The Sultan-ul-Azkar

Surat Shabd Yoga

Grow not skeptical, but attune thyself to the Sound coming down from the Heavens, thy soul shall have revelations from afar.

What are these? The glimpses of the Unrevealed; were I to speak of these sweet melodies, even the dead shall rise from their graves.

Maulana Rumi always taught that the Master or Murshid-i-Kamil was God on earth teaching through the pole of man. It was the law that if mankind wished to reach God then they had to come to the feet of a Godman.

Once the disciple Parvana Muin al-din said to the Master:

Since God is of such loving kindness, then everyone who seeks in truth must find.

The Maulana answered,

Without a Spiritual Guide this cannot come to pass.

What sort of man should this Spiritual Guide be?

Rumi said,

Let Him be Hindu, Arab or infidel even; if He can show you the way, follow Him.

The Master then further explained to His disciple the need for obedience and receptivity to the Master. He told him that when the disciple is obedient and bound to the Master, then the Master is bound to secure the welfare of the disciple … 

But they must be obedient in such a fashion that whatever the Saint does they are obedient, and do not have recourse to their own intellect.

When one becomes receptive to the Master then the glories of the Inner Light and Sound open up and one becomes a knower of the beyond.

As the Light of the Master dawns on the soul one gets to know the secrets of both the worlds.

Maulana Rumi said that there was indeed an effulgent Sun that lies hidden in the Godman. To those who come to Him He opens the Inner Eye and reveals this Sun in all Glory as they progress on the Way. Rumi further said that God Himself also lies hidden in the Godman in all fullness and that too becomes revealed to the True Seeker. From His Master Shamas-i-Tabrez, Maulana Rumi learned these great secrets and realised them fully. He became absorbed in the Music of the Five Naubats and then Himself gave out this secret to mankind at large. Some hints were given of the landmarks of the way for posterity and then exhortation was given to seek out the Living Master of the age Who alone could give one an actual experience of the Inner Glories and put one on the Way back to God in this very life.

Should ye desire to see this refulgent Light, turn ye homeward like Abraham. Pass through the big star and the sky and the blue beyond, steadily walk over the sun and the moon and then you will find yourself in the heavenly presence.

Such experiences indeed are nowadays seen and heard – without eyes or ears – by the hungry souls who have congregated at the graceful feet of the Living Master Kirpal Singh.

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Source: ‘The Life and Teachings of Maulana Rumi – The Sultan-ul-Azkar’‚ by Michael Raysson. The text was published in the Sat Sandesh issue May 1971.