The Purpose of Human Life
III
People generally get lost in various Names of God. The whole world talks of Naam, but there are only a few who know the Real Significance of Naam. It is a practical subject. Unless we realise ourselves by rising above body consciousness, soul cannot establish a contact with the Oversoul. We have, therefore, to link our soul with Naam:
Those Who have communed with the Word, Their toils shall end; not only shall They have salvation, oh Nanak, but many more shall find freedom with Them.
Jap Ji / Finale
Again we have in Gurbani:
A Gurumukh (beloved of the Master) can liberate millions of souls by imparting just a particle of His Life-Impulse.
Gurbani
Emerson says:
The keynote to success is one’s own thoughts.
To make a mark in any walk of life, you have to concentrate your attention on that particular aspect. Similarly, if you concentrate your attention on Overself, you will become spiritually great.
Buleh Shah, a Muslim Saint, inquired from His Spiritual Guide as to how one could find God?
The guide replied:
It is as easy as withdrawing the attention from here (world) and connecting it there (the Word).
Our Very Self is our attention. We are soul and not the body, but we are engrossed in our bodies.
Swami Ji tells us:
Let anyone of us connect his attention with the Word. This body and wealth will not be of any help when confronted with the Negative Power.
The human body is the soul’s first companion. It comes first with the soul when the child is born. But even this companion leaves us at the time of death, not to mention other worldly associations acquired by us. Our own being, having constant attachment with the physical world, has fallen to the latter’s level. As a result, we have to come to this mortal world again and again.
Gurbani says:
Soul goes where there is attachment.
If we are able to analyse the self in our lifetime and learn to rise above body consciousness by getting a higher contact with Naam, we experience such a bliss as to forget all worldly pleasures and attachments:
Worldly pleasures are nowhere before the Divide Bliss.
Gurbani
That is why Saints have taught:
Oh friend, give up the insipid sensual pleasures, And drink the sweet elixir of Naam.
Gurbani
When one gets a taste of the Real Bliss, the pleasures become insipid. The Real Bliss is either within our Inner Being or in Naam – God-into-action-Power – since soul is its essence.
Soul is a spark of the Divine Essence. It is bliss in itself, and it is a conscious entity. It is the soul which is the source of all bliss and not the body and worldly things. Saints have warned us that worldly objects, in which our attention is engrossed, are not going to be of real help to us. Not only that all these worldly objects will stay back at the time of death, but their constant attachment will bring the soul back again and again to this world.
What does it profit a man to gain the possession of the whole world and to lose one’s own soul.
The soul resides in this house – body. It has to go out of this mortal frame leaving everything behind. When the time comes to vacate this body, one is greatly distressed because of man’s attachment with the body. Repenting then is of no avail. If during one’s lifetime the soul establishes a contact with the beyond, it attains perfect peace. But, we never think of the world beyond.
We generally follow the maxim: Eat, drink, and be merry. If someone reminds us of death, we just ignore it by saying that we will face it when it comes. This is not a wise approach. If a pigeon closes its eyes at the sight of a cat, the cat is not going to spare it. Everyone has to leave the body. There is no exception to the rule.
Emperors or kings, rich or poor, all have but to go in their turn.
Gurbani
We all have to go, but we do not know when. We should be prepared for the change. Are we?
Everyone is scared of death and wishes to live till Eternity; with Guru’s Grace, if one learns to die while alive, one can become a Conscious Co-Worker of the Lord. Whosoever so dies, gets salvation.
Gurbani