The Ocean and the Ship of Nam

I seek refuge with you, O Lord –
ferry me across the ocean of existence.
_{Sant Mirabai Ji}¹

Saints so often use the analogy of the ocean to describe many different aspects of the spiritual teachings. Here Sant Mirabai talks of one we often hear: the ocean of existence.

We know that the world and our existence in it can feel like an ocean, with the waters of life continually washing over us; wave after wave, one event after another, one situation after another, one emotion, one thought after another. Not even every minute, but every second brings a swell, a splash, that foam and water crashing about us. Yes, we can enjoy the experience, like when we are sailing, surfing or snorkelling, but often we can feel that we are drowning! The twelfth-century Indian saint Basavanna wrote:

Look, the world, in a swell
of waves, is beating upon my face.
Why should it rise to my heart, tell me.
O tell me, why is it rising now to my throat?
Lord, how can I tell you anything when it is risen
  high over my head.
Lord, Lord, listen to my cries
O Lord of the meeting rivers, listen!²

Devotees call out to the Lord to save them from the waves of the ocean of life, from the waves of events, their passions, from the waves of their minds. Sometimes the waves are bigger than others – sometimes there is a gentle lapping and the sunlight sparkles brilliantly on the water. Sometimes there are great waves which destroy everything in their path, capsize boats and can drown those unfortunate souls who are cast away

No, the ocean is never still – it is not like a lake that sometimes shines like glass and reflects the sky above with great clarity. The ocean’s waves continually surge and swirl.

How do we survive in the ocean?
We are trying to survive in this ocean of life. Maybe the sharks won’t get us, maybe we’ll be lucky and get a friendly dolphin or a curious whale who might not be intent on eating us for lunch. We just don’t know. The crucial question is, how can we survive?

If we were stranded in the middle of the ocean, we would hold on to anything that we could to stay afloat, otherwise we would drown. People desperately look for all kinds of things to hold on to in life’s vast ocean: families and friends, careers, activities, politics, and social causes. In the ocean, some things float better than others – some materials provide no help at all, and some keep us buoyant. Throughout our lives we grab one thing and another, seeing which will help us to keep afloat. Eventually we realize that all will fail in the end – nothing can keep us afloat permanently. We start searching for a boat that cannot just keep us afloat, but can take us to shore.

We would never be able to let go of our worldly attachments without having something greater to hold onto. If we are having trouble staying afloat out at sea, we do not let go of the passing plank of wood unless we see a life raft or a boat, and then we use all our energy to swim towards it.

Our predicament
Saints and mystics come to lovingly and patiently help us to understand our predicament and to offer advice. Do we know where we are? Do we know where we want to go? Do we know how we will get there? What are the dangers? How will we survive? How will we cross? How will we get to shore? Do we have a boat capable of taking us across these stormy seas? They come with answers, with a solution, a way to lead us to safety.

They explain that our soul, the essence of our being, is a drop of the Divine Ocean. To function here in our worldly existence, the soul takes the association of the mind. The mind is attached to the creation through the senses, and because of this we are subject to the worldly passions. Sant Kabir tells us that the waves in the ocean of the world are deadly because of these passions: lust, anger, greed, ego, and attachment.

In the world’s deadly ocean
Surge waves of desire and avarice,
The billows of lust and anger
Make the waters turbulent.
The sharks of ego and envy
Lie in wait to prey on you;
Joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain
Are its ever-changing shores.³

It is because of these passions that life moves constantly from joy to sorrow, pleasure to pain and back again. It is not just the events or things of this world, but our reaction to them. Our minds should ideally help us to be clear-thinking and enable us to remain balanced and positive, but saints tell us that these passions make the waters turbulent and cloud our thinking.

• Desire, of course, is necessary for life. (Baba Ji often tells us that everything is based on desire – even God-realization is a desire.) Without desire of some kind, we would not feel motivation to do anything at all! But desire can surge to greed: wanting what is harmful for us, and wanting more and more of something, greater than our necessity; or we spend all of our time and resources wanting and acquiring what is useless! Or we just are very confused about what we want, and end up going around in circles.
• Anger can be a healthy display of self-preservation, and it is sometimes necessary to scold our children to make sure they behave. But normally we become inflamed by anger due to our offended egos and because things go against what we think is right, or good for us. In anger we can even do harm to ourselves and others.
• Wealth isn’t a bad thing in itself, as we need it to survive. But we should be using wealth to live, not living our life in order to gain wealth. It is harmful when it leads to excesses, and doing things that make us go against our principles to achieve it.
• Ego is necessary in life to some extent, but out of proportion it can lead to inappropriate pride and can isolate us.

We are never free from these passions – Kabir says that they lie in wait like sharks in the ocean’s depths. We never know when they will surface and attack. That is why the scene in the movie “Jaws” is so scary – because the people are just swimming, laughing, having so much fun, totally unaware of the danger below – the monster shark. It is only when we are watching the film that we see what is beneath those swimmers. We are like that in the world – we are splashing around in the ocean, and those passions take us by surprise. Saints and masters are like lifeguards – watching from the shore, they see the trouble we’re in, and they want to save us. They come with a boat to rescue us.

The Boat of the Lord’s Name
Kabir, the Lord’s slave, declares:

The Lord’s Name is the boat, the Master its adept oarsmen.⁴

The Master comes to tell us about the boat of the Lord’s Name. The Master helps us to understand what this Name is, where it is to be found, and how it can be realized. It is not a mere written or spoken word, but rather the creative Power that brought the creation into existence and sustains it even now. It is the current of life itself, that essence that shines and reverberates within us and in all things. As Hazur Maharaj Ji said:

The Shabd has created this whole universe and it is sustaining this whole universe. The whole universe is existing on the strength of this power, and the Lord has kept that power within each one of us also.⁵

This power is referred to in all our religions. Hindus call Ram Nam (Gods Name), Ram Dhun (God’s inner music), Nirmal Nad; Muslims call it Kalma (Inner Sound), Kalma-i-Ilahi (the Voice of God); Guru Nanak called it Nam or Shabd (spiritual Sound); Christ called it Word or Logos. In the Rig Veda it is called Vak (Word). In Judaism it is translated as the Memra (utterance), Shem (Name), Hokhmah (Wisdom) and Shekhinah (God’s presence). And what does science say? Science calls it Energy.

This Nam or Shabd, also called the Sound Current, is what we have to ride to merge with the Lord. The practice of the Name is therefore our boat. The Master is the adept oarsman because he is capable of crossing the raging sea of existence: he is a living example to us. Most importantly, it is the Master who is able to impart the technique so that we too may cross. He helps us to understand how to navigate in that ocean of existence, how to keep afloat, and how to reach our destination. Masters teach us to recognize what stands in the way of reaching it, the way to overcome the obstacles – not when we die, but in this very life, and so not only do we survive, but we can cross these stormy seas. Sant Kabir says:

Lord, Thou master of all creation –
Thy Name is the sturdy ship
To cross the dreadful ocean of existence.
Had the Lord not designed this ship,
the entire world would have been consumed
  by the raging flames of passion.
My gracious Lord in his mercy
  raised the ship of Nam,
And its command He entrusted
  to the saints.⁶

Maharaj Charan Singh explains in Spiritual Discourses, Vol. I:

In the wild waste of the vast ocean, the boat of our mind is being tossed to and fro without even a rudder and oar, without even a steersman. It is battered by one wave after another and is endlessly tossed by storms. Leaking and nearly derelict, it knows no way of escape to a haven of peace.

If in our boat we had a steersman who was thoroughly familiar with the ocean and its perilous storms, we would doubtless reach the shore safely. And there is such a steersman. He is the perfect Adept, and the boat he uses is the boat of Nam.⁷

The Master not only gives us sensible guidance in life, but more important, through initiation into Nam-bhakti, devotion to the Name, he enables us to sail on the ship.

Nam is the destroyer of all pain,
The adornment of the entire creation;
The source of all love and devotion,
It is the haven of peace and bliss.
The Lord himself has made this ship,
  and it is called the Lord’s Name.⁸

So the Master tells us that if we want to survive in this ocean of existence, if we want to cross this ocean, if we want mastery of our passions – and if we want peace and bliss, love and devotion, and to realize the true potential of life – if we want to merge back into the divine Ocean, we need to board the ship of the Lord’s Name, which the Master sends to our rescue. And we know that we certainly need a strong ship to navigate the oceans not only of the world, but of ourselves! If we want to cross an ocean, we need an ocean liner – a rowboat won’t do, as the waves would tear it apart. The ocean is not such a treacherous place if we are in a strong ship. As Hazur Maharaj Ji said:

It is only when we leave the leaky boat of the mind and step on to the strong and seaworthy ship of the Word that we escape the perils of the deep and reach the haven of safety.⁹

Sant Ravidas wrote:

The ocean of existence is utterly dreadful –
Why do you not understand this, O foolish one?
Know that Nam is the boat
And the Guru is the rudder thereof, says Ravidas.¹⁰

We can talk about a boat, we can read about a boat, we can describe the boat to other people, we can serve at the dockyard where the boat is kept, but this is certainly not the same as boarding the boat and setting sail! The Master will ferry us across – if we board.

But how do we board the master’s boat? The master has given us a recommended lifestyle (maintaining a vegetarian diet without meat, fish or eggs; not polluting our bodies and minds with alcohol and mind-altering drugs or even smoking tobacco; living according to strict moral standards, being good, kind and compassionate human beings), and most importantly, he imparts to us the technique of meditation. Simran (the repetition of the five holy names given to us at the time of initiation), is given to still the waves of our mind so that we can achieve concentration. Dhyan (contemplation on the form of the Master who initiated us) is to hold our concentration, and bhajan is listening for and to the Sound Current.

If we are drowning, just crying, “help, help” won’t save us. Someone needs to hear our cry, come and throw us a rope, and then pull us to safety. We can say that simran is our cry for help. Dhyan is when we fix our attention on the one who is saving us. Bhajan is hanging on to the rope that the Master has thrown for us, and through his Grace we are pulled out of the water on to that ship of Shabd, Nam, the Word. Simran plays such an important role! In the Vedic scriptures it is said:

For men lost in this world, indeed there is no higher gain than repeating the names of the Lord, whereby one attains to perfect peace and liberation from the endless cycle of birth and death.¹¹

The ocean is so huge
The ocean is so huge – it is too much to fathom. Our ultimate goal of merging back into the divine Ocean is impossible to comprehend. So the Masters give us something to concentrate on, to focus our attention – our simran and bhajan.

Once we had the privilege of being with a toddler who saw the sea for the very first time. His father placed him by the edge of the shore and the waves were coming in, surging, powerfully, splashing, rushing. The little one was terrified! As a wave came in, he turned and started to run away. His father knew that children like small objects, so he picked up a few stones and showed his son how he could throw them into the waves. It was fascinating to see how quickly the child changed! He had his stones to throw, and while he concentrated on this task, he forgot to be afraid of the ocean.

The words we are given at the time of initiation are our stones to throw into the waves of our mind. The more we focus, the more we concentrate, the calmer we become. We start to lose our fear of the ocean. As Hazur Maharaj Ji said: “Through simran we learn to put faith in a higher power and we become carefree.”¹²

Baba Ji often tells us that simran is the only thing we have in our control; it is the one thing we can do – just sit down, start our simran, and then let go. So many people say to Baba Ji that they can’t do simran, but he tells us that these minds are just creatures of habit. The more we are able to bring the mind back to simran, the easier it will become.

Living the recommended lifestyle and, after initiation, attending to our meditation, is like boarding the ship. Once we are aboard, our worries become the captain’s worries and we can be carefree. Like boarding a cruise liner, we research where we want to go, we make the arrangements, and as soon as we board the vessel, we can relax. We can just sit there and let the captain do his job. We don’t need to keep asking if he is doing his job – because we assumed he would when we bought the ticket! We have bought our ticket home. We just have to let go of unnecessary concerns and enjoy the ride! Hazur Maharaj Ji said:

It is only by meeting with Masters who are themselves steeped in Nam-bhakti and by following their directions that we can cross the ocean of phenomena and tear away the veil that masks Reality; that we can break through the barrier that hides the Lord from our sight; and that we can transcend ourselves, and that we can transform ourselves, and merge in the Lord himself and become one with Him.¹³

And Great Master asked us to think – what is the object of our lives?

Man is born so that he may merge his soul in its source. The greatest service one can render is to merge his soul (by freeing it from the attachment of mind and matter) in that ocean of peace and bliss of which it is a particle or drop.¹⁴

Effort is our responsibility, but the results are in the captain’s hands. Meditation is our effortless effort, our place of rest, the place that we can take refuge in the waves of our daily lives. Tides may come in and go out, waves may rise and fall. The ebb and flow of the tides is the one sure thing in life, but we have a refuge in the repetition of the holy names, and practice of Nam-bhakti. The saint Dariya Sahib of Bihar is quoted:

Practice thoughtfully the repetition of the blessed gift of the Master.
It is the most gracious and beneficial of all….
The repetition of the holy names
Is the boat for the ocean of the world.¹⁵

Our boat
Right now, we are sailing in our own little boat, this little self. If we want to undertake this difficult journey, we have to make sure it is a strong boat; we need to be able to steer and control it. Otherwise, we will be tossed by the waves and the boat will surely be overturn or capsize. The Master has given us the directions, the technique, to do all these things, and so much advice.

How can we be strong? We need to take care of our little boat. We need to try to man the boat of our life like a good first mate, making sure that everything is in order for the journey. We can keep the deck clean, and maintain it, making repairs where required. We are given guidelines for clean and good living to prepare us for our journey. Following the guidelines, learning not to plague ourselves with negative thoughts and emotions, and as Baba Ji recommends focussing on the solutions not the problems, always finding the positive in every situation, learning from the past and protecting our future.

We gain strength through attending to meditation. Baba Ji has explained in different ways on so many occasions:

• On our own, no one has the strength to fulfill all of our responsibilities and carry the load of our karmas, so we need support.
• When we meditate, we are trying to attach ourselves to the Shabd, the power that created and sustains the whole universe. If we attach ourselves to that power, we will start getting stronger.
• The very purpose of meditation is to make our minds so tranquil that no matter what happens in life, we stay calm. We get that strength from within.

Steering: By using a seaman’s tools we are able to steer our boat to shore. Saints give us the tools: the map, the compass. But if we sit in the boat watching the waves, looking at the sky, busying ourselves with keeping out of the sun and warm at night, making a few meagre meals, making no attempt to steer our boat, how will we get home? We have to look, to understand, then to follow the path home, keep our boats afloat on a sturdy course for shore.

• Every repetition of the names is a stroke of our oars.
• Dhyan is keeping our gaze fixed on our destination, the shining light that points us to shore.
• Listening for and to the Shabd-dhun is listening for and to that divine wind, the breath of God that fills our sails and steers us home.
• Devotion and love provide the determination and energy to row.

Controlling: We have to control our boat, raise and drop the sails according to the winds and weather. Which captain has the luxury of always sailing on a calm sea? No sea is without its waves; they may be big or small, but waves there will always be.

The skill of the captain comes from manoeuvring through the waves. What would the necessity be for skill without the waves? We can’t say that our meditation isn’t a good boat because there are still waves! In life, we have to adjust to the ups and downs. True strength is the ability to adjust, and attending to our meditation helps to give us the strength and discretion to adjust.

If we are standing in a rowboat, it will wobble, but if we sit down and row, it will glide through the water; and with strength and perseverance we will arrive at our destination. Sitting for meditation is like sitting down in our boat to row. Meditation helps us to gain control.

Balance: We have to balance the load of our boat – work, home, friends, family, study, hobbies, our spiritual work – we carry so many responsibilities. Baba Ji reminds us that we have to create that balance in life; no one else will do it for us. Every individual has their own strengths and weaknesses, and our balance will depend on those things.

In our daily lives, love for the Master, love for the teachings, compassion for one another, understanding, forgiveness – that is our ship. Putting the teachings into practice – that is our ship. Living a clean and moral life and attending to meditation – that is our ship.

If there is no air in an inflatable lifeboat, it is just a big piece of rubber. If it is inflated it becomes a rescue vessel. Similarly, if we are filled with love and devotion, then we can be saved. Meditation, attending satsang, doing seva, is blowing air into our raft.

Baba Ji’s advice
Baba Ji talks to us about the importance of having a strong anchor in life. He says that if we have a weak anchor, we will just be swept away with every wave, with every storm. Living according to the teachings and meditation on the Lord’s Name anchors our little boats to the Master’s ship. Devotion to the Name, the practice of meditation, is our anchor in life, it is something to hold on to, something to steady us. It is our support and our strength.

Baba Ji has told us that the passions within, which Kabir described as ‘raging flames’, are remnants of our animal nature. Through the practice of meditation, we slowly, slowly are able to rise above their hold on us. We learn to find a balance so that desire and greed will give way to contentment; anger will be replaced by forgiveness; lust will give way to continence; ego and pride will be replaced by discrimination and humility. Not that this will happen overnight! But slowly, slowly we will gain mastery over the passions and will not be consumed by them.

A seeker asked which of the passions is the last to go. Baba Ji advised that we always have to be cautious. All of them are equal and can attack us with the same intensity. We have to be on our watch for all of them. Until we have risen above mind and maya, we are susceptible.

Baba Ji has told us that at this time we’re all slaves of the mind, no matter what we say. We all have the impressions from our past actions upon our minds. So, no matter how much we may try, the impressions can overpower us so that we might end up doing something wrong. He says that’s why we’ve been given meditation, so that we can gradually remove those impressions – to dilute and eventually erase them. If we learn from our mistakes, if we adopt the right path, the Lord showers His grace.

Baba Ji reminds us of the example Hazur Maharaj Ji used to give, of the drop of water and the ocean. A little bit of dirt in a drop of water will seem enormous. But if that drop of water merges into the ocean, it becomes the ocean, and the ocean has the capacity to merge that drop into itself and then it will not be affected at all.

Where are our boats headed?
In the beginning, perhaps we set out with excitement to explore new horizons, with our boats headed to distant shores; but when we got there the cargo disappointed, or it spurred us on to want more and more, and we set sail time and again. We will never find peace or satisfaction at all, no matter what we achieve or possess. Actually, we just need to turn the boat around, point it in the direction that will bring us to the state of oneness and bliss that we crave. The longing is the same – just pointed in a different direction!

Think of what happens when we try to reverse a boat, the process of turning the boat around. First, we have to stop and turn. This is why that phase feels so long and slow – we have been heading in the wrong direction for such a very long time – it is a process that requires great effort to turn around.

When we embark on the spiritual journey, living a wholesome lifestyle and then practicing meditation as we’re taught at the time of initiation, we are fuelling and propelling the boat in the right direction.

Saints are surging oceans
It is not just the world that the Masters describe as an ocean. The saints too are oceans of the Lord’s love and mercy. Great Master said:

Saints are surging oceans of God’s love and they act as lighthouses in our life’s journey in this world... Many saints have left their footprints on the sands of time for our guidance. Their lives were oceans of Love. By studying their writings, love for spirituality will be awakened in our minds. But above all, we should meet a Master … so that we may receive guidance and be able to obtain within, the nectar of love.¹⁶

Love is not dependent on anything else. It is an ocean of faith and fortitude. It is an ocean of strength.¹⁷

Sultan Bahu describes the terrifying “gales of countless thoughts” that interfere with his contemplation of the Lord and the grace that rescues him.

In the ocean of my heart
  arise the waves of my Master’s grace.
In it appear whirlpools;
In it blow fierce gales of the countless thoughts and arguments
  that hamper my contemplation of the Lord.¹⁸

Those mental and emotional waves might be crashing and swirling around us and in us, but His ocean of love is always there, His grace is always there. Attending to meditation is the way that we are able to obtain his grace. Saint Bahu is giving a wonderful description of what happens during meditation: He says, those whirlpools, fierce gales, countless thoughts and arguments appear. But, he is saying, that is where the waves of the Master’s grace arise. Kabir says:

Have Mercy on my plight, O Master.
I am tossing in the turbulent seas;
I will be swept away by its stormy waves
  if you don’t hold my arm and rescue me.

Great Master emphasizes how important it is to hold on to the sound current:

A boat held to its moorings will see the flood waters pass by; but detached from its moorings, may not survive the flood. The current is our base – our moorings. A soul that is attached to the current is safe.¹⁹

Taking refuge, we are able to set out on the voyage, to not only survive but to cross the ocean.

Ocean of Shabd Within
The Saints also refer to the Ocean of Nam within us. This is the power of life within us, the divine current of the Lord that permeates our very being, even if we’re not always aware of it.

The oceans of the world are always there, even if we don’t see them. If we live inland, we do not experience the ocean. Some people are born far from the ocean, and have never even seen it, have never experienced it. They cannot imagine its immensity or its power. Equally, even if we live right by the ocean, just a few streets away, in our house we won’t hear those waves crashing. And if when it is dark and there are perhaps thick clouds, even if we stand on the shore, we might hear the waves, but we won’t see that huge ocean right at our feet.

Similarly, here in our bodies we are living in the presence of a great ocean – but because we have been living in a different part of the country, or we have been locked behind closed doors we have not yet experienced it. It is there all the time; it never goes anywhere at all. There is a thick fog, and so we do not see it. What is that thick fog? Our desires, our concerns, our worries, our negativity, the accumulation of lifetimes of actions.

Diving deep
We are told that we have to still the waves of our minds in order to come into contact with that ocean of Nam. But we know that so often when we sit for meditation our minds are so restless, and we wonder how it would be possible to still the waves of our thoughts. No, it isn’t possible! Oceans are never still!

But we know that the surface of the ocean is different from the depths. The surface is affected by the weather and the winds. Down deep is a whole other world. Meditation is the way that we dive beneath the surface, to find a place where we are not buffeted by those waves. And what pearls there are, pearls of happiness, contentment, love.

Story: The Sieve
A Master was instructing his disciples in the practice of meditation. He told them, “The process is like filling a sieve with water.” This confused the students. Some thought it meant meditation was very difficult, and others thought that it meant they could only expect temporary gains from their practice.

Discouraged, most of them stopped meditating. One student, however, approached the Master and asked him to explain. The Master took the student to the edge of the ocean with a cup and a sieve. At the water’s edge they stood on a rock, the sea breaking around them in great, frothy swirls. “Show me how you would fill the sieve with water,” the Master said. The disciple stooped and filled the cup with water. He poured it into the sieve. Cup after cup he poured, but no matter how quickly he poured, only the slightest moisture was left in the bottom. … All the time the master watched, saying nothing.

In the end, the disciple faced the master and shrugged. The task was hopeless. Now, the Master spoke: “It is like this with the life of the human spirit too,” he said. “So long as we stand on the rock of “I” … and try to pour the divine life into that shell, so certainly that life will escape us. This is not the way to fill a sieve with water, nor the human spirit with the life of the divine.”

Then the master reached out his hand and taking the sieve from the disciple, he threw the sieve as far as he could, out into the face of the deep. For only a moment, it lay glinting in the morning sunlight on the face of the water. Then it slipped far below. “Now, it is full of water,” the Master said. “And it will always be so. That is how you fill a sieve with water and the spirit with divine life. Meditation is not about scooping small amounts of Spirit into your individual life, but about dropping yourself into the ocean of Spirit and merging with it.”²⁰

In summary:
Through his grace we realize our predicament; through his grace, he shows us the way to survive in the ocean of life, he teaches us to steer and care for our boat. He invites us to board his ship. Hazur Maharaj Ji emphasized that we should avoid the tempestuous seas and swim along with the waves, not against them.

Through his grace we board his ship. He puts us in contact with the Ocean of his Love, the ocean of the audible life current. Through his grace we dive in, and the drop of our soul merges in the ocean of the All. As Mirabai sang:

Pray have mercy on me,
Forget all my transgressions
  and bless me with your darshan.
I seek refuge with you, O Lord –
  ferry me across the ocean of existence.²¹

A contemporary songwriter wrote about spiritual seeking and longing and its culmination in our ultimate merging into the Lord.

We are sailing, we are sailing
  Home again
  'Cross the sea
  We are sailing
  Stormy waters
  To be near you
  To be free
O, Lord, to be near you, to be free!²²