God’s Arena

by Betty Shifflett

The Great Master Kirpal Singh has described Satsangs as arenas where Spiritual Stalwarts are built. Let us examine why this is so?

Our Satsangs are for the purpose of imbibing the spirit of the purely Spiritual Discourses of our Master and the past Saints. These are conducted by devoted initiates walking the Holy Path along with those who attend as audience. Here is a stage set for playing out the great drama of karmas, past and present, by the children of Light with the wondrous Master-Power overhead knowing what each one of us needs to bring him or her closer to our True Home in Sach Khand – the Highest Spiritual Plane. If we are to be successful in God’s arena, our basic desire must be for the Master, and for the Love of God and nothing else.

Our Satsangs are not for entertainment of mind or for intellectual stimulation but to help us to retreat unto the Holy Mount, the mount of transfiguration that rises behind the Third Eye, where our Beloved is waiting. He will accept us completely into His Court when we prove our worth, Love, toleration and mutual trust through His Grace.

We know from history that many of the followers of the Lord in the early days of Christendom were actually thrown into a physical arena to fight for their faith in the Lord by fighting hungry lions and tigers specially kept for the purpose. Our gracious Master has placed us mercifully in the arena of the jackals, the wickedness of our mind, and has armed us with the sword of Holy Naam – Word – to vanquish the illusory foes. He is watching and waiting to see how we measure up our strength to this challenge.

Sant Kirpal Singh has written that

mutual trust and toleration amongst the dear ones open up new vistas of right understanding and cement the inviolable ties of fraternity by virtue of the Holy Initiation into the Mysteries of the Beyond.

The Master in His beautiful Christmas and New Year’s messages has stressed that a New Year should mean a new life, full of new visions and aspirations. Let us be new, forgetting the past.

How can we faithfully discharge this trust? It is simple enough – through trusting Him Who took His seat at the eye focus of each one of us at the time of Holy Initiation. Trust begets trust. He trusted us with the Highest Gift that could be given. Can’t we in return give Him just an experimental faith, and trust Him in each of our dealings in Satsangs. We are one Holy Congregation. The Master has tied us together with the golden thread of Love, Love for the Holy Naam – Holy Ghost –, the Living Water of Life. These ties are unshakeable and cannot be broken.

Let us attend Satsangs with Holy Awe of and Reverence for the Master and show mutual respect for one another, knowing, as we do, that the Master is in charge of all of us and will never fail us. We must, if we love Him, keep His commandments. We have been sought out by God and linked by the Godman with the Power of God – Naam. Let us leave the sloth of the old and hie on the royal road Godward, for our Lord is waiting for us.

The clarion call of the Master is:

He who sent thee here is calling thee back. Return unto Him and be united in Him. This is how we, in the arena of God, can battle with death, the last enemy of man, and like St Paul swallow death in victory.