The coming Spiritual Revolution

II

God pervades all four grand divisions of the universe.

Kabir says,

I went to Mecca; on the way, God met me and began to rebuke me: ‘Oh Kabir, who told you I am residing here? Am I not in you? Why are you coming here?

If the One we are after resides in us, and we leave this body and go searching in outer things, can we ever find Him? At the most, they can give us an incentive towards our goal, that we should know God – nothing more. Places of pilgrimage, holy temples, they remind us that there is something, there is some God; they sing praises there.

Can we see God?

Guru Nanak was put this very blunt question; He said,

Yes, God is pervading everywhere.

Masters say what They see; They don’t give any reason for it, because They are competent to give a demonstration of that – and let you see.

He is nearer to you than your hands and limbs.

The Hindu scriptures say,

He is so near to you – nothing in the world is nearer to you. He is the very life of you.

Kabir says,

Once I was in doubt, but really it is so; because when my eye was open, I really saw Him – then all my delusions have gone, all my doubts have vanished. I see Him everywhere.

This is one function of the Master. We confound Him with the teachers of the world, with due respect to them all, at whose feet we have learned something. But this is something which begins where all philosophies end; when your contact with the physical body and your outgoing faculties are set aside.

Shamaz-i-Tabrez was asked,

What about God?

He said,

Don’t believe unless you see God,

Masters also say,

Don’t believe in the words of the Master unless you can testify yourself that this is so.

You must have something to start with; it may be little, or more. How much depends on each man’s background, but you must have something to start with.

A man comes up and gives a very wonderful talk on business principles. It is very informative, but the poor fellows to whom the talk is given have no money to start with!

So all teachers promise: 

Go on doing this, doing that – you’ll have it after some time, you must be prepared, you must be ready, you’ll get it at the time of death, be rest assured your life will be insured.

Well, don’t believe that. A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

Give your all and then you’ll have everything.

No, I don’t think so.

You must have seen first. He does not want anything from you.

He says,

I’ve come to give – it is God’s gift – have It free!

Do you have to pay for sunlight, for air? Then why should we have to pay for the gift of God? That is the first thing.

Masters come to give – not to take. They stand on Their own legs; and as Shamaz-i-Tabrez said,

You should be able to see the Beloved within you with your own eye which you have got within; and you should be able to hear His voice with your own Inner Ear.

Now the question comes: How to open that eye with which He can be seen?

He says,

When you close your eyes, there is darkness. Look penetratingly into it; put your whole attention into it.

That is Knocking on the door, you see, and it shall be opened.

You continue to look directly into that and you will find Light. Who will see that Light? Your very Self.

You will find all Saints saying the same thing. Sit down in meditation, nothing comes up for years and years and years.

Tulsi Sahib says,

How to penetrate this darkness? Sit at the feet of a Master – He gives you a boost, you see Light.

Is it not wonderful? Is it not a miracle? What more miracle is required?

Unless a man rises above the life of senses, the Inner Way is not open. It is you who have to see.

That is why it is said,

Know thyself, oh Man, know thyself – who you are, what you are.

What are we? Conscious entities. We have got attention. When the attention is diverted from outside and concentrated to our own Self, there you see the Light. Very simple. Do you see the common sense point of what is being put before you?

He says further,

Why do we not see Him?

Because of the ramification of the mind. Ripples are going on in the subconscious reservoir of our mind. Until those ripples stand still, you cannot see Him. It is something like a pond covered with weeds. If you take out the weeds little by little every day, you can look in the water and see your face. And what are those weeds? Your body; body is the beginning of all delusion. We are having the body, and we are working at the level of the body. Body is changing every minute of life, being made of matter. All the world around is changing, since it is also made of matter, at the same speed at which our body is changing. As we are identified with it, this is an optical illusion; it appears to be stationary. How can we come out of that? This is the demonstration which is given by the Master.

If you are identified with the mind, outgoing faculties, and intellect, and you have recourse to the methods or practices which are concerned with those things, how can you rise above them?

So rise above body consciousness; this is given out by all Masters.

Learn to die so that you may begin to live.

Be reborn; be twice born. To withdraw your attention from outside and the body below, come to the seat of the soul in the body – this is called meditation. And meditation is the Way back to God which can be had only in the man-body, and in no other. All gods and goddesses hanker to have the man-body, for this reason.

So Kabir says,

Oh man, why do you boast that you are the highest if you have not known God?

Your greatness lies only in the fact that you can see God. If you have not seen Him, how can you say anything? It is not a matter of only speaking, giving long or tall talks.

Naturally, prayer arises from the failures of our own efforts – when all human efforts fail, there prayer succeeds. To whom do we pray?

A weak man prays to a strong man, or to God:

Oh God, we are helpless, we are stuck fast in this prison house of the man-body. How can we come out? It is locked on all sides. Oh God, send us Someone Who can take us out of the box of the man body!

This is what Maulana Rumi, Swami Ji, Guru Nanak, and all other Masters pray.

Someone asked Guru Amar Das,

How can you say what your outgoing faculties are?

He said,

Sit down and see.

Sit down and see how your outgoing faculties are working. Then what happens? When your attention is withdrawn from outside, the body for all practical purposes is dead; you have got no feeling in the body. When you rise above that physical level, you see the Light of God. If this is something you can do yourself, welcome you are – what more is wanted? Or go to the Masters, about whom we speak so much. If they can do it, well and good.

That is why I have said,

A Spiritual Revolution is required – not at the level of body, but at the level of the evil propensities which have taken you away from God. Now springtime has come; the times have changed.

The first thing required is a Guru or Master Who has seen; Who has seen and can make us see. Guru means: The Light sprouts forth out of the most bleak darkness.

That is the elementary criterion of a Master – not a lot of words: ‘you are not ready, you must be ready,’ this and that thing. In the old days, it was done like that; now times have changed. Who can sit at the feet of the Master for years? So They give you something to start with.

Now maintain it:

Take heed that the Light within you is not darkness.

So the first thing required is a Guru or Master. What is a Guru? Word made flesh is called a Guru; God has manifested Himself in a man-body and called Him a Guru. We respect Him.

The power house works through a bulb; there is light. But the power house can only work through a bulb which is not fused. We respect the bulb, of course; but when it is fused, then another bulb is put on. That Light coming through is the God-Power, called the Master-Power or Christ-Power; that never dies, It goes on working from Pole to Pole to guide the child humanity back to God.

This is one thing that is required.

It is said,

If you want to see God, go to Somebody Who has seen God. He who has not seen God, how can he let you see?

Now you see what is meant by Master or Guru as compared with the other teachers of the world, for whom we have respect as they teach us something of the outer world. How respectful and grateful should we be to such a Man Who gives us this (Spiritual Experience)!

Once it happened with our Master that a Christian missionary came to Him and asked,

Look here, who is greater – Christ or Your Guru?

He very politely replied,

Look here, I have seen my Guru; I have not seen Christ. If you make Him appear to me, I will meet with Him too!

So these bodies leave; but that Power does not leave, that continues. There is food for the hungry and water for the thirsty – demand and supply is a law of nature. The child which was born a thousand years back, a hundred years back, or now – God made arrangement for milk in the mother before birth; don’t you think that will continue further? This is the law of nature, you see, God’s law.

The Master is the first thing required; second thing is True Living. Ethical life is a stepping stone to Spirituality.

Truth is above all and True Living is still above Truth.

We are all brothers and sisters in God, drops of the Ocean of All-Consciousness; no high, no low; and that Power whom we worship controls us in the body. Don’t have any hatred because you are a man of position, because you are a learned man, because you are a rich man. All are equal. Some are standing at the table; some are sitting in the chair; that is due to the reaction of past karmas.

Then comes: chastity of thought. They – impure thoughts – defile the whole body. You cannot expect God to manifest in a body that is full of filth.

Then comes: violence in word, deed, and thought. All this filth comes through the mind which defiles the man-body.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

You cannot expect God to manifest in a filthy home. He is there already; but He won’t manifest. If a bulb is there with light within it, but it is covered over with black spots, can you see any light? So this is what is required: True Living.

And the third thing is: The Masters take you and give you the direct Inner Way back to God. They don’t touch your outer rituals, forms, labels, outer way of living; They allow you to remain in your own social bodies. There are so many – more than seven hundred. He is not going to make another new form!

Our Master was once asked by some people,

Why don’t You start a new religion?

He said,

There are so many wells dug up already, why should I dig up a new one? The water is already there; the basic teachings of all Masters have been the same. Why not take it?

He did not form any new religion. Masters come to maintain; They come to fulfil; not to destroy. They love all. When They come, They are not the monopoly of any sect or religion; not the monopoly of the East or the West. They come for all the world over – just as the sun rises and gives light to all the world over. They come for all. Their teachings are very simple and to the point, and are the most easy and most natural as compared with all other ways of yoga. They don’t tell you to follow this ritual or that ritual, this form or that form, this level or that level. They simply give you a lift from the body, raise you above the body, and open your Inner Eye to see the Light of God. That is the capital They give you at the very first. After all, we have to leave the body; They give you a demonstration of how to leave the body.

If you have day to day regular practice, what do you find? At the time of leaving your body – at death – you are jolly; you will go smiling, because you know how to leave the body every day. All Glory and beauty lie within you. They don’t give you the outer ways of living, or rituals, or the customs of the various social bodies, because They are not going to form any new religion. They come only to bring the religion of God: the religion of Love.

So this is what They say: God resides in you, and the Master is One Who can withdraw your attention, give you something to start with, take you out of the delusion of the man-body so you can see for yourself; you are not to wait till the end of life.

As I just suggested,

A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

This it is: there is God, and He can be manifested by the Word made flesh; not by those who are embodied as men but have not risen above body consciousness. We have respect for anyone at whose feet we have learned something; but this is what is truly meant by a Master – He Who can give you God as a gift, excuse me, like a fruit given to somebody. So remain where you are. You have taken the first step; the next step is at the feet of Someone Who sees and makes you see. And for that, True Living is required. But They don’t want you to leave your outer customs or social bodies.