The Scope and Technique of Surat Shabd Yoga

by George Arnsby Jones, Litt.D., Ph.D.

Man is now living in the Atomic Age, the epoch of ‘release of power.’ The outer symbol of such an age is the cloud-wreath of an atomic explosion, but the Inner Significance of such an age is the development of nuclear consciousness, the delving into the soul-centre of man’s own being. The awakening man turns from the illusion of temporal power and endeavours to realise his own nuclear potentialities: to become self-realised and God-realised. The development of higher levels of consciousness leads man to awareness of a cosmic scheme of things which is so vast that it is incomprehensible to the human mind and imagination. The entire physical universe, with its millions of galaxies, separated by immeasurable numbers of light-years, is as a speck of dust in the universe of And and Brahmand, the latter of which is far vaster than the former. Brahmand itself is insignificant in the cosmic scheme of the first Spiritual Division, from whence it draws its power and sustenance. The creation and maintenance of the physical, super-physical, and mental universes is entrusted to a great hierarchy of beings. This hierarchy is headed by Sat Purush, Lord of the lowest plane of the First Division, and descends in successive stages through many cosmic regents, gods, archangels, angels, cherubim, seraphim, down to man himself.

This cosmic hierarchy is represented on earth by holy men who have advanced beyond the present stage of human consciousness. The concept of Magi, or priests of wisdom, guiding humankind through divine inspiration, has been set forth down the ages in ancient mythologies and religious scriptures. The Hebrew scriptures, for example, suggest a succession of historical eras in which those holy priests, ‘after the order of Melchizedek,’ received divine illumination through the Holy Spirit, and governed the destiny of ancient peoples thereby. The term theocracy¹ is often used to describe this primitive form of government, the only type possible among ancient peoples. Plato himself asserted that he had received instruction from such mystical teachers. He affirmed that the transference of power from the god-like to the human led inevitably to much anarchy and tyranny, from which humanity has had to struggle constantly as consciousness evolved. In the Christian era, for example, the history of the Catholic and Apostolic Church itself shows evidence of the misuse of powers vested in individuals through an ecclesiastical hierarchy.

Modern theosophy and other mystical cults of the present day affirm that there is an ‘inner government’ of the world, and its primary task is to control the stream of evolutionary influence among all races and nations, whilst also serving the cause of world betterment. This government comes under the jurisdiction of Brahm, the Lord of the Fourth Division and the lower levels of the Third Division. Brahm, also known to the mystic adepts as Kal, while he has dominion over the lower levels of creation, still works in accordance with the Divine Laws of Sat Purush. It is the duty of Kal, as the Negative Power of creation, to bind humanity to the Wheel of Rebirth, and mankind’s long, upward struggle against this force is designed by the Supreme Being to purge us of our sins and impurities and make us ready for our journey to the True Home.

The term Kal literally means ‘time,’ and Kal thus comprises within his being the past, present and future, as commonly understood by human beings. However, it is impossible to fix a cosmic date for the origin of Kal, or to predict when he will come to an end. Beginnings and endings are unreal concepts, created by man’s outgoing senses, which see an apparent commencement and an apparent termination to everything which transpires in his environment. From the point of view of higher consciousness, that which can be seen as the beginning of an event in the physical world has previously been occurring invisibly as an idea in the mental world; and beyond the mental world are realms which transcend time – or Kal – itself. A mental function always precedes physical organism. Similarly, a ‘termination’ of something is simply a passing away from one level of experience to another.

It can reasonably be said, however, that the ‘duration’ of Kal extends from one major cycle to another, during which the universe of mind and matter remains in its manifest form until its dissolution. The cycles of experience, as far as our planet is concerned, have been computed as four in number by oriental sages. These ages are Sat Yuga, the golden age of perfect righteousness; Treta Yuga, the age of predominant righteousness; Dwapar Yuga, the age of comparatively lesser righteousness; and, finally, Kali Yuga, the age of no apparent righteousness at all, except in its latent form and surcharged with darkness in abundance. We are at present living in Kali Yuga, and this planetary cyclic order from Sat Yuga to Kali Yuga is followed by a planetary dissolution, whereupon a new cyclic order starts again in another world-scheme.

In Kali Yuga, Kal reigns supreme over the lower realms of creation, and we live within the limitations of a completely dimensional world of time, space and causation, which thwarts the flight of the soul in its struggle for freedom. As the consciousness of man expands, so he becomes more aware of the shackles of time. In primordial days, while the consciousness of physical organisms was still in a semi-dormant state, the incredible slowness in the rates of growth and change on our planet was reflected by what can be considered as sub-mundane time. If this primal time-sequence is relived in the human consciousness, it will be seen that our present – mundane – time-measurement would appear to equal the rate of evolutionary change covered by eight to ten thousand years of primordial – sub-mundane – time. Thus the awakening soul feels that Divine Discontent with his time-bound world. He seeks the ability to rise above the transient qualities of mind and matter, which are the two chief agents of Kal.

Present-day humanity is ruled by the time-concept and releases more energy in each succeeding second than the primordial life-wave was capable of doing in many sub-mundane days. The speed of present human life is in inverse proportion to the rate of change of the primal geologic epoch. Man lives in a time-ruling epoch, and the primordial epoch was space-ruled.² Animal and vegetable life in the sub-mundane era tended to great bulk and slimy, alkaline conditions. Kal ruled creation then, as he does now, eliminating each living being from the stage of life as soon as its ordained time was exhausted. Once his space-time evolution is achieved, the human being’s work in physical incarnation should be finished, but the downward-flowing pull of the Negative Power holds him in worldly bondage.

Kal is the author of the laws of nature, which all must obey while living in physical incarnation. As the creator of the lower worlds, he is known as ‘God’ to most of the social religions. He is served faithfully by the hierarchical agents of the inner planetary government. Only the Mystic Adepts of the Highest Order, Their disciples and Their students, know of a higher God than Kal; and yet the Negative Power is worshipped by millions as the supreme Lord of creation. In comparison with the Spiritual Perfection of Sat Purush, the True Lord, Kal is only a subordinate in the hierarchy of the cosmic universe, and as such a subordinate he is not entirely free from imperfections. However, compared with mankind, Kal is an exalted being, an embodiment of light, wisdom and power.

It should be well remembered that Kal controlled the eternity of cosmic, solar and planetary evolution. He watched over his creation for those aeons of time before the appearance of moss-like species of vegetation on earth, and before the advent of dinosaurs and sauric beasts. The fact of the Negative Power controlling our material and materio-spiritual universe gives us a clue to the origin of so-called ‘evil,’ for evil is a turning back into outmoded – and thus unlawful – patterns of behaviour. In primary organisms, a damaged cell feels pain and will endeavour to focus its message of pain through the organism. Lack of attention to this message leads to the surrounding cells becoming affected by the plight of the damaged cell. If this imbalance is still ignored, more and more cells will become involved until the collective resistance of the group of cells is broken down. The organism then becomes ‘dis-eased.’ In Kal’s universe the sensations of pleasure and pain represent the language of the single cell and the human individual alike. Physical pain is the warning of somatic disharmony and the pain of the soul is the warning of gross Spiritual Disharmony in the human organism. Neither warning should be ignored.

The hierarchical representatives of Kal, known in the East as incarnations of Brahm, are the avatars and prophets, whose mission it is to incarnate themselves in every age in order to root out unrighteousness and evil, to protect the good and to punish evildoers, and to establish laws of righteousness in the world. The avatars and prophets thus bring the promise of redemption to the righteous; but this redemption is nevertheless bound by the time-scale of the lower worlds and is not lasting. The current of Kal, or ‘time,’ is endless in its course for humanity, but souls with the help of a True Mystic Adept can rise above time into the timeless realm of Sat Purush, and gradually merge into the Spiritual Immensity of the Highest Realms. This Inner Journey commences on the lowest rung of the ladder of creation, the world of Pind, and gradually ascends to Brahmand, the highest kingdom of Kal, and thence to Par Brahm, and eventually achieves the pure Spiritual Realms. Only the Highest Type of Mystic Adept, One Who has Himself traversed this Spiritual Journey and merged into the Highest Spiritual State, can help others do likewise.

Such a Mystic Adept is not part of the inner government of Kal’s world, although He has deference for all who play their roles in the ordering of creation. The mystic adept is an emissary from Sat Purush, and is commissioned by the Supreme Being to save souls and lead mankind back to its True Home. Such a Mystic Adept is termed a Sant Satguru³ in oriental terminology, and it is He alone Who can free man from bondage to the lower worlds and give him Eternal Liberation. Here it must be stressed that the difference between man and all the ascending scale of beings who comprise the grand hierarchy of creation is merely one of Spiritual Attainment. There is no difference in soul-quality between the most arrant materialist and the most Spiritual Saint, for all souls are of the essence of the Supreme One. The awakened and purified soul, cleansed by the audible Life-Stream through the Grace of a Competent Mystic Adept, moves up the ascending cosmic scale until it reaches its True Home. There is no other yardstick than this for measuring the comparative degrees of advancement between various human beings, and only a Mystic Adept can use the yardstick with complete correctness and accuracy. Only the Satguru is completely beyond the rule of Kal and not subject to the laws of the Negative Power.⁴

Above and apart from the great hierarchy of Kal and his agents is the Aka1 Purush, the Great Positive Power which controls not only the Grand Division of Sach Khand, but maintains and supports the lower regions of Brahmand, And and Pind, all of which He allows to Kal, who holds sway over these three lower worlds. The Satguru is an incarnation of this Great Positive Power, and as such has been commissioned by Sat Purush to lead mankind on the Inner Path to the True Home. The Satguru puts the aspirant in contact with the Spiritual Sound Current. This audible Life-Stream varies with different levels of frequency as it passes through the five Inner Levels of creation, and is thus termed by oriental sages as the five melodies of heaven.

The Satgurus, Mystic Adepts of the Highest Order, recognise two types of knowledge in religious experience. The first type is known as Apara Vidya, and consists of the study of religious scriptures, the performance of rituals and ceremonies, and the giving of alms and doing of good works. The second type is known as Para Vidya, and this is the science of Realised Truth, or the science of the soul. An initial creation of interest in knowing his True Self and knowing God, together with the living of an ethical life, are prerequisites to man’s search for Spirituality. But for practical Inner Unfoldment, the individual aspirant has to seek the guidance of One Who has realised the Highest Spiritual Goal. There are many teachers of Apara Vidya, theoretical and intellectual knowledge of religious experience, but there are very few teachers of Para Vidya, the science of Realised Truth.

The soul of man is under the bondage of mind and matter. The aspiring seeker after Truth must learn a practical method of self-analysis and then the method of rising above body-consciousness. When he attains this degree of awareness, he truly discovers that he is not the body, nor the intellect, nor the outgoing faculties. He realises that although he may know many objective facts, these are all conditioned by the limitations of the mind. He knows that he must perfect his own self-realisation, becoming aware of the God-Power within; and this he can achieve by following the instructions of an Adept of Para Vidya, a Sant Satguru. The Science of Para Vidya can be followed by people of all ages, for it is a simple and natural way to Spiritual Attainment. Unless man becomes aware of his own higher nature and his relationship to God and creation, he cannot attain Inner Joy and True Peace.

The core of Para Vidya lies in the Yoga of the audible Life-Stream, which is known in the East as the Surat Shabd Yoga. This, the most ancient yogic science of the Mystic Adepts, is the method used to link the soul consciously with the transcendental Sound Current, the God-in-Expression-Power. In the practice of this Spiritual Science, the Satguru lays stress on the performance of mental repetition of the spiritually Charged Words that help to collect the scattered attention of the aspirant and focus it at the point of the soul at the pineal centre within the head. This particular aspect of Surat Shabd Yoga is known as Simran.

The successful completion of Simran leads to Dhyan⁷ or concentration. The Inner Eye of the aspirant is now opened and he sees the radiant point of Spiritual Light within. The radiance may fluctuate at first, but it becomes increasingly bright and eventually the Light is steady and strong. When Dhyan is perfected the aspirant is led to Bhajan, or attunement to the Spiritual Sound Current that emerges from within the centre of the Spiritual Light. This supernal melody has an upward magnetic pull which is irresistible, and the soul eventually must travel with the Inner Music until it reaches that Spiritual Source from whence the music emerges. By this three-fold process of Simran, Dhyan and Bhajan, the soul is finally freed from the fetters of mind and matter and becomes anchored in its True Self or atman,⁹ and thus returns to its primal Spiritual Source, the realm of pure spirit.

Jesus, the Galilean Adept, said,

Take my yoke upon you!

And the word yoga, which is cognate with ‘yoke,’ means to join up, to link the soul with God. The Spiritual Sound Current is the connecting link with God, and it is the same Word spoken of by Christ and all the Mystic Adepts. The entire process of God-Realisation is nurtured by the three essentials:

1. Satguru, or Adept-Mystic, Who must be a Living Practitioner of the Holy Science;

2. Shabd, the Power of the Supreme Lord sounding through creation;

3. and Satsang,¹⁰ or association with a True Mystic Adept.

The Living Satguru is truly the Word made flesh, or the embodied form of the Eternal Shabd. The Shabd works through the Satguru on both the outer and Inner Planes of life, and this gives Him the divinely-ordained power to take the individual soul safely back to its Spiritual Home.

The combination of the Spiritual Light and the Spiritual Sound is the essence of the Inner Journey. The Spiritual Light keeps the soul absorbed in its goal, and to a certain extent leads the soul onward; the Spiritual Sound – the Word – pulls the soul upward and transports it from plane to plane, helping it overcome the hurdles and difficulties of the lower and intermediate planes, until it reaches its destination. The Surat Shabd Yoga is not only the most perfect of the various Spiritual Sciences but it is also comparatively easy to practise, and it is accessible to all people. The aspirants who assiduously follow this Spiritual Discipline, not only reach their Ultimate Goal, but they do so with greater economy of effort than is possible by any other method.

The Surat Shabd Yoga begins where all other yogic techniques end. The yogic practitioner attempts the transcension of physical consciousness by techniques which vivify the various chakras, or microcosmic force centres in the body, one after the other. Such practices are concerned with the manipulation of the pranas, or subtilised life-currents, and any result thereby is attained only after long and arduous disciplines. The technique of Surat Shabd Yoga begins at the highest microcosmic centre, the seat of the soul, between and behind the eyebrows, and often the aspirant to this Highest Spiritual Science will receive the same experience at his first initiation sitting that the advanced yogi has worked long and hard for. In point of fact, the Surat Shabd Yoga is a far more scientific and natural science than any of the other yogic techniques. It asserts that if the Spiritual Current reaches the bodily chakras from above rather than below, then why should it be necessary to vivify each of the lower chakras in turn in order to attempt the path of Spiritual Attainment? Also, the yogis depend almost exclusively on the powers of the mind and the pranic currents, and these energies – even at their most refined – are not of the True Spiritual Essence and thus cannot free the soul from its thraldom in the lower worlds. It is from the point of Tisra Til, the Third Eye, that the energies of the soul spread themselves into the body. All that is required is to check the downward flow of this Spiritual Current by the control of the senses; it will thus, of its own accord, concentrate itself and flow back towards its source.

The Surat Shabd Yoga starts the aspirant on his Inner Journey at a stage where the yogi usually tends to finish his. This is the region of Sahasdal Kanwal – the region of the thousand-petalled lights –, and this generally marks the final stage of a yogi’s journey after he has traversed the various bodily chakras. It is the first rung on the ladder of ascent for the practitioner of the Surat Shabd Yoga. Also, because the aspirant of the Highest Spiritual Science refuses to disturb the fiery kundalinic force within the body, the strain of physical transcension is greatly reduced, and there is no possible risk of harm being done to the physical or mental organism. By contact with the Shabd, the sensory currents of the body are automatically drawn upward without any conscious striving on the part of the aspirant. Also, the aspirant needs no external assistance in returning to physical consciousness – as is the case with some yogic techniques, and inner ascent and descent can be achieved by him with the rapidity of thought itself.

The Satguru is the Shabd personified. He stands above all the hierarchies of the Inner Universe, even though He has the outer appearance of a man among mankind. His relationship with His disciples is a purely Spiritual One; He is concerned with their Spiritual Progress and has nothing to do with worldly matters. The True Spiritual Teacher is the Holy Shabd or Word, and the only disciple is the Surat, or individual spirit. For each individual, as he comes before the True Adept-Mystic, the Adept-Mystic is truly God in human garb, the Word made flesh, and the individual aspirant is a living soul, the essence of the Universal Soul. Kabir, the poet-saint of India, was an example of the Eternal Word in human form.

He spoke of Himself thus:

I come from the Kingdom of God to administer the Law of Cod. Truly the Satguru is the Greatest Gift of God, and God is the Greatest Gift of the Satguru. There can be none higher than such a One.

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Footnotes: 1) From the Greek: ‘Theos,’ God; ‘krate,’ rulership. 2) Alfred Korzybski, founder of the system of General Semantics, used the terms time-binding and space-binding to illustrate similar concepts in his own works. 3) The Sant Satguru is an Adept-Mystic Who has free access to the Spiritual Region of Sach Khand, and Who is also a Spiritual Teacher Who accepts disciples on the Inner Path. 4) Although the Satguru is a freed soul, and is thus not bound to the laws of the causal and physical worlds, He still respects the laws of Kal and does nothing to alter the workings of natural law. He does not display miracles as a matter of course, and does not demonstrate occult or psychic powers to inquisitive seekers. He is not an ascetic, but lives in this world as a man among humanity. He never receives a fee, or funds, or charity for His services, but always earns His livelihood in accordance with the laws of the world. 5) The word Shabd refers to the Spiritual Sound Current; surat refers to the attention, or individual consciousness; the soul is sometimes also termed surat in Eastern mysticism. 6) Simran means ‘repetition of the intrinsic names of God.’ 7) Dhyan is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘dhi,’ meaning to bind or to hold on. 8) Bhajan denotes the attunement of the self with the audible Life-Stream. 9) Atman means true soul-self or pure spirit. 10) Satsang means association with a Mystic Adept or Satguru. There are two types of Satsang: association with a Satguru is external Satsang, and association of the soul with Shabd is internal Satsang. When a congregation of aspirants is addressed by a Satguru, this is also Satsang, and even to think about the Mystic Adept and His teachings is Satsang.