Satsang – One of the three Pillars of Spirituality
Talk in Oakton, Virginia – USA, held on 29 September, 1972
There are so many yogas – different kinds of yoga. Each has its own scope. Hatha Yoga is there to keep our body fit. Prana Yoga is there to prolong your life. In Bhakti Yoga you have to make a hypothesis before you reach the Ultimate Goal. And in Gyan Yoga you have to draw an inference – not direct contact. That’s the work of very intellectual giants – not for everybody.
But the yoga that you have been put on is the most natural, quickest way of reaching the Ultimate Goal – God. So in this yoga there are three pillars. First: the God-Himself-into-expression-Power, which is to be reached. The natural yoga, called Surat Shabd Yoga, which you are following is the direct Way back to God. If you just catch the ray of the sun, that will take you – where? To the sun from which it emanates. So in the Surat Shabd Yoga you have to catch the God-into-expression-Power, which has two phases: Light and Sound. When you have a contact with that, that is called Satsang. As I told you, there are three pillars: Sat Naam, Satsang, and Satguru.
So, we will talk all about the Satsang today. What is called a Satsang – Sat means ‘eternal’ – which never falls away in dissolution or grand dissolution. That is God Himself. God does not die. And Sang means ‘to come in contact with It’. So who has to come in contact with that God-into-expression-Power? That is our own soul. That cannot be contacted by outgoing faculties or mind or intellect. So it is we who have to contact God – not Absolute, but the God-into-expression-Power. That is the Creator of all the world over – all universes. That Power is controlling all this creation – and also controls us in the body.
So to contact Him, first we will have to know our Selves. Do you know who we are? We have got the man-body, we have got the intellect; but we are conscious entities. God is All-Consciousness, and our soul is a drop of the Ocean of All-Consciousness. This – our consciousness – is identified with mind, outgoing faculties, and all the world outside. We are identified with them so much so that we have forgotten our Self. So the first thing to have a contact with the God-into-expression -Power is to know our Self. Knowing our Self is at two levels: at the level of feelings, or drawing inferences. Feelings and drawing inferences are both subject to error. Seeing is above all. Seeing will arise – to whom – your Self. And you will first find your Self or know your Self. So it is a matter of pure self-analysis.
We say, ‘It is my body, it is my handkerchief, it is my spectacles.’ Now, it is quite a different thing to say, ‘It is my handkerchief,’ or ‘spectacles,’ or ‘coat’ and ‘my body.’ Those three things we can put off. But can you ‘put off’ your body – It is our body … my body … my outgoing faculties. So it is a matter of self-analysis. All Masters Who came in the past – that first thing that They gave out was to know one’s Self. Philosophers of the West or the East all say (the same) in their own languages. So a demonstration (is necessary) of how to analyse our Selves from the outgoing faculties, mind, or intellect. That’s a matter of demonstration, which can be given by One Who rises above body consciousness daily, Who has realised God, Who has become the mouthpiece of God, Who speaks as inspired by God. So the first thing is that attainment, when you know your Self – when you know (by first-hand experience within).
As I told you just now, our soul is under the control of the mind; mind is under the control of the outgoing faculties. And the outgoing faculties are absorbed in outer things. The first thing will be: How to rise above body consciousness.
It is we who give strength to all these outgoing faculties and body. When the indweller, soul, just leaves the body (at death), the body lies intact as it is but it cannot work. So all Masters have said,
Please man, know thyself.
When you know your Self – you also reside in this very man-body. You cannot run away out of it, although there are eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and other things. Some Power controls us in the body. That Power is called God-into-expression-Power. That very Power controls all the universe over. We reside in this man-body, and that Power Whom we have to contact also resides in this very body. Those who go out to find Him, they are never successful. Those who come to a Master, He tells them,
All right, please tap inside. (The One) Whom you are after, He is within you already. Why are you going wandering outside?
So when you sit at the feet of the Master, He gives you some first-hand experience how to rise above body consciousness: withdraw from outside, withdraw from the body below, and come to the tenth door of the body which is at the back of the eyes – which is the seat of the soul in the body – from where it (the soul) plunges, it is ushered into the beyond. Then you know you are soul. When you know it, then you find that that Power is controlling you. The first, the highest class of Satsang is to know your Self and come into contact with God-into-expression-Power.
Now, so long as we do not come in contact, by rising above body consciousness, with that Power which is controlling us in the body, (we need) the company of Those Who are in contact with that Power, conscious contact; They may be learned or unlearned. In Their company They can teach us how to rise above body consciousness and come in contact with that Power which is already within us. The company of the Saints, Those Who are the mouthpiece of God, Who are conscious of that Power within Them all the time, is also called Satsang. They are competent to give us first to know our Selves by withdrawing us from outside and from the body below; They drag us up, and open the Inner Eye. We see the Light of God, we see God, come in contact with God.
So, it is said, there are two such Satsangs: first class, when you have a contact with It; or (second class) sit in the company of Somebody Who has got that contact and can give you a contact. You follow – this (Satsang) is one of the pillars of the Surat Shabd Yoga. Each (pillar) has its own work: Sat Naam, Satguru, and Satsang.
So Masters tell us, They pray, They tell us how to pray, that’s the point. They have that contact, but still They tell us something so that we may know how to pray and what to pray.
Guru Ram Das, the fourth Guru of the Sikhs, prayed,
Oh God, bring me in contact with the Guru Who works like a Philosopher’s Stone.
The quality of a Philosopher’s Stone is given that whenever it comes in contact with any metal, that is turned into gold – any kind of metal. So He prayed,
Oh God, let me meet such a Guru Who, like a Philosopher’s Stone, would turn me to gold.
He said,
I did pray, and my prayers were heard.
You see what sort of prayer is heard? As I told you the other day, (it is) the prayer which comes out of the heart and that is in unison with what you say by the word of mouth, and what you think. If the prayer comes, and the three – mind, intellect, and tongue – agree there, then that is True Prayer. When that prayer comes out, that Power Who is also within us hears,
This child is after me.
Then He will catch you by the hand,
Well, child, tell me what you want.
So such a prayer is heard. Perhaps you have read the book ‘Prayer.’ That gives you all these things.
Guru Ram Das says,
My prayer was heard. Thank God. I was under the impression that the Philosopher’s Stone would turn me into gold only; but strange enough, I met such a Guru Who did not make me turn into gold but made me a Philosopher’s Stone itself. Now, whoever comes in our contact, they also turn into a Philosopher’s Stone.
Every king wants his son to be a … what? Do you know? A king – not a minister. Every Guru wants anyone coming to Him to become a Guru. So Guru Ram Das said,
My prayer was heard and I got such a Guru Who made me like this Philosopher’s Stone. Now, those who come in contact with me, they also are turning out to be Philosopher’s Stones.
He further says,
Strange enough, that qualification spoken of about the Philosopher’s Stone is that if any metal comes in contact with that it is turned into gold.
He says,
I was not the metal; I was the rust! Still worse. And, even then, I was made into the Philosopher’s Stone.
That bespeaks of the beauty of what He became after meeting the Guru. So the meeting or having the company of such a man is called Satsang.
The first Satsang you get inside – first class. Another Satsang is coming in contact with suchlike people who have got first-hand contact with God. What do you want? That’s the point. Do you want God? Or do you want worldly things? This is to be decided. If you have got true desire, yearning, to know God, then God will make arrangement to bring you in contact somewhere where He is manifest, where He is the mouthpiece of God, and He will enable you to contact God Who is within your own Self already.
Guru Ram Das says,
What is the world after?
In the world, what do you find? We find (that we pray), ‘Oh God, give us higher planes, heavens!’ Some say, ‘(Give us) all enjoyments of the World hereafter’ or ‘the enjoyments of this world.’ When you pray, what do you pray for? For these worldly things or for your children, or your possessions, or your position, or that you may have enjoyments in the life after death – generally this is what people pray for.
Guru Ram Das says,
I have not prayed for that.
They (people) get that for which they have truly prayed. They get it!
Guru Ram Das says,
I wanted only Him and Him alone, and I got such a Guru Which has not turned me into gold but made me a Philosopher’s Stone itself.
Now, those who are really after God, these (other) things don’t appeal to them, you see. They simply want a glimpse of Him.
It is said that Lord Krishna once stayed away from a group of his followers, who were called gopis, for some time. Those who wanted his company always, who could not live without his company, they cried. They were feeling a very strong yearning, a very strong separation, and could not live without him, away from him. So when he heard about their state of affairs, whatever they were undergoing, he sent one devotee of his to give them some consolation: Look here, the word Krishna comes from the root ‘kiru’, ‘kiri’. ‘Kiri’ means (the one) who is nearest to your soul – that is God. God resides in you. Why are you crying? So that devotee went to them and explained, and gave them all kinds of quotations from the scriptures, this and that: God resides in you. Why are you crying? They simply replied, Look here, friend, what you say is all right: ‘He is the very soul of our souls, He resides in our body, He is our Controlling Power in the body, He is so near that He is nearer than the hands and the feet.’ But tell us, for the eyes that are yearning to have a glimpse of Him, what is the remedy?
Those who want to have a glimpse of God don’t care for these heavens or anything like that; they don’t care even for redemption from life – from coming and going (reincarnation), too. They want simply to have a glimpse of Him.
Bhai Nand Lal was such a devotee of the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. He says,
Oh my Guru, my Satguru, I had no desire to come to the world but to follow You. As You have come to the world, I also followed You. Otherwise, what is lying in this world? You have incarnated, You are manifesting in the man-body here; so as I was fond of You, I also have come to the world to be with You.
Hafiz is a great poet, mystic poet. He said, in Arabic, in one poem:
Oh man, if you want to come in contact with God, leave all worldly things. Go out to some lonely place to find Him, to go within you.
And Nand Lal addresses Hafiz:
Look here, Hafiz, God is standing here. Here is God in man. Why should we leave this world and go to outside things? Here is God standing!
Well, this is the fate of those whose Inner Eye is open, you see. – It is the same God when it appears within. Excuse me, They were persecuted like Christ. Were They not persecuted? Mansur was put to the stake. Shamaz-i-Tabrez’ skin was taken off. Some were burned alive.
Who did all this? Who did all this? (Those) whose (Inner) Eyes were not open. The others (those whose Single Eye is open) do say,
He (the Master) is the moving God on earth.
They say, they see God is manifesting in Him. But when is it said? When your Inner Eye is open. So those who want a glimpse of Him – God –, they never care for the possessions or all enjoyments of this world, or the world hereafter. They can only be satisfied if they have a glimpse of Him – that’s all.
Take the example of a mother whose son has been away. She yearns to see her son – perhaps he is lost. There may be people who give evidence saying, ‘He is alive; I have seen him.’ (The mother says), ‘Oh no, unless I look at him I cannot be satisfied.’ You see? Something, a strong yearning like that. I mean to say those who are yearning really to see God. Man’s Highest Goal is to have a beatific vision of God, to see God. This is the Ultimate Goal of what the Saints pray for.
See and then say.
If you don’t see … ? Sometimes in prayers we sit, we shed tears, we cry; when that very Thing for which we yearn and cry comes in front of you, how satisfied you feel!
So whatever you are doing, all of these practices outside which relate to the outgoing faculties, body, or intellect, in that you do not see. You simply feel a strong yearning to see so. Surat Shabd Yoga gives you a vision of that Power. All other yogas I mentioned have got different scopes. In Surat Shabd Yoga you have got direct contact with the God-into-expression-Power. If you pursue that Way, regularly, with all devotion, He will always be face-to-face with you. He resides with you. Whenever you want to, you close your eyes, rise above body (consciousness) and then see Him.
Guru Ram Das tells us,
This is the state of those who really want to see God.
They are not after this world’s possessions, or the other world’s possessions. They simply want to have a glimpse of Him. That is the fate of few. How many people are seen crying, breaking their heads, for worldly things. But how many are there who are crying to see God?
Rama Krishna Paramhansa tells us,
If a man continues three days regularly in his yearning for the Lord, God will appear to him.
We cannot even yearn for an hour. So the point is, you see, those who are after having a vision of God – beatific vision – no other thing can appeal to them. They are not satisfied unless they see. But others, the world is full of them – why don’t they yearn to see God? The reason is they are under a grand delusion. That delusion starts from where? From the man-body. He is the indweller of the man-body, but he is identified with the body so much so that he has forgotten himself. He works from the level of the man-body, which is made of matter – and matter is changing every moment of life. And the world around is also changing, being of matter, at the same speed as our body is changing. So, when two things are moving at the same speed, to those who are identified with it, to them this appears that it is all stationary. It is a grand delusion.
Take the example of a boat in which some people, say five, six, seven or so, are rowing. The boat is going down the stream. One man is standing on the side (shore) of the river. He cries out, Dear friends, you are rowing down the stream! They look to the water around it, and the boat appears to be stationary – not moving. Is it not a grand delusion? The learned and the unlearned, both are under the grand delusion.
Now … that is why they are just under delusion and always receiving impressions from outside. The man whose fate is like that, how can he escape from receiving impressions from the outside, through the outgoing faculties? Whoever is in that state of affairs, naturally he is affected by outside life – all these impressions from outside. He has already become unclean or black-sooted, you see. In a house where there is black soot all around him, naturally he will have that very black colour. Those who do not yearn for God? Why is it so? Because, on account of that, first, they are under a grand delusion; and moreover, from day-to-day, they are gathering impressions from outside. They are already black, and more black is being added. So they cannot even recognise the Masters, too, as I told you before. But those whose Inner Eye is opened see God working in all creation. We are waylaid by the outer changes of the world, as I told you yesterday. And all at once somebody passes away: ‘What is all that?’
Such people – whose Single Eyes are open – see this changing panorama – the body is also changing and we have to leave this body some day – but they are not affected. They are in the world: their boat is in the water, but water is not in the boat. (Do you see) the reason why? The boat has so many holes in it; if they are all closed, then the water won’t enter the boat, and the man sitting in the boat won’t be drowned. If there are holes, then the water will enter, and the boat will sink; and along with that, the man also sinks.
This man-body is the boat given to us to cross over the ocean of life. If there are other outlets from outside, which are our outgoing faculties, through which all impressions can come within us. As I told you the other day, about eighty percent of the impressions are received through the eyes. Fourteen percent from the cars, and the other from other senses. So, naturally, every day, from day-to-day, from hour-to-hour, he – the average person – is just under delusion, more delusion, and (still) more delusion. But those who rise above these outgoing faculties, with the Grace of God or with the Grace of the God in man, don’t receive impressions from outside. They use these outgoing faculties at their will and pleasure, whereas the average man is being dragged away by these outgoing faculties. Outward enjoyments drag the outgoing faculties, and the outgoing faculties drag the mind. Mind is dragging our soul. The Masters, when They come, give the right way out: They give you a first-hand demonstration of how to rise above body consciousness and all of your outgoing faculties. When you have a permanent scat here – behind the physical eyes –, then outward impressions do not affect you: there are no holes in the boat to drown you. The boat may fill with the water of impressions from outside.
So the Masters are in the world? They appear to be in the world – but They are not of it. This is what you get from the society, from the Satsang, from the company of the Saints. This is what They give you. They also give you higher contact with the Nectar, the Water of Life, by raising you above these outgoing faculties at the back of the (physical) eyes. That (contact with the Water of Life within) has more taste; and when mind gets more taste within, all of the other enjoyments leave; he is not affected by the outer enjoyments. This is the blessing that you have at the feet of the Master, from the Satsang.
Satsang does not mean your bodies are sitting by Him and your minds are wandering outside.
I give you an example of two friends. They were going out, and one had a strong mind to attend church. The other friend said, I want to go to the playing grounds. Each had his own way. One went to the church; the other went to the play ground. Now, the man sitting in the church was thinking, My friend must be kicking the football. His body was there, but his mind was elsewhere. The man in the play ground was thinking, He must be saying his prayers now. So who is the better of the two?
To sit by the Master just like that does not give you an effect. You don’t even receive the radiation, either, because you are not receptive. So Master defines how to attend a Satsang.
Swami Ji says,
Hold a Satsang, attend some Satsang meeting.
How?
When you go there, forget the world outside. When you sit there, forget all environments – who is sitting by you. When you sit there, you also forget your body, too. Your whole attention should be absorbed! Eyes are the windows of the soul!
Masters define how to attend a Satsang! Instead, when attending so many Satsangs, why do we not derive full benefit? Because our bodies are there, of course, but we are not there: our attention is outside – in the play ground. So, Swami Ji says the right way to attend the Satsang is just like that – with full, absorbed attention. To be at a Satsang, physically, is not sufficient; your mind may be wandering outside, while your body is there. Another man sits there – whole-hearted, whole attention: Eyes are the windows of the soul (and absorbs) by radiation. If you are receptive, you will be affected – by the radiation.
So Swami Ji says this is how we can derive full benefit from the company of the Satsang.
Further Swami Ji says,
The whole creation is what? It is the expression of God. It all came out of Him. There is no place where He is not.
The world, you see, is His expression only. The Masters give us an example: there is a tree that is a perfumed tree. When you rub a piece of the wood of that tree, it gives you perfume. Sandal, sandalwood, it is called.
Swami Ji says,
The whole world is a sandalwood tree.
It is said that the poisonous snakes are in contact with the sandalwood tree, lying around the tree – to give them some peace, or some satisfaction, you might say, or some cooling effect. When these snakes bite or sting somebody, the man who is stung feels like fire in that place, a burning pain he gets. Those snakes remain attached to the tree.
Swami Ji says,
If you want to have the juice of that tree, how will you have it? The only way is to cut the snakes with your sword and have the juice of the tree.
This is an example to show that this whole universe is the sandalwood tree – it is all God’s expression; but this delusion, the snake of delusion, is all around the tree. So what is the way out? How to rise above, come out of the delusion?
Swami Ji says,
With the Sword of Gyan.
What then is Gyan? Knowledge. Gyan is not just literary findings: it is just rising above body consciousness and coming in contact with the God-into-expression-Power and see Him. This is the true meaning of the word Gyan.
He says, Take the Sword of Gyan, that is, rise above body consciousness, and you will see, have that enjoyment of God within you.
All Masters tell us how to come out of this delusion by rising above body consciousness, which is the source of all delusion, because you are identified with the body, which is changing every moment of life; and the world around us, being made of matter, is also changing at the same rate as our body is changing. Because we are identified with this (body), the world appears to be stationary. If you come out of that delusion, you will find that your Inner Eye is open; you will see that it is all an expression of God outside. So, this is the way.
What will happen if you come in contact, have a conscious, beatific vision of God? The result will be that all your sins which you have committed in the past up to date, ever since you left the Father’s Home – Sach Khand –, will be washed away.
He, Swami Ji, gives an example: there are great stores of wood and if you just put a little fire in them, they will burn down to ashes. Similarly, you have got innumerable sins ever since you left the House of the Father. If you take a little bit of the Light which the Master gives you, all of these sins will be burned away with It. The reason is that when you become a Conscious Co-Worker of the Divine Plan, the ego is lost, who will suffer? In all other actions, good or bad, we are the doer: As we sow, so shall we reap. If you see that it is that Power what is working, not we, we are mere puppets in His hands, naturally there is nobody to bear the fruit of it. As you sow, so shall you reap. There is nobody to reap it because you have become a Conscious Co-Worker of the Divine Plan. So, that Light you can get from the Master. By coming in contact with that God-into-expression-Power, the two aspects of which are Light and Sound, you will burn away all of your sins, accumulated ever since you have left the Father’s Home.
Masters always say,
Please, whatever you have been given, just stick to It like anything.
Now, Guru Ram Das says,
This is what the Master gives you.
And the Master – what is He? He is the Word made flesh. He is Light personified, He is Sound personified. When you come near Him, that very thing which He personifies – the Word made flesh in its two aspects of Light and Sound that radiates from the body of the Saint, the Master. If you just sit in that field or area and you become receptive, you will have that radiation. As is the case with perfumed flowers, if you sit by them – near them – you will get perfume, isn’t it so? Without touching them! If there is a room and you keep some perfumed flowers in it, the whole room will be perfumed.
They say,
What to do? Just sit in the company, have a Satsang in the company of such Saints Who are Word made flesh, and be receptive to Them,
not being like the man sitting in the church and thinking of the play ground.
There is radiation. Each man has his (own) radiation. Those who have got stronger radiation that radiation gives what is already within them. Because They are Word made flesh that is radiated. To sit in the field or area of the radiation of the Saints gives you all these things straightaway. The only thing required is to be receptive.
Maulana Rumi says,
If you have the chance of sitting by a Saint even for an hour,
– in the manner as I am explaining to you –
that will give you better results than to sit in penances for a hundred years long!
When you sit by fire, you get heat or warmth; when you try to rub wood against wood, and (strike) stone against other things, how will you get the beat? The radiation works. The physical presence of the Master cannot be underrated. Of course, those who have developed receptivity can derive that benefit even from thousands of miles. Just like radios and televisions – you hear the voice from thousands of miles, and you can see who is speaking and what he is speaking. Similarly, if there is nothing remaining between you and the Master, may be (you are) living on the other side of the seven oceans and the Master on this side, direct your attention to Him. If you have developed that receptivity, you can derive the full benefit of being near Him. That (receptivity) has to be developed. It (to be near the Master even from thousands of miles) is the fate of those who have developed receptivity. But for others, naturally sitting in the physical presence of the Master gives them radical change if they are receptive.
So Masters tell us what to do.
Sit by the company of the Saint within Whom He is manifest.
Then He goes further to say,
To sit in His radiation and come in closer contact with Him,
as a man has got a cloth perfumed, you will touch him, pass by him, your clothes will be perfumed. A man who has got dirty clothes, you touch him, you will get the bad odour, your clothes will be smelling bad. The whole thing is to sit within the radiation, in the field of action of radiation; you will derive wonderful (results).
Not like even: some people sit here, then (say), ‘I did not hear,’ because he was not there; body was there of course. So when you’d like to derive full benefit of the physical presence of the Master or suchlike man, then there should remain nothing between you and Him, not even your thinking of the body, too. Look! Eyes are the windows of the soul. These are things written in scriptures.
Now Guru Ram Das speaks about other things
Those who are coloured with the worldly colour, those who have got bad odour,
He says,
don’t go near them. They are not in contact with God inside them, they are in contact with the life of the senses outside. All filth is within them. And that very filth is radiated: a bad odour.
Kabir says,
If you find such a man, you run away from him. You should not pass near to him because you might have an infection.
If you happen to talk to such a man, it is just like a scorpion when it stings. Do you know? It is like an ordinary pinprick, but later on there is terrible pain. If you come across such a man, naturally at that time you won’t be feeling much, but later on that develops more and more. So Saints advise,
Don’t have the company of those who are imbued with the filth of the world.
Their radiation gives you all that filth; the atmosphere is charged with that. Kabir gives you an example, as follows:
If there are some threads, with all knots in them, what will you get from them? Because all knots are there, you cannot draw long thread out of that, and the cloth cannot be woven.
Similarly He says,
Those people are already in doubt; they have not seen God. They are just given up to outer enjoyments like anything. That very thing radiates from (them in) their company. So, avoid that.
Then again He says,
What should you do? Seek the company of a Saint. Go near Him. Try to remain receptive to the radiation – may be at thousands of miles, or close to Him – with full receptivity.
The God or Word which is manifest there will give you an incentive or boost: you will find that very God within you, with only a little thought of His! Hundreds may sit; He (the Master) gives a little thought, and the outward expression of our soul, the attention, is withdrawn from outside, from the body, and you have a glimpse of Him (within). Is it not wonderful?
I was defining Satsang, what is Satsang. Make the best use of it. Moreover, Christ said,
When more than one man sit in my name, I am there.
When you sit together in the sweet remembrance of the God-into-expression-Power, or the Human Pole at which He is manifest, you will have the effect by radiation. When people sit in such rapt attention, they sometimes see the Form of the Master, too, with open eyes. This is the feat of receptivity. We should learn how to hold Satsang.
The Master prays,
Oh God, You are the Highest of the Highest. We are wearing physical bodies, astral bodies, causal bodies, super-causal (bodies). We are on the earth, You are in the Sky. How can we meet You, unless we rise up to that level?
You see?
Is there any remedy for that?
They say,
How to come up to that level where You are, nearer to You?
That (remedy) is the company of the Saints, when you become receptive.
Masters tell us in detail everything that is given in the scriptures. To have the right interpretation thereof, you must have somebody Who has experienced that (mentioned in the scriptures). I have just been explaining to you one pillar, Satsang, of the three pillars which are most important in the Surat Shabd Yoga.
They, the Masters, give you a contact with Sat Naam within you, and in the company of Word made flesh you have a boost. All other Masters also say the same thing, in Their own languages, of course:
To come into contact with the God-into-expression-Power is coming in contact with the Water of Life, the Nectar of Life. That is the Bread of Life.
That comes from where? From Heaven.
Whosoever partaketh of It shall have Everlasting Life.
This (inner) contact can be given by Whom? By Him Who is already Word made flesh – no intellectual can give you that. Of course, if He Who is the mouthpiece of that God-Power is a learned man, He will tell you these things, giving so many instances from literature and elsewhere. Even if He does not have any degrees of outward education, He can give you a contact. You can have that by radiation by coming near in the field of action or the area. That’s the only difference.
So man-body is the highest in all creation. In this man-body, the Ultimate Goal is to have a beatific vision of God. That’s all before we die!
Amongst the Hindus, there is a custom that when a man is just ready to die, people light a candle and put it on the palm of the dying man and tell him to look into the flame of this candle. The mantra which they read out means, ‘This light will accompany you hereafter.’ The light and the palm of the dying man remain here. What is (the value of) that candle which is outward?
Take heed that the Light which is within you is not darkness,
that’s all.
You now see the beauty of the Surat Shabd Yoga you have got? No other yoga can vie with it; they have their own scope. That’s right.
What is to be done? When you have got it (Inner Contact), enjoy it. Make it a point, you see. That is the most important and most personal question, private work that you have got. We do not find time for that, and for worldly things, which will not accompany us, we put in (time) from morning till night. Then we come and say we have got no time to attend to that (Spiritual Practices). At least, in that case if you have got ‘no time,’ then surely you will have time to repent, to cry, to shed tears, at a time when nothing can be done.
So that is why all Masters enjoin,
Catch the time by the forelock. Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.
That does not affect your (outer) labels ethically. You are a man, you see; man-body is the temple of God: you are simply to invert (your attention). How to invert? That demonstration is given by a Master; follow it accurately! Every Saint has His past and every sinner a future.
So, please, Time and tide wait for no man. You know? Time and tide wait for no man. Time is passing away. Make the best use of the time at your disposal. What has passed is past; what will come in the future, we will see. Live in the living present. Let no second pass, no minute pass without It (Inner Remembrance).
This (inversion of attention) is what the Masters want from those who come to Them, who are sent by God to Them, of course. It is He Who sends and it is He in Him (the Master) Who gives, not the Son of man. We respect that Son of man, Living Human Pole, through Whom this Thing (Inner Contact) is given and in Whom He, God, is manifest. Wherever such Masters put Their feet, those become the places of pilgrimage. He is the moving (place of) pilgrimage on earth. Wherever He sits, that becomes a place of pilgrimage. Make the best use of the radiation you receive in the company of a Saint. Whatever you have got, put more time into it by regular practices. Snatch away as much time as you can for that purpose, because that is your and your only work. That will help you here and hereafter – in both the worlds. All other things will leave you, but the Word and the Word-made-flesh will never leave you, not even after death. He will be extending all feasible help and protection to you wherever you are, near and far, that makes no difference. All Masters, all scriptures say these things.