Kirpal Singh

Right Understanding

India is preparing to celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s birth centenary on 2^nd October, 1969. Eminent Gandhians, intellectuals and spiritual leaders assembled early in October this year at Acharya Vinoba Bhave’s Ashram at Bodh Gaya – a place where Buddha attained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago – to discuss and find ways of creating a climate of peace and understanding in the world.

The Master, Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj, and a few other spiritual leaders like Swami Sardanand and Shri Ravi Shankar Maharaj were among those invited to attend the deliberations. Besides Acharya Vinoba Bhave, the distinguished Gandhians included Kaka Kalelkar, Mr Jayaprakash Narayan, Mr R.R. Diwaker, Chairman, Gandhi Smarak Nidhi (Gandhi Memorial Foundation), and some of Gandhi Ji’s close associates like Dr Sushila Nayar and Mr Shriman Narain, Governor of Gujarat.

We publish below a summary of the Master’s lucid and enlightening talk delivered at the conference.

Kaka Kalelkar has spoken beautifully on four points – Spirituality, science, technology and orthodoxy. What is Spirituality? It is no spiritism, no spiritualism, no hypnotism and no mesmerism. It is a subject of self-analysis – to know one’s Self and Overself. All the world’s scriptures enjoin to know Self. These scriptures are fine records of the valuable experiences the sages and seers had with themselves and with the Truth – God. Past Masters speak through these Holy Books, the right interpretation of which can be given only by those who have had the same experience. Generally, people draw inferences and give out what they feel. So when we will know our Self, we realise that we are all of the same essence as that of God. Those who had met the past Masters in their lives were able to have some experience, but when they left us, various schools of thought called social religions were established to keep their teachings alive. We are human-beings first and bear labels to show as to which particular school we belong to in order to know Self and God.

Spirituality is different from the outward religious observances. So long as the practical Masters were present, everything went on all right. Later, for want of Masters with practical experience, the same good old custom corrupted itself. Formations resulted in stagnation and stagnation in deterioration. Again when Masters came on the scene, they gave us the right import.

Scientists are doing research in all spheres of life and they have found out some gleanings of the Truth. Some scientists met me in the USA. I told them that they had made wonderful research in the realm of energy and asked them whether they were able to create an ounce of consciousness. They replied in the negative. They said that analysing the atom, they had found that there was a rhythmic and controlled movement in them. What is that Power which keeps the minutest atoms under control? Now science has discovered a Sound Principle and flickering of Light in the atoms. We respect science. It is finding out something in the laws of nature. We should develop physically, intellectually as well as spiritually.

There are to aspects of religion. One is called Apara Vidya and the other Para Vidya. Apara Vidya consists of forms, rituals and other performances related to mind and outgoing faculties, which are meant for the preparation of the ground. These are good actions and will result in good reactions, but we cannot escape the cycle of births and deaths. Unless one becomes the Conscious Co-Worker of the Divine Plan by rising above body consciousness, one cannot shed one’s ego. While worshipping we generally light a candle and ring a bell which is a symbol of Light of God effulgent in the body. Hindu temples are mostly dome-shaped. Christian churches are nose-shaped which are made after the model of a human body. We attach too much importance to our bodies and stick to the outer symbols, forgetting the True Light of God and Music of the Spheres reverberating in us and in all the creation. Outer forms and rituals have taken the place of the gleanings of Truth within.

Man has three aspects. Besides having body and mind, he is a conscious entity. He has made wonderful progress in the medical sciences for maintenance of the body. Our intellect has invented radio and television. We can see and hear people from hundreds of miles. Efforts are now being made to reach the moon. But with all these scientific advancements we are not happy. The reason is that we know little or practically nothing about our own soul. We seem to know only what we have read in the scriptures. Have we ever studied ourselves? God made man and gave all men equal privileges. Born the same way, all normal human beings have two eyes, two hands, two ears and other outgoing faculties. The inner composition of man is also the same. It has heart, lungs and brain etc. Man’s body is a True Temple in which we as well as our Controlling Power reside.

The Upanishads say:

Who is that Maker Who made this wonderful house of the body in which we live.

It has nine apertures – two eyes, two ears, two nostrills, mouth and two underneath. The one living in the body cannot run away from it. Breathing goes out, it cannot remain outside. Some Power is pushing it back into the body. We have to know that Power which is controlling us in the body and that is called God or Truth. There is no high or low, God has made every one equal. It is we who have made high or low. If we have right understanding that God made man with equal privileges and soul residing therein is of the same essence as of God, it will result in right thoughts, right speech and right actions. We will have respect for all mankind. We are all One as man and as soul. We are conscious entities of the same essence of God.

All the differences can be solved with right understanding. Darkness cannot be removed by fighting but by just having a ray of light of right understanding. We should sit together in the company of the Spiritual People, those who have experience with their Self and the Overself, and have heart to heart talk with them. We then will come nearer Truth. This we can do only on the level of man or on the level of soul. If we will have experience of Truth, we will understand that we are all children of the same Light. We are brothers and sisters in God and children of the same Father.