Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

The Master’s seventy-fifth birthday – 6^th February 1969 – was celebrated in Delhi this year with greater solemnity and enthusiasm. A Citizens Committee under the chairmanship of Delhi’s Mayor, Mr Hansraj Gupta, orgunised an elaborate three-day programme of Diamond Jubilee celebrations, beginning with a congregation at a specially erected Pandal near Sawan Ashram, headquarters of Ruhani Satsang and ending with a unique function on 7^th February at New Delhi’s vast Vigyan Bhavan. The Master was presented an Abhinandan Patra – Welcome Address – by Kaka Sahib Kalelkar, a noted Gandhian philosopher, on behalf of different religions and societies at Vigyan Bhavan. This was a rare sight indeed when the heads or representatives of different religious faiths, two senior Ministers of the Government of India, prominent personalities like Pir Walayat Inayat Khan of the international Sufi movement and Mr Joseph Busby, International President of SUN (Spiritual Unity of Nations) and leading citizens – all collected on a common platform to felicitate and praise the Living Master’s services to the humanity.

On this auspicious occasion, as decided by the Diamond Jubilee Committee, the Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Mr Jaisukhlal Hathi, inaugurated the National Integration Year and paid glowing tributes to the Master, extensively quoting from the latter’s various books. Another Union Minister, Mr Jaganath Rao, congratulated the Committee for declaring 1969 as the National Integration Year and said that Sant Ji had set an example by practising what He preached and inspired thousands all over the world to take to the Path of righteousness and Spirituality.

The Mayor, speaking as Chairman of the Sant Kirpal Singh Diamond Jubilee Celebrations Committee, welcomed the various religious leaders, dignitaries and guests who were present to honour the Living Apostle of Unity, Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj.

Presenting the Abhinandan Patra, Kaka Kalekar said:

We are all gathered here today to perform a very important task, that is, to pay our tribute to a Living Saint for the gift of Light He has given and is giving to the world. As a follower of Gandhi Ji and one who, like him, had equal respect for the teachings of all the great religions, I have been chosen to present the Abhinandan Patra to Sant Ji on behalf of all religions. Sant Kirpal Singh has been doing the great work of bringing followers of different religions together most effectively and with untiring zeal. I pay my tribute to Him on behalf of Gandhi Ji, on behalf of the heart of India and on behalf of all present here and pray for His long life.

Replying to the Welcome Address, the Master said that the Abhinandan Patra was a homage to Truth, which is in all of us. And Truth is One. Saints and Seers Who came from time to time realised that Truth and gave a practical experience of it to those who came to Them. They came in all countries, in all societies and gave out the same Truth in the language and idiom of the countries where they came.

Recounting His own experiences in His long search for Truth, its realisation and presentation, the Master said that He was intrigued by the mystery of life from His childhood.

Let us read the story in the Master’s own words:

From very childhood I was intrigued by the mystery of life. I searched in books and finished three whole libraries one after another. My extensive study led me to believe that there was some Controlling Power behind the entire creation. What that Power was I did not know. Studying in a mission school I often came across the word ‘knowledge’ but had no practical realisation of it. After finishing my studies when I entered life I had to decide what was to be my aim in life. I took eight to ten days carefully deliberating the question from all possible angles and finally decided that my aim in life was God first and world next.’

Immediately afterwards some events proved to be the turning point in my life. A young married woman in my neighbourhood was ill. I went to see her. My Inner Vision was clear and I could foresee things. As I entered her room I saw that she was about to die. And in a few moments she took leave of her husband and relations and said she was going. What was it that said ‘I am going’ and where had it gone? What was it that had left her body but was present in all of us, the indweller of the body which moves it? I pondered over the question but could find no answer. I accompanied the funeral procession to the cremation ground where on a monument I happened to read the telling inscription:

Beware thee that walk with swaggering gait. We too were once like thee enjoying life to the full, but alas! Now lie beneath this stone, a handful of dust.

This set me on my search for Reality with a greater sense of urgency. My whole life became one long search for Truth. I delved deep into books. One by one I read them all, noting at the end ‘no way out.’ According to scriptures, the man of knowledge was one who had seen and practically realised Truth.

To talk of Reality without seeing it was like a blind man groping in darkness. And a practical demonstration of Truth could be had only from one who had realised it. My search for a Competent Guide led me to many Sadhus and Faqirs, some of them having super-natural powers. but none of them could give a practical demonstration of Reality. And then, through Divine Grace I met my Master, Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj, at Beas where I had gone to see the river Beas. I saw in Him the same Personality Who had been appearing to me in His luminous form and guiding me in the higher regions during the past seven years. He gave me a practical demonstration of Reality. In the very first sitting, He brought me above body consciousness and gave me a first-hand experience of Reality. The mystery of life which could not be solved by studying three libraries was solved in a moment.

From Him I got right understanding. And what was that right understanding? First, that all mankind is One. And man is the highest in creation for he is endowed with the sense of discrimination and can discriminate between the real and the unreal which other creatures lacked. Man is the oldest of all religions and philosophies. The highest purpose of man was to realise the self, the indweller of the man-body and to know the Overself which was the basic teaching of all religions.

What was this self-knowledge which was the common ideal of all religions? God cannot be realised by the mind or the Pranas or the senses. Only soul can know God. So self-knowledge, or knowledge of the soul. the indweller of the man-body is a prelude to Knowledge of God. That is why all scriptures have enjoined know thyself. It is a matter of direct first-hand experience of seeing. Feelings, emotions and inferences are all subject to error. Seeing is above all.

Men of God had realised Truth within. Those who came to Them got first-hand experience of Reality. When they left, formations came into being to preserve Their teachings. The purpose is the same, to know oneself, the indweller of the man-body who with all the apertures and outlets in the body cannot escape from it. Some Power was controlling it and binding the soul to the body. That Controlling Power is God – the Power that holds, sustains and controls billions of planets, stars and constellations. When that Power withdraws from the body it crumbles to dust, and when it withdraws from the planets, stars and constellations the entire creation disintegrates. We have to rise above body consciousness to get first-hand experience of that Power. It is a practical science which can be learnt at the feet of a Competent Master.

So the first thing that I learnt at the feet of my Master was that all mankind celebrations is one. The various religious formations were like different schooIs with their distinctive badges and labels. So long as there were men of realisation in these formations they functioned smoothly fulfilling the noble purpose for which they were formed. The dearth of Competent Masters led to stagnation and stagnation resulted in deterioration which we witness today […]

As He dwelt on the esoteric aspect of religion, shorn of dogma and ritual, His simple, soft-spoken but charged words seemed to sweep through the barriers of preconceived notions, heresay beliefs and conditioned reflexes, reaching the innermost recesses of the heart. Layers of delusion appeared to have been lifted by some invisible force and the Inner Being of each one in the audience felt the impact of the simple of words of wisdom bearing the imprint of realisation. The talk was listened to with rapt attention in pin-drop silence which was broken by prolonged applause when the talk concluded.