Impact of True Master

by Annemarie Ruthenberg

It seems impossible to enumerate the unending blessings and benefits we may derive from our beloved Master; as these are countless, limitless, continuous and so full of His Love and Grace of His help and compassion, one hardly finds words to describe them. One can only try to mention the main points and each of His disciples may add his/her own inner and outer experiences he/she has made of the Master’s boons.

What I want to express in this article will often be in the Master’s own words without mentioning it as he has explained all the themes so beautifully that I do not know how to say it better.

When an earnest Seeker after Truth has got the Inner Impact of a True Master-Soul to search for the direct Path to God and when he strives for this Holy Goal with all his heart and soul, then God brings about the outer meeting between the aspirant and the Master of Truth, the Sant Satguru, Who prepares and accepts the aspirant for the Holy Initiation and establishes within him the contact with the Holy Naam or Shabd. At initiation, he opens the aspirant’s Inner Eye and gives a first-hand experience of Light and opens his Inner Ears so that the disciple may be able to hear the Holy Music or the Sound Current, may be on the lowest level.

Besides this, the Master’s impact does not last only for a short moment. The Master guides us again and again during our life-time as often as necessary. Only we are not conscious of His permanent help and guidance which are already working long before the Holy Moment of initiation – and henceforth until our earthly death and eternally beyond it. Without the Master’s help and Grace we were not able at all to think of Him or of God. He alone draws our thoughts Godwards with all his Godly Patience. He enables us to clean our thoughts and actions from all impurities. He encourages us in every respect until the day comes at which he can put us on the Path of Spirituality by initiating us into the teachings of the soul. Gradually we become conscious of Him and His Godly Help.

By initiation, the aspirant comes into the Master’s fold. At that time, he is still full of worldly attachments and is identified with his body, worldly relations, riches and with worldly wisdom. The Master gradually weans the disciple from his sensory pleasures by telling him that he is something more than body, mind or intellect, and that he has been blessed with this life for a higher purpose. By Spiritual Disciplines the Master enables the disciple to free his mind from mental oscillations, so that, in due course of time he can develop more equipoise and can change his entire outlook. He washes the disciple clean from worldly impurities and from his sins and gives him the Holy Naam, the panacea for all ills, weaknesses and griefs.

When he wishes to progress on the Spiritual Path, an aspirant has to submit himself wholly and solely to his Master’s authority and directions without any mental reservations whatever, for he alone knows the turns and twists of the Spiritual Path and is in a position to act as an unerring guide. A disciple should have full confidence in the skill and competence of the Master and scrupulously follow and act on His instructions.

The purpose of all Spiritual Discipline is to regain the lost vision of our Inner Eye so that we may be able to see the Master in His Radiant Form. This revelation is a pure gift from Him.

After he has explained to the aspirant the goal to be attained, the Master puts the disciple into touch with the Divine Stream and instructs him in the sadhans – practices – to be followed for consolidating and developing the Inner Experience to its fullness. It is not quite easy to understand fully the teachings of the Masters and to follow them day by day. But the Master comes and helps the disciple so that he may escape from all bondage and hindrances in course of time.

As a True Friend, the Master does not give only theoretical lessons as to how best one may escape from the wiles of mind and matter, but He actually helps in effecting the escape itself. He shows us how to withdraw the sensory currents from the body and to gather all our attention at the still-point between and behind the two eyebrows, the Third Eye. He explains to us the entire process of Simran, Dhyan and Bhajan being nurtured by Sat Naam, Satguru and inner and outer Satsangs, which in fact are synonymous for the Master-Power at work. From the Third Eye the Spiritual Current spreads itself into the body. All that is needed is to check its downward flow at this point behind the eyebrows by controlling our senses, and it would of its own accord collect itself and flow backwards toward its source. The seeker has only to turn the direction of the Spiritual Stream, and the rest would follow.

The basic stress of the enlightened teacher is laid always upon the transcendental goal. He teaches that the pranic and vigyanic energies are not of the essence of Atman as they take their birth in planes lower than those of pure spirit.

The process of withdrawal that begins with Simran is stimulated by Bhajan. The Spiritual Currents, already slowly moving, are carried upwards, collecting finally at the Third Eye, the seat of the soul. When the disciple succeeds in rising above physical consciousness with the help of the Master, he finds the Radiant Form of his Master waiting unsought to receive him. At this point, the real relationship between the disciple and his Guru is established. Until this state, the Guru had been a human teacher but now He is seen as the Divine Guide Who shows the Inner Way.

The Guru explains to us not only the real nature of existence, instructs us in the true values of life and tells us of the sadhans to be practised for Inner Attainment. He is the Inner Guide to lead the soul from plane to plane to its ultimate destination – a Guide without whose aid it would mistake the intermediate stages for the final goal. Without the active help and guidance of the Master this Spiritual Journey is beset with dangers, perils and fears.

The Master is indeed the mediator and intercessor between God and us, linking us to the Holy Naam, the Word, and without him there could be little hope of salvation. No friendship could be greater than His friendship, no Love truer than His Love, no gift greater than His Grace. He alone is unfailing in life as well as in death. Other gifts may decay and perish, but His gift, the Holy Naam, is imperishable, indestructible, a boon in life, a greater boon in death. With the Guru by his side, one may successfully defy millions of enemies. In all the wide world the touch of the Master’s hand helps the disciple in his trials and tribulations, and he is carefree.

The Master comes to stir up the soul from its slumber. He is like a lighted candle that lights the unlit fellows. And he is the seat of the unindividual flame and the very essence of all fire He turns darkness into Light, for He alone is able to give the disciple a definite experience of the Light and Sound within. The Greatest Gift of the Master is Naam. He bestows It upon His devotees and thus brings about their salvation.

The blessings of the Master are limitless, but one partakes of them only by complete devotion to His will and commandments. The panacea for all ills and the only way to win God’s grace is complete surrender with all humility at the feet of the Master-Soul. His Grace descends by acceptance of His will and recognition of His commandments.

The disciple must learn to submit his will entirely to the Master’s will. By freeing himself from the demon of desire, the disciple will gradually be freed from his ego the demon of wrath which follows upon frustration of desire. Liberated from these, he would be freed also from greed, attachment and pride, which are but the extensions of desire, and would more learn to surrender his will to the will of his Master. Gradually, he learns to know himself and to detach from worldly matters. But his detachment must be an inner one, and who does not learn this at home, will also not learn it in the forests. Only the knowledge of our faults can make us weed them out and strive in the right direction.

The Grace of the Master is as limitless as his greatness. He forgives even those who talk ill of Him and accepts them as His very own. He also never sets up any contradictions in our minds, for the one theme teached by Him is, that the Inner Spiritual Essence of all religious teachings is one and the same.

Kabir says that when the Surat and the Shabd meet, they get united eternally. As the Master is Naam or Shabd Personified and manifests His own Life-Impulse with Naam or Shabd within the soul of the disciple, He establishes the Eternal Contact and relation between Him and His disciple. Therefore, the seed of Naam, once sown by the Master, cannot but fructify; no power can stop it, and the disciple must sooner or later reach the goal, viz., self-realisation and God-Realisation. Even Kal – Negative Power – can have no effect on the seed of Naam for it is sown in a region much higher than where Kal reigns. Sat Naam is the Power of the Absolute stirred into compassion, and when it puts on the flesh, assumes the form of the Guru and works through Him by means of outer and Inner Satsang. This helps the disciple ripe for regeneration. This Power works at once on all the planes simultaneously according to the needs of each individual: by word of mouth as a Guru in human form sharing in all joys and sorrows of the human beings; by Inner Guidance as Guru Dev in His astral luminous or radiant form, and finally as Satguru, the veritable Master of Truth.

With His own Life-Impulse, the Master takes care of His disciples and saves and protects them from all evil. He takes upon Himself the burden of their sins and settles for them the entire process of their karmas. He ever keeps His loving eyes on His disciples and guards them from all that is harmful, for His Love knows no bounds. The relation between the Master and His disciple is one of purely selfless Love, and there is no parallel of it on earth. The bonds of Love between the Guru and His disciple with its modulations and development becomes the mirror of the disciple’s inward progress as he moves from the finite to the infinite.

Some persons believe that the Master cannot help them or cannot judge their actions as He is so far away. They may know that outer distance is of no consequence for the Master’s strong and long arm can reach everywhere and His penetrating gaze can pierce through all space. Wherever a disciple may be, the Master ever remains with him to guide him at every step, to help him, for that is His Eternal Promise. The Master always keeps His disciple within His gaze and nurtures him with the Water and Bread of Life, the Holy Naam and Shabd. And those who are ever engaged in the practice of Naam and Shabd, not only save themselves but the Master saves many others with them and protects and helps their relations and friends too.

Love is the cementing force that binds the Master and the disciple. The Satguru is the real friend of the disciple. He saves him from tense and hopeless situations. He comes to his aid, when the disciple has despaired of all hope and relief and is surrounded by seemingly powerful forces arrayed against him.

The Master’s Love and care for His children is so overwhelming, that He takes upon His shoulders the big burden of the immense correspondence with His devotees who are allowed to write to Him every three months, and that, disregarding all strains, inconveniences and troubles for Himself, He makes from time to time His great journeys round the world to meet and to see His disciples wherever they may be, to give them His darshan and to help them by His personal presence.

From time to time the disciple feels the overpowering influence of the Master working over his head. The loving care of the Master becomes still more manifest at the time of the disciple’s departure from this world. When all relations and friends helplessly await beside the sick bed and the physicians and surgeons declare the case hopeless, the luminous form of the Master appears to take charge of the departing spirit and to guide it to the new world, to the Judgement Seat of God. After that, He takes it along to such a region as He thinks best for further discipline and advancement on the Path.

The Satguru is the Real Friend Who always overshadows the disciple and keeps His protecting arms around him wherever he may be. A soul awakened to reality by a Satguru cannot become a prey to the messengers of death but must go with the lustrous from of the Master that comes to receive it at the final change when it casts off the physical raiment. And should the soul confront any obstacles on its homeward flight, its radiant friend is always beside it to lead it out and to protect it from all pitfalls. The road through the higher planes lies charted before it and with such power to bear it, and such a friend to guide, nothing can deter or entrap, nothing can disturb the steadiness of its course.

One could mention still many, many more benefits derived from an association with the True Master-Soul, but His greatest gift is and remains the Holy Naam or Shabd, and all other benefits depend on our regular meditations and on His Divine Grace for which we have to love and to thank Him at every moment throughout our life until our end.