Our Relationship with the Master

Many of us are satsangis who’ve been on the path for quite a few years. And over time we’ve been growing in appreciation of what the path means to us – we might even shudder at the thought of having to live without it. Probably we’ve come to realize our good fortune at having been found and initiated by a living master. Very likely our relationship with our Master is the most meaningful thing in our lives.

This relationship has existed for longer than we can imagine – from the moment when we were born in fact, or perhaps even before. It started because the Lord saw our hunger for him and so created a longing within us to get closer to him. From that time onwards we have been seeking for a way to establish a meaningful relationship with him.

As we now know, for serious seekers it’s necessary to find a master who is living, so that we can relate to him and learn from him, and love him. Only a living master can reveal to us the reality of God himself, beyond any conceptual thinking. What’s more, we should never underestimate the importance of the role that our love for him and his love for us has to play. Ultimately, this is going to let us find God.

In truth, we never found the Master. When we were ready for him, he found us. And this may have arisen from our general feeling of not being comfortable in this world. We might have always had a sense that we didn’t quite belong. We may even have felt lonely.

The masters tell us that loneliness is one of the ways that we’re drawn to seeking God. If we were always happy in this world, we probably would have never given him a thought. Maharaj Charan Singh has told us that our loneliness is the soul’s hankering to go back to the Father.

Our Master has also revealed to us that we are not simply physical beings. We are spiritual beings who yearn to return to that state of bliss from which we originally came. And we’ve learned that, just as we are not mere physical creatures, neither is our Master simply a physical being. The Master has an inner form which is one with the Creator himself. And through our love for him and his love for us he will bring us back to the Creator.

Ultimately the only thing that really counts is our love for our Master and his love for us. Maharaj Charan Singh told us that there is no stronger bond that exists than the bond between master and disciple. And it all comes from him. It is his love for us that makes us respond by falling in love with him.

This is how Great Master describes a true master and why he draws us to him. In the second volume of Philosophy of the Masters he writes:

A Master possesses the unique magnetic power of love which draws a devotee towards him and creates within him a feeling of indifference towards worldly attractions. … Everything that radiates from the Master – the light of his beautiful face, the lines on his forehead, even his indifference when he is displeased with the devotee, the lustre around him when he speaks smilingly – all pierce the heart of the devotee and thus attract him to his Master.

Our souls recognize him and want to become one with him. The wonderful thing is that our Master has been sent here to make that happen.

We may feel lost sometimes. We may feel our Master is so far away we can’t reach him. But he assures us that he’s always with us. He will never leave us. And now we need to work with him. Our walking the path is a partnership with our Master – in which he is playing the biggest part. We can’t see what’s happening, and the part we’re playing is probably very small. Considering our helplessness and ignorance, we just have to do what our Master tells us to do.

The little bit we can do – our meditation and trying to live the path – is how we work with him. We do what we can on this side of the eye centre, while he does his own work in that inner space that we can’t see now. And if we find this process slow, the only way we can maybe speed it up is to work hard. And then trust that when he thinks the time is right, he’ll give us everything.

One thing our Master won’t do for us is take away our karma – he won’t change the destiny that we have to go through. But he will help us go through it. He will give us the strength to cope with what we have to endure. And he may even make the load seem lighter, easier to bear.

He also won’t stop us creating new karma, because just by being alive we’re constantly doing that. We’re told, of course, that the simple act of meditation deals with much of this. And living a moral life may prevent us from incurring heavy new karma. But still, we have to admit that some of our words and actions are not perfect. Perhaps we even feel shame afterwards about something we’ve said or done; or that our meditation remains so very shaky. But even then, he doesn’t get upset with us. Maharaj Ji told somebody once:

Let me assure you, we never displease him. How can we displease him? … when he knows how helpless we are, what victims we are of our mind, that at every step we are full of failures.… But definitely we can please him by living the Sant Mat way of life, by attending to our meditation. This definitely pleases him, but nothing displeases him.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol.III}

Knowing that, what can we do to please him? Only love him and obey him. For us, at this level, our obedience is love. Maharaj Ji has also repeatedly said that love comes from meditation. We can grow love, by meditation. It’s true that when we’re in his presence, we may feel intense love for the physical master. But even that can waver sometimes. Still, he promises that when we finally meet him inside, we’ll know what it means to love him.

Until then, we can only obey him. We can only keep working at our meditation with which we may struggle so much. And the masters have warned us: this could be a struggle for a lifetime. Because what we’re trying to do is control the wandering mind that perpetually distracts us.

There’s really only one way we can stop our attention straying out into the affairs of the world: our simran – getting our minds to work at saying the words that our Master has given us. Simran is the only thing that can stop our thoughts and make the mind still, even if for very short moments. But these moments can become longer, with attention. And when we do our bhajan, again we have to become still and just listen. We may hear nothing, but we should listen with attention. Simran and bhajan are the only way to contact our Master in his Shabd form.

For most of us, however, meditation remains a struggle. No doubt all of us have felt some frustration, or perhaps heartache, that we seem to be getting nowhere. But it may be that our very struggle is intended to increase our longing for him.

What is it that we’re actually longing for? The chances are we meditate because we want to see our inner master. If we can’t be with him outside, we want to be with him inside. But the inner master, we’re told, is pure Shabd. In other words, divine sound and light. If we’re longing for sound and light, it means we’re longing for our inner master. They’re all the same.

In Die to Live Maharaj Ji tells us that longing for the darshan of the Master will lead us to meditation. And when we can’t find the Master outside, we will try to find him inside. Our desire for his darshan will lead us within and bring our level of consciousness to where our Master is, where he will always be with us.