God, Godway and Godman

by Bhadra Sena

Man has, ever through the ages, been the teacher of man, in all spheres of life. Homogeneity is the law of nature. Like attracts like. And it is more so in Matters Spiritual than in anything else. In this respect even the angels cannot be of any avail since man is better placed than angels themselves.

Men of God have appeared in all times and in all places. They talk of God. They demonstrate God, in life and in spirit. God-filled in Themselves, They come to reveal God to those who hunger and thirst for God. Theirs is the Path of God and of nothing else.

The Path Godward is God-made. It is eternally the same, from the beginning of time. It knows no variableness. It is God Himself Who comes in the garb of man to reveal His Path to the aspiring souls; no matter to what region they belong and to what church they owe their affiliation. The East and West make no difference to them, nor castes and creeds, nor faiths and beliefs. The Path of the Masters has been, is still, and shall ever be the same for all who wish to tread it.

God made man in His own image and His life-breath is surging through and through the very fibres of the tabernacle of the flesh in which he dwells. By the law of similarity, man unwittingly lives, moves and has his very being in Him. He is above, so below. A part cannot by its very nature be different from the whole, the parent-stock, no matter how different it may seem.

God-in-Abstract is a mere abstraction. Nobody has ever seen God-in-Absolute nor can anybody see Him as such. He is unique in Himself, Imageless and hence Nameless. How can the lesser the greater comprehend, when He is attributeless, indefinable and ineffable?

But being and becoming are two phases of the God-Power. As pure existence, consciousness and bliss – Sat, Chit, Anand –, this power cannot be conceived of, much less comprehended, on the human level. But the God-into-Expression-Power of the Godhead, the cosmic soul of the universe, can be realised by the spirit of God in man – the atman, or the human soul – because they are of the same essence.

In spite of the variety in nomenclature due to linguistic differences, all are at one, so far as the essence or essential nature of the life-giving, life-sustaining and life-saving Grace of God is concerned. All the religions agree that this Divine Grace is characterised by Light and Sound. The entire manifestation of the Unmanifest is the result of the interplay of this primordial twin-principle of sounding flame or flaming sound, which is one and the same thing.

As we come from God, we can go back to Him the same Way. The God-Way is an Inner Path. It can be traversed by the spirit alone when freed from all limiting adjuncts of the body and the bodily senses, the mind and the intellect. Even the pranas, vital airs, can be of little avail in this context.

When man bursts his mortal bounds, the Boundless stands revealed.

There is a regular practical process of self-analysis and inversion whereby one, while still in the body, can rise above body consciousness. This is called transcendence, or slipping from the material world without into the non-material world within through the Saving Life-lines provided by God for those who would like to reach Him.

He whom I worship lies beyond the bounds of comprehension, to the seeing eye the temple of worship is only a symbol of the Real Temple.

The human body is verily the temple of God and God truly dwells therein. God is ever present within each one of us. He can be approached and experienced directly by anyone who seeks Him sincerely. He is as close as breathing and as near as our own limbs – nearer than our jugular vein. All that one needs is a baptism of the spirit and a Holy Communion in silent Spiritual Union with Him. This is Dwijas or the second birth, birth of the spirit as distinguished from the birth of water. This momentous and wholesale transformation is brought about by a Godman, in the cave in the mount of transfiguration within. The human life-principle needs a living contact through a Living Adept, for life comes from life alone. No man has, so far, been able to save himself by himself. The Godman is the prime factor in the whole process.

God’s Light may burst forth anywhere in the world. It may do so in the mountainous terrain of the Himalayas, on Mount Sinai, on the shores of Galilee, in the burning sands of the Arabian desert or in the plains of the Punjab. But one thing is certain: that the radiance of a Godman spreads throughout the world and it is hailed and acclaimed by humanity at large with one voice for His message is to all mankind and not confined to the people of the place where he is born and brought up.

A Godman then is God’s elect. He is the Hadi or the Guide with a Divine Mandate to save the jivas or the mind ridden embodied souls piteously yearning for God and raising their hands in prayer for their deliverance. He is like a light-house which helps save all ships regardless of the national flags they may be flying.

Coming to the present times, we trace the growth of Sant Mat or the Path of the Masters, from Kabir and Nanak to Tulsi Sahib, Swami Ji Maharaj, Baba Jaimal Singh Ji and Hazur Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj. After the passing away of the Great Master Sawan Singh in 1948, the mantles changed and the work of regeneration and reintegration undertaken by Hazur is now being carried on by Maharaj Kirpal Singh Ji, Who has His headquarters in the metropolitan town of Delhi. In the name of His Spiritual Mentor, He is freely distributing His Spiritual Largesse to the people all the world over through many branches in the East and in the West.

His is a mission of Vishva Dharma – World Fellowship of Religions – , based on the Universal Love born of the Light of Life kindled in the heart of man. Dedicated to the cause of Spiritual Upliftment of mankind, He has founded a common forum at Sawan Ashram, Delhi, from where leaders of all religious faiths and beliefs place before huge audiences the one basic Truth clothed in so many religious garbs. His loving humaneness has won Him the esteem of all the religious-minded people all over the world for they find in Him an echo of their own heartbeat. He believes in the supremacy of soul-force as the sole panacea for all the ills of the world in this atomic age when nations are precariously pitched against each other on a promontory, playing antics in a deadly race of total annihilation.