The Mystic’s Miracle

In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. 3, Maharaj Charan Singh is quoted:

The greatest miracle of the mystics is that they change the very attitude of our life. The whole purpose of our life is changed; to detach us from this creation and attach us to the Creator. That is the greatest miracle they can perform. Our whole attitude and approach to life changes.¹

When we recall the day of our initiation, our Master was speaking to us, and we felt the pull inside to go with him. It was on that day that we turned on to this one-lane highway and our life took a straight direction.

As we walk the road towards the inner Light, we may frequently experience difficulties on the way but, as Baba Ji says, we can choose to ponder whether we feel the many pains and brood over our bad karmas, or we can choose the sunny side of the street by focusing on the wishes of our Master, practicing our meditation, and being grateful for the miracle that “he changes our whole attitude to life.”

To meet our Master at every step of our life is a miracle that we are mostly not aware of. But looking back, we may recognize the miraculous moments on the spiritual path. Sometimes we sit in the darkness, full of hopeless thoughts as we try to reach His presence, and suddenly there comes a happy moment when we realize that sitting for simran and bhajan is simply a state of acceptance, of waiting for the light. We have to let Him find us instead of us trying to find Him.

That is the moment of feeling the divine presence within. Mother Teresa, a nun from Albania who devoted her life to helping the poor in Calcutta, wrote in her personal confessions:

Concerning myself, I only have the pleasure of having nothing – even not the reality of the presence of God. No prayers, no love, no faith – nothing but never ending pain of longing for the Lord. My poverty of inner vision makes me sympathize with the people in outer poverty.²

Fortunately, we have met a perfect living saint who gave us the assurance that he will accompany us on the road leading towards the divine Light, and that he will walk hand in hand with us.

In Legacy of Love, Maharaj Charan Singh gives us a hint about how we can cope with the sorrow and sadness caused by the suffering of mankind. He tells us to help as much as we can, as an important part of our spiritual life. Baba Ji always emphasizes that “we have to become good human beings” to walk the spiritual path. Hazur Maharaj Ji, in Quest for Light, explains how we can develop to become good human beings:

It is your effort that will change your mind from the negative to the positive. With effort and determination we can achieve many things in life. Our meditation is nothing but an attempt to acquire the positive gifts and get rid of the negative evils. Meditation gives mental strength and spiritual bliss.³

The result of meditation comes with the grace that the miracle creates in us:

If you have a kind and loving heart, you are kind and loving to everybody. If we are filled with love and devotion for the Father, all such qualities rise in us like cream on the milk.⁴

Sometimes you don’t have your Guru sitting before you, but nevertheless he sends to us sweet “ambassadors” of His love and wisdom. I am a doctor, and I was taught a lesson in faith and trust in the Lord when one of my young patients, a five-year-old girl suffering from a severe skin disease. She said to me, with a charming smile: “You won’t be able to heal me unless God helps you to heal me.”

How weakening and cruel we perceive the destiny of others or our own destiny! The truth is that these sufferings and sorrows remind us of the Lord and our Master. We can have a generous and positive approach in all spheres of life without being attached to the sorrow and grief of others when we follow Hazur Maharaj Ji’s advice. He says:

We have a wrong concept, that our heart should not be soft. It should be very very soft. Even for our enemies in misery there should be tears in our eyes.⁵

Here again – walking along with our inner Master – he turns “everything upside down in our life”– should enemies be hated? Should we speak ill of them? “No!” says the Master. There should be tears in our eyes for their misery. Imagine if you yourself are in misery and your enemy comes and talks to you in a compassionate manner. Wouldn’t it be a miracle? The concept of “enemy” would be turned upside-down. The hostility in your heart would be gone and your heart would be filled with joy. That can motivate us to freely give to others with an attitude of unconditional compassion and forgiveness.

“The mystics change the very attitude of our life,” said Hazur, and they do it by the inner process of concentration on simran. The Master is anxious to keep us busy in our seva of meditation.

Remember the day of initiation, when he gave us the assurance of “you can do it” – every morning, 2½ hours of simran and bhajan, the best time of your day! The invitation to sit at his spiritual table every morning is not only the best, but the most important time of the day.

What a lucky moment! Stillness of the mind and nearness of God, what we witness with every single word of simran. Hazur Maharaj Ji writes:

Sant Mat is so simple that there is nothing to explain. It expects the disciple to do his simran and bhajan with attention at the eye center. The mind has to be brought back every time it runs out. He has to stick to the diet rule and lead a good, clean, moral life. All attempts have to be made to develop love and devotion to the Lord, which will ultimately come from meditation.⁶

Especially for those disciples who are overloaded by ego and attachment, “the great miracle ... to change the very attitude of our life” is needed.

Simplicity is one of the qualities needed to change the attitude of our life. As the Master says:

Simplicity does not mean to live in misery and poverty. You have what you need and you don’t want to have what you don’t need.⁷

Therefore, as Hazur reminds us:

Sant Mat is not only meditation. It is a way of life. We have to mould ourself in that way of life where we are always with our master in all the activities of life. We don’t forget him at anytime, anywhere.⁸

When we get up in the morning, we think of him during simran and are aware of him in bhajan, and he takes us with him anywhere if we trust him.

When we sit in the darkness, he tells us not to worry because we know what we are looking for, and this dark location makes us wonder how to find the divine light. We just do our simran, feeling or knowing that our master is with us. Baba Ji often says that it is we who turn our backs to him, but he is still with us. But sooner or later the miracle takes place and our stubborn mind has to give up.

The soul cleans its binoculars in preparation for its journey. Renouncing the way of the mind, it gazes within. When the practice matures, the soul is brought up to the inner shore, the third eye.⁹

What a miracle it is, because it is difficult to reach the shore by our own effort!

On our journey, we feel that we need the helping hand of a friend, a father, taking us forward, helping us to reach “the shore.” And again he tells us not to worry. You are the happiest person in the world, because you have the Father right inside of you, inviting you to take a spiritual breakfast. And after the morning hours of meditation? Baba Jaimal Singh reminds us in Spiritual Letters:

Do not fall in love with the activities of the world. Keep the mind unattached and remember the Satguru’s instructions.¹⁰

We have to follow this one-lane street and rely on the great miracle that the mystic, our Master, changes “the very attitude of our life, the way of our life,” as it is difficult to “swim across the ocean of the world or to bathe in it at all.” As Maharaj Sawan Singh said, we need “the perfect man (the guru), who is like the beach of the ocean of life.”¹¹ That is again a miracle: that we can get in contact with a living mystic – that we can be in his company, so that we may hopefully change our attitude and way of life, by His grace and by our regular meditation.