III / I

True Master and His Mission

*Once Raja Parikshat asked his minister as to why in times of a moral crisis or a calamity God Himself comes to the rescue of His children even when He has innumerable attendants at His beck and call and can direct any of them to do the job for Him. The minister replied that a loving Father as God is cannot help coming down to help His children. The Raja asked the minister to substantiate his statement and the latter promised to do so in course of time.

After some days, the minister made a doll that looked just like the Raja’s son and dressed it in the fashion of the prince. He placed the doll on the bank of a pool in the garden where the Raja used to go for a walk. The doll could be manipulated to move with strings from a distance. When the Raja next went to the garden with his minister, he saw the prince sitting on the bank of the pool. While he was wondering as to how his son was there, he saw the prince taking a plunge into the pool. The Raja could not bear this heart-rending sight and instantaneously jumped into the pool to save his son from drowning. To his great surprise, the Raja found that it was a doll and not his son. The Raja called for an explanation from the minister, who humbly replied that the farce was enacted to substantiate the truth of what he had said sometime ago about God coming down to save His children in critical moments.

* (This section is adjusted to the version of the text as
it was published in Sat Sandesh / May 1968;
Editor’s Note 2011.)

We all are children of God, fashioned by Him in His own image. The soul in man is of the same essence as God.

Kabir says:

The soul, though embodied, is but a part and parcel of the All-Pervading essence enlivening the universe.

It is nothing but a drop of the sea of All-Consciousness. Environed on the physical plane by the limiting adjuncts of mind and matter, we have completely identified ourselves with the world and all that is worldly so much so that we have forgotten our truly Divine Origin. The natural result of this forgetfulness is pain and suffering. Physical life is all misery, declared Buddha, the Enlightened One. The ever-loving Father, when He hears the piteous cries of His children for a way out of this magic maze of the world, cannot but descend in the garb of a man to reclaim the lost sheep back to His fold.

God is the Guru of soul, for soul is of the same essence as God. When in agony, it cries for help and God comes down to its rescue. When in deep anguish, one yearns for a way of life, the Word, or the Power of God, materialising in the form of a Godman, call Him what you may. He comes to give all possible help and to lead the world – weary and heavy of heart back to His own Kingdom. We are here in this world on probation. When the time comes, God makes arrangements through His Elect, or the Chosen One, to establish a Spiritual Contact with Himself.

Nanak has drawn a beautiful pen picture of a soul suffering the pangs of separation:

Having forgotten the Real Source of Life, the soul in perpetual delusion is bewailing her lot.

In our descent to the earth plane, we have so wrapped the ‘self’ in us in mantles of mind and matter of varying degrees of density peculiar to the different levels of our existence – causal, mental, and physical – that we are completely lost to the self and are endlessly wandering in delusion in the mighty maze of the world. In spite of brief momentary awakenings, we are prone to go astray by force of habit that has become our nature. Our condition may be likened to a woman who, having been deserted by her husband, goes back to her parents and lives there forgetful of her husband. The husband may still be loving her, but she has no knowledge of it, nor does she try to know her own weaknesses which brought about the forced separation between them. Howsoever the parents may provide her with dainty comforts, yet she is in exile. How different would be the picture if she were to reform herself and render herself worthy of her consort. Most of us are in such a plight.

We all are children of the Father-God, the God of us all; and our souls are essentially at one with the Divine Principle sustaining the universe. The Lord Himself is the consort of all the souls, but how sad it is that, while in exile here on the physical plane, we have altogether forgotten Him and while dwelling with Him in the same body, have not had an opportunity of coming face to face with Him. We are separated from God, have forgotten our True Home, and by constant association with mind and matter are completely lost in the enjoyment of sense pleasures. We are ever a prey to all kinds of deadly sins. Like a spider we are inextricably caught in the web of lust, anger, greed, and attachment, and are obsessed with the ever-assertive ego, all of which conspire to lead us further away from God.

We have two alternative courses before us. There is a class of persons who believe in a life of worldly enjoyment – eat, drink, and be merry. They are even worse than those who are merely ignorant of their True Self and of God and are leading a quiet life of blissful ignorance. The former are in a pitiable condition. They might appear to be enjoying life, but how long will they do it? The pleasures of the world are ephemeral and end in smoke, leaving you a wreck – physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually. The bliss you get from the Love of the Lord, you cannot get from anywhere else, not even from parents and others whom you consider as near and dear ones and on whom you so fondly rely. Should this awakening arise in you, then friends and relations will look like messengers of death. If we are able to create such a state in us, it is but natural that the Lord Who is already within us, befriending and sustaining the soul, will definitely heed our wailings full of pain and anguish.

In the words of Guru Nanak, the soul bursts forth:

Oh my Beloved, attend to my woebegone tale of sorrow. While Thou art happily settled in Thy ever blissful state, I am confined and entombed in a mould of clay.

All Masters say the same thing. Swami Ji says:

Oh spirit, thou wert a ray of the Eternal Truth.

The soul in us is a scion of the Royal Blood. It has a glorious origin. But alas, by constant association with the mind and senses, she has degraded herself to this wretched state! Verily mind is an abode of sense-pleasures and the various sense organs are full of filth; but we are so blinded by lusts of the flesh, that we do not see what is underneath the surface. If the soul were to become aware of its True Home – the home of Eternal Bliss and Existence – it would naturally strive to get back there, and a cry of anguish from the depths of the heart is sure to move the Lord of Compassion. It is nothing but an earnest prayer, a supplication from the torn and tormented spirit and cannot but move Him to pity. But our attention is all the time running out and downwards through the nine portals of the body – eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, rectum, and procreative organ quite unaware of the tenth opening or centre in the brain that provides us access to the Kingdom of God within. Howsoever we may try to escape from the body, we cannot do so, as we are subject to the Great Controlling Power of God – the Holy Word or Naam – of which we are yet quite ignorant.

Nanak, everything rests in Naam; but it is in the fullness of time that one gets to It.

It is the God-in-action-Power, the Holy Word, that is controlling and sustaining all that is visible and invisible. One who realises this Great Truth cannot but wander restlessly in quest of it. All the Great Souls have emphatically spoken of this vital Life-Force.

Maulana Rumi says:

Shame to thee, that hast Heaven as a True Abode, and yet are happy with shadowy forms and colours. How long wilt thou be playing in dust, and whittle away life like children.

Please remember that the heart which is stirred by this awakening for Inner Life gradually begins to yearn for it; and this yearning in course of time assumes the form of a ruling passion, so much so that day and night he piteously cries for it until God, the Great Ocean of Mercy, is stirred to His very depths and provides him with the means of a way out of his magic house of the body and draws him to Himself. This then is the power of a prayer coming out of the depths of the heart.

What should I say and to whom shall I turn? This is then the cry of a bewildered soul when it comes to its own. It turns around and sees no comfort on any side. As a last resort it calls upon the Lord God, the True Comforter and Saviour of us all. Prayer, as you know, is the last weapon in the armoury of man and also the most effective weapon. It is in these hopeless moments of despair that hope comes to illumine the way.

The Power of God then appears in the garb of a Godman and says:

Follow me. I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. I am the Imperishable Way, the Infallible Truth, the Eternal Life. I am the most Noble Way, the Ultimate Truth, the True Life, blessed and uncreated.

But when does God take pity and appear in the form of a Guru? The answer is very simple. The Master comes to the aid only when one abstains from all the lusts of the flesh.

Christ assured forgiveness even to the worst of sinners if they desisted from future wrong doing. He cried a halt to His followers, put a dead line to the past, and commanded: 

Sin no more.

Tulsi Sahib also said:

Adopt truthfulness, humility, and respect for womanhood; surely then shalt thou have God, and I stand guarantee for that.

Such a soul then pleads:

Oh thou who have access to the Kingdom of God, carry the message from one in exile; tell Him to take pity on one who is waiting all the while with eyes full of tears. With tearful eyes saying Thy praises and nothing to recommend, how can I approach the Beloved Lord?

Thus, the soul in the pangs of separation from the Lord cries to the Divine Messengers Who have a free access to His court and seeks Their help in this sad predicament.

The soul now pleads her inability to reach the Path Godwards of which she has no knowledge and hence conveys her helplessness through God’s Elect. Clouds always precede the showers. God’s Grace descends when the soul is in utter agony and cries in bewilderment with eyes full of tears and heart throbbing with Love. In mystic language this is called the dark night of the soul on the threshold of beatitude:

The Sacred Books are aids to the Master, and by following Him one is ferried into the beyond. Unless a Master-Soul reincarnates on the earth plane, none can even get at their true import.

Gurbani

Although the Divine Principle of the Light of Life is present in all human beings, It lies dormant unless It is reactivated. And Who does this? The One Who has made it manifest within Himself may make It manifest for us. Herein lies the competence of a Satguru – a chosen human being in which the Power of God works for the benefit of mankind. Call Him man in God or God in man, for it is one and the same. This is how God works out His plan of redemption.

No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,

said Jesus. And again:

No man knoweth who the Father is, but the son, and he to whom the son will reveal Him.

The Guru or God in man appears only when the disciple is ready, is an age-old saying: 

The merciful Father hath commanded: Give unto My children whatever is desired.

If we do yearn for God in all sincerity, there is no reason why God shall not provide means to manifest Himself. There is always food for the hungry and water for the thirsty. Where there is fire, oxygen must come to keep it alive.

Christ says:

Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Similarly, we have in the Holy Koran:

Whatever My child shall ask, that shall be granted.

Here we must pause for a while and see what we ask for. We never ask for God from God. We ask from Him success in our worldly endeavours, advancement in life, name and fame, escape from illness and the like. In short we ask for worldly things and the same are provided, no matter if now or in the future. The wheel of life, thus, is ever on the move. If we ask for Him, He will come into the world Himself; and we shall not have to be reborn again and again in evolutionary search for Him. Like King Parikshat, He will take the plunge Himself, for that is the law. Man is the teacher of man. God, too, has to assume a human form for teaching human beings. His power and Glory shine from the Human Pole from where He works for the uplift of mankind. Such are the Chosen Few, or the Elect, that appear from time to time in response to the crying need of the hour and the place. My Master used to say that like attracts like and, as such, God in man alone leads man’s soul.

Should you chance to meet a Real Master, surrender thy all unto Him without any scruples.

Gurbani

When we do meet a Competent Master, we have our own part to play. Generally speaking, there are three kinds of mental reservations with us; and those act as a positive hindrance in our progress. We do not shed our bodily pride, pride of possessions and riches, and lastly pride of intellectual attainments pertaining respectively to tan (body), man (mind), and dhan (wealth). This is why emphasis has been laid to surrender them all at the feet of the Master. It may, however, be noted that a Real Master does not need any of these things, not the least. It simply means that these are to be considered as gifts from Him and must be kept as a Sacred Trust from Him and used in the best possible way in the service of the children and the family for repayment of karmic debts, the society and the country, the truly needy, the indigent, the sick, the hungry and thirsty. The acts done in the dedicated spirit of an agent of the Master will hardly have any binding effect on you, and you will easily and readily escape from the otherwise inexorable law of karma – as you sow, so shall you reap. This will render you spiritually clean in all your actions – physical, mental, and moral. This will endow you with True Humility and a spirit of selfless service or service before self, all of which are so very necessary for a pilgrim on the Path of Love.

Filled with the Power of God, the Master doles out the Holy Word.

Gurbani

When we free ourselves of attachments to all created things and dissolve our will in the Divine Will of the Master, then the Holy Word, already within us, comes uppermost in our consciousness or, in other words, is revealed and can be practised by actual communion.

Raja Janaka once called a convention of all the pandits and religious leaders of the realm and asked if anyone in that exalted assemblage could impart to him the Divine Contact, but none could do so except Yagyavalkya who could just explain the theory of Spirituality but was unable to give a practical demonstration. Sometime later, another similar conference was convened for the same purpose, and the king desired that anyone competent to give a direct and immediate Inner Experience to him in a short time taken in riding a horse should come forward. It was, of course, granted to the king by the Sage Ashtavakra, an oddly deformed person with eight humps on His body as His name indicates. Herein lies the greatness of a Competent Living Master. It is easier said than done. There may be many who can give learned discourses, expound the scriptures, recite vedic hymns, narrate epics; but a rare soul can lead you within and give a direct contact with the Light of Life in you – the Light that shineth in the darkness and the darkness knoweth it not.

A Real Godman is God – incarnate in flesh – Word made flesh, as Christ puts it.

Tulsi Sahib has said:

I adore a Satguru Who can lift me above body consciousness in a short time of three hours.

This then is the touchstone for judging a Genuine Master, for otherwise there is no dearth of the so-called masters.

Of the Competent Master, it is affirmed:

It is the magnetic pull of the Guru that can effect a withdrawal of the sensory currents from the body.

Swami Ji

God resides in every heart. His Light shines in and enlivens the body, and we possess the lift-of-life in the Music of the Soul; but have we ever experienced these saving lifelines: the Light of God and the Voice of God, upholding all that exists? A Real Master grants an actual experience of a direct Inner Contact with these saving lifelines.

Who then can effect such a miracle, the miracle of linking us with the Music of the Soul? He alone can do this Who Himself is Word Incarnate for He is filled with the Word from top to toe.

Now let us consider the price that one has to pay:

Surrender thy body, thy riches, and thy mind to the Guru: Follow His instructions implicitly and then shalt thou get.

Gurbani

When Raja Janaka asked for God experience, the Sage Ashtavakra in turn demanded of the royal disciple his ceremonial and customary dues as a preceptor, and laid claim to the king’s body, mind, and all his possessions. The king being anxious for the highest mystic experience readily agreed to do so. Thereupon the sage ordered him to get down from his throne and sit at the far end of the court, right at the place where the shoes of the courtiers were lying. It was too much for the king to do, but as he had stipulated to surrender his body and mind and all to the Guru, he could not help complying with His behests. Not content with this, the sage inquired of the Raja as to where he was sitting, and the latter had to affirm before his court that he was occupying the meanest place. The object of the Guru was to dispel from the mind of his disciple the pride of place and status. Having done this, He commanded Janaka not to interfere in the worldly possessions, riches and wealth, which were now His (Guru’s) – not even by entertaining thought of the same for they were no longer his (Janaka’s) as he had given away the same to his Guru.

Janaka felt perplexed as he looked at his erstwhile pomp and glory and heard the voices of his courtiers. To escape from all these, he shut his eyes and closed his ears. But the force of habit is terrible indeed. In spite of shutting his eyes and ears and his best efforts to keep his thoughts under control, his mind was yet in all those things – palaces, courtiers, and royal pomp and splendour, his queens and children. On being questioned about his mental state, be replied to the Guru that his mind was at that moment just like a bird perched on the mast-staff of a boat on high seas, attempting to fly again and again; but finding no place of rest on the waters, it returned to the mast. The Guru then commanded him to stop all mental vibrations as the mind which projected those thought waves was no longer his (Janaka’s); and he had, therefore, no business to use it.

The words went home and momentarily Janaka felt in him a mental vacuum for the Rishi by His own thought force pulled the disciple’s consciousness from out of his bodily mould into the Great Beyond above the plane of senses. This is what a Real Competent Master does. He gives a practical mystic experience by means of concentration, after gradually weaning the mind of the disciple from the world and all that is worldly, collecting the sensory currents of the body at the eye focus, and retaining them there for some time.

God is where there is nothing. We have to disenfranchise the self in us by stripping it of the person or the marks of the bodily adjuncts of mind and matter before we can get a Spiritual Experience. The Guru does not need your body, mind, and possessions. They all remain with you as ever before, but enriches you a thousand-fold by providing you with subtle Spiritual Riches of inestimable value. We have to forsake the flesh for the spirit, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it,

declared Christ. 

We have, in fact, to chose between the two: life of the flesh and the life of the spirit. It does not mean that we have to shirk our duties and responsibilities and take to the wilderness. True renunciation means Inner Detachment and making a proper use of everything that God has given us in trust, as any trusted agent will do for his principal.

This is the price for attaining Divinity and it has to be paid without any mental reservation. While in the midst of plenty, consider your all, including your mind and body, as belonging to the Guru and never employ them for gratification of the senses. The more you will empty yourself of the love of the created things, the more will you be filled with the Love of God and verily come into greater communion with the Holy Word.

So when we earnestly implore for Divine Beatification, God in the garb of a Living Master instantly comes to our aid for that is the law.

Christ when questioned as to where He was going, replied:

I have yet many sheep to look after.

One day in the month of June, I happened to be with my Master at Beas. As the weather was sultry and the heat oppressive, I suggested to Hazur to spend some time at Dalhousie – a hill resort in Punjab.

He replied smiling: 

Look, Kirpal Singh, people perhaps think that I go to the hill station for my personal comforts. But this is not so. I do so in the hope that some lost souls may yet be ready enough to listen to the message of God and be prepared to retrace their steps Godwards. To me personally, heat or cold makes no difference in the least.

Such Master-Souls scour the world in search of us and not we for Them. They come here with a Divine Mission to pick up those destined for the Holy Path, or such as may be world-weary and piteously crying for a way out.

This earth plane is a vast prison house. It is not the True Abode of the virgin soul. It is here temporarily till it gets reconciled to the Divine Consort and is called back from the forced exile here. Whenever a soul in an alien land feels the pangs of separation, God plans a way out through a God-realised Saint, a Saint Who is filled with the unseen Power of God, a Living Embodiment of the Divine Word:

Satguru is the Immaculate One Himself, though in human form.

Again it is said:

The servant of God is God-like in spite of his physical raiment. 

Gurbani

We all are in the making. We are gradually striving towards perfection. This world is a training centre towards that end. Suffering is the best teacher. It awakens in us a yearning for crossing the limitation of the flesh so that we may attain a state where there is perfect serenity. Whenever we feel helpless in our struggle, and we do feel helpless in diverse ways, we call for the unseen hand of God to our aid. When we do so, the Power of God is stirred. Some Man of God, endowed with His power, comes our way, consoles us in our misery, offers His helping hand to us, and lifts us up from the mire of despondency, puts us upon our feet, and offers to lead us Godwards.

A Godman, then, is not a man of this world as we are, nor is His spirit bound down in the prison house of the physical body as ours is. At one with the supreme Power of God, His spirit knows how to vacate the body at will and soar into the Spiritual Realms beyond mind and matter. Wonderful indeed is the house we live in. It is given to man to transcend the limitations of the flesh and to work wheresoever we may like in the material world, the materio-spiritual, the spirituo-material, or the purely spiritual, unlike all other creatures who are tied to the body only. The microcosm is fashioned on the pattern of the macrocosm.

But we have altogether forgotten our capabilities in the mighty swirl of the world and have come to identify our great self with the physical raiment, not knowing how to rise above body consciousness into the cosmic and super-cosmic consciousness. A divinely gifted person not only reminds us of our vast potentialities, but also gives us an experience thereof, no matter at what level and encourages us to develop the same to whatsoever extent one may like to do. 

He, in brief, tells us: 

Learn to die so that you may begin to live.

We are certainly a drop from the Ocean of Consciousness. In the limitations of the senses, busily engaged in the enjoyment of sense-objects and environed by the mind, we are lost to our Real Self, just like a proverbial lion cub of a shepherd who brought him up in the company of his sheep and goats, as Hazur used to illustrate so lucidly.

A lion passing that way was greatly distressed to see the cub grazing on grass and herbs. Taking pity on the cub, the lion took him aside to a pond of water, showed him his image in the water which resembled his own, and advised him to roar along with him. The moment the two roared together, the shepherd and the flock all ran helter skelter, leaving their erstwhile companion in the company of the lion.

A Master-Saint likewise reminds us of our intrinsic greatness, helps us to get out of our make-believe complacency, and puts us on the road to self-knowledge and God-Knowledge.

God is the Soul of the universe. He willed to manifest Himself into so many forms of different patterns and colours. From one current of His power, multitudes of creations came into being.

The soul in us, too, has innumerable capabilities but is engaged in outer pursuits. Master-Saints tell us to gather in and collect the outgoing Spiritual Currents at one centre, the eye focus.

They give us an experience of the withdrawal of the life-currents. By daily practice we get into a habit which in course of time becomes a second nature.

Sur Das says:

As one proceeds along, the mind follows suit.

We wish to do this but have not the will to do it. We need some Competent Master to help us on the Path – One Who has trans-humanised the human in Him, and has become the mouthpiece of God. 

Nanak says:

Nanak opens His mouth only when He Is bidden to do so.

Similarly, Christ says the same thing:

I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

A Master-Saint by His own Life-Impulse gives a green signal to the human spirit lying smothered under the dead weight of mind and matter, and gives to it a glimpse of the way up. We, too, have been gifted with that power but are helpless as our life-currents are every moment flowing downwards and outward into the world of matter and towards all that is material. A Competent Master, like a powerful magnet, pulls the spirit currents up and magnetises them into a living and conscious soul. In this temple of the body, we dwell along with the spirit of God.

The human soul is like an over-loaded donkey, burdened with karmas of the past, out of memory, and incurring more and more karmas from day to day, it is deeply stuck in the quagmire of sensuous life. In this sorry and woebegone state it is well nigh impossible to take a single step forward unless some kindly Godman takes pity, lightens the smothering karmic load, and pulls us out of the quicksand of life. We are filled to overflowing with the thoughts of the world and all that is worldly and are so enchained hands and feet that we cannot possibly find a way out. In this sad plight of utter hopelessness and helplessness, we do stand in need of some powerful Friend Who may be able to lend a helping hand and infuse in us courage and persistence through His Grace. He, at a single sitting, by His concentrated attention, helps a gathering of ten, twenty, or hundreds of persons and gives a practical Inner Experience to all as the Sage Ashtavakra gave to Raja Janaka.

It is the work of some God-centred Saint Who can make us transcend the self-conscious self-hood to witness the clear Light of the void – beyond. With this initial experience, we can develop our Inner Life, which at every step opens out new vistas into the innumerable realms beyond. Being anchored in the Power of God, He does not lose anything by imparting His Life-Impulse. An ocean would suffer no loss if millions of creatures were to drink from it to their fill. The yogis and munis and the rishis with all their laborious practices for years and years never had a glimmer of the inward Light. But a truly Great Sage may, by His kindly glance, open the Inner Vision.

In the Gospel of St Matthew we have:

For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

I remember how my son, when at the age of four or five, once accompanied me to Hazur and made a request for initiation. Hazur gave him some sweets and he was satisfied. Next time when he went again, he prayed for that gift which had been granted to his father. Hazur took him inside, made him sit in front of Him, and asked him to concentrate and see within. In an instant the lad witnessed a star-spangled sky and Hazur asked him to open his eyes saying that it was enough at that stage. He came running outside saying that he had got Naam as far as the stars and inquired up to what stage had I been taken. Herein lies the greatness of a Saint.

While soaring into ethereal regions, He remains true to the kindred points of heaven and earth which are verily linked by the Power of God working in Him in a manifested form. He is the Human Pole from where the invisible hand of providence works visibly. Whosoever comes in contact with Him and implicitly follows His instructions, he, too, is alchemised or transmuted from dross into sterling gold. The Master is sent into the world to salvage souls for the Kingdom of God. From the Wordless state, the Word is made flesh to dwell amongst us for regeneration of mankind:

This much that man was made like God before, but that God should be made like man much more […] God clothed Himself in vile man’s flesh, that so He might be weak enough to suffer woe.

John Donne

Being One with the Divinity, a True Saint gives us first-hand knowledge of His experience with the Divine. All the scriptures of the various religions are nothing but fine records of the Spiritual experiences of Their authors with God. In fact, a Living Saint is much more than all the scriptures put together for He, being in direct contact with the God Power, is able to impart God-Knowledge directly, and grant actual experience of the saving life line. He gives us a correct import of the ancient scriptures. While reconciling the seeming inconsistencies, He presents an integrated picture of the science of the soul which has eternally been the same and shall be the same in spite of linguistic differences born of geographic variations and historic backgrounds:

Attend ye to the True Testimony of the Saints, for They tell us of Their own actual experiences.

Gurbani

It may be taken as gospel truth that none can know in fullness the greatness of a Saint. With all our learning and worldly wisdom, we cannot rise to His level, much less know of Him. Godman is vastly different from a mere human being.

Nanak has met the Guru Who manifested the Glory of the God beyond.

Guru Arjan declared that He searched the entire universe, Brahmand, but could find none who could come up to the level of His Master, Guru Ram Das. Guru Arjan saw in His Master, God Himself clothed in human form. We, living on the plane of the senses, cannot understand the significance of a Master-Soul. But those whose Inner Vision is opened know and see what in reality a Guru-Power is.

Maulana Rumi says:

The hand of the Pir (Guru) is no less than the hand of God; His hand is not apart from the Power of God. His gracious hand is outstretched beyond seven heavens.

As the sway of the Master extends to the Highest Heaven, so do follow the sincere seekers after Truth when in company of the Master.

The Great Maulana beautifully describes this by means of a parable.

A small mouse was running on the ground when a pigeon flying in the air happened to see him. The pigeon inquired of the mouse as to where he was running so fast. The mouse replied that he was on his way to Mecca for a pilgrimage. The pigeon pitied the little creature and swooping down instantly carried the mouse in his claws and flew with him to Mecca and put him down in the sacred precincts.

Entangled in the clutches of mind and matter, our spirit cannot by itself escape from the prison house and reach the purely Spiritual Region – beyond Pind, And, and Brahmand: physical, astral, and causal – which is our True Home. As I have just said that a donkey overloaded with burden cannot be extricated from a marshy swamp unless he is first relieved of the load and then pulled out. Similarly, when a seeker comes to the Master, the latter, by His words of encouragement and attention, momentarily lightens the load off his mind and makes him see things clearly in their True Perspective. The Master then directs him to enter into the laboratory of his body for an actual experiment. By doing so, the disciple gets some Inner Experience that he is asked to develop by daily practice. His basic instruction to the disciple is to rise above body consciousness. He tells him how to do it and helps him. This is how He gives him a way up and pulls him out of the mire of sensuous life, in which he has been stuck for endless ages ever since he wandered away from his native home, the Garden of Eden, and went into self exile on the plane of mind and matter. He comes to heal the spiritually sick and suffering humanity. 

Mohammad Iqbal, a great Urdu poet of Punjab, says:

Oh Power invisible, manifest Thyself but for once, that I may offer myriads of salutations to Thee.

When such a piteous cry spontaneously escapes from the heart, the Power of God, which is All-Pervasive, reveals itself in some human form.

When is the Word, or the Power of God, put on the covering of flesh? It does so when children of God restlessly yearn for Him. If a child begins to cry, the mother gives him a toy; and, if in spite of it he persists in crying, she brings still another and yet another; but when nothing satisfies him, the mother leaves off everything, lifts the child into her lap, and hugs him tenderly.

If we have a genuine yearning for Him in our hearts, He shall reveal Himself, for like a loving father He is keenly waiting and watching for the moment when we turn our eyes towards Him. This is how He appears in the form of a Great Living Soul to meet His children and to shepherd them back to His Eternal Mansion, Sach Khand – the perennial Abode of Truth.

It is well nigh impossible to comprehend a Godman and His greatness, much less to describe His powers, limitless and ineffable as they are. He is just a conduit for the Power of God to work in the world in a manifest form and serves as a prefatory note to the Book of God. To come in close and living touch with Him is to come near God. Without Him we cannot possibly know of God and much less come in direct contact with the Power of God working within each individual and sustaining the entire creation – hence the paramount need to search for and contact a Living Embodiment of the Godly Power. To know something of Him is to know something of God. If He is God Personified, or Word made flesh, He will surely attract our soul, as it is of the same essence as of God. The more we think of Him, the more we will begin to love Him and become like Him. 

As you think so shall you become

is a well-known adage.