Doers of the Word

We may meditate to quiet our mind, to please our Master, or for any other number of personal reasons; but ultimately, we meditate to hear and merge with the Shabd and return to our true home. In a number of his recent satsangs, the Master has said that we should become “doers of the Word”. What does he mean by this? Why does he refer us to this instruction from Christ’s teachings? “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). The Shabd - the Word - purifies us, and once we begin our Shabd practice, we become true doers of the Word.

Shabd is our salvation. Shabd is our way home. But are we choosing salvation? As disciples, we have a choice of what to focus our attention on. Since we are part and parcel of the physical world, often our focus is here in the physical world. But by keeping our focus in the physical world, we stay trapped in the cycle of birth and death. We are pulled by the temptations of the world, we are comfortable in its playground, so saints plead with us to change our focus. They remind us that our real essence is spiritual not physical. This physical existence is very short.

Our primary relationship is with the Lord. It is at the core of who we really are. When the Master suggests that we become doers of the Word, we have an opportunity to pay close attention to his statement and act upon it. It is much like when the Master tells us that it is his divine order that we meditate. This isn’t a mere suggestion; it is a command. How do we become doers of the Word? It is not difficult to find the answer. Do our meditation. Two and one-half hours every day can be a precious time for us to connect with the Lord, where he is, where the Word is.

In James 1:23-25 of the King James Version of the Bible, it is written:

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

What prevents us from taking action, from being a doer of the Word? Since our previous birth, we have existed in this physical world. Our very existence begins with our loud reaction to the trauma of taking a physical body. Our first sounds are of crying and wailing. What an introduction to the human condition! Much later, we may realize this is a common and perhaps even reasonable reaction to being thrust into the physical world. So over time, we have learned to use this way of communicating and reacting when things don’t go our way. Yet the Master tells us don’t react. Don’t let our ego get the best of us. Don’t focus on the world as being about “me, me, me”. We have the option to ignore whatever causes our reaction. In fact, before reacting, he says, pause and begin doing some simran. This may bring us some peace and allow us to return to the state of balance necessary to be aware of the Shabd, the Word, within us.

Maharaj Sawan Singh says in Dawn of Light, “Whatever good or bad happens to you, through whatever person or object, directly proceeds from our loving Father.” He is encouraging us to understand that reacting to life and its situations does not help us, because whatever happens comes from him. Our over-reactions to events in our life may actually be taking us in the opposite direction from where we want to go.

Maharaj Charan Singh speaks a great deal about bringing peace into our lives. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I, he says:

What is peace? When we have no desires. When we have no anxiety. As long as your mind is creating desires and you are trying to satisfy those desires, you can never be at peace. Only when you become desireless can you be at peace. And you can become desireless only if you get something better than the sensual pleasures, because the mind is always wanting something…. As long as the tendency of the mind is downward from here toward the senses, howsoever much we may indulge in those senses, we will never be at peace. But when we are able to withdraw ourselves from the senses to the eye centre and become one with that audible life stream or that Shabd, with that divine light within, then automatically your mind will be at peace.

As disciples of Sant Mat, we seek peace and the Shabd. We must do our best to constantly stay on our path and to trust in the words of our Master. Our Master is always helping us and encouraging us to resist reacting and to return our attention to that which will bring us permanent happiness and peace. He has told us what will bring us real happiness.

We must become doers: doers of our meditation, doers of becoming good human beings, doers of the Word. As Maharaj Sawan Singh says in Spiritual Gems: “This done, all is done.”