Who Is He?
If I ask, who is the Master? you will say, Baba Ji. And if I say, yes but who is Baba Ji? you will say, he is the present Master at Dera in Beas. And if I say, yes but who is that person really? what will you tell me then? Here are just a handful of the hundreds of answers you could give to that question:
A perfect father
Master is our father. Master comes from our father in heaven, from Sach Khand. Master is our father on earth. From the moment that we were born it was destined that we should become the Master’s children. Master is the perfect father. He loves us like no other father could possibly love us. Even when we are disobedient he still goes on loving us with the same perfect love. And he loves us equally, with no special favourites in his vast family. The naughtiest, dirtiest child in the family gets just as much love from the father as the prettiest, purest and most pious child. Sometimes our father has to scold us, but the ticking off is always administered with kindness and compassion.
He is invariably aware of what is going on in our life and responds immediately and generously to any suffering that his children may be undergoing. Moreover, our spiritual father remains our father, even when his material body dies. Master never leaves us.
A loving mother
Master is not only our father but also our mother in so many lovely ways. He mothers us all the time, and most of the time we are unconscious of his motherly attention. Master takes us into his arms and embraces us as soon as we are initiated. He then looks after us, cares for us and brings us up to be good children – and eventually good spiritual adults. Master feeds us, clothes us and trains us. Master feeds us with the milk of Nam, which is the sweetest, strongest milk any child was ever given. “Nectar-sweet is the Guru’s Word,” says Tulsi Sahib, “but rare is the one who tastes it. Into him comes light, and he drinks the ambrosia. And he hears the Melody at the door of the Lord.”
Master’s milk is the sound current, that beautiful music which resounds day and night inside every single one of us. Like the good mother that he is, Master knows that the milk of Nam will make us grow spiritually strong and able to conquer all our ugly and infantile weaknesses. Master is a very wise and well-informed mother. He knows we are weak and feeble and shivering with fright, so he clothes us with the warmth of satsang. Without satsang we grow cold about the path, we become indifferent to meditation; we can even cool off about the Master. Master knows this. So he advises us to wear satsang in this world.
At satsang we are kept warm by our brothers and sisters, and we in turn keep our brothers and sisters warm. At satsang we can ask questions and have our doubts dispelled. At satsang we can hear Baba Ji talking to his children. Yes, we are his children; let us never forget that. And like every responsible mother, Baba Ji trains his children in ways of the spiritual world and educates them and tries very gently to get us to grow up. Everyone can understand our Master’s teachings. You don’t have to be a university don or doctor of theology to understand his teachings. In a nutshell, Master teaches us to leave this world while still living in it, to vacate the body and visit that secret place inside our head, to repeat the holy names, to see the light and hear the sound, to meet the Radiant Master and to go through our karmas in a happy carefree manner. What more is there to say? That’s all there is to Sant Mat. You go inside, go up, meet the Master and go home. It’s easy, isn’t it? So easy that mind cannot accept the simplicity of it and attempts to complicate it. Master knows this. Master is the all-knowing, all-seeing mother. So he keeps reminding us of his teachings. Master gives us his teachings on CDs and DVDs, in the books, in magazines and – most important of all – he gives us his teachings at satsang. That is why we must never miss satsang. When we miss satsang, we miss the teachings and our wild mind forgets the path and starts wandering all over the place.
Our brother
Master is not only our father and mother; he is also our brother. Although the Master has unlimited knowledge and unlimited power, he deliberately chooses to limit himself by coming to his family in an ordinary human body. The Master could come as a king, as a president, or as a universally known TV personality and thereby command instant attention and respect. But he chooses not to. Instead, Master comes to his family as a brother, wearing the same sort of body as others and liable therefore to the same sort of diseases and discomforts as other brothers and sisters on the path. This is the great humility of our beloved Master. He conceals his greatness in an ordinary human body. He hides his divinity in assuming similarity and familiarity. So that we can become like him, he comes to us looking like us. This is most necessary. If God came to us as God, we would not recognize him, could not recognize him. We would be utterly blinded and totally deafened. We would be consumed in a split second, burnt to a cinder, like a dry leaf on a tree struck by lightning. So Master comes as a brother, with two arms and two legs, speaking the language of mortals. He calls us brother and sister, and by calling us brother and sister he is saying, as it were: “Look, you can approach me without feeling anxious. Come to me and tell me your problems. Let’s sit down together and talk things over. There’s no need to be afraid and overawed. I’m here to help you – here to help you get out of here and into There. So come to me as I come to you: as a brother, and let’s talk as brother and sister, sincerely, frankly and with brotherly affection.” Master doesn’t want us to stand on ceremony and be stiff and formal. He wishes us to be relaxed and informal in our relationship with him, and with each other.
Our friend, and more
Master is not only our father, our mother, and our brother. He is also our friend. Master is the only true friend we have. Master will never let us down or leave us in the lurch. He is closer to us than our best friend. If we feel lonely and left out of this world, we should not be concerned. Our friend is not only in Beas, not only in Radha Soami books; he is right here inside us. Wherever we are, our friend is there with us, wanting to meet us. Wherever we go, our friend travels with us, wishing all the time that we would share our life with him. We have the best friend in the universe, yet we ignore him. How often do we think of this beautiful, faithful friend of ours? How often do we visit the Master? How often do we talk to the Master?
Master is Master and there’s no one like him, except all other perfect Masters. Our Master is ours: ours to see, ours to hear, ours to use, ours to love. Yes, our Master is living here today to be loved by us here and now. So let us love him, as our father, as our mother, as our brother, as our friend, and above all, as our Beloved.