Reference: posted by: vejeestu on 8/21/00 to Kirpal Singh Satsang Club; Messages number 638-644
This talk was given by the Master Kirpal Singh in English on January 24, 1964, at Mr. Khanna's home in Washington, D. C. Imagine the Master sitting in a fair sized living room crammed with perhaps forty or fifty people or more and just simply talking. In this talk, Master gives many stories of his life to tell the high standard and complete concentration required by the seeker. He also reveals many beautiful facets of his personality. Of course there are many other relevant stories told in other places that give even more flesh to the threads he weaves here. However in this wonderful satsang is great sweetness and wisdom for the lovers and the seekers alike.
I have edited for brevity as the original talk is at least twice the length of the present article.
AS IT APPEARS from my form, I was born in a Sikh family. Man is social: he must have some social body to live in; so he is born in one family or the other. And he has to remain in some social body.
I had an inkling from my childhood about God. Each man has his particular background. When reading the Sikh scriptures, I used not to ruminate over them, but read them carefully. I used to open the Sikh scriptures and read one hymn—not many pages—and put in writing. I kept it before me throughout the day, thinking "this is the lesson given to me." The more you read something again and again, the more you will find in it. Generally, when we read scriptures, we ruminate over them: we read two or four or ten pages and go on reading; and we do not know what we have read, even after we have left the scriptures. We forget. But I didn't do that.
The result was this: All scriptures tell us that there is a God. That very conviction I had in my innate self, I would say. I was never in doubt about God. But the scriptures also referred to the need of the company of someone who knows God — you may call him a Guru or a Master or a Teacher or anything:
"If you want to see God, meet someone who sees God"—that's common sense—"and to whom you can devote your whole self—mind, body and soul. The more you can surrender, the greater the achievement you can have. The first thing is to meet someone who knows God and who sees God, as I see you and you see me."
The more I went into the Sikh scriptures, and into the scriptures of other religions as well, the more truth of this I found.
When you go to a place of pilgrimage, it is better to take along someone who has already pilgrimaged there. Then it becomes easier, does it not? How confidently we can go! Suppose you have to leave your country and go to some foreign land. What would you do? Generally you would open directories to find out what are the means to reach there, how to go, where to stay and where not to stay. Suppose you have to go to a place where you do not know the language. What should you do? How much money will be required? What things do we require to take along with us? All these things you consider. This information is given in the directories, of course; but they don't speak. By going through them, you might find one thing here, another thing on the tenth page, and another on the fiftieth page. If, while searching through the directories, someone comes up to you and says, "Look here, do you want to go to that place? Here's a man who has come from that place," what would you do? You would close the directories and run to him. When you go to him, he says, "Oh, yes, I've been to that place. Do you want to go there?" "Yes." And if you put a question to him, he will say, "Oh, yes, you can go to such and such a place; you can stop there; and on the way, you can have food."
You are convinced that that man has seen it. And next week you hear that this very same man is going back to the very place from which he has come and to which you want to go. You ask him, "Will you take me along with you?" "Yes, most gladly." How confident you feel, naturally! You have nothing to worry about where to go or where you will stop, because that man knows—he has been to that place.
Similarly, in this quest, I read the scriptures, first of all, in the family in which I was born. The Sikh scriptures are a very big treasure house: they comprise about 1,400 big-size pages. And the beauty of them is that you have the findings of so many God-men together. The oldest scriptures of the world are called the Vedas. The Vedas include the sayings and findings of many rishis, not one. You'll find that later scriptures give only as much as the one particular Master, who came at the time, said—although all the teachings are parallel; I'm just describing the beauty of these. So, the latest scriptures, those of the Sikhs, written 400 years ago, contain as many Masters' findings as could possibly have been collected at the time.
Then naturally I was led to other scriptures. I was reading in a missionary school, so I was in touch with the missionary teachings. But what they said, I did not follow. The teachings appeared to be very clear to me; but, perhaps, to those who were preaching them, they were not so dear. They said, "You must be born in Christ." I said, "How can a man be born in a man?" Common sense! "God is Light." And they said, "Well, intellectually: God gives us the intellect to understand Him."
Then I read other scriptures—Mohammedan, Hindu—the most I could lay hands on. All said the same thing: "There is a God. If you want to see God, sit at the feet of someone who has seen God; who not only has seen God, but is competent to make us see God." You'll find that Christ said, "The Son knows the Father and others whom the Son reveals." The Sonship continues.
All Mohammedan literature and scriptures tell us the same thing: "You must find some means to reach God." Hindu scriptures are full of them as well. In every scripture you will find these sayings.
Naturally, when I looked all around, there were so many Masters. To whom should I go? We were three brothers. Two of us helped each other: "If you find any Godman, tell me; if I find one, I will tell you." We were searching, you see.
So many men were having meetings of this kind. Once, it so happened, that my brother wrote me, "Here's a very great man; a very great Master has come. Will you come?" I went there. I told him,
"I have intoxication that continues day and night; but sometimes, after three, four or five months, it breaks for a day or two. And I am very much puzzled. Can you help me in that?"
What did he say?
"You'll have to lay down everything—your body, mind and soul—to me. Only then I can, I will, give it to you."
I thought, "The man is after my body and possessions; my intellect and everything is to be blindfolded." I paid him homage and returned.
Well, you see surrender comes only when you see some competence. Devotion and love—one who loves—is something else. When you surrender, you have control of the one to whom you surrender: he has to take care of you. So many came and passed by. I used to see one who was very God-intoxicated; but he lived in a way that nobody dared come to him. Our Master [Baba Sawan Singh] also used to refer to him; he also met him; his name was Baba Kahan. He lived in a naked state; there a fire was burning, amid filth; when there was heat, he was just fanning the other way. Anyone that went to him, he would call them names. If they didn't leave, then he would beat them. But there was something there: he would call them names, and people would still remain there. Sometimes they would get a beating, too. But for whatever purpose they went, that purpose was served: they had it.
I was reading in those days in school. I also used to go to him. He was just sitting on a platform there, in a half naked way; I used to stand over there, watching people whom he called names going away. I stayed on until everybody left. Then he called me:
"Well, Sardar, what do you want?"
I went to him: "I came only to see you."
"All right, go."
(Notice that he did not ask him for anything, but was simply there for his darshan. Apparently he understood that while Baba Kahan was highly advanced, he was not to be his guru.) Some people have it; they keep it very close-fisted. They don't give it out.
So it went on like that. I used to pray: "Oh God, I'm convinced that without one who knows You, nobody can reach You." It is a practical matter of self-analysis. God cannot be known by the outgoing faculties, by the vital airs or by the intellect. It is a matter of seeing: whoever sees can make you see. "I know there's a need—definitely: all scriptures say so. I'm quite convinced, but where am I to go? Suppose I go to somebody who has not met You—what will be my fate?" I used to pray like that. "If You could reveal Yourself to the old saints" —sometimes there are stories like that— "why can't You do it in my case? I'm convinced; I've great regard for that need; but there are so many Masters— whom shall I select?"
(During this period, Sant Kirpal Singh's father had a severe stroke which reduced him to a childlike state of dependence. The father now became the son and the son became the father. The long running difficulties that Kirpal Singh's father had with his son for not following the Shaivite practices, the meat-eating, etc., of the family, etc., came to an abrupt halt. Kirpal Singh over the next year brought his father back up as any father or mother would raise his child. From spoon feeding gradually his father was able to walk etc. When he had regained his faculties one day his father in a mood of tremendous gratitude said to Kirpal Singh,
"If a father's blessing mean anything, you shall surely have what you want!!"
Kirpal Singh replied,
"I am not attracted to any worldly things, all I want is God-knowledge."
The next day was the very first vision of Hazur Baba Sawan Singh.)
With this, my Master [Baba Sawan Singh] began to appear to me when I sat in meditation or when I was doing something. I thought perhaps it was Guru Nanak. He used to talk to me. In those days there was the first Great War, and my brother was on the Indian front along the Persian side. I used to traverse along with him and went to those places, here, there and everywhere.
I was very fond of rivers, ponds, water. Even in my young life, I used to go and sit by the waterside, or some river, the whole night through, in a calm and quiet place. The running water helps a little to concentrate. So this went on for I some time.
~In the meantime, I was first at Peshawar, and then I was transferred to Nowshera station: a river runs by there. I used to sit by that riverside for hours. Then I came to Jhelum side. That is also by the riverside, and I sat there for hours - on end. I was very fond of swimming, too.
In the meantime, I was transferred to Lahore: that was also by the riverside. I passed my days there. There was also the river Beas: "Let me have a look at that!" One Sunday morning I left by - train and detrained at Beas station.
There was an old man there; he was the station master. I asked him which side the river flows. He was a devotee of the Master: "Do you want to see the Master?" "Does a Master live there?" "Yes! " "Where?" "On the riverside." I told him, "I have two things now. I'll enjoy the river scenery and also see the Master at the same time." Then he directed me there.
Master was sitting upstairs; he was taking his meal inside. I went out and sat outside. After half an hour or so, he came out. I was wonderstruck: he was the same man who had been appearing to me for seven years before, from 1917 to 1924. I paid homage to him: "Why so late?"
He said, "That was the most opportune time that you are to come."So this is how I met the Master. "The Guru appears when the chela is ready" —even to the most skeptical mind. Perhaps none of you have been so skeptical as I was. I was afraid, you see, lest I go to somebody who had not met God; and my life would be spoiled.
When I went to him, every Sunday I used to go—he looked after me like a father looks after his son's coming: "All right, arrange this room, bring this bedding," this and that thing. I requested, "Well, Master, don't you worry, I'm here, at your feet."
"All right, now, you'll have to look after this Dera; go on with it. Those who come, you'll look after them." These were the words he expressed, the very first time.
The next time there was initiation— this was early February—and all were sitting in initiation, Master said, "You sit inside." He gave initiation there; I was inside, sitting in his room. This is how I was initiated! I was waiting for him; perhaps he will call me—or what? I couldn't dare move, because he did not call me. I was sitting inside. Then he returned. I asked him, "Will you kindly initiate me?"
"Oh, yes, surely."
What the mystery of life is—what is a man, what is a soul—was solved in little or no time.
A qualification of a Master is given as one who can give you some experience. Some say, "All right, go here; here are maps to show you the way; go by this road; or turn right, then left; this or that." Sometimes you have to hunt for hours, and you do not find the way. But a Master is one who can give you some experience to start with, who can appear and can remove the dark veil bygiving a sitting; and you can testify that it is so. You are not to wait until after death or until after many years. He does not tell you, "All right, go on; you'll have it in due course." You'll find that it is so with most of the teachers: "All right, do some regular meditation; some reaction from the past might help you." But the competency of the Master lies in the fact that he is able and competent to give experience to the learned or the unlearned, to a man off the street.
It so happened that there was some controversy when our Master became a Master—I mean, took up the role of the Master. (He was a Master, but he took up the role of the Master.) When others asked, "Why, how can you become a Master?" He was very polite and very humble. He never liked to get into a controversy. After they kept pushing the point, he said, "All right. Catch some five or six people off the street, make them sit, and give them some experience. I will also catch some, and then we'll see, who can carry it out!"
So this is how I met the Master.
Generally, when people ask me, "What is your date of birth?" I tell them, "I have three birthdays: first, when I was born in the flesh; second, when I met him inside seven years before; and third, when I met him physically."
These are the gifts of God. I was very - afraid because generally you'll find that Masters simply tell you, "Go on reading scriptures ." That is right; that is the first step. But you cannot have the right import of the scriptures unless you meet somebody who that that experience: he alone is ab le to give you an experience, to give you the right understanding of the scriptures.
This is what is the Truth—without any exaggeration. These are facts given by all Masters. I will now tell you one more event in my life. I was very fond of reading biographies, even as a student —I think I read more than 300 lives of saints, East and West. The first book that came into my hands while I was reading in the seventh grade was a life of a saint—Ramanuj. What did I read there? It was written that he went to a Master, who gave him initiation. Then Ramanuj came around, stood on a mound, and called all the people around him. People asked, "What are you going to do?"
"I've got something I'm going to give you. "Oh, you are disobeying the orders of your Master." Without the permission of his Master, he should not have done it. "Never mind. I will go to hell—you'll be saved! I'll suffer hell, for your sake. You'll be saved, after all; I don't mind." At that time, it came to my mind, that if I get this thing, I'll give it out like anything. But fortunately, I've given it out at the order of my Master, not without it! And that is His grace working, I tell you.
Never for a moment have I dreamed that I am doing it: it is He who is doing it. Some people ask me, "You have given the initiation; then why does your Master sometimes appear with you or all alone?" What should I reply? Tell me. I tell them, "It may be that He is in me." And that's all I can really tell them. Even to those who have not seen His physical form, that Form appears, without visualization. They have never seen Him. They recognize Him by show ing them His photos. This is the true state of affairs.
This is how I got to my Master. Wherever that God Power works, we have respect for it. The son of man never asserts that "I am doing it"; he says, "God in me is doing it." He sees that. So, fortunate are those that meet such a Master; they are put on the way. Then what duty is there further? The more you abide by his words, the better.
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