Search for Truth

I

We are neither much concerned with races and religions nor with any social order. The problem before us is that of God or of Godmen Who found God. We are all worshippers of the Reality that is One and pervading everywhere:

Lovers may be myriads, but the Beloved is One. The creeds and faiths may be different, but the objective is one.

We are all seekers after God – God of the entire universe and God of the learned and the unlettered. He has nothing to do with Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, or Christianity. He is One and only One, and we are His worshippers. Devotion to the Master is a sine qua non on the Path Godward.

Christ said:

I am the vine and thou art the branches. So long as the branches are embedded in the vine, they are bound to bring forth fruit.

It means that the seekers after God must strike their roots in the Godman. Without devotion to the Master, one cannot achieve anything. Guru precedes God. We have not seen God nor can we see Him. He is at a level much higher than that on which we are. He is the subtlest of the subtle and beyond comprehension. So long as we do not rise to His level and become as subtle as He is, we cannot see Him. Each one has his own range of vision. Even the atmosphere around us is full of tiny living creatures called microbes, but we cannot see them without the help of a microscope. It is the microscope that changes the level of our vision, and we begin to see them magnified.

The first thing for man is to rise to God’s level. In the Godman, God is fully manifested. If we become Guruman, we rise to the level of God and begin to see the Power and Spirit of God in Him. We can neither visualise God nor contemplate Him, as He is formless. In the Guru, He assumes a form. Devotion to Guru then is devotion to God in Him. Guru, in fact, is not the body but the Godpower working in and through that body. He is the Human Pole on which the Divine Power works and carries on the work of regeneration. This Power neither takes birth nor dies. It eternally remains the same:

God cannot speak unless He assumes a human form. Without a human form how can the said formless express Himself?

Guru is thus the Human Pole of God and works like a live switch with all the power of the power-house behind it. Man is to be the teacher of man. Even to know God one has to seek the help of a God-teacher. In God-teacher or the Guru, the Power of God surges in fullness. His eyes are the overflowing cups of Divinity. In His presence, one loses all thoughts of himself, of the world here, or of the world hereafter. From this stage begins Gurubhakti – worshipful devotion to the Master. From now on, the disciple lives in and for the Master. Saint Paul, when He rose into higher consciousness of Christ-Power, said:

It is I. No, not now I, but Christ lives in me.

Khawaja Hafiz¹, in his own way, speaks of the same thing:

My whole being is so permeated with the Love of the Lord that I have now no thought of tile self and my old self has completely disappeared. Oh Lord, I am now Thine and Thou art mine; I am the body and Thou art my very soul. Henceforth no one can say that we are apart from each other.

Elsewhere, this Sufi mystic has said:

Since I am united with my Beloved, I have lost all sense of fear; one who has sunk deep into the water of life can have no fear of death.

The Apostle, when One with Christ, said:

I can now fearlessly walk through the shadow of the valley of death for Thou art with me.

It is a question of grafting – grafting a branch of one tree into another tree. What happens? The fruit of the second tree, while retaining the shape and colour of its own, acquires the taste and flavour of the other. This is exactly what happens when the Guru-Power or Life-Impulse of the Guru works upon the disciple. While remaining as before, the disciple is now no longer his previous self, for he has been bought with a ransom. To be One with God – Fana-fil-allah – one has first to be One with the Godman – Fana-fil-sheik. This is the easiest way to reach God. It is the Atman in us that has to realise Param Atman. A part is always in search of the whole. We are so constituted that we cannot rest until we rest in Him. The flame of a lighted candle even if turned upside down would still rise upwards. A clod of earth if thrown upward is sure to come down. This is the law of gravitation. Everything tends to move towards its source. A conscious entity cannot but seek the Ocean of All-Consciousness. So the search for God is something natural in man. Why? Because we are in search of peace and happiness. But unfortunately, our search is in a wrong direction. We try to seek happiness in the world without us. And strangely enough, whatever little pleasure we get because of mental concentration we call it happiness. It is, however, a misnomer to call sense-pleasures as happiness. When the Reality dawns in us, then we realise our mistake.

The real happiness lies in us. It is born of Love – Love of the self in us and Love of the Overself which, too, is in us. God is the Soul of our soul. Soul is of the same essence as God. There is thus an innate similarity between the two. But for want of real knowledge and lack of competent teachers, we do not understand the exact position. Like a butterfly, we flit from flower to flower in search of honey, or like a musk-deer, go in search of musk from place to place. Little do we know that the honey and musk lie at the very centre of our being within us. A child takes delight on a playground, while an intellectual person revels in his intellect. On the other hand, a young man seeks pleasure in his family. This is how happiness travels from one place to another, but it defies all our attempts to arrive at it. When one gets tired, one tries to search for it elsewhere. This is the beginning of wisdom. From without he turns inwards. God, Who is the knower of all hearts, makes some provision for the aspirant, that leads the Seeker after Truth to Someone Who has realised Truth in Himself and is competent to help us Truthward. We have before us a Psalm from Guru Ram Das². Let us see what He has to say:

I am smitten by the arrow of God’s Love.

It is a beautiful way of describing one’s Love for the Lord. Once this Love enters into the heart, it gets deeper and deeper with time. It is something quite different from the love for worldly things. Guru Ram Das in this Psalm is giving us a pen-picture of His own mind. He had an intense Love for God, and it worked like an obsession in Him. He now goes on to explain what it meant to Him:

I am feeling restless for the sight of God, as restless as a thirsty man in need of water.

In this couplet, an attempt has been made to describe the nature of longing in Him. The Great Teacher wants to see God face to face. He likens His condition to a person dying for want of water. You can well imagine what a painful state this is. Lovers always pine and wither away in their Love for their Beloved. God is Love. Our soul, which is of the essence of God, is also dyed in the colour of Love. It is but natural with man to be in love with one thing or another. As at present, we are in love with our body and bodily connections – family and children, friends and relations, wealth and possessions. But all these things you will realise are of an impermanent nature. Again, they are changing from moment to moment. And, ultimately, they do not abide with us forever. Either we are obliged to leave them, or they leave us in course of time. This being the case, we cannot derive permanent pleasure from them. It is just a transitory affair.

Guru Arjan³ tells us in this context:

We are in love with all that is visible; oh Lord, how can we love Thee, the Eternal One.

Let me say that this is not enough. It is a kind of attachment. We are momentarily carried away by the glitter and glamour of worldly things. We see things superficially. We do not realise that they would not remain with us for any length of time. The pleasures of the world come and go like pictures on the screen. How can we have happiness with passing shadows? Real Happiness is a state of the mind.

The Saints, therefore, emphasise:

If ye are in search of Real Happiness, take refuge at the feet of the Lord.

The Power of the Lord is All-Pervading and All-Permeating. The Saints are worshippers of the Supreme Being alone. There is no god but God. They tell us to be worshippers of the One God. They come into the world to connect us with God. Their mission is not to establish personal connections with Themselves. They are the Messiahs or the Messengers of God. They bring His message to us. They live in the will of God and have no will of Their own.

Kabir⁴ always prayed:

My wish is of no consequence; whatever is, is from Thee.

We may take the writings of any Saint. In each one, we find the praises of the Lord. They have nothing to say of Themselves.

Christ speaking of Himself said:

I do nothing on my own. I do as my Father willeth me to do.

They have no sense of I-ness in Them. The Great Teacher has a great anguish in His heart. The wearer knows where the shoe pinches. The seekers after God are ever in a state of crucifixion. Why? One has to rise above the cross of the body – the point of intersection between the physical and the astral worlds in man – the eye-focus:

The Beloved lives far above;

How can we reach Him?

It is a question of Inner Struggle between the mind and the soul. The soul is keen to reach the Oversoul – God. The soul is languishing in the Love of the Lord. One wants either to go up to God or God to come down to him. There is no third alternative. He wants to see the Reality face to face and be absorbed in Him. This is the way of Love.

Amir Khusro⁵, a mystic poet, said:

Oh God! come unto me and dwell in the pupil of my eyes. Let Thou see me and I see Thee. Let our Love-play be between us alone.

Kabir likewise says:

Come Thou into the chamber of my eyes and rest a while there; I would hide Thee with my eyelashes and try to win Thee over.

This is how the lovers talk. They are bubbling over with Love – of the Lord. This is the way to be One with God. Spirituality cannot be taught but may be caught as an infection from One Who has it in Himself. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. It is just like splitting the milk with a pinch of curd. in the company of such a One, we begin to put on some of His colour. A certain change is surely to be felt. The atmospheric effect cannot but affect us to a certain extent.

The way to God lies through Love. Love is the connecting link between the soul and the Oversoul. Whatever practices and performances we do are the means for igniting the flame of Love in us. But unfortunately, we engage in them just as a matter of routine on the physical level like gymnastics, and these do not bring about an Inner Change. As such, they are not of much value to us. It is, therefore, said:

One may, for hundreds of years, perform practices and penances and yet be far removed from God. One cannot win God without lighting the flame of Love in him.

We have to fan the fire of Love in us. Without Love we cannot reach God, for He is Love. In the fire of Love, nothing survives but the Beloved.

In the Qur’an it is said:

Love is a forest fire that consumes everything but the object of Love.

Again, lLve is likened to an eagle, seeing which all the tiny birds fly away to save themselves. Who can stand this terrible ordeal? None but One Who has ignited the fire.

Guru Gobind Singh⁶, the tenth Guru in succession to Nanak⁷, has rightly said:

Listen ye all with attention – verily I tell ye that it is through Love that one reaches unto God.

Guru Ram Das, having developed the fire of Love in Him for the Lord, is now feeling restless like a thirsty person for water. He then goes on to explain:

God alone knows the condition of my mind and the great anguish in me.

You would please realise that it is only the Beloved who can understand the excruciating pain in the heart of the lover. God is the knower of all hearts, and He can know best who is pining for Him. It is only one who has passed through this stage who can visualise what it is. I may tell you of the condition of my mind in the year 1911 or 1912. In those days I had a great Inner Urge for God. It may be due partly to my past karmas and partly to the present development. While sitting in the office, tears would involuntarily flow from my eyes and spoil the papers before me. I wondered what it could be. In those days, I was under orders of transfer, and my colleagues and home-folk thought that I had taken to heart my transfer orders. What could they know the real state of my mind?

The mystery of life is the greatest mystery in life. Once this question crops up, one cannot ignore it, however best one may try to do so. It keeps on revolving again and again and presents itself in so many different ways. I had an opportunity to sit beside a dying person. That had a tremendous effect on me. With the purity of life, I had also developed the faculty to read the future. All these came to me in a natural way. But with all these I could not solve the enigma of life. The sight of the dying one before my very eyes quickened the intensity of my heart. I could feel that there was something that was slipping out of the person, but I could not make out what it was. I had yet no inkling of the 
Life-Impulse. While it was still surging in me, it was ebbing out in the other. The lady on the deathbed called her friends and relations to meet them before leaving them for good. And in an instant thereafter she closed her eyes and never to open again. This is how she passed away in my very presence, and I felt bewildered. I was flabbergasted to see the dead body before me. The life in her had gone out, but I still felt that it was working in me.

I followed the bier to the cremation ground along with others. While on the way, my eyes inquiringly looked at the bier but could not make out anything. Even the learned and the wise do not know how to solve this mystery. Upon reaching the cremation ground, I saw the dead body of an old man being laid on the funeral pyre. Alongside that pyre, we set up another pyre for the body of the young lady that we had carried on our shoulders. The contrast between the two scenes – the young and the old – deepened the anguish in my heart. Neither one could escape the clutches of death. Both were lying lifeless before me. I wanted to know what life was. I tried to find the answer to my problem in the books. The whole night I would go on reading, but the books did not provide me with any solution. All that I could gather from them were veiled references here and there. At some places I could get tall and loud professions from the sayings of Mahatmas, as recorded in those books, advising one to do this or that. The books even would tell that it was a question of death-in-life. But how it could be done was the problem. For this, there was no answer in the books. Bookish knowledge cannot give that which one can get from practical experience. It is a question of self-analysis.

A Real Master can give you some experience of the way-out. I came to understand the great mystery in its practical aspect only when I came to the Lotus Feet of my Master, Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj⁸. So all things work their way and shape themselves when there is an intense longing for something. I alone knew as to why I was shedding tears in those days. How could others know of it?

In the world we see people weeping and wailing for one thing or another. All these tears are for the things of the world. Very few weep for the other world – life hereafter. A Real Seeker after God is always in a state of acute restlessness; and this, invariably, is a happy augury. The thick and lowering clouds are the harbinger of rain. The fruit trees bring forth buds and flowers before bearing the actual fruit. So this was the condition of the mind of Guru Ram Das.

In a condition like this, one invariably says:

Oh Lord! a moment’s separation from Thee prolongs into a life’s agony.

A night of separation is a terrible hell. The worldly-wise weep for the world, but a devotee weeps for the Lord:

It is through tears that one reaches God; if one could get Him easily, then who would wear the widow’s weeds?

It is necessary to give vent to the feelings deeply set in one’s heart. It is by copious tears that we can wash down impressions of ages lying in the folds of the mind. Maulana Rumi⁹ tells us that a pilgrimage to Kaaba is possible only through the sea route and not by land. So God can only be reached through the pearly tears flowing down one’s checks. This then is the state of Guru Ram Das. The world does not know what it is. But God knows it all right.

He who talks to me of my Beloved Lord is next of kin to me.

In these memorable words, the Guru has given a beautiful picture of His Inner Feelings. Are we not always anxious to hear about one who is near and dear to us? God is the dearest of the dear and the nearest of the near. We are all in search of God and are keen to hear about Him. Where is He? How can He be found? How can He be reconciled to us? Lastly, how can He be won over? God is the sole object of our desire, and for His sake we should be ready to sacrifice all including our own self. In Love one expands and feels that He is the Richest Person on earth, capable of giving away everything for His sake both Himself and His world. We are so keen to hear of Him and His tales that whosoever speaks of Him endears Himself to us. The person may be a total stranger to us, and yet we begin to love Him because of the God’s tidings that He brings to us.

Guru Arjan likewise says:

Whosoever would take me to my beloved God, I would happily sell myself as a slave to such a one.

Why should one be a slave to another for life?

For I am so keen to see my Beloved face to face.

This then is the condition of the mind of one who is languishing in his Love for the Lord. In such a state of mind, one welcomes any and everybody who can narrate to us the Love yarns. The storyteller may be anybody in the world. We are not concerned with his caste or creed or the social order to which he belongs. We are all tipplers in the Divine Tavern. We all love Divine Intoxication. When a number of bibblers can sit together and enjoy, why cannot the devotees of God? It means that we have not yet developed Love of God. When God-Power resides in all of us, why is there Love lost amongst us? The first step in Spirituality is to realise this fundamental principle. One who understands this basic principle puts on a different colour:

Ever since I have come into the fold of a Godman, I have lost all sense of duality and none is a stranger unto me; I am now a friend to all and everyone loves me.

This then is the signal change that one feels in him when he begins to associate with a Saint. One begins to love the world because he sees the Power of God in everyone, without any distinction on grounds of religion, caste, or creed. This is the first lesson that one gets from Satguru.

Satguru is known for His all-embracing Love:

In His company all sit together forming one Holy Family.

This is why Guru Ram Das considers everybody as His real friend and a close relation. On the other hand, we are all anthropocentric and have not yet known that we are brothers and sisters in God. All relationships of the world remain in the world when the soul departs. On the other hand, the Guru knits us into a kind of brotherhood that is everlasting. How? He places a common target before us – the ideal of God-Realisation. When the goal is the same, we have to tread the common Path leading unto the Goal. Ultimately, we shall all meet in God. Once I questioned my Master as to how all the disciples would meet in the end when each one has his own time and measure of advance on the Spiritual Path.

Hazur replied:

We have all to go across the river of life. Some may ferry over by the first boat and some by the next. Ultimately the port of disembarkation is the same for all. We shall all meet at that port.

It is, therefore, said:

The Guru seeks His own and unites them in True Relationship which is eternally the same.

This is the kind of relationship in which we are united by the Master. The people of the world come and go in their own turn and are soon forgotten. But the Godly People remain forever with us both here and in the hereafter. They speak to us of things that are dear to us. They, in fact, are our Real Companions. The birds of the same feather fly together. A devotee of the Lord delights in hearing of the Lord. We have respect for all religious leaders, no matter to what social order they belong or wherever they may happen to be. The distinctions are only on bodily level. The soul is the reality, and has no caste, colour, or creed. From the level of the soul, we are all equal. Herein lies Unity in diversity. We have forgotten it. An Awakened Person brings home this fact to us. He makes us conscious of it. As we transcend the body, our consciousness expands and gets nearer to All-Consciousness. In this way, we become conscious of the purpose and plan of God. Then we realise that we are the children of One God, and all of us have to live together as brothers and sisters in God:

Let all of us unite together as friendly maidens and sing praises of the Lord, after having taken to heart the lessons in God-Love from a Godman.

In oriental terminology, God alone is considered as the bridegroom, while all the souls emanating from Him are regarded as brides or damsels. Those who commune with the Lord enter into an Eternal Wedlock and are forever happy. The earthly unions are short lived – may be 10, 50, or even 1000 years, if possible. Guru Ram Das, therefore, advises us that we should learn to sit together as friends in God and take delight in nothing but talking of God. We can sing praises of the Lord only after a Satguru has given us an Inner Contact with God-Power. Without this actual experience, we do so only after reading of God in the scriptures or hearing of Him from others. This singing is of a secondary type. But when we sing after having seen the Reality and tasted of Divine Intoxication, our singing would be of a transcendental nature. What a world of difference between the two. The songs may be the same, but the singers are different.

The devotees of the Lord remain in touch with the Lord. They see Him face to face. They live in a state of perpetual intoxication. When they sing of God, they do so in a way peculiar to them. Theirs are a typical rhythm and strain. Their songs automatically flow from the depths of their hearts and deeply affect those who hear them. We cannot get this taste and flavour from the songs of those who have no practical experience of God. With an experience of Godpower in the Godman, we cannot but spontaneously sing of Him. Satguru is the fountain of the Power and Spirit of God. He gives us a taste of that Elixir. In His company, our intellect grows still and we begin to rise above it. Without this integrated experience, our songs, however sweet and melodious, are of a second rate. Why? Because our intellect, all the time, goes on thinking of one thing or the other. This perpetual vibration in the mental zone proves a great hurdle in our way. We may start with the best of intentions and cleanest of motives, but we cannot stop the intellect from working. In the depth of the mind, undercurrents are perpetually in motion. In course of time, even the good custom corrupts itself. All thoughts whether good or bad take us into expansion. This being the case, our mind never gets stilled. Without stilling the mind, we cannot move ahead. It is only the mind in equipoise that can shoot ahead and find its way out. The question is one of single-mindedness. By sitting together in a genial company, we think and talk of the Love of God and Love of the Godman. This helps us to gather our scattered thoughts.

It is, therefore, said:

Sit ye together as member of a single family; sink down all differences and direct your attention Godward.

There is a great blessing in sitting together.

The Lord hath said:

Where two or three persons sit in my Name, I am with them.

Again, in sitting together we try to understand the point of view of each other. When we learn the correct position, we become tolerant of others’ views. And still more, we escape from the evil of double-mindedness. When like-minded persons meet, they would naturally talk of nothing but what is of common interest – God and Love of God. This would lead to singleness of purpose. Thus, we are saved from idle talk of unduly praising or disparaging others.

It is, therefore, said:

When the entire creation is the manifestation of the Holy Light, the manifested beings are nothing but holy at the core of their being, no matter what their acts.

The duality between man and man is only at the surface. Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so. One may be rich and another poor. One may appear to be good or bad, but we cannot pass judgement on them. Each one has the Power of God in him. We are all one on the body level, as all human beings take the same pattern within and without. We are born alike with equal privileges from God. God made man – a conscious entity – after His own image. Man is a part of All-Consciousness. It is by experience that we come to this conclusion may be after getting through the storms and stresses of life in the living present or in previous incarnations. Man is always in the making. He may learn today or tomorrow or at some distant date. We are all on the Way. The Real Happiness lies somewhere else. It comes only by union with the Whole. This is why Guru Ram Das advises us to sit together in Love of the Lord, for it would give us clarity of vision, and we will stand on terra firma. Besides this, there is no other remedy on the sense-plane.

Oh God, grant unto Nanak His heart’s desire; bring Him face to face with the Reality so that He may have Peace Eternal.

With this prayer, we come to the finale of the beautiful psalm. This is the highest type of prayer that an Awakened Person could make.

Now we take a hymn from Guru Arjan, the fifth in succession to Nanak. Let us see what He has to say in this context. This talk, too, is similar to the previous one from His immediate predecessor, Guru Ram Das.

In the bottom of my heart, there was a keen desire to meet my Beloved; somehow or other, the Perfect Master has graciously fulfilled my long cherished desire.

The question, once again, is of earnestness. Do we really need God? Sometimes we do ask for God. Even our intellect also, at times, feels the need for God. But does our mind want God? This is the crux of the problem. We ask for things with mental reservations only if they are of any use to us on the physical plane. On the other hand, the mind is entirely dyed in the colour of the world. It has no time to think of anything else. Mind has a great potential in it. What the mind wants, it fervently prays for. At times, it even cries for it. God comes in only as the means for the satisfaction of his worldly desires. And day and night one thinks of nothing else. This is the actual condition of our mind.

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Footnotes: 1) Khawaja Hafiz: Hafiz Shirazi, a well-known mystic poet of Persia. 2) Guru Ram Das (1534–1581): The fourth Guru of the Sikhs. 3) Guru Arjan (1563–1606): The fifth Guru of the Sikhs. He compiled the ‘Adi Granth.’ 4) Kabir Sahib (1440–1518): A well-known Indian Saint Who practised and preached Surat Shabd Yoga. 5) Amir Khusro (1255–1327): A great mystic poet of India. 6) Guru Gobind Singh (1660–1708): The tenth and last Sikh Guru. 7) Guru Nanak (1464–1539): The founder of the Sikh religion. 8) Baba Sawan Singh Ji (1858–1948): The well-known Saint of Beas, Punjab, and the Great Master of Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj. 9) Maulana Rumi: A Great Persian Saint, author of the famous ‘Masnavi.’