Perception versus Reality
Our perception of everything is based on our perspectives, which are coloured by the information we have available to us and our unconscious biases. It is, therefore, difficult to perceive things objectively.
We cloud reality with personal biases and then adopt that clouded reality as truth. This applies equally to our religious and spiritual beliefs. True mystics, however, share their experiences with us as empirical evidence, and do so in an objective and impartial manner. They teach us the fundamental truths of spirituality, as well as how to experience the spirit ourselves.
One spiritual truth, or reality, is that every action has a consequence. The precision of this universal law is applied as meticulously as every other natural law. No one is immune to the natural laws of science, such as: gravity, physics and motion, and similarly, no one is exempt from the natural law of consequences.
This law is better known as the law of karma, or to use the biblical phrase, ‘as you sow, so shall you reap.’ When we perform good deeds, we earn the appropriate rewards. Performing bad deeds equally earns their exact consequences. The law is fair and impartial and ensures that perfect justice applies equally to everyone, without favour or bias.
Another spiritual truth is that our existence does not begin with our birth and end with our death. Our body is only a vehicle for our sojourn in this particular period of our infinite existence. Maharaj Jagat Singh said:
This life is but a link in an infinite chain of existence. The body perishes but the soul lives on – immortal, treading the path back from its painful separation and prodigality to its blissful return to the mansions of the Lord.
The Science of the Soul
This leads us to yet another natural law – the law of reincarnation. Under this law, the soul migrates from one body to the next, to reap the consequences of its actions from innumerable previous births.
While the application of both the laws of karma and reincarnation are precise, it does not demand that the consequences of actions be applied immediately, and neither is it necessary for them to be applied in the same life. Since these consequences are carried from one life to another, it is also impossible to link an action directly with its consequence.
This scenario is the perfect trap for our continued existence in the creation, because we act ceaselessly while unconscious of the direct consequences of our actions. We therefore act without fear of repercussion and without awareness of the huge amount of debt we are accumulating that must be settled in some future life.
Most religions and spiritual paths have a moral code, or a code of ethics by which an aspirant should conduct his life. These codes are generally rooted in the biblical principle ‘as you sow, so shall you reap.’ Despite this, many assume that we are governed only by man-made laws and judged by these laws. When someone commits an illegal act, they invariably plead not guilty. Sometimes, through a loophole, they evade justice and assume their actions have escaped any consequences. But no one can escape the natural law of consequences.
Maharaj Jagat Singh explains:
The law of karma is universal. It is the fixed and the immutable law of nature. Each soul must reap what it has sown. Every soul shall have to bear the exact consequences of its actions.
The Science of the Soul
This law matters because the debt, or karma we create keeps us tied down to this creation for eternity. To free ourselves from the creation, we must remove this karmic barrier. We must confine our actions to those that yield desirable consequences. We must stop accumulating unnecessary new karma, and we must clear the existing accumulated karmic debt.
Mystics, who have attained this spiritual liberation, are authorized to teach us how to achieve the same freedom. They prescribe a lifestyle that is conducive to achieving this goal. Their teachings cover every aspect of living, including our diet and our moral code. They also explain how we accumulate karmic debt. Sant Mat literature deals extensively with our diet, providing cogent reasons for it. The literature also provides a comprehensive guide on how we ought to behave and live in this world.
Treasure Beyond Measure quotes a letter Maharaj Charan Singh wrote to an initiate:
When you started taking liberty with your diet and compromising with the basic principles of Sant Mat, it terribly pained me, as I knew its consequences, but I never said anything to you about it lest I may hurt you.… For the last three or four months you were insisting to know from me as to why you have to suffer so much, though all through you were conscious within yourself of its cause.
As human beings we make mistakes. The Masters advise us not to focus on past mistakes but to live according to the Sant Mat principles. Then all that will remain is for us to remove the barrier of our accumulated karma.
Maharaj Ji used the analogy of a light bulb to give us a concept of our predicament. When a bright light bulb has numerous wrappings of black cloth wrapped around it, the light, no matter how bright, will be obscured. If we remove one layer it will make no difference at all. Similarly, if we remove the second and third, it will still appear to make very little difference to the obscured light. This may tempt us to give up our search for the light, but if we do, the light will remain obscured forever.
Similarly, our daily meditation is our endeavour to remove our accumulated karma. If, with courage, faith and obedience, we continue to remove one wrapping at a time, no matter how laborious and futile we perceive our effort to be, we will make progress. Eventually, when all the wrappings have been removed, we will realize the full brightness of the light.
The consciousness, or soul, within everyone, is like the light bulb. However, it is not visible because it is encrusted with karmic debt, similar to the black wrappings over the light bulb. Only when we clear this enormous barrier will the light shine clearly once again, and we will realize our true self.
Self-realization is the process of raising our consciousness and developing our awareness of what we truly are – pure soul. We are not aware of this because our attention is scattered and focused externally. To experience this reality of our soul, we must redirect our attention from the outer physical, material world to the spiritual world within us.
As a concept this is simple to understand. However, only those who have tried to walk the spiritual path, or attempted self-realization, understand that putting these concepts into practice is overshadowed by the difficulty of achieving this goal.
We must differentiate between walking the path and realizing the goal of the path. Walking the path requires that we live a particular lifestyle, which we all can do. But achieving the goal is a long process that often takes decades or even a lifetime to attain. This should not discourage us because the masters assure us that achieving the goal is inevitable. Our disciplined and obedient efforts at daily meditation are our attempts to reach the goal, and these efforts help us build an essential relationship of love with our own beloved Master.