Guru Bhakti: A Lesson in Love

I

This day we have gathered together in the loving memory of the Godman, Hazur Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj, who revived the age-old perennial science which we had forgotten. The object of the celebrating the birth anniversary of a Master-Soul is to make a fresh appraisal of His teachings and by following His footsteps we keep His memory alive. Ordinarily, we are expected to live daily, nay hourly, in the loving presence of the Master and be ever thankful to Him for the indelible footprints left by Him on the sands of time. That, of course, is an individual affair. But we must, once a year at least hold a memorial service on the occasion of His advent into the world for the Spiritual Uplift of man. Whatever time we spend together in this congregational service to the memory of the Godman will be amply rewarded and should, therefore, be considered a great blessing.

What then are the lessons we can take from such a dedicated life of selfless service as that of Hazur? For it is by knowing them that we can strive to follow them as best we can and advance on the path of self-realisation and God-Realisation. It is to His great credit that He revived the most ancient science of Para Vidya – the knowledge of the beyond, the great unknown cause that lies beyond the senses, the mind and the intellect. In the modern age, the teachings originated with Kabir and Nanak and the torch of light was carried on by the successive nine Gurus and then Tulsi Sahib, Swami Ji Maharaj, and afterwards by Jaimal Singh Ji and then Hazur Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj by Whose Grace the Sacred Teachings are being imparted even now to the spiritually hungry souls. Fortunate indeed are those blessed souls who had the privilege to be initiated by Him. We must, therefore, make the best use of the short life-span allotted to us. The greatest purpose of the human birth is that it offers us an opportunity, rare as it is, to experience our own Self and God. None can help us to unite with God but one who is already united with him. 

In the Gurbani it says:

Some God man may link us with the Power of God.

That Divine Power is, of course, within each one of us for we live, move and have our very being in him.

Further, in the Gurbani it says: 

My Lord consort pervades in all beings, but blessed is One in Whom He is manifest.

It is the God-manifested being or the Godman Who can guide us God ward. The question here is: Why can we not unite with God by our own unaided efforts? It is because the soul is under the powerful sway of mind, which in its turn is being controlled by the senses, and these senses are running riot with the sense-objects. We are thus totally identified with mind and matter and have no independent existence of our own. So it is the God in man Who can link us with God. In other words One Who has established contact with God can show us the way to effect this contact ourselves. Thus, God in the garb of man is the Guru of all.

When Guru Nanak was questioned on this subject, He replied:

Verily, it is the Holy Word, Shabd or the Sound, that is the Master and the soul in man, permeating through and through the physical body of the disciple.

Now what is meant by Shabd? The absolute God is Ashabd – wordless – but when He comes into expression He is known as Shabd – Word.

The Gurbani tells us:

With one Word the whole creation came into being.

Again Gurbani says:

It is from Shabd that the whole creation comes into being and ultimately gets absorbed into it and it is through Shabd that regeneration takes place.

This manifested Power of God which is the substratum of the entire creation is called Shabd. This Shabd then is the Jagat-Guru or the Master-Power.

This very question was put to Kabir,

Oh Kabir, who is the Master and where does the disciple reside? How did the two get together in an inadmissible union?

He replied:

My Master is in the beyond, while the disciple is in the body. Both of them got together by means of Shabd and now there is no fear of separation between the two.

So the Master of all the world is the Shabd-Power or the Holy Word. 

Guru Gobind Singh has put it succinctly:

He who is one and the same in the beginning and the end is the manifested Power of God, the Shabd, and that is the Real Master.

Thus the physical body in which the Shabd-Power is manifestly working is worthy of all our adoration, for that Power alone can draw the soul to Himself. The Master is not the physical body but the Divine Power which is enlivening His body.

And the Gurbani clearly tells us:

God speaks through a human frame, as without it how can He speak to us?

The physical body is not the Master but blessed is that body in which that Power is manifested for Spiritual Guidance. This Power of God as manifested on the human plane helps in liberating all human souls entombed in the meshes of mind and matter.

Swami Ji says:

The Great Power of God in the Guru helps in disengaging the souls from the shackles of the body and in raising them upwards.

The Living Master is competent enough to unite with God such souls as seek His guidance. The prime job of a Master-Soul is to unite all the children of God under His saving protection.

Gurbani says:

Free from birth and death under the compulsive force of karma comes the redeemer of soul; with a touch of His life breath He alchemises the human soul and connects it with the Holy Word.

Such Great Souls come into the world for the Spiritual Welfare of humanity. They are commissioned from above for this job. Now perhaps you may understand what is meant by a Living Master. He is in fact God manifested on the earth or the Word made flesh to dwell among us as Christ puts it.

The Gurbani tells us,

Dwelling in the Guru, He distributes the Holy Word.

Man alone can be teacher of man. It is with the help of some human instrument that God works for mankind. God does, from time to time descend in a human garb for the uplift of the people stuck fast in the mire of the world and all that is worldly. A Saint has a two-fold mission: to awaken people from a long drawn dream of the material world and to reveal to them the saving lifelines within. Like a radiant pole star, He guides the erring humanity. When it rains, every place, high or low, equally gets the blessing of the life giving showers. Hazur’s name was Sawan and significantly enough like Sawan-rains, He blessed the people with Spiritual Showers and everyone – Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian – benefited from His teachings.