V / I

Gurumukh and Manmukh

The Vedas and scriptures of all the religions have glorified the Spiritually Great Who came into the world from time to time. Some have even gone to the extent of exalting the position of Guru above that of God. This is just a way of expression, for who can be above God? The term Guru is not something new. It is as old as the creation itself. Whenever practical teachers of Para Vidya, knowledge of the beyond, come into the world, They give correct understanding and right lead to the people. After the departure of such teachers, deterioration sets in. 

Guru Nanak was once questioned as to Who His Guru was?

He replied: 

Shabd is the True Guru and Surat is the disciple,

meaning that the Sound Current was His teacher and His attention was the disciple. What is this Sound Current? God is Wordless and Nameless. He is absolute in Himself. When that Absolute God comes into expression, He becomes God-into-expression-Power. This Power is described as Shabd or Naam. The Power of God in its fullness is called Shabd or Sound Current. Christ called It the Word

Similar questions were put to Kabir as well: 

Where does Your Guru dwell and where does the disciple? How are the two related together?

He simply said: 

My God dwells in the Gaggan (sky) within me; and the disciple, too, resides therein. When Surat (attention) gets united with Shabd, there can be no separation thereafter.

What does it mean? When we say that Guru resides in the Gaggan, it means that He is the indweller of the body and not the body itself. This human frame then is a wonderful house in which we – the God-Power and the spirit in man – live. He Who has created such a wonderful house must be a Master-architect. Let us for a moment examine this house. It has a number of outlets – eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and the two openings below. Despite all these outlets, we cannot run away from this house, body. Everything is going on with a certain rhythm and order. The exhaled breath cannot remain out for long. There is some Power which pushes it back, and we are alive with the breath of life going in out. The beauty of this house remains so long as that Power is in it. Man is man so long as the Father is in man. 

It is said: 

The body lives so long as the God-Power is in it; the moment the God-Power departs, the body becomes a heap of dust.

We are in the body but not the body itself, and yet we are not free to escape from it. There is something that is keeping us a prisoner in the body and is controlling this relationship. When that something departs, we have to leave the body. It is this Power which is controlling and sustaining the various planes and sub-planes in the creation. All these innumerable regions are moving rhythmically without colliding with each other. When this Power withdraws, there follows dissolution and grand-dissolution. As said before, this Power in the terminology of Saints is called God-into-expression or God-into-action-Power.

It is this very Power that is called Naam or Shabd: 

Oh Nanak, the entire creation is the result of Naam; one can contact It only when He wills.

Again,

They alone come to It who have the Father’s name writ in their foreheads. The universe comes into being through the Word and dissolves by its withdrawal, and it is through the Word that it again comes into being.

We have now to find ways and means of contacting this Power within us. It can be contacted only at the place where the soul currents withdraw at the time of death. We have to locate the seat of the soul in the body. You might have seen a dying person. The death process begins when the lower Chakras, ganglions, give way because of withdrawal of the soul currents therefrom. Beginning from below, this process continues on and on until the throat-centre gets involved. It is then that the eyeballs turn upwards. This happens when these currents get collected at the eye-focus. It is from here that the soul sitting in the body keeps the body in control. This then is the Gaggan, and here lives that God-Power together with the soul; and when the soul and the God-Power become one, They live eternally. This is called the union of the disciple and the Master. Speaking of the Guru-Power, Guru Gobind Singh tells us: 

From end to end, the God-Power remains with us; consider that God-Power as our Guru.

It is this God-Power within us which is the connecting link between the material body and the immaterial soul, quite disparate in essence.

This Power is All-Pervading and immanent in each one of us: 

My Lord is enthroned in all, and there is not a place where He is naught, blessed indeed is the Human Pole from where it shines in full effulgence.

We all live by this God-Power, but we are unaware of It. The God-Power is manifest in the Guru. We adore the Human Pole from where this Power works. Who then can contact us with this God-Power? God-Power is complete in itself and has no relationship in the earthly sense of the word. Who then can do this job? None but this manifested God in man. It is the lighted Human Pole that can contact us with the Light of God. A Guru never claims any perfection for Himself. He always says that the contact is given by the God-Power and not by Him.

He lives in His will and has no will of His own. 

Let Thy will be done and not what I will.

Again, Kabir, speaking of Himself, says: 

Kabir is just a dog of His Master and is known Mutia. He moves about wheresoever he is led by the nose-string.

Those who consciously dwell in God become, in course of time, Conscious Co-Workers of the Divine Plan; and such Personages are known as Disciplined Souls and Saints. Thus, we see that the Word is the God-Power in the Guru – the Word made flesh – for man alone can be the teacher of man. He dwells amongst us to instruct and guide us. 

This is what the Gurbani says: 

God Himself in the Guru doles out the gift of Shabd.

Guru then is the Human Pole on Which the God-Power manifests and carries on the work of redemption. 

He lives among the people, but His soul dwells in Him.

In the world, He acts as the mouthpiece of God. 

Nanak explaining to His friend Lalo said: 

I only express that which comes within me from above.

While living on the earth, His spirit dwelleth in heaven,

said a Muslim Saint.

Outwardly we see Him busy in the work of the world as any one of us is. For His livelihood He may be working in the field or carrying on some business or be engaged in service. He, too, like us may lead a family life. But He can rise above the body and bodily relations the moment He may so like. In the human frame He is nothing but a manifested God in man or a veritable man living in God. 

On the other hand, we are a slave of the mind and senses and are entrapped in the maze of the world, so much so that we are identified with them and have forgotten our real nature – the soul behind the mind and sense, giving life and light to all that is. It is the flow of our attention outside that is sustaining the world around for us. Sometimes it so happens that by seeing we do not perceive and by hearing we do not understand. What is the reason for this absent-mindedness? It is because our attention is somewhere else, and we are not our own at that moment. It is just like removing the belt from the flywheel of a machine, and the entire work comes to a standstill. The various departments in our body carry on their functions in the light and life of the spirit. It is the spirit that gives strength and power to the mind and the various sense-organs connected therewith. It is the spirit that has to be controlled and manipulated and made the director of the body and the bodily functions. We must strengthen our Spiritual Power and be able to use it at our will rather than allow it to flow along with the mind. With the Spiritual Power well developed, one can do what he likes as a master of the house in which one lives. One Who can do this is a Sadhu, a Saint, or a Mahatma

Bhai Gurdas says: 

He Who has disciplined His outgoing faculties is called a Sadh (a Disciplined Soul).

Again Kabir tells us: 

One who is lost in the nine portals of the body cannot get to the Reality.

A Person Who has acquired this gift becomes the mouthpiece of God. Of Him it is said: 

His words are the words of God, though seemingly coming out of a human being.

Speaking of Himself Nanak says: 

The humble Nanak opens His mouth when He is bidden to do so.

This is what is called right understanding; and each one of us has the capacity to understand things rightly, provided one has his attention under control. The attention of the worldly-wise is flowing out into the world. If one could by self-analysis separate his attention from the mind, he can become the knower of himself and the knower of God.

Hence, the aphorism: Know thyself.

Oh Nanak, without self-analysis one cannot get out of the grand delusion.

One Who knows the Self or the human in Him, knows everything. In His company others, too, can become the mouthpiece of God as He Himself is. He does not inject anything from without. He makes us understand what is what: 

He alone is our friend, by whose instructions we are reformed and transformed.

A friend like him tells us in detail of the great wonders that lie in the wonderful house in which we live. Human body is the temple of God, and God verily dwells in it. All the scriptures sing highly of it. It is called Brahmpuri because Brahman can be made manifest in it. It is a place with nine portals and six ganglionic centres and is described as Ajudhya or the Kingdom of Lord Rama. All the gods and goddesses reside in it. Hence it is called Nar-Naraini Deh, or the abode of man and God. Even the celestial beings aspire for the human form because it is in this deiform that they can hope to attain salvation. In brief man is next to God. He may be said to be even a micro-god. 

With the gift of the human body we can meet the Power of God within. What do the Enlightened Souls tell us in this context? Of Guru Amar Das it is said that for full seven decades and over, He went from place to place in search of God and tried to find Him in all possible ways. It was after this long search that He came to the feet of Guru Angad and found the Reality within Himself.

Now we are taking one of His hymns for discussion. Let us see what He has to say: 

Blessed indeed is the human body in which God manifests Himself.

It is said that when God made man He commanded the angels to do obeisance to him. In Tritiya (third) Upanishad, we read that the Rishis and the Munis prayed for a human habitation for themselves. Fortunately, we have got this advantage; and we must make the best use of it and try to make manifest within us the Power of God – the Self-luminous Power – which is already there. But where that Power is already manifest, we have a veritable temple of God. How can we know that? 

It is only by the Grace of some Master-Saint that one realises this.

By ourselves, we cannot understand the truth of what is said. It is only a God-realised Soul Who can make us understand the Truth. We may consider this body as something full of filth. We do not realise that in this human frame God Himself resides; and, as such, it is a beautiful temple. We, in our own way, try to beautify it with cosmetics on which we spend a lot of money. If we begin to live consciously in the God-Power within us, there would hardly be any need for cosmetics. The outer application of toiletry cannot do the trick that we wish to play. It is our thoughts that give colour and scent to our body – if our thoughts are pure, we hardly need these outer aids. One Who has developed His psychic eye can at a glance see through the Inner Working of any person who comes before Him. The real nature of a person comes out in bold relief. 

The physical body is a mere covering. The beauty beneath this covering lies in contentment, equipoise, and Inner Quiet, all of which come when one is inwardly united with God. The soul feels restless until it rests in the Oversoul. He Who is in tune with God will have a rhythmic blood circulation and will emit forth radiant rays. It is on Spiritual Health that the life of both body and mind depends. Everything needs its own food – body, mind, and intellect. The spirit, too, needs its own food: the Bread of and Water of Life. As you think, so you become and likewise create a personal aura of your own. A loving soul will have eyes full of Love, while one who is obsessed with lusts of the flesh will send forth rays of envy, jealousy, and anger. Eyes are the windows of soul, and they reflect outside the colour of the mind within. 

*Every thought has its peculiar smell and its own colour. Should you like to have experience of this, you should stand in the sunshine with your back to the sun so that you are able to see your shadow on the ground or on some wall in front of you. Now try to see the colour of this shadow. A lustful person will cast a shadow with a black tinge in it while one in whom anger predominates will cast a shadow tainted with redness. (* This section is adjusted to the original version of the text as it was published in the November 1968 issue of Sat Sandesh; Editor’s Note 2011.) Similarly, there is a peculiar smell in the body of each. The former emits a foul smell as coming from a flock of sheep, and the latter as that of a half-burnt rope. One who is settled in God has peace of mind and thinks well of the whole world. He may not use any toiletries and still you would have sweet fragrance as if coming from a lily, provided one has love in him, for love beautifies everything. 

 

I remember to have read long ago of a girl who was not comely in appearance and no one would, therefore, like to marry her. Like one disgusted with herself, she went out of the town and began to frequent a church where she would get lost in the Love of God. After a year or so a person accosted her saying, I want to marry you. What do you think of my proposal? The girl could hardly believe her ears. Who would like to marry one who is ugly?, she said. The young man said: You are not what you say. I see a kindly light in your eyes.

So, beauty emits from beautiful thoughts. Have you ever seen the eyes and forehead of high souled persons? There is always a kind of radiance in their eyes. Their bodies have a personal aura which is quite different from those of ordinary persons. 

Everyone emits a peculiar light from his body. But we do not perceive it, because we have not developed the Single Eye that is capable of seeing this radiation. Theosophy tells us that everyone has his own radiation, the length of which varies from person to person. In some cases, it extends just to a few inches and in others to a few feet. The Enlightened Persons radiate Their Light to a considerable distance; and whosoever comes into the field of Their radiation, he becomes magnetised. 

Guru Amar Das solved the enigma of life when He came to the feet of Guru Angad. His contact with His Guru transformed Him altogether. He got a kind of new Light from His Master Who was God Personified. He now became, in His own right, the Master of His body and bodily senses. One Who is a manifested God in man can give you contact with God. God is not something outside you. He is the Soul of our very soul. Some say that there is hardly any need for a Guru, while others say that there is such a need. Who is a Guru after all? Not the Human Pole that you see. He is God in man, or if you like, you may call Him man in God. One in Whom the God-Power is manifest in fullness. He alone can collect our wandering wits at one focus. He has a soul-force in Him; and with its help, He can lift you above body consciousness and open your Inner Eye wherewith you will be able to see inwardly.

This Inner Perception is in each one of us, but we never had an opportunity to use it. This Power cannot come overnight. Every Saint has His past and every sinner a future. What a man has done, another can do, of course, with proper help and guidance. Under the Guru’s loving care and attention, we, too, can become a Saint. He casts you in His own mould and gradually you will be able to channelise your thoughts in one direction – God wards. The more you will practise concentration, the more you will develop your likeness of the pattern of your teacher. With Inner Peace and steady contemplation, there would come a change in you. The secret of success lies in His company. The breeze that blows from a mountain will be cold and fresh, while the desert winds are hot. Similarly, the words of a Master-Saint are charged with the Divine Power in Him. So the Human Pole that has the Divine Manifestation in Him will manifest the Divinity in you. It is the thoughts that make the man. You have to change your thoughts for the better. With this change, you will have Inner Peace for yourself; and whosoever will come in touch with you will also have serenity. 

Blessed indeed is one in whom the God-Power manifests through the Grace of the Guru.

God alone is our Eternal Consort. We are so constituted that we cannot rest until we rest in Him. Atman and Paramatman – soul and Oversoul – must be linked together and consciously learn to live together. All the souls are but sparks from the same fire. When once the soul is linked with the Oversoul, there comes about an Eternal Union. 

The pleasures of the world are short lived – may be for 10 years or 100 years. We meet but to part. This, too, is a necessary phase in one’s life. We should live happily with those among whom we are born and discharge our worldly duties and obligations. But above all, the soul is to get united with the Oversoul. Such a union will give us Eternal Happiness. How can this union be effected? It is possible only through Guru-Shabd, the Word made manifest within. There is no other way besides this. Without this Inner Manifestation, the human life goes in vain. So long as we are in company with the Power of God in us, we are sentient beings. And when one comes in contact with that Power itself, one becomes a Godman. It is, therefore, said that without the Life-Principle in us, we have no value whatsoever.

The Enlightened Persons generally address Themselves rather than addressing others: 

Oh man, what hast thou gained by coming into the world? Alas! thou hast not gained anything while thou art here.

The human birth is a great blessing. God verily resides in the human body. It is an opportunity for us to realise Him so that we could get out of the cycle of births and deaths. This is Eternal Union.

Mira Bai speaking of herself has said: 

Mira is eternally happy with her Eternal Lord.

Gurbani also tells us: 

One may go the world over, but without a Perfect Master one cannot achieve this.

It comes as a gift from a theocentric Saint, a Person centred in God. One Who is in tune with God alone can make us attuned to Him. We have advanced a lot in the field of science and technology, but we have not done that which is so very necessary in life. We must make hay while the sun shines. Although much time has been lost, we still have some time left. We must, therefore, make most of the time that is still with us: Once we slip from the top rung of the ladder in life, the life goes in vain. The human body is the temple of God, and its sanctity must be preserved at all costs. It is a vehicle of great importance and must be kept in good trim: 

Always remember the Lord within, and His name must be on the lips; oh Nanak, the body is to be preserved only for this purpose and nothing else.

The Power of God is within you. Perceive that Power with your own eyes; and having perceived It, sing His praises. Take care of the God-given body. Maintain it as best as you can. Protect it from heat and cold. Give it enough so that it lasts as long as possible. But for what purpose? For self-realisation and God-Realisation. This is the summum bonum of life.

If it is not done, then: 

Accursed are all the activities of life: eating, drinking, sleeping, and clothing, and accursed also is the body and bodily relations if one does not get unto the Lord.

Married life is no bar to Spirituality. It is just a first step in life. It provides one with a life companion in weal and woe, but it is not something that is lasting. One of the two has to depart before the other. On the other hand, the companionship of the Lord is of a permanent nature. God is the Lord of all, and God resides in each one of us. We live because of Him. All that we need is a Godman Who is the chosen vessel of God. To be in the company with such a Godman is Real Satsang. To be a disciplined soul is a great thing. 

In the Sukhmani, Guru Arjan, speaking of the greatness of a Sadh or Sadhu, tells us of the advantages that one gets in His company: 

In the company of a Sadh, one is washed of all impurities; in the company of a Sadh, one becomes a True Devotee; in the company of a Sadh, one is transformed completely; in the company of a Sadh, one gets to the indescribable.

A Sadhu gives us Inner Perception. To start with, He gives us some capital to carry on the Spiritual Business. The soul, by being constantly associated with the senses and the sense-organs, becomes identified with them. It is because of this identification that we try to find God on the sense level. Little do we know that the Power of God dwells above the plane of the senses. How then can we find God in the field of the senses – world? It is only the spirit in man that can approach and realise God, Who, too, is Spirit and can be worshipped in spirit. So long as this knot between the spirit and the senses is not snapped, there is no possibility for the spirit to turn upwards. We, therefore, before everything else, have to become spirit. To become spirit is called self-realisation. The moment one realises the Self in him, he becomes capable of knowing the Overself. Self-realisation then precedes God-Realisation. Light alone knows the Light. And blessed is the body wherein the spirit having extricated itself has an experience of the Great Soul or God within. This is called Eternal Friendship, the union between the soul and the Oversoul. Be ye ever blessed in the Love of the Lord and gain eternal communion. This communion can be established only by the Grace of some Godman. 

Thrice blessed is man. He has in him untold possibilities of which he is not aware at the moment.

What these possibilities are we shall see presently: 

One who revels in the Love of the Lord loses his egotism.

Love unites two souls, the lover and the beloved, so much so that one loses his own existence and becomes One with the beloved. God is Love and the human soul is a spark of that Love. The whole is in every part of its own, and every part is in the whole. One immersed in the Love of the Lord is truly an undivided individual and is wholly detached from the affairs of the world. While living in the world, he is not of the world. His soul is ever in a state of Divine Intoxication. 

Nanak speaking of Himself says: 

Nanak is eternally in a state of Divine Inebriation.

When Guru Nanak met Emperor Babar, the latter offered Him a cup of hemp. Nanak, with a twinkle in His eyes, politely said: 

Oh King, this cup gives you a momentary forgetfulness. You have to help yourself again and again to hemp for maintaining this continuity. I have within me a cup of Divine Elixir which keeps me in a state of continuous bliss.

When one forgets himself in Holy Ecstasy, one automatically rises above body consciousness, leaving all thoughts of duality far behind. A disciple ceases to be a disciple when he loses himself in the Love of the Godman. 

A Muslim Saint said: 

My being is so filled with the Love of the Lord that I have lost all thoughts of my ‘self’ and I have become dead to my self.

Saint Paul says: 

It is I, not now I; it is Christ that lives in me.

We have not seen God. How can we love what we have not seen. We have, therefore, to contact the manifested Power of God in us. But who can manifest the God-Power? Only the Godman in Whom the God-Power is working in fullness. To come near a Godman is essentially to come near God. To be away from a Godman is to be away from God. It is the God in man or Godman Who brings us to the Power of God within us. He is the Human Pole that guides us to the Power in us. There is no other Way to the God-Power except through a Godman. All the philosophies of the world have not been able to solve the riddle of God. 

The greatness of God is beyond measure, and human imagination fails to have any conception of Him. Still in the realm of relativity it is said: 

When God and the Guru both manifest Themselves, one wonders to Whom he should pay his obeisance. Blessed indeed is the Guru Who led me to Satguru or God.

It is just a way of explaining things on an intellectual level. When one is lost to himself, he escapes from the bondage of I-ness and becomes forever free. So long as one feels that he is the doer, he continues in the cycle of births and deaths. 

The question is one of right understanding. All mankind is One. All men are embodied souls. Soul is of the same essence as that of Oversoul or God. And God is the mainstay of all creatures. When this knowledge dawns, we would think good of the entire creation and love all mankind.

This state comes only when one is dyed in the colour of God:

Strait is Path of the Guru; none can pass through it without merging in the Guru.

Wondrous is the Word of the Perfect Master, a Perfect Master makes It manifest and It leads unto Truth.

What is Truth?

Nanak says: 

Oh Nanak, know ye the Truth as true.

This, of course, refers to Absolute Truth or Truth in abstraction.

When the Formless Absolute manifests Himself, then it is said: 

Truth was in the beginning (of time); Truth was in the beginning of each age; Truth is and Truth shall remain forever, oh Nanak.

We have here two phrases that need to be distinguished: Gurbani and Guru-ki-bani. By Gurbani we mean the scriptures coming to us from the Gurus. This hymn, for instance, is from the Gurbani as it is recorded in the scriptures. Guru-ki-bani is something different from Gurbani.

It is defined as:

The Word of the Guru is in fullness in each one of us; God Himself has placed it and Himself makes It manifest. 

In the Gospels we have: 

In the beginning was the Word; the Word was with God and Word was God.

As to the antiquity of this Bani – the Holy Word –, it is said: 

The Holy Word has been resounding from age to age. It is true in itself and leads to Truth.

Thus, we see that Guru-ki-bani is nothing but a Sound Principle. It has music in It – Music of the other world, Udgit. Gurbani tells us that one should contact a Word-Personified Saint – a teacher in Whom the Word is fully manifested – for He alone is capable of manifesting the Word in others, and that Word becomes instrumental in leading us Godwards. The Holy Word has two phases – Light and Sound. 

By communion with the Word, one comes to testify the effulgence of millions of suns.

And again: 

The All-Pervading Word is resounding everywhere.

So we see that the Holy Word is Sound in Light or Light in Sound and this is an axiomatic Truth. The Gurbani serves as a pointer to Guru-ki-bani, the Holy Word, which the Master manifests as a means of contacting the soul with the Oversoul. 

In the human body are all the grand divisions, planes and sub-planes (though on a smaller scale).

The macrocosm is in the microcosm. This body is the wonderful house in which we live. 

The human body is on the model of Brahmand (cosmos), whosoever searches in himself gets a veritable (missing word?) of it.

In the cosmos there are three planes – physical, astral, and causal. God has also provided man with three bodies: the physical – the tabernacle of flesh; and within it, the subtle – or feelings, emotions, and thoughts; and lastly, the causal or the seed body. And for what? So that we may be able to work in any of these three worlds as we may like. The pity is that we have forgotten to transcend the human in us. At the time of death, the physical covering goes off. This is the very experiment of rising above body consciousness which the Master gives to those who are initiated into the mysteries of the beyond. This experience is exactly akin to actual experience of death, but with the difference that it is voluntary and leads to awakening in higher consciousness while living in the body. With the experience of death in life, one mocks at death; and by daily practice one goes to and comes back everyday from the valley of death. But this is not the end. There lies the infinite before us. It is after crossing the astral and causal planes that we reach the threshold of the Kingdom of God. All this and much more is to be unravelled in the laboratory of mind in the body. 

In the body is the Life-Principle of the entire universe; and that Life-Principle is sustaining everyone.

We are not separate from the life in us. We, in fact, are the very life that is the life of the universe.

In the Holy Koran it is said: 

Kanzan Mahphian – I am in you like a secret treasure. 

This is just what all the Saints (tell) us in Their own way. We have to rise above the body to get to this hidden treasure – Life Eternal. 

Learn to die so that you may begin to live,

the Gospels ask us. 

Without traversing the body we cannot enter into the beyond where each plane is vaster, richer, and more beautiful than the one preceding. Beyond these three planes lies the real world of the spirit where there is All-Beauty and All-Glory.