Part II / II – IX
Meditation
The divulging of inner experiences to others except the Master or more advanced disciples effects one adversely and retards the inner progress. It has a significance. A rich man would like to control his hard earned riches lest it be noticed by others, who may become jealous of him. Similarly, the spiritual treasures achieved by the devotee need extra care and vigilance to be hid from others so that the same may remain safe and well-guarded. Just as a sapling is eaten away by a passing goat, but when it has grown into a stalwart tree, an elephant cannot uproot it. Again, the adverse thoughts of others do affect the disciple. Moreover, others growing jealous will not be able to give him or her proper guidance. The laws of the physical plane demand that each one must behave soberly and must not exhibit his or her extraordinary qualities which relate to higher planes, and as such the disciplined devotee is required to cultivate tolerance and humility. You can see that one narrating his or her personal experiences many a time becomes elated, thus invites the ego to take the upper hand, and pride has its fall as a result. On these basic grounds, the Saints made a Law to be strictly observed by one and all that the inner experiences must not be divulged, except to the Master who is competent to give proper guidance on the Way.
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Cultivate a state of perpetual resignation to His Will. This will be helpful in meditation.
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Loving co-operation for devoting regular time to the holy meditations comprises the best gift a child can present to the Master. I am glad you are fully alive to your spiritual obligations. A fully developed and illumined spiritual aspirant is an asset for others, who can carry the Gospel of Love and Truth under the gracious protection of the Living Master.
Fortunate are the chosen few who are blessed with the rare privilege of instilling faith and right understanding in their less fortunate brethren for their spiritual enlightenment.
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Spirituality is an inner experience. It is an experience of the soul. The first practical lesson commences when there is complete withdrawal from the physical body through the kindness of the Master.
Please be assured that all goes to your credit and the auspicious day is not far off when the dark veil within be rent asunder and the flood gates of effulgent radiance will be thrown open to you, with the Grace of the Master.
The spirit force, Word, Naam or God-in-action is responsible for all that is, and the physical universes that we know are not the only ones that It has created. It has brought into being myriad regions and myriad creations over and above the physical.
Indeed the whole is a grand, unfathomable and illimitable pattern in which the Positive Pole – Sach Khand – is formed by the plane of pure, unalloyed spirit, while the Negative – Pind – of gross physical matter with which we in this world are familiar.
In between are countless regions which those who have journeyed from one end to the other often divide into three distinct planes in accordance with their won peculiar balance of positive-spiritual and negative-material force.
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I have assured you in my previous letter that repetition of the five holy Names is a powerful and a sure protection against any unholy force or entity reaching you. You have only to give time regularly to the spiritual practices with faith and love during the day. When free, try to remember the holy Names or sweetly think of the Master. The Master-Power is the constant companion and will be extending all necessary help, whether you may be conscious of it or not. So please take things easily and with new hopes in the new year, progress on the Path from day to day.
Do your best and leave the rest to the Master-Power overhead and leave off all worry and anxiety. It is time to be gay and happy.
In meditation or otherwise, if you hear any voices, you better ask the speaker to come before you. If he comes and stands before the repetition of the holy Names, then you may feel sure that He will be your well-wisher; otherwise, pay no heed nor feel alarmed. No one will come near you or harm you.
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You complain that during meditation thoughts of business keep creeping into your mind. This is because you seem not to have developed a proper habit of doing meditation correctly.
I find that you have certain debts to clear, and that you must discharge your duties as a husband and as a father, and this requires that you work hard in your business. You should do this earnestly. Work is worship. But after a day’s hard work it is time to draw a curtain. At that hour, may be 8, 9, 10, or 11 at night, you should forget your business entirely considering that you have handed it over to the charge of Someone else more Competent and Powerful. Then relax, and relax completely. And whatever time you have, devote it in an accurate way without a break in the spiritual practices, with full faith and love, and with as much earnestness as you put into your business. Do not have any clutchings. Let the Master-Power that is constantly with you, working over your head, bless and grant what it considers best. You should have pleasure on your part and leave the results to the Master overhead.
There is nothing wrong with the Light and Sound coming together. But in your meditations, if you are engaged in the practice of gazing, you should not pay attention to the Tune and if you are busy hearing the Tune, you should be fully attentive to It only. If you pay attention to both, It will be divided. The Master-Power is constantly working over your head, watching and protecting you, in all respects. It is all the Grace of my Master, Sawan Singh Ji, that is working. No wonder that you feel that His loving and watchful eyes are protecting you. You have only to be receptive to draw in increasingly the Master’s love and Grace. Some aspirants are under the protection of some higher Souls who always guide them on and on and ultimately bring them to the Feet of some Living Master to further their progress on the Path. Thanks to the previous Masters Who brought you to Someone Who has put you on the Way to the True Home of your Father. Please be lovingly devoted to the Satsang and love others so that you may have loving reactions and loving impulses arise in your meditations. Try to avoid the society of the worldly-minded, as their company will affect your progress, and do your best to attain your Goal. God helps those who help themselves. You must live according to the teachings of the Master. This will bring in humility, love and surrender. All other things will follow and slowly and slowly the ego will vanish.
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I find that despite your best efforts, you are unable to have any perceptible inner experience. For locating the discrepancy and its cause, you should please find out the following:
- Do you repeat the sacred Charged Names orally? If so, it is to be replaced, though gradually and slowly, to the mental repetition. It may further be explained thus – suppose you met somebody some days earlier, and had a talk with him and you want to recollect it now. You will neither use the tongue nor speak again, but mentally you will have all the conversation repeated. This is the true form of Repetition or Simran. The five holy Words are to be repeated mentally during meditation.
- Do you remain conscious of the breathing going on in your body? If so, it is to be eliminated as the breathing process starts from the navel centre and ends in the nasal centre, and as such you remain in the body during your meditations. This can be done by looking sweetly and intently within, back and behind the two eyebrows, altogether oblivious of the body below or of the breathing going on in the body. You will agree that normally while doing work all day, reading or writing, coming or going, sitting or walking, eating or drinking, or even while talking, we are never conscious of the breathing going on. Similarly, during meditations, you are not to be conscious of it.
- Do you feel any numbness or stiffness in your body during Simran practice? If so, it is equally important to be eliminated as discussed above. The sensory currents from the body below are graciously withdrawn to the eye-focus, not by the single-handed efforts of the disciple only, but by the loving grace of the Master-Power working overhead for proceeding within. You should not watch the withdrawal process into the middle of what you see within. The practice of Simran is indeed a slow process, but when stabilized with the Grace of the Master, one reaches the eye-focus without any special effort. You will agree that it is the loving devotion and the anguished cry of the soul which invokes mercy, and one gets attuned.
- Do you silence your thoughts during meditation? Naturally, you will say 'no'. The silencing of the intellect is the last nail in the coffin. How may it best be eliminated is explained below: You should not have any clutching tendency to have one thing or the other. Simply sit at the door and wait. This sublime silence is best and easily achieved by lovingly and humbly reposing in the gracious Master-Power, to grant and bless you with whatever it deems fit. That benign Power is incessantly with you and is quite aware of your earnest efforts. But so long as you are conscious of your actions, you stand in your own way, and when you lovingly eliminate yourself, He will manifest Himself to you in the celestial manifestation of Divine Light and holy Sound Current. It is something like inviting somebody to enter the room while blocking the door-way by standing in it.
From the above I hope you will be able to locate the fault and will be able to remove it, with the Grace of the Master. I quite appreciate your yearnings, but the fact remains that He, the Great within, will surely bless you at the opportune moment when He considers fit.
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Master-Power is the constant and the nearest Companion of an initiate, and is always at hand to extend necessary guidance and help. When an initiate progresses on the Way, the Gracious and Radiant Master comes face to face and talks to him as one talks on the outer plane.
I am glad to note that your inner progress is developing. It will be easier for you to keep the mind perfectly still by just looking intently into the golden Light.
The repetition of the five Names should be done not constantly, but at intervals without thinking of the meaning of the Words. The ‘charging’ in the Words will help.
You felt as if you were hanging in a big empty space and down below you heard bells and right above the sound of a flute. These experiences will increase from day to day if you continue devoting regular time each day to the spiritual practices, with full faith and love.
The Master-Power overhead is anxiously waiting as to when His children will come to Him and enjoy the most heavenly peace and pure tranquility and celestial calm unheard of and undreamt of in this fleeting and delusive world.
When sitting in meditation, you should not try to clutch one thing or the other. The Form of the Master appears on its own, unasked for, in due course of time. Dreams come when one is not in sound sleep and the soul comes down instead of going above to higher consciousness. The Master-Power is at all times with the disciples and at times comes down to them in their dreams to reassure them of His presence and protective care, because they are not yet able to come up to Him in the higher conscious planes.
Higher development comes in due course. One has to go on steadily with the spiritual practices all feasible help comes without being asked for.
Do not allow your mind vacant. When at work, be fully absorbed in your work, as work is worship. Even when in leisure, it should not be allowed to remain vacant as a vacant mind is the home of the devil. It should be kept occupied either in repeating the holy Names or in sweetly thinking of the Master or hearing the Sound Current when It becomes audible, at all times of the day, without closing the ears … failing that one may study good books. When one derives inner illumination, it is but natural to think that others seeking for the Truth may also know about it.
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I am glad to note that you saw Master Sawan Singh Ji. When one withdraws inside, at times the Master-Power appears to the devotee in the form of his own Master by Whom he or she was initiated or the Master’s Master. They are both One. If One Form comes, the Other will follow. There is nothing to worry about. The only criterion one may use to judge the genuineness of the Master is by repeating the five charged Names. Only the genuine Form will stand, and all fictitious forms of the Negative Power will go away. At times, both the Forms of the Master and the Master’s Master appear together, and sometimes alone. You have loving devotion for the Master through Whom you were initiated. They are but One, and not two. One bulb is fused, the other is put on through which the self-same Light is diffused, for Light is one. Word is made flesh and dwells amongst us, full of Grace and truth. Of course all Masters were Word Personified, each in His own time.
When going inside, the forms of other Saints also appear. We have respect for all of Them. But remember that one’s own Master will be looking after His initiates through life and death and hereafter. Surely one’s own Master will appear and if the Master’s Master appears, He is always a helping factor. You are to follow exactly what has been explained to you at the time of initiation and you need not be led away by the exhortations of anyone else who is not perfect on the Way. If we begin to waver in our faith, there is the danger of imperceptibly falling into some error. So many of us sat at the Feet of Master Sawan Singh Ji, yet he did not authorize everybody to do the work of initiation.
Christ did say,
If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.
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You have seen a personality resembling Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj in a hazy form. Your presence with the Master for nearly two hours in the dream is a happy prelude as it shows His gracious protection being extended to you. The Divine revelation of Master and His Master’s Radiant Form is a blessing of a very high order and it indicates that they are extending their loving protection to you here and hereafter. During such occasions you are advised to repeat the Charged Names. If the Form remains before you, please take It for granted that It is friendly and will help you in your journey into the mysteries of the Beyond.
The holy Sound Current of bells, conch or flute as coming from above is correct and you should listen with rapt attention. These are rare blessings of the Master-Power constantly present with you and working overhead.