1 The first Spiritual Region above the physical universe.
15. To Sunna1 then thou shouldst ascend, And cleanse thy soul in Maansrovar.2
16. Pitch dark; Mahasunna3: this region pass through, To Gupha, then, thou 'It have access.
17. Purified thus, Sach Khand4 achieve, To heavenly veena's sound lend ear. 18. A wondrous land there doth exist,
Which lies Alakh,5 Agam8 above.
19. There, Radhaswami meet, the highest Lord Gain mind and soul Eternal Bliss.
The saints, sages, mystics and prophets of all ages, in whatever part of the world they were born, have been unanimous in declaring that this material world is not our Home. They say:
"Man, thou art a stranger in this land."
We are in an alien land, where nothing is our own; nothing is lasting. We are not permitted to stay in the same body forever. The wheel of Karma turns: man and beast, bird and insect, god and goddess— many are the forms that the soul dwells in here. If this were our true Home, we should continue without interruption to be human beings and our body should suffer no dissolution or decay. Such, however, is not the case and the life of man is puny, contemptible and short: it is indeed an illusion. We have complicated matters still further by forging artificial barriers between man and man. Religions, castes, creeds and vocations
1 Daswan Dwar, the third Spiritual Region.
a The Pool of Immortality in the third Spiritual Region.
3 The region of intense darkness situated above the third Spiritual Region,
Daswan Dwar and below the fourth Region, Bhanwar Gupha.
4The fifth Spiritual Region, presided over by Sat Purush (True Lord). 5The sixth Spiritual Region: literally, indescribable.
turn us into separate entities and make confusion worse confounded in this dark region, earth. A man is not a man: he is a Hindu, a Sikh, a Muslim or a Christian. Even a Christian is not simply a Christian: he is a potter, a blacksmith, a weaver. Man is a creature "moving about in worlds not realised."
"Recollect thou that which is from the blissful spiritual . Realms, but which cometh not into thy memory. Since those realms hast thou forgotten, art thou helpless and bewildered." (Maulana Rum) "Wherefore art thou rolling in this earthly existence? Go thou into those orchards and gardens, where thou hast been."
(Shamas-i-Tabriz)
Feeling instinctively that the earth is not his Home, man has been investigating restlessly to try to make a true appraisal of his predicament in this "Isthmus of a middle state," and to discover his real Home. Two principal methods have been adopted by him for this purpose: one of science and the other of religion. Scientists seeking for truth outside the body, have delved into the earth, flown in the sky, crossed the mountains, reached the poles and formed some idea (even though their conceptions go on changing from age to age) of the nature and formation of the earth. They have not, however, discovered the Ultimate Truth by their investigations and have no inkling at all of our True Home. As a matter of fact, even modern philosophy, borrowing indiscriminately from modern science, has moved farther from the Truth by emphasizing the material aspect of the mind and the mechanical nature of the body.
But the second group of investigators, whom we call Saints, Perfect Masters, Mystics and Prophets had found a complete answer to man's query about his real Home. Working with much finer instruments and on higher planes, they have made remarkable dis- coveries which the world is as yet far from appre- ciating fully. A most wonderful fact is that their researches, conducted within the human body, which is itself a natural laboratory, have yielded similar results in all ages, climes and countries. They have rent the veils of illusion and have discovered truths that are eternal and immutable. In their books (which we call scriptures) they have left details of the inner spiritual journey. Now let us find out what they have to say about our True Home and the Path that leads to it.
"These are truths on which hundreds and thousands of mystic adepts are one. Not even by a hair's breadth do they differ, as intellectually learned people do."
(Maulana Rum)
The analysis of the self, as given by the Saints, reveals that there are three separate entities in man: the physical body, the mind and the spirit. The essence or real man is the soul or spirit, while the mind and body are accretions that the soul has acquired during the course of its endless wanderings. This earth is the home of the physical body alone (we have two other bodies, the astral and the causal, but these belong to higher realms). The home of the mind is in Trikuti (the second Heaven) whereas the home of the soul is in the highest of heavens called by Swami Ji as Radha Swami Dham, meaning "Abode of the Lord of the Soul."
"Thou art such that without the" body (physical) thou hath a body (astral). Be not afraid of getting out of thy mortal frame" (Maulana Rum)
And yet our attachment to this earth, which is not our true abode, is extraordinary. When the infant arrives in this world, his attention is turned inward. But soon he opens his eyes, beholds the material world and forthwith falls a prey to its lure, gradually forgetting all about his Divine Home. The child harkens with his ears and starts listening to the conver- sation of those around him. His contact with the earth becomes closer. When he learns to talk, he is firmly bound to father and mother, sister and brother and the like. And in the end, after passing through all the seven stages of life, after fretting and strutting its hour upon the stage, the soul of man finds itself burdened with its earthly freight, that has been collected during its lifetime.
"Birth after birth art thou humiliated and shamed, And art in countless genera tossed.
Anguish'd each breath in distress and pain, In spirit broke, thou dost invoke in vain. Fruitless thy calls for help remain, In hell art thou cast, in Yama's domain. Much wander-vex'd this body thou dost gain, Sway of mind and senses thou dost retain. Though Saints and Masters much exhort, And of the Tenth Gate give you supreme import. Thou art not firm, thou dost follow not,
Time and again dost thou in nine doors rot."
(Swami Ji)
The Saints warn us against becoming too much engrossed in this material world, which is a land of
Kal and Maya (the male and female principles of the Negative Power). The former is the deity generally known in this world as "God". This world belongs to him and he permits no one to stay in one place permanently. The body is a rented house. It is a cage of Kal and after the allotted span, we are all obliged to leave it here.
"The world holds us in thrall, A vast and deadly snare."
(Guru Nanak) "Illusion hath conquered the world,
Vanquished, it all lieth at her feet.
Yogis1 ascetics and those with supernatural powers Never can they escape, them she doth also beat."
(Paltu Sahib) "O simpleton of man,
Thou hast completely forgotten thy original Home And wandereth thou in endless births and rebirths, Lucifer hath treacherously woven a spell around thee. How sad that caravans upon caravans go down the abyss. Amazing that thou dost not take heed and pitieth not thy wretched condition Awake, O lone traveller ! There is still time and opportunity." (Shamas-i-Tabriz) "What all thou beholdest is bound to vanish
Even as the shadow of a cloud.
Sayeth Nanak, Regard the world as unreal, And take thy refuge in the Lord."
(Guru Teg Bahadur)
So far as our own activities in this world are concerned, none of these is of any real benefit to us.
We are toiling either to earn for our family and children, or to serve our friends and companions, or to enable our mind and senses to enjoy worldly pleasures. None of these constitutes our real business. The only activity of lasting value is Simran (repetition of the Holy Names revealed by the Guru) and Bhajan (listening to the Celestial Melody from within). Parents and children, power and pelf, wealth and possessions— none of these can we carry away with us to the land of the Hereafter. Two things alone are our permanent companions—the Master and the Word. If we have any true kinsmen in the world, it is these two. Yet our affection for these two true friends is woefully meagre.
"Seek ye some saint, o brethren True Nam. from him obtain; And treasure:
For every creature doth this Nam Sustain, Both hereafter and here."
(Guru Arjan)
"Forsake this domain of pleasure and pain, Rise to the skies and Sat Nam attain. Transient and shortlived is this life, Leavest thou here after weary strife Wealth and relations, so valued here Avail us not when death draws near."
(Swami Ji)
"Who ignores the Word and its meaning forgets Suffers at death dismay and regrets."
(Guru Nanak)
"Most unfortunate is the poor blind soul Who does not knock at Satguru's door. This human life, so dearly bought, He throws aside without a thought."
"Sing the praises of Satguru, O Paltu, These alone by thee will stand. Floweth out the water (life's breath) Hurry, wash thou thy hands."
(Paltu Sahib) The whole world is engaged in carrying burdens that are not its own. Throughout life people trudge along with heavy packs on their backs—just like oxen and donkeys.
When death arrives, they give up the ghost in an ignominious manner. Empty handed they leave this plane, with nothing that they can call their own.
It behoves us, therefore, not to waste the gift of precious life in merely working for another, but to do something that will ultimately liberate us from this 'prison house'. The wealth of Nam alone can we carry with us to the next world: and this we should, in right earnest, try to accumulate. Every second should we value, and every moment should we take inventory of our own activities, in order to know if we are really doing something worth-while that will help us both here and beyond. Liberation can come only if you look within and ascend to the Kingdom of Heaven through the repetition of the Holy Names.
Yet these words alone do not constitute Nam, which cannot be brought within the confines of any language, be it Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit, English or Persian. It transcends language and is not to be found in books. It is something that obtains in the realm of the spirit. If words alone constituted Nam, we could easily get them from our holy books. Nam is an unwritten law: an unspoken language. Wander- ing in exile in this gross material universe, we have lost touch with that luminous kingdom wherein it resides.
Thick veils hide it from our vision. The Master alone possesses the magic key or the 'sesame' that will unlock the gate giving access to the realm of Nam—a realm which lies within our body.
"With the dirt of many lives is the mind rusty; And in the company of Saints is it cleansed."
(Guru Ramdas) "In this cavern (body) lies an inexhaustible storehouse, in
it dwelleth God, the unseen, the illimitable."
(Guru Amar Dass) "The invisible is inside but is not seen,
Because of the separating wall of egotism."
(Guru Arjan)
The wealth of Nam alone is imperishable and indestructible. Steady and unremitting labour is needed for ascending to those heavens where it is forever resounding, just as it is necessary to work persistently and regularly if we wish to awaken the power of knowledge that lies dormant within us. The university of spirit has its own teachers whom we call Masters and requires the same constant applica- tion as is needed for winning academic honours.
Usually, however, we do no such thing. We crave sensual pleasures. Lust, anger, avarice, attach- ment and the ego keep the mind in eternal flux. With- out giving up this material dross—this delusion and dust that slips our hold, time and again, as we try to catch it—the soul cannot be cleansed of its impurities and finds itself powerless to ascend to the inner worlds. All earthly activities are coarse and mutable. Look, for example, at kings. Today they hold sway over vast kingdoms; but tomorrow a war starts and they
lose everything. Consider a business magnate. He has a host of factories: a fire starts and everything is reduced to ashes. Take the case of a house-holder with a large family: plague breaks out and all his children are swallowed by it; he is left utterly alone. The other worldly boons are equally sordid and transi- tory: a sudden collapse, and like bubbles, they burst and disappear.
"They who forsake the beauteous Lord And set the desire of their hearts On objects rather than on Him, Are like leeches sucking a leper."
(Surdas) "Man flingeth away a ruby,
And runneth after an empty shell. He forsaketh truth
And yearneth after falsehood."
(Guru Arjan)
"What is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away."
(James 4:14) "Though life cannot be prolonged,
Still foolish people sin recklessly."
(Dadu Dayal) The first step that leads us towards our Home is detachment from the world. The transitory carnal enjoyments must be gradually discarded, for so long as they persist, the soul finds it impossible to attach itself to Nam. As you keep firmly rejecting material gratifications, your love for the world will go on decreasing.
Estranged from voluptuous sensations, the mind will automatically incline towards the spiritual side,
for its nature is ceaseless activity. After getting initiation from a Master, it is the duty of the disciple to learn what pleasures are taboo and which ones do not urgently need to be curbed. Developing love for the Master and listening to His discourses constitutes your own work. As you rise above worldly tempta- tions and lie in complete surrender at His feet, you become free from all sins and weaknesses that impair.
Spiritual wealth may be accumulated in two ways. First: by toiling hard at meditation; second: by a complete and unconditional surrender to the Master. The first is the easier way. It is not hard to lie awake at night, to limit oneself to frugal repasts and to work ceaselessly at one's salvation. The second method is, however, hard to practise, though it is much more efficacious. If the disciple lies in absolute surrender at the feet of his Master, he has really completed the course of meditation. It means that he has given up the ego, like Guru Angad who had merged himself completely in the Guru and had forgotten his separate individuality. The word of the Master is law for such a disciple, as sacred as the Quran or the Vedas. This type of absorption in the personality of the Guru pulls up the soul forthwith and it rises within, without any let or hindrance.
But the mind is a great hurdle in the way; it does not permit you to annihilate your ego. Many a disciple initiated by a perfect Master is in despair because, even after the lapse of a couple of decades, he may not have been able to see a single flash of the inner light. The reason is that he has never taken refuge in the Master. It is no self abnegation to permit the mind to wander and stray outside to rivers, mountains and forests while you are sitting in medita-
tion. So long as thoughts are being secreted and ideas keep chasing one another in the mind, self surrender is but an illusion and a deception.
Implicit faith in the Master is a pre-requisite on the path. Determination must be firm, and surrender utter and complete. It is then that the disciple takes the next step: meditation on the Master's form,
But first, we must answer the question—why meditate on the Master's form and on no other? In order to find an answer to this query, let us consider the entire world that stretches before us in all its diversity and richness. So long as God Himself does not appear to us, we have got to worship some sentient being. Now everything around us has been woven out of the five states of matter or Tattvas—earth, water, air, fire and ether. In accordance with the type of matter that constitutes it, Indian sages have divided the entire material creation into five classes made up of the tattvas (essences or elements) in different combinations. To the first class belongs man, whose body is made from all the five elements. Animals, who have only four tattvas, come next. The Akash (Etheric) tattva is lacking in them. Birds form the third class; they have three elements (fire, air and water) in them. Insects and reptiles such as scorpions, lizards, newts and so forth are lower still. Fire and air are the only two elements active in their composi- tion. The vegetable kingdom comprising of trees, fruits, flowers and crops, is the fifth in this order: water is the element that dominates its bulk.
If man worships vegetables and trees like the Peepal tree or the Tulsi (Basil) plant, do you think he will progress? Rather, he will sink lower in the scale of evolution. Similar will be his fate if he worships
forms composed of two, three or four elements. A man, who is at the top of the evolutionary ladder, is the equal of any other man. Why should he bow down in adoration to another of his own species? This line of thought may lead one to become a scoffer and an atheist.
After taking these facts into consideration, the Saints point out why we should meditate on the Master's form and on no others, by using the follow- ing illustration:
Consider the telegraphic system of sending messages through wires connected by batteries. If the circuit is complete, a message can be sent or received from one end to the other. But if it is broken, no trans- mission or reception of messages can take place. If a number of batteries are placed in a room beside some jumbled wires without connection, do you think there will be any type of communication with the outside world? Of course, not.
Now, like a telegraphic system, man's mind is