Love in Action
When embarking on a spiritual path, we realize that the purpose of this human birth is to develop a relationship with the Lord. Ultimately, the goal of this relationship is to merge our soul with him. When we elect to follow a spiritual path, it becomes our responsibility to practise the teachings as taught to us. In Sant Mat, we are extremely fortunate to have living masters to guide us to an understanding of the scriptures and mystic teachings and, most important, the practical implementation of these teachings.
On first encountering the path, it is important that we try to satisfy the intellect to gain a level of confidence and conviction, so that we can follow the path steadfastly and progress sufficiently to achieve our goal. The important questions are: can we graduate beyond merely satisfying the intellect and move into the realm of implementation, and can we live and practise the teachings so that we make the desired spiritual progress?
Alternatively, do we, as victims of our mind, remain perpetually in the realm of trying to satisfy the intellect with its millions of questions? A little reflection will leave no doubt that answering each question only results in more questions. Further reflection will also reveal that never-ending questions and answers are futile, unless we apply the answers and adopt the solutions.
This concept is eloquently expressed in the acclaimed quote from the poem The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson:
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
No army can win a battle if soldiers question the decisions of the army commander. Similarly, spiritual aspirants cannot achieve their goal by indulging in endless questions. If we want to progress spiritually, our only recourse is not to reason why – but just to do it! We must make every effort to follow the Master’s requests diligently and leave the results to the spiritual commander – our Master.
By engaging our intellect, it is so easy – and indeed common – to fall prey to mental gymnastics. All debates and discussions on spiritual concepts are an attempt to gain an intellectual understanding of matters that are, in fact, beyond human comprehension. One also cannot rule out the ego’s habit of thinking that it knows better. As victims of a ‘mind in control’, we incessantly indulge in the practice of trying to understand by analyzing, justifying and rationalizing, without any meaningful result.
Yet, even decades after initiation, we might continue in this pointless endeavour at the command of the mind. This is the mind’s cunning method of keeping us away from practising and living the masters’ teachings. Fortunately, there is a panacea, and that is to bring the mind under our control. But how do we control our wily mind? Maharaj Charan Singh explains in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I:
Our mind has become the slave of the senses, and the soul has become a slave of the mind, for through the mind it also is being drawn to the senses. Now we are to reverse the process. When mind wants to go to the senses, it will go there, but if it refuses to be attracted to them, it will leave the senses. When the mind leaves the senses, it becomes our friend.
We therefore need to reverse the control of the senses over the mind and the control of the mind over the soul. Simple though this may sound, it requires a lifetime of effort in meditation. The process of meditation entails withdrawing our attention from within the body as well as from outside of the body, and then concentrating that attention at the eye centre.
Achieving this breakthrough will give the mind greater inner enjoyment than it experiences from worldly sensual pleasures, which become insipid by comparison. The mind will therefore cease to be attracted by worldly delights, and this is the secret to spiritual progress.
The body has ten doors or apertures. Nine of these doors take our attention outwards, while only one door – the tenth – takes our attention inwards and upwards. The secret to spiritual progress lies in closing the nine doors, which comprise the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils, the mouth and the two lower apertures.
We know from personal experience that these nine doors are not only our connection to the material world, but are indeed gaping holes, through which our attention is squandered in the world and its ephemeral attractions. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II, Maharaj Ji confirms this:
The soul and mind are knotted together here, at the eye centre. All our thoughts are spread into the whole world, coming from here and running out through the nine apertures of the body.
It is our responsibility to gradually close these nine apertures and allow our attention to be channelled towards the tenth door that leads within. Since we believe that liberation awaits us at this door – also known as the eye centre – it is essential that we fulfil our responsibility and close the nine doors, so that our attention can automatically rise to the tenth. This means we must make every effort to be selective in what we expose our mind and senses to, as this has a direct impact on our ability to reach the tenth door.
With the unique gift of our sense of discrimination, we must control what we see, hear, smell, taste and eat. By controlling what we are exposed to, we will find that it becomes much easier to concentrate the attention when we meditate, because during the day it hasn’t spread out as much as usual. Simultaneously, by meditating and withdrawing our attention to the eye centre, we gradually redirect it away from the nine doors.
However, no matter how rational, appealing or inspiring words are, they have little or no value unless the message they carry is put into action. In the final analysis, it is only our actions that count. At present, our belief that closing the nine doors will lead us to the tenth door is merely a concept. But implementing the actual practice will eventually lead us inwards to the eternal salvation we seek.
Similarly, when we declare our love for the Master, we are gently reminded to reflect it in our actions. Our actions must always be in keeping with our stated declarations, intentions and desires, for it is our actions that help determine our destination.
So, how do we reflect our love in our actions? What better examples can there be than the living Masters of Beas? They live within the Lord’s will, accepting both good and bad equally as gifts from the Lord, as they tirelessly serve humanity. They themselves have been perfect disciples who have shut the nine doors of the body by controlling the mind, and by not feeding its every whim and fancy. If we wish to achieve our spiritual goal of merging our soul with the Lord, we ought to follow the Masters’ example.
As seekers, we frequently express our desire for spiritual progress, but do our actions reflect this desire? If we long for spiritual progress, let’s express our love and longing through our every action and not through our words. This will constitute living the teachings of our Master, who is the epitome of love in action.