Be attentive and verify ...
We live in a time that some people might perceive as confusing. There are many, who are called masters, call themselves masters, and there are even those among them who claim to be in the successorship of Kirpal Singh. Even organisations claim that they have been founded by Kirpal Singh and to work on His behalf.
Many souls are initiated pretendedly, and it is claimed that they have received a valid and living connection with Naam. Some of them have an experience during their so-called initiation because of their background. Others experience nothing. And both miss the further experiences and they remark that no progress takes place despite regular practice. All this shows that there is something wrong quite fundamentally.
There could, however, be many suchlike places where the living connection with Naam is available and developable.
Kirpal Singh said:
So springtime is upon us now; there will be more fragrant Saints, I would say now, who will come up and give us through the Grace of God, a contact with the God-into-Expression Power. And this is the revolution, the Spiritual Revolution, which is coming up – an awakening all around.
But unfortunately, the people who were meant to convey the instructions – and that may be many who have received a valid initiation; Kirpal said: I wish that all of you may become my ambassadors of Truth – do not live themselves in the right way and therefore are not receptive sufficiently. Therefore, they cannot serve the True Master, so that many other valid initiations could come about through His Grace.
Well, no one should criticise another one, nor condemn him, even noone is entitled to judge others, because:
Do not judge, so that the Great Judge may not adjudge you and find you guilty.
Everyone can only speak from his point of view. So please prove for yourself in the privacy of your heart: Did you receive the promised Naam or not? Naam has nothing to do with external sounds, such as the ringing of a bell or a dark sound of a brass bowl or the like, nor does it have to do with external light, such as candlelight or headlights.
When can we now be sure that we have received the gift of Naam?
Then when we can hear it day and night at will.
Well, not everyone has the same stage of development, and not everyone has the same degree of receptivity to the Almighty, but there is a criterion, how we can protect ourselves:
Do not believe in the words of a ‚Master‘ until you can witness it for your own.
This witnessing must be possible at the time of initiation!
Kirpal Singh explains it thus:
First of all, we should know what initiation means. Initiation is no ceremony, no rite, no ritual, no offering. It is just like a school, in which a lesson is given; and for that lesson, first the Inner Theory is explained, and then an Inner Experience is given. We are all children of God. God is Light, and we are also Light, being of the same essence as that of God. But our Light is enveloped by different coverings – physical, astral, causal and supercausal. It is just like a lamp that has two, three or four coverings over it; it appears as if there is no light there. But when you shake off one covering, you have some light; when you shake off another one, more light; and, as you shake off all the coverings, you see it is all-light. Similarly, we are Light, children of Light, but we are enveloped by so many coverings.
Initiation means to raise up our soul and shake off the coverings: first, the one of the physical body, which is the iron curtain, I would say: to raise the soul above body consciousness – physical consciousness – and open the Inner Eye to have an experience of Light, and also to open the Inner Ear to hear the Voice of God, or the Music of the Spheres.
This is what is actually meant by the word initiation: to be initiated into the beyond.
Initiation – Speech by Kirpal Singh,
held on 1 January 1964 in Miami,
during his second world tour
Source: English edition Sat Sandesh / December 1976
A Valid Initiation is always associated with an attestable first-hand experience of Truth. This experience can, corresponding to the personal background, be stronger or weaker, but it must be there. Furthermore, this experience can not only be repeated willingly by regular practice in compliance with the orders given by Kirpal Singh, but it can also be expanded further.
Otherwise, we are unfortunately misguided. It does not take months or years to achieve results, the results are easy to reach in days and weeks. Kirpal said so in ‚Man, know thyself‘, and so it is of course still valid today.
Whatever Kirpal Singh said, wrote and published, even the Gurumat Sidhant, everything and even the tape recordings, is abused worldwide – abused by those who publish these things in their own name, add lines, memorize them – and there are not a few who confirm a false mastership to those, who can recite these records by heart, like a stamp of authority from a corrupt country, which you can get for a few rupees to gain financial wealth.
Nowadays, everything is sold. All say the same thing, but it’s not the very same!
Many people feel deep inside that something is wrong, and they may wonder where there is the fault. Those who have the blessing, the courage and everything what is necessary to ask their heart, already received an answer surely: namely, that they have not yet received the True Naam. Nevertheless, they often do not move from the spot.
If they do, however, for these people another problem comes up!
For now, these dear brothers and sisters take to the search for Naam again, and then very often get to groups with the character of the proverbial blanket bear1. These groups confirm their knowledge, namely, that they are on the search and have not yet received Naam.
But even there they get no help, instead, they are integrated into structures of a few and regrettably have to learn to think and to speak badly about others – even about those with whom they were together – and to contact them with disgust on behalf of the factitious unity, the Unity of Man under the alleged leadership of Kirpal.
They publish infamous actions of others, for example of imperfect masters, which indeed may be true, and spread lies about those who actually do the work on behalf of Kirpal, etc .; but this is not the way of the Saints, because, if they behave like this, how do they differ from those who do not do it rightly?
Is this is the Path of Sant Mat?
No!
The awakened rebel against this sorrowful state.
When the possessions of Guru Teg Bahadur were stolen, together with the original copy of the Guru Granth Sahib, His disciples, after they realised it, rode behind the alleged thieves for a few days in order to retrieve the possessions of the Master. They made it and after many days came back to their guru proudly. He asked His disciples: What do you have there? and they answered, Your possessions, which these scoundrels have stolen from You. He replied: Bring it back immediately, otherwise you are just like those who have taken this without permission.
So, the end does not justify the means!
The Law of Karma acts incessantly.
Guru Nanak said:
The Truth is above all, but still higher is True Living.
Therefore, it should be noted again at this point that the Way of Sant Mat is the Way of Truth, righteousness and Love, and that, where the above-mentioned activities are reaching out, this can never be the True Way of Sant Mat.
Kirpal Singh said in this context: Formations result in stagnation and stagnation results in deterioration and Mind your own business.
Formations come up because people pursue formalities and carry a deep desire in themselves to worship personalities. This results in high and low.
Kirpal further said: There is no high or low, we are all worshipers of the Truth, no worshippers of personalities.
Patronage is proclaimed for a movement that according to Kirpal’s own statement should be only in the hearts of men! All this has nothing to do with Truth. The Truth – Naam – is nothing external, it has no form. When people realised that they are all brothers and sisters and all wanted the Truth, who would then be high or low?
The real Masters, and Khalsas therefore do not come to make us slaves, but to win us as friends.
On this occasion, a word about the imperfect masters:
The dangerous things about the imperfect masters are not exclusively the imperfect masters themselves; the danger lies in the minds of people, in the idea how the Supreme Power has to be. It is a law that Mother Nature fulfils such ideas, because: every idea is a desire – and every thought an illusion! So in due course there will be someone who faces those who carry a corresponding idea – which can even be unconsciously – in themselves and who is receptive to embody this very idea.
Now it is so that if somebody worships someone – and that means, one is very much focused on this person – at some point one gets the fondness of the worshipped one automatically as a blessing. Therefore, one should not worship any imperfect masters, because otherwise you will become like them!
Kabir says accordingly:
If we worship Bhairon – the king of the spirits, very popular in the Indian region –, he makes us a ghost.
Shiva rides an ox and plays on a tambourine. If we worship Shiva, this one can only give us the blessing, which emanates from his fondness.
In a later life we will become an ox, or we’re going to ride an ox and play a tambourine.
Real Masters however have only one fondness: the Almighty – so what will you get as a blessing?
All these formations and groupings, with or without an imperfect master, give many people a feeling of security. If they have no practical experience, so they belong to it at least.
For lack of a living connection with Naam the dear brothers and sisters concern themselves then only with the writings, and sometimes they say that it was no longer possible to have such a strong perceivable connection with Naam as during the time of Kirpal Singh.
Kirpal Singh says:
When you sing acknowledgements over that, what another one has seen, then one can, pardon me, compare this undertaking to the attempt of picking breadcrumps from another one’s empty plate. Deserve something by yourself. Do not carry the picture of another one’s Beloved in your heart. Do you want to hurt him? Have your own Beloved, and go back to God yourself. When you drink of the nectar of life to the fullest, also those around you will be intoxicated by that.
So all this pretended Together we are strong and all the group activities are delusive. In reality, the necessary individual responsibility is given off and thus the very important development as a human being is retarded.
However, the True Way of Sant Mat is a way that every soul can only tread for herself. It is really a matter between the soul and the Almighty.
Therefore it shall be said again with all clarity: the True Way of Sant Mat, the Surat Shabd Yoga can only be tread after a Valid Initiation. The capital obtained at the time of initiation must then be developed and maintained and the meditation practices should be repeated every day so that a fruitful tree of spirituality can grow. Structures only delay, they prevent the people to develop themselves in silence.
Question to Kirpal Singh: Is Initiation conveyed through an authorized representative of the Master valid for all purposes?
Kirpal Singh: Yes, the instructions of Initiation imparted through a duly authorized representative of the Master are valid for all purposes. The testing criterion is to have a first-hand inner experience of the Divine Light of God and the Audible Life Stream at the time of Initiation. These are the two Astral Forms of the Master-Power and if one gets to them by personal experience of rising above body-consciousness, there can be no doubt about its validity and efficacy.
Spiritual Elixir – Part I:
VII. Initiation,
by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974
A Valid Initiation, that is the living connection with Naam, is today, as at all times, a free gift, which is granted by the Almighty. This gift is still available today, and it is not tied to any whatsoever organisation or structure. On the contrary: external guidance can be given by Kirpal through a Gurumukh brother, but, as I said: Ultimately every soul must go this way alone.
Sawan Singh one day spoke thus:
I am not tied to one or any particular place. The Saints Who come commissioned from above tell the world of the True Path and those who come seeking True Knowledge are informed of the Way to meet God. Worldly people in order to meet their worldly needs gather round them and make them as means of earning livelihood. When such wealth is accumulated in abundance, a number out of them turn as ‘worshippers of Mammon’ whose lust can never be satisfied. When such circumstances are created, Saints withdraw from such a place. The souls of sincere seekers after Truth cannot get any solace from such a place. Such places then become the seat of Mahants and Gaddi Nashins2. True Saints are not fastened to any religious sect or dress. They are free personalities. They are neither a party to one nor a foe to the other. They impart the True Lesson as to how to reach God. Those who will apply themselves to abbhyas in Their company will succeed and the others who keep themselves aloof and far away from Them remain unlucky.
Hazur more than once emphatically declared:
The mission of Spirituality can only be carried on successfully by one Adept in Spirituality. It cannot be entrusted to a blind3 person. Whoever has a desire to find me out can reach me within through One Who is linked with me. You will not find me in the company of those who are after the possessions of the world. Be not deceived by such people. Do abhyas and peep inside your own self and meet me. I do not dwell in the midst of mayaic insects. Go to some selfless being who is after me and lives for me and is not after possession of Deras. Gurumukh is delighted to have His Guru, while a manmukh wallows in luxury and pleasures of the world – Maya.
Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj with a short narrative brief Life Sketch –
Hazur’s Disease and His Spiritual Succession,
by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974
[…] That Master of Eternal Domain is keeping His doors open all the time and is calling aloud:
Bring into actual experience the Great Principle ‘Withdrawal before death.’ I am impatiently waiting for you to come up to me. I am nearer to you than the nearest. For those of you initiated by me it is a sacrilege and a mark of disgrace on both Love and devotion – if ye look upon anybody else as a Guru or Master-Guide. You may, however, derive benefit from the company of some awakened personality who pays a visit to me everyday. He will not misguide you, but on the contrary, will unite you with me will instil my Love in you and will strengthen the Divine Link that binds and ties you to me. Moreover, in the capacity of Guru Bhai He shall be helpful to serve you.
Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj with a short narrative brief Life Sketch –
Hazur Sawan Singh left us to be with us every Time,
by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974
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The human body is the temple of God. He is waiting there for you. That is why I ask you to look within, with a longing in your heart and silence in your soul. God will reveal Himself to you. You will find Him – no, see Him.
Kirpal Singh
The key-note for Spiritual Progress within is to develop the habit of looking intently into the middle of whatever you see and hearing the Holy Sound Current as coming from the right side, with uninterrupted attention and single-minded devotion. All else will come with the Grace of the Master.
Spiritual Elixir – Part II:
II. Meditation,
by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974
May the Almighty grant us all the Grace, to be always able to see where we stand.
Bhai Jamal
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Explanations: 1) To explain the proverbial expression Blanket-bear: A bear was swimming down a river, when a man standing on the bank mistook it for a blanket, and jumped into the water to fetch it out. But when he caught hold of it he discovered his mistake, and when he wanted to swim back, he could not do so, for the bear had caught hold of him instead in his strong grip and would not let him go. Those standing on the side of the stream asked him to come back. He said he would like to come back, but the blanket-bear would not let him go. Such is the condition in which the people of the workaday world are drifting these days. 2) The title of Mahant or Gaddi Nashin is usually given to those working or posing at one particular place in the name of previous Saints or Sages after the latter abandon or depart physically. 3) Namely spiritually blind whose Inner Eye has not been opened.