If it is a good thing to be rich, then we should make others rich, but we can only do that if we give others a portion of ourselves.  The master Baba Sawan Singh started out by giving 1/10^th, eventually started giving everything to his master, named Baba Jaimal Singh.  Baba Jaimal Singh would always return something for the family to live off.  Baba Sawan Sighn just simply laid everything at the feet of his master, and in return, the master made sure that he had enough to take care of his family.  Our master Baba Sawan Singh always said that it was a good thing to give that 1/10^th of what you have.  In order to do this, you must keep careful accounting of your expenses, and you will find that things always work out.  The return is well worth it, because the more that you give, the more that you will receive.

Christ himself said, “If ye want to enter the Kingdom of God, and then sell everything that you have.”  This is the ultimate example of giving up everything to your master.  Man should learn to earn honest livelihoods, and then share that with others.  You should not stagnate, because stagnation will cause you to feel horrible inside.  If you want to have self-service in a spiritual way, then you must earn an honest living and share it with others.  Start out simply, with whatever you can afford to give, until you can work up to giving everything for God.  This has been what has happened since the beginning of time, ever since Abraham, who gave 1/10^th of his valuables.

There are two ways to provide self-service.  The first way is through selfless service.  If someone is sick, go and serve them.  The thought of the Masters has always been to take the help the poor and the needy and raise them up to the level of any other man.  If we do that, then everyone would begin to do it, and then there would no longer be poor and hungry in the world.  Why are there poor and needy in the world?  Because we don’t share.  When we share with others, our self expands.  When you give, you feel joy inside.  That is the reward for sharing.  However, don’t give with the hope or expectation that there will be a return.  Give purely for the sake of sharing with others.  Be selfless.  Sometimes, the reward that we get for sharing is to get into heaven.  Right now, we feed our children richly, while the children of our neighbors die of starvation.  This is not the right way.

From the book, “Morning Talks,” by Sant Kirpal Singh

The Divine made all beings in its own image; and all beings-made religions, each in its own image, and in its zeal made fetishes of them all. True religion in its inception is fresh and simple, like a newly-born babe bubbling over with vital life, but in course of time, like any other thing, it develops into an institution; and with that it begins to deteriorate, tends to lose its native vital elasticity born of the living touch of the Master-spirit, and gradually comes to acquire a socio-economic appearance. Instead of serving as a silken bond of love between all beings, it becomes a source of constant strife, rancor and ill will, tearing class from class and nation from nation and country from country.

When the cup of human misery is filled to the brim, then comes the Savior with the message of hope, redemption and fulfillment for strife torn humanity. The Savior tries to dress the festering social wounds and preaches oneness and equality to all beings in order to restore the equilibrium in the scales of human values. Alongside this, the main objective is to save human souls for a higher purpose: a true life of the spirit as distinguished from that of the flesh. Such indeed has been the goal of great Masters like Zoroaster, Mahavira, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, Kabir and Nanak, each in their own time, according to the then prevailing conditions and people’s aspirations; for they always try to lead them from the line of least resistance, and dole out the basic goodness in terms that may readily appeal to, and fit in with, their mental make-up for a step higher in the process of evolution or unfolding of the spirit.

This is what Saints do for the general run of mankind, deriving their inspiration from the great reservoir of the spirit within, which is the same for all. The rich heritage in the religious thought of modern India the period from the middle of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century is one of outstanding importance. It is an era in which an attempt was made to reorient religion and present it in its simplest form: the form of true faith and universal love.

Part one: The Great Tradition - The Divine way

The way back to Divine consciousness is not of human’s making but of the Divine’s, and it is free from artifice and artificiality. The Divine draws all beings back to Itself through Its chosen elect – the enlightened – to whom the secret of the Path (the divine way) is revealed directly or made manifest by some Saint Sat guru for the benefit of the people. The Masters, the Messiahs, the teachers and prophets all over the world fall into two categories with a separate mission assigned to each. There are, on the one hand, those whose sole purpose is to keep the world going harmoniously; and on the other hand there are those who are commissioned to lead back souls who are ripe for home-going, and yearn for an early return to the Source Spiritual from which they parted long ago before drifting downward to the material plane.

In the first category fall all the reformers, and in the second such Saints and Sadhas are able to reveal the knowledge of God (all things) and to make manifest the power of Divine consciousness in all beings. The process of ascent back to the Source is just the reverse of that of descent down to the physical plane. One has to reintegrate, to gather up all of one’s wandering wits at the still point of the soul in between and behind the two eyes where time and timelessness intersect, before the spirit comes to its own and launches upon the Sea of Life for an inner journey homewards. This, in fact, has been the sole theme of all sages and seers everywhere. None of them, however, wanted to set up any new creed or institutionalized religion. While referring to the existence of so many religions and creeds in the world, all bristling with bewildering theories and conflicting dogmas, Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj used to remark, “There are already so many wells all over, why should one dig any more pitfalls and make confusion worse confounded?”

Foreword

Saint Kirpal Singh, the author of many books, needs no introduction. For the last decade and over he has been at Sawan Ashram, Delhi, and throughout the length and breadth of the country and abroad, carrying aloft the torch of pure spirituality for the uplift of humanity. The call comes to many; but few choose to be chosen. All of us are so absorbed in meeting the demands of mundane existence on physical and mental levels, we have little time and thought left for higher things of the spirit. Talk of self-realization and spiritual-realization more often than not sounds as mere empty verbiage with no rational content and substance. The world is too much with us. Books written by Saint Kirpal Singh Jithis can be truly helpful in awakening in us the desire for treading the path that leads to enlightenment and liberation from the cycle of birth and death. It is not merely a brief life story of a great man, but of an enlightened man whose impeccable purity, deep humility and ceaseless devotion to a saintly path at the bidding of a great Master, which lifted him to peerless spiritual heights, can serve as an inspiring example for innumerable souls puffing and panting in the struggle of life, and wishing to be freed from the bondage of mind and body.

A truly great person needs no other tribute than an account of their life and work. An attempt has been made to collect in this volume the main events of Baba Ji’s life history and an outline of his teachings as they have been recorded in his letters and in published and unpublished accounts left by his disciples and admirers, chief among them being Maharaj Sawan Singh Ji, his spiritual heir, Baba Surain  Singh, Gyani Partap Singh, etc. it is a story marked by an amazing intensity of spiritual yearning in its first movement, an equally amazing application and one-pointed concentration in the next, and a no less remarkable humility and selflessness allied to supreme spiritual exaltation in its last and concluding phase. The author characterizes the Saint Mat practiced and preached by Baba Jaimal Singh Ji as a Science, he himself is a distinguished exponent of it, who has been initiated into its mystique at the feet of a great Saint; and whose mastery of it is widely acknowledged and acclaimed, as demonstrated by his election as President of the World Fellowship of religions on the crest of a wave of universal ovation and applause in which the sages, scholars and savants from several parts of the world lustily joined.

The book is an endeavor to present, for the first time in English, the biography of one of the most outstanding Saints of our times, one who deserves to be better known than he is. The story is a memorable one, and is of permanent value in the history of human spirituality. It deserves to be read by every seeker of Divine Love. I am confident that those who read this book will not fail to be inspired and uplifted, and will begin to see that spirituality is not what it is generally supposed to be, but is a Science whose Masters have appeared at all times and in all places, and which may be learned at the feet of an adept wherever one may be found, irrespective of Sects and Gaddis; the final touchstone of its competence being its ability to give direct inner experience to its disciples here and now, and not in some future life.

KIRPAL SINGH        His Life and Teachings

Saint Kirpal Singh Ji (1894-1974)

Dedicated to the Divine working through all Masters who have come, and Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj, at whose lotus feet the author took in the sweet elixir of Holy Naam – the Word.

About the Author

In human history we find only a few glimpses of lives that differ from the majority.

The ideal and the possibility of the enlightened one – a being who has become one withSupreme Consciousness and is, “perfect even as their creator in heaven is perfect” – is found in all religious traditions; and most religions derive from the life and teachings of one or more of these outstanding personalities, whose life work consists of demonstrating to us that we also have the capacity to become like them.

But never was it the intention of those great teachers to create a religion. They had living knowledge about the true nature of all beings, whose aim is to return to his or her source – Divine Love, and by there teaching every individual, even the despised one, could regain his or her inherent value and dignity.  Saint Kirpal Singh did not bring a new faith either. He revived original knowledge which is to be found in the core of all religions, and his life was the embodiment of his teaching.

Saint Kirpal Singh was born on February 6, 1894, in Sayyad, Kasran, in a part of the Pun jab, which now belongs to Pakistan. After a career of a civil servant in the government of India, He went to Delhi in 1948, according to the instructions of his Master Hazur Baba Sawan Singh. Soon, he had disciples all over the world. His books have been translated in several languages. During three world tours in 1955, 1963 and 1972 he visited major cities in the Western world, where he met religious leaders, politicians and personalities of the society.  Everywhere, he conveyed the importance of self-knowledge and universal-knowledge and emphasized the need for selfless service. His efforts to create understanding from one person to another, for peace in the world and for tolerance among the religions have been recognized by many honors.

During fourteen years, he was repeatedly elected president of the World Fellowship of Religions, and due to his universal view, could create mutual understanding among different faiths.

His efforts reached a summit, when in 1974, Saint Kirpal Singh assembled the first World Conference on “Unity of Man”, which took place in Delhi from February 3-6, 1974. Religious, political, and social leaders from all over India, and delegates from approximately 30 nations participated in the conference. This World conference was the beginning of Unity for All Beings.

At the invitation of the government to hold an address to the Indian Parliament, Saint Kirpal Singh spoke to the members of the Lokh Sabha on August 1, 1974. Before his physical departure on August 21, 1974, Saint Kirpal Singh commissioned his disciple Dr. Harbhajan Singh with his further work, Unity of All Beings, together with his wife, Surinder Kaur; Dr. Harbhajan Singh is leading the project Kirpal Sagar. It was the last wish of Saint Kirpal Singh to lay his work into the hands of conscious people to put a stop to alliums and sects. Like all of the knowledgeable Masters of the past, he taught that there is only one doer of Power, which is the sustainer of all, i.e. the power of the fully enlightened, Christ power or Master power. Those who see this Power working never create any groups or formations, but bring the right understanding that we are all one, and enable all beings to rise above the narrow shackles that we create.

All the great teachers of humanity, at all times and in all climes – the Vedic Rishis, Zoroaster, Mahavira, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, Nanak, Kabir, Baba Farid, Hazrat Bahu, Shamas Tabrez,Maulana Rumi, Tulsi Sahib, Swamiji and many others – gave to the world but one sadhna or spiritual discipline. As “Divine Love” is one, the “Divine Love” -way too cannot but be one. The true religion or the way back to “Divine Love” is of “Divine Love ’s” own making and hence it is the most ancient as well as the most natural way, with no artifice or artificiality about it. In its practical working, the system needs the guidance of an adept or a teacher well versed in the theory and practice of Para Vidya, the Science of the beyond, as it is called, for it lies beyond the grasp of the mind and of the sense-faculties. Where the world’s philosophies end, there the true religion starts. The scriptural texts give us, at best, some account of the path so far as it can be put intoimperfect words, but cannot take us to the path nor can they guide us on the path.

The spiritual path is essentially a practical path. It is only the spirit – disencumbered and depersonalized – that can undertake the spiritual journey. The inner man, the soul in man, has to rise above body-consciousness before it can traverse into higher consciousness or the consciousness of the cosmos and of the beyond. All this and more becomes possible through theSurat Shabd Yoga or the union of “self” in man (Surat or consciousness) with the Shabd or Sound Principle, through the grace of the Master-soul. In order to have a clear idea of the teachings of the Masters from the hoary past right to the present time, it would be worth our while to study the nature and extent of the Surat Shabd Yoga and its teachings in relation to the various yogic systems as taught by the ancients, and also the principles of Advaitism as propounded by Shankaracharya.

The term yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj which means meeting, union,communion, consummation, abstraction, realization, absorption or metaphysical philosophizing of the highest type, that promises to bring close proximity between the soul and the over soul (jiva-atma and Parmatma or Brahman).

Patanjali, the reputed father of the yoga system, after the fashion of his progenitorGaudapada, defines yoga as elimination of vritis or modulations that always keep surging in the mind-stuff or chit in the form of ripples. He calls it chit vriti nirodha or the suppression of the vritis, i.e., clearing the mind of the mental oscillations. According to Yajnavalkya, yoga means to effect, or to bring about, at-one-ment of the individual soul with Ishwar or Brahman. The yogisgenerally define it as the unfoldment of the spirit from and disrobing it of the numerous enshrouding sheaths in which it is enveloped in its physical existence. Sant Mat or the Path of the Masters, far from denying any of these objectives of yoga, accepts and endorses in full all that is said above and, in some measure, agrees to the aims and ends thereof, but regards them at best as mere pointers to the goal.

It does not rest there, however, but goes beyond and tells us the “Way Out” of the mighty maze of the universe and the “Way In” to the heavenly home of the Father, the spiritual journey that the spirit has to undertake from death to life immortal. (Fana to Baqa), by rising above body-consciousness by means of a regular system of self-analysis and withdrawal of the spirit currents from the body and concentrating them at the seat of the soul (Tisra Til), and then passing through the intermediary centers beyond Bunk-naal, the inverted, tube-like passage, until it reaches the final stage of consummation and attains at-one-ment with its Source.

Here one might ask the question as for the need of union between the soul and the Over soul, when the two are essentially the same and are already embedded one in the other. Theoretically speaking, this is correct, but how many of us are consciously aware of this and work practically in the light and life of this knowledge and awareness? On the other hand, the soul is always following the lead of the mind, the mind that of the senses, and the senses that of the sense-objects, with the result that the soul, by constant association with the mind and the senses for ages upon ages, has completely lost its own individual (undivided) identity and has for all practical purposes become identified with the mind. It is this veil of ignorance which has become in between the soul and the over soul that has to be removed to enable the soul to come into its own, to realize its inherent nature and then to seek its real home and gain life eternal. All religions were originally designed by man solely with this end in view but unfortunately in the course of time man gradually drifts away from reality and becomes the slave of his own handicrafts and religions, as religions deteriorate into institutionalized churches and temples, rigid codes of moral and social conduct, lacking the living touch and the pulsating life-impulse of their founders.

“I know no disease of the soul but ignorance,” says Ben Jonson. How to remove the veil of ignorance is the problem of problems. We have allowed it to grow into an impervious rock too hard to be blasted. Still, the sages have provided various means to rend the otherwise impenetrable veil, such as Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga and other methods. The light of true knowledge, as visualized by Jnana Yoga, may be able to dispel the darkness of ignorance, just as a lighted candle may dispel darkness from a dark room. By Bhakti Yoga, one may be able to change the course of hatred, separateness and duality into that of love for all, at-one-ment and oneness with all living creatures and thereby be established in the all-embracing love for all.

Finally, by means of Karma Yoga one may be able to root out feelings of selfishness, egocentricity, self-aggrandizement and self-love and engage in charitable deeds of philanthropy and similar activities, which may be beneficial to mankind in general, and acquire fellow feelings and love for all, see the reflex of the universe within his own self and that of his self in all others, and realize ultimately the principle of the “Divine Love” and the brotherhood of mankind. These are, in the main, the three paths, or rather three aspects of an integrated path of head, heart and hand, whereby one may achieve the desired end, the union of the soul with the over soul.

They may for convenience be briefly termed the process of self-mastery, self-sublimation and self-sacrifice, leading ultimately to “Cosmic Consciousness”, or awareness of the all-pervading reality as the basis of all that exists. The objective in each case is the same and each aims at the same target, though the initial elementary stages each of them starts from dualistic considerations. It is from dualism that one starts, and in non-dualism (advaitism) that one ends; and for this one may take to the path of divine knowledge, of universal love and devotion or selfless service of humanity.

The target ever remains the same,

Though the archers aiming at it may be so many.

Dedicated to the Divine Consciousness working through all Masters who have come and Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj at whose lotus feet the author imbibed sweet elixir of Holy Naam – the Word, (the inner sound current)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In human history we find only a few glimpses of lives that differ from the majority.  The ideal and the possibility of the a “perfected spiritual teacher” – one who has become one with Godand is “perfect even as his Father in heaven is perfect”– is found in all religious traditions; and most religions derive from the life and teachings of one or more of these outstanding personalities, whose life work consists of demonstrating to us that we also have the capacity to become like them. But never was it the intention of those great teachers to create a religion. They had living knowledge about the true nature of man, whose aim is to return to his source – God , and by their teaching every individual, even the despised one, could regain his inherent value and dignity.

Sant Kirpal Singh did not bring a new faith either. He revived this original knowledge which is to be found in the core of all religions, and His life was the embodiment of His teaching.

Sant Kirpal Singh was born on February 6, 1894, in Sayyad, Kasran, in a part of the Punjab, which now belongs to Pakistan. After a career of a civil servant in the government of India, He went to Delhi in 1948, according to the instructions of His Master Hazur Baba Sawan Singh. Soon He had disciples all over the world.  His books have been translated in several languages.

During three world tours in 1955, 1963, and 1972, He visited major cities in the Western world, where He met religious leaders, politicians and personalities of the society. Everywhere He conveyed the importance of self-knowledge and God -knowledge, and emphasized the need for selfless service. His efforts to create understanding from man to man, for peace in the world and for tolerance among the religions have been recognized by many honors. During fourteen years He was repeatedly elected president of the World Fellowship of Religions and, due to His universal view, could create mutual understanding among different faiths. His efforts reached a summit, when in 1974 Sant Kirpal Singh convened the first World Conference on Unity of Man, which took place in Delhi from 3 – 6 February 1974.

Religious, political and social leaders from all over India and delegates from approximately30 nations participated in the conference. This World-Conference was the beginning of UNITY OF MAN. At the invitation of the government to hold an address to the

Indian Parliament, Sant Kirpal Singh spoke to the members of the Lokh Sabha on 1 August 1974.

Before His physical departure on 21 August 1974, Sant Kirpal Singh commissioned His disciple Dr. Harbhajan Singh with His further work, UNITY OF MAN.  Together with his wife, Surinder Kaur, Dr. Harbhajan Singh is leading the project Kirpal Sagar. It was the last wish of Sant Kirpal Singh to lay His work into the hands of conscious people to put a stop to all isms and sects.

Like all the competent Masters of the past, He taught that there is only one doer – that Power which is the sustainer of all, i.e. the God power, Christ power or Master power. Those who see this Power working never create any groups or formations but bring the right understanding that we are all one, and enable man to rise above the narrow shackles created by him.