One Long Chain of Infinite Love

In every age there have been emissaries of the Supreme Being sharing generously and selflessly their time on earth with us. As the envoys of God, they come to remind us of the original universal law that Peace, Truth, and Love are an integral part of the legacy belonging to the peoples of all nations, religions, or beliefs, without exception. As the true friends of humanity, they have been ordained by the Supreme Being to help reawaken an awareness within us through which we are all connected to the Divine and to each other.

In Sant Mat, meaning the teachings of the True Masters and Mystics, we examine and seek to align ourselves with the essential spiritual truth contained in all religions and spiritual traditions whose aim is reunion with God. A thorough comparative study of the mystics’ collective spiritual experiences will reveal one universal message: God is One and the path to realizing God is also one for all humanity. Their writings and discourses abound with spiritual wisdom and inspire us to think about where we are on the scale of peace, truth, and love within ourselves, with other human beings, and in the world.

More importantly, saints and mystics give us a spiritual ‘heads-up’ to evaluate where we are in our relationship with the Creator, the originator of all peace, truth, and love, and how our relationship is developing. So, we are prompted to re-examine our most important problems and meaningful questions in life: Where have we come from? What is our supreme purpose or destination? Is there a universal consciousness, a supreme being governing our destiny?

Sardar Bahadur Maharaj Ji writes:

We come into this world, not knowing whence or why we came or whither we are going. But are not these facts worth knowing? Then why do you not try to solve these most important problems? They can be solved. Find a teacher who knows their solution.¹

Here the Master urges us to delve deeper and not just keep pondering these questions over and over and instead take steps in finding the answers. To seek a living teacher of our time who knows and who can personally instruct and guide us in our search for the meaning of life.

Huzur Maharaj Charan Singh Ji clearly states: “God-realization is the main purpose of human life, and we should take full advantage of it.”²

We equate ‘realization’ with becoming aware of some event or becoming conscious of it; describing a fact or moment when we start to understand a situation. This leads to our next question: How can we realize, become aware or conscious of God, let alone understand the Supreme Being – when we’re not even certain whether God exists?

Huzur Maharaj Sawan Singh Ji (The Great Master) presents a spiritual perspective whereby we can discover our potential for expanding our consciousness and become aware of the omnipresence of the Lord:

Saints see God in action, throughout nature and abide by His Will. To them Cosmic Law, Planetary Motions, Nature, Weather, all forms of life and their activity are outward expressions of God in action.

And:

Each leaf of a tree is a pointer to the existence of God … Every atom reflects the beauty of its Maker. But Our intelligence is very limited and is a poor guide – a very poor guide indeed – on the path of God-realization. On that path we have to rely upon intuition. By spiritual exercises, the inner eye must be opened. When He is seen within, He becomes visible in every particle and leaf. Saints see Him every moment and everywhere.³

It is only in the human form that we have an opportunity to meet a God-realized soul, a Sant Satguru (True Master) who inspires us to open our spiritual or intuitive heart by concentrating our attention at the eye centre or ‘inner eye’ and reach beyond the intellectual limitations of the mind. And only through remembrance and contemplation on Nam, the Shabd, according to the directions of the Master, and his loving presence guiding us at every step, can we attain God-realization, that is, return to our original home of perfect peace and bliss.

Huzur Maharaj Ji explains:

If you look around in the whole world, you will not find any peace anywhere. When in this human form, which is known as the top of creation, we cannot find peace, then what is the use of this form? We will find peace only when the soul merges back into the Lord. That is why we all seek Him. Without meeting Him, without merging back into Him, we will never find eternal peace.⁴

And the Great Master says that the truth we seek will also be found within:

The truth lies within you, within everybody. Without that truth, we could not live for a second. Just as the sun is in the sky but its rays illuminate the earth, similarly truth is within us – in the brain, behind the eye focus – but its rays activate the entire body. Truth has been within us always. It is present in the teacher as well as in the student. The only difference between the teacher and the student is that the teacher has, by concentrating his attention, established his connection with truth and studied it, while the student is disconnected.⁵

The present living Satguru, Baba Ji, advised that the instruction on the Spiritual Path starts with the teacher in the physical body teaching a disciple in a physical body. The physical master is there to teach the method of meditation on the Word of God or Shabd Dhun, the Divine Melody, and to guide our efforts in this meditative process.

As our soul currents merge in the soul currents of our Master as the emanation of God’s love, the Shabd becomes audible within our own being. Merged in the love of our Satguru, we become spiritually aware of the presence of God’s love within.

The saints and mystics, by their example and constant guidance, empower us to believe in our potential of being able to rise above the limitations and adversities, distractions and discords on this physical plane which are experienced by the mind. The Masters advise us to ‘see through’ the illusion and discern the wayward tendencies the mind conjures up when interpreting these events. Through the meditative process, sustained by the Master’s grace, we learn to ‘see within’ and bring our mind into the stillness and clarity within the focus of the ‘eye centre.’

In a letter to a disciple, Huzur Maharaj Ji writes:

… When our attention is concentrated at the eye centre and starts going up, there is no pain or suffering there, as all that is below the eyes. Every initiate is being looked after by the Master and whatever comes to such a one, whether good or bad from the disciple’s limited point of view, is all within the knowledge of the Master and for the disciple’s own good. The Lord has his own hand of protection on all those whom he draws to the path. Whatever pain, suffering, fear, unhappiness and whatever else such a disciple faces is all the settlement of his karmic accounts, which means the lightening of his burden.⁶

The burdens we carry are the individual ‘karmas’ assigned to each one of us. They are the consequences of our past actions which have a profound influence on our outlook on life and our attitude in our spiritual pursuit. That is why an important aspect of travelling on the spiritual path is being able to recognize the true nature of our own mind. The mind is inclined to hang on to experiences, concepts, imaginations that it finds interesting, leaving deep impressions which influence our behaviour and attitude in life, and how we view and treat others – and often without discerning whether our behaviour and actions are in line with our spiritual goal or detrimental to it.

The Shabd meditation practice helps us in calming the restless mind and bringing it back to a state of focus and calmness. With our Master’s grace, the peaceful and loving atmosphere experienced during our meditation carries over into our everyday life. We become increasingly aware of how the Master’s presence is helping us to go through our own destiny with courage, and to retain our balance during adversity.

When we come to the aid of someone in need or participate in a goodwill mission, we will live up to our Master’s edict to live as a ‘good human being’ and attend to the task with loving kindness while respecting – with humility and compassion – that everyone has their own destiny, and world events have their own course to follow. That through it all, if we surrender to the will of the Lord of creation, the source of all love and compassion, we will gain a new perspective, which helps us in keeping our focus on our spiritual goal.

The Masters say that the sublime state of bliss when surrendering and living in the will of the Lord is such that we will no longer distinguish between so-called good or bad, in whatever befalls us.

Quoting the poet mystic Eknath:

…Whether the body be motionless in meditation, or moving in the thick of life, let the mind stay in the middle, forever still, pure and free – this is a yogi.⁷

Our Master is always by our side to protect and guide us, and out of an abundance of love and compassion, repeatedly reassures and encourages us to keep focused on our meditation practice and not become overwhelmed by events that are not within our control. If we lose our balance, we cannot help anyone, and neither can we help ourselves. If we follow his advice, he will help us attain his supreme and most precious gift: to behold the Master in his Shabd form, experienced as the Love of God. This is where we ‘lose’ ourselves and surrender. Where we become intuitively or spiritually aware and attain that state of purity where the Master can lead us to God-realization by attuning us to the Shabd, the Divine Sound, the Voice of God. Because, in the words of the Great Master:

So long as the soul does not contact the Sound within, it remains bereft of the ‘reality’. It is like a bird that imitates the songs of others but does not understand its meaning.⁸

For some of us, attending to the meditation practice regularly and over a prolonged period may not always be an easy task, because of the mind becoming easily perturbed or affected by circumstances in our life and in the world. And yet, the Master continually enjoins us to not give up on the meditation practice, regardless of any difficulty or event surrounding us that would pull us away from the ‘centre.’ When we do persevere with the spiritual practice – our meditation seva – with love and devotion and with the Master’s grace and support, we will be able to hold our attention in the darkness and silence within. The darkness will turn to light, and the silence will reveal the hidden Divine Melody as being the Voice of God reaching down to our puny level to bring us home.

As the Great Master says:

This Melody ceaselessly resounds in every human being. It emanates from God himself. It is resounding day and night, but it is God’s gift. By obtaining it the soul merges in the Lord. The music resounds within. It is only a highly evolved soul, however, who can put us in contact with it. It is through his grace that one can attain it. The sahaj dhun one can acquire only in the company of saints.⁹

Only a ‘God-realized’ soul liberated from the limitations of the mind and senses – someone who mastered the spiritual journey and is familiar with every aspect of it – can put us on a path leading to our True Home. It is only by the unbounded grace of the Master that the soul is attuned to sahaj dhun, that is, the natural state of the soul in dhun or divine sound, where the soul recognizes its own true nature or identity and gravitates easily and naturally towards completely merging into God.

The Master guides us through the many challenges in this life and the unknown, uncharted territory of the inner spiritual journey. These are the Masters of the time who, by their own example and unbounded love and compassion for humanity, inspire us to look deeper into the meaning and purpose of life. They come to our level so we may dare believe that all of creation and all beings in it are an expression of God’s Love.

The current of love from the One God is flowing through the entire universe.
What do you think when you look at a man? Look at him carefully.
He is not a man, but a current of the Essence of God (Love) which permeates him.¹⁰

If we’re serious about changing the trajectory and way of our life, which so far has kept us in the dark, tied to attachments and entanglements of the world, separated and unaware of the presence of the Divine, the Master has provided us with some practical steps we can take to support our spiritual quest:

• Living on a lacto-vegetarian diet: If we wish to align ourselves with the source of all compassion and love, the Supreme Being, we cannot justify being part of a process that involves killing defenseless creatures – causing them unspeakable pain and suffering – just for our food. There is an abundance of healthy and nutritious food available that does not involve the killing of animals.
• Not consuming alcohol and mind-altering substances: These cloud and confuse the mind and prevent us from thinking clearly. Under their influence we may say and do things that may bring harm to others and ourselves in the process, which we may bitterly regret.
• We are advised to live as a ‘good human being’ based on sound moral and ethical principles: simple, down-to-earth advice. The saints remind us that the Lord dwells within everyone. By intentionally causing harm to others in any way, we are ultimately hurting ourselves. Limiting ourselves to those activities that are pleasing only to the mind and body, is detrimental to our soul. In the words of the poet mystic Eknath: “If you use the body for enjoyment alone, you multiply your attachments and drive desires deeper. For your own good, use the body for the welfare of your soul.”
• Daily meditation practiced for 2½ hours as instructed by the Master at the time of initiation. During the simran portion, that is the repetition of the Holy Names with love and devotion, we collect our attention at the eye centre. As a result, concentrated currents of loving remembrance of the Master pervade us which have a purifying and calming effect on the mind. We begin to cherish and value the bliss of inner peace as the mind becomes interested in meditation.
• In time, the Shabd form of the Master becomes visible in his inner Light Form and audible as the Divine Melody, the Voice of God resounding throughout the creation. Then the mind is motivated to increase the time of the meditation practice. As Huzur Maharaj Ji used to say, from quantity – quality will come.

The way to God is through love by meditation on his name. As Huzur says: “The more you are attached to Shabd (sound current), the nearer you will be to the Master and the stronger will be your love for him … The more time you spend in the spiritual exercises with faith, love and humility, the greater will be your love for the Master and God.”¹¹

Our journey in search of true love has brought us to the Path of Divine Love where the True Masters, the true lovers of the Lord, invite us to awaken to the reality of our affinity with the Divine – to recognize our unity with him, and that we have never left. Because the Masters say that we’re already there; it’s only a matter or realization!

Sardar Bahadur Maharaj Ji describes our unity as part of a divine trinity:

The trinity of God, soul and Satguru is indeed one long chain of infinite love.
The devotee of the Lord also manifests the same love. The individual soul is the drop, the Satguru the stream, and God the vast ocean. Just as a drop of rain gets polluted with matter during its fall to the earth, so does the soul, in its descent to the physical world, obtain coverings of mind and matter and lose its luster. Nothing but pure love pervades in Sach Khand (True Home), the abode of the ultimate reality. Illusion has no place there. It is truly the fountainhead of pure, unalloyed love, eternal and limitless. None but the saints have access to it and only the perfect adept abides there. Therefore, develop utmost devotion and abiding love for the Satguru.¹²