XIV / II

The Night is a Jungle

Today is Basakhi and our new life should start. All differences in our hearts should be removed. A man once asked me why it was that no Master has said, ‘Put your attention on me,’ but rather They say, Put your attention on Him. I told him that the instructions must be properly understood.

Lord Krishna said,

Put your attention on that True Form of mine.

The method remains the same regardless of where the Power is manifesting. Electricity will sometimes heat and sometimes chill. Avatars and Saints are manifestations or phases of the same Lord. Misunderstanding and narrow-mindedness create separation of brother from brother, but God’s intoxication is one and the same. We are all worshippers of the Living Light, regardless of which religion we belong to.

Some Christians came to Prophet Mohammed and requested Him to give them a place where they could build a church, and what did He do? He gave them half the mosque for their church! Would anyone do such a wonderful thing today? Think carefully over His action and what it means. Are we prepared to follow in the footsteps of our elders?

Guru Har Gobind, the sixth Sikh Guru, built mosques and temples as well as gurdawaras side by side whenever necessary. In Amritsar, the foundation stone of the famous Sikh Golden Temple was laid by Hazrat Mian Mir, a Muslim Saint, at the special request of Guru Arjan. To rise above body consciousness means to rise above illusion; then one realises in Truth that there exist no differences – religious, sectarian or other. This is truly an Ultimate Goal; outer things are merely helping factors leading towards it, and man as a social being must live in some social group; otherwise, corruption starts its corroding process.

Once in Lahore, an atheist called people from various religions together to discuss the question, ‘Is religion necessary?’ Each religious leader spoke at length, proving the necessity of the different forms and rituals, etc. I was present, sitting in the front row. Then the atheist stood up to give his proof as to why religion is not necessary, giving various examples. Among these, he stated that when a marriage is to take place it is merely a matter of the priest, pundit or mulla placing his hands on the couple in blessing before a group of witnesses, to join them together, so as to prevent corruption. It does not make any difference if it is performed in one religious way or another.

I stood up and said,

Brother, is it not true that if ten or twenty thousand people were of your thought, then a new society or sect would have to be formed? In that society, some rules and regulations would have to be made. You desire to save yourself from organisations, but you are inadvertently creating another. If each man stayed in his own sect and learned how to know his True Self or soul and that Power which controls all things, would not that be better?

He was an atheist, but he replied,

What You have said is correct.

For as long as I lived in Lahore we used to meet on very loving terms.

There is a great deal of misunderstanding existing regarding this subject. In Holy Places only Truth should be discussed – and realised – for Truth is Truth. Keep the company of Someone Who has realised the Truth and get right understanding. We say, ‘God is One’ and even this is not true, but we are finite beings and must therefore use finite terms. 

Let us now take a hymn of Guru Gobind Singh on this celebrated day:

“Oh mind, take such a sanyas1:”

This is a lesson for the mind, that it should adopt such renunciation that will still all desires. To leave one’s hearth and home is not the True Sanyas; one must become desireless, and then the very silence sprouts forth into Light and that same silence becomes vocal.

“Regard every place as a lonely forest; in the mind alone will complete silence come.”

You can make your home a lonely forest. Is not the night a lonely forest? Just consider for a moment. Those who have made the best use of their nights, by knowing oneself and the Overself, have themselves been made. Those who have wasted their nights in frivolous pursuits have wasted themselves. Even a student of worldly knowledge becomes intellectually strong if he makes full use of the night as well as the day. Those men who exercise the physical body through the cold nights become giant in muscle and strength; it is obvious how strong they are. And the disciples who spend their nights in sweet remembrance of the Lord become God themselves. If man can control the dim hours from sunset to sunrise, he becomes a True Human Being. But instead we eat, drink, enjoy the worldly pleasures until midnight, and then snore the rest of the night away.

One Master said that in the night, the Lord’s fragrance is given out – he who remains awake receives this precious gift. Do the worldly duties in the daytime, and at night consider that you are all alone, deep in the country. One’s duties and social obligations with family and friends should be performed with pleasure, because God has joined you together for the sake of give and take. But in the night you can feel free from all this and repose in His lap. It is not at all necessary to leave your home and family for meditation when you have the long lonely nights. When you are wholly absorbed in some object, it is a True Sanyas, cutting off from all other things; and if we start from today, most definitely our lives will change.

This invaluable guidance is written in the Sacred Books, but sadly it remains there, or it penetrates only to the intellectual level. We have to take the knowledge and live up to it; only then does it become a part of life. The night is a jungle – do your work in the daytime and then benefit from the night.

The True Purpose of having a human form is to make daily progress towards the Great Goal, so sit down each day and see where you are. The meaning of keeping a diary is of utmost importance, but very few fully understand it. Remove those things which are obstructing your progress – weed out the imperfections, one by one. A strong man revels in the strength and the weaker man wonders how he got it. When a wrestler walks abroad, people turn to stare and remark on his strength. He has not achieved that overnight, but through many nights of hard exercising. As the renunciate leaves everything and goes to the woods, you can sit down nightly in your own home, forgetting the world and freeing yourself from all entanglements.

“Make the jatta of chastity and purity, and take a bath of yog; grow the nails of regularity.”2

One should make one’s jatta out of the purity of life – guard carefully one’s brahmacharya, chastity. Chastity is life and sexuality is death. Our whole house has to stand on this foundation; do not make it out of sand. You will then be able to live properly; your mind and intellect will be wholesome. This in itself is a most valuable thing, for even if you have only dry bread to eat, yet you will have full strength. You won’t need any tonics.

In regard to the householder’s life: marriage is not a bar to Spirituality, if one lives according to the scriptures. There may be one duty of begetting children, but that is not the be-all and end-all of married life; there is grossly wrong understanding on this subject. Do not make the human form a mere machine for vice. Instead, make your life pure and controlled.

If you wish to have one or two children, well and good; but look after them properly and help them to become something good. Set a worthy example for them, and remain aware of the responsibilities of parenthood. Furthermore, the whole family should sit together and sing the praises of the Lord.

The Guru Sahib tells us to take a bath in the Yog. If you want to become One with God you must throw away all worldly thoughts. To take bath in Yog means a daily bath in His contact – become One with Him. If you cannot wash your hands of worldly affairs, you should not sit in God’s remembrance. The Muslims do vazu – washing of the hands, face and feet – before they sit for the namaz, for they believe that unless this is done, the prayer will not be accepted. So we should wash the worldly environments out of our thoughts before we sit in meditation. The Hindus say that puja should not be done unless one first takes a bath. The most effective bath is to withdraw your attention from outer things.

Grow the nails of regularity. An army without a commander will end up in chaos, so we must command our lives with regularity. If you are employed somewhere, you go there daily at the proper time, without any trouble, and for meditation we should adopt the same attitude and sit daily at the regular time. Sadly, we are adrift; sometimes we sit, sometimes we don’t. If we were truly regular, we would find that if we should happen to have a day without meditation, we would feel ill at ease, as though we had missed something. If possible, there should be a room in the home set aside for God’s remembrance alone – you would find that the very atmosphere of that room would remind you of Him.

In the last stanza of the Jap Ji, you will find, 

Make chastity your furnace and patience your smithy […]

To fashion gold into something beautiful, a goldsmith must first melt the metal by the aid of a furnace. Take these two things, patience and chastity, and go on working towards your Goal. With patience one will continue to persevere, even when the progress seems slow. 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 

St Matthew 5:8

It is a promise Christ gave. So take these things into your lives: patience, perseverance, chaste and pure living, and regularity. Then? Make the nights your jungle, and see what a beautiful program will result.

In the past, a True Brahmcharya would spend his first twenty-five years in a jungle ashram, learning the Vedic and Shastric scriptures. Then he would enter the grehastha ashram – take up the duties of a householder. After conscientiously bringing up his one or two children to the stage of adulthood, he would then return to the forests in the vanprasth ashram wherein he would study for self-realisation. Having realised the Truth, he would leave that stage and journey around in the world, helping the people to awaken. Today’s preaching is done for the stomach only. Some people earn their livelihood by their own hard labour in one way or another, and some take their living from religion or religious books.

So make your home a jungle. He who lives in his own home, remaining aloof from worldly taints, yearning within for the Lord, will receive far more benefit than from taking a bath in the limpid waters of the holy river Ganges. Become so closely connected with the Lord that either He or you remains – not two.

Get connected to the pure Naam, through the Guru’s knowledge of the soul.

This Guru’s knowledge is a practical experience; there is nothing academic about it.

This knowledge is of attention (Surat) and Sound (Shabd); it cannot be brought into words. 

The word Knowledge here refers to the Music of the Spheres which is vibrating within our very being. It can only be experienced.

The one who makes audible the Sound coming from the gaggan (astral heaven) is my Guru Dev.

Who gives that experience?

Through the Guru’s knowledge I got the True Eye, through which the evil of ignorance was pierced and the Light revealed within.

So what is the value of Gurubhakti – devotion to the Guru?

All living souls should do Gurubhakti, and become One with the Light within.

Become connected to that Light and develop your devotion – which should increase so much so that each pore vibrates with the Guru’s Naam. When a little Love awakens in a person, does it not bubble up and overflow? It should be developed steadily up to full realisation, through which all peace and serenity will reign in your being.

“Eat less, sleep less; have mercy, forgiveness and love.”

The Prophet Mohammed said that one should eat one mouthful less at each meal. Sheikh Saadi said that half of the stomach should be filled with food, one-fourth with water, and one-fourth left empty. Swami Ji Maharaj said that those who desire to taste the Nectar of Shabd should eat one meal per day only. We eat too much – naturally sleep will come to our house. If your food is regularised you will rise up punctually in the morning. The awakened man’s body may sleep, but he does not. Remember, the soul is a conscious entity and usually when a person sleeps, the soul withdraws to the throat and then man experiences dreams. If it withdraws to the navel, deep sleep ensues. The Masters remains awake. Unlike others, They are awake while sleeping. This is a very noble aim to aspire to. These three things will help you: to eat less, sleep less and have mercy, forgiveness and love.

“Mercy is the interest gained from righteous living, pride’s interest is sin; oh Tulsi, leave not mercy while this body breathes.”

A person has more pity for his family and friends than for strangers. Is this compassion? If one’s neighbours are dying of starvation while one is eating one’s fill, what kind of mercy is this? Should your own child be sick, yet you hear of another’s that needs help; if you have True Mercy you will give more attention to the strange child.

When Guru Gobind Singh’s children were killed in a battle, His wife came crying to Him – 

Where are my four sons?

His words are noteworthy:

For the heads of all these sons (the followers) have I sacrificed the four.

This is what you can call compassion. He sacrificed all that was His for the sons of others. Did He win any empire or property for Himself? True Masters have Real Compassion for people.

When Jesus Christ was sitting with some people, He was told that His mother and relatives were outside, desiring to speak to Him. What was His reply?

He said,

Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? 

And indicating His disciples and followers, He said,

Behold, my mother and my brothers!

If someone makes a mistake, forgive him. But people prefer justice to forgiveness. Remember this, that with justice, the heart is never cleansed.

I will give an example from my own experience.

My wife was once travelling home by train, and I went to meet her at the railway station. As soon as she stepped off the train, and before I had even approached her, a pickpocket stole her purse and ran off. As it happened, a wide-awake police constable had witnessed the incident, quickly caught the man and returned the purse to my wife. With a firm grip on the thief, the policeman turned to me and said, You must also come along to the police station. I pointed out to him that as we had recovered the purse, we were quite satisfied; but he protested and said This sort of thing is happening frequently, you must come and make a charge.

I went along to the police station and sat there for more than an hour without anything being done. I told the inspector, I am not concerned with this, you can also keep the purse – I am going. He took my statement at once, and eventually I had to go court. It was the first time I had ever stepped into a courtroom. While waiting for the proceedings to start, the inspector remarked to me, Justice must be done. I told him, Brother, along with justice, there should also be compassion; both should go side by side. With justice the heart remains affected, but compassion washes away all impurities.

When the judge had heard the case, I said, Your honour, if you can find a way of releasing this man, I have no objection. The judge was surprised, but he asked the police about the man’s previous record, and was told that no charges were recorded against him. The judge agreed to let him go with a good warning and he was released. That man returned to his family with a happy heart; he went around telling people, If He had not saved me, I would now be in prison.

Outwardly a person may be emphatic that he forgives; but in his heart he wants to strike out at the offender and cut the very roots of him. If you have no compassion in the mind, how can you honestly say you forgive? God is Love, and as a part of Him, the soul’s innate nature is also Love.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji has said,

Hear ye all, I tell you in Truth; God is realised by one who loves.

Kabir says, 

Love the Lord, oh mind, love the Lord. 

And in the Bible,

He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is Love.

1 St John 4:8 

We pray and perform rites that the Love of God may be born in us – what other purpose is there? But what results will come from the prayers that are mingled with gossip? What will it avail us to leave the place of worship without a trace of Love in our hearts for our fellow beings?

“Chastity, contentment, and remain stabilised; then you will go beyond the three gunas3.”

Adopt a righteous way of life and be content. You may have certain desires, but stop there; don’t increase them. Then reconsider the desires and where they will take you. What lies ahead, and what will you take with you? We are hurrying, scurrying through life; we are not even conscious of what we are doing most of the time. So the Guru advises us to handle all our affairs with tranquil serenity; then you have a chance of reaching Trigunatit – beyond the three attributes –, and then going beyond.

Lord Krishna, in the famous Bhagavad Gita, told Arjuna, 

Oh Arjuna, go beyond the three gunas. 

Unless you go beyond, you will continue coming and going round and round in Pind, And and Brahmand.

“Desire, lust, anger, pride, greed, perversity, attachment; do not allow these in your mind.”

To go more deeply into the matter, what constitutes desire?

All conceptions in the mind are desires.

So, be desireless. You will have noticed that when an obstacle blocks the achievement of one’s desire, anger arises. Then there is pride – ‘I must have this – or do this –, otherwise I will be belittled in the eyes of others.’ One can accept pride as being the basis of all sins, for it turns into I-hood. He recommends us to leave off perversity, or stop being obstinate. Always be sure and listen to the other person’s point of view – you may find that what he is saying is correct. Perversity just binds a person more; there is no room for expansion. Dogmatic knowledge of books, for instance, which might be right or wrong, should be discarded. It goes without saying that all attachments should be broken away – you must finish up the give and take – you must leave the body and all its environments. If an obstacle comes between you and your desire, it grows even stronger. Just put a large rock in the middle of a fast-flowing stream and you will create two things, froth and noise. When a man is angry, he cannot speak softly, and finally he froths at the mouth. If you do get the thing you desire, it turns into attachment. 

There is one cure for all this: 

Only after seeing your True Self, can you realise the Lord.

And now, we will take something for Basakh:4

“How can Basakh bring contentment for him who is parted from his Love?”

The soul’s natural inclination is to return to God. If it could only withdraw from outer attractions, its automatic course would be straight towards God. Is it possible to withdraw? 

The Guru has put your house under control and made you the mistress.

Furthermore, 

Ten servants did my Lord give me.

Five gross and five subtle senses to come under control, through the Grace of the Guru. Until now the soul has been under the control of mind and senses, and has never seen its Beloved – how can it rejoice and be content? A loved one’s greatest desire is to be with his Beloved; how can one go through life separate from Him? How did we forget Him?

“When the separation from God came, the illusion engulfed everything.”

It seems as if the illusion left all other work to cling to us. Illusion’s other name is forgetfulness.

The whole world is sleeping in attachment and forgetfulness; tell me, when will this illusion go?

If the One Whom we have forgotten comes before us, would not the innate Love within us awaken? It is a heartrending story, for all the harvest is ready; you have got the physical form, after great struggle – but you are cut away from the Beloved and cannot enjoy the fruits of the harvest.

“Sons, family, wealth, none are with you; only the Immortal God.”

We have been joined to our family and relatives through God’s will and the pralabdh karmas, and we should accept the conditions joyfully. Only he who truly knows, willingly pays his way through life. Who knows how many difficulties are due to our unpaid debts?

How can I say who is my friend in this world? All love is a lie, and all seek their own happiness – enemies and friends.

Only God will remain with you in the end – He who is the True Companion of our soul. Whoever has turned his face towards Him will return to His lap. He who is in love with the world will return to the world. It might be love for this world or the hereafter, but he will go on circling around the physical, astral and causal planes.

“All this illusory meaningless work takes my whole time.”

It is good to work, and one should work whole-heartedly; and then forget it. To continue concerning oneself with countless petty matters will fritter away the attention. This only causes further enmeshing attachments, and wherever your thoughts are, there will you reside. Get connected to the Immortal Lord; all else is changeable and impermanent. If we have not yet been connected to Him, and are a True Seeker, we should pray: Oh Lord, my attention is attached to this perishable matter, how can I find contact with You who are immortal?

“Without the Naam of the Lord, the future is lost.”

Without a connection with the All-Sustainer, our life is wasted; nothing remains but preparation for the return to the field of action.

What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? 

St Matthew 16:26

A wise man is he who works with foresight, but unfortunately most people never give a thought to permanent things; that which is momentary becomes their god and their life.

“By forgetting God, you have wasted your life; without Him, you have no one.”

Protect this wealth you have been given with your very life.

By meeting the Saint, take and preserve the True Naam. 

It is a gift that will remain in both worlds – here and hereafter.

“Those who sit at the Beloved’s feet, even their company is pure.”

Those who live in the world, but have made their home a jungle – have become One with the Lord – even to overhear some word about them will bring happiness. Go and search until you find such a personality. Only through His guidance we realise God; it is a natural fact.

“Nanak entreats Thee, oh Lord, may we also meet Thee.”

True prayers are always accepted, for whatever comes deep from the heart is granted by the Lord.

In Gurbani, it says,

The Father Kirpal (Merciful) has given this order: Whatever the child asks for, will be given.

In the Koran it says, Whatever man wants, I will give him.

“Basakh will be wondrous, if only we can meet the Saint.”

The month of Basakh, the start of new life, can only be fulfilled if we meet the One Who has realised the Lord. But there are two kinds of meeting: one is outward, and one is through the heart becoming receptive. 

Through a True Darshan all sins are forgiven.

All one’s work can be accomplished by meeting the Saint.

“Those who meditate on the Naam, their work will be successful, those who have the Perfect Master will be glorified in God’s House; those at His feet will find permanent happiness, and will cross the ocean of life. No poisons can affect those who develop Love and devotion; all perishables vanished, all duality disappeared, when the Truth was received. Those who worship Him beyond Brahm become One in His bliss. That month is blessed in which the Lord showers His Mercy, Nanak desires only one boon: that through Thy Mercy I will get Thy darshan.”

After getting the human form, we should ask for but one thing: that we might have a glimpse of Him. This should be our ideal and our aim in life. Today is Basakhi, but do you understand what you are doing? Be the worshipper of the Living Light – become a slave to It. Do not attach yourself to anything else, for everything is changeable. He in whom that Light is manifested gives the Light to the whole world. Truth is One, and although Truth is above all, yet True Living is above Truth. Guru Arjan has laid out a wonderful program for us, and in conclusion He says that the month in which we realise the Lord will be truly blessed.

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Explanation: 1) Sanyas means renunciation or ascetic discipline. 2) Renuntiates let their hair grow, cover it with ashes and wind it on their heads. This is called Jatta. They also cease cutting their nails. 3) Attributes: satva – pure; rajas – active; and tamas – inert. 4) The Master now takes another hymn, this time one by Guru Arjan.