Kirpal Singh

‘You need not worry about anything’

A letter from Kirpal Singh, dated 9 October 1961

I am glad to find that you have achieved a stable existence in a small rural town and have learnt the trade of a printer to carry on a smooth life. A settled and peaceful life is a helping factor for the Spiritual Undertakings. My best wishes are with you all.

I am sorry that you had for some long time past neglected your meditations and grown careless in diet and generally lost interest in Spiritual Things. I am glad that you are again meditating and have taken a turn for your Spiritual Side. This will stand in your good stead. You should not take things only from physical angle. While one has to perform physical duties, the duties towards one’s own self and God are not less important.

Is not body more than raiment and life more than the meat?

What does it profit a man if he gains the possessions of the whole world and loses one’s own soul?

The physical life together with all its possessions and allurements is subject to decay and disintegration. The precious moments of earth life spent in the Holy Meditations are superbly best utilised and are a step in the right direction towards one’s eventual return to one’s True Eternal Home. Whether by ups and downs of the world or Inner Yearnings one is fortunate to tread on this Path of deliverance.

You have got the sacred books and at present are reading ‘Naam or Word.’ … What you read in these books is to become a part of your life and this you will achieve step by step if you are regular and devoted in meditations and develop within from day to day. Man is the noblest of all creation and the highest ideal in this body is to meet the Lord and for that purpose he has to know himself first. Self-knowledge precedes God-knowledge. Man has made wonderful progress physically and intellectually but his Spiritual Side has been ignored. He is gaining control over the forces of nature in the shape of Hydrogen bombs etc., which are threatening the destruction of all mankind. Had he gained self-knowledge before having this control of forces of nature, these very things would have gone to the service of mankind. These weapons are being used for gaining supremacy over the others. Even the darkest clouds have a silver lining somewhere. To err is human; by suffering one learns a lesson and tries to avoid sin and looks for virtuous life. This threat of destruction will go a long way to change the trend of humanity for the better: to live and let others live too. Providence has His own miraculous ways for guiding the destiny of Child Humanity. But the fact remains that A Living Master is a Great Blessing and all those coming under His protective care and guidance will pass off unscathed by following His commandments, viz.,

Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy strength,

and

Love thy neighbour as thyself.

If we give more value to a thing than is intrinsically due it, the fear of its loss will be considerably out of proportion to the actual facts. You need not worry about anything. Being under the protective care of the Great Master-Power, you are really a blessed soul, having always at your disposal the facility of drawing on that Great Power. The way how to do it is already with you. If you will just walk one step, He will come down a million of steps to pull you, help you and guide you at every stage. You have simply to tune your receptivity to the fountain head. The way to do it is to faithfully obey Him and devotedly carry on as enjoined.

All action has corresponding reaction. An individual action has an individual reaction. Collectively people are asked to do ethical actions. This brings up good collective reaction. Reverse of it produces collective bad reaction. Nature has its own way of correcting and fulfilling reactions of individual good and bad action. Likewise collective reactions are to be fulfilled. One may not be able to truly understand the depth of these things for his perception and understanding is limited to gauge these depths.

Internal ascension into higher regions opens our vision to see things clearly. We should, therefore, strive fully, honestly, faithfully and diligently to proceed within. Those who are earnest and devoted are crowned with success. Many things become clear which otherwise with all the reasoning and intelligence will be at best hazy and foggy. But to those who are regularly devoted to meditation in the accurate way their Inner Development takes them face to face to the radiant form of the Master within, in which God-Power appears Who talks to them as we talk outside, guides them in all matters – when the time comes for their leaving the physical body He tells them that they have to go. There is nothing strange in it. It is every day happening.

The Spiritual Aspirants inculcate a sense of aversion for the sensuous pleasures as they have tasted the elixir of Naam within with the Grace of the Master. All beauty and Glory lies within and if you will please be lovingly devoted to your Holy Meditations in an accurate way as discussed in a copy of brief instructions which I enclose for your guidance, you will find that you will be benefited immensely with His Grace.

So please be lovingly devoted with deep faith and Sacred Earnestness. Master-Power working overhead will be extending all feasible help, Grace and protection. …

_______________

Editor’s Note: This beautiful letter has been a constant source of encouragement and consolation since I received it thirteen years ago this month. I had written Master in a mood of deep despair – over having wasted two years of my life away from Him, and over the fear of nuclear war, which seemed immanent. Some readers will recall that year of the fallout shelter, when we were being encouraged to accept the inevitability of wholesale catastrophe, and solid citizens were debating the ethics of shooting their neighbours if they dared to encroach on their shelters. The absurdity of the world and the whole worldly outlook, on which I had staked my identity, came home to me in an awful rush, and the Master pulled me back to Him in the space of one afternoon. But confusion, resentment and despair remained: How could God let things like nuclear wars become so probable? How could He create such a world? Out of such a mood was forged the first honest letter I ever wrote to Master; this was His reply.