Inner Ascent and Realisation through Simran

If the Repetition of the Holy Names is carried out in accordance with the directions of the Master and in a proper way, the devotee achieves wondrous results within. The soul currents that permeate every pore of the body withdraw from the nine apertures and collect at the Tenth Gate, which lies between the eyes. The body then becomes completely numb. Owing to centripetal tendencies, the disciple begins to behold scenes in the spiritual regions and sees stars and the sun and the moon.

Guru Nanak says:

In the sky has arisen a meteor; only the blessed one with the Grace of the Master can behold its splendour. Through the Word, Guru shows the way and the seeker attains fulfilment.

Hazrat Ibrahim attests to having seen the meteor. The Vedas likewise mention this brightness.

Maulana Rumi says:

You should cross the region of the moon and the sun within yourself, and lay your soul at the feet of the Master.

A reference in one of the Upanishads says that a seeker in his spiritual transport witnesses mist, smoke, sun, fire, air, fire-flies, flashes of lightning and the moon within.

After the devotee crosses these phenomena, he beholds the radiant form of the Master, who after that, is ever by the side of the disciple and who guides the soul to the higher regions, ultimately taking it to the Court of the Lord. It is by focussing our attention on this resplendent Form that we make it stay with us.

Maulana Rumi says:

Only that method of Repetition of the Holy Names is correct by which the inner way (for spiritual transport) is opened. Only that Path is correct which leads to the radiant form of the Master, the King of Kings. Such a King as does not have to depend upon treasures of gems and diamonds, but who is sovereign within Himself.

Regarding Simran, the Yog Shastra of Patanjali says:

Simran leads to manifestation of the deity.

Vyas Rishi states:

Gods, sages and seers pay homage to a person who repeats the Holy Names.

Such statements as these show that all that Simran promises is realizable.

In the early stages considerable effort has to be made to carry out Simran, but as practice is gained Simran goes on automatically. The varied phenomena of the spiritual planes come into view, and also the radiant form of the Master and the rulers of the inner realms. Even God’s presence is felt to be very close. Yogis and Sufis have all crossed the lower centres by means of Simran. This practice is both natural and easy.

Tulsi Das mentions the potency of Simran in his Ramchritar:

The Mantra or Repetition appears to be insignificant; but Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Sustainer) and Shiva (Detroyer) are under its control in the same way as the mad elephant is under the control of a small goad held by the driver.

Guru Nanak mentions in Jap Ji:

Ceaseless Simran is the ladder by which to reach the Mansion of the Lord. Were the tongue to multiply into many tongues, and each were to repeat His name, it would still be inadequate.

This is the only method by which the soul meets its Lord and becomes one with Him.

But this state is realized only with the Grace of the Lord. Our own efforts are utterly futile. But by constant Simran one awakens super-consciousness and attains the state of everlasting tranquillity and peace.

Tennyson, the Poet Laureate of England, in his memoirs furnishes some hints about the super-conscious state that results from Simran:

A kind of waking trance I have frequently had, from boyhood onwards, when I have been all alone. This has generally come upon me through repeating my own name two or three times to myself silently till all at once, as it were, out of the intensity of consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being, and this is not a confused state, but the clearest of the clearest, the surest of the surest, the wisest of the wisest, utterly beyond words, where death was a laughable impossibility, the loss of personality (if so it were), seemingly but the only true life. I am ashamed of my feeble description. Have I not said the state is utterly beyond words?

Tennyson would rise to this state of super-consciousness simply by repeating his own name.

Soul is of the essence of the Lord. You acquire the form you think about and have to return to it. As ye think, so ye become. If the essence thinks of its own source, which is all Consciousness, it will merge in the source and attain the eternal and everlasting state.

A Muslim Saint has very aptly described the greatness of Simran:

The soul is the essence and the Lord is the source. When it remembers the Lord one-pointedly, it becomes the Lord.

The bhringhi – a kind of wasp – has the capacity of turning another insect into its own kind by giving it attention.

Kabir says:

You should also carry out God’s Simran in such a way as to merge in Him and to become Him.

One who by merging in the Light of the Lord has become that Light, no longer remains a mere human being. Whomsoever we contemplate, Him we become.

Once Hazrat Bayazeed Bustami became so engrossed in the remembrance of God that he became oblivious to his own separate existence, and when he peered within, he beheld nothing but God. In this state of ecstasy he started saying that he was God. His disciples, who were greatly surprised, asked him later, when they got an opportunity of talking to him:

Oh Master, according to you, God never takes the form of a man, and yet a short while ago you said you were God. Are you not a body?

Hazrat Bustami denied having said so and told them that someone else might have done so.

He further said:

If you hear me say such a thing again, punish me according to Muslim law.

After a few days, the Master again was seized in the same way and began repeating that he was God. The disciples sprang up, drew their swords, and tried to kill him.]

It is noted in Maulana Rumi´s Masnavi, that whoever directed his sword at the Master’s head had his own head cut off; whoever tried to cut his hands, has his own hands severed. Whatever part of the Master’s body they tried to cut, they lost the corresponding part of their own body.

Meanwhile, the Master continued exclaiming that he was God. When Hazrat Bustami was asked to explain the reason for this, he smilingly said:

One who remembers the Lord becomes Him. He is beyond the reach of a sword or of swordsmen.

When Tulsi Sahib came to Hathras, he said:

I live without a body, although I am seen in it.

The people tried to catch hold of him but they could not do so.

The remembrance of God is so amazingly intoxicating that those who attain it do not wish to be separated from the Lord even for a moment, like the swan who cannot do without a pool of water.

Kabir says:

Remember the name of the Lord with the same intensity of love as the fish has for water. It does not stand separation from water, and dies.

If we were to be divested of His Name, our life would not be worth living. If a person were to remember God constantly, he would awaken into super-consciousness. But this is a state which can be achieved only with the Grace and blessing of the Lord.

One who gains this state even for a moment, gets life everlasting.

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