Invisible Us

There is a science fiction novel written by H.G. Wells called The Invisible Man that tells the story of a scientist who figured out a way to make himself invisible to the world. The tragedy is that he does not know how to reverse the effect of the potion that rendered him invisible. He must put on a large coat to cover his body; he wears sunglasses to make it appear as if he has eyes and wears a hat to give his head a shape. He wraps his face in a cloth. For years, he walks through the world with these human trappings to cover the fact that he apparently is not visible to others if he takes them off. When he dies, he becomes visible.

In many ways, we are very much like the Invisible Man in that we spend most of our life trying to be “visible” to the world. We strive to please others, live up to the standards of our parents, friends, and bosses, and, in general, live by rules that keep us focused outwards. The metric by which we judge ourselves and others is one that keeps us looking outward. We measure up if we are accepted and excel in this world. Like the Invisible Man, we often remain hidden from the world, but even more sadly we move through life unaware of our true nature. As we pass through life unseen, the true blindness is not the world’s inability to see us – it’s our inability to see our true self. While we think we know who we are, so much of our inner self remains shrouded, buried beneath layers of roles, habits, distractions, and karmas. A paraphrase of a quote that encapsulates our inability to see who we really are is attributed to the psychologist Carl Jung: “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.” Carl Jung eloquently conveyed the idea that true self-awareness and understanding come from introspection and looking within, rather than seeking validation or understanding from external sources. For lifetime after lifetime, we have put on layer upon layer of dross until we no longer know who we are, where we came from, or why we are here. We have developed a shell around us that is barely penetrable.

How did this happen?

Baba Jaimal Singh in Spiritual Letters puts it perfectly:

The day the individual being (jeevaatmaa), that is, the soul, separated from Sach Khand and the Shabd-dhun, that very day its trust in the True Lord (Sat Purush) and the Shabd-dhun was also severed. The Shabd-dhun looks after it [the soul] all the time, but it does not realize this because its love and loyalties are deeply entrenched in mind and maya, and in maya’s objects and the senses that deceive.¹

So here we are, world weary as they say, broken-hearted perhaps, feeling alone, lonely, and isolated among the trappings of maya and our senses, walking around the world pretending we belong here.

Maharaj Charan Singh in Spiritual Perspectives says:

You can never overcome your loneliness unless you allow the soul to go back towards its own source. You may have the whole world at your command, but you can’t overcome the feeling of loneliness. … Nothing belongs to you. … Because the yearning of the soul is always there towards its own source, and this feeling of loneliness can never leave us unless we allow the soul to go back to its own source. … but for that instinct of the soul towards its own source, nobody would find the Lord at all.²

When we become aware that nothing fills the hole in our hearts, by the grace of God this is the beginning of being awakened to the distant memory of being one with God. We may have everything in the world but still that feeling doesn’t leave. Maharaj Charan Singh explains, “ it [the feeling of loneliness] won’t leave unless the soul merges back to its own source. That is divine law, you see.”³

When we begin to realize, then, that the trappings of the world are not us, then the questions of who are we? and what are we here for? come to the surface. The answer is simple:

We are here for one thing; we are here to return and to become one with the Shabad. Maharaj ji says, that to return is “the only duty of the human form because only in the human body can we travel on that path to reach our destination, to achieve our goal.” Nothing else, no other reason. All of the noise that we have taken so seriously – the outer journey – is just a station on our way and soon it will be over. How this happens is a mystery, as is the whole process of inner transformation.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plotinus describes how a person can transform oneself limited identity into an unlimited one, a karma and time-bound consciousness into a timeless one:

The human self is not irrevocably separated from its eternal model, as the latter exists within divine thought. This true self – this self in God – is within ourselves. During certain privileged experiences, which raise the level of our inner tension, we can identify ourselves with it. We then become this eternal self; we are moved by its unutterable beauty, … Such privileged experiences make us realize that we never cease, and have never ceased, to be in contact with our true selves. We are always in God.⁴

How do we become aware of this? After all our searching in religion, reading scriptures, social activism, and so on, by the grace of God, we are initiated. We now seek a different direction. This path, on a mental level, can help us to determine what is valuable to our spiritual lives and what is not, because as humans, seeing well is not so easy or natural. It means getting ourselves out of the way. Moving inward has not been our usual direction. Maharaj Charan Singh says, “Even our devotion to that Lord is also under the sway of the mind now. But when we know our real self, It will be pure devotion, pure love, pure faith [and trust] of the soul in the Lord. That alone can take it back to the Lord.”⁵ But we must turn the tide somehow.

Our initiation is not the end of our journey home. It is the beginning. With the Master and our meditation as our vital companions on this journey, we are led to the profound realization that what we have sought is and always has been within. Like the Invisible Man, we start out blind to our true selves, lost in the distractions of everyday life, adding layer upon layer of worldly trappings to be ‘seen’. In the Inner Voice it is written, “Our so-called individuality is an illusion brought about by the imprisonment of our self in a temporary material body, hampered by the ego. By holding to our illusory individuality, we are really isolating ourselves from the universal power and real self.”⁶

As Baba Jaimal Singh said, “When the soul was cast out of Sach Khand, it lost trust in the Lord,” and in many ways, that initial separation still lingers within us. We have wandered, disconnected from our Source, our inner light dimmed by the veils of the world. But now the Master is guiding us toward healing that ancient rift and separation by rebuilding our trust through the gift of meditation. Meditation becomes the practice that helps us reconnect, offering a way to quiet the mind and gradually restore the bond between our soul and the Divine. Through consistent practice, the layers of confusion and false identity start to dissolve, and the soul begins to remember its true home. The path is not without its challenges – there are moments of doubt, of feeling lost, even fear of what lies within – but as we persevere, the light of inner awakening grows stronger. We realize that the process of walking the path is, in and of itself, a return to the Lord, an undoing of the separation, and a rediscovery of the trust that was once lost. It is not about becoming something new, buying a new hat, or attaining new status, we don’t have to don the robes of a monk or leave town in search of some unknown adventure, the path is about uncovering what has always been there.

This mystical journey we are on becomes a living journey only if we meditate. We must live in the external world, but we are no longer denizens of that world. We are travelling now to understand our true spiritual nature without the worldly coverings, and we are completely fortified with the tools to complete that journey. We are travelling on the mystical path that is totally different from anything we can imagine or expect; it does not belong to the past or future; it is being in the present, the now, where we lose what we thought we were and become comfortable in becoming what we really are.

As practitioners of Sant Mat, we are blessed with a clear path and the guidance of a living Master who walks with us every step of the way.

No matter how many times we recalculate the distance to our goal, the destination is still Home, and it is within us. “When we know our real self, it will be pure devotion, pure love, pure faith of the soul in the Lord.”

It is the fulfillment of the promise of the Masters. Baba Jaimal Singh ends “Thus the Shabd-dhun calls you all the time to come home to Sach Khand.”⁷