Talk given by Sant Kirpal Singh, 1 October, 1972, Fairfax, Virginia
We are conscious beings. The more we come in contact with All-consciousness, we become more conscious. If we come in contact with material things outside, our consciousness will be marred. The result will be that we will have to go to bodies which have less consciousness. Be very careful. How important it is. To be evolved conscious entities you must be in contact with All-consciousness, then the more your consciousness will grow. If you come in contact with the material things more than the spiritual things, the result is that your consciousness will be lessened; so you will have to go to the lower planes. This is very important; Masters say that if you do this, you are committing suicide.
Those who do not constantly come in touch with All-consciousness, they are slowly committing suicide. If the consciousness is lessened, it is suicide. So They lay the greatest stress on this: if you don't come in contact with the God within you, it is better that you should have died. These are the words They use. In the terminology of the Saints, the word death or die is the opposite of alive.
"Only He is alive, O Nanak, in whom God is manifest in full glory."
It is said that those who have the man-body and have not become alive, it would have been much better if they had died. They use very strong words.
What is the use of your having the man-body? The man-body is meant for coming in contact with the Light and Sound principle on the way back to God. Fortunately you have been given something to start with. If in eleven days you can progress that much, if you would be regular all month, then? (Before this talk was given, Master Sant Kirpal Singh made the following comment after a meditation sitting: "I have been here for thirteen days, including today. There have been many sittings given to you. As compared with the first sitting, you have progressed one hundred percent. So this is your regularity that has paid off. Don't lose it now, that is the main thing.")
Last night I said you must keep diaries. Those who do not keep diaries, they slowly leave off. Now you will find out how important the diary form, self-introspection, and how much time you put in are; and the more time you put in the better. Suppose now you put in two hours a day, then four hours, then? Is it not certain that you will progress more? It is not on account of your efforts, it is only that you have been sitting at His door and for that reason it was for Him to give. He always gives if anybody is there at His door. That door is where? It is in back of the eyes. "Knock and it shall be opened unto you." You will hear His Voice say, "I will sup with you." These things are facts; all Masters said so. How important it is.
Whatever you are doing now, whether you are eating, drinking, playing, going around, taking baths, this and that, it is like beautifying a dead body. What is the use of it? He is dead in whom God's Light is not fully effulgent. When I ask somebody, "Are you alive?" he smiles at me. I mean something. Are you alive? Alive means are you on the Way, well on the Way? Are you dying daily, rising above body-consciousness day by day? This is what I mean when I ask "Are you alive?"
So it is said that the Divine Music, the Divine Call of God, is calling you back. If you don't listen to Him, what will be the effect? Your consciousness will be lowered. Would you like that? When a man is serving in an office, if he does not get a promotion and instead is demoted, would he like it? How shameful it would be. He could not show his face in the office. Even some junior men are moving up.
Those who have got some background, if they delay, they don't keep up their pace forward, naturally the others who start now will go ahead of them. They would be ashamed I think. I am talking from a common sense point of view. So it is high time, for what? Do you know? In this man-body the more you come in contact with the Divine Power within you, the more conscious you will become. Then you won't go down to the lowest scale of beings; you will reach the True Home of your Father and won't come down as prisoners, but can be sent down for guiding the child humanity. What more can I tell you? This is nothing new, I am just repeating the same words as the Masters who came from time to time. I also feel like that.
So whom should we love? Those things which you will leave here? Your body, your possessions, your relations? Love them, because God has contacted you to them to pay off your debts. That is all, nothing more. Then find your way back to God. Whom else should we love? Master used to say, we have to cross a rivulet, and the Master is there to carry us to the other shore. Some go first, the others go later, but they all unite there together on the other shore. So Masters unite us in such a relation which never breaks, even after death.
So whom should we love? God. Or who else? He in whom God is manifest at our level. Call Him by any name you like. God also resides in you, in everyone, but where He is manifest in full effulgence, He is to be loved above all.
Teacher of man is a man. So what does such a One do? He does not leave you here or hereafter. That is the God Power, Christ Power, Master Power. "I shall never leave thee nor forsake thee till the end of the world." All Masters say so in their own language. Whenever a Master initiates somebody, He resides in him and it does not end there; He will absorb him into God. Whenever Baba Jaimal Singh, our Grand-Guru, used to initiate others, He would say, "Look here, I am now residing in you. Take care of that. I am watching over your every action. Be careful." When He returned, He would say, "Well what have you done, have you brought anything? Have you earned anything? I have given you something to start with, how many more talents have you earned?" These are the hard facts being given to you, whether you know it or not, they stand as true as ever.
A Persian philosopher says, "Catch the hem of that man who is well conversant with the here and hereafter, who never leaves you." You may leave Him, He will not leave you. He may give a long rope, mind that. Somebody wrote to our Master; "We are leaving You." He said, "All right, you may leave me, I cannot leave you." You see? He has got a very strong hand.
If you have read the scriptures, you will find that the Son of God is given the powers of judgement also. Dharam Raj is the one who judges all others, but those who are initiated, they are judged by the Master Himself. Suppose your son has committed something wrong, you would not send him to the police, would you? You slap him yourself once or twice, rebuke him, admonish him, "Don't you do that," but you would not suffer to send him to the police. I am not telling you new things, these are according to the scriptures. These are facts – hard facts, You are fortunate! Don't deceive yourself. Why? He is watching your every action. He watches the very trend of your mind.
So Masters say, we should only love the one who never leaves us till the end of the world – who always looks after us. Of course we have to pay off certain debts. But one thing, if an operation is to be performed on the child, the mother takes him on her lap while the operation is performed. In that case the child knows that "I am in the lap of my mother." He feels less pain. If you are in constant sweet remembrance of the Master within you (He is the God-in-man) outer things won't pinch you.
God is love and love is God. In this world or the other world, without love you cannot know peace. Once someone said to Lord Vishnu, "Well, you have to make so many arrangements for those who have to go to heaven, those who go to hell. You have to make very grand arrangements." Lord Vishnu said, "I am doing nothing. The people who have good thoughts, loving thoughts, they bring their own thoughts of peace, and enjoy. Those who do the other deeds, they are burning in anger, and deceiving others, this and that thing," he says, "they bring their own fires and suffer in hell. I don't make any arrangements." So such a one who is initiated by the Master never goes to hell. You see? Even by chance if he goes to hell, then the Master has to go there to bring him out. For that reason, we should have love for somebody who is overflowing with the love of God. And what will be the result? He will take you to such a state of being where you will never have to return. You will have everlasting life, peace and all joy, eternity and all wisdom.
Then He said, "What is He?" Do you know what He is? Have you seen any rivers flowing? You have seen rivulets and rivers? There are two sides of earth, within which water is flowing. The water and the two sides of the earth are both called a river. The water is not called river, but the water flowing between the two sides of earth or clay, the whole is called the river. Within the sides of the man-body where God is manifested, are the flowing Waters of God. That Life Water is overflowing, we should plunge headlong into it. You will never die; you will have everlasting life. They tell these things to bring home what is what. But you know these things only when you rise above the body-consciousness.
In the beginning, you can take Him as your elder brother, as your father, as your teacher. When you find He can give you a boost to the other world for a while (yogis have taken hundreds of years to rise above body-consciousness), don't you think He is something? You may not be aware of who He is, but He appears to be some competent person. How great is He? As you go you will see He is still greater. Our Master used to give an example: a man is teaching in the fifth class, primary class. He does not give you trigonometry there, trigonometry is taught in colleges only. As you rise to the matriculation state, he will show his ability, you will see he knows better than us. When you go to college, the professor knows more.
Once Master Sawan told us, when He got His engineering degree, "Our professors shook hands with us saying now we are all equal." When you rise to that status, God-in-man, man-in-God, and God are the same. Just as the water flowing and the two sides of the earth are a river, so are all of them in God.
It is a great fortune to have a living Master. Books tell us so many things, scriptures tell us so many things, very sweet stories of the Beyond. But how many are there who can give us a dip into the Beyond, at least to rise above the physical body? That is the first hurdle, the very iron cage which you cannot transcend. This is the hardest work to do.
Yogis and others have taken years and years and years to transcend, and you get something the very first day. Why? In the past, Masters first saw whether the vessel was ready to receive. Sometimes it took years. Hazrat Abrahim, the King of Bokhara, went to Kabir for spiritual things. He left his kingship and went to live in Kabir's home for a few years. Four, five, six, seven years passed. One day Mother Loi said to Kabir, "He has been here for so many years, will you give him something now?" Kabir said, "He is not yet ready." Mother Loi said, "What more is wanted? He does not complain about anything. Whatever you give him, he eats; where you make him sit, he sits; he obeys your every order literally." Kabir said, "No he is not ready." Master watches inside. He said, "All right, tomorrow morning put all the rubbish of the house in a box and when he goes out, throw it over his head, and then hear what he says." The next morning when Abrahim was going out of the door, she threw the basket full of that rubbish on him. "Oh, had we been there in Bokhara, I would have seen to it. I am a King." He felt much disrespect. These words came out of him. Kabir asked Mother Loi, "What did he say?" He said, "Had I been in Bokhara...I am a King."
A few years passed. Then Kabir said to Mother Loi, "Now he is ready." And there was no difference in the outer living of the man. "All right, last time you simply threw the rubbish of the house over his head. Now all the urine and filth will be mixed in water and thrown over his head when he passes out of the door." The next day when he passed by, she poured the bucket full of filth on him. Abrahim said, "O God I am still worse than that." Then Kabir gave him some experience of God within.
Now you people come and you have the same privileges the first day. With the Grace of Whom? The God in our Master. His authority is working, so make the best use of that.
Physically, sometimes we have got the chance to meet, sometimes not; we are thousands of miles away. I have now come after about nine years. This is my third trip. The first was in 1955, the second in 1963 after eight years, and now after nine years. God knows when it will happen next. So make the best use of the words now given to you on these last three days. Don't forget, live up to them and you will progress wonderfully. If in ten or eleven days, after one hour sittings, two hour sittings, including both times, if you can progress that much, why can't you do more?
The diary form is overhead. The diary form is the Master watching you, don't deceive Him. He cannot be deceived, He watches everything. You may say nothing. Sometimes people send me diaries, bring them to me, and they say they see little Light. I tell them, if the diary is correct you should have gone to the Third Plane. How can you deceive Him who is inside? You may spare yourself, not say anything, not put down anything, hide yourself – but He is watching.
So be true to your own self please. Be regular. Remain in contact. God will bless you, sure and certain. You will change, you will see things for your own self. No need for somebody else to testify for you. Guru Amar Das says, "One day I was like you, Now I have arisen with the Grace of God." You can also say that. If ten days of regular meetings can give you these results, each one of you can testify that you are improving; if you are regular in the future, then why can't you improve more?
You are man, mind that. Just a word to the wise. Master loves you like anything. He hates the sin, but not the sinner. He wants you to progress. So please be regular in your meditations, this is the Water and the Bread of Life. If you remain in contact with that you will go to the higher planes. If you remain in contact with the outward things, you will go to the lower planes of consciousness. So have pity on your own self. Please do it, that is all I can say. And also, to relieve the burden of the Master too, our Master used to say you should help a little; do what you are told and you will help. Don't be loitering, doing nothing. Even then you will have to be-carried, but why have it that way?
So dear brothers and sisters – I will address you like that now. We are all brothers and sisters. What I have told you from the heart of my heart, take to your heart and live up to it. You will have constant protection and all help, without asking for it. Mother looks after the child, tries to bring him up. So you are all dear to me – words cannot express how dear you are. This is what I want: I hope now you will do your best, try your best, but leave the word try – do it! You will see change from day to day. Nobody else should testify, you should testify. True living is above truth. That is what is wanted. God does not look to the labels you are carrying. Whoever is honest, whoever has true living, he is near to Him. Whoever has all love for Him is the most dear. All are dear to Him, but he is the most dear. Our Master used to use the word niji, private initiate, niji Satsangi – those who are doing His work, those who loved Him the most, lived up to what He said. So you are all dear to Him.
Mr. Rowlands was the group leader in London. While I was there, I came to know that he was sick in the hospital. I had to travel more than six hundred miles to see him. I spared one day out of that program and went to see him. He said, "I have got terrible pain. I cannot concentrate. No Light, nothing." When you are in terrible pain, it is very difficult to concentrate. So God helped him; he was in peace. The next day he passed away. Had he not been dear to me, why should I have travelled six hundred miles to see one man. Do you see how dear the children are to the mother?
You are all dear to me, and those who are placed in charge, they should not be bosses, but should have mother-like hearts. So such an example is better, that will go to the heart. My love and best wishes are always with you. I am telling you this on the strength of my Guru working overhead.