The One Who Hath Sent Me

A living master is essential for our soul’s ascent to its true home. This journey is fraught with unknowns, and we are dependent on a guide who has already travelled the path and been sent on a mission by the Lord himself to show us the way.

If a spiritual seeker calls upon God, he is addressing the One whom he has never seen, never heard, never touched. His belief in the reality of the One he calls upon is, therefore, shaky. But when he calls upon, or speaks of, or thinks of his murshid, he knows through his own experience that the person he is referring to is real. Because it relates to a real, lived experience, his “calling out” is different and it has the power of true faith.
_{The Spiritual Guide, Vol. 2}

Many of us come from religious backgrounds where we already began forming a personal relationship with the Lord. But what attracted us to The Path of the Masters was the opportunity to love someone real because love for an unseen Lord was too illusive for us to draw inspiration from. Abol-Hasan Kharaqani says:

Who am I to love you, Lord,
I’ll love those who love you.
_{The Spiritual Guide, Vol. 2}

However, not being able to access and experience the physical form of the Master as easily forces us to reflect on our relationship with him. It results in a wake-up call: we are compelled to examine to what extent we have truly understood the essence of the teachings.

Sufi teachers have recognized that the struggling disciple cannot get rid of his ego, along with all that he clings to in this ephemeral world, all in one step. Only gradually and through stages does he annihilate all that separates him from the One. Inayat Khan (as quoted in The Spiritual Guide, Vol. 2) explains the stages of annihilation: “One step is the annihilation in the ideal form, the next in the ideal of name, and the third step is annihilation in the nameless and formless.” He continues:

In order to attain the final goal, he (the Sufi) gradually raises his idea, first to fana fi al-sheikh, the ideal seen in a mortal walking on the earth, and he drills himself as a soldier before battle in devotion to his ideal. Then comes fana fi al-Rasul, when he sees his ideal in spirit, and pictures him in all sublimity, and fashions him with beautiful qualities, which he wishes to obtain himself. And after this he raises it to fana fi al-Allah, the love and devotion for that ideal which is beyond qualities and in which is the perfection of all qualities.
_{The Spiritual Guide, Vol. 2}

This prompts us to consider whether we are as impelled to seek the Shabd form of the Master within, ‘the ideal of name,’ during separation from his physical form. What more motivation, even provocation, do we need to attend to our meditation to progress to the next step of self-annihilation, which has the added benefit of helping us rise above the turmoil of the world? Do we want to continue to scratch the surface, practising the teachings at a superficial level, or dive deeper to unravel the truth we have already been empowered to experience in the present?

It is natural for disciples to revel in the presence of the Master. But if we have inadvertently put the physical form of the Master on a pedestal or relied excessively on it, we can just as easily fall into a trap of limiting our ‘devotion’ to merely attending satsang, doing seva, and seeking outer darshan. In The Spiritual Guide, Vol. 2, Rumi explains, “The true teacher knocks down the idol that the student makes of him.” That is, the murshid turns the disciple’s attention toward the Truth which is to be found inside himself. Additionally, Bahauddin Naqshbandi says:

We are the means of reaching the goal. It is necessary that seekers should cut themselves away from us and think only of the goal.
_{The Spiritual Guide, Vol. 2}

The necessity of turning the disciple’s attention away from the teacher and forcing us to focus on the reality within and the goal he has set before us, may be explained in the following story quoted in The Spiritual Guide, Vol. 2.

One wealthy young man became a disciple of Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir. He gave away all his property to the poor and dedicated himself wholeheartedly to the path. For three years, without a murmur of complaint, the young man served the congregation of disciples, doing all manner of menial chores.

Then Abu-Saeed told the other disciples to ignore the young man and treat him harshly, which they did. Through all this the murshid himself continued to be sweet with the young man, and he bore his suffering patiently. Then Abu-Saeed also began ignoring him. He treated him coldly and seemed never even to notice him. Although free food was available to all in the murshid’s kitchen, Abu-Saeed ordered that this young man was not to be given any food. For three days the young man did not get even a crust of bread.

On the fourth night, there was a gathering with lots of delicious food served to all, but even then the youth was ignored and left standing near the door all night, without a crumb of food. Finally, Abu-Saeed looked around and, seemingly noticing him for the first time, scolded him and told him how disgusted he was with him. He ordered the youth to be thrown out and told him not to return. Utterly distraught the young man left. Collapsing at an old mosque, he wept all through the night and prayed, “O Lord, now I have no one to turn to but you.” Suddenly, he was flooded with a great peace.

Just as this peace came upon the young man, the Master asked the disciples to bring a candle and, leaving the khanqah, they headed toward the old mosque. When they reached there, the man was still in that strange state, weeping tears of joy. ‘O Master, what is this you have done with me, I am beside myself, vanished in this state’….

‘My child,’ the Master said, ‘you had given up all and everyone, but there was still someone between you and your Lord: me! I was the only idol left in the temple of your hopes, wants, and fears and that had to be taken from you for your ego to surrender and take refuge in the Beloved. Rise now, let’s relish this victory!’

This story highlights what would truly please the Master. He never forsakes us, but the question is to what extent are we obeying his directives? He has ignited a divine possibility within us. To what extent are we unlocking the greatest opportunity of all – to unite with the one who hath sent him.

At his death, Abu-Saeed’s last words of advice to his disciples were: “Do not forget God, not even for a moment. Know that during my time, I did not invite you to myself. I declared that in reality we do not exist. I say that He exists, and that is sufficient.”

The Guru is the Word. He is a link between man and God. He is the one who takes people back to the Lord. After fulfilling his allotted task, he merges back into the Word. Likewise, the soul is also a ray of the Word, and through the grace of a true Master it is able to return and unite itself with the Word. Guru Nanak says, “The Guru is Shabd, and the soul is its disciple.”
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, The Path}