Questions answered

The Master receives from devotees queries on various aspects of Spirituality. These may be personal or academic, but the Master’s answers have universal appeal for Spiritual Aspirants. We reproduce here some of the questions and answers from the Master’s book, ‘Spiritual Elixir,’ for the benefit of our readers.

Question: What is God? Can You give a simple answer that we can understand?

Answer: God is Absolute. Nobody can ever know Him. God when comes into action, creates all beings, sentient or insentient, and controls them. Our physical bodies work so long we are in the body, but we cannot run away out of it through the open eyes, ears, nose and mouth etc. That God-in-action-Power is called Word or Naam or Kalma etc. It controls our souls in the body. When that Power is drawn, our soul leaves the body. Breathing goes out of the body but cannot remain outside. Some Power pushes it back into the body. That God-in-action-Power controls the whole of the creation. That is called God. God is the Supreme Law working in all creation seen or unseen. He cannot be seen or heard in His Absolute Form, but when He came into expression He manifested in the form of Naam – the Divine Light and Holy Sound Principle. The lowest links of this Divine Principle are available in the human body which can be experienced by rising above body consciousness with the help of the Living Master.

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Question: Is initiation conveyed through an authorised representative of the Master valid for all purposes?

Answer: Yes, the instructions of initiation imparted through a duly authorised representative of the Master are valid for all purposes. The testing criterion is to have a first-hand Inner Experience of the Divine Light of God and the audible Life-Stream at the time of initiation. These are the two astral forms of the Master-Power and if one gets to Them by personal experience of rising above body consciousness, there can be no doubt about its validity and efficacy.

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Question: The Bible says: ‘The first shall come last and the last shall come first.’ What does this mean?

Answer: These words are from St Matthew 19:30 and also appear in Chapter 20:16 (Ibid) and again in St Mark 10:31 and in St Luke 13:30. They connote that the Grace of the Godman like so many gifts of God: air, light and water, flows freely and fully to all and sundry, no matter whether one comes to His vine-yard early or late. Living in the timeless, the divisions of time as made by us are of no consequence to him and each one receives whatsoever is right no matter when he comes, early in the morning, or at the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour ar the eleventh hour, but all get alike beginning from the last to the first, as it has been so beautifully described by means of a parable of the Kingdom of God, in Chapter 20 of the Gospel of St Matthew for He is the best Judge to dole out His Spiritual Riches in the manner He thinks right.

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Question: Kindly define mind.

Answer: Mind-stuff is made of a highly rarefied matter or Satva substance in the elements. Gossamer-like it spreads in the body with its tentacles deeply rooted in the senses, working through sense-organs. Its base also goes far above, rooted as it is in the universal or cosmic mind chid-akash. It serves as a link between the material body and the conscious spirit or soul in the body which is enlivening both the mind and the body. Like fire, it is a good servant but a bad master.

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Question: Where is the seat of the mind?

Answer: The seat of mind in body is in the eye-focus as that of the soul, but slightly towards the right corner of the left eye while that of the soul is slightly towards left corner of the right eye.

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Question: Please tell us something of the help which marriage partners might give one another when both are initiates in the matter of helping balance and harmonise the physical, mental and emotional fields of energy of individuals so as to increase their receptivity towards Shabd. This could be very inspiring for students yet to come as well as for those already begun.

Answer: Marriage is a sacrament and a companion for life in weal or woe, during this earthly sojourn. It is a rare boon of the Master when both the partners in life happen to be initiates. Both of them should exhibit and inculcate a deep sense of loving cooperation and tolerance for the rights of each other. The physical, mental and emotional fields of activity should be kept under check and control lest these degrade the soul in pursuit of carnal satisfaction. To fall in sin is manly but to remain therein is devilish. The vital sex energy should be rationally transmuted and sublimated by exercising self-restraint and chastity. The procreation of children is one of the legitimate functions of married life. The scriptures prescribe this sacred purpose as and when such a necessity arises. The couple having such disciplined lives will be an asset for Spiritual Progress.

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Question: Does intellect play any part in self and God-Realisation?

Answer: Yes, intellect plays an important part in understanding the theory of the problem of self-realisation. Once the theory is grasped, there is not much left for the intellect to do. Thereafter remains the practice, with heart and soul, to achieve the goal by a process of self-analysis for the science of the self is essentially practical.

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Question: Kindly define Nirvana relative to Buddha’s teachings.

Answer: Nirvana is not nihilism as is commonly believed. It is a state of being much superior to that of physical existence. It is exactly opposite to what we know of the physical life, which Buddha, the Enlightened One characterised as life of sorrow and misery – the first of the four noble truths that dawned on Him, and He according to His Lights found in eight-fold path of righteousness, to transform the course of life into a totally different pattern. One can well recognise what it could be? – not a state of nothingness, but one of efflorescence into Light.