True Master and His Mission

XII

Man is generally described as an inverted tree, for his roots are in the eye focus, the seat of the soul above, while his limbs and branches are spreading downwards in the world. As it is by the roots that a tree draws its sustenance from the soil, so our roots, the soul currents, draw their food for us from the Sound Current made manifest within. It is thus the Master-Soul that provides us with manna or the Bread of Life and Elixir or the Living Water.

It is by linking the soul current with the Sound Current that a Perfect Master provides the means wherewith the spirit gets its substance and helps to keep the mind and the body under proper control. The more one partakes of this heavenly food, the more one grows from strength to strength, until one becomes a living soul, fully conscious of the Divine Power playing in and around him.

On reaching the court of God, one gets a right royal welcome from the spirits already there. This is how the law of Divine Dispensation works and God fulfils His purpose. When He sees us crying helplessly in the iron grip of toils, troubles, and tribulations with no way out of the giant mill stones of the world, His compassion is stirred to the core, and He hastens the process of deliverance and reveals to us the avenues of escape through His Elect.

Nanak says:

One who gets a Satguru by his side, all his accounts are settled right here and now.

What is stated above is perfectly correct. We, however, delight to take things by halves, as may suit our own convenience and cleverly try to distort the truth by looking at it obliquely. If we on our part do our duty towards the Master by abstaining from the wrongful acts, then alone the Master absolves us from the accumulated sins of past ages. We must, therefore, learn to stand and hold our ground firmly, somewhere, before we can make a beginning for the Inner Journey that lies ahead.

In the time of Hazur, whenever a person got up in the congregation to confess a deviation from the path of rectitude, Hazur used to lift His hand and graciously say:

Thus far and no further.

He exhorted sincere repentance for the past, admonished against future lapses, and strongly advised meditation – communion with the Holy Word – as the sole panacea for all ills of life. It may be possible to cure a person of the poison already taken and in the stomach, provided, of course, no further doses of it are swallowed. What do we do? We cry and cry with convulsions and contortions and yet go on taking more and more of the deleterious matter. This is how Hazur, in such simple words, used to advise all defaulters.

A Master-Soul looks after His jivas more tenderly than any mother would take care of her child. We, like a newborn babe, as we are for the Master, can hardly know and much less realise the loving care He bestows on us and the way He saves us at every step from coming to any harm, and guides us on the Inner Spiritual Path leading to the Kingdom of God.

Strange are His doings,

Nanak glorifies Him. Isn’t it really strange that God Himself sends us into the world and again He Himself – in the garb of a Godman – comes to take us back. His greatness defies all understanding:

Oh Nanak! Satguru opens the Inner Eye. And one begins to see Truth within oneself. 

This then is the secret of God-Realisation. It needs no special qualifications. It is not necessary to leave one’s hearth and home. Live in the world, amidst your kith and kin, make an honest livelihood for yourself, help your friends and relations. Alongside this routine of family life, practise the Holy Word as may have been advised by a Master-Soul. You will, in course of time, become a changed man – totally changed from what you were and see for yourself how God’s Power works for you and does everything for you. You will become altogether free and fearless.

Whenever a Master-Saint comes into the world, He showers His blessings on all alike. We sitting here can hardly do justice to the Glory that was Hazur’s. A Godman like God Himself is Indefinable and Unfathomable. Blessed indeed are they who had an opportunity to see Him and meet Him, came in direct contact with Him, and had the good fortune to be associated with Him.

A faqir, mendicant, once came to Prophet Mohammad. As the Prophet was not at home, the faqir went away disappointed. On his return, the Prophet, when informed by his servant about the faqir, asked him if he, the servant, had met the faqir. The servant said he had only had a glimpse of him as the faqir had by then turned his back and was going away. The Prophet blessed the servant at his good luck of having seen such a sage, even from behind. Such indeed is the Glory of a person who meets a Man-of-God, what to speak of those who met Hazur face to face, sat at His Lotus Feet, and drew inspiration from Him. We must strive to be the worthy children of the worthy Father so that the world may glorify Him. It can be done not by mere acknowledgement, but by actually following and living up to His teachings. Every father wishes that his son should excel him in prowess and prestige. But who can excel the Godman? Should we become Guru-man, this would be quite enough. What I mean to stress is that we may practise the Word and commune with the Word, the living manifestation of the Living God, revealed unto us by the God in man – Hazur.