THE SPIRITUAL MASTER IMPARTS TRUE KNOWLEDGE

Hanuman Ji remembered Holy Name and captivated Lord Rama. Meera took the shelter of Raidas. She was a Rajput lady and had worshipped Lord Krishna since childhood, so why did she accept Raidas, who was a low-caste, as her Master? Meera Bai says, “Payo ji maine nam ratan dhan payo. Vastu amolak di mere satguru, kari kripa apnayo. ” She says, “I have got the jewel of the Name. My Master accepted me as his disciple and imparted the invaluable Spiritual Knowledge to me.”

                                      Param Sant Sadgurudev Shri Hans Ji Maharaj



Meera accepted Raidas as her Master to know the true name of God, because, even though this Name is present within everyone's heart, no one can know it without the grace of the Spiritual Master. Guru Nanak Dev Ji also says, “Eko sumaro Nanaka, jal thal raha samay. Dooja kahe sumariye, jamme te mar jay.” “Remember the One which permeates water, earth and everywhere. Why remember anything else which takes birth and dies? One Name permeates all the creatures living on earth and in water. We should remember that one Name. All other names begin when we utter them and come to an end when we stop. All these names, which are spoken or uttered by mouth, are given by us, whereas the natural Name is one for all. To remember the Holy Name of God is the only essence in this world. That Name was one in the beginning, now also it is one and after the creation comes to an end, it will remain the same.
That ‘Name' is true since time immemorial. All other names given by people are false. All incarnations, Masters, Saints and devotees who came into this world, imparted the Knowledge of the True Name and Divine Light to sincere seekers, but this world is such that people ignore the present divine Masters and after they are gone, celebrate their birthdays without knowing the depths of Spiritual Knowledge, and think that this is all that has to be done for salvation. They are not concerned in the least with what our great Incarnations talked about and taught the devotees of their time. “Man murid sansar hai. Guru murid koi sadh. Jo jane guru vachan ko, taka mata agadh.” “Everyone in this world is disciple of his mind. Only a rare saint is a disciple of the Spiritual Master. Those who know the Word of the Master, realise the Divine Knowledge.”
Those who have not taken shelter in the Spiritual Master neither know, nor meditate and are not devotees. The Spiritual Master is God in human form. He dispels all the grief of his devotees, so that is why he is known as “Hari” (the one who vanquishes). His Word dispels ignorance, in the same way as sunbeams dispel the darkness of night. However, night again prevails over daylight. Spiritual Knowledge doesn't mean that after initiation, ignorance may never again prevail. The darkness of desires is removed only when a disciple follows the instructions of the Master – in other words, when a disciple constantly remembers the Holy Name of God, which is present within everyone, with unflinching faith and reverence.
“ Uthat baithat sowat jagat nam. Kahe Nanak siddha bhaye tinha ke kam. ” Guru Nanak Dev Ji says that, if a person remembers the Name continuously while standing up, sitting, sleeping and awakening, all his actions are crowned with success.

The Name, which can be remembered continuously while sleeping and dreaming, is the ‘Word' of the Master. All other names and mantras are false. Do not waste your rare human body in these false things. How will you turn the beads of a rosary or sing devotional songs while you are asleep? You should know the indivisible ‘ kirtan ' (sacred harmony) which is going on incessantly within you already. Keep firm faith in the Name and remember it as much as possible. If your faith wavers in a year, or two years or even after ten or twenty years, then how can it be ‘unflinching faith'? Faith should be unflinching forever, even if the sun rises in the west instead of in the east. Only when you have this much faith in the Master will you be called a ‘devotee'. Everyone wants God to remove all his troubles and miseries like Lord Krishna did for Sudama, but they do not want to do anything for that and think that their names should be included in the list of devotees. Thirst is not quenched without drinking water, and only by devotion and service is one a ‘devotee' or a ‘ sewak ' (servant).
The soul is very subtle. Reason and mind cannot reach there. One cannot get to it even by much reading and writing of the scriptures. Many say, ‘ Aham Brahmasmi ' (I am God) and ‘ Ayamatma ' (I am soul). We pronounce vedic mantras parrot-like, without understanding their meaning and think that we are spiritual. Many people waste their valuable time following such teachers blindly. They do not even contemplate that whatever they utter by mouth and repeat uttering is just to fill their belly. They will talk pompously about soul but if you ask them if they have realized soul, they will say, ‘It is very difficult to know soul. Nobody can know it.' They will never say straight that they do not know Soul. It is written in the Ramayana, “Nar tan sam nahin kawanehu dehi. Jeev charachar yachat jehi. Narak swarg apwarg naseni. Gyan vairag bhakti sukh deni. ” There is no other species like the human body and a soul ever strives to get it. It is a ladder to either heaven or hell. In this body one can acquire the Spiritual Knowledge and thus achieve devotion and renunciation.
People make a ladder with bamboo and nails to reach a rooftop. We climb it step by step and reach the roof easily. Other species like elephants, lions, dogs, and donkeys do not make ladders. Similarly, God did not give wings to human beings but they used their intelligence to invent and manufacture aeroplanes. Now they can fly much faster than birds and cover a distance of thousands of miles in a short time. But the soul is subtler than even the sky. If we don't know it while we are human beings then in no other species can we know it. When other creatures cannot even build a ladder, how can they uplift their mind to the heavenly abode of the Almighty?
Our surati (attention) has descended from this level to the material world. We have to, in this very life by regular practice, elevate our mind back to the heavenly abode. Unless our surati regains its original plane we cannot get salvation and hence we cannot be happy and contented. The Muslims believe that ‘ Khuda ' (God) is in the ‘Seventh Sky'. But we should wonder what this means. Hindu people also believe that there are 14 lokas (levels of existence) and in our physical body too there are 14 chakras. The midpoint between the eyebrows is called ‘ Agya chakra ': there are 7 chakras below this and 6 chakras above it. The chakras from ‘ Agya chakra ' upwards are known as the ‘seven skies' or ‘seven lokas '. We have to take our mind above even there.
In primary schools the letters of the alphabet are displayed in bold pictures. We see them, but we don't know anything about them until the teacher tells us how to form and pronounce them. So how can we know the Holy Name of God which is within us? A kite alone cannot fly in the sky on its own and neither can its string. If we throw these up individually, they will fall down. But when the kite is attached to the thread with a knot, then both go up without falling down. Similarly, there are two ways to uplift the mind: Divine Light and unstruck celestial sound ( nad ). ‘Surati'and ‘Shabda' (‘Word') are bound with a knot by the Master. Word is within and ‘ Surati ' is also within, but unless both are bound with a knot by the Master the Surati cannot rise. When you meet a true Spiritual Master, he joins your surati with the Word instantly. Unless we meditate on the form of the Master, our inner knot will not be firm. The form of the Master manifests within. The divine vision of the sincere devotee is opened by meditating upon the Master's form. “Shri guru pad nakh mani gan jyoti. Sumirat divya drishti hiya hoti. Sujhahin Ram charit mani manik. Gupta pragat jahan jo jehi khanik.” : By meditating upon the Master's form, the divine vision is opened. Such people are called the ‘loved ones' or devotees. The Master imparts the knowledge of Word, unstruck celestial sound and Divine Light to all seekers who come into his shelter and surrender. By attending satsang our body remains there for some time and some service will be done there. Also, if one gives money in service out of reverence, then his mind also remembers the Master. Then one will be able to meditate. But meditation also needs service and satsang. So don't live in ignorance. Get Spiritual Knowledge from the present Spiritual Master, meditate and remember the Holy Name of God.
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Guru Nanak Dev Ji says, “ Ap jape auron ko japawe. Nanak nishchay mukti pawe. ” “One who himself meditates and inspires others to follow the spiritual path and meditate, definitely gets salvation.
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“J yon til mahin tel hai, jyon chakmak mein ag. Tera sain tujhmen, jag sake to jag. ” He says, “Just as oil is within a sesame seed and fire is within flint, so God is within everyone's heart. Wake up with the help of true saints and the Spiritual Master, if you can”.

“J yon til mahin tel hai, jyon chakmak mein ag. Tera sain tujhmen, jag sake to jag. ” He says, “Just as oil is within a sesame seed and fire is within flint, so God is within everyone's heart. Wake up with the help of true saints and the Spiritual Master, if you can”.

Musk is in the navel of a deer, but the deer runs around the forest in search of the source of the fragrance. Similarly, the Almighty is within our heart, but we search for God outside in temples, mosques and churches because we are ignorant of this.
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Our saints said, “ Nirbandha bandha rahe, bandha nirbandh hoy. Karm kare karta nahin, karm kahawe soy. ” 

Mahatma Gandhi

In nature there is fundamental unity running through all the diversity we see about us. Religions are given to mankind so as to accelerate the process of realisation of fundamental unity.

Adi Granth

Burn all attachment in True Knowledge, Grind it to ashes and make ink out of it. Make thy clean mind the paper. With love as thy pen and thy heart as the writer Write the Name and glory of God. Under the inspiration of the Guru.

THE QUALITIES OF A TRUE MASTER

A true disciple understands that it is not he who meditates, it is the Master who makes him meditate. He feels that the Master inspires him to such an extent that he begins to meditate. Such a devotee is in the situation where he understands that the Master is making him perfect.

                 Sadgurudev Shri Satpal Ji Maharaj

A mother doesn't say to her child, “Okay, sit here, this is a class and I am going to teach you charity and you are going to get charity lessons, or saying ‘Papa' lessons”, or something like that. Naturally, automatically, she teaches everything necessary – walking, talking, addressing people, good behaviour, everything like that.
In the same way, the Master doesn't say, “Okay, this is a class and I am the Master!” There is nothing of the sort. There is a love that is generated and automatically this love encompasses the Master and the disciple. Then they have a communion and with this communion there is an exchange of ideas. Automatically a disciple understands the inspiration and with that inspiration he begins to meditate.
May be in the world everybody is greedy, grasping, devouring everything, chasing money, but in spirituality there is still purity and ethical principles and with that, motivated by that, the Master comes. St Kabir says, “Trees do not eat fruit, rivers do not drink water. Motivated by his compassionate awareness, the Master comes into the world for the sake of devotees.” This is true, even though people do not understand him. I'll tell you a short story.
Once upon a time, a saint was trying to save a scorpion from getting drowned in the river by reaching down and picking it up. As soon as he lifted the scorpion, it stung him and again fell into the water. The saint lifted it again, but again it stung him and fell over. In this way, as often as the scorpion stung the saint, he lifted it from the water to save it.
A passer-by noticed this and remarked, “Why do you keep taking this creature out of the water when all it does is sting you? Let it die.” The saint replied, “No, I can't. Just as the scorpion's nature is to sting, it is my nature to rescue. So if it cannot change its nature, why should I abandon my habit of serving and saving?”
In India there was a king whose name was Ranjit Singh. He was very famous. He was a very pious man. Once he was travelling on his elephant. He entered a village. In that village stood a huge fig tree with a lot of fruit, and a child was throwing stones at the tree. Just as the king was entering that village, a stone hit his eye and blood poured down.
He said, “Find the kid who did this and bring him to me!” Everybody panicked and said to each other, “This is it, he's going to kill us all now.” Finally the child was brought there. The king said, “You know, people throw stones at that tree and what does the tree do? It gives them fruit! So, even though he hit me, I should reward this child.” He then took off his expensive necklace and gave it to the child.
In the same way, people say a lot of things, but a true spiritual Master doesn't pay any attention to it, he simply gives back inspiration, peace and tranquility. It doesn't matter what kind of dirt you throw towards the sun – that dirt will fall back on your face.
But now-a-days what happens is, that many people wear the garb of spirituality, they say that they are very spiritual, they have this knowledge and they are the Incarnated One, then they start doing things that even non-religious people wouldn't do. And people accept it because they hope, they simply have blind faith, but this will not help you. Because if you do not practise and understand Knowledge, then Knowledge will not know you!
So how can we recognise the Truth? How can we know the true Master? When the Master of Guru Teg Bahadur was dying, he was heard to say, “Bakala, Bakala.” So people took this to mean that his successor would be found in Bakala. Soon there was a self-proclaimed guru on every street corner! Temples were being built and each guru was claiming to be the only true one. But Truth cannot be concealed by lies.
At that time the real Guru, Teg Bahadur, was also living in Bakala, but most people thought he was crazy and a good-for-nothing. However there was a merchant there who called out from the depths of his heart to the real Guru and he found him. So we should know how a disciple should be, but at the same time we should also understand how a Guru should be.

Before you buy pots and pans in the market, you tap them to test their quality. Similarly, you also have to examine the Master. Only when you are fully satisfied, when you feel that he knows the inner meaning of the scriptures and can give you the practical experience of the Truth, do you have to approach him with a humble and surrendered attitude, because he is your doorway to liberation.
There are a lot of people who claim to be avatars, or divine masters. But it is said, “singhon ki lahandey nahin, hanso ki nahin pant, lalon ki nahin boriyan, sadhu na chaley jamat.” Lions don't travel in herds. Each lion has his own territory, extending to the distance that his roar can be heard. People stand in line to buy milk or to board a bus, but you will not see a queue of swans! The verse then says, “Rubies don't come by the sackful”. India had the unique Kohinoor diamond. There has not been another like it.
In the same way the true saints are few and far between. Only the one whose mind is totally under control, whose character and life are truly righteous, deserves to be called a ‘great soul'.
A lot of people wonder why we should concern ourselves with a Master's character. Surely all we have to do is follow his teachings! There are such people who say that we should just do what the guru teaches and not care about how he lives. For example, a professor teaches chemistry. He may be an addict, but nobody cares about that because it has no bearing on what he teaches. His personal life and his professional life are two different things. He does not have to use his character to prove what he teaches. He can use formulas and laboratory experiments to prove what he teaches. If he is a good teacher his students will get good marks and his character has nothing to do with it. It's not essential for the students to know what kind of a person he is. All they need is someone who can teach them properly. They are only concerned with his intellectual ability and with his mastery of the subject. Character is not a factor here, because what he teaches is not proven by character, but is based on textbooks, formulas and theories.
But spirituality is not merely reading books. It's a way of life. Its ‘principles', ‘formulas' and ‘theories' are meditation on the Holy Name, achieving the state of samadhi and merging the mind in God. If you don't meditate on the Holy Name now in this life, then when and where will you do so? If you don't achieve perfection in this life, when will you? So for this, a spiritual life is necessary, purity is necessary, love is necessary. If a person is really a spiritual Master, then he should have meditation and self-discipline and dedication in his life; he must be an Enlightened One.
Spiritual development does not take place in a laboratory, it is not simply a matter of chemicals, test tubes and theories. If a person is teaching meditation on the Holy Name, if he claims to teach purity and truth, how can his personal life not reflect this? Can spirituality be different to how one lives his life?” How can one's spirituality be proven except in the laboratory of his own life? Where can meditation take place other than in one's own life? The path of Knowledge is something you practise in your own life. So for a spiritual man, there should be no discrepancy between what he teaches and what he is. Because he walks the path of dharma, because he upholds morality and ethical principles, because his spirituality is expressed in his way of life, he is a role model for others.
So it is essential that someone who calls himself a spiritual teacher should radiate spirituality in his own life. This is absolutely vital. If a perfume has scent, we will experience it when we sniff it. A bottle does not have the ‘scent' label if it smells bad when you open it. In a spiritual person's life there is no discrepancy between what he teaches and how he lives – they are two sides of the same coin. It's wrong to say that we don't have to examine the master's character, we only have to listen to his teachings. If that is the case, then there was no reason for the criminal Ratnakar to change into the great saint Valmiki, or for the murderer Angulimal to become a disciple of Lord Buddha. If all they had to do was fill their minds with intellectual knowledge, then why did they meditate and transform themselves?
“When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; but when character is lost, everything is lost”. If a person loses money, he can work and earn it again. If his health is poor, he has lost something because it will take time and effort to regain. But if he loses his character, he has lost everything. Good character is a person's most valuable asset. The body is the temple of God . Within this living temple God dwells and it is where real worship takes place. Other temples are man-made, but this temple has been made by God, so it is our duty to keep it pure.
The sage Patanjali wrote in his ‘Yoga Sutra', chittvritti nirodhshchay yogah: - prevention of fluctations arising in the mind is yoga. Having perfect control of one's mind is yoga. This is the only way to keep the mind pure. I believe that if someone is a perfected soul, he will act in accordance with divine law, his actions will be conscious and ethical. Being perfect means that one's mind is totally under control, that everything he does is in accordance with the laws of dharma, and if his behaviour doesn't reflect this, then he is not perfect.
St Kabir said, “Satguru makes you like himself”. There is only one sun in our solar system. Why don't we say that Mars and Jupiter are suns? It is because the sun is radiant, it is self-luminous. Planets shine, but only with the reflected light of the sun, they do not have the capacity to shine by themselves. In the same way, the true master radiates the glory of Knowledge himself and makes others shine with the light of Knowledge too. He has the ability to elevate others.
So, only a title will not do. We have to look for the quality of a great soul and that quality is that he is enlightened with Self-Knowledge and enlightens others, too. The great saints and Masters didn't preach a complicated philosophy. They taught the way to salvation in a very simple fashion. So many commentaries have been written on the Gita. There is only one Gita but thousands of commentaries! Still people are far from the Knowledge which Krishna gave to Arjuna. Only a person who is pure in himself, who is spiritual in himself, whose only motivation is to uplift humanity, whose heart is full of love, can give Knowledge and love to others.
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