We are all lovers, devotees of a higher power, thousands of lovers, but the Beloved is one for all. He whom we desire is the beloved of the whole world and is the one God for all men, not specifically for Muslims only, or for Hindus only, or for Christians only.
          Sant Kirpal Singh

General


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.