14 February 1898

Lots of Love and Sri Wahiguru Ji ki Fateh from Jaimal Singh to my obedient son, Babu Sawan Singh. 

May the Grace and Mercy of the compassionate Lord be upon you all the time. 

Your letter has been received and I am glad to know that you are well and happy. You should write about your leg and your health more frequently. As long as the leg is weak, use the support of a crutch to walk around. This will help it to become normal as before – do not feel any apprehension. 

You write that someone is about to come on a promotion to replace you. It does not matter. No one can take away what is in your destiny. The Lord will give you everything. Do remember to eat the pipal tree gum again for seven days.

Regarding the durbar hall: the building has been constructed to a height of eight feet, and today the framing of the doors has also been started. We have engaged four masons and four carpenters for the job: two of them receive 7 annas a day each, while the other six are paid 6 annas each per day – all of them receive their meals also from us. One deodar log has arrived and now sawing has started. I intend going out today to buy a second 18-foot log. A 112-foot log to provide five beams was also selected for a price of 130 rupees. If more wood is needed, I will buy it after these two pieces have been sawed. I will then write to you about how things are here. We are also employing three labourers at 3 annas each per day.

Your money order of 100 rupees was received today, 14 February. Some of this money has been used to pay for the wood, the remainder is still with me. I have also borrowed another 100 rupees from someone else. The remainder of the 100 rupees from your salary will be spent as you wish. I would like to see the hall completed by Baisakhi¹, as it starts to get hot after that time. For the rest, whatever is the will of Hazur will happen.

Listen to the Shabd Dhun every day. I want you to regain normal health within this year. Illness in your household was destined to last for two years; Hazur has reduced it at my supplication. Please do not worry about anything – all will be well with Hazur’s Grace.

May His Grace and Mercy be upon Chanan Singh and Basant Singh. They should do their meditation. When you write to Basant Singh at Rawalpindi, give him my Love and best wishes and tell him to study with his whole heart. Warm regards from Bibi to you, her dear brother; also Bibi’s warm regards to Chanan Singh and Basant Singh. 

Please convey my Love also to Babu Mohan Singh and tell him to listen to the Shabd Dhun every day. Listening to It repeatedly will purify him. Bibi’s best wishes to Babu Mohan Singh.

My son, you should write your letters or postcards more frequently. Also please send the money about which I wrote. If it is available send it immediately, or drop me a line if there is some delay. I also have a lot to do and so have not been able to write this letter properly. Just understand it this way: more precious to me are you, my son, than even the breath of my very own body. 

Never again will you have to take a birth. Wherever I am, there you also shall reside with me. I am very pleased with you indeed.

Best wishes from all the Satsangis here to you, Babu Ji. 

14 February 1898

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Explanation: 1) A harvest festival celebrated on 13 or 14 April in the North of India. Kirpal Singh explains the historical significance of this festival as follows:

Today is the festival of Basakhi which is celebrated in different ways according to the various religious customs. Nature itself celebrates by sprouting of new buds and leaves, and the new life begins from this season. We should take a lesson from nature and sprout forth with a new life. In the Hindu religion there are ten avatars, and certain Hindus celebrate this day as a double event: the birth of Parshuram, and the overcoming of evil by Narsing Avatar. […]

I congratulate the Buddhists on this day, for the Lord Buddha was born on Basakhi; on Basakhi he received enlightenment and on Basakhi he left his body finally – Nirvana. So both religions have good reason for celebration. For us also it can be a great day, for we are constantly lamenting that we should start life anew; so we should start this new day as the beginning of a new life in which the flowers should blossom and the fruit should come forth. There should be so much fruit on each branch that the weight may bow the fruit to the earth.

This is a great day for Sikhs also. In truth, Sikhism is not a cult; this is what I feel. One poet says that the world changes, and a True Man is he who changes the world. On this day, some three centuries ago, Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, started the Khalsa. In those days the people were killing each other in the name of religion, and He started to erase the controversy by forming the Khalsa. A Khalsa is a True Disciple, and on this day the Guru found five True Disciples among His followers and made them leaders of the people.

Satsang –
The Night is a Jungle,
by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974