The Glory of Repetition
Great Master writes:
I appreciate your spirit when you put the blame upon yourself for lack of spiritual progress. This will lead to success. Most people shift blame to the method, the teaching or the Master. Do not be anxious. When you give greater time to meditation, you will succeed…Spiritual progress does not depend on length of time after Initiation. It depends upon concentration.
Spiritual Gems, p.190
It’s the rare disciple who doesn’t feel some disappointment at times over the pace of perceived progress, even though we’re advised by the Master not to analyze, not to even think about progress. But we all know such thoughts do pop up, especially after years of effort.
Baba Ji often says that the Lord has given us humans vivek, the sense of discrimination, the ability to look at a situation objectively. So if we stop to think clearly about the situation, we can see where the problem lies in an instant. All we have to do is look at ourselves and ask a few simple questions: Have we lost all interest in worldly affairs, just fulfilling our duties in a spirit of loving detachment? Do we spend most of our time and mental energy doing our simran or thinking about our Master and the path, leaving behind all worries, plans, desires, or concerns having to do with this outer world, this illusion?
Furthermore, have we succeeded in sitting perfectly still for the 2 ½-hour period of meditation and, on top of that, kept our mind still and focused at the eye center, so that we can gather all our attention, pierce the inner veil and enter the worlds within us? Do we experience the bodily numbness that the Masters tell us about or perhaps a sense of feeling separate from our body? In other words, have we done what we must do in order to open our inner eyes and ears so that we can meet the Master inside, merge with the Shabd, and travel to our Home?
If we honestly answer any or all of these questions with a No, then we still have work to do, and we have no cause for complaint.
When we first came across the path of the Masters, we made a thorough study of its philosophy, reading books, attending satsang, asking questions. The path spoke to us at some deep, gut level as being true and/or it made sense to us intellectually. We felt excited at coming across an explanation for our experience in this world, with all its ups and downs, confusions, heartaches, and short-lived joys. To learn that there is actually a method we can learn and practice that’s guaranteed to enable us to leave behind this vale of tears forever and experience eternal bliss was exhilarating, to say the least!
But it turns out that this path is a long one. In fact, the Masters often say that it’s a lifelong path—and eventually, we believe them.
Great Master states here that taking responsibility for our lack of progress “will lead to success.” Why? Because when we don’t take the easy way out by trying to place blame elsewhere, we redouble our efforts and soldier on. We persevere – which is the secret to success on this Path. Baba Ji says so many times that it’s up to us to do the work. He can’t and won’t do it for us. We must keep our part of the spiritual bargain, which is to try as hard as we possibly can to withdraw all our attention to the eye center, from where we can exit this body and enter the true spiritual regions within. Sardar Bahadur Jagat Singh Ji said,
My friends! On this Path it is most essential to toil hard. Unless one puts in all the effort and labor that lies in one’s power, and pushes hard, the door will not open.
The Science of the Soul, p.211
This is a very positive attitude, and we’re certainly encouraged to be positive. All Masters want us to succeed more than we want it. They know from their own experience the rewards that await us. They take ten steps towards us for every step we take towards them, to use one of the phrases we often read in the literature to explain the depth and reach of the Master’s guidance and assistance. As Great Master writes in another letter about the Master; “He is in the world for our good and guidance, for, without a Master who will teach us? Man can be taught by man only. The Master is unselfish, without any prejudice, and our true well-wisher and benefactor. He is with us in this world, in Spiritual Regions, and even in the Court of the Most High; but this realization comes only when the veil of mind has been lifted.” (Spiritual Gems, p.145) It’s all about realization.
Great Master then writes, “Do not be anxious.” He’s referring to anxiety over spiritual progress. The Masters of course also counsel us not to waste time and energy worrying about worldly affairs. As Hazur Maharaj Ji wrote:
Take life easily as it comes. Worry never helped anybody. There is a Higher Power that guides our destinies. Try to move along with His Will. He alone knows what is best for us. He is all good and merciful. Give yourself up to His Hands. May the Lord bless you.
Divine Light, p.197
In another part of his letter, Great Master writes, more fully,
“If your faith and trust in the Master are full and complete, you need not be anxious for the future of your soul or that it will be subject to births and deaths. The soul goes where it feels attached. Your anxiety should be to perform meditation and repetition regularly.
Spiritual Gems, p.190
So there is one sphere in which anxiety is appropriate and helpful, and that is anxiety to put in our best efforts to follow the instructions given to us at the time of initiation. This is where our focus should be and the only thing that should concern us.
But how to develop this “full and complete” “faith and trust in the Master” so that we can avoid anxiety? We don’t just magically have that faith because we wish for it, just as we don’t become humble, overcome anger or leave lust behind by wishing – or by deciding “from today I will be humble,” etc. We have to work long and hard. To have complete faith we must do our part, and that part is always the same: Meditation. We do get enough faith to embark on this journey, to begin conducting this spiritual experiment within our own body, but we develop the faith through the practice. Practice leads to experience, which leads to “full and complete faith and trust in the Master,” our spiritual guide.
Learning to trust in the Lord to fulfill all our needs and to take perfect care of us is something that takes time. We hold on to our burdens and worries, sometimes, with every fiber of our being, regardless of the fact that doing so hasn’t solved our problems or made us happy. It’s partly habit formed over countless lifetimes, it’s partly not fully understanding our situation. The Masters like to use the analogy of the person who boards a train but continues carrying his luggage. It’s OK to put it down. That train is going to get us to our destination, and we don’t need to spend our limited energy holding onto baggage—of any kind—worries, attachments, even our very identity as a being separate from the Lord. We don’t need any of that anymore. And the great news is that we do gradually understand that. We let go. If we’re fortunate, we do this sooner rather than later. But it will happen.
Great Master goes on to give his…“recipe for success,” let’s call it:
When you give greater time to meditation, you will succeed…
but then he clarifies,
Spiritual progress does not depend on length of time after initiation. It depends upon concentration.
Spiritual Gems, p.190
However, in most cases, to develop concentration requires time, and as Great Master said, progress depends on that concentration, which will bring everything else we want along with it. Will and Desire also play very strong roles in this process. How do we gain concentration? Through repetition or Simran. The glory of Repetition is that it’s the one part of meditation that we can control. We can’t control Dhyan or Bhajan. Seeing the Master’s Radiant Form inside or hearing the true, pulling sound current within, are natural results of the concentration created by repetition. They will come automatically, we’re told. But we can control how much repetition we do, and this should be our most important practice.
Elsewhere in this letter, Great Master explains to the disciple:
The reason for your not hearing the Sound is that your mind is so much engrossed in worldly matters that it does not allow the soul to go in. When the mind goes down it ceases to catch the Sound. The remedy is to bring about the concentration of the mind by means of careful repetition, which will make the mind and the soul still and collected, and therefore able to catch the sound current.
Spiritual Gems, p.188
One of Great Master’s best-known Western disciples, Dr. Julian Johnson, wrote eloquently of the sound current, which he also called the Audible Life Stream. According to Dr. Johnson:
This Stream may be perceived and heard by all who participate in it throughout all worlds. It may be seen and heard by such as attain an awakened consciousness under the training of a Master. When he feels it, he feels the power of God. This Shabd is, therefore, the Divine Being expressing himself in something both audible and visible.
As we know, this path is sometimes called the Path of sound and light. Great Master writes in this letter:
As the concentration increases, the Sound will become more tasteful and sweet. Therefore the first necessity is Repetition, without which concentration cannot take place. And unless concentration has become so intense as to enable the soul and mind to cross the stars, the sun and the moon, the Sound Current cannot lift the soul.
Spiritual Gems, p.188
Gradually letting go of our anxiety about everything, including our spiritual progress, and learning to live cheerfully in the will of the Lord, is both a result of meditation and a help in meditation, and it brings a wonderful contentment and peace. We trust that the Master is doling out our karmic accounts for this lifetime in whatever way is best suited to our needs. This leaves us free to put our time, attention and energy where they can do the most good, in other words in obeying the Master’s instructions, in focusing the maximum effort possible on our meditation practice.
It’s essential that we maintain that zeal that we experienced in the early days of our discipleship, or recover it, renew it, if we’ve lost it somewhere along the way. One method that Baba Ji recommends is to reflect on the reasons why we decided to follow this path in the first place. It may have been a long time ago for many of us. It helps to take a few minutes to remember not only what we thought but how we felt when we found out about the path and made the momentous decision to ask for initiation, then got initiated and began meditating. Remember the joy, the excitement, the thrill??? The gratitude? How awe-inspiring and overwhelming it all was? Everybody’s exact experience is individual, of course, but these and other emotions are some of those that many of us have had. We knew, or felt, that at last we’d found a True Friend and Guide, an Enlightened One whose love transcends this lifetime and, in fact, will be with us forever. Great Master writes:
The Master is within you and is looking after you. Go in and you will be convinced of it.
Spiritual Gems, p.191
Another aid is reading an inspiring page or two before sitting in meditation; this can make a big difference in helping us sit with a positive, accepting attitude, indeed a joyful, grateful attitude, alert and interested. Baba Ji often says that it’s up to us to make our meditation interesting, and it’s something we can easily do. Meditation is our most important and sacred daily duty, but we can over time, perhaps without even realizing it, come to regard our sitting time with indifference or even dread. Devoting a few minutes to such spiritual reading, being reminded of what we too can expect to experience in due time, is heartening and helpful. So let’s take advantage of the tools that Master so kindly gives us.
Saints come in every age and in many different places, we are told. There is always at least one true realized soul here, sometimes more, sharing this creation with us, authorized by God to bring certain souls whose time has come back to their Source. Their tone, their language, the analogies they use may be different, to suit the times they live in and the people they’re addressing…but the basic message remains the same: God is Love. We are a part of that Love but have forgotten our divine origins and the way to fully realize our true selves and God. To do this, we must find a teacher who knows the method and, under this teacher’s guidance, traverse the inner path ourselves. We must have our own experiences leading to perfect Faith and Love, going far beyond mere words and concepts.
We’re going HOME!!! What better, happier future could we have?! And we have a happy present, too, if we train our mind to focus on the positives and not the difficulties, to cultivate the habit of gratitude—for all the blessings we can see and those we don’t yet know.
Toward the end of his letter, Great Master says:
Try to lift the veil within and try to taste the spiritual joy, compared to which all the worldly designs and inventions are insignificant and valueless. (And he concludes): “Do not doubt; the Lord looks after His own.”
Spiritual Gems, p.191