6 In the universe is utter darkness
If one were to withdraw his mind from sensual pleasures and were to attach himself to the Sound Current, he would go back to Sach Khand. Then there would be no more coming and going. All this is within one’s self, and whoever goes in according to the instructions of a Master reaches his home.
Seeing the world in its true light, Soami Ji observes that there is nothing but utter darkness and misery in this world. It is indeed a place where the blind are leading the blind.1 The slogan “eat, drink and be merry” is altogether confusing and in reality no one is happy in this wide world. A visit to the hospitals will show the amount of distress and suffering there and how people die in agony. In the cemeteries or the cremation grounds, look how the bereaved ones undergo anguish! The seemingly rich have a heavy load of cares and worries heaped on them and this breaks them completely. “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” The poor have practically nothing to fall back upon to go through the voyage of life without bitter privations.
The deadly five enemies of human beings, viz., lust, anger, avarice, attachment, pride or egotism permit us no rest or peace. Lust pulls us down to the animal plane. Those given to sensual pleasures severely undermine their health and repent their follies ever afterwards. Anger burns up all that is noble. It tears down and annihilates every fine quality of mind and soul. It is a consuming fire born of the fires of destruction. Avarice binds us to material things and clouds our vision of all higher values. It ties us to baser things of earth. Piety, love and kindness gradually disappear. The greedy person has no end to his wants and desires and nothing can ever satiate him. He constantly runs after a mirage. “The poorest man in the world is he who has nothing but money.” Attachment or infatuation is the most insidious and deceitful of the passions. One under its sway merely exists in the flesh and renders himself homeless. “Naked and empty-handed one comes here and likewise one departs.” Pride or egotism is a malignant kind of selfishness and is the most sturdy and masterful of the baneful five. It has also the greatest longevity. It is the last to surrender. Its fundamental assumption is its own infallibility. Thus lust degrades and disgraces; anger consumes and destroys; greed hardens and petrifies; attachment seduces and binds; and egotism distorts and deceives.
In the sea, fish live upon one another. Likewise on land, one animal lives upon another and so also do the birds. Hawks prey upon sparrows and the small birds devour insects and worms. Tigers and wolves eat goats and sheep, which in turn feed upon plant life. Man, of course, eats everything. In a sphere where one creature eats another, there can hardly be any peace or tranquillity. However one may argue, the fact remains that every being feels pain. Even a worm tries to save its life. The story of Sadna illustrates this point:
Sadna was a king’s butcher. Once, late in the night, the king asked for some fries. As there was no ready meat available, Sadna was ordered to provide some immediately. As he did not like to kill the whole goat for fear that the rest of the meat would spoil in the warm night, he planned merely to castrate a goat for the time being and kill it the next morning for a fresh supply of meat for sale. As he approached the goat with a knife in his hand, the latter spoke thus, to his utter amazement, “Many a time hast thou killed me and so have I done unto thee, O Sadna, but thou art now embarking upon something new.”
This incident completely startled the butcher, made him think deeply and was responsible for altering the whole course of his life. He soon gave up his occupation, sought a mystic adept and under his guidance attained high spiritual realms. Ever since then he is referred to as Sadna, the Butcher Saint.
The vegetables have one active tattwa (element) which is water; the insects have two*; the birds have three, viz., water, air and fire; in the higher animals there are four of them, viz., earth, water, air and fire; while in man all five elements, viz., earth, air, water, fire and ether are active. The larger the number of active elements a living entity has, the higher it is in the scale of evolution, and naturally the greater is the onus involved in killing it. Or, in other words, the karmic load that one has to carry on killing is in direct proportion to the active elements present in a living being. Therefore saints enjoin a completely vegetarian diet on their followers. Besides, food of animal origin drags one down to the animal plane and bars spiritual progress.
Soami Ji likens the whole world to a labyrinth where different species come and go without finding an exit or escape from the wheel of birth and death. The soul is an essence of the supreme Lord and belongs to Sat Lok. In its descent to the physical world it has completely forgotten its true origin and is wholly dominated by mind and senses. Under their sway it performs actions, good and bad, and then repeatedly returns to reap their rewards – “As ye sow, so shall ye reap” – and thus goes on the never-ending cycle. “Not one life but many lives hast thou had to pass as animals and insects.” At the end of each life appear the angels of death who deal the soul appropriate reward or punishment.
The human form is the only privileged one to realize the Supreme Being and one gets it again after countless ages spent in other forms. Yet, even here, the mind and senses overpower the soul.
All the saints and sages preach the truth, bring home to us the transitory nature of everything in this world, give us the means to effect our release and enable us to join the eternal Lord. How unfortunate that instead of following them, we abuse and persecute them! Guru Nanak was told that he had lost his senses and that he should not misguide people. Kabir was treated no better. Christ was crucified. Mansur was stoned to death, Shams-i Tabriz was flayed alive, Guru Gobind Singh’s two innocent little sons were bricked alive and he himself was persecuted. Gurus Arjun Dev and Tegh Bahadur were subjected to inhuman tortures and they died at the cruel hands of their persecutors. And yet, all this was done in the name of religion at the dictates of our bigoted guides.
Maharaj Sawan Singh Ji used to illustrate the pitiable state of man by relating the following story:
A bald-headed person who was both blind and deaf happened to stray into an inn. He exhorted people to take him out but nobody would help. Thereupon he himself began to grope his way, thinking that he would reach and go out of the main gate. When, however, he actually neared the only exit, in response to an itching sensation on his head, he lifted his hand and scratched, and thus passed the exit in the meantime. Every time he neared the gate the same thing happened and he thus remained in this maze forever. We mortals behave exactly in the same fashion; every time we get the gift of a human form, instead of utilizing it for God-realization, we turn to sensual pleasures and once again go down into the labyrinth.
The saints exhort man to rise above the nine portals of the body and urge him to concentrate his attention at the eye centre. There he can contact the Sound, with the help of which he can go up. Guru Amar Das also says the same thing: “Close the nine doors, still the wayward mind and go to the tenth door. There the Anahat Shabd resounds incessantly, day and night.”2 Now, one may ask, why do we not hear it? Guru Sahib says that one can hear it only with the help of a perfect Master. It is the Shabd which liberates us, which supports all creation, all regions and continents, and the sun, moon and stars. The Master directs us to withdraw our attention and to concentrate it at the eye centre, where we can contact and eventually merge in the Sound Current. But, without a perfect Master, even when we think we are turning to spiritual practices, we follow paths which are blind alleys. Neither renunciation, nor penances, nor learning, nor pilgrimages can ever bring true bliss. These practices are like churning water, which can bring out nothing. Going within and contacting Nam is like churning cream and producing butter.
Soami Ji says that the worldly man is indeed unfortunate, for all his attention is centred in the world. How can a Master take him up, a bundle of filth that he is? To Shabd he is not united. Every thought of the world and the worldly pleasures immediately pulls him down, away from the eye centre. All the same, the washerman must do his duty. He must scrub and clean the dirty clothes. The Master is the washerman for the soul.
The more one devotes himself to Shabd, the more he is purified. But if he takes to counting beads or performing austerities, little do they help him. It only develops egotism.
Nam is not to be found in books. Even if we read all holy scriptures but do not follow the path of Surat Shabd, we are like the chandool bird which, parrot-like, imitates all sounds.
Soami Ji tells us that if we want to tread the spiritual path, we must learn the technique from an adept, then go within and unite with the Shabd or the Sound Current. Gradually, our extremities begin to get benumbed, till we actually lose all sensation and behold radiant light within. “It is now time,” says Soami Ji, “that you should begin to get yourself detached from the world and practise the method of Surat Shabd, for there is no other way.”3 Guru Amar Das also says the same thing: “Without Shabd all is darkness inside; neither do you secure your objective nor do you cease your coming and going.”4
To recapitulate:
- This world is full of gloom and misery. None here is happy.
- The only escape lies in the human body.
- Recitals, penances and pilgrimages are utterly futile and may be likened to churning water.
- It is only with the grace of a living Satguru that we can close the nine doors, still the mind, enter the tenth one and contact Nam which constantly resounds there.
- This is the only way. No other exists.