Sant Kirpal Singh

by Bhadra Sena 

Kirpal – the Gracious One – proved a prophetic name for One Who was destined to become a Perfect Master to manifest the Divine Will and to bestow the supreme gift of Naam, the Word, on thousands of jivas in the East and in the West.

Kirpal was a precocious child and He showed signs of Spiritual Awareness at quite an early age. As a child of four He evolved a technique of meditation, all His own, and developed transvision and clairvoyance. He was, however, unhappy at this development and prayed to God to make Him work as a normal man.

At school, a visiting bishop was amazed at Kirpal’s keen desire for God-Knowledge and prophesied a remarkable future for the boy Who was to bring the inner essence of the Gospel of Christ to many clerics, priests, ministers and high dignitaries of numerous Christian denominations.

From an early age He used to pray to God to lead Him to the feet of His Satguru. In 1917, seven years before His physical meeting, Kirpal Singh began to see the Radiant Form of His Master, Hazur Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj, in His meditations. At first Kirpal Singh was under the impression that the Radiant Being was Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh Religion. It was in 1924 that Kirpal Singh happened to meet His Master at Beas, Punjab. To his amazement Kirpal Singh beheld the same exalted Personage Whom He was accustomed to meet on the Inner Planes. Kirpal Singh had found His Living Master.

Kirpal Singh devoted Himself wholeheartedly to the task of perfecting Himself and worked incessantly and indefatigably for 24 long years under the guidance of His Master, Who was constantly preparing Him as His True Successor. As early as in 1927, the Master authorised Kirpal Singh to conduct Satsangs at Lahore, Rawalpindi and various places in the country.

Hazur used to declare in Satsangs:

Go to Kirpal Singh for Spiritual Guidance.

This is patently indicative of True Sonship to His Master. In 1939, the Great Master made Kirpal Singh initiate over 200 persons in His own presence at Beas. Many of those initiates are still alive.

Kirpal Singh wrote two volumes, each of about 1000 pages, entitled ‘Gurumat Sidhant,’ every word of which was approved by Hazur, who described ‘Gurumat Sidhant,’ as a Treasure of Divinity. Kirpal Singh humbly requested the Master to issue these volumes under His (Hazur’s) own name as it was written under His impulse. The Master graciously granted the request.

On 12^th October 1947, Hazur called Kirpal Singh and said:

Kirpal Singh, I have allotted all my work except the Spiritual Task of Naam-initiation. That I entrust to you today so that this Holy and Sacred Science may flourish.

One evening in February 1948, Hazur said:

Kirpal Singh, I have done half your work and have given Naam to over 150,000 persons and the rest you have to accomplish.

On the morning of 2^nd April 1948, the day the Great Master, Hazur Sawan Singh Ji, left the physical world, standing by the bed-side of his ailing Master, Kirpal Singh prayed:

Master, You are above bodily comforts and discomforts, but we helpless beings cannot endure the sight of Hazur’s sufferings. You are all powerful. We shall be grateful if Hazur graciously removes this indication of disease and suffering.

Prayer succeeds where all human efforts fail. When Kirpal Singh opened His eyes after the prayer, Hazur’s body was in a state of perfect repose. Hazur opened His radiant, mercy-showering eyes, filled with Divine Love, and glanced at Kirpal Singh, Who bowed His head in solemn adoration and said:

It is all Hazur’s own benignity.

The Master kept gazing into the disciple’s eyes for three or four minutes. Kirpal Singh was thrilled and experienced an indescribable bliss never known before. Thus the Spiritual Power passed from eyes to eyes in accordance with the age-old tradition. Thereafter the ever-shining eyes of Hazur closed, never to open again.

The physical separation from the Master is too much for a Gurumukh disciple. It was more so for Sant Kirpal Singh Who was reared and brought up for the purpose of regenerating mankind. The passing away of Hazur Sawan Singh Ji had created a deep void in His life. The world had all of a sudden turned gloomy and desolate. There was nothing left in it to hold him on to it. He retired to the far off sylvan retreats of the Himalayas, the perennial abode of the Rishis from time immemorial, to spend the rest of His days in solitary seclusion.

But no one is his own. There is a Great Power working in the affairs of men – men of destiny in particular. How long could he remain apathetic to the sore needs of His Gurubhais – brethren-in-faith – now left orphaned and woebegone. There was no one to whom they could look for comfort and seek guidance, particularly when most of us, basking in the benevolent sunshine of the Great Master, never for a moment turned inwards and revealed His Divine Presence within.

This state of sheer despondency and utter desolation had had its effect. The sea of Divine Compassion heaved up in commotion. Then came to Him a call from within – a clarion call from the Great Master to go back into the field of activity to attend the dire needs of His disciples in distress, to further the cause that was His and for which the Great Master had trained Him for well nigh a quarter of a century and, last, but not the least, to build a common forum where heads of all religions could meet in loving fellowship as children of One God.

A loving disciple has no choice of his own. He has to work within the framework of Divine Plan as a Conscious Co-Worker with the All-pervading Power. This led to the founding in 1948 of Ruhani Satsang – a field for the efflorescence of Spirituality, pure and simple with no fixations as are commonly found in religions originally revealed but subsequently sealed in the Spiritual Texts. It was followed in 1951 in the establishment of Sawan Ashram, after the name of his Spiritual Mentor, to serve as a common meeting ground for all interested in partaking the quintessence of different religions.

The Ruhani Satsang has centres spread all over the country and abroad at various places on the continent of Europe from Hellas to England, and in America across the Atlantic from Canada to Mexico and South America, where people are getting Spiritual Benefit through the Grace of the Master. All this vast network of friendliness and goodwill leading to reintegration of mankind was brought about by two world tours undertaken by the Master: one in 1955 and the other in 1963–64.

In 1957, as a result of the deliberations by the heads of different religions of the world, gathered in the Conference of the World Religions, the Master was unanimously elected President of the World Fellowship of Religions. Since then He is successfully piloting the gigantic task of unifying the apparently divergent religions all the world over by presenting in a scientific way the essential unities on the level of man, spirit and God. Based, as these are, on the ethical and moral code of conduct which, more or less, is the same and prepare man for the ultimate task of Spiritual Rehabilitation, leading to self-knowledge, God-Knowledge and practical experience, direct and immediate, of the spirit within, as a separate entity from the clayey mould without, and then rediscovering the strands of life, the primal manifestations of Godhood, adroitly holding together the too entirely disparate entities – the material body and the living spirit – in a musical unison. This unique message the Master has carried to the people of all ranks, from the humblest to the highest, to the Heads of States, statesmen and administrators, pontifices and prelates, the leaders of political and religious thoughts and beliefs so that they may lead the people aright in the path of righteousness and become useful members of the body politic with a thorough grounding in God and in God’s ways.

The Master is a prolific writer, gifted with a facile pen wherewith He deals with the abstract and abstruse science of the soul and esoteric problems which ordinarily defy human understanding. One who has seen the Reality directly can with authority expound the otherwise inexplicable problems and reconcile the apparently irreconcilable doctrines and dogmas with a lucidity that is all his own. Most of the works of the Master have been translated into many languages, particularly Greek, German, French, Spanish and English. ‘Gurumat Sidhant’ is His monumental work running into thousands of pages.

The wind bloweth where it listeth but no one can tell whence it commeth and where it goeth: so it is with one born of the spirit.

The tidal wave of the spirit as it sweeps and surges knows no limit and proceeds on and on without any let and hindrance. The impact of the spirit force on the peoples of the world is so great that they, transcending all barriers racial and religious, territorial and linguistic – spontaneously come forward to glorify the Power of God as manifested in flesh. Do we not see the tremendous change in heart wrought by the Spiritual Awakening, washing down age-old orthodoxies and all sorts of prides and prejudices born of colour and races superiority! It is a healthy sign to see the people of one faith honouring one of another, born in traditions entirely different from their own, simply because of His service to the cause of Spirituality. It marks the turning point in Spiritual History that augurs well for a new and catholic approach to religions and their problems which once separated man from man. It is an honour indeed to the country where such savants arise as gain a world recognition and are acclaimed on all hands as their very own. All this miraculous change of heart has revolutionised human thinking and understanding so as to embrace the various nations of the world and credit for this goes to the Great Master, Hazur Sawan Singh Ji, at Whose feet the Master learnt the Science of Spirituality and practised the art of living a True Life of the spirit, the very soul and substance of all religions.