Realizing Human Potential

Phrases such as ‘Become your best self’ and ‘Live your best life’ epitomize contemporary notions of human potential. At first glance, such slogans seem rather appealing as they imply some form of self-improvement. However, aside from vague calls about living life on ‘your own terms’, rarely do those promoting the importance of maximizing one’s potential provide meaningful insights about what exactly this entails. According to social media, human potential is about looking flawless, wearing exquisite clothes, and enjoying speciality dishes prepared in fine-dining establishments in fashionable destinations.

The mystics offer an alternative vision of human potential to these images of luxury, exclusivity and perfect looks as promoted by present-day influencers. Instead of external beauty, mystics focus on internal beauty. Instead of fulfilling individual desires and ambitions, mystics talk about annihilating the ego. Instead of exclusivity, mystics emphasize that all human beings are equal. Mystics explain that human potential is about becoming God-like and that realizing this, i.e. becoming divine, constitutes the primary purpose of life. In the book My Submission, for example, Maharaj Sawan Singh states:

There is but one objective for every human being to fulfil – that of becoming a perfect individual. According to spiritually enlightened people, we can only become perfect by being one with God, the perfect being.

Elsewhere, the Great Master explains that to attain union with God, one should recognize the divine in yourself. The ability to recognize the divine within ourselves is a universal truth explained by mystics throughout the centuries. Drawing on their own spiritual experiences, they inform us that to be born as a human being is one of the greatest gifts that God can bestow upon us. In fact, enlightening us about the significance of one’s human birth is where the mystics begin their spiritual teachings. Saint Kanhoba, a 17th-century Maharashtrian mystic, declared that no other good fortune is comparable to being born human, for it is the storehouse of immense treasure:

What a treasure has been placed in your hand!
Unlucky souls turn this treasure to dust –
  this body that holds the essence of all goodness,
  this body that holds a library of scriptures,
  this body that breathes true holiness into holy places.
Kanhoba says, Nothing can compare
  with being born human.
_{Many Voices, One Song: The poet mystics of Maharashtra}

The treasure Saint Kanhoba refers to is God; illuminating the Hindu sages’ description of the human form as nar narayani deh, the body that holds man and God within it. Likewise, in the Bible (Luke 17:20-21), Jesus states, “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you”, while in the Sikh scriptures, Guru Amar Das tells us:

The Lord who has given life
To the entire creation,
Who is the supreme Giver,
Who nurtures and sustains everyone,
Resides within the human body.

It’s natural to ask, if the divine is within us, why can’t we see or talk to such an entity or power? The mystics explain that of the three parts that comprise a human being – body, mind, and soul – divinity resides in the last. As one Persian mystic put it, “You are the image of God for God is your very soul.” However, for some of us, this too is an unsatisfactory explanation and raises more questions, for example: How do we know that there’s a soul in the body? Isn’t the idea of God or some ineffable superconscious being an old-fashioned way of controlling our behaviour by promising some perfect afterlife as a reward for being good now? These are not new questions; seekers have been posing them since the beginning of time.

True mystics do not evade such questions but tackle them head-on. In fact, true mystics discourage blind faith and urge seekers to gain an intellectual understanding of the theory of a given spiritual path to clarify queries and dissolve lingering doubts, before they commit to a particular path. This advice may appear to contradict mysticism’s central tenet about spirituality constituting a path of action; however, theoretical knowledge is an integral first step to realizing one’s human potential. Maharaj Charan Singh explains why in The Master Answers:

I generally advise the seekers that even if they spend their whole life in seeking, it is not time lost, but it is time gained. We should never plunge blindly into anything. We must satisfy our intellect, so that this intellect may not become a barrier in our way.… We are just building a strong foundation. We are digging deep for a building. The deeper the foundation the bigger the construction you can put up.… And once we have satisfied our intellect, then we should not let our intellect interfere with our progress. We should set aside the intellect. What we need then is practice and faith.

Maharaj Charan Singh explains that learning about the fundamental principles of a spiritual path is necessary to establish a solid foundation from which to practice its teachings wholeheartedly, so that it becomes a way of life. Without this foundation, it becomes harder to cultivate the clear thinking needed to ensure that our actions align with our spiritual goal. Without clear thinking we could be easily side-tracked from the path’s lifelong principles. Yet, before we even get to this stage, it’s useful to think about how we approach spirituality. Are we willing to keep an open mind and be receptive to ideas that may challenge our existing views?

Approaching spirituality with critical open-mindedness
Detailed below is the Surat Shabd Yoga technique (the science of connecting the soul with its Creator) taught by the Sant Mat Masters. The technique enables us to realize our true self during our lifetime. However, realization of our human potential requires single-minded focus, dedication, diligence, and perseverance. Consequently, there is a time lag between intellectually understanding the mystics’ teachings and realizing the truth for ourselves. Therefore, we must be prepared to take a leap of faith as to the veracity of Sant Mat, and this begins by approaching the philosophy with an open mind.

In the book Liberation of the Soul, the author emphasizes the need to approach spirituality without preconceived ideas or biases, drawing attention to the limitations of our physical senses and our mind. Regarding the former, the book explains that while we use our physical senses to make sense of the world, some things exist beyond what we can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. For example, our hearing is limited to a specific range so that, unlike dogs, we can’t hear the sound of a dog whistle. Likewise, x-rays penetrate the body and interact with tissues but are invisible to the human eye. The same is true of gravity; at best, we can observe the effects that this fundamental force of nature has on the objects in everyday life but we can’t actually see gravity. Just because we can’t see or hear things with our senses in the material world doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. This principle extends to mysticism.

Turning to the human mind, the author of Liberation of the Soul reminds us that, although remarkable, the mind has its limitations and is unable to answer the really big existential questions like: Where do we come from? Why are we here? Does God or some super-conscious power exist? If so, did it create the universe and why? Studying spiritual literature may provide modest insights into these questions, but knowledge of reality is beyond the reach of the intellect. To fully grasp the truth, we must go beyond the mind’s intellectual reasoning and experience that truth for ourselves.

Another way in which our mind is limited is that it processes information selectively. Specifically, its natural inclination is to accept ideas that support our existing beliefs and to reject those that challenge them. We may even go so far as to think: If what I’m told about mystics’ approach to human potential goes along with the way I see things, I’ll accept their spiritual teachings. Approaching spirituality in this way hinders our ability to learn the truth because our starting point is biased, as we believe that our view of reality is correct. The risk of approaching mysticism in this way – as concluded in the Liberation of the Soul – is that “it will always appear to be a philosophy of nonsense taught by colossal fools.” What can we take from this? It’s essential to keep an open mind to understand why mystics view human potential as centred on God-realization and how to achieve this while alive.

Do human beings have a soul?
One way to think about whether a soul exists is to consider what distinguishes a living person from a dead one. Scientists inform us that there is no difference in the physical composition of the human body after death; it comprises the same elements as it did. If the body’s material composition remains the same, then something non-material must change. According to the mystics, this points to the departure after death of the body’s power source or the energy that sustains it. That something is our soul. It is our life force; without it, we cease to exist. There is something else extraordinary about the soul. While we mistakenly believe that our self-constructed identity is the real us, mystics inform us that the soul is our true self. They also tell us that the essence of the soul is the same as that of divinity – God’s creative power. In Sant Mat, this power is typically called the Shabd or Nam but other spiritual paths and mystic traditions have given it a different name, such as the Word, Logos, Kalma and many others.

To recap, what makes a person human is not the parts that are perishable (the physical body and the mind), but the soul. As a particle of God’s creative power, the soul possesses the same attributes as those of the divine. Therefore, by coming to know our soul – our true self – we come to know God and become God. When Socrates said – “Self-realization before God-realization” in one sentence, he encapsulated the two stages of human potential in a nutshell.

How the mystics approach human potential
We need help to realize our full potential and the purpose of life, and only a living Master can provide it. To reach the level of perfection mentioned by Maharaj Sawan Singh at the start of this article, we need a master who has realized what is true and can convey that truth to us. As described in Essential Sant Mat, a true living master shows us what is needed; he is one

who leads us to the understanding of how things really are, a true perception without illusion. This is not the kind of truth that can be expressed in words. It can be realized only through experience. A true master shows us the practical steps needed to experience truth for ourselves.

In Light on Saint John, Maharaj Charan Singh elaborates on the role of the Master by likening him to a shepherd who is responsible for a flock of sheep. Drawing on an image from the Bible, he said:

The master is our loving shepherd, and the eye centre or third eye in our body is the door to our house. It is through this door that the master in his Radiant Form receives his disciples and … leads us out of the prison of this world to everlasting freedom and peace – our heavenly home. He never calls us from behind, but is always in front of us. He remains ahead, always guiding and protecting us on the way.

Maharaj Charan Singh explains that the door leading to our home of eternal bliss is at the third eye, and it is through this door that he will receive us. Surat Shabd Yoga is the meditation method taught by Sant Mat masters, taking seekers up to and through the ‘door’. By practising meditation diligently, we will gradually be able to withdraw our consciousness to the eye centre, which is located above and between the two physical eyes. Here, at the gateway to liberation, one’s soul sees a radiant light from which emanates a melodious sound – the Shabd. Maharaj Charan Singh explains:

It is by listening to this sound that we find the direction of our home, and we travel the inner journey guided by the light, so that stage by stage we reach our destination.
_{Spiritual Discourses, Vol. II.}

It is God’s creative power – the Shabd – that lifts and raises our soul to spiritual planes; and the only way to hear and see the Shabd is to induce his grace. We devote our whole lives to things which have no permanent value; meditation is the one genuine act that helps us to achieve our potential as human beings. As our soul moves closer to divinity, the joy, peace, love, and bliss we’ll experience will be immeasurably superior to any happiness we may derive from becoming one’s best self as envisaged by mainstream society. Samarth Ramdas, the 17th-century Maharashtrian mystic, expressed our full potential beautifully:

Sit in solitude, meditate and rest in the Lord.
Concentration will come – this is spirituality.
When you’re listening and repeating
  every moment, fulfillment will come.
When your knowledge of God is perfect,
  you’ll be whole, you’ll want nothing else.
_{Many Voices, One Song, The Poet Mystics of Maharashtra}