Ever-Present Shabd

In Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. IV, the Great Master has defined the essential aspect of all spirituality:

The Shabd is the basis of all true religions, for religion means “that which connects us with the Lord”. … Shabd is all-powerful and is the Creator of all. It is therefore the seed of the entire creation. Whatever is in the seed is also in the tree which springs from it.

We are told that the real form of our Master is Shabd. The Masters have constantly reminded us not to chase after the Master in his physical form – that our focus should be on meeting the Master on the inside, his Shabd form. It is also in his Shabd form that the Master is constantly with us. Maharaj Charan Singh repeatedly told us that the Master is closer to us than our very breath. He was telling us that we and the Master are inseparable.

This becomes more real to us if we keep reminding ourselves that the real Master is Shabd – and that this Shabd, this audible life stream, is what sustains everything in the creation. Not only is the Word or Shabd present in every cell in our bodies and in every other part of the creation, but it sustains each and every particle. Withdraw the Shabd from these infinite numbers of particles, and they – and the entire creation that depends on them – will cease to exist. We would then experience instant dissolution. Without Shabd to maintain the energy or life force in the creation, there would be nothing. The creation as we know it would simply cease to be.

In Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. IV, the Great Master provides this very clear explanation of Shabd.

The Shabd is the very essence of the Lord and it sustains millions of universes and regions. … It is the life current which originates from the Lord and pervades everything. The Lord creates and sustains the entire universe through this great Current of Power. It gives life to the whole of the creation and can take every living being back to his original home or the Lord.

We read in One Being One:

He is in the creation, and the creation is in Him. If He withdrew His Word, everything would vanish, like switching off a light. Through His Word, He is present in every little (and bigger) particle of His creation.

That means that he is constantly present in us. And to add to the wonder of this, we’re told that, as initiates of a perfect living Master, we can have conscious access to this wondrous Shabd. Through our one-pointed meditation, we can experience its awesomeness. And at the same time we can prove its existence for ourselves, once and for all. What is profoundly encouraging is that this Shabd, this sound, can be heard in our meditation.

In The Path of the Masters, this most important aspect of Shabd is highlighted, which enables us to irrefutably prove the existence of the audible life stream for ourselves.

We come back now to that particular phase of the audible life stream which concerns us most – the fact that it can be heard. This is an amazing thing, marvellous to contemplate! This idea is so utterly new, to the Western world in particular. It amounts to the most important discovery of modern thought, and yet it is not a modern discovery. It is a fact of nature well known to Masters during the most remote ages. It is the loss of this important knowledge that has left most of the world in spiritual darkness.

We don’t need to be spiritually advanced to hear the Shabd. The Masters recommend that whatever sound we hear when we do our bhajan, we should focus on it. With time and focused attention, this sound gradually transforms from its most elementary or basic variations to the divine music.

As we are all inherently spiritual beings, and the Shabd permeates every part of our being, we are already in possession of all the qualities required for God-realization. This is our ultimate goal and we will reach it. It will take time and no doubt much effort, but in our own Master we have a personal, loving friend and guide to support and direct our every move along the way.

Shabd is the essence of all reality and existence – the divine Word, the heavenly Harmony, the celestial Music. It is the light and life of all creation; it is the very being of the ultimate absolute; it is the supreme current of spirituality, a wave or tide of the ocean of Godhead. It permeates all creation; it pervades the whole cosmos. Only the transcendent soul can come in contact with it; only in a superconscious rapture of mystic transport can we touch it and know it. … Only in a moment of eternal consciousness do we become one with it.
_{Mysticism, the Spiritual Path}