Karma

VI

As I just quoted to you, one Sikh Master says,

Oh Master, what is the use of coming to Your feet, if our karmas are not finished? What is the use of going to the feet of a lion if the jackals still howl at us?

When you come to a Master, what does He say?

All right – no more. Thus far and no farther.

He says,

From today onward, are you taking the advice? Keep the diary; do no more. Criticise yourself as you would like to criticise others – and weed out.

Simply saying, ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner,’ that won’t do. Be very watchful on every thought that accosts you. And come in contact with that Naam-Power, a contact with which you have been given. That will give you more bliss and mind will, what you say, die.

When you get that Nectar of Life or Water of Life, and experience the bliss of that, the mind will leave off all outer enjoyments. Where there is no desire there is God, you see. What is man? God plus desires. And what is God? Man minus desires. And these desires are raked up by mind through the outgoing faculties. Very simple way, I think. You follow me?

So if we follow that, everything will come out all right. And first He says, Do no more – and puts him on the high road. You see, you’ve got high roads here where cars go fast; you’ve also got the high roads within you of Light and Sound. Go fast! There’s no retardation on the way; you can go quickly back to your Home. He gives you the high road God-ward. He does not usually interfere with the pralabdh karma, because in that case your life would end; but He gives you a contact with the spirit within you, which is the Light and Sound Principle; and that contact with the Holy Word also reduces to ashes all sanchit karmas and unfructified recent karmas and finishes them off.

In Jap Ji, after Guru Nanak has given His instruction on the way of life, last of all He gives an example:

When the hands, feet and body are besmeared, they are washed clean with water; when clothes get dirty and polluted, they are cleansed by soap.

But then He says:

When one’s mind gets defiled by sin, it can be purified only by communion with the Word, which is given to you by the Master on the very first day. He gives you two things: first, to rise above body consciousness, to die daily; second, to come in contact with the Word within you. He washes all sins of the past away.

Guru Nanak says:

Men do not become saints or sinners merely by words. But They carry deeds with Them wherever They go. As one sows, so does one reap; oh Nanak, men come and go by the wheel of birth and death as ordained by His will.

In the Finale of Jap Ji He gives: 

Our actions, good and evil, will be brought before His court. And by our own deeds shall we move higher or be cast into the depths.

It is two ways before you: one is to go up to your Father’s Home; the other is to go down. The human body is a junction, I would say. You can have your Way back to God; or you can come back, that’s all. But we can choose to go up only by understanding the law of cause and effect and acting up to our understanding. Then the Master looks to the winding up of our actions. We come to Him for that purpose, and His ways are two.

First He admonishes, Do no more.

When our Master was here, you see, sometimes out of hundreds of people one person would stand up and say,

Sir, I have done this sin.

Our Master would ask,

Well, is there anybody who can bear the brunt of that sin?

Who would dare? No. Then He would say,

All right. Do no more. And do it!

On the very first day, you see, we are told, Keep your diaries. You are fortunate, I would say. In the old days men used to sit by the Master for years. When they saw the vessel was clean, only then They put something in it. Now you get something on the very first day. Two things are given: rising above body consciousness, and contact with the Naam within you. If you rise daily the outer pinching effect won’t affect you, you’ll become air conditioned. Pralabdh karma also won’t affect you so much as now; the angle of vision will change by rising above body consciousness daily. Is it not a blessing?

Guru Nanak concludes the Jap Ji by saying:

Those Who have communed with the Word, Their toils shall end, and Their faces shall flame with Glory. Not only shall They have salvation, oh Nanak, but many more shall find freedom with Them.

Not just one. So that is what is wanted, you see, to save us from the wheel of life and death. It is therefore of paramount importance that we should seek a Master competent enough to wind up the otherwise endless cycle of births, seek refuge at His Lotus Feet, and free ourselves of the bewitching influences of our actions, our deeds, which is the Law of Karma.

You have been given, of the two ways, the one way which is the only way back. That is, you’ve been given a contact with Naam or Word within you and you have also been given how to rise above body consciousness daily, to take the cross daily.

Those who do not take their cross daily, they are not my disciples.

That is what Christ and all other Masters have said.