Five Dacoits are looting while Man slumbers

I

Joy abounds among the righteous, but fellowship of evil breeds misery. Kabir says go and get the company of some Saint; keep the company of He Who has controlled His mind, without measure will He give the wealth of Naam. Oh Kabir, He may have but a crust to eat, shun the company of the worldly who may give you milk and honey; I ask not for powers miraculous, Kabir says give me the Master’s darshan daily.

This is a short hymn of Kabir, the first line of which is stressing the importance of Satsang. Satsang means the company of the Truth, the place where Truth is differentiated from untruth – where the wheat is separated from the chaff, where discrimination reigns supreme, where that eye of discrimination is awakened.

If a certain Person’s company is praised, it means that He is wise; He is One Who knows the difference between that which is true and that which is untrue. In such company, one can also learn such power of differentiation and develop awareness. Such a Personality is the very image of the Truth. He is the Satguru, Whose soul, after gaining emancipation from the mind and senses, experiences itself and gains connection with the Ultimate Truth, becoming the very form of that Truth. He is then only termed a Satguru.

Guru Arjan Sahib said on this subject,

He Who knows the Sat Purush – Ultimate Lord – has the Name of Satguru.

He is One with the True Lord. In such company alone, can the soul achieve salvation. Who sees the Lord praises Him. He whose mind’s eye is open to see the Lord, he only praises the Lord. If a soul has not realised the Ultimate Lord, it means he is still at the mind and sense level, just like others who are asleep within and are the image of the world without. How can a sleeping soul give a connection with the Lord to anyone else?

What happens when one meets a Satguru?

By meeting the Satguru, one’s own Inner Eye sees; within the house (body), the Truth is found.

One will see the Truth for oneself.

Nanak’s Emperor is apparent.

He sees, of course, but His disciples also come to see.

The Gurumukh sees with His eye.

The disciple can also see – by becoming a Gurumukh. What is a Gurumukh? He Who has constant awareness of the Guru. Therefore, one should start by sitting with full awareness in the company of the realised Soul.

By meeting the Satguru, the gift of initiation is received.

Through which Inner Knowledge is attained.

Whomsoever looks intently into the Satguru’s eyes gains life, for life comes from Life, with which He is overflowing, because His soul is fully developed – He has complete control over His whole being.

Intellectual knowledge uplifts only the intellect. If you keep the company of those people who are involved in outer enjoyments which are experienced through the senses, then your senses will get heightened. On the other hand, in the company of One Whose soul is strong, your soul will be uplifted, and you will start seeing for yourself.

When you have seen, then sing; such song will bear fruit.

Sing the Lord’s praises after seeing something of His attributes. That will give an intoxication and will help you progress further. Anyone can chant from the books, or repeat something from hearsay – this is not truly praising the Lord. To see, and to bear witness to what you have seen, is something very different. The very tongue of such a Person will be charged with Nectar, and the words uttered by that tongue will immerse one’s heart in the depth of tranquillity.

Satguru is He, meeting Whom the mind becomes still.

Pray for the company of such a Soul.

In the Saint’s company, the Lord is seen within; then how sweet is His Name.

It is not a loose promise to be fulfilled after death. He says you will see the Lord in the Saint’s company – you will taste the sweetness of the Inner Nectar – the Naam of the Lord.

Drink that intoxicant of Naam.

The Satguru is also called Sadhu.

The Lord issues forth from the Sadhu’s tongue.

We get many wonderful things in His company.

In the Sadhu’s company, the countenance becomes radiant; the dirt is washed away.

Many thousands of words have been written on the greatness of the Satguru and the wondrous things that happen to us in His company, the precious gifts we receive. From His very presence there is a magnificent charging emitting, surrounding Him and permeating the whole area.

That overflowing Love is coloured with intoxicant; the True Yearning is created in the Sadh’s company.

Masters are the overflowing cups of the Lord’s intoxicating colour – overflowing vessels of Love. Just by enjoying His company the yearning for God is born within one’s being. 

This human birth we accept so casually comes only with great good fortune. Why?

You have got the human form – it is thy turn to meet God.

In the human form alone can God be realised – No other action will be of avail. The soul cannot reach God through any type of actions; these only cause one’s attention to become more dispersed. One can make the best use of all one’s facilities, but what will really help us to realise the Lord?

In the Sadh’s company, only contact the Naam.

And,

Those who repeated Naam got salvation; oh Nanak, their faces radiated with Glory.

Those who meditated upon Naam succeeded in that purpose for which they were born into the human body. Their faces radiate in the Lord’s House. Through Their company many others also gain emancipation.

Gurumukh frees millions by giving a spark of Naam.

What is that which is called Naam? There are two kinds of Naam. First, God is Nameless and Formless and Soundless; but when the Absolute God became from One to many, He came into expression, and that God-into-Expression-Power is called Naam. It sustains the whole of creation. It has been given many different names by the advanced souls to help mankind understand. Some called Him Ram because He is vibrating everywhere – from the Sanskrit root ramma meaning perpetual vibration. Some called Him Wah-e-guru, and there are many other Names, all of which we respect, no doubt.

I rejoice in all Thy Names.

But, what is that Naam or Name which is the Naam? – That Naam, repeating which you will cross the ocean of life. If every religion declares that it has such a name, then how can one know which is the True Naam?

As a guiding criterion, we should remember that, while words are all right, it is only a contact with that True Naam that can give the sought – for salvation. That is the Power which the words describe – the Naam which links you to the Named. One must get the connection with that Naam.

This is why meditation upon Naam is very necessary; for although one can gain a little peace from other practices, yet after a while the mind will start its racing again.
One Muslim Saint puts it this way:

that we are repeating mere names, when we should catch hold of the Named Himself, with Whom all names are but empty words of description.

How can a person have peace by repeating some words in a parrot-fashion? If one repeats the word ‘Ice, ice, ice,’ can one thereby experience its coolness? Repeating the word ‘water’ will not quench the thirst. How indeed can the Spiritual Thirst be quenched by the repetition of words or by repeating the various Names of the Lord?

Where then is the Naam which is Naam-Power, which is God-in-Expression?

The Water of Life, giver of the nine pleasures of Amrit, is the Lord’s Naam; It resides in this body.

Naam is the giver of all kinds of happiness, and It resides in this human form. And so It is not a subject of outer manifestation – It requires inversion. Naam is intoxicatingly sweet and beautiful, and can be experienced above the senses only. And what indication is there that one has gained experience of Naam?

When in contact with Naam, the Light vying with millions of suns is manifested.

You will experience the radiation of that Light. All you brothers, in whatever religion you are, do you experience the Light within your own body? If you do, then know you have got something. If not, you are merely repeating words and have no connection with Naam.

The Lord’s Naam is the Music of the Spheres.

There is Music in the Naam – the Sound which vibrates from above. If you hear the Sound of the Lord within and see the Lord’s Light, then know that you have got connection with Naam. It is experienced only above the senses.

In the company of the Sadhu, you receive the Imperceptible Gift.

It is all in the hands of the Master, Who will simply present this Gift to the True Seeker. Do you see how valuable is the company of a Satguru? 

What is the difference between the Master and other men? Physically He seems the same as others, just like doctors and patients; but the doctor has studied anatomy. And similarly, those People are specialised Who have got self-knowledge and God-Knowledge. However, They always say that They are men just like other human beings.

Guru Nanak said,

In this form of man, Nanak is my name.

But, whom will they address as Nanak? That is the point. Sometimes Masters do give an indication of what They are – in addition to man.

God’s Word, which comes from above, is given out as knowledge.

The Guru is the mouthpiece of God. As the flow comes from God, so the Guru expresses it out. This is the principal difference. So seek the company of the realised Souls Who are the very form of Truth, the mouthpiece of Truth. They are developed Souls, although They seem to be just like us.

The whole world is sleeping – rich, poor, intellectual, illiterate, alike. Why? Because they have no awareness of themselves. Each man’s soul is at the mercy of the mind, which is itself at the mercy of the senses, which, in turn, are dragged around by the sense-enjoyments. We have become identified with the body and the world – we have forgotten ourselves. Those who pursue the intellect lose themselves even more than the others; for although the illiterate are lost in the senses, yet through intellect one can get more deeply involved in the senses and the intellect both. We do work through the intellect, and it can help us to understand the true state of affairs – which is that the soul is a conscious entity, and our greatest aim as human beings is to realise God. The soul must rejoin the Lord.

God is in every form. He is the sustaining Power in all life. Due to this, our soul stays with the body; but when He removes His sustenance, the body is finished and returns to its various elements. Furthermore, if He withdraws His Power from creation, then dissolution or grand dissolution occurs, in different degrees. There is nothing nearer to us than this Power of God, which is the very soul of our soul.

Our soul has become jiva – soul in creation – through connection with the mind, and so the sense-enjoyments drag it around. It has forgotten itself in this depth of indulgence.

Together, the Beloved and the soul; the soul sleeps, but the Beloved is in full awareness. 

The influence of the senses and the outer attractions keeps the soul asleep to the Truth, while the God-husband is constantly awake, waiting for the soul to open her eyes. In this pitiful situation, how can we awake? How can one sleeping person awaken another? Only in the Satsang can one sit in the company of an Awakened Soul, and one Awakened Soul can surely awaken thousands who are sleeping. An Awakened Soul does not mean a lecturer or reader of books – those who have knowledge at the sense level only – for he who has developed his intellect is also asleep.

The world is sleeping at the level of the mind. Mind is most powerful at the physical level where it takes our attention further and further into physical expression. Mind has stages also – physical, astral, causal – it operates in all three. It is not something simple. Many great sages have left this world crying because of the mind. So first we must learn to control the physical mind by withdrawing it from outer senses. You will find in some Eastern books the story of Habil and Cabil, and it is the story of the lower mind (Habil) killing the higher mind.

Mind is a very strange phenomenon, and if it is controlled it will show the happenings of the three worlds. Remove yourself from outer distractions, and you will awaken unto your True Self.

Has it never occurred to you that you must leave this world one day? Even in the presence of death, or accompanying the body to the cremation ground, do you never stop to think that you will also be in this position some day? We do agree that we have to go when reminded about it, but we then promptly forget the matter. It is a very sad condition we are in.

Guru Arjan Sahib says,

Arise, awake, oh traveller – why this delay?

Beloved soul, why are you sleeping? The sun of human birth has risen, and this is the time to awaken.

If this opportunity slips from your fingers, it will never come so soon again. This invaluable birth will be wasted.

Similarly the Upanishads say,

Awake, arise; and stop not until the Goal is reached.

It is like a sleeping sickness; and if you go to the root cause, you will understand what is happening; and then you will know how imperative it is to gain release from all this illusion and forgetfulness.

Listen now to a hymn of Guru Arjan Sahib, in which He tells us more on this subject. You may ask, ‘If we are sleeping, then how are we able to talk?’ But do we not talk in our sleep? You haven’t got the awareness, but you have the intellect; so try to understand. We are the soul, the indweller of the body. And we often say, ‘This is my body; I am soul,’ etc. As I have taken off my coat and placed it here, can you remove your body? Can you rise above it and analyse yourself from mind and matter, separating yourself from the body? You would then see clearly who and what you are. Now listen to the hymn, which tells us how we went to sleep and how we can awaken.

“Inner Eye sleeps, while one covetously envies the possessions of others; Inner Ear sleeps, yet one eagerly hears all slander and scandal.”

The Master’s message is for embodied souls caught in the web of mind and senses, unable to release themselves. Masters make no distinction between religions and sects; Their message is for the whole human race.

Oh soul, since you took birth into the world, you have developed the habit of seeing things; and so your outer eye is open, but the eye which is used to see within became more securely closed. Although awake from without, you are asleep within; and by greedily envying the goods of others, your Inner Eye has gone deeper and deeper into this slumber. 

Our outer awakenedness is busy coveting the wealth, property, bodies of others; and this creates impressions which are taken in and absorbed into one’s being through the eyes. Remember, 83 % of all impressions we absorb enter into man through the eyes. Whatever you see is registered in you. This constant intake of impressions closes the Inner Vision more and more as the years go by. Furthermore, the impressions we absorb from outside are reproduced into our thoughts and dreams; and in this way a superficial life is built up. Up to now, you have never had the opportunity to dip inside yourself.

The ears are perpetually listening to the scandalising and slandering of other people’s characters. Their virtues are underrated and their faults exaggerated. If something is worth repeating, it should also be one hundred percent accurate. Otherwise, it amounts to slander. Test this fact for yourself. Just sit quietly and listen to any conversation going on around you, and you will find they consist of gossip, criticism, and scandal principally.

Fourteen percent of all impressions comes through the ears. Eighty-three and fourteen amount to 97 % of all impressions through two senses alone – awake or asleep. All this attention going out, all these impressions coming in, and never a single glance inwardly towards one’s Real Self, which is in deep, heavy slumber, unaware of all this.

“Inner taste sleeps, through greedy outer enjoyments; mind slumbers on in the wonders of illusion.”

This is our daily life: this thing is very sweet, that thing is very beautiful. Strong in man are these senses of sight, hearing, and taste. He is always busy seeing, hearing, eating, and drinking – tasting something attractive today and wanting more and more of it tomorrow.

During my tour of 1955, I was invited to meet a Father Divine in the USA; and at the dinner there, more than sixty different dishes were served, both sweet and savoury. Just think of sixty different things to be tasted! There is a limit to what the taste can distinguish. What is seen, heard, and eaten are all reproduced and recorded within one’s being; and this is how our superficial lives are made. Illusion started with this body. You can see how this physical form has encouraged this forgetfulness in which we exist. We are embodied souls, but we have become only the body, and we can see only at the sense level. Now is this not superficial?

Mind is also asleep in this illusion. It has also become the form of the outer attractions, when awake and asleep both. What an accurate picture Guru Arjan Sahib is sketching!

The Masters are constantly trying to draw man’s attention to the true state of affairs. One Muslim Fakir points out that one should close the eyes and ears to shut out these impressions, and also close the lips. This renders the tongue out of action and it is then also impossible to eat anything. Whatever the method, we must stop these three kinds of impressions coming inside from without; and then we should invert within. The Fakir adds that if the Truth does not then awaken in you, you are free to ridicule the method. It is a very definite statement and a fair offer.

Only the Awakened Soul can help one to invert these rebellious senses and withdraw from the outer attractions. At present one sees outwardly only; but then with His blessing of Inner Vision, you will see within and the Path will be opened for you. At present one hears only outer sounds, but one will hear the Inner Music, the Sound of the Truth. At present you enjoy outer actions, but by inversion you will start to enjoy the delectable Inner Nectar of Naam.

When that Nectar comes, this taste is no longer enjoyed.

And Who makes all this possible?

When the Satguru is met, inversion starts.

If you die while living, you will solve the riddle.

“He who is awake in the house of the body can receive that inherent Perfect Gift.”

If you awaken while living in this physical house, the Lord’s Gift is yours. He is already within, but one must withdraw the attention from outside.

What is there to realising the Lord? Just uproot it from here and plant it there.

It is a simple matter of where the attention is focused.

“Break away from family and acquaintances; then our Saviour will come.”

If you receive the Perfect Gift, you will also become perfect, as God is perfect. Just start withdrawing from outer attractions. But if the lecturers and scriptural authorities are sitting on the outer perimeter, at the sense-level, then who will help us awaken?

“Our near and dear are intoxicated with their own enjoyments, having no knowledge of their True Home.”

Our friends, relations, etc. are embodied souls like us, intoxicated by the outer enjoyments and having no awareness of themselves, dragged by sight, hearing, taste, and touch, suffering from one sickness or another. Remember that enslavement to a single sense alone can bring death, imprisonment, or slavery for life.

Take the moth, for example, which burns itself to death because of the ruling sense of sight. Through its strong sense of taste, the fish gets caught on the fisherman’s hook. A certain insect has a very strong sense of smell and is attracted to the scents of flowers; it loses its life when it enters that flower which closes like a clam. The sense of hearing is overpowering in the deer and in serpents. The deer is attracted by the beating drums, and he is so fascinated that he is helpless to move and is captured. The snake, a fearsome creature, is enchanted by the sound of the bina, is captured, and spends its life in a snake charmer’s basket. The sense of touch is dominating in the elephant; and through trickery they attract the male to the female and thereby capture him, starve him for days to weaken his strength that he may be controlled, and from then on he is a slave to man. If for the prevalence of a single sense these creatures lose their freedom or their lives, then what hope for man, who has five? It seems an impossible situation.

With so many enjoyments in this body, how can Naam reside therein?

Everywhere people are in the same condition – brothers, sisters, husbands, children, parents, friends. There is a sleeping state and a drunken state. And whereas a sleeping person can be awakened, what about he who is in the drunken condition? You can shout at him, but he is without consciousness and will not respond. These are hard facts; it is a very accurate picture of mankind. Even the few who try to find the cure in the scriptures are helpless, for one cannot awaken the consciousness by reading a book.

“Five dacoits have entered these sleepy dwellings, and have looted the vacant house.”

Everyone is sleeping and the dacoits are looting wildly. Who are these five dacoits? They are anger, lust, greed, attachment, and ego. They are looting the people who are sleeping in a drugged state. Like this, man loses his most valuable possessions, and tragically does not realise this is happening, because he is so engrossed in the enjoyments that whatever knowledge of right he had is pushed aside.

A little awareness of the predicament he is in comes only when he has lost everything he possessed. The house is unprotected; the thieves can get in, for the owner is in a deep sleep. You are the owner of your physical house, are you not? Know it or not, you are in a drunken state. And although you have been awakened innumerable times, yet you merely say, ‘Yes, yes, I am awake’; but this is only from outside and you promptly go to sleep again. You have never awakened from within. There is no answering reply from your True Self. If the point does not go Home, the whole thing is superficial.

“Father, Mother, cannot protect you; nor can friends and relations.

These people may suffer for or with you, but they cannot help you, for they, too, are asleep and are helplessly being looted like you. All are helpless sufferers at the hands of the five dacoits; and this includes the read and unread, the rich and the famous alike. 

Riches and knowledge will not give self-protection.

It is a not a condition that can be improved with money or with intellectual knowledge. Do not the intellectuals fall also? The thieves cannot be controlled by the intellect, nor can they be bribed. Swami Ji Maharaj has also given a very lucid explanation on the subject, so we will take a little of His hymn now and then return afterwards to Guru Arjan Sahib.

“How can the sleeping mind be awakened, brothers? Tell me, what steps must I take?”

If we have understood that we are now asleep, that the mind is sleeping within us, then what steps have we taken to ensure that we awaken? Even one hundred wise men will have the same wisdom, and Swami Ji is explaining the same thing as Guru Arjan Sahib. Those Who are awakened see everything in crystal clarity and know what safeguards to take. He explains how to awaken and also why we have not awakened to date through the various practices we have been doing.

“One went on pilgrimage, even kept fast; became filled with bookish knowledge.”

What is the meaning of pilgrimage? Places of pilgrimage are kept up because some soul at some time received his awakening there. Kabir Sahib once asked God to remove a great doubt that He had in His heart, and that doubt was whether the place of pilgrimage is better than the Lord’s servant, the Lord’s servant being the Guru. Of course, the Lord’s servant is the greater, for the holy place is founded because of Him. If an Awakened Soul sat in ten different places, then all ten became holy; so He is the Great One. The place where Guru Nanak Sahib was born, the village of Talvandi, is now a holy place and has been renamed Nankana Sahib. Guru Nanak once sat under a particular Reta tree, and that tree is now known as Reta Sahib. If you taste its fruit even today, you will find it very sweet and not bitter as the fruit of the Reta normally is.

The whole world’s holy places have been made because of some enlightened soul. Millions of souls have been born in different places, and millions have died; but who remembers the coming and going of all these? And yet a single Awakened Soul can put a small place on the map. Hazrat Mohammed Sahib was born in Mecca. Millions of others have been born there before and since, and yet only He is remembered. Jerusalem is a holy city to the Christians because Christ was there. What about all the others before and after Him? The original purpose of going to a holy place was to sit at the feet of the Awakened Soul there, and to learn His teaching.

Leave your troublesome, busy home life for a little while and go to sit at the feet of some Enlightened Soul. You cannot awaken by merely taking a dip in some holy river. This is not the fault of the places of pilgrimage; they are what we have made them, places of enjoyment, holiday resorts, attractions to sightseers. Take Hardwar, for instance. This is a place where the great Rishis and Munis stayed, Guru Nanak Sahib also, and Guru Amar Das Who for many years visited Hardwar every year. What is the place like today? Some years ago I saw that two cinemas had been built there, and since then many more. In the evening especially, you can see nothing but eating, drinking, and people at large seeking amusement. There is nothing else. This is not the true purpose of making a holy place of pilgrimage. And what can a dip in a holy river do for you? 

“If the mind is dirty, everything is dirty; by washing the body, mind cannot be cleansed. This world is an illusion of forgetfulness; only a few can find the Truth. So how can the mind be purified? Oh my mind, repeat only the Naam. The Satguru has given me this wealth.”

Through the Naam one can become pure. One is highly fortunate if one meets anyone who is a True Lover of Naam, for purity starts when one is joined to It. Kabir very bluntly says:

“A fish from a rivulet came, floating down the Ganges; it washed itself in every way, but its smell remained.”

By washing one’s body, one cannot wash away the dirt from the mind. Guru Nanak in His ‘Jap Ji Sahib’ says:

“When the hands, feet, and body are besmeared, they are washed clean with water; when the clothes get dirty, they are cleansed with soap; when the mind gets defiled with sin, it can be purified only by communion with Naam.”

No one can get salvation merely by visiting some holy place until the purpose of the visit is fulfilled. Our Master used to say that those in the East go on pilgrimage to the West, and those in the West go East; the people of the North go South, and vice versa. They are all like a weaver’s shuttle going back and forth. Yet they do not find what they are seeking.

I once met a sadhu who told me he had walked from Amarnath to Rameshwar fourteen times. These two places are almost the northernmost and southernmost points of India, respectively. Well, I asked him what was the condition of his mind; and he said,

Oh, the mind is the same. Actually, the mind is more inclined to disperse even further by such journeys, for it dwells on the different places and scenes and happenings, etc., here, there, and everywhere in the form of thousands of impressions which have entered the mind and go on revolving round and round.

If one stayed in one place only, there would be fewer impressions.

Swami Ji says that thousands have gone on pilgrimage and thousands have performed practices of various kinds, but in the end they lost. The purpose of fasting is that the body should not be overloaded with food and should rest sometimes. Have you ever given your stomach a holiday? People go on pushing food down every hour, every half hour – this renders the digestive system ineffective and the result is one disease or another. The true purpose of fasting is to gain good health. To overload the stomach before a day’s fast, and then reload it again after the fast is finished, accomplishes nothing but more moans and groans. If there is a little space in the stomach, and it is not completely filled up with food, then that space can be filled with the Light of God. There are many different kinds of fasting. For instance, one can fast on fruit and milk alone. But what happens? They start eating and drinking it by the kilos.

Food was made for man’s needs – eat in moderation, and you will be successful. Only the food that is digested will give strength. We are ambitious for more consciousness, but overeating makes us lazy – we sleep longer. Some people are under the impression that they were just born to eat.