every sphere of life is help­ful if it is uti­lized for spir­i­tual progress. It is not known where­from you have quoted this dis­course as hav­ing been given by Mas­ter Sawan Singh Ji. Please quote ref­er­ence to the con­text. He, how­ever, gave a dis­course on the twelve months of the year. It may, how­ever, be stated for your infor­ma­tion that in the case of those who rise above the starry sky or come under the con­tact of Mas­ters who go higher than that, the plan­e­tary effects do not touch them.

Q. How can we be truth­ful in thought?

A. Truth­ful­ness in thought means sin­cer­ity of pur­pose in var­i­ous spheres of non-vio­lence, chas­tity, truth, humil­ity, etc. Untruth­ful thoughts would nat­u­rally mean the enter­tain­ing of oppo­site ideas which usu­ally haunt the human mind through sense per­cep­tion. Human eye is usu­ally inclined to look at other’s beauty and wealth with an unchaste atti­tude, and this should be con­sid­ered as blem­ish and shunned.

Q. What part does intel­lect play on the path?

A. Very lit­tle, where the prac­ti­cal side is con­cerned. But this does not mean that intel­lect is harm­ful to spir­i­tu­al­ity. If an intel­lec­tual man comes on this path and really gives him­self up to the Master’s will, and does what he is told, then there is no bet­ter dis­ci­ple for the path than he, for there he has an advan­tage over an ordi­nary prac­ti­cal man. And that advan­tage is he will be able to give out the truth to oth­ers in many ways in a lan­guage made with well­thought out words that will con­vince the intel­lec­tu­al­ists more eas­ily than sim­ple words uttered by a mere prac­ti­cal man.

Q. Are the scrip­tures of any help?

A. Truth is given eve­ry­where in the­ory in all the relig­ions of the world, but one may get lost in the var­i­ous inter­pre­ta­tions. Sacred scrip­tures are fine records of the spir­i­tual expe­ri­ences which the past Mas­ters had on the god­ward travel. Truly speak­ing, the right inter­pre­ta­tion thereof can be given by a Mas­ter who has that expe­ri­ence. We can­not be sat­is­fied by merely read­ing of such expe­ri­ences until we have the same expe­ri­ences within our own self. This expe­ri­ence is given by a com­pe­tent Mas­ter at the time of ini­ti­a­tion, and can be devel­oped by devot­ing time and atten­tion reg­u­larly to the spir­i­tual prac­tices with lov­ing devo­tion in a cor­rect way.

Q. Why have women been regarded and treated through­out as infe­rior to men and even warned against by some spir­i­tual teach­ers as the cause of temp­ta­tion and down­fall to men?

A. Women are regarded as infe­rior to men, being the weaker sex, and they are prone to temp­ta­tion and, at times, are more likely to fall prey to the envi­ron­ments than men. The spir­i­tual teach­ers who banned spir­i­tual devel­op­ment of the fair sex might have attrib­uted it to their afore­said weak­ness. Both the sexes are equally a cause of temp­ta­tion and the Mas­ters do not blame either in par­tic­u­lar.

Q. Does intel­lect play any part in self and God-real­i­za­tion?

A. Yes, intel­lect plays an impor­tant part in under­stand­ing the the­ory of the prob­lem of self-real­i­za­tion. Once the the­ory is grasped, there is not much left for the intel­lect to do. There­af­ter remains the prac­tice, with heart and soul, to achieve the goal by a pro­cess of self-anal­y­sis for the sci­ence of the self is essen­tially prac­ti­cal.

Q. Can we pen­e­trate into the beyond by intel­lect?

A. No. Intel­lect is just one of the facul­ties of mind, to wit, rea­son­ing. The intel­lect is earth-bound and so is rea­son­ing based on intel­lect. How can the less the greater com­pre­hend or finite rea­son reach infin­ity? For what would fathom God were more than He.

The scrip­tures tell us in no ambig­u­ous terms that one can­not expe­ri­ence the self unless the senses are sub­dued, the mind is dis­ci­plined and the intel­lect is tran­scended.

Q. What is intui­tion?

A. Intui­tion means imme­di­ate cog­ni­tion with­out the aid of intel­lect and rea­son­ing. Such feel­ings, very often arise all of a sud­den, in moments of quiet­ness. There is noth­ing supra­men­tal in it.

Q. What is the dif­fer­ence between inner expe­ri­ence and intui­tion?

A. The inner expe­ri­ence of the soul as is granted by the liv­ing Mas­ter at the time of ini­ti­a­tion is direct con­scious con­tact with holy Naam – the Divine Sound Cur­rent and Light as com­ing from the right side. Intui­tion, on the other hand, is just a com­pre­hen­sion with­out resort to rea­son­ing or anal­y­sis.

Q. Can we be ever sure of God-real­i­za­tion intel­lec­tu­ally?

A. No. God-real­i­za­tion is not a sub­ject of intel­lect. It is a ques­tion of actual expe­ri­ence, beyond the pole of knowl­edge. All our talk of God is but infe­ren­tial and at the most a mat­ter of feel­ings and emo­tions all of which are sub­ject to error. But see­ing the inscape (with the inner eye opened) is believ­ing, and admits of no uncer­tainty and scep­ti­cism.

Q. Can the liv­ing Mas­ter open the inner eye of the dis­ci­ple on ini­ti­a­tion?

A. Yes, the liv­ing Mas­ter can and does so, or how else can the dis­ci­ple have an inner expe­ri­ence on his own? But this He does only to the extent He con­sid­ers best for the neo­phyte. It is for the recip­i­ent to per­ceive and say that he has received some­thing, and to bear tes­ti­mony on what is within.

Q. Can an ascended Mas­ter help His ini­tiates who are still on the phys­i­cal plane?

A. Yes, a com­pe­tent Mas­ter is a Mas­ter to His ini­tiates for all time, and does not rest till He takes the souls to the high­est pin­na­cle of bliss­ful glory in Sach Khand. He is not a phys­i­cal being only but Word per­son­i­fied, and on the higher planes acts as a Guru­dev and Sat­guru, which terms would become mean­ing­less if His activ­i­ties were to be con­fined to the phys­i­cal plane. If it were so, how could He take charge of the souls of the ini­tiates on death after His pass­ing away? A Mas­ter in essence never dies for the ini­tiates. It is His troth to take them up to the true home of His Father, and inwardly His Light and Sound forms are per­ma­nently implanted though He may have left the earth plane.

Q. Kindly explain about the vis­u­al­i­za­tion of Master’s form dur­ing Sim­ran.

A. There is hardly any need to ima­gine or vis­u­al­ize the Master’s form while engaged in Sim­ran. Any such attempt is likely to scat­ter the atten­tion. Then there is another dan­ger in doing so. What form you con­jure up, will be a make-belief, a pro­jec­tion of your mind and not the real­ity. When one is ini­tiated the Mas­ter resides in the ini­tiate for all time. What is already inside will auto­mat­i­cally come in to view when you get in there fully and com­pletely, though it may take quite some time to adjust your­self to the new sur­round­ings, unknown before. God man­i­fests of Him­self more fully in some human form in which He is work­ing with­out any vis­u­al­i­za­tion.

Q. Alco­hol is not allowed to the ini­tiates. Does it apply to such cases where it has to be admin­is­tered under med­i­cal advice for the res­to­ra­tion of health?

A. A cer­tain per­cent­age is gen­er­ally there in most of the medic­i­nal prep­ar­a­tions for their main­te­nance and there is no bar to the use of such med­i­cines. All home­o­pathic med­i­cines are pre­pared in alco­hol. In both cases they have no intox­i­ca­tion effect. But to take alco­hol as such for the so-called rea­sons of health, even when pre­scribed by med­i­cal men as med­i­cine, is pro­hib­ited, for every action has a reac­tion, and no amount of alco­hol can pro­long life even by a jot or tit­tle when the sands of time are run­ning out. Do you think, that alco­hol can stop the pro­cess, and if not, why pro­long the agony by admin­is­ter­ing del­e­ter­i­ous sub­stances?

Q. Kindly define nir­vana rel­a­tive to Buddha’s teach­ings.

A. Nir­vana is not nihi­lism as is com­monly believed. It is a state of being much super­ior to that of phys­i­cal exist­ence. It is exactly oppo­site to what we know of the phys­i­cal life, which Bud­dha, the enlight­ened one, cha­rac­ter­ized as a life of sor­row and mis­ery – the first of the four noble truths that dawned on him, and he accord­ing to his lights found in eight­fold path of right­eous­ness, to trans­form the course of life into a totally dif­fer­ent pat­tern. One can well rec­og­nize what it could be – not a state of noth­ing­ness, but one of efflo­res­cence into light.

Q. Does Lord Bud­dha prac­tise or pre­scribe the same path of the Mas­ters as is being revived by Sant Mat?

A. The Mas­ters gen­er­ally divide their dis­ci­ples into two cat­e­go­ries,

(1) the ordi­nary dis­ci­ples or nov­ices who are yet in the mak­ing stage and require a lot of dis­ci­pline; and to them are given dis­ci­pli­nary sad­hans or prac­tices, and

(2) dis­ci­ples with some ground­ing as a result of dis­ci­plines prac­tised in the past – may be in the pre­vi­ous births. They con­sti­tute the inner corps of their fol­low­ing. They are the cho­sen ones, or the elect, fit for a higher part of the Masters’ teach­ings. It was to the dis­ci­ples of this cal­i­bre that Bud­dha gave the prac­tice of Light and Sound prin­ci­ple as taught by the Mas­ters. To this cho­sen class belonged Bod­dhi­sat­vas, Maha­sat­vas and Arhats like Mahak­a­shyapa, Sar­i­pu­tra, Sam­mantb­ha­dra, Met­a­lu­ni­pu­tra, Mand­gal­yay­ana, Akshobya, Veju­ria, Mai­traya, Avo­lok­i­teshvra, Ananda and the like, all of whom attained ‘Dia­mond Samadhi’ of tran­scen­den­tal con­scious­ness by con­cen­trat­ing upon tran­scen­den­tal hear­ing, lis­ten­ing to the ‘Sound of Intrin­sic Dharma’ resem­bling the roar of a lion etc.

Please refer to the book Naam or Word for more details.