The Loving Master

As we grow as disciples on this spiritual path, we begin to know our Satguru to be a loving companion, someone we can relate to on a personal level. The Master remains ever eager to build a one-to-one relationship with us through his Shabd form. By travelling intensively and giving satsangs, interviews and seva meetings he takes every opportunity to make us feel wanted and special.

For outward contacts there are limitations upon us as well as the Master, but inwardly the care he has for us makes the love and efforts of the most devoted mother in the world pale into insignificance. The Master’s concern for us is unquestionable and, despite our rebellious nature, he feels only an overwhelming compassion toward us. In Legacy of Love, Maharaj Charan Singh makes a profound observation:

You don’t fall in love with the Master; Master has fallen in love with us. And then, we become restless – we feel we have fallen in love with him. The pull is from within.

This is no accident. Saints are an earthly manifestation of the Supreme Lord, whose essence has been described as love. The saints are wholly immersed in the ocean of love – brimful with it. Whenever they speak, nothing but love and loving words pour out. During the long ministry of Hazur Maharaj Ji, spanning nearly forty years, none of us can say that he ever appeared upset with us or reprimanded us with harsh words, though we may have fully deserved it. Equally, our experience with our present beloved Baba Ji is no different. The same relationship of intense love and forgiveness continues.

At a spiritual level, the Master is with every one of his disciples and that is entirely sufficient for him to protect us and take us back home. So why do the Masters travel so extensively? It is purely in response to our needs that they undertake such hardships. Man can only learn to love and create bonds through outward interaction with physical forms. This is why we cannot love God directly, since we cannot perceive him or relate to him through the sense organs. As the Master is keenly aware of the needs and limitations of his spiritual children and as he is a most devoted mother and father combined, he never tires of making us feel loved.

These engaging encounters with the physical Master are an invitation for us to meet him where he is waiting for us in his Radiant Form, at the eye centre. He wants us to reach this point at the earliest opportunity so that the proof of his abiding love may be made manifest to us. Then true love is aroused and faith in the Master becomes unshakeable.

Although most of us do attempt to meditate, generally we tend to lack focus, stamina and regularity in our spiritual endeavours. But regardless of the pitfalls, daily meditation is our way of saying to him “we love you for loving us.” Hazur Maharaj Ji often said that if the mind does not take to meditation, then sit as a matter of duty. The Master welcomes our futile attempts and the resulting failures in the same way that loving parents delight in seeing their child struggling to take his first step unaided. We know and appreciate that no relationship in the world flourishes without a conscious effort. At a practical level, daily meditation is no more than making a conscious effort at this all important relationship with the Master.

Everyone is seeking some peace and happiness in a strife-torn life. Above all we want to love and be loved. Since the love of the Master transcends every other love, it is infinitely worthwhile to receive his gift of love by putting all our energy into meditation. This greater love, a precious gift from the gracious Master, in turn brings a sense of peace and harmony that had previously eluded us due to our excessive preoccupation with material forms. The transformation is brought about naturally through the glory of the Shabd ringing within us. The Radiant Form of the Master beckons to us in all its glory. Great and joyful is the journey, made all the more attractive by the constant presence of the Shabd Master.

Our Father is love and we are small drops from that ocean of love. This huge machinery of the universe is worked on the eternal principle of love. So try to bring yourself in harmony with this principle of love. The deeper the love for the Master takes root in you, the fainter will be the worldly love in you. His love will displace the love of earthly things. Then the mind and spirit will transcend the flesh and the curtains will rise before you, one by one. The dark mysteries of the universe will become revealed to you and you will find yourself in the loving lap of the holy Father; in fact, you will be one with him.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh, The Dawn of Light}