The Great Escape

Our human body, like every living thing, is perishable. It is simply a covering that allows us to function and operate in this world, and eventually even this body will expire.

A poem by Saint Namdev in Many Voices, One Song captures the fleeting nature of life:

One moment bubbles appear
  on water – the next, they’re gone.
This is life: the moment you see it, it’s gone,
  and in the end your hands are empty.
The magician’s show lasts a few moments
  and the tricks look real, says Namdev.
Life looks real, but only for a moment.

In this moment, life seems so real, but then we are gone. Poof! Here today, gone tomorrow. To most of us, death seems very distant, and we commonly approach life as if we will have it forever. But life is like a coin in a magician’s hand, only seen for a moment before it disappears. This life is fleeting, elusive, frustrating.

The greatest gift the Lord offers is the opportunity to die while living. In doing so, we prepare to shed our worldly disguise of the body and free our soul. Over time an awakening takes us from this outer reality to the inner reality, where we need no disguise. What we see on the outside is a mere shadow of the truth within. Not only does our body wither and die, but also our possessions disintegrate and the people in our lives stay only for a limited time. Eventually, we realize that we live in a world of illusion.

As life changes, we fear losing our identity. However, in spirituality we must lose our identity to discover our spiritual self. The great escape from this temporary outer illusion takes us to the ultimate reality that is permanent and eternal: God.

Sometimes the greatest escape starts with recognizing our own folly, so that we can learn from our mistakes and then make decisions that keep us out of trouble. Saints tell us that we create a karmic web for ourselves through our actions, since all actions have consequences. As we sow, so must we reap. So, we need to think before we act, look before we leap, to avoid hurting ourselves by binding ourselves even tighter to this world of karmic cause and effect.

Until we are able to balance our karmic account, we are not free to leave. Over time we have accumulated much karma, good and bad deeds, which keep us in this world. During our spiritual journey we need to recognize why we make certain choices and whether those choices are helping or hurting us. Too often we may engage in actions that are destructive or take us away from the Lord rather than toward him.

To realize the great escape back to our true home with the Lord, we must make use of our short time in this human body by facing our destiny, doing our duty in the world, being a good person, and obeying our Master’s instructions, including attending to our meditation every day. Maharaj Charan Singh explains why in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I:

We do this meditation from two points of view: First, so that under the influence and intoxication of the mind we may not sow any bad seed that would cause us to come back into this world. And second, whatever we have collected in the past births, … our stored karmas, they also have to be burned. Because unless they are burned, we can never go back to the Father and we can never get rid of these karmas at all…. Whatever our stored karmas are, those we can burn only through meditation.

Only then can the soul be released from the body and the mind at the time of death, and we can finally go back home to the Lord. This escape is often a slow process, as we must account for a mountain of karma across countless lifetimes.

Every day our meditation propels us forward on our search for God. As we undertake this journey, we might find ourselves in the position of being a doubter, a seeker, or a believer. When we doubt, we question, and then we seek answers and truth. When all our questions have been answered, we become believers, committed to this path.

Saints tell us this world is not our true home, and that we have been trapped here for many lifetimes. Being blessed with this human body, we have the opportunity to return home to the Lord. It is up to the Lord how he reveals the way home to us. Throughout the journey, our Master is always there to offer a helping hand, a kind word, and perhaps even a push when we need it. He awakens our yearning, which creates such an intense longing that we cannot ignore it. At the time of initiation, the Master promises to take us out of this world and back to the Lord. Initiation is not a ceremony or a ritual. It is a commitment. A true living master is the link, the intermediary, between us and the Lord. We can meet him, talk to him, and seek answers from him. He is essential for setting us on the right path on our spiritual journey.

Meditation prepares us for death by allowing us to practice dying daily, so that when death does come, we are ready and welcome it. Often death is seen merely as the demise of the human body, but from a spiritual perspective, death is so much more.

What is death? It is when our desires fade away and our attachments quietly disappear, and we no longer see ourselves as trapped in this world. Meditation allows us to experience that inner reality guiding us home to the light and sound of the Shabd. It is the spark that creates the opportunity for the awakening of the soul. Saints tell us that through meditation we prepare ourselves for death. That preparation calms us and allows us to glimpse the wonder that awaits us. We need not be frightened of death but can embrace it as our great escape from this imperfect world and a gateway to bliss and perfect love.

To make this great escape and pass through the gateway between illusion and reality, we need to open our hearts and quiet our minds. We need to tame daily distractions through meditation, so we can make room to feel the presence of God. Everything begins with love and our receptivity to all that he is offering us. The Master stands ready to take us home at the time of death, and we have been given the keys to the kingdom. The Lord is waiting for us.

We need to ask ourselves why we hold back. Are we afraid that we aren’t good enough, that we might falter and fail, that he won’t accept and love us? Such fears are unfounded; the Master accepts us when we are initiated, with all our faults and imperfections. Saints pass no judgment, as only mercy is offered in the court of the Lord. Most important, the saints tell us that failure in Sant Mat is not an option.

Because the Master has revealed himself to us, we have the chance to be courageous, work hard, and put in effort through our meditation. Love for and devotion to the Master is best shown every day through our best effort to do simran and bhajan.

Let us take advantage of this gift of human birth and prepare for death as a beginning rather than an ending. We have been blessed with a God-given gift to escape the cycle of birth and death and free our soul. We have all been invited to the court of the Lord. The journey to get there requires no physical steps. It is a state of awareness that lies beyond the mind. We must first become mindful and then mindless so that we will not be held back in this world.

The Master has promised to take each disciple home. Let us graciously accept this invitation, throw off our worldly disguise, and free our soul. This is the greatest of all escapes: to leave the prison of our karmas and this world behind and attain true union with the Lord.

The Sufi mystic Chishty sums up this journey:

No veil intervenes between
  lover and Beloved.
I am free of every possible enemy,
  having attained union with the Friend.
_{Khawaja Moinudeen Chishty}