The Sacred Bond
As struggling disciples on this path, we face the roller coaster of ups and downs in our lives and our emotions: from the heights of excitement that we feel in the presence of our Master to the depths of despair and longing that consume us in his separation.
We sit in the darkness of meditation, searching for his light and love, feeling and knowing that it is there, but unable to reach it due to our own shortcomings. In the words of Saint John of the Cross, a Spanish mystic, “I entered I knew not where, and there I stood, not knowing, nothing left to know.”
How has the Master become a part of every aspect of our lives? What is this feeling that he has planted inside of us? He has silently crept into our hearts and lovingly hidden himself in the recesses of our consciousness. Any words we may attempt to describe these feelings are inadequate and can only fail to do justice to his presence.
In With a Great Master in India it is written:
What is the divine mystery of the love of a disciple for his Master? It is one of the most absorbing themes of discipleship. It is something without a parallel in the ordinary walks of life. What is it? How can it be explained? What is the mystery of that holy bond which makes men and women, even in the hour of death, utterly forget all earthly ties and cling to the Master alone? Fortunately, this is one theme upon which this disciple can speak from personal experience, although he is well aware, perhaps because of that experience itself, that he can never give adequate expression to this theme.
Since coming to India, this disciple has been blessed with the daily companionship of many disciples whose devotion to the Master has written one of the most beautiful pages in the story of his life. Not only these, but the abiding devotion of the Master himself to his Master adds interest to the theme and crowns the relation itself with undying glory. It is a sacred bond that once formed, is never broken, and its divine fragrance never diminishes through unnumbered years. But like other features of this holy path, the essence of it cannot be written down in words. To be understood, it must be experienced.
The Master has planted in each one of us the seed of spirituality. He lovingly tends to this seed and encourages us to feed it with the waters of Shabd and meditation. He gives us the faith to persist, even though we may falter in our pursuit. The Master shares with us a sacred bond. And every time we almost forget his presence, he sends us little reminders, waking us up from this slumber of illusion.
Never think for a moment that you are at such a long distance from me. The Master in his Shabd form is within you, and is watching you and looking after you in every way.
Maharaj Sawan Singh, The Dawn of Light
We are often overcome with feelings of failure. Our lack of visible results tend to drag us down. Our minds get filled with negative emotions and we almost give up and lose ourselves. But our Master never thinks of failure. He patiently lifts us up from the depths of our depression and holds us up, filling us with even more love, allowing it to brim over the surface and spill into the depths of our being.
This is summarized beautifully in With a Great Master in India:
All those who have walked this holy path know well that in all the world there is no relation so close and so sacred as that between Master and pupil. There is no other relation so crowned with the frenzy of divine joy. When the disciple feels that every ray of light that radiates from the Master carries with it streams of life itself, he must love him. When he realizes in the depths of his being that the Master is the embodiment of the Supreme Essence, now engaged in recreating the disciple after the image and likeness of the ineffable Lord, then he knows that life without the Master would be an insufferable calamity.