THE MASTER ANSWERS PART NO.5, Mysticism, reading, forums, Numerology, Sun Signs, Divination

Posts: 5115 · Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 5:10 am

Q Does God at any time send miraculous cures, or miraculous healing? As Jesus is said to have raised Lazarus from the dead?

A Well, brother, I have told you that saints can do whatever they like. There is absolutely no restriction on them, but they generally do not like to break the law of nature. All these miracles that we credit to the saints, generally, hardly five percent of them have been performed by the saints as miracles. They may seem like miracles to us, but they are not. We make up stories to exaggerate them. From what I have read in the Bible. I do not think Christ performed as many physical miracles to us, but they are not. We make up stories to exaggerate them. From what I have read in the Bible, I do not think Christ performed as many physical miracles as people think he id. He gave eyes to the blind, ears to the deaf, power of speech to the dumb, but that does not pertain to the physical miracles. WE are blind. In spite of haing eyes, we do not see the Lord. He gave them inner eyes to see the Lord; inner ears to hear His music, the Word of God, the Shabd or Audible Life Stream. These are not physical miracles at all; they are spiritual miracles.

Saints are not jugglers, who come to make miracles in this world. They do not try to perform miracles, but miracles do happen in their lives. I do not deny that. They are capable of performing all these miracles, because they are so tender-hearted and so much in love with humanity and with the Lord, that they sometimes do interfere with our karmas. Then they take the burden on themselves, and we call these things miracles.

But that is not their purpose of coming into this world. We always give more importance to the miracles they perform and none at all to their teachings. Their main purpose of coming into this world is to teach spirituality and how to live a life of love and devotion. They want to give all of us that inner sight; they want to give us the power to hear within; and they offer us that living water (the nectar within) which can give us life forever. They want to take us back to the Lord. That is their main miracles, which we try to confuse with these outside physical miracles, which is not their purpose at all.

As I said, miracles do happen in their lives. They can do perform them. I am not discussing Christ in particular, because it is true of all the saints. Christ may have performed all those miracles. I do not deny that. But it was not his main purpose of coming into this world. And, in spite of Christ's performing all these miracles, do we not see the blind in this world now? Are there no diseased now, no lepers, no dumb or lame people now? Are not our hospitals filled with sick people? Saints do not come to cure our physical ailments, as that is not their mission in life.

I often give the example of a jail where there are many prisoners. One philanthropist comes and finds that these prisoners do not get good fresh water to drink, so he buys some good cold drinks for them. He is doing good to the prisoners. Another philanthropist comes, who perhaps has a little more money. He gives them good food. He is also doing good to them and trying to raise their standard of living. He is doing good according to his limited capacity. A third philanthropist comes and finds that winter is fast approaching and the prisoners do not have good clothing. He spends a little more money in trying to help them still more by giving them beautiful warm clothes, to save them from the coming severe winter. He also is doing good. Each philanthropist is doing his best, while the standard of living of every prisoner is just becoming higher and higher. But, all the same, they are still in the prison.

A fourth philanthropist comes, who has the ky of that jail, and the power and authority to use it. He copens the gate and sets all those prisoners free. He is the best philanthropist. In the same way, saints come into this world with the key, this world being a big jail that we are all in, each serving his own sentence according to his karma, fate or destiny, whatever you want to call it. So, saints just open the gate for us and set us free to go back to the Lord. Nothing can compare with their mercy and grace.

Saints do not come merely to improve the life of the prisoners. They do not come to raise our standard of living in this world. They come to set us free from this world and take us back to the Lord. That is their mission in their life; that is their purpose in this world. So, we should always try to know the teachings of the saints, the real mystics -- the mystic way that the Lord wants us to follow: how to get out of this prison, how to get out of this world, how to go back to Him. We should try to seek their teachings in their books, and not give so much importance to where they were born, what were their miracles, what they did, were were their parents, whether they had a teacher or not. We should not get ourselves confused in history, in these matters; that is not the purpose of our lives.

We should always keep in view their real teaching, which is their purpose in coming into this world. They have to have a mother and a father; they have to be born in some country or another; they have to be governed by one ruler or another; so, we should not worry about these things at all. We should try to make a research of their real teachings, the purpose of their coming; for then we can make the best use of their coming; otherwise, we fail to do so.

Q The Bible says, "A merry heart is a good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones."

A Sister, the Bible is full of mysticism, full of spirituality, but nobody tries to make a research about it. Christ very beautifully said that your prayer would never be accepted by the Lord if you do not first forgive everybody. As long as you have malice in your heart, or hatred against anybody, or ill feelings, your prayer will never be accepted by the Lord. If you want to pray to the Lord, first go and ask for forgiveness from the one you have injured. When he forgives you, then your prayer will be heard by the Lord. Only the pure-hearted can reach Him. And only a pure heart can be a merry heart, can be genuinely happy. When we are always thinking of cutting each other's throats, nation against nation, religion against religion, country against country, tribe against tribe, how can we have peace and be really happy or merry? We should not have hatred or malice towards each other. There should be no thought of revenge, even if we feel that we have been injured. Did not Jesus say that if someone smites you on one cheek, you should turn the other? So, we have to develop that love and devotion of the Lord within ourselves. Then we will follow these teachings automatically, which will give us peace within our self. And when we find peace within our self, we will have it all around us.

If such is everyone's approach, we can all, on a spiritual platform, become one; we are all one. But, if you think you will be able to convert another nation to another ideology of living, you can never do it. If you think you can convert the whole world, you can never do it politically. There has never been one ideology of living, you can never do it. If you think you can convert the whole world, you can never do it politically. There has never been one ideology in this world, politically. Read the history of the world. So, our endeavour is to try along the spiritual lie. First we have to reform ourselves. If you try to pick the thorns of the world, you can never succeed, but if you put strong shoes on your feet, no thorns will bother you. Similarly, we can never solve the problems of this world, but we can always rise above the problems. The saints just give us the "strong shoes", they give us the essence of spirituality to help us find peace within ourselves and radiate peace wherever we go. When we have joy within ourself, we find joy and beauty all around us; and if we do not have joy or peace or happiness within our self, even the most beautiful thing does not appeal to us. So, we have to reform ourselves rather than reform the world.

Q I am a little confused as to if I should accept, and if it makes any difference if I do accept and consider that a man known a Jesus transformed his body in three days, and did not leave it back to deteriorate, so to speak. In other words, if this is an actuality, I am sure it has happened before to other saints, possibly, and if so, what is the advantage of doing so?

A I do not know. Whether Christ actually did it or not, that is also a moot point. You see, the thing is, when we want to praise our leaders, we go beyond imagination and beyond limits just to give them praise. I do not know whether it is true or not that Christ took his body to heaven, as I am not a student of history. But whether he did or not is immaterial. Saints can d it if they want to, but why should they do it? The body is just composed of the five tattwas, the five elements, and everybody has to leave the body, which can serve us only here in this world and not beyond.

Q Would you say the Granth Sahib is one of the closer books to the Sant Mat teachings?

A The fortunate thing about the Granth Sahib is that it was written by the Gurus themselves, and it is being preserved to a word, with the modern generation. Nothing has been changed. It cannot be said that this was not the teaching of the Gurus, for they actually wrote that book. In their writings they have confirmed that this is their teaching. So, that is something authentic, and the whole Granth Sahib teaches us the philosophy of the saints (Sant Mat), and nothing else. So, the teachings in the Granth Sahib are not only close to Sant Mat, they are Sant Mat.

Q Is it being misconstrued like other books, or is it still coming out in true form? Or are the priests themselves misconstruing it?

A That they do everywhere. You will find the same is true of the Bible and other Scriptures. But actually, if with an unbiased mind you will make a research in the teachings of the Granth Sahib, you will come to the same point. What we are involved with is history, and that is never accurate, as nobody has made a research in it along that line. There is not a word in the Grant Sahib which cannot be explained and which is not true to the teachings of the saints. The Granth Sahib contains the writings of thirty-five contributors -- six Sikh Gurus and twenty-nine other saints and holy men. So it is a compilation of the sayings of all those saints.

How did it come into being? What is the history of the Granth Sahib? Guru Nanak gave his own teachings in poetry, and he used to recite them out of devotion and love. He never took up a pen and paper to write a book. Whenever he was in a mood of ecstasy and oneness with the Lord, his poetry just flowed out of him. And some saintly people noted down whatever he was saying. So, his teachings eventually came into print. Similarly, the teachings of all these saints, till the fifth Guru, came like this. But the written teachings of all the Gurus were scattered. Guru Nanak's teachings --- his poetry, was taken away by his sons. His successor was not allowed to possess it. And so were the teachings -- the poetry was taken by his sons. His successor was not allowed to possess it. And so were the teachings -- the poetry of the second Guru, taken away by his sons. The third Guru was not allowed to see them, and he had no access to them so none of the writing were available.

The fifth Guru collected the teachings of all the Gurus into one book. From the previous Gurus' descendants, from their friends, wherever he could lay hand on the teachings of his predecessors, he collected them and brought them into book form. Then he realized that if these teachings were given from his own Masters, probably the world would think that these teachings were something new and different from the teachings of the previous Masters of various castes and creeds, of previous times. So, then he collected the teachings of all the saints that were available to him, in different languages. The writings of those saints who had lived even several hundred years before Guru Nanak, were collected. All the teachings that he had collected of various saints of various times and places, were the same as the teachings of Guru Nanak. He collected all of them and brought them into one book, called the Granth Sahib, and in that he left space for the writings of the ninth Guru. So, the Granth Sahib contains not only the teachings of the Sikh Gurus, but also the writings of twenty - nine other saints and holy men.

The object of compiling the Granth Sahib was to tell the world that whatever his Master had taught, the philosophy of God-realization was nothing new, and that there was proof ofit in the writings of earlier saints. To prove that, he brought together their teachings into one book. Despite the fact that everything is there in black and white, people do not understand the teachings.

Q Maharaj Ji, recently here in Escondido we heard a high priest from the Parsees from Bombay talk. He was telling us about Hura Mazda, and apparently that was basic to all religions, many many years ago. I bought one of their books and in it is stated that the last remnants of these ancient Persians went right down into the Punjab and into Bombay, there in India. And the rest of them, or the other religions, sort of took the main points and hanged it around. Would Sant Mat possibly be one of these, through Guru Nanak? Would that be direct from the Hura Mazda?

A No, sister. The saints never take the teachings from another saint and give another shape to it. I will tell you. Those people who travel on the path and reach their destination, all of them have the same story to tell. Whether the saint is born in the twentieth, or the eighteenth or nineteenth, or sixteenth or seventeenth century, in India or America, or any other country, he has the same story to tell. So, regardless of who has written the story of that path, leading to the ultimate destination, the teachings will always be the same. There may be a difference in explaining, keeping in view the background of that particular nation, or particular country, or particular people. But, essentially the teachings will be the same. The kernel will be the same.

Supposing from America you went to India, and whatever countries came in your way, whatever obstacles you had in your way, whatever formalities you had to go through, whatever difficulties you experienced, and whatever enjoyments you had in the way, you write all that in a book. Another person goes and also writes what he sees and experiences in a book. A thid person goes and does the same. Whosoever has taken that route to India, the experiences will be the same, but there will be a little variation in description here and there. Some will give a little more importance to Bangkok, some will give a little more importance to Bangkok, some will give more importance to Burma, others will give a little more importance to Hong Kong; but actually, they have to explain the same thing, leading to the destination. There cannot be two different basic explanations for those who have gone there.

So, it is not that the other writer takes from the teachings of the one saint and tries to make it his own religion. They have traveled the same path and they have told the same thing. After their departure, the people gave shape to those teachings in the form of religions, and they became the victims of organizations and empty shells. If anyone with an unbiased mind will make a research, he will be told the same teachings. There cannot be two.

We have a lot of Parsees in our group from Bombay. In fact, in Beas we have a cosmopolitan colony. There is hardly any country or any religion which is not represented, because we do not believe in any creeds, dogmas, rituals or ceremonies. We believe only in the teachings of the saints and in putting them into practice.

Q Master, you said that people always misinterpret the teachings. That seems so even when the Master is living, because I even hear satsangis say that whatever happens to your karma, they take it up.

A Yes, this happens even while the Master is living, so just imagine what happens when the Master departs. Sometimes a statement is made at one place, and by the time it is repeated to several others at some distance, it may be quite different from the original statement. This always happens when the person relating or interpreting allows his own self to come in. So, generally, the teachings are a little misunderstood or not rightly explained, or suppressed. It always happens.

Recently when somebody visited Beas, he gave me a photostatic copy of some pages of a book on vegetarian diet. He says that they have found some papers in the Vatican in Rome, containing some secret passed from one person to another about Christ's teachings, that are very clear about the vegetarian diet --- why we should have the vegetarian diet and all that. I shall send Mr.Replogle a copy of it when I go back to India. The photostatic copy was given to me by an American satsangi. So, many things have been suppressed from the Bible.

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