Staying on Course
The sea turtle embarks on epic journeys across the ocean covering thousands of miles at a time, navigating all the while using a special ability it possesses to keep on course for its destination. When these turtles set off on their migration to the beach of their birth, there is no doubt that they have within them what is needed to reach home, no matter how high the tide or fast the current.
Scientists were long puzzled by this but recently discovered that what enables sea turtles to find their way back to their own particular egg-laying site is a special ability to sense longitude, using almost imperceptible gradients in Earth’s magnetic field. This provides the turtles with a basic navigation system to enable them to keep their bearings, stay on course, and return home.
This ability of the sea turtle to travel unerringly across vast oceans to its original place of birth seems incredible. However, don’t we perhaps possess a similar ability? There are certainly some clear parallels to be drawn between the migration of the sea turtle and our own epic spiritual journey back home.
Just as the sea turtles can find their way across the oceans, we have a capacity to navigate through the astral and spiritual planes towards our own ultimate destination. In time, and with some effort, we should be able to focus in on that target, slowly learning to master the ability to tune into the force that is drawing the soul ever closer to its origin.
This wonderful capacity to connect to the pull that draws the soul home is inherent in all of us. It is in light of this that the Master gives us the gift of Nam, to enable us to put that latent ability into practice. As we begin and then progress along that spiritual journey, the Master also offers us personal guidance to help us stay on course so that we are able to reach our goal. He is part of that force that keeps us on course, and he helps us to navigate along the direction of that pull towards our destination. In Spiritual Gems, Maharaj Sawan Singh describes in one of his letters how the soul and Master interact through the spiritual journey:
The soul leaves the physical, astral, and causal bodies in succession as it progresses towards Daswan Dwar. During devotional practice, as the concentration improves, mind and soul vacate the body and pass through the eye centre, then cross the starry sky, the sun, and the moon, and meet the Radiant Form of the Master. From there onwards the Master’s Form acts as guide, and the journey is made in the company of the Master.
Once the soul has started on the right path in this way, navigation from one level to another becomes almost automatic. Tapping into that innate ability to journey home gives us a heightened sense of awareness and enables us to realize our true identity, bringing true happiness. All we need to do is put in the effort, and our internal compass will steer us in the right direction.
As with the turtles, the mechanism to steer us home is already within us, so there is no question of whether or not we will be successful on our journey. Indeed, the saints have said that there are no failures in Sant Mat. Once we have made the decision to commit ourselves to this spiritual journey, we too, just like the sea turtles, will be guided through the vast oceans we must cross to reach our goal. Our guide, the Master, will help us to take the steps required to bring us closer to him and to our home.