III / (iii)

The Perfect Master

Our Spiritual Faculties had got so fogged and cloaked with the gross coverings of Mind and Maya that, even though the Shabd was forever reverberating within and around us, we could not hear its music or see its glory:

Nanak sae ankhriyan bae-an jini disindo mapiri.

Those eyes are different with which my Beloved is seen.

Rag Wadhans 577

How was this chain to be broken? How could man once again revive his link with his Maker? For this, Baba Ji affirmed, one needed indispensably the aid of a Competent Master:

Dhur Khasmae ka hukam paya Vin Satguru chaitya na jai.

Such is the Will of the Lord – He cannot be known except through a Living Satguru.

Var Bihagra 556

Without His enlivening touch the soul could not awaken from its slumber and get attuned to Naam. The Jiva Atman was too far lost in the gross material to contact Shabd on its own account. Besides, the Inner Way was not an easy one and even if the soul could transcend physical consciousness and enter the realms within, it could not proceed very far on its own. The regions And and Brahmand were well-nigh infinite and without a Spiritual Guide it would remain lost in their wonders. Further, there were points in the mystic journey, especially between one plane and another, that were so difficult that, but for an Adept, the soul would be forever obstructed there.¹

Baba Ji indefatigably emphasised the necessity of a Living Master for success in the field. Past Saints may have explored all the mysteries of the mystic realms and may even have left accounts of Their experiences. But the Inner Worlds were indescribable in terms of human language, and at best They could only speak in hints and parables. Since these hints and parables were about a realm of experience completely beyond ordinary human experience, they could not be fully understood except through the aid of One Who had Himself direct access to the experiences They described. Thus even to understand the true message of past Masters, one needed a Living One, and it was only when Baba Ji met Swami Ji that He understood the full import of the Granth Sahib and the writings of Kabir and other Great Saints.

The Spiritual Journey was not a matter of intellectual disquisition. It was a question of practical ascension. Even for academic knowledge a book could not be a substitute for the guidance of a perceptive teacher. Then how much more would this be the case in the Spiritual Field? The Jiva Atman was so lost in Maya that, according to Baba Ji, it could not of its own accord contact the pure Shabd Dhun.

An act of Grace alone could put it in touch with the Inner Light and Music, and this Grace was the gift of a Living Master:

Radhasoami, Lord of the Soul, full of pity and compassion, came down Himself in the form of a Saint, gave us the clues to the Spiritual Regions and showed us the way to reach Sach Khand (True Abode) through Shabd Dhun.

Past Saints were worthy of reverence. Their lives were luminous signposts always beckoning us towards our Divine Home. But it was the law of Nature that the living impulse could only come from the living, and the task They had performed for Their own age must, in ours, be performed by One Who lived amongst us and Who had mastered the way They had mastered.

In fact, Their writings, if critically studied, were an endless testimony of the need for a Living Master.

Who was a Competent Living Master and how was He to be recognised? Baba Ji knew that there were countless wolves that moved about in sheep’s clothing, and since everything depended on finding the True Guide, He laid great stress on the need for vigilance and discrimination.

His early experiences had shown only too well the rarity of such Great Spirits – one, perhaps, in an age, at times more (as with Guru Nanak and Kabir, Maulana Rumi and Shamas-i-Tabrez, Tulsi Sahib and Swami Ji, Who were contemporaries) but, alas, always too few – and a man was blessed indeed if he could come across such a One.

The records of past Saints could be used as a touchstone, as had been done by Baba Ji during His quest. If a man was a True Master, and further, a mystic of the Highest Order, all obscurities and contradictions that puzzled one while reading the scriptures would vanish at His touch. He would not only be able to explain effectively the writings of one school of mystics, but of all, for He had access to all the Inner Realms, not just one. As a lad Baba Ji had met many a sadhu, but not until He sat at Swami Ji’s feet did He begin to appreciate all the treasures stored in the Granth Sahib.

Mystics of lower order could interpret records of only those experiences to which they had access, but One Who had ascended to the highest heights could explain everything – a point which Baba Ji’s meeting with the four pundits brought out fully.

Another feature of a True Saint was His amazing humility. It was one of the supreme paradoxes of human life that those who claimed to be Saints were not, and Those Who were, never claimed to be such. Nanak declared Himself to be no more than a slave of the servants of Saints and Swami Ji maintained unruffled the garb of His humility.

It was not by what a man claimed that he was to be known, but by what he did; a tree was judged not by its name but by its fruit; and a Saint was recognised by His perfection as a man, His freedom from worldly desires, His Love and kindness, His unassuming ways, His concern for the welfare of others and His unconcern with name and fame. He gave away His Spiritual Gifts freely like any other of Nature’s blessings, and maintained Himself by His own labours:

Gur, Pir sadai mangan jayae ta ke mool na lagye payae.

Bow not before one who calls himself a guru but depends on the charity of others.

Sarang Var 1245

If on the human level it was His perfection as a man that marked out a True Saint from the rest, on the Spiritual He was to be known by the Inner Experiences and Guidance He could afford. His ability to give some direct Spiritual Experience, however little it may be, to His disciples at the time of initiation was, Baba Ji insisted, the final test of a True Master. He did not promise Spiritual Attainment in some future life after death. He gave a taste of it here and now. He linked the soul to the Inner Light and Sound and it was the disciple’s task to nurture and nourish this seed to full blossom and maturity. The gift of Naam was the sole prerogative of the Satguru and His guiding hand stretched everywhere, in the Inner Planes no less than in the world outside.

So great were His Love and protection that no earthly relationship could ever hope to compare to them. His Radiant Form accompanied the soul after it had transcended the body, and led it from plane to plane towards its celestial Home; and the perceptive disciple could see His Grace working at every turn.

Miracles He could perform indeed – being One with the Divine Will – but He was reluctant to disturb the settled plan; and even if He let His Grace take the upper hand, He let it work unseen, claiming nothing for Himself but working only in the name of His own Master.

He did not concern Himself with disputes and controversies:

Go within and see for yourself,

was His constant dictum, and the stress always fell on the Inner and not on outer forms and rituals.

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Explanation: 1) *Baba Sawan Singh Ji in a letter to one of His disciples makes the necessity of a Living Master in the mystic Path very clear indeed:

When I was in the hospital on account of the fracture of my leg, one day when I was meditating, Baba Ji’s form appeared before me. Baba Ji, or rather what seemed to be His form, said: 'If, in a case of emergency, meat and drink are used, there is no harm.' But when I repeated the Five Names, he got up and walked away. Now, because I had seen Baba Ji in real life and could visualise Him, I found out this trick. But those people who concentrate on the old Masters Who passed away thousands of years ago are likely to be misled. His – the Saint’s – eyes and His forehead cannot be imitated. Hence, you always require a living teacher for the pupil, a living physician for the sick, a living husband for the wife and a living ruler for the people. I maintain that no one else can help a disciple so much as a Living Master. (Source: Spiritual Gems, p. 150)

* (This section is adjusted to the First Edition of 1960;
Editor’s Note 2011.)