Dancing with God
When we really look deeply into the kernel of this spiritual path, what we find at the centre of our way of life is our beloved Sat Guru, who embodies the Shabd, the light, love and blissful melody that emanates from our Father, Radha Soami.
It is through the Shabd - the creative sound or Word, which springs forth from the heart of the Supreme Lord’s immeasurable being - that everything seen and unseen came into being. And it is only through our growing attachment to the homeward bound, returning stream of Shabd that those whom the Father has chosen to call back to him are able to return home. In order to do this he sends us a Master, a being in human form, who embodies all levels of consciousness - that of the Father, and that of this physical world, and everything in between as well. This is very important, as we can only access the Father with the help and guidance of our Master.
The Master is one with the source of all creation, Sat Purush, and so he embodies the living energy of all creation, in its constant ebb and flow. We, as physical beings, are in the process of returning to the Father.
Imagine that in the act of creation, Sat Purush had flung handfuls of energy out into space and that each handful had become a galaxy of whirling stars. Each galaxy would be full of light and sound, far beyond anything we could imagine. And at the centre of each galaxy would be a vast expanse of light and sound we can refer to as the central sun. All the stars in each galaxy would revolve around the core energy of their central sun.
All throughout the universe there are millions of galaxies, all swirling around in complete harmony with each other. As they spin, they each follow the rhythm and pulse of their own central sun - a blaze of light so powerful and so bright that we can scarcely even look at it. Scientists liken the central sun to the conductor of an orchestra, as it sends out its pulse, or heartbeat, to regulate the evolution of all the stars and planets of which the galaxy is composed. The whole universe, and all its diverse galaxies, waltzes in harmony with each other, to the baton of their cosmic conductor.
This gigantic pageant, with so many cosmic dancers moving with such perfection, points to an overall power that holds these galaxies together in such breathtakingly beautiful, perfect harmony.
Sant Mat teaches us that the source of all this is Sat Purush and his emanation, the Shabd, the divine sound and light. It is to the baton of the Sat Purush, the Supreme Lord, that the whole creation moves. And that, of course, includes us.
As part of the creation we were sent away from our original spiritual home, farther and farther away, till we became hopelessly lost in time and space. And since then we have been searching in the creation for something to still our deep, inner longing for our true home, calling out to be found and rescued.
No cry goes unheard. The wheels began to turn and the process of preparation for our return was set in motion. Over countless lives now we have been going through a seemingly endless process of purification as we settle our karmas: sometimes happily and sometimes through many severe and often unbearably painful experiences - in order to balance our debts so that these may become light enough for us to be granted the immense gift of initiation by a Master.
Our Master, as the central sun of our own personal and individual galaxy, started pulling us inward towards himself. Slowly, slowly we now orbit closer and closer towards him, until we will be drawn right into him and become one with his blaze of light and sound, the Shabd.
To look to our Master for guidance regarding everything in our lives is to dance in total unison with the will of the Lord. This means following this path according to the prescribed principles and to doing our meditation, which is the very essence of this path.
Our total acceptance of and obedience to his will brings us a happiness that lies beyond words - an exhilaration of spirit, a deep feeling of love and joy, an ecstatic feeling of being swept up into his arms, our hearts aglow with bliss.
Being handsomely rewarded for living in his will is not only true for when things go well but also holds true in times of setbacks, loss, illness or disaster. If we turn within and ask him to point out the way, and if we seek only his will and submit to it, the nectar of his love will flow.
When we go with our Master’s flow and allow him to orchestrate and choreograph our lives, we too will fit into the divine pageant, swirling around the obstacles of life and spreading our light in all directions as we swirl inwardly into union with our Master, our central sun.
It is only when we begin to relate even the smallest happenings in our daily life to the Sound Current and the Master that true enlightenment dawns on us and we see everything by that inner illumination, and then what contentment, pleasure and joy we begin to experience. All life begins to have a richness of meaning we never supposed possible.
“Without Nam”, Maharaj Ji said, "the mind remains a wild horse that runs out of control at the slightest pretext or whim…. We have to comprehend for all time that what matters is the bringing of one’s body consciousness into the orbit of the divine melody.
Flora Wood, In Search of the Way