What Is the Sabbath?

In the Bible, we are told that Ten Commandments were given to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai – these are:

• I am the LORD your God.
  
• You shall not have strange Gods before me.
  
• You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
  
• Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
  
• Honor your father and your mother.
  
• You shall not kill.
  
• You shall not commit adultery.
  
• You shall not steal.
  
• You shall not bear false witness against a neighbour.
  
• You shall not covet.

The fourth commandment is the one we wish to think about today. After the first three, which establish the foundation for belief and action, of love, adherence and loyalty to singular unity, one God, without any accretions or modifications, we are told to “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” In another biblical text, the word remember is replaced with the word keep.

Why is this important? It is not the specific seventh day that is at issue, it is the concept of the holiness of a special time when we focus our attention on God – on keeping our mind on the remembrance of God. This idea of devoting our time to God is what the twentieth-century philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel called the “Sanctuary of Time,” rather than a physical sanctuary or cathedral.

It symbolizes a time of rest and renewal, a time to refresh our outlook on life – a time to delve deep into ourselves in meditation.

It is a reminder to focus on the purpose of life: our commitment to return our soul to its origin in God, our primal home – a time to focus our mind on God and his love, to be thankful for the gift of life.

So, how can we enter our inner sanctuary, our sanctuary in time? Through meditation. We have been given a technique, a method, a practice. Once we have learned this practice from our spiritual master, we just need to do it: simran (repetition), dhyan (contemplation), bhajan (listening to the inner sound).

As stated in the introduction to Spiritual Gems:

Our soul is a drop from the ocean of bliss, life, and energy, from which it separated many millions of ages ago. It is a stranger in this foreign land of agony and grief. There is nothing homogeneous to it here below in this world of earth, water, fire, and air. Unless it returns to its ancient original home, its sorrows and sufferings cannot and will not end. For this purpose, it need not seek anywhere outside itself. Our body is the temple within which the Lord resides. No one has ever found Him nor will ever find Him outside.

All the saints, sages, and prophets of the world affirm that “the Kingdom of God is within us,” and that one is not to wander outside to achieve salvation. The Lord dwells in this “temple of nine gates” (our body). One only needs a teacher or guide who knows the secret of the path to enter this palace of the Lord, our loving Father. This is possible only in human life. No subhuman species has this capacity or privilege. A teacher of the science of spirituality is as much needed as is a teacher of any other science or art. This unknown path is so curved, complex, and labyrinthine that one cannot tread it without the help of a guide – an enlightened soul. This guide must be a living master, who can take us to the highest region, beyond death and dissolution, whence there is no coming back. Such masters are always present in the world. The masters who died long ago, or their writings, can be of little help to us.

The method of God-realization taught by all the saints, to whichever country or religion they have belonged, has always been the same and will ever be the same. It is not designed by man, that it may need alteration, addition, or modification. It is the Lord’s own design and is as old as the creation itself. It consists of three parts: First is simran, or the repetition of Lord’s holy names. It brings back our scattered attention to the tisra til – the third eye (behind our eyes), which is the headquarters of our mind and soul.

Second is dhyan, or contemplation on the immortal form of the Master. This helps in keeping the attention fixed at that centre.

Third is bhajan, or listening to the Anahad Shabd or celestial music that is constantly reverberating within us. With the help of this divine melody, the soul ascends to higher regions and ultimately reaches the Lord.

This, in a nutshell, is the gist of the spiritual practice which the saints of all ages and countries have been teaching to their disciples for the purpose of God-realization. Blessed are those who come across a perfect Master, who takes them back to their original home.