What is a True Satsangi

II

If we are true to our own selves, how can we sin? How can we make parties and talk against others: I write you one thing, you write that man, that man writes someone else; and that goes on, creating friction and parties. You say, ‘Oh, well, I have not done anything: I’m quite all right; I’m His slave; I’m His servant; I’ve practised sacrificing’ – that means cutting the very roots! The result is that the whole Satsang is defamed. That has been the cause of trouble here, too, honestly speaking. Through God’s Grace and through your cooperation, I think most of the trouble has subsided. If anything is still there, I would request you to wash it away, by Love.

Do you know how many days I have spent on that? Even in Chicago? We must be true to our own selves. Anytime the Master asked me something, I would answer Him. Why do you conceal it from your Master? We are even sometimes going to, I mean, dethrone the Master, and we make parties like that. What nonsense it is! Is the Master made by you? Or is He made by God? So you are saved from suchlike things if you are true to your own self. The only True Sympathizer of yours is the Master, and nobody else.

So, do nothing for which, after having done it, you have to tell lies. Thank God, thank my Master – the God in Him – and the cooperation of you all, that this thing has subsided. We are now all in a loving embrace. One thing more I would say: try to help somebody else. You are not born for your own selves. Share your incomes with those Poor fellows, those who are needy, those who are hungry, those who are unclothed. Always try to share; because God resides in every heart. I gave you a parable on how to feed each other: 

Don’t bend your arms.

So always stretch out to others. This way you will be saved from many things.

And one thing more: Never try to remain alone, unless you become a Master – perfect. Let all your words and actions be as if you are in His presence, whether you are outside or inside or anywhere.

Two seekers after Truth went to a Master to be put on the way. What did He do? He gave them two pigeons and told them, Go someplace where nobody will see you and kill them. One man went out behind a wall, killed the pigeon, and came back: Master, I’ve killed it. There was nobody there.

The other poor fellow was hunting, knocking about from place to place, in many secret places, many lonely places, from morn to night. He could not find any place where nobody was seeing him. He came back: Master, I’m helpless. I could not find any place where nobody was seeing me. – Who was it? He said, The very pigeon was seeing me. When he went to kill it, it looked at him.

It was the God in him. Just think. These are very simple things, but they are pregnant with meaning. God resides in every heart. He also resides in you. He is watching our every action.

Similarly, God in man, the Master, also looks to our shortcomings, but He does so lovingly. He wants to wash them away. So always remain in His presence. That is why Kabir said,

When the Master initiates you – Master is not the body; it is the God-Power working in Him –, He resides with you forever.

One thing, He is always present. Can you do any sin, tell lies, deceive others, act or pose? No.

And further, just live up to what He says.

If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Their purpose is that They are not to be transcended. If anything happens unknowingly, that is another thing. But don’t intentionally do anything that He wants you not to do. 

If you do these things, you have nothing to fear, even in the three worlds. These are the things that are required – to be lived up to. They are very simple things. What should you do, then? Every day, both in the morning and the evening, put in time for your meditation. How? Like a child. When children sit together, they forget everything. Do it like a child, with a clean heart, with enmity towards no one. The Kingdom of God is for the children. A child goes to his mother. Does he draw any inferences to go to her? He goes simply out of love. He embraces her and goes into her lap. Say your prayers like that.

In the evening, too, keep your Spiritual Diary What do you do in the evening? Introspect yourself like a hard taskmaster: ‘What have I done today?’ In the beginning you won’t find any shortcoming in yourself because it has become a habit. There are so many drawbacks in us. I was a voracious reader of the biographies of the saints and great men, in my student life. I think I read more than 300 biographies. I found that each man made an introspection of his own life; he did something to supervise his own self. But how can we do it? Make no allowances; like a hard taskmaster, don’t spare yourself.

Then what will you do? If you have done anything wrong, repent; that is very necessary.

Shed tears:

God forgive me; I won’t do it in the future.

And then, what will you do? For the future, be on guard. This is what is meant by the diary that has been given to you. I’ve kept a diary all through my life, even as a student. 

We don’t care what we are doing. Something passes out of our mouths and we don’t even know what we are saying. Think twice before you say something: how will it affect another? Think twice about what you write. When you are in anger, don’t reply to anyone. Go to a separate place: like a plague-stricken man, don’t show your face. Be in a normal condition, and then greet him. If a man is not perfect, he has already let himself down, and others are also let down.

The purpose of the diaries is to recall what you have been doing from morn to night. You may have read about the Pelman System of Memory. That system is based on remembering what you did all day. In the beginning you’ll say, ‘I rose up, I took a bath and ate, and went to my business or shop.’ But when you go into it, well, when you were just taking a bath, what were you thinking? Even thoughts are potent. These are the things that have to be watched. If you do it, well – it is not difficult to meet God, but it is difficult to make a man. For that reason: See no evil and hear no evil; talk no evil and think no evil. You will be saved. If anyone sees any evil against anyone, he says, ‘Oh, yes; he’s like that.’ He works like an unpaid apprentice of the C.I.D. – Confidential Investigation Department, the Indian equivalent of the American F.B.I. – of God. He’s watching, I tell you.

We do not care for these things. The result is that we do not progress. If, by God’s Grace, you have been given a contact with the Light and Sound Principle, what stands in the way? Simply these things. So each one of us must work up to that. Some may say, ‘We are seniors’ – that’s all right. Others say, ‘We are old disciples; the new ones coming up are behind us on the Path.’ No, no, no, no. A new initiate who lives like this will go ahead of you. Whoever does it, he will have it, that’s all. So we have to be very careful about that. These are very little things, but little things harm you more than anything else. If you just take care of the pennies, pounds will be saved. If you don’t care for the little things daily crossing your mind – thinking evil of others, seeing evil in others; talking, hearing about it – they, after all, will affect you.

Once there was a rishi living in a jungle. A king went to the jungle to hunt. He found the hut of the rishi and entered it to ask for some water. He had a bow and arrow, and he thought, Perhaps, instead of taking it home, I will keep it here. He said, Rishi, I will leave it here, and when I come back, I will take it with me.

The rishi said, No, no, don’t leave it here. – No, no, the king said, I think you won’t mind it. – All right, said the rishi, Let it remain here.

So the king left the bow and arrow there. Now, the rishi was a rishi. How it affects, I tell you! He would go by the place where it stood and muse, What is it? A bow and arrow. Then he would walk on. Once, twice, thrice a day, when he passed by, his attention fell on those two things. Then one day he thought, Well, let me see what it is, after all. He took it and tried out how it worked. He became a hunter!

If you see things like that, be very cautious. A man who has occult powers can live among the snakes, and the snakes’ poison won’t affect him. But any man who has not got that occult power is bitten and suffers. That is why I sometimes say,

Behave. Be very cautious.

Had the rishi not allowed the king to leave the bow and arrow there, he would have been safe.

But the daily passing by and thinking,

What is it? What is it?,

went to make an impression, until he eventually thought,

Let me see what it is.

And he became a hunter.

If you care for these very small things, you will see for yourself what you will become. Iqbal, a great poet, who has passed away now, said,

Why did prophet Moses go to Mount Sinai to seek God? Did he not know that God is after finding some man on earth? He is looking for us.

We are not men, we are beasts in men. By appearance we have the man-body, but in our habits, our nature, our everything, we are like beasts, like animals; and even worse than that: we are even worse than serpents biting. So, God is in search of a man who is a man. Why should a man go to the mountains? God is searching for us. He is going all around looking for us, but He can find no one.

Baba Jaimal Singh, our Grand-Guru – the Guru Master of our Master –, was living by the river Beas. He went to the Murree mountains and passed by our Master when He was busy in His work as an S.D.O. – a Sub-Divisional Officer in the military Engineering Service. One woman disciple was along with Baba Jaimal Singh, and Baba Jaimal Singh told her, 

I’ve come for this man.

And the disciple said,

He has never accosted You, never greeted You.

And Baba Jaimal Singh said,

Yes, He will.

Even the Masters are seeking for somebody who is a man. After all, it is no easy Job. 

The very soul trembles on becoming a Master. It is a selection by God; with His help only can it be carried on. Never dream of that, I tell you. Be disciples.

The one who becomes a True Disciple is sometimes selected for a job. These things that appear to be very trifling are very important.

For that purpose, the diary system has been introduced. Perhaps you have not appreciated the true meaning of it. If any of you have been given something to start with, and you live up to it, why don’t you progress? You must have gone on for years now – some for eight years since I was here last – and no new things have come up. Some even had better experiences before. Then, where do you stand? How many of you have gone to the third plane? I don’t think you are all lingering on the astral plane. What is the reason why? Because we don’t live up to what we are told. We simply make allowances; in our zealousness we think, ‘We are seniors; we are good speakers,’ this and that. No, no, no. We cannot deceive God. Perhaps this is the only thing I have to tell you that will be of your use: to abide by these words in your heart and live up to them.

Just keep your diaries. Be regular in your meditations. Like a child going to his father every morning, always be in His lap. It does not mean that you do not do your work. Do your work. Do that which has been allotted to you by God in order to look after your families, your children, etc. Then help others.

So this is what is needed. Don’t forget your own Self. It is the Grace of God only.

Once there was a Master who initiated a King. And the King was always boasting: I’m a king; I’m a great man; I’m this; I’m that. I’m very wonderful; I can do this; I can do that. Of course, Kings can do anything they like.

So what happened? One day the Master told him, Look here; what is your value? Have you ever considered it?

Oh yes, I’m of very much value. I’m worth tons of gold and emeralds. I’m a King; at my beck and call a whole army of troops is there, ready to fight.

All right, said the Master. Will you permit me to do something and let you know what your real worth is?

Yes.

Then, all right. Lie down. Simply relax yourself. Close your eyes, and don’t mind what I do.

What did he do? The King lay down, relaxed with his eyes closed, and the Master took him by the legs and slung them around his neck and carried him around in the street calling: Look here, anybody! This is the king’s corpse, his dead body. Will anybody purchase it, for one dollar, a half dollar? He came down to one penny, even a half penny. Whoever saw it said, Oh, this so-called Guru has killed the king! We’ll all be caught. They all fled away in fear. Even for a half penny no one wanted to purchase the body of the king. He brought the king back: Well, do you know what your worth is please? Have you heard it with your own ears?

It is God’s Grace that gives you some worth. Otherwise, what worth have you got? If you die, nobody keeps your body for more than two days – it will give a bad odour.

So it is His grace that we are working in the body, it is His Grace that we have got something to know God, it is His Grace that we have been put in the body. Even if we have made some progress on the way, it is His Grace; and the Grace of Whom? – God working through the Master, not God living in the Heavens. Mind that, be a good servant. Whoever really becomes a good servant, in the true sense of the word, becomes a Master. 

These are my few words. God knows whether I will come again or not: it is in His hands. But if you live up to this, you will never be left alone, and God will help you. Convey these, my words, to whomever you meet. Love one another, that’s all. I think if a father sees his children in an all-loving embrace, he will be pleased – even to hear about them. At least I am pleased. Before I came I was not so pleased as I am now on leaving. You have a more loving attitude, and I wish you to progress still more. Love beautifies everything, that’s all. If there are any shortcomings anywhere, realise that each one has his shortcomings: forgive and forget. That’s the only thing we can do.

I tell you, as my Master loved me, I have loved you – for no compensation, but to do the will of my Master. I wish you would live up to what you are told to do, that’s all. These words are coming out of my heart. If you just abide by them, you will progress wonderfully. God never leaves anyone alone.

Christ said,

I shall never leave thee nor forsake thee until the end of the world.

Bodies do leave; but that God-Power working at the human pole does not leave.

So, with these best wishes I would like to depart; but my wishes will always be with you, and I will always be hearing from you.

And if loving thoughts are radiated to me there, I’ll simply be too pleased. If any father sees his children loving one another, I think the father is pleased. If you are obedient, so much the better; if you surrender yourself, all is yours, I tell you. This is the greatest thing, and it starts from keeping a diary, I tell you. Don’t underrate the diary; it means something. There are those of you who have no time for it; but like a hard taskmaster, don’t spare yourself. If you do this, one and all, you will find change in your lives. You will see change for your own selves. This is, I think, all that I expect of you. It is in your own interest and earns my pleasure for nothing. Our Master used to say,

Don’t be doing civil disobedience and lie down and let everybody carry you while loading you on cars and trucks. You should also help.

That is helping the Master, too, in a way. The task becomes easier. What does He want to give you? God – I tell you honestly; but you’re not ready to have It. He will give you something, but you don’t appreciate It. My best wishes have always been with you and remain with you, with God’s Grace – the God working through my Master.