Don’t You Worry Child

As satsangis we may feel the pull of the soul back to its home in Sach Khand. Through our meditation we may have sensed that home through the sound of the Shabd. We feel drawn to the Master and, in his presence, feel some of the love and belonging the soul once felt. There is a plan for us to return, and so, as the Masters tell us time and again, it is pointless to worry. Don’t You Worry Child, a song popular with millions of young listeners around the globe, describes this:

There was a time
I used to look into my father’s eyes.
In a happy home,
I was a king, I had a golden throne.
Those days are gone,
Now the memory’s on the wall.
I hear the songs,
From the places where I was born.

Upon a hill across a blue lake,
That’s where I had my first heartbreak.
I still remember how it all changed.

My father said,
“Don’t you worry, don’t you worry, child.
See heaven’s got a plan for you.
Don’t you worry, don’t you worry now.”
_{Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, John Martin}

We could interpret this song in a spiritual context: the idea that our soul’s source or “heaven” has a plan resonates strongly with us. We could quite easily imagine ourselves as the lead character in the song and tell the story of our own soul’s journey. The song opens with:

There was a time I used to look into my father’s eyes.
In a happy home, I was a king, I had a golden throne.

These lines could illustrate the soul’s memories of Sach Khand, the highest realm of truth and purity. This is where the soul lived in eternal bliss, merged with the Father or the Shabd.

We could read into the next lines the soul’s perspective from this earthly plane:

Those days are gone,
Now the memory’s on the wall.
I hear the songs,
From the places where I was born.

Those happy days in Sach Khand might be temporarily over for the soul, due to its descent to this plane, but this doesn’t mean that all is lost. The soul can still “hear the songs”, that melodious music from where it was born.

Saints tell us, over and over again, of the divine sound current, the Shabd that resounds within each of us. How beautiful it is that we are all composed of this sound!

We can hear this sound through the practice of Surat Shabd Yoga, as instructed by the Master at the time of initiation. Even if we are not initiated and we are seekers, the sound is still there, resounding within us.

When we are initiated, we are placed back in touch with that divine sound through our meditation and we can start to make our way back home. We can attempt to walk the path of the Masters.

We can continue to trace the soul’s journey in the lines:

Upon a hill across a blue lake,
That’s where I had my first heartbreak.
I still remember how it all changed.

The hill and blue lake, familiar to us in earthly scenery, could also be symbolic of Sach Khand, the highest realm of consciousness, and the heartbreak could relate to the soul’s descent to the earthly plane. Our present Master, Baba Ji, frequently tells us that our soul is one drop of that divine ocean of Shabd and asks us to question how a drop can be happy without the ocean.

These lines could describe the soul’s sadness at leaving the ocean of bliss and falling to earth, where it got caught in the field of karmas and rebirth. Our souls have been languishing on this plane for a long time, entering rebirth after rebirth through 8.4 million species. We have forgotten our home or heaven, but at last we are starting to remember it. The Adi Granth tell us that eventually the soul will turn homeward:

For myriads of births have I been separated from you O Lord;
This birth is dedicated to you.
Pinning my hopes on you I live, sayeth Ravidas,
it is long since I have had a vision of you.
_{Quoted in Guru Ravidas: The Philosopher’s Stone}

Once we are initiated we can sometimes become disheartened and feel like giving up. We are faced with multiple obstacles in this field of karmas, which can be “heartbreak” moments for us on our spiritual journey. The way can be tiresome. We lose hope and begin to worry about our family, relationships, finances, education, work, health – the list is endless. When we try to meditate, the mind wanders under the pressure of our problems. How can we motivate ourselves to keep going and not give up? How can we hear the divine, happy songs of home again? In Spiritual Letters, Baba Jaimal Singh writes:

Put all your worries aside because there is nothing higher than meditation. Increase the duration of your practice from day to day, never decrease it; always keep this in your mind.

This assurance that there is nothing in this world that is higher than our meditation is extremely comforting. There is no problem in our life that is bigger than our meditation. If we keep this reassurance in our hearts and at the core of our meditation practice, we will surely be successful spiritual warriors and make our way home.

Similarly, in the chorus of the song, we read the lines:

My Father said,
“Don’t you worry, don’t you worry, child.
See heaven’s got a plan for you.
Don’t you worry, don’t you worry now.”

All things in this world are impermanent yet we believe them to be real. We get lost for a while in relationships with friends, family, colleagues and so on. And when these relationships come to an end, we can be devastated. This plays on our minds and keeps us from sitting in meditation or from pursuing life as a seeker.

In Legacy of Love, Maharaj Charan Singh states:

Life itself is very simple. And our needs are very simple in this creation. We complicate our needs by our requirements. We create problems at every step and then try to solve them.

Complicating our lives, we become entangled in this karmic web. Only attention to the Master’s message of calm and detachment will deliver us. The Masters in their infinite wisdom tell us that our lives exist due to a combination of good and bad karmas. Therefore, throughout our lives we will experience various situations and relationships both good and bad, as these are the outcomes of our past actions.

The most reassuring message is that throughout all of these experiences, however disturbing, we still have a friend. That friend is our one and only true friend in this world and the next, our Sat Guru, who guides us according to the divine plan laid out for us. He guides us with the highest love and compassion and in the full knowledge of what is best for our soul’s development. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I, Maharaj Charan Singh says:

If you try to pick up the thorns of the world, you can never succeed, but if you put strong shoes on your feet, no thorns will bother you. Similarly, we can never solve the problems of this world, but we can always rise above them.

Therefore, as initiates undertaking a minimum of two and a half hours meditation practice every day, and with the Master’s grace, we have some hope of getting back in touch with the sound current again and finding our way home.

If we listen with love to the teachings of our present Master, Baba Ji, read the scriptures of the saints and keep love in our hearts where the Master ultimately lives, then, because the Lord does have a plan for us, we will surely find a way back home to Sach Khand, the land of eternal bliss.