Why Not Submit to the Master?

Let’s think about two really important subjects: what do we truly know, and how much control do we have over our lives?

Given our intellectual development, we might think that we know an awful lot. But the real question is not what we know about, but what we know first-hand, from personal experience. An illustration would be if someone said that they knew how to drive a car because they had read a book on the subject – would we want to be a passenger in a car with such a driver?

For satsangis, our primary interest in life is the spiritual path and making progress on it. So let’s look at four of the most important components of the spiritual path and then see how much we actually know about them.

First, God exists, and he is central to most spiritual systems. But do we have any idea of who and what God is? If we are entirely honest, we must admit that we have very little, if any, direct knowledge of him. It’s true that we can say a lot about him, such as he is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. We could also say that he is immortal, and that he created everything. But, does this give us any real knowledge of who and what God is? We are forced to admit that it does not. God is entirely beyond us. And to try to know God when one is still within the domain of mind is absurd, since it is obviously impossible to know what is beyond mind by means of the mind. It simply cannot be done.

Second, there is Shabd or Nam – terms that are perhaps used very lightly by most of us, as we don’t yet have the ability to really appreciate what Shabd is. Shabd is a power that is the emanation of the Lord himself, by means of which he created all that is, and by which he sustains it. Were he to withdraw the Shabd, everything would cease to exist.

However, in order to truly know Shabd, we first have to go where it can be experienced, and the mystics tell us that although it is everywhere and within everyone, we cannot fully experience its power until we achieve a certain level of concentration at the eye centre. Only when we rise above the eye centre do we meet the Radiant Form of our Master, and experience the pulling power of the Shabd. It is then that we begin to develop true knowledge of this divine Word of God. Again, not that many of us will have progressed to this stage. Therefore, we remain strangers to this essential aspect of spirituality.

Third, there is the Master. We may claim to know the Master, since we have met him ‘in the flesh,’ having perhaps been to Dera or seen him when he visits the sangat around the world. But the saints tell us that the physical master is not the true Master. We need to go within to encounter the true Master in his Shabd form before we can claim that we know him. The outer Master has a body of flesh and blood just like the rest of us, and he too will age and one day pass from this world. How can that be the true Master? So again, not many of us can claim to know the real Master – the inner Master.

Fourth, there is the soul. But what do we know about the soul? The mystics say that our true identity is the soul. Immortal, beyond birth and death, our soul is said to be a particle of the Lord himself. However, when we refer to the soul, do we actually know what we’re talking about? With very few exceptions, our knowledge is confined to our physical body and its associated mind. How then can we experience the soul, when our entire awareness is focused in the physical domain?

So when answering the question “What do we truly know?” We have to admit that, with a few exceptions, we know absolutely nothing concerning these central elements of the spiritual path. We exist, in fact, in a state of ignorance.

Our second question – “How much control do we have over our lives?” – is a bit more tricky, as the subject borders closely on the issue of free will, about which we have many discussions. The mystics tell us that when we take birth, we bring a destiny with us that determines the major events in our life, and when this destiny is completed, this life comes to an end.

We may ask, did we choose our parents, the country we were born in or if we selected our DNA, which determines so much of our potential, skills and abilities? The obvious answer is, “No, we did not!” So how much of our destiny was actually in our hands?

When opportunities came our way and we took advantage of them, and our lives took a different direction from what we had expected – can we take credit for that? Did we really have much choice in the partners we chose, the friends and enemies we made? And all those times we got sick, did we choose to catch a cold, get the flu or any of the other medical miseries that may have come our way during our lives? Not likely!

It turns out that every aspect of our life has been determined by karma, and that we have had very little power to direct it. Only that which was destined for us has come our way. All our dreams and fantasies are like a morning mist that dissipates in the warmth of the sun.

Therefore, when contemplating the issues of our knowledge and power, we come to the inescapable conclusion that we are both ignorant and helpless. And so, it appears that we are faced with an extremely bleak future in which we seem to be in a rudderless ship, helplessly tossed about by waves of karma on the ocean of life.

Happily, Soami Ji has a solution to our predicament, and he asks us a very pertinent question: “Why not submit to the Master?”

The Master has true knowledge and power, so what more logical course of action could there be? The problem is that our ego does not take kindly to the idea of submission – of deferring one’s own judgment and decisions in favour of those of another. However, when we realize our own helplessness and ignorance, and it becomes obvious that we are not able to help ourselves, then surely the wisest decision is to submit to one who has the means to guide us out of this bondage – one who can rescue us from the clutches of attachment and desires?

Soami Ji continues:

You have spent this human life in delusion.
Your spouse, your children,
  indeed, your entire family are cheats,
  so why waste time and energy on them?

We spend much of our lives in service to our families, friends and others, but to what purpose? We invest so much of ourselves in these relationships that we do not serve our own best interests, which is why Soami Ji refers to them as “cheats.” He is drawing our attention to the fact that they cheat us of our time and the effort necessary to attend to our spiritual needs.

And it is precisely these attachments that bind us to this material creation. How many mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters have we had? We need to keep this in perspective. They are going through their individual karmas and so are we. These relationships are based on karmic debts. When the debt is paid, the relationship comes to an end. In that context all these interactions we go through have no relevance at all.

Nor is relying on our own resources and trying to find our own way out of the maze of coming and going to bring the liberation we want. Once more our only recourse is to seek out one who knows – one who has himself attained the goal and is prepared to help us achieve the same end.

Such a one is a spiritually realized Master, who actually knows the true path and has followed it to its conclusion, meaning that he knows God, the Shabd and the soul. Finding ourselves helpless and ignorant – where else could we turn? He is the only one who can help us to escape our dilemma and lead us on the pathway to ultimate reality. Soami Ji advises us: ‟Attach yourself to Nam, dear friend.”

Again we realize that unaided we can never gain the perspective of truth and reality that the mystics have, and that if we want to achieve any lasting benefit from this life, we will find it only by following the instructions of a true, living Master.