The Ganges flows continuously, day and night without a break, simply for the benefit of others. Mountains bear the weight of so many trees and shrubs and the wood of all these trees is used by us either for burning or for making furniture. Earth produces so many varieties of fruit, flowers, crops, nuts, pulses and such things for our daily use. Earth never differentiates between high and low and absorbs all creatures, after death, in itself. Saints also come into this world simply for the sake of others. They put up with all kinds of hurdles, obstacles and troubles to help others. Their whole life is dedicated to doing good to others and uplifting and awakening mankind. “Bhu raj taru sam sant kripala. Par hit sahen nit vipat vishala. Sant uday santat sukhkari. Vishwa sukhad jimi indu tamari” : The appearance of a saint is always pleasurable for all, like the calm and soothing moon which wipes out the darkness of night. Likewise, saints wipe away the troubles and miseries of mankind.
Lord Rama taught Bhilni the nine steps of devotion and described the 7 th step as“Saptam sab mohi may jag dekhe. Mo te adhik sant kar lekhe.” “ See Me in everything and revere saints even more than Me.” You may wonder why you should give more importance to saints when you know that the entire creation is the body of God. “Ram sindhu ghan sajjan dheera. Chandan taru hari sant sameera.” The Lord, being omnipresent, is present within the heart of everyone. He does not tell anyone that He is dwelling there or that one should meditate, and neither He prevents anyone from doing good or bad. But when saints, like clouds, come into this world, then they shower us with the rain of satsang and glory of God. They impart the Spiritual Knowledge through which a true seeker experiences Divine Light within and this is how the darkness of ignorance is eradicated.
Lord Rama is like a sandalwod tree and saints are like a breeze. The whole tree is full of perfume, but only when the wind blows is this perfume diffused throughout the entire forest and thus the whole forest becomes like a sandal tree. The essence of the Lord permeates the entire body but is not able to remove miseries of anyone. However, when saints come, like the breeze, they impart through satsang the Spiritual Knowledge to sincere seekers and thus a disciple experiences bliss. Even though the entire forest is permeated with the sandalwood perfume due to the breeze, a bamboo tree is unaffected, it remains as it is. A person who listens patiently and receives Spiritual Knowledge, becomes wise and blissful by doing regular meditation, but foolish and unwise people, for whom satsang goes in one ear and out the other, never improve even by having the company of saints.
All pictures of saints, sages, hermits and Incarnation are products of the imagination of an artist, so they would not be real. These days there are temples of ‘Bharat Mata' and regular worshipping takes place there. But if you want to see ‘Bharat Mata', where will you look? ‘Bharat Mata' (‘Mother India') is the name of the entire land of India . Similarly, you would have seen pictures of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. In some they are depicted as a child, in others they are youthful. All these pictures were painted by artists according to their feelings and imagination. We know that God incarnated in other forms but we worship Him in the form of human beings. People see pictures of rishis and sages living in the jungle with long hair and beard and so they also start doing the same. Then others, seeing these unkempt persons, take them to be real saints and devotees and waste their invaluable human life serving and obeying these so-called saints. It appears that people have closed their eyes to what saints and divine personalities have said. St Kabir, for example said, “Man na rangaye, rangaye jogi kapara. Asan mari jogi mandir men baithe, Nam chharri poojan lage pathara. Mathwa muday jogi bhagwa rangole, Geeta banchi jogi ho gaile labra. Kanwa pharay jogi jatwa barhole, darhi barhay jogi ho gaile bakara. Man na rangaye, rangaye jogi kapra: “ The impostor dresses like a yogi but his mind is not dyed in devotion. This false yogi sits in a meditation posture in a temple. He does not have the Knowledge of Name and worships gods made of stone. He shaves his head and colours his clothing similar to that of a true renunciate. He reads the Bhagavad Gita without knowing its true real meaning. He gets his ears pierced; he has long hair and a beard and looks like a goat.”
When God is within our heart then His Name should also be within our heart. Where there is a thing, its name is also there. But we do not remember the Holy Name of God, which is ever-present within our heart and we think we are great devotees as we do our external rituals. Will such external things yield any benefit?
You believe in Lord Krishna. But you do not try to know his primordial name which is within and instead you worship idols made of metals or stone. Will you accrue any benefit from such things? St.Tulsidas says, “Ghat men hai soojhe nahin, lanat aisi jind. Tulsi ya sansar ko bhayo motia bind.” God is within our heart but we do not see! Shame on such a futile life! Tulsi says that the whole world is suffering from cataracts”.
If one could find God by living in the forest, growing long hair or living naked then why did Lord Krishna not say in the Bhagavadgita that one can reach him by doing such things? In fact he says the opposite. He says that he cannot be realised by such external means. He explained the importance of Spiritual Knowledge and told Arjuna to remember him constantly and also to fight.
Bullehshah also said the same thing: “Do your worldly duties with your hands and keep your mind ever hooked to God.” St. Mansoor says, “If you want to meet God, then keep your mind continuously in His Name.” Think about King Janak, Guru Nanak Dev Ji, St Kabir and all other saints and Divine Personalities. Did any of them live in the forest?
Sukhdev Muni ran into the forest soon after he was born but the great king Janak, while ruling the entire kingdom, was not conscious of his body and Sukhdev eventually accepted him as his Spiritual Master. You are redeemed when the mind ceases to fluctuate. Why was King Janak called ‘unconscious of his body'? Because his mind was ever joined to the Holy Name. Whatever a person does, he gets engrossed in that. He becomes like a worm of illusion! He appears to be human but his actions are like that of animals. If you remove a worm from the dung in which it lives, it will again and again go back to the filth from where it was taken. Similarly, a worldly person is happy in illusory things. You may put in any amount of effort to steer such people towards devotion, but they do not relish it. They prefer to circulate through the millions of species. They think that by listening to satsang, serving the master and acquiring Spiritual Knowledge they will get salvation and then they will not be able to enjoy worldly pleasures. Such people can't understand the ultimate bliss of devotion.
Saints say that you have wasted your precious human life in worldly illusory pleasures as you did not acquire Spiritual Knowledge and did not remember the Holy Name of the Almighty. You have lived no differently to a pig, an ass, cat, or dog. You may have a bed and mattress to sleep on, whereas a lion sleeps on the bare earth in a jungle. A lion eats raw flesh whereas you eat cooked meat. A parrot sees the fruit of the semal tree and thinks that it will eat the fruit after it is ripened and in this hope it sits on the branch of the tree and goes on waiting. But when the parrot pierces the fruit with its beak, cotton comes out. This should not happen to us. We should not go on waiting until ultimately our lifetime comes to an end. So well before that, we should understand the importance of this human body. We should get Spiritual Knowledge and do as much meditation as possible.
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