II / I

The higher Values of Life

In the previous talk we came to the conclusion that God made man and man made all social religions and that the purpose of social religions was the uplift of man.

We dealt with the outer side of man; we said that man was born with equal privileges from God, irrespective of whether he belonged to one country or another or one religion or another. We have to make the best use of all social religions so that we may know all about man.

Our Ultimate Goal is to know God. First, we must know ourselves and then we will know God. All scriptures say that we should love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might. As we are lovers of God – and God resides in every heart – we must love all humanity. Those who came in contact with God became the mouthpiece of God – God in man or Godmen, because of their Love of God. We love all scriptures because they are the treasures of the experiences of the Masters with themselves and with God. We also love all holy places of worship because they are the places meant for singing the praises of the One Lord. We love all Holy Places of pilgrimage too, for the reason that there lived some lover of God, Someone Who became One with God and became the mouthpiece of God. Thus, for the sake of Love of God, we love all others. If we just love God and hate one Master or the other, or hate one Holy Book or the other, or if we hate other men, do we truly love God? Surely not; because God resides in every heart, and our Ultimate Goal is God. The Ultimate Goal of all religions, too, is God. Then, how can a follower of one religion or another hate anyone else? If we would live up to what the scriptures say, that looks an impossibility at first sight.

If we live up to these two commandments – 

Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might

and,

love all humanity since God resides in every heart – 

the Kingdom of God will descend on earth. All other commandments hang on these two commandments. All prophets have laid stress on these commandments. They are all one on these two fundamental tenets.

We would like now to probe further into: What is man? Unless man knows himself, he cannot know God. All scriptures which we have with us today say: Man, know thyself. They do not say, 'know others'. Why? 

Who are you? What are you? Are you this five or six feet high body that you have? That is not knowing yourself. You will see for your own self; the time does come when you have to cast away the physical body you are carrying – this muddy vesture of decay. The body remains like a clod of earth and is cremated or buried underground.

If you know so much about your physical self, that is not truly speaking, knowing yourself. The Greeks and the Egyptians had inscribed on their temples these very words – Gnothi Seauton.

The Upanishads say so:

Know thyself.

Christ also said,

know thyself.

Guru Nanak also said:

Unless you know yourself, you are not in a position to know God.

All this delusion through which you are passing cannot easily be set aside. Is it not true that you are deluded? You see bodies like the body you have. You have seen with your own eyes that something left such bodies and they were cremated or buried. You too are carrying a similar body. If you know so much about your physical self, it does not follow that you know your own self. 

This question has been before us ever since the world began. We have known so much about our outer self – maintaining our bodies, supporting our families, living socially and politically. We have given rather too much thought to the body and bodily relations, but we have never tapped inside to see the Inner Man, the Inner Self, who we are and what we are.

Unless the student opens his own consciousness, the teacher can impart nothing. He can only direct, counsel and define. But understanding cannot be imparted. That must come from within, and through self development. Of course, he gives you some experience of how to know yourself, how to analyse yourself from the body. You have to start with that, no doubt. But working that way, in accordance with the guidance and the help given by the Master, you will one day come to realise that Reality is within you.

Souls are all divine in nature. They are so many drops of the Ocean of Divinity, but are hemmed in by the mind and matter. They cannot, as they are now, know themselves, differentiate themselves.

What is the greatest study of man? Is it theology? I would say no. Is it knowing the law of Blackstone and other great men who came in the past? Even then the answer will be no. Is it the study of works of men like Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens, Burns? No. Is it occultism or Buddhism or Christianity or Sikhism or any other social religion that we may study? Are such works the Greatest Aim of man’s study? Again I would say that the answer is no. Why?

If you become conversant with all the scriptures left by the Masters, what do they speak of? They speak of man.

Man, know thyself.

So, knowing man, both his outer and inner aspects, is the greatest study for us. The greatest study of man is man.

Pope, the English poet, has said:

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; the proper study of mankind is man.

Until you know man, all else is mere ignorance and superstition. The more you study the outer phase of the scriptures, the more you realise that it is all nothing but accumulation, hoarding up of ideas and opinions expressed by others.

Suppose you become fully conversant with all the scriptures we have today. What does it matter? As I have said, we in the twentieth century are fortunate in that all. Masters Who came in the past left for us Their experiences with Themselves and with God. What particular things helped them on the way, and what stood in the way of realisation? That forms the subject of all scriptures. Even if you know all that, are you satisfied? That is only having something, merchandise just hoarded in your brains – such and such a Master said this, such and such a book said that, such and such scriptures said so. That is not Divinity. That is only knowing facts about Divinity, about our Divine Nature, the Masters had experienced Themselves and with God. Even if you study all the books, you will not be able to know yourself. Of course, you will get some information, you will be able to quote so many things from various books. But will you be able to know yourself? No.

Eliot, the poet, says:

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Knowing the self is a result of self-analysis, in practice, not in theory. We see many people asserting emphatically:

I am not the body. I am not the intellect. I am not the vital airs or pranas. I am not the sense organs.

That is all right. But have we ever analysed ourselves practically by transcending body consciousness and seeing for our own selves that we are something besides the physical body, the intellect, the vital airs and the sensory organs, all of which go to make the outer man apart from the Inner Self? Have you ever risen above body consciousness, had a first-hand experience of your own Self? You will find very few persons who have really accomplished this.

So your study of man just consists in hoarding certain information in your brain. Sometimes you read the scriptures. The purpose is that by reading the scriptures you get enough information from the study that the Masters made of Themselves and of God to help you in just finding your own Self, and nothing more. The reading of those scriptures will create some interest in you to know yourself and to know God.

I do not mean that the scriptures are not to be read. They should be read, and read intelligently. The reading of the scriptures is the first elementary step that goes to create interest in us that such and such Master saw Divine Light within Him. Can we also see the same? Yes, we can also see, for what a man has done, another can do; of course, with proper training and guidance.

I quoted you also that Masters did see the Light of God. Those who followed Them, and lived up to what They said, also had the very same experience in varying degrees in their own lives. You should be able, while possessing human life, to see the Light of God. When you have seen that Light, your whole life will be changed. And that you can see only when you rise above body consciousness. It is a practical question.

Now what is to be done? What can be done by understanding the Truth, i.e., by just knowing our own Self and having a first-hand experience of the Self and Overself? That alone will make us free. These things we can have only when we really have risen, we have been born anew.

Christ says:

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.

He then goes on to clarify:

Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

In 1 Corinthians we have:

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

Peter explains:

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

It is clear that unless we are born anew, we can neither see nor enter the Kingdom of God, nor can we inherit it. In other words, we cannot have a first-hand experience of our own Selves nor of God. We cannot have our Inner Eye – called the Third Eye or Single Eye – opened, enabling us to see the Light of God.

Reading the scriptures alone will not help. But study the scriptures carefully because they speak of the practical experiences that the Masters had with Themselves and with God. Unless we study these scriptures under the guidance of Someone Who has had actual experiences Himself as are recorded therein, we will not be able to follow the right import.

What does Plutarch say? He says:

The same experiences that the soul has at the time of leaving the body are had by those who have been initiated into the mysteries of the beyond.

You have to leave the body, of course, some day. That is, I think, a very clear proof or testimony that you are not these bodies about which you have known so much. By knowing the Self is meant knowing the Inner Self, the Spiritual Self, the Spiritual Entity which leaves the body at the time of death. You may say that this physical body may be knocked down by death – the great final change. But you do not die. You must one day leave the body and all things connected with the body, whether you wish it or not.

So the greatest wisdom lies in what? In knowing your Self, who you are, what you are. Unless you know your Self, you cannot know God. He who knows himself comes to know God, too, because it is the infinite soul alone that can know God and not the finite intellect. One cannot grasp Him within the finite intellect.

How can the less the Greater comprehend? Or finite reason reach Infinity?

John Dryden

We cannot see Him. He is unsearchable with our intellect, with our sense organs, with our outward faculties. With all the imagination, the highest stretch of imagination, He cannot be grasped. It is soul alone to which God reveals Himself. Unless we analyse ourselves, see our own Self – know ourselves – we cannot see God.

Self-knowledge precedes God-knowledge. For that let us see what help may be had. 

Looking from without we notice that the body lives as long as soul, the indweller of the house, is with it. But the time does come when we have to leave the body. That is the day of the great final change, or death. But do not be frightened of death; it is no bugbear.

I have told you that the greatest study of man is man. All the scriptures came from where? Of course, from man – a man of realisation, no doubt. Great indeed is man. All inventions came from where? From man. Godhood, which gave us a first-hand experience of God, working through the Human Poles called Masters, also was expressed through man.

Man is great and the greatest study for a man is man himself. Who are you? What is it that enlivens this body and what is it that leaves it? While that Inner Self or the Spiritual Self is fixed in the body and working through the body, you are alive, you are moving. But the time does come when you have to leave the body. That is the fate awaiting each one of you, no exception to the rule. All kings and subjects, the rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant and even the Masters have to leave the body. How can there be an exception in your case? If so, are you prepared for that final change? If not, you must prepare yourself. And for that, you must solve the mystery of life while there is still time. You must examine your own Self. Who is the real man in the body? Unless you know that, you cannot be at peace.

Buddha, who was first called Gautama, was a prince brought up in a princely way amid luxury and opulence. Once he was visiting the town which was decorated tastefully to welcome him. As he passed through the city in a chariot, he saw an old man with haggard face, sunken eyes, and tottering frame. The old man staggered along with the help of a stick. Looking at the old man, the prince asked his charioteer, What was that? – Old age, my lord; the body must grow old and weak, the charioteer replied. That shocked him greatly.

Proceeding further, he saw a dying man, gasping for breath, and again asked what it was. The charioteer replied: Well, Master, we must die and leave the body. He is dying. He is gasping for breath. That made him still more sad and pensive. The prince wondered if that was the fate of our lovely bodies. The charioteer took him out of the city to avoid ugly sights.

But outside the city, the prince saw four men carrying a corpse. He naturally asked what it was, and was told: Well, Master, we have to leave the body. This made the prince all the more gloomy and he exclaimed: It is strange that we must some day leave our beautiful bodies; but what is it that leaves?

That was the greatest day in Gautama’s life. He was awakening, wondering what it was that enlivened the body.

We too have the same sort of bodies. We have witnessed so many cremations and burials. We have attended a great many funerals of our friends and relatives, but the mystery of life has never struck us, as it struck Gautama.

Gautama went home. He had a son. That is generally a very happy day. But he was absorbed with that mystery of life. He left his home, wife and son to seek the solution of the mystery of life – What am I? Who is it that leaves the body?

As long as the Inner Self is working in this physical body, we are alive, we are talking, we are thinking, we are moving about. But when that leaves the body, it is cremated or buried. No one keeps the dead body in the house. It is disposed of as soon as possible.

This is the problem before us. We have to consider it very calmly, with due deliberation. We have to look into it to discover what it is: Who am I? What am I? Those who know and have fathomed the mystery of life, have done wonderful work. Wherefrom came the scriptures? From within, from within man. All the inventions we have, came from where? From within man; not from without.

The greatest thing before us is to know oneself, who is the Self and what is the Self. We have seen that the fate of this physical body is death. At the time of this final change, the indweller leaves the house of the body. We are not the body, the dwelling house. We are the indweller of the house that we are enlivening by our presence.

From our very birth, the first companion that we have had is the physical body, now developed and grown up. When we depart, it is left behind; it does not accompany us. Then, how can other things which have come into our contact through our body, accompany us to the other world? If we remember this, the entire angle of vision will change.

Now we see from the level of the body. If we know ourselves – who we are and what we are – that we are the indwellers of the body, the whole angle of perception will change. You will see from the level of the soul and not from the level of the body.

At present, we are working from false premises. We are laying up treasures on earth. We are making so many houses, buildings and gathering other possessions, and hoarding up as much money as we can, never thinking for a moment that we have to leave the body and all earthly possessions. That is why, when Masters come, They simply direct our attention to this most important reality – the inevitability of death – about which we are quite oblivious and ignorant. With all our intellectual attainments, we act as if we never would have to leave the world or the body.

That is why Christ says:

Lay not up for yourself treasures on earth.

Why?

Where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal.

What should we do?

But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

What have we done for the other world? We are going to leave this body some day. Have we ever thought of that? If we leave the body what else can accompany us?

We are told that when Queen Noor Jahan was about to die, the physicians in attendance told her: Well, your Majesty, you now have to leave for the other world. Perhaps she had never known what the other world was. She simply said: All right, if I have to go to the other world, then how many people will accompany me? The physician told her, Your Majesty, none can go along with you. You have to leave all alone.

Just mark the ignorance. Intellectually, we all know that death is inevitable, that it overtakes all, yet have we ever truly realised that we ourselves will also die? Have we ever calmly considered who is it in us that leaves the body and where does it go? All Saints have been stressing the great need to know thyself. If you know the Inner Man which leaves the body, you know something; and that will change the entire plane of perception. 

I have come here from India. I know I have to go back. Well, on the airplane I can take only forty pounds of luggage. Anything beyond that limit I will have to leave behind. Then what shall I do? Shall I then hoard up too many things to carry along with me? How can I take them? I cannot carry more than forty pounds. Likewise, when going to the other world, even this body does not accompany us; what to speak of all the other possessions. 

So, there are two aspects we must remember. First, that we are pilgrims on this earth where we have to spend a certain span of time, be it less or more. After all, it is only a temporary abode and we have to leave it some day. It is something like being on your way to a destination. Night falls on the way, and you stop in some hotel to pass the night, and early in the morning you leave for your destination. Have you ever considered that you live as though you were going to stay in this world forever? Have you ever thought of death?

Secondly, man is composed of the physical body, the intellect and the soul. We know so much about our physical bodies. We know so much about how to maintain them. We know so much about our family relationship, our children, our social life, etc. We have advanced so wonderfully in the intellectual way. We have television, we can fly in the air. All this makes the world like a house. It only takes about 24 hours from India to reach America, from one end of the globe to the other. All these countries are so many rooms in the mansion of my Father, you may say. We have the atom bombs, the hydrogen bombs, etc. I mean to say that our advance in intellect and technology has been wonderful.

But what do we know about our own Self – the Real Self – that gives vitality to the physical and intellectual aspects of our life? It is the spirit or soul which we really are. Most of the physical side and the intellectual side has the background of our soul. We have developed only in two ways, and know nothing about our own Self. 

A Muslim Saint says:

How long will you go on playing with the clay like a child and besmearing yourself with  it?

When the soul leaves the body, what remains? Clay.

Dust thou art, and unto dust returneth.

How long will you continue like that?

We are wonderfully developed in two ways, but about our soul we know nothing or next to nothing. We know only so much as is given in the scriptures. We know only that much which we can grasp by our finite intellect. If we want to understand the true import of the scriptures, we must sit at the feet of Someone Who has practical knowledge of the Self and the Overself, because all scriptures speak of the same thing.

Even if we come across a Master Who is a practical adept and He explains to us all the things concerning our own Self and the Overself, still, until we have that experience on our own and for ourselves, we cannot be satisfied.

If at all we read the scriptures, the pursuit in the domain of self-knowledge is restricted mainly to reading one scripture or the other, attending some holy place of worship, and that is all.

These, however, are but elementary steps and by themselves lead to no worthwhile results. Moreover, we will find that many of us go to churches or to holy places of worship, but how many are there who really do so for the sake of having knowledge of God? Very few indeed. Most of us are there to pray for our livelihood or our children or for some other material benefit. We are reading the scriptures for the reason that other circumstances may be adjusted satisfactorily. The majority of us are religious only in that way.

But will such people, by going to the holy places of worship, find God?

Ask and it will be given unto you. Knock and it shall be opened.

But if we are just asking for worldly things, how will we have God instead?

Lord God is kind and what ye ask of Him, that shall He give unto you.

The story is told of a Persian prince Majnu, who fell in love with the princess Laila. So fervent was his adoration that he kissed the earth she trod. Once people told him: Look here, God wants to see you. He replied: All right; if He wants to see me, let Him come in the shape of my Laila. Do you think that such a man will ever find God? He will find Laila, no doubt; but not God.

Similarly, like so many Majnus, we go to the temple seeking not God but the idols of our hearts. How then can we have God? Only they can have God who seek God. For them the way is open; for them there is some Godman to put them on the Path.

So our pursuit of the Spiritual Way is restricted to that one thing. Those who have a real desire in them to search and find God, He makes arrangements for them to be put on the Way.

The elementary step in order to know oneself is to read the Holy Scriptures we have with us. But they tell us:

Whosoever shall lose his life shall save it, and whosoever shall save his life shall lose it.

What does that mean? Whosoever is merely living the physical life through the organs of senses, knowing little or nothing about his own Inner Self, naturally he will be losing his Everlasting Life all along. Those who transcend this physical life, know themselves and know God, will have Everlasting Life.

The scriptures say that very clearly in very simple words. But the intellectual people who have had no practical knowledge of self-analysis, experience with their own Selves and with God, have made it hard to understand. That is all. Otherwise, the truths are very simple.

Again, Christ says:

Unless you be born anew, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.

Be born anew? How? Nicodemus, a very learned man, met Jesus and inquired:

Well, Master, how is it You say we must be born again? How can we be born again? How can we re-enter the womb again and be born again?

What did Christ say?

Look here, you are a learned man, a very wise man. People sit at your feet, worship you like anything. Don’t you see, flesh is flesh, and you are to be born of the spirit?

This has been a personal problem for all of us. The Masters Who came and were capable of giving us the practical solution, gave us the first-hand experience of how to rise above body consciousness and know ourselves.

The whole thing is just topsy-turvy, I would say. We are the indwellers of the house. We have to know and lay up something for where we have to go. But we have identified ourselves with the body so much so that we cannot differentiate ourselves from it.