Yours Affectionately

A Letter from Baba Jaimal Singh to his disciple, Sardar Sawan Singh

My son, whenever you are free from work during the day, always do your simran and bhajan immediately, so that no time is wasted. When an individual is free from work, he starts recalling and regretting old incidents, saying to himself, “Had I known, I would have done like this.” This is all false, because every event takes its predestined course. Nothing is gained by feeling sorry later on. Similarly, time is wasted in gossiping about people’s joys and sorrows, or in criticizing or praising them, which gives neither spiritual nor material benefit. Every breath we take and every morsel we eat is apportioned. Time is not to be wasted in pursuits that further neither worldly aims nor spiritual goals.

Simran and bhajan are not to be neglected even while doing worldly work. Nor are you ever to become lazy. Keep the attentive faculties of surat and nirat, and the mind’s inherent sense of longing, alert to the Shabd-dhun. If day and night the longing to hear the Shabd-dhun is there, then even during work the mind will remain unsoiled. Then whenever you are free, the thought of meditation alone will arise in the mind. Whether through sheer determination or with love, you must listen to the Shabd-dhun every day. This time will never come again. So do your meditation daily - not a day is to be missed.
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