Second Open Session
5 February 1974, Evening

Know this that we are all One.

Kirpal Singh

The evening session, originally scheduled to be the opening session of World Conference of Unity of Man became just an extension of the morning session with some forceful speeches from Swami Arvindanand, Raja Mahendra Pratap, Bhikshuni pal Mohammedan and Justice Bhatt, ending with a Spiritual Discourse by the Living Master, Satguru Kirpal Singh Ji, wherein He stressed the point that We are all One. And once again He asked them all to join in the prayer to God that He grant His special Grace that we may have first-hand experience of Reality.

Swami Arvindanand in a forceful speech called upon the saffron robed community of Sadhus to rise above the narrow confines of their order and play an effective role in world affairs. He began as usual by reciting the prayers of all religions and explained that he did it

because our minds have got so polluted that if a Hindu were to utter the ‘Allah’ in a temple, or a Moslem were to say ‘Ram’ in a mosque, it will cause such a stir as if a bomb was thrown. I recite the prayers just to clear the air. These are the things that cause rifts and divisions.

Swami Ji paid a glowing tribute to Sant Kirpal Singh Ji. The whole credit for this great conference goes to Him it was He Who attracted eminent people from all over the world to Him. He had no hesitation in accepting the fact that the entire Sadhu community – he was giving his own personal opinion – jointly could not have organised this great international meet. His Eminence had raised all Sadhus in the estimation of the people.

Raja Mahendra Pratap said the crux of the problem was that we profess to be Hindus, Moslems or Christians, but we did not act upon the teachings of our own religion.

For instance Lord Krishna says,

Whenever Dharma – right understanding or path of duty – is on the decline and evil is predominant, I come to ameliorate man.

If this be true then Christ, Buddha, Mohammed were all incarnations of Lord Krishna. Similarly the Holy Quran says, that Allah says to Mohammed that,

We have sent our Hadis at all times and in all climes.

This means that Lord Krishna, Buddha, Jesus Christ and Guru Nanak were all Hadis.

The scriptures are full of such positive thoughts that will serve to unite man. If we were to apply the simple criterion to shed all thoughts that divide us and to accept thoughts that unite us and the same thoughts to recognise the man who unites us as worthy of respect and he who divides as a man of evil, it would be helpful in cementing Unity.

Bhikshuni Pal Mo, Sikkim, a Buddhist nun Mahayana sect of Buddhism, speaking in chaste English said that it was just an accident, a chance remark of a friend informing her about this conference that had brought her. In fact, a conference on Unity of Man did not require a formal invitation. Paying a glowing tribute to the sponsor she said,

In the tenets of Mahayana it is clearly said that there is a gain in looking for enlightenment for one’s own self. We must seek enlightenment for all mankind. I look upon this conference, sponsored and organised by Sant Kirpal Singh, as not only a monument to His Great Love for all but also a monument to His great work for all. This is an example of supreme self-sacrificing work. It does not come, a meeting like this, just by thinking about it. It comes by sacrifice – Kurbani – and handwork. Sant Ji could have sat in His Ashram very happily and the world would not have come to an end, but He called all His followers in the villages and I am happy, I cannot tell you how happy, to see all these Punjabi and U.P villagers with their Bistras (beddings) on their heads and their families coming to this camp city. This is the meaning of His care an selfless work for all. I give this message on behalf of Buddhist brothers of Himalayan region – in Sikkin in Bhutan, in Himachal Pradesh – and in India. Perhaps you do not know that that there are 18 millions of us and some millions in the frontiers region.

Justice J.N. Bhatt (Jammu-Kashmir) said,

You have heard so much on religion and on Unity of Man during these three days from eminent of religion, ministers, scholars, savants that I do not wish to say anything more, I would like you just to have something to help digest all this. And that chooran or digestive is the dristhi or glance of Grace from the God-intoxicated eyes of the Living Master, Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj.

Citing an example from Gita, Justice Bhatt said that after explaining in detail the various aspects of the Dharma to Arjuna, Lord Krishna manifested before him his real face and forms of cosmic universal existence, which staggered him for he had till then taken him as a mortal like himself, a brother, a friend.

I too am at my wit’s end at all that I have seen during the last 8 days, how thousands of men and women from all walks of life, of all ages, strata of society, religions, leave their homes, offices and other interests and devote themselves solely to the various activities, and during sessions sit still, in a pin-drop silence from morning till late in the evening. What is the power that attract them here, and holds them to their seats? And in the grand processions I saw well over a hundred thousands men women even small children waling a whole 3 mile distance in the hot sun. Why? For what gain? The Master has no money to distribute, no worldly power or influence, no temporal benefits to confer that men should flock to Him like that.

It is for a greater gain, of Spiritual Elevation, it is the Power of telepathic communication, the radiation of Inner Life that draws people to Him. He preaches something which is very much desired and needed today. I am very proud of that India has contributed so much to the notion of Unity of Man and Unity of all Religions. The Living Master, Sant Kirpal Singh, showed to the west that there was something beyond material progress and amenities that they had in such abundance and were still unhappy. It was the elevation of human beings to Spiritual Dimension – which is more needed in the West than in the East. His teaching is very simple:

Man, know thyself. God is in you, in fact you are God personified. Develop your consciousness.

That doctrines He has preached through platform, writing, discourses, tours and it has endeared Him to men, women and children, all over the world. And it is not preaching alone, He gives the Life-Impulse, the quickening touch from the abundance of His limitless reservoir of life eternal. It is God’s work – or raising people spiritually; of making them God-conscious.

The Master, Satguru Kirpal Singh said,

All Master Who came said the same thing: God is Light and we are all children of Light. The same Light enlivens all creation. Just as bulbs have electric connection give light when the switch is pressed, the same way the Power and God enlivens all creation. When that Power withdraws from the body we have to leave this body. So you see we are children of Light, which is One and not two, the one Power that is our source and sustenance, called God, Who is Light.

Kabir has explained why he cannot see God. He says,

So long as we are identified with the Indriyas, the outgoing sense-faculties, we cannot see Him. When we rise above them only then we can see God.

All Masters say the same thing. Kabir further says in the same context: I saw that all pervading Light in me and in all creation and all my doubts were dispelled.

Lord Krishna says the same thing in Gita:

He who sees me in all and all in me, he is dear to me.

So you see that we are all offsprings of the same Light. All are equal; high, no low. All are born the same way. Is there any doubt about it? Where then is duality?

When a baby is born we cannot recognise whether it is a Hindu or a Moslem. Let us take the example of foundling homes where abandoned children are sent. When a child is received there it carries no distinguishing marks to show whether it is Hindu or Moslem child. It is a man, as God made it. This is a fact and needs no reasoning.

So we are all One, no proof is required for that. Only we do not perceive Him – in the present state of close identification with the body and outgoing faculties – and that is why there is duality. We have a body and we have a mind but we are a conscious entity, the soul. With all our physical and intellectual advancement we are unhappy. Because we do not know our Real Self that we are children of Light. Great is man.

The Supreme Being once wished:

I am One, let Me be many,

and with one thought wave of His the whole creation came into existence. As Guru Nanak says,

There was one Source Eternal from which flowed countless millions of streams.

He is all Light and we are children of that Light. When He can create millions of planets by a mere wish, a single thought wave we, who are conscious entities and of the same essence as that of God, can we not, by withdrawing our soul current from all outside and concentrating within create even a city?

Masters Who came from time to time, all proclaimed:

Oh man, you are attached to outer labels when the source of all joy and happiness is within you. God, all Supreme Father, is in you. Father and son both live in the same house – the man-body – but You, the Son of the Almighty through identification with outgoing faculties, wander outside. Rise above the body consciousness.

Maulana Rumi says:

Oh dear heart rise above this physical life of flesh and you will realise the Life Eternal that enlivens this body.

As I said before, the Masters one and all, laid stress on Unity of Man. For that one to unravel this body and know carry on our bodies. We forget that purpose and got attached to the outer labels. The same light burns in temples, in mosques and in churches. Which Light is good and which is bad? Why these conflicts and fights? We revere the temples, the mosques and churches but fight each other.

This is all due to lack of right understanding. We are already One, no proof is required for that. But we have forgotten that Unity. If you want to have a first-hand experience of that go to a person Who has realised that Unity within Himself. He will put you on the Way up and give you practical demonstration of it that we are One, the children of Light. He will open your Inner Eye and you will see that Light within you.

What is knowledge? Gurbani says:

By contacting Naam (i.e. God-into-expression-Power) within, one sees the Light of millions suns.

That Light is within you. All Masters say,

God is Light.

Kabir says,

Formerly I had some doubt about it, but when I saw that Light in all, my doubts were dispelled.

Why then fight each other? If you strike two stone of different colours against each other they give the same spark which has the colour of fire. You may have a cow of any colour, black brown, or red, the colour of milk is the same – white. We may have many labels and badges of any shape and colour we are all children of Light. But we have forgotten ourself. Master come to awaken us that we are all One. We have to realise that Unity. We are man first: labels came afterwards when we became Hindus, Moslems, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains and further we had labels of East and West and became devotees of countries and nations. Unless we rise above these labels we cannot realise God.

During my third world tour I was asked in a television interview:

How can we cement Unity?

I said:

When people will rise above isms and labels that they are carrying and kings and Presidents rise above countries.

Labels only indicate which school one has joined – for self-knowledge and God-Knowledge. Masters never gave any labels, these came when, after Their demise, social bodies were formed to keep Their teachings alive so that more people may benefit from them. They were formed with a noble purpose but the same good old custom corrupts itself and with the passage of time there was stagnation in the social bodies followed by deterioration. Masters come from time to time to revive then same age-old teaching.

They give the call:

Brothers! Wake up. You have forgotten yourself. How long will you remain asleep?

They see the Reality within, They speak from that level, therefore, what They say is cent percent true.

The outer preaching is all true, but without first-hand experience there is no conviction. Remain in the formations to which you belong and keep your forms and formularies. These are just to show that one should realise the purpose for which one has joined a particular formation named after the Master one professes to follow. It is a blessing to remain in a formation one should keep away from parochialism and narrow-mindedness which in turn lead to deception and delusion.

The basic purpose of this conference is to bring home to all the fact that we are already One, but we have forgotten that. This is the basic teaching of all Masters and the formations set up to keep alive Their teachings. The highest knowledge is to realise the Unity which is innate in us. The various places of worship – dome shaped temples (made after the head), nose shaped churches, forehead shaped mosques and others – are all modelled on the man-body, the True Temple of God. They are just to remind all those whose Inner Eye is not opened and who do not see the Reality, that such Light shines within you and such Sound reverberates in each one of you. Those who realise It – the twin principle of Light and Sound, the manifestation of God-into-expression-Power for them body is the True Temple of God. And one can realise it at the feet of a Competent Master Who has realised Him in the man-body.

This is what the Masters give us. They give us direct first-hand contact with Reality. They come to make people see who do not see and they who see outside may be blind. Those who only see the outer physical phenomena are still blind from Their point of view. Don’t you feel it? If your mind were to be still for just a moment and all thoughts nullified, you would feel this oppressive blindness. Ramakrishna Paramhansa once cited the example of a tree with many birds sitting on its branches. If some one were to clap his hands the birds would all flay away. We have the Sanskaras or impressions of countless incarnations filling the reservoir of our mind. A few moments ago some sadhus were clapping hands on the stage. Let there be a clapping of hands through nullifies all thoughts except this that we are all One. Is there any doubt about it in anyone’s mind? If there is let him seek a Master Who has realised Unity within Him. He will open your Inner Vision and make you see and that will dispel all doubts.

Let us all pray to God:

Oh God Almighty whoever are called by different names it is only through Your names that we can wake up from deep slumber of ages.

The Vedas say:

Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.

Kabir says the same thing:

Wake up, oh sleepy head wake up. It is not time to sleep.

This is the lesson that is repeated before you. It is the message for the whole world and a panacea for all our ills today.

They asked me in the west (USA) during an interview:

How can we evade the disaster of atomic war?

I told them:

When king and President would rise above countries.

Then they asked me if I would meet their President? I told them:

Well, this is my conviction. And surely I would like to meet your President.

I told them that they should not only tend their own garden but help others to keep their garden in full bloom.

It is a matter of right understanding, right understanding would lead to right thoughts and right thoughts would result in right words and right actions. Remain in your own formations but rise above body consciousness, rise into universalism and leap into the Beyond and know you are already One. These are three things have been put before you with one purpose – there is no intention to break bodies,

They do not come to destroy but to fulfil.

The Masters after Whom the various formations been set up, are all One. Their teaching is one and the same. As I said this morning, let us pray God to awaken us. Who can awaken a man from sleep? God or God manifested in man, in other words a Godman.

I have all Love and regard for all you who have come from India or from far off places. The teaching of all Masters Who came, in East or West, is the same. I have Love and regard in my heart for all Masters Who came, those here present now and those who may come in future. They are sent by God from time to time to awaken mankind from the slumber of parochialism and narrow-mindedness.

Guru Nanak came in this context and recently both hands and said,

Oh Hindus, oh Muslims, you are my own.

So what I say to you is nothing new. I would request all of you to spread it, all that you have heard here, wherever you go. Proclaim it from the house-tops that there may be peace and happiness on earth. So I pray to God and you pray with me that He grant us His special grace and provide for us to have first-hand experience of Reality. The ideal before us is this that we are all One.