INTRODUCTION

Teachings of the Saints

Every Saint has the same message to give, and the same teachings to impart. No Saint, no perfect Master, comes into this world to create a religion, to divide people, to set one nation against another or one religion against another. They come only to show us the Way which leads us back to our original Home. After a Master departs, people generally turn to rites and rituals, and give his lofty teachings the form of an organized religion. Then we become bigoted, we start fighting and quarreling with one another, and the real teachings of the Saint are soon forgotten.

Saints do not come into the world of their own will; they are always appointed and sent by the Father. By themselves, neither do they desire to preach, nor do they want to initiate anybody. Whenever the Lord wishes, He Himself sends a Master to collect His marked souls, the souls which He has allotted to him. Christ speaks of “the Father which hath sent me,” and says, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.”¹ Guru Arjan, speaking about the coming of Saints to this world, says:

They are beyond both birth and death.
They, the compassionate and merciful ones,
Come to grant new life and kindle devotion,
And enable the soul to meet the Lord.²

Saints may be born in the East or the West, in any country, caste or creed – it makes no difference. They come on a mission of mercy to save us from the sufferings of this world. The purpose of every Mystic in coming to this world is to save His chosen souls, to put them on the Path to God-realization, to give them comfort, to give them rest, and to take them back to their eternal Home, to the level of the Father. For unless we reach the level of the Father, we cannot attain everlasting peace. The Master puts his disciples on the spiritual Path and gives them certain teachings and guidelines regarding their spiritual practice and their conduct in the world.

WORLDLY RESPONSIBILITIES
Saints tell us that in order to realize God, we do not need to undertake any external formalities, such as fasts, pilgrimages, and adopting a particular type of dress or hair style; nor do they advocate that we withdraw from society or run away from worldly responsibilities. Namdev says, “By going to forests and becoming a hermit, thou escapest not desire, attachment and delusion.”³

We have to do our duty as a citizen, as a husband, a wife, a son, a brother, a friend. But we should not be so obsessed by these duties and relationships that we forget the real purpose of our life, our real destination. We have to keep our goal in view and follow the Path which leads us back to our Home. But the Saints say that, along with spiritual practice, we must also continue to fulfill our worldly responsibilities.

TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD
Saints do not ask us to go to forests or mountains, churches or synagogues to worship the Lord, because He is not to be found outside. He is within our body. St. Paul explains that the body is the temple of the living God:

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.⁴

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?… for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.⁵

Since the Lord is within us, we must seek Him within this “temple” of the body. Guru Amar Das says:

Within the body He Himself resides,
Yet He cannot be seen, that Invisible One.
Under the sway of mind,
Fools know not the truth,
And search for Him outside.⁶

Every Saint, every Master, has tried to explain to us that this body is the temple of the living God. Guru Amar Das says, “This body is truly the Hari mandir.”⁷ Hari means Lord; mandir means the place where the Lord resides. Indian sages refer to it as nar Narainideh, meaning the human body, in which the Lord is located, and in which our soul can become the Lord again by merging back into Him.

Each Saint teaches us the simple truth that the Lord is within every one of us; and since He is within every one of us, naturally we have to seek Him within. The human body is a laboratory in which we have to undertake research for reunion with Him, for it is only when we have been given this precious human form that we can realize God within ourselves.

HUMAN BIRTH IS INVALUABLE
The human form is a great blessing. It has been called the “top of the creation” by Muslim Saints, and Christ describes it as superior to all other forms of creation. In fact, in the Bible we read that man is made in the image of God, and Jesus, when he replies to the accusation that he is blaspheming by claiming to be the Son of God, reminds us that all men are God:

Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?⁸

This form is granted to us only after many births in the lower species. Soami Ji says, “After drifting through millions of births, at last you’ve obtained this precious human form.”⁹ Emphasizing the great privilege of human birth, Guru Arjan says we should make use of this rare chance to meet the Lord:

Many lives have you had as insects and worms,
And many lives as elephants, fish and deer;
In many lives were you born a snake or a bird,
And countless times, you lived as a tree.
After aeons you’ve obtained the glory of human birth:
Now it’s your chance – meet the Lord!¹⁰

Kabir also stresses the importance of the human form and the opportunity it offers for returning to the Lord: just as a ripe fruit once fallen from its branch can never go back again, so also, once wasted, the human form is difficult to get again.

This form is bestowed upon us for the sole purpose of attaining God-realization. It is the only exit with which the Lord has provided us to escape from this vast prison-house of the phenomenal world. But we get so deeply engrossed in worldly activities and sensual pleasures that we completely ignore the purpose of our incarnation; we chase the shadow, but lose the substance.

The Saints have also compared this body to the top rung of a ladder. If we try hard, we may succeed in stepping onto the “roof,” the realm of everlasting peace and bliss within. Otherwise, we shall slip and fall into the turbulent ocean of the world once more. It is only in the human birth, in other words, that we have the possibility of attaining liberation. For it is as a human being alone that we can meet a perfect Master, be told about the Path within, and follow the practice of Shabd or Word, which leads to our ultimate Goal.

THE TRUE NAME
We all talk of the Lord’s Name, but fail to distinguish between the spoken or written word, and the true Word, which can neither be spoken nor written. Names like Ram, Rahim, Allah, Wahiguru, Radhasoami, Jehovah or Khuda can be spoken and written, and their time and history can be traced. But the true Name of the Lord, to which all Saints refer, existed before time began. The whole Universe, including time and space, was created by that Name, out of the Name. Guru Amar Das says, “Everything that we see in this world was created by the Name.”¹¹

This Creative Power has been referred to by Indian Saints as Shabd (Word), Nam (Name), Dhun (Sound), Akash Bani (Voice from the Heavens), Bani (Sound, Voice); Muslim Saints have called it Kalma (Word), Kun (Command), Bang-i-Ilahi (Voice of God), Nada-i-Asmani (Voice from the Heavens); and in the Bible, the same Power is referred to variously as the Word or Logos, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit, the Comforter, the Living Water.¹²

All the Saints say that God and the Word are one and the same, and that the Word created the entire Universe. The Bible says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.¹³

Guru Nanak expresses the same truth when he says:

The Word created the earth,
The Word created the sky,
Through the Word emanated light.
The entire world is sustained by the Word;
The Word dwells in each and every being.

There is no difference between that Word, or Name of the Lord, and the Lord Himself. Talking of this Name, Muinudin Chishti says, “Between the Name and the Named One, difference there is none.” It is this Name which is capable of detaching the mind from the sensual pleasures and giving it spiritual bliss, and of leading the soul to salvation. It is in the form of this Word that the Lord pervades the entire creation.

That Name or Word is not to be found in books or scriptures – they only glorify it. But the Name itself is within us. Saints and sages who, in their time, realized God, have recorded in the scriptural texts their experiences and the particulars of the Path, for our guidance. From them, we come to know the difficulties on the Path and obtain a clear conception of the ideal, but we cannot realize God by merely reading books.

The important point is to realize the difference between the name of a thing and the thing itself. We should not confuse the doctor’s prescription with the medicine, nor think that repetition of the word “food” will satisfy hunger. Mere reading of the scriptures or listening to the teachings of Saints is not enough. We must put the teachings into practice and travel the Path ourselves.

THE LORD AND THE SOUL
It is only common logic that if the Lord is one and He is within every one of us and we have to seek Him within our body, the Path leading to that destination, to our Home, cannot be but one. It is impossible even to think that for Christians there is one path leading to the Lord’s house, and for Hindus or Sikhs or Muslims there is a different path leading to Him. There may be a difference in our interpretation, in our understanding, but there cannot be two paths leading to Him. If we seek Him within, we will find the same Path, the Path of Sound and Light. But if we search for Him outside, we find that everybody has his own path, leading perhaps nowhere.

The soul is the essence of the Lord, a drop of the Divine Ocean. In the beginning, it separated from its Source and descended into this world of misery and suffering. Forgetting its Origin, the soul took the mind as its guide and companion. But the mind itself is under the sway of the senses. Whatever the senses desire, the mind does their bidding and dances to their tune. And whatever deeds the mind commits under their influence, the soul, itself pure and stainless, must reap the fruits and suffer the consequences. Soami Ji, addressing the soul, says:

O soul, you are miserable, this I know.
You’ve been suffering since the day
You separated from the Word
And made friends with the mind.
In the company of the reckless mind,
You remain bound by the body
And entrapped by sense pleasures.¹⁴

The Saints well know our pitiful condition. They know that we live in delusion. So they come to reveal the true plight of the world. They tell us this is all the Lord’s play, that He has created everything. This play is set on a dream stage where nothing is real. Yet we come into this play and, having forgotten our true heritage, think this is our home, as we weep, cry and laugh with one another. But when our karmic debts for this life have been paid, we depart like the patrons of an inn. We leave one another’s company after only a brief stay, having no lasting relationship with anyone at all.

MIND AND SENSES
The Saints tell us that the mind is the greatest and the only obstacle in the way of God-realization. It is ego-centered, pleasure-loving and vain. It forgets that its existence in the world is no more than a bubble that may burst at any minute, and that the body enclosing it will eventually perish. Its outward and downward tendencies keep it tied to the transient, evanescent objects of the world. Its actions, whether good or bad, only result in keeping the soul in the perpetual round of birth and rebirth.

Mind is the deadliest of foes, but the most useful of servants. When it turns wild and gets out of control, it heads for certain destruction. When properly awakened and controlled, there is no limit to what the mind can do. As a step towards liberation, Soami Ji calls upon us to “turn the hostile mind into a friend.”¹⁵

In order to gain mastery over it, we have to study its nature. Relentlessly and restlessly, the mind tries to experience and enjoy everything. But nothing seems to satisfy its ravenous hunger. The acquisition of wealth and power gives rise to endless desires. Our possessions become the master, instead of being our slave. The passions gradually forge heavy chains around us, bind us to the baser things of the world and invariably harden our heart.

Though the mind is fond of pleasures, no single pleasure ever pleases it for all time. It gives up one pleasure as soon as it gets or sees a better one. Therefore, unless it comes across something vastly superior to the pleasures it already has, it cannot be successfully weaned away from them. Otherwise, if it should become detached and find nothing to attach itself to, it would react and rebound, and go back to its pleasures and enjoyments with redoubled vigor.

There is no end to our desires and cravings, and we have to return to this world in order to fulfill them. Barely do we leave one body before another stands ready for us. We are hardly rid of one fetter when a tighter one is fastened onto us. Ceaselessly are we goaded by the invisible angels of Death. What sufferings do we not go through, what rapids and whirlpools do we not face, what lashings of the mighty waves do we not encounter, what tempestuous storms and raging gales do we not have to struggle against. And every succeeding link of the chain of our lives is stronger than the one that preceded it.

The realization of the deception of this drama comes only when we wake up – at the time of our death. The moment death closes upon us, everything of this world – friends and relations, wealth and possessions, name and fame, caste and creed – is left behind. Only then do we realize that our time has just been wasted in illusion, in trying to make ours that which can never become ours. We nonetheless persist in taking this illusion as the ultimate reality. We continue to feel miserable and unhappy because our soul, being separated from the Father, is perpetually yearning for its own Source.

The Saints constantly tell us that there is no lasting peace and happiness outside in this world. Instead of trying to find it outside, they say we must try to find that peace and happiness within ourself. It is not love for the transient, but love for the Eternal that will be our real succor, our true sustenance, for it alone will bring us lasting peace, both here and beyond.

KARMA AND TRANSMIGRATION
Many Saints describe this world as a field of karmas to which the soul has to return again and again, to reap the fruits of its past actions.

As one sows, so shall he reap;
Such is the field of karma.
_{Guru Arjan}¹⁶

If you plant a cactus,
How will you reap mangoes?
_Kabir

The world is based on the law of karma:
Whatever actions one performs,
One has to taste the fruits thereof.
_{Tulsi Das}

Similarly, in the Bible it is said, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’’¹⁷

Deeds, whether good or bad, cannot release the soul from its captivity. They only bring it back to this world, into the realm of birth and death. We are brought back into those forms where we can best fulfill the results of our actions, our karmas; all the while the soul continues to suffer the anguish of separation from the Lord. While we are completing those karmas, we are also continually making new karma, and as a result, we continue to come and go, always remaining in the prison-house of this world.

As Christ tells us in the Bible, whatever sins we commit, they become our master and we become their slave:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.¹⁸

A slave has no option before the master, he has to do whatever his master commands. Christ is explaining that we have no choice now, because the sins we have committed have become our master and we have become their slave. We have to go where our master commands us to go: we shift from house to house, from body to body, in the endless cycle of transmigration.

This whole world of transmigration has been called the prison of eighty-four lakh species, the jail of chaurasi.^* Indian mystics have used the word prison or jail, and Christ also uses the same word:

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.¹⁹

Christ means that we cannot escape from this prison of birth and death until we have cleared all our karmas, all the seeds that we have sown, because even a little thing can pull us back to this world. That is why he suggests that we should ask forgiveness of those we have wronged while we are still living in this world, while we are “in the way” with them. Otherwise, we will have to face the judgement of our actions, which means that we will be thrown into the prison once more – for whether we come as a debtor or as a creditor, we cannot gain release until our entire account is cleared.

Escape from chaurasi, the wheel of eighty-four, is possible only when the soul merges back into the Lord. We can only be one with the Father when we have been able to clear every action and sin we have committed in our past lives. With each birth we come carrying the weight of previous karmas. Until our entire karmic account is cleared, until all our sins are washed, though the Lord is within everyone, the soul can never shine and become whole, it can never become one with Him. To experience and realize that we are of the essence of the Lord, we must “repent,” as Christ said. “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”²⁰

However, to repent truly we must know what we have done; but our past deeds have been completely forgotten, and mere words of being sorry for our past actions are not sufficient to invoke His grace or His forgiveness. We can only repent by worshiping the Father; and worship of the Spirit, the Sound and Light within, is worship of the Father. No other worship pleases the Father.²¹ We must attach ourselves to the Spirit, to the Shabd and Nam within, in order to worship the Father, in order to repent for our forgotten sins. This Spirit, although constantly resounding within every one of us, can only be contacted by going within, through the practice of meditation as instructed by the Master.

JOURNEY OF THE SOUL
Our spiritual journey starts from the soles of our feet and goes up to the top of our head. In this body, the spiritual journey has two stages: the first is up to the eye center, and the second is from the eye center to the top of the head.

In our body, the seat of the soul and the mind knotted together is at the eye center, in the wakeful state. From here, our consciousness is spread into the whole world. Even when we close our eyes we are not here. We are never still. Rather we find ourselves thinking about our worldly ambitions and worldly affairs, about our relations or our daily activities. And about whomsoever we are thinking, their forms automatically appear before us. Therefore, by thinking, by contemplating on the forms of the world, our consciousness has spread outward into this world of illusion. Guru Ram Das says:

Wildly, the mind keeps running in this world of illusion;
It takes not abode in its home, the eye center.²²

Unless we withdraw our attention to the eye center, we cannot concentrate within and take even the first step of our spiritual journey Homeward.

As Christ mystically expressed it: “Seek, and ye shall find;²³ knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”²⁴ We seek the Path leading to our Home, and once on that Path, we ultimately find the Lord. We finally merge into that One for whom we have been so ardently searching. The first step, then, is to withdraw our consciousness to the eye center. The Lord is within. It is we who have kept our attention focused outside, in this world. We must knock from outside so that the door leading to our goal within may be opened. We have to withdraw our consciousness from the world and bring it back to the eye center. Only then can the door be opened.

The eye center, where we come in contact with the Holy Spirit or Voice of God, has also been called by Indian Saints the “tenth door.” Guru Amar Das says:

Stop the mind from running out through the nine portals
And open thou the tenth door,
Which will lead thee to thy true Home.
There the Divine Melody ringeth day and night,
And it is through the instruction of the Master
That thou canst hear it.²⁵

That Spirit, that Shabd and Nam, is within every one of us, forever resounding in resplendent glory. Unless, through meditation, we withdraw to the eye focus, we can never be in touch with that Divine Melody. But having once contacted it, we find that Sound Current so fascinating, so charming and tempting, so captivating, that immediately we become attached to it, and automatically we become detached from the senses.

Christ said, “If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”²⁶ When we are able to open that single eye, to withdraw our consciousness to the eye center and open the door to the kingdom within this temple, we shall see that Light and hear that Divine Sound, about which Namdev says:

Where the effulgent light is seen,
there rings the boundless Shabd…
The Unstruck Melody has the lucency of the sun.²⁷

And with the help of that Light and Sound, we ascertain the direction of our Home and travel the Path leading there. By seeing that Light and hearing that Sound we are able to truly repent for all our past sins, thus releasing the soul from the snares of the mind. Then only can the soul once again become whole and shine in its own pristine brilliance; then only are we able to go back to the level of the Father, to become absorbed in the ocean of absolute bliss and everlasting peace.

When we are able to withdraw our consciousness to the eye center, our mind, just like a needle drawn to a magnet, catches that Sound, that Melody within. When we are attached to that Melody, automatically we are detached from the senses. Now the tendency of the mind is downward, towards the senses. The senses are always pulling our mind down to their level. But when we are able to withdraw our mind to the eye center and attach it to the Holy Ghost, the Spirit within us, that attachment automatically creates detachment.

By austerities, by disciplining the mind, it is impossible to withdraw permanently from the senses, for detachment cannot create attachment in anybody; only attachment can create detachment within us. When our mind is attached to that Divine Music within and it sees that Light within, automatically that attachment creates detachment from the senses and frees the mind. Soami Ji says:

On hearing the Sound within,
the mind becomes calm and still.
Through a million other means,
the stubborn mind refuses to yield.
Only on contacting the Shabd within,
does the mind become docile.²⁸

The technique for withdrawing the consciousness to the eye center and joining it to the Word, the Shabd within, is available only from an adept, a perfect Master. For such is the Lord’s design, that though the treasure is within each one of us, it can be obtained only with the help of the Saints and adepts who have themselves traversed the inner Path. The Maker has placed the key to the treasure in the hands of His beloved devotees, the true Masters, who alone can impart the secret to us.

The Master alone has the key;
None else can open the door.²⁹
_{Guru Amar Das}

Without a Master, no one can obtain the Name;
Such is the law laid down by the Lord.³⁰
_{Guru Amar Das}

Let no one be under any illusion:
Without a Master, none can cross the ocean of existence.³¹
_{Guru Arjan}

THE MASTER
Whatever we learn in the world, we have learned from a teacher. Even a child learns how to sit, eat, walk and talk through the guidance of his mother. He then goes to school and learns how to read and write from his schoolteachers; and later, to become a qualified engineer, doctor or technician, he has to undertake a long course of training under the supervision of a specialist in that particular field. Spirituality is a most difficult and intricate subject, where a teacher, a Master, is indispensable. We do not achieve anything in this world without a teacher or a guide. How can we achieve God-realization without a spiritual teacher?

The Master has himself traversed the inner regions and realized the Lord, and he alone can tell us how to follow the Path, and how to succeed in overcoming the many barriers and temptations of the inner journey. Maulana Rum says:

Seek a Master, for without a Master
This Journey is fraught with dangers and calamities.
Whosoever treads this Path without a Master
Is led astray by evil spirits
And falls into the well of Illusion.
If you take not the protection of the Master, O foolish one,
Then the call of Satan will lead you astray.

A Master actually means, a living Master. We need a Master because we are not at the level of the Lord. Only somebody at our level can give us the way to go back to the Father, can fill us with His love and devotion, can put us on the Path, can guide us back to the Father. It is necessary to go to a Master because we cannot be at the level of the Father, and the Father in His real form cannot come to our level.

The living Master, however, while being one with the Father, is also at our level. As Christ says:

He that hath seen me hath seen the Father… Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.³²

Guru Arjan expresses the same idea when he says:

Within me the Father has revealed Himself;
Father and Son have met and become one.
Says Nanak, when the Father is pleased,
The Father and the Son are dyed in one hue.³³

And when a disciple asked Jesus how to find the way back to the Lord, Jesus replied:

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.³⁴

In other words, it is only through a living Master that we can know the Path and reach the Lord.

The Masters of the past cannot carry out the task of taking us back to the Lord. A dead doctor cannot prescribe for our ailments today, howsoever great he may have been during his lifetime. A dead schoolteacher cannot teach us today. We need a living doctor, a living teacher. We are living human beings and only a living human being can speak to us, guide us, teach us and show us the Way.

Jesus also said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”³⁵ He did not say that he was the light of the world for the future and forever. He was the light of the world only for those who came in contact with him when he was living, and others who come after his time have to find another living Savior.

Herein lies the need for a living perfect Master: just as we cannot complete a journey by simply reading a timetable, nor build a house merely by studying books on architecture, similarly we cannot taste that Divine Bliss merely by reading about it. We must learn the technique of going within from a true Master, carry out his instructions with love and devotion, and, in his company, travel the homeward Path.

We are always influenced by the company we keep. The company of good people has a beneficial influence on us, as we try to be like them, but if we keep the company of bad people, we are influenced by their bad thoughts, and we go astray along with them. We need a Master to build that atmosphere of devotion around us, to inspire us to follow the Path and go within.

WORD MADE FLESH
Our real Master is the Word, the Logos, Shabd, Nam, the Audible Life Stream, or whatever name one may choose to give it. The Master is that Power manifested in human form. We need someone in the human form who has merged himself in the Shabd or Word, who is “Word made flesh,” and who can in turn connect us with that Power within; and that someone is the living Master. Soami Ji says:

Radhasoami, the Supreme Being,
descended to earth as a man;
He came as a Master to initiate souls
into the mystery of Nam.³⁶

The relationship of the Master with the Lord is that of a wave with the ocean. Guru Arjan says:

The Lord and His Servant are one and the same,
Make no distinction because of human form.
The Masters are just like waves that rise in the ocean
And merge back into it again.³⁷

Waves come from the ocean and merge back into the ocean. Wave and ocean are one. Christ says, “I and my Father are one.”³⁸ He does not say that his image is different from the Father. He is explaining that Saints are waves of the same ocean, that Saints and the Lord are one. Similarly, talking of his Master, Bulleh Shah says:

The Lord has taken the form of man,
He has come to awaken the world.

The Master, through initiation, connects the soul of the disciple to the Sound within, and puts him on the Path to the Lord. Initiation is not a ritual or a ceremony; it is the birth of the soul into the Shabd within. Christ says:

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.³⁹

Here Jesus tells his disciples how to find the Lord within themselves. You must be born again – but not physically. What he means to say is that it is necessary to be baptized or initiated by a living Master who can put us in touch with the Holy Ghost, the Shabd, the Sound Current within. That is being born of the living Water or the Nectar within, and of the Spirit.

This Nectar is contacted at the eye center. Unless we get in touch with that Shabd or Nam within ourselves, we always remain the victims of the mind and senses. Christ advises us to get initiated through the Son of the Father, and thus get in touch with the Spirit within. That is what he means by being “born again.”

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.⁴⁰

The day of our initiation is the day of our spiritual birth. Then, through spiritual practice, we grow and grow to become one with the Lord. As a child grows into a man, so, after initiation, the disciple grows spiritually to become the Father. That is why initiation is referred to as a new birth, being “born again.” And unless we take a new birth – that is, get initiation from a living Master – we cannot go back to our Father.

According to Guru Nanak, the cycle of “coming and going,” the cycle of transmigration, comes to an end for the disciple who is “born again”:

Birth through the Master ended my coming and going.⁴¹

The Master does not leave or forget the disciple after initiation. He is always with him, guiding and leading him. In his Radiant Form, he helps the disciple at every step, accompanying him throughout the spiritual journey. The Master not only guides and helps during the disciple’s lifetime, but stays with him even at the time of his death, and afterwards.

DYING WHILE LIVING
At the time of initiation the Master teaches the disciple the technique of withdrawing his consciousness from the entire body, up to the eye center, where he comes in contact with the Sound Current. The Mystics refer to the process of vacating the body and withdrawing the consciousness to the eye center as “dying while living.”

When death comes, our soul withdraws upwards from the soles of the feet and comes to the eye center. Then only does it leave the body. First the feet become cold, then the legs become cold, then the body becomes cold, but the soul is still in the body and sometimes we are still conscious of it. When the soul is able to withdraw up to the eye center, then only is the body without the soul and we die.

By the same process, we have to withdraw our consciousness to the eye center. While living, we have to die; while living, we have to vacate the body and bring the soul current to the point between and behind the eyes. That is “dying while living.” Unless we are able to withdraw our consciousness to the eye center and attach it to the Spirit within, we do not die while living. And unless we die while living, we do not get everlasting life. Maulana Rum says:

Die thou, O friend, before thy death
If thou desirest to live.

Guru Amar Das expresses the same truth in these words:

Who dieth while living
And from death cometh to life again,
Such a one attaineth salvation.⁴²

The essential difference between ordinary death and dying while living is that the soul’s link with the body is not broken. The organs of the body continue to function, and the soul returns to the body at the end of the meditation time. An adept who has perfected the art of dying while living can leave the body and return to it at will. Hence, St. Paul says, “I die daily.”⁴³

After vacating the body and coming to the eye center, the soul’s real journey homeward begins. When the entire life consciousness leaves the lower body and we go through the third eye, we are out of the physical body and we enter the astral world. Without thus dying while living, we cannot go within, get attached to the Holy Spirit and return to the Lord.

Christ refers to the state of dying while living when he says that the dead shall rise from their graves:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live…. for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves, shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.⁴⁴

The human body has been called a grave by Persian Mystics also. Shams-i-Tabriz says:

What a blessing it would be
If you were one night to bring your soul out of the body,
And, leaving this tomb behind,
Ascend to the skies within.
If your soul were to vacate your body,
You would be saved from the sword of Death:
You would enter a Garden that knows no autumn.

When the attention is functioning below the eyes, we are dead as far as the Lord is concerned; but when it is withdrawn and concentrated at the eye center, we become alive to the Lord, and are dead as far as the world is concerned. Dadu describes that state in these lines:

Die thou, O Dadu, ere
The messengers of death arrive;
What is uncommon in dying
As others do.

Christ describes this spiritual awakening as the dead coming to life. He says that the dead will rise, the deaf will hear, the blind will see, and the lame will walk,⁴⁵ when they see that Light, when they hear that Wind, that Sound within. We are all blind, deaf and lame, as well as spiritually dead; but when that inner eye is opened, we shall really see, hear, become alive, and walk straight on the Path leading back to the Lord. “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”⁴⁶

Before we come to that Realization, we have eyes but see not; we have ears, but hear not.⁴⁷ We do not see the Lord. What is a blind man? One who cannot see something that is in his presence. We all know that the Lord is within every one of us, He is in every particle of the creation; but we do not see Him – neither inside nor outside. That is why Mystics call us blind. When that inner eye and that inner ear are open, we see the Light and we hear the Sound, that silent music, which makes the dead rise.

Guru Angad says:

See without eyes, hear without ears,
Walk without feet, work without hands,
Speak without tongue –
Thus, while living, die,
And realize the Word, O Nanak;
Then alone the Beloved you’ll meet.⁴⁸

Maulana Rum expresses himself in almost the same terms when he says:

I fly without wings,
I journey without feet,
Without mouth or teeth, I eat sugar.^*
With eyes closed, I behold the inner worlds.

When, by means of concentration with love and devotion, under the directions of a living Master, we finally reach our destination in the highest region and merge with the Lord Himself, then we die to live forever. Prior to that, we are subject to the law of reincarnation and even transmigration into the lower species, depending on the actions and desires we have involved ourselves in, not only in the present life, but in countless previous births.

Thus, when we reach the eye center, we start living; and when we reach our destination, we live forever. Guru Amar Das says:

The entire world is afraid of death.
Through the Master’s grace,
Whoever dies while living
Understands the Divine Order.^*
O Nanak, who dies such a death
Attains life everlasting.⁴⁹

All Saints have stressed the importance of withdrawing the consciousness to the eye center and going within. They all teach that meditation is but a rehearsal to die, in order to live forever. Their teachings bring out this point very clearly, as indicated by the quotations that follow.

Kabir says he has overcome death by dying while still alive:

The whole world keeps dying after death,
For no one dies the real death.
Kabir has died a death
That will make him never die again.

Maulana Rum expresses the same thought:

O soul, wake up!
Rise above before death overtakes you,
And behold the kingdom of everlasting peace and bliss.

Saints maintain that the final goal is reached by dying while still alive. The human birth of one who has attained this state is fruitful. Guru Amar Das says:

O Nanak, one who has died to live,
His coming here is fruitful.⁵⁰

And Paltu says:

All die; without exception dies the whole world,
But few there be who know how to die.
One who dies while living, O Paltu,
Crosses the ocean of the world with ease.

Bulleh Shah states that “if thou diest before thy death, such a death will bear fruit.” And Kabir says it is a rare one who obtains the fruit, by dying while living:

Tall is that tree,
Its fruit is in the skies within;
Rare is the bird who tastes it.
He alone will eat that fruit, O Kabir,
Who dies while living.

In the Koran, it is said, “Die thou before thy death.” Maulana Rum says, “So long as man does not come out of his body, he will remain ignorant of the inner vision.” And Paltu adds:

O Paltu, die thou before thy death.
All have to die,
But they conquer death
Who die before their death.

Hafiz also speaks of the inner journey, which begins when one leaves the body:

You who do not come out of the caravanserai^*
of your body,
How will you pass through the spiritual lane within?

Soami Ji says, “There is no other way save Shabd to free yourself of this clay pot of the body….Your Abode is where the physical body exists not – why are you then tied down to this body?’’⁵¹ Or, in the words of Guru Nanak:

The Home you wish to reach after death,
Attain it through dying while still living.⁵²

Maulana Rum says that the soul has passed through the gates of death numerous times, but could not get released because it did not know how to die while living:

As long as you do not die while living,
How will you obtain the true benefit?
Therefore die, and come out of your body.
O man, you have died many times,
But still you remain behind the veil,
For the method of true dying
You did not learn.

Guru Ram Das says that his Master showed him the way to cross the terrible ocean of the world:

I asked the benevolent Satguru:
“How am I to swim the difficult ocean, O Lord?”
Live in the Will of the Satguru and die while living.
Die while living, swim across the ocean of existence
And merge thyself Into the Guru’s Name.
Such a fortunate one, by devotion to the True Name,
Attains union with the Supreme Being.⁵³

It is only after the Master connects the soul to the Word that the disciple can die while living. Withdrawing the consciousness and merging into the Divine Melody within is possible only through the Master’s grace. Guru Amar Das says:

Through Guru’s grace alone, one dies while living,
And having thus died, becomes alive through the practice
of Shabd:
Such a one attains the gates of salvation and rids himself
of ego.⁵⁴

Die through the Shabd
To live forever,
And never again face death;
With the nectar of Nam
Mind is sweetened forever –
By Shabd alone can one attain it.⁵⁵

In homage and gratitude, Namdev addresses this poem to his Master, Visoba Khechar:

Through the Word imparted by the Guru
I have realized my true self,
And while still living,
I have learned to die;
I have now no fear of death.

Visoba Khechar says: “Death we transcend,
O Nama,
When we experience it while living.”⁵⁶

The Saints say that one who thus dies while living knows all the mysteries of the worlds within, and enjoys the grace and blessing of the Lord:

If you die while living, you will know all,
And experience the Lord’s grace within.
Such a one, O Nanak, attains true esteem,
And recognizes the Lord within all beings.⁵⁷
_{Guru Nanak}

Saints come to the world by the grace and mercy of the Lord. They do not come to make it a better place, nor to improve its lot, but to free us from our bonds of attachment, and turn our attention towards the Father. They come to make us blind to this world and give us the sight to see the Lord.

Were it not for His grace, we would never even think of our separation from Him, nor would we desire to return Home. But for His grace, we would neither meet the Master nor follow the Path. His grace comes first. He creates the desire in us to meet Him. He pulls from within. We think we search for Him, when in fact He creates that desire in us to search for Him. With His grace, we develop faith in the Master. With His grace, we put forth the effort to practice, to attend to meditation with love and devotion. Without grace, we could not move one step at any stage. The guiding hand of grace is always with us. With His grace we realize within our self the true identity of the Master, the Word made flesh. And with His grace we reach back to the level of the Lord and merge with Him. We truly fulfill the purpose of our human life. No longer separated from our Source, we return to our eternal Home of peace and bliss, to be one with our Father, forever.

O Nanak, when the Lord is merciful to someone,
He brings him in contact with a Satguru;
Such a one, through the Guru’s grace,
Dies while living,
And never faces death again.⁵⁸