Salutations unto the feet of Supreme Fathers, Almighty Lords Sawan and Kirpal, Who have had mercy on the poor souls and have given the souls the opportunity to sing Their glory.
Saints and Mahatmas, the Beloveds of God, come in every age; They come in every religion. Saints and Mahatmas do not come to break any of the existing religions, nor do They come to form any new religion. All the Saints and Mahatmas have the same message to give out. They all have the same experience-that our soul is of the same essence as that of God Almighty, and being separated from Him, she has lost her way under the influence of mind and maya, and she has forgotten her Real Home.
Mahatmas do not come into this world to put sticks and swords in our hands and make us fight with each other. They have this experience and that is that God Almighty is One. Up until now all those who have realized Him have done so by going within, and whosoever will realize Him in the future will also do so in the same way.
As long as the Saints and Mahatmas live in this world, Their teachings and Their preaching are well understood and people follow Their teachings. They write Their teachings in the form of books for the benefit of the people who are going to come in the future, thinking that those people will get benefit from reading the books written by the perfect Masters. But what happens after the Masters leave this world? We people give a different shape to the teachings of the Masters. We form it into a religion. Why do we do that? We do that only because of our own self-interest. And we fight with each other.
Masters are not confined to any one particular religion or to any particular country. They come into this world for the entire creation. For them everyone is the same, whether one is American or European or anybody. They all are the same in the eyes of the Master, because They always look at the souls of the people.
Masters lovingly tell us that we realize that soul is One only when we rise above the nine openings of the body and when we go within. When we remove the physical, astral and causal covers from our soul and reach Par Brahm, only then do we realize that the soul is made of the same essence as God Almighty and there is no difference. A soul is neither American nor is she Indian. The difference of whether one is man or woman is also below that level. But when we reach Par Brahm, then we see that the soul is neither male nor female. Soul is one.
Dear ones, this is not a matter of talking or reading. If we think that by reading we will be able to see that soul is one, or we will realize that soul is one-it is not the matter of talking or reading. It is the matter of experience and practicing. Kabir Sahib says, "The place where the Formless One lives, over there neither is there any Veda nor is there any Shastra. Neither the day exists nor the night takes place over there. O man, meditate upon Him. He is within you. You are the crazy ones because you are looking for Him outside."
Saints and Mahatmas do not come into this world in Their own will. They come into this world in the Will of God Almighty. They connect those souls with God Almighty for whom God Almighty Himself has decided that they will be taken back Home.
In this world whatever career we want to make, whatever skill we want to learn, we have to take the teacher accordingly. So when we want to become a blacksmith, we have to go to a blacksmith and take him for our teacher. If we want to become a doctor, we need to go to doctors and be in their company.
Whatever work we want learn in this world, even to learn that we have to go and spend many years, in the company of our teachers. After going to them we have to do what they ask us to do. We have to work very hard in following the instructions of our teachers. It is not like this-that we go to the teacher and don't do what they want us to do and still we get the degrees of B.A. or M.A. As we need to go in their company, we also need to follow and to work hard, according to their instructions.
In the same way, when God Almighty wants to liberate anyone, He puts His competence, He puts His skill within a human form. From outside that human being looks like the other human beings, but there is a great difference between Him and the other people, because within Him, God has put His power.
After coming into this world the Masters live a very humble life. The (first) sign of the Master is that He earns His own livelihood.
Even though He is living in this world, still He is unaffected by the dirt of the world. He has molded Himself completely in the teachings which He has received from the Master.
So a hymn of the Master is presented in front of you. It is worth listening to with much attention.
This is the bani of Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj. In the morning before you sat for meditation, I said that when our body gets dirty we can remove that dirt by using water. If we have more dirt, we may apply some soap to our body. But the dirt which our soul has accumulated over the ages, that dirt or that filth cannot be removed by any amount of japas or tapas or by going to any places of pilgrimage. It can only be removed by going within and by doing the devotion of God Almighty.
Dear Ones, I myself have done all those japas, tapas-the repititions, performing the austerities-doing all different kinds of worship in my life, because right from my childhood I had much yearning in my heart and I was searching for Him. So I have done all these rites and rituals which are often mentioned in the scriptures.
I was born in a Sikh family and right in my childhood in the very beginning, I was made to read the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scriptures of the Sikhs. In the Guru Granth Sahib, the teachings of Nanak Sahib, Kabir Sahib and many other Saints and Masters have been included, and They all have the same teachings, They all have the same things to say-that we can remove this dirt of our soul only by going to a perfect Master and doing the meditation of Naam.
So Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj says that there is only one way to remove the dirt of the sins from your soul, and that is if you go to the perfect Master and get the Naam from Him, and do the meditation of Naam. Only by doing the meditation of Naam can you remove the dirt of your soul. In fact, if you go to the perfect Master and have His darshan, that also removes alot of dirt from your soul. So Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj says, "My Beloved Lord is the happiness-giver and glory to the Par Brahm, because He resides in all of us." So if we receive the holy Naam Initiation from the perfect Master, and if we go and have His darshan and do the meditation of Naam, then all the dirt which has accumulated on our soul goes away.
Guru Nanak Sahib says," O Nanak, all those who have heard or seen the Master don't (come back) in the womb of the mother."
The reality is that if anyone even hears of the Master and has faith in Him, even he is protected. You may have read the story of Harnam Singh in the magazine-how he had the darshan of the Master Only once when Master was driving past in His car. But even that much darshan of the Master had its effect and when his end time came he said,"The Master has come and I am going with Him."
Dear Ones, Harnam Singh had developed a great amount of faith in the Master. He had the opportunity to have the darshan of the Master while the Master was passing through the city of Abohar. You can very well imagine how much of the Master's darshan he would have got, because Master was in the car and you know how fast a car goes. But after he had the darshan of the Master, Harnam Singh gave up drinking wine and the other intoxicants to which he was addicted and he became a good person. One year later he got the darshan of Master Kirpal Singh within, and finally when he left this world, left his, he was taken by Master Kirpal Singh Himself.
Ordinarily what do we do? We search for happiness in the worldly things. We think that by becoming a leader and by getting power we will become the happiest person on earth, that we will get a lot of happiness. And then we start making efforts to become a leader. We work very hard and finally we become successful in that. We are praised all over: we are praised in the newspapers and people take us out in the form of the procession, they glorify us like that. But when the bad time comes, when there is a coup or something like that-either they shoot us, they kill us, or they dethrone us-then the same people who used to praise us in the newspapers start criticizing us. Then we realize that our power or our kingdom, which we used to think of as the happiness-giver, has now become the most painful thing, and instead of getting the happiness, we suffer at the end.
Experience shows that there is no happiness in anything of this world. If we see any happiness it is temporary. If there is any real peace or happiness, that is in the devotion of Naam. So that is why Guru Sahib says here, "My beloved Master gave me the Naam; I did the devotion and that is how I got the happiness and peace. And in the end also it is the Master Who is going to come and take care of me. There is no difference between my beloved Master and God Almighty because He has given me eternal peace and happiness."
Now he lovingly says,"What grace has the Master showered upon me, what blessings has the Master given to me? The Master told me the secret of the Naam. He has given me the Initiation to Naam, and by making me meditate on that Naam He has taken me to Par Brahm. And now in my within I have experienced the real peace and happiness."
"God Almighty is all-pervading. He is capable of doing everything, he is Omnipotent, and I have come to His Feet."
What is our condition now? If anything goes well in our life-suppose we have been successful in something of this world-we think we have done it. We think we are clever and that this good thing has happened only because of our wisdom and cleverness. But when our Inner Eye gets opened, then we realize that everything is being done by God Almighty Himself. We didn't do anything; it was all God Almighty Who was doing everything in our life.
When we get pains, when we get any unhappiness, or when any difficulties come up, then we find hundreds of faults in God Almighty.
In the time of Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj, the ruler and the people who were bound by religious beliefs at that time gave many tortures to Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj, the MAhatma whose bani we are reading. He accepted everything as coming in the Will of God, even though one of His disciples, whose name was Mian Mir, went to Him and said, "O Master, if you allow me , I can raze the cities of Delhi and Lahore The Ground." So Guru Arjan Dev Ji said, "Dear One, you know that it is possible that I can even do that. But whatever I am receiving, whatever I am getting in the Will of the Lord is very sweet and I am accepting that." Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaj says, "O Lord, Your Will is very sweet and Nanak asks only for the Naam."
When Sarmad was being executed-you know that when they take someone to be hanged, they cover the person's head with a black hood-so when they were going to put that on Sarmad's head, He said, "There is no need to do that, because I can see the Lord in you; I can see His Form within you." Sarmad saw the form of God even in the person who was going to execute Him. Such Masters always see God Almighty present within everyone, even in those who give them a very hard time. This is the reason why nowadays nobody remembers Aurangzeb, the ruler with whose order Sarmad was executed. But there is a tomb of Sarmad and people go there with much respect and they pay their homage to Sarmad.
We have fallen into the blind well of the passions and the pleasures, and Master is the One Who takes us out. The passions do not leave us until we go beyond Trikuti. They chase us, they bother us in their subtle forms until we have crossed over and have gone beyond Trikuti. They bother us in their physical form when we are living in this physical plane. When we rise above it, they bother us, in their subtle, their astral form.
Those who cannot maintain themselves here in this physical plane, how will they maintain themselves when they go to the astral planes, when they will be presented with the radiant things? That is the reason why in the sangat Masters impose the law that you should not live together without getting married, and once you are married you should be faithful only to your partner; you should not look at anybody else except for your partner. So this is to maintain the discipline, and this is why the Masters always say that you have to maintain this, because if you cannot maintain yourself here in this physical plane, how will you do so when you go within?
Devasa Rishi, who was respected even by Lord Krshna, and who had access up to the heavens, when he went to the heavens, he was deceived by the fairy called Urvasi and he lost the wealth of all the japas and tapas and all the practices which he had done on this plane. You may read the hymn of Kabir Sahib which says, "With your eyes behold your beloved One. He resides within the palace of your heart." In that hymn Kabir Sahib has explained, how when a devotee does his meditation and how when he goes in the within, as he goes on progressing, he starts getting supernatural powers, he starts getting so many things, and if he is not guided by the perfect Master, he loses them all.
What happened when our soul reached Par Brahm? We got the liberation. The anxiety which was bothering us so much-what will happen after this life, where will we go?-that anxiety has come to an end. Because when our soul reached Par Brahm, with the grace of the Master, we have seen with our own eyes that now we are not going to go back into that cycle of birth and death: we are the liberated ones. Until we get that realization, until we take our soul to Par Brahm, with the grace of the Master, and see this with our own eyes, we are always worried and we always think, "What is going to happen to us?" and, "Where are we going to go?" But when we go there all that comes to an end. Usually the people who believe in the religions are told that they will go to the heavens if they do good things after this life. But in Sant Mat, in the Path of the Masters, this thing does not have any value. Because the Masters do not give us the temptations of going to heavens. Religions tell us that we will go to the heavens after this life, but the Masters tell us that whatever you have to do, you have to do it here. You should not rely on what is going to happen in the future.
Kabir Sahib says, "Death, which the people fear a lot, I am very happy when that happens to me, because after dying, I get the eternal bliss; I get to go to God Almighty."
One very close dear one of Master Kirpal Singh requested Him at the time of His departure, "You should request Baba Sawan Singh that He should make You better and He should leave You in this world." So Master Kirpal Singh said, " Tell me one thing: if your dear friend sends you a gift, will you not accept it happily?"
Now He lovingly says, "How was my birth and death finished? My Master gave me the Nectar of Naam to drink, drinking which my soul has become the liberated one. The pain of birth and death has gone away. Drinking that Nectar of Naam which my Beloved Master has given to me, my soul has become the indestructible one."
All the Masters have mentioned this Nectar in Their own languages. Some Masters have called it the "Water of Life," some have called it the "Bread of Life. "In the holy Koran it is mentioned as the "Water of Life."
Now He lovingly says that in the writings of the Masters the true Masters are mentioned, and in the same way the false masters are also mentioned. Who are the true Masters and who are the false masters? The false masters are those who do not do the meditation, those who are outside, those who have done some reading, those who have got something from here and there, and who are misleading the people, who are just talking to them without going inside.
The perfect Master does not drink the water of the passions and pleasures. Going within, He drinks the Nectar of the Naam.
The perfect Master is not connected with the world outside; He is connected within Himself with God Almighty, with his own Master. The perfect Master is not attached to any worldly religion. In fact, when He goes within, then He gets to realize and He remains connected with His Master, with Almighty God inside. He knows that all the name and fame, all the worldly riches will not go with Him.
The perfect Master has done the meditation of Naam and He has become the form of Naam. And He does not want to get the name of this world, even by paying nothing.
The perfect Master neither criticizes anyone, nor does He have duality for anyone, because He sees His beloved Master residing within everyone.
If we get such a perfect Master, He shows us the Path to Sach Khand. He not only shows us the Path, but He goes with us and He helps us at every step.
Guru Nanak Sahib says that only people with very good fortunate, only the most fortunate ones, are able to get the gift of the Naam from such a perfect Master. And when they get this passport of Naam from the perfect Master, they do not have to go to hell.
So we should also do the meditation of Naam, we should also follow the teachings of the Master, because the time is very short; life is becoming very short; the noose of death is being tightened. So the best thing for us is to do the meditation of Naam. If we can do that it would be better for us.
Such a perfect Master is our free servant. And even after doing so much for us, He does not say He has done a favor for us. And also He does not charge any fee for all that He does for us.
Guru Nanak Sahib said, "Rare are such souls in this world. Such perfect Masters are not found in groups. They are rare in this world."