|
Pravin Kumar
Age: 64 Zodiac: 
|
|
 Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:21 am |
|
 |
|
|
|
Q My husband says that we should not go to the Master, as we have got Master in ourselves, and we should just work for ourselves, and that we do not need any initiation.
A Sister, if one can work for oneself, definitely one does not need a teacher. It is very difficult to work for oneself. More or less, one works for the mind --- self-deception, I would say. We definitely need a Maser outside to find our own Master inside. We need a Master to reach that stage where we need no Master. But without a Living Master, we can never get there.
Q In this country, I do not know if it is the same in India, some people say that they have initiation inside and do not need any outer Master. What can you say to them?
A Sister, you have seen India, you have seen America. You can compare it better now that you have seen both. I have seen only one, and I am trying to see the other now. We definitely need initiation by a Maser to put us on the path. Initiation is not a ritual; it is a guiding factor in our life. The Master is always there. He does not just forget about us after initiation. He is always there to guide us and lead us. So, whether we need him or not, he is always there to lead us and help us. Ultimately the Initiation and the Master and the Audible Life Stream and Devotion and the Lord and the Soul become one. These are just means to go back and merge into Him.
Q Why is a Master more than a priest or a preacher? Why is he more valuable to one seeking spiritual salvation?
A In the beginning we should just take him as a preacher or a teacher or a guide. And when we go in, we will realize what he does for us. We automatically see what he is. In the beginning we are just to take him as a guide, as a friend, as a leader, somebody to put us on the path. Then we, ourselves, will realize why we need him more and more. In every line in this world we need a teacher, and we always give them due respect and are grateful to them for being so helpful to us. All that we are, is due to our teachers. In the same way, we need a Maser, we need a guide, to put us on this spiritual path, to lead and guide us on that path. And when we realize what that path is, we get some idea of the duties and responsibilities of the Master, and then we automatically see what he is doing for us. There is nothing that we have to force ourselves to admit or take to certain things. All this comes from within, and whenever it comes, it comes from within. The realization is within.
Q The way I have interpreted that question of this gentleman here is, the Master is the thing itself, the Light itself; and the preacher is the one that talks about the Light, only talks about it or tries to describe it?
A The Master does not only describe it to us, he actually leads us inside, and ultimately we merge back into him and he merges back into the Lord. We all become one. Everybody is a wave of that ocean. A wave comes from the ocean and merges back into the ocean along with whatever has been consigned to it.
Q If we are the temple of the spirit, we are also one with that light that has never had a beginning and never will have an end?
A That is right.
Q Why do we need the advice and counsel of a human if we are one with that light?
A Because now we are not one with it. We need the counsel because we again want to be one with that light.
Q We never cease to be and we never will cease to exist. There is no beginning and no end?
A That is right. Actually do you see that light? Do you know that you are part of it now?
Q If we are the temple of the spirit, we are automatically one with that light.
A That is what we think intellectually but, practically, we want to be one with it.
Q But we are one with it? We are one with it and we do not know?
A I and the Father are one. I can say I am God. But I am a prisoner here, and I will be God when I get released from all these prisons and go back and merge into Him. That is God-realization.
Q I do not feel that I am a prisoner. I feel that I am a part of that light, serving His purpose.
A We are all part of that light.
Q If it takes one hundred incarnations, I am serving the purpose of that light, so why worry when it ends?
A Oh, no. We are all serving the purpose of this creation. Without serving the purpose, the creation cannot exist.
Q I realize that, but if we are automatically the temple of the spirit, we are automatically that light, and there should be no contemplation of when we leave, as we are here to serve that light?
A We are part of that light. We are part of that Lord and that Power, that Lord God, whatever you may call it. But now we are separated from Him, or caged in this body. We can say theoretically we are God, but there is a difference now, as long as we are a prisoner here. When we develop our consciousness to that stage that we again see that light and merge into that light, then actually we can say we are that Light, we are God.
Q But I do not feel that I am a prisoner. I feel that I am serving that Light with every breath that I take.
A How do you know that you are serving that Light? You see, we are under the sway of the mind and the senses.
Q I am that Light that existed millions of years ago and will never end?
A It will not end. From this body you will go to another body, and then to another and so on.
Q We are all one with that Light?
A The whole creation is one with the Lord.
Q And we mix it up with our physical mind and wonder what to do, but we do not have to do if we know ourselves it is automatic to us?
A No, no. The same light is in the animals; the same light is in insects; but we would not like to be that.
Q But each person in his own interpreter of that light. He does not have to seek outside counsel, as the light tells him what to do?
A But the pity is it does not tell us what to do.
Q It does tell us?
A We have that light within us, but unless we see that light within, unless we merge into that light, as Christ said, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light," we are not aware of it.
Q But nobody can tell the other person?
A You have to open that eye in order to see that light. The light, of course, is there and it does not come from anywhere outside, but we have to develop that consciousness, to open that eye which sees that light. Without the actual experience, this is just a way of explaining that I and the Father are one. Naturally we are one, but unless we remove all these stumbling blocks, all these walls from our way, we cannot become one with Him. Intellectually it is all right to say we are one. We can all think like that, but practically, it makes all the difference between us and the Lord. We are all rays from the same Light, and we have come from that Light and we have got to go back to merge back into that same Light. That is what we are all striving for.
Q Master, if we were able to use that light, as we should, the whole time, every moment, we would not need to be here, would we?
A No. We would be in that Light.
Q We could not be in this world then, could we?
A We would merge back into Him. Who would like to remain away from Him? A drop of water would not like to remain merged in the dust and dirt, nor does it enjoy the separation from the cloud or the ocean from which it came.
Q We are, then, masters of our life and death.
A Yes, and that is the purpose of meditation. Now the mind is controlling us. We are striving to control the senses and the mind. for then only can we become a conscious part of that light.
Q Master, you said that once the chela has attuned himself to the Sound Current, the Sound Current will draw him up to the Source from which he has come. Well, if the Sound Current will draw him up to the Source, what is the purpose of the Master?
A The purpose of the Master is to connect him to the Sound Current and to be with him all through, so that he may not fall into the temptations, he may not be driven away from the real path. There is no difference between the Master and the Sound Current inside. We need someone in the human form who has made that contact and is himself merged in the Sound Current, and that someone is the Living Master.
Q Master, in the introduction to the English version of the Sar Bachan it is mentioned that Swami Ji meditated for seventeen years in a dark back room before he brought out the teachings of Radha Soami, which implied that he had no early teacher in that life. I was eager to know if this indicates that he was one of those Masters you spoke of, in a class of those who came directly from God?
A Sister, generally the disciples of every saint refuse to believe that their own Master ever had a Master. This is out of respect to their own Master. They think that teir own Master was so great that he never needed a teacher. Actually, Swami Ji had a teacher. I do not want to enter into controversy about history or other points, but Swami Ji definitely had a teacher who put him on the path, who gave him all that he wanted to give him, internally and externally, and Swami Ji continued the practice before he taught, before he put people on the path. Similarly, Guru Nanak had a teacher, Kabir had a teacher, but no disciples of any Master will believe that their Master needed a teacher. In our fondness, we think that probably our Master will not be considered great if we admit that he had a teacher. That is exactly cutting at the root of the very teachings of those Masters, to say that they never had a Master. Every teacher needs a Master. Before he becomes a teacher he is a disciple. If the disciple then comes to that stage he also can become a Master. I do not agree that Swami Ji never had a teacher. Swami Ji had a teacher, whether they admit it or not. But, I do not wish to enter into controversy with anybody.
Q Did Jesus have a Master?
A I am not a student of history. Historians probably have to prove who was the Master of Jesus. Perhaps John the baptist has said that he baptized Jesus. I do not know who was the teacher or Master of Christ, but he must have had a teacher. We do not degrade a Master to whom we give sole respect by accepting the fact that he had a teacher. WE rather praise such Masters by doing so, because they prove the knowledge, the wisdom, the path, that everybody needs a teacher, and they are the first to give an example to the public that we need a teacher. It is for the historians to say who was Christ's teacher, but definitely not without a teacher did he get all the beautiful teachings that he tried to give us. ?Saints may have a formal teacher, just to prove to us that a teacher is necessary, but every Master has had a teacher. As I explained yesterday, if the candle is ready, it needs only a match to light it. For the other, we have to bring the wick and the wax, and mould it, make a candle, and then light it. So, all those guides of souls, who come into this world to teach us, they are all ready. They just need a lighting from another candle, another Master, to become a full Master. But all the same, they need a teacher, and they have a teacher. This is the law of the Lord.
Q I do not mean any disrespect, but I am just wondering concerning our Western Mystics, such as St. Francis, St. John of the cross, illuminated souls, according to stories. I cannot vouch for it that they were God-realized, and they did not have Christ next to them, as he died about one thousand years earlier. I am just wondering. I mean, St. Francis of Assissi was a realized soul and a great Saint, and the same with St. John of the Cross. Now, you have point out that they needed a Living Guru, but they worshiped the past in Jesus Christ of one thousand years before. How did they attain illumination?
A In every age there has always been a Master, and in every age there will be a Master. Masters are not confined to any particular country or any particular time or any particular age. There always has been a Master in the world.
Q I mean that these saints never mentioned another name but that of Christ?
A The article that was just read is the report of some research by a writer, explaining the necessity of a Master. It does not mean that he has named all the saints of the world. He has just picked up a few saints and just explained whatever he wants to tell you. All those saints corroborate what he wants to tell you. He has not made a history of all the saints in this article.
Q Would St. Francis have shown a devotion to his own particular Master by mentioning his name?
A He must have shown it. I do not know the history of St. Francis. I cannot comment on this unless I have read the history of St. Francis and know his works. I have respect for all Masers in any way.
Q I do not happen to be a satsangi, but I was just wondering that from the discourse that was given tonight in refrence to the Guru -- I think that means teacher --- that one cannot see God unless one sees through, or is led by the Guru. Now, in Guru, does that refer only -- well, Christ was mentioned, but I am referring to the Eastern , the Indian, as being the Guru today that we might recognize. I refer to, let us say, America, where we may not be so familiar with the methods, or the thinking of the Indian or the Eastern culture, and therefore we might not find it so familiar to comprehend what is said, or to cope with it. So, if one feels this way and hears that only through a Guru can one see God, it is disheartening if one cannot recognize the Guru, say, within one's own culture?
A Well, sister, as far as The Bible is concerned, and I believe that every Christian reads The Bible, it is very clear that we need a Master in order to go back to the Lord. Without the Master's help we cannot go back to the Lord. Christ said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," and "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Christ was the Master in his time. As far as that principle, that philosophy is concerned, it is very clearly laid down, whether it is the West or whether it is the East. It is for us to believe in it or not to believe in ti; to accept it or to reject it. But when we are very sincere and we understand the philosophy and want to follow it, then nature also helps to put us on that path. But we must be sincere about it, understand it and want to do it. When that true longing is within us, the onus is on the Lord to put us on the path, and through His grace, we meet a Living Master who guides us back to Him.
Q I mean the Guru, does that have to be a physical manifestation?
A That is what we believe in. We believe in a Living Master.
Q Maharaj Ji, can the Master sometimes grant the disciple a "going within" for a moment of encouragement, before the disciple has reached the stage of seeing him inside?
A Yes, sister, it happens. Sometimes even before initiation it happens. We have some visions just to give us faith, or to keep us straight on the path. And even sometimes after initiation, before we have reached the stage of going in at will, we have visions, we have glimpses here and there, just to keep us on the path. But through spiritual practice we have to work our way up and then realize all those things. It does happen.
|
Welcome to Mystic Board - Free Astrology, Tarot to Psychic Discussion Board. New visitors: Register Now its FAST! Members, please Sign-In.
