If I may only please Him ‘tis pilgrimage enough;
If not, nothing—no rites or toils avail:
Whichever way I look, I find that in His creation,
None has won salvation without His grace—
Regardless of Karmas you can discover untold spiritual riches within yourself:
If you but abide by the teachings of your Master.
My Master has taught me one lesson:
He is the Lord of everything, may I never forget Him.133
JAP J: 6
I
F YOU OBEY the Master lterally, then He wll make you master of your own home.134 Naturally the chld who heeds hs father’s slghtest wsh wll enjoy hs pleasure. Whoever nssts on hs own deas and does not want to obey, doubtless he wll also get the Master’s love, but the nner key wll not be entrusted to hm.135 Make up your mnd whether you would lke to conform to the dctates of your mnd or to the Commandments of the Master. The choce les n your own hands; you are free to choose; no one else can make the choce for you. The world may condemn you who choose the Master’s way.However, you need not worry because you have taken up the rght way.136
We should explot those qualtes whch wll assst us to jon back to God, and dscard all trats whch are lable to lead us away from Hm. It s not dffcult to realze the Lord, but t s most dffcult to become a man—a true human beng. One hundred tmes and more we bow our heads and say “yes, yes, I wll do t,” but n acton we do just as we please. Ths
ndcates that as yet we do not truly understand the sprtual path. If you have not as yet changed your old habts, then do so at once. Make a start now. To have bad thoughts for others, to take sdes n enmty, lke a lawyer crtczng the lves of your fellow bengs—
would you not expect the fre to flare up wthn you? The Guru sees all events wth a dfferent eye, for every man sees from hs own level. If you have accepted someone as beng superor to you, then obey hm.137 By merely lookng at a Master you wll not get salvaton; remember that. Just by seeng the Guru salvaton does not come, f you do not love the Satguru’s words. Do whatever the Master says: follow hs advce, obey hm and become receptve to hm, for the soul gans strength through receptvty. The work whch may seem mpossble just now wll become easy. All sns are burned away n the company of a true Master, and from a true Master you can receve the precous gft of Naam. The Satguru s so powerful that not only the dscple gets the beneft, but those who love the dscple wll also gan Hs protecton.
Ths has been proved by hstorc sprtual record.138
There s less hope for those who pay obesance to the body of the Master, as compared wth those who pay obedence to the words whch he utters. For them, emancpaton s defnte, sure and certan. We should obey and pay respect to the words that the Master utters. Then we are sure to go back to the home of our Father. Those who only pay obesance to the Master outwardly and do not lve up to what the Master says, there s yet tme. The tme factor s a necessty.139
To abde by the teachngs of the Master s just lke treadng a razor’s edge. The more you walk on the edge of a razor, the more t wll cut your feet. What does ths mean? The more you abde by the teachngs of the Master, by the sayngs of the Master, the more you have to tear up your old name and fame, what you are, whether hgh or low. You have to care only for the Master.140 So the frst dffcult thng on the way to devoton to the Master s that you must abde by what he says, rrespectve of whether the world prases you or not. It may be possble that he says somethng that does not appeal to your ntellect, but what s your duty? When the offcer n the feld orders “fre” what wll the solder do? He must fre. The Master wll never say anythng whch s not becomng. It may be that you do not understand what he says at the tme, but he has some noble purpose behnd t for your betterment. That s why t s very dffcult to follow the orders of the Master.140a
The ABC starts from where?—when you obey the orders of the Master. What does the Master say? He
says, “Keep your lfe pure—For a whle, leave off from outsde and ntrovert wthn—Rse above body conscousness—Come nto contact wth the God nto Expresson Power, the Lght and Sound Prncple wthn you—Then rse above the astral and causal bodes. You wll realze what s meant by “I and my Father are One.” You can then rse further nto the Super Conscous state. Ths s the ultmate goal.”141
So brothers, obey my drecton, do your medtaton even f t be a lttle; ncrease whatever experence you have been gven. See nto each acton of your daly lfe, and keep a dary. Do not leave off your Bhajan and Smran. There s a remedy for mstakes, but there s no remedy for dsobeyng, and the road
s long for such people. Those who have Naam wll defntely reach God, but t wll be a long journey for whosoever dsobeys the nstructons. You have to do
t whether n one brth, two or four, so why not now?
Remember that the dscple who always has hs face turned toward the Guru, draws the Guru’s attenton.
If you keep someone n your heart, you wll resde n thers.142
All creaton s n God’s control, just as a powerhouse controls all other machnery. He who s n charge of the powerhouse wll tell you that not a sngle pece of machnery can move wthout hs orders. Those workng under hm say, “Be careful not to dsobey hs orders, otherwse a lmb mght get chopped off n the machnery.” Hs wshes are lke standng orders and cannot be erased. So God s called by the names Shabd
or Naam or Word. That whch we term the Controllng Power s Hs wsh or order, or you can call t the wll of God. “Through the Shabd all happness s acqured, and through love of the True Naam.” Soul s a part of God, just as t s a part of the Shabd. When the soul becomes one wth God, t becomes full of blss.
“If ye long for eternal happness, surrender thyself to God.” Go under the protecton of that Power whch s perpetually vbratng.143
One wll go on comng and gong untl one sur-renders one’s whole beng to the Guru; and ths means lvng n accordance wth hs wshes, thnkng as he advocates. The keeper of the ntellect s the Guru. Maulana Rum Sahb prays to God, sayng, This intellect will turn my face from You; Keep your control on it, and I am saved—otherwise I am lost. It does not take much tme to spol the mlk!
The ntellect s lke that. If your mnd obeys the Guru one hundred percent, you wll know then who the God s. Don’t let your ntellect nterfere n the slghtest fracton wth what you know s rght. He who s wllng to obey hm wthout a queston wll receve the treasure. Naam’s perpetual song, precous jewel of the Lord, s n the Sadhu’s keepng. You can also say that God has handed over Hs treasure to the Master. Then? The Guru places t before hm who takes hs words as truth. To fnd a Guru who can do ths s the heght of good fortune. Wthout good fortune, the Satguru s not met.144
If one has found a true Master who s attuned to
the Lord and s Hs mouthpece, and obeys Hm n all thngs completely and absolutely, he wll surely destroy the hydra-headed serpent of the ego and reach hs heavenly home one day. There wll be moments
n the course of such love when one, judgng from one’s own lmted understandng, doubts the valdty of the Master’s nstructons, but such moments are only tests to make our self-surrender more complete and more secure, and he who passes through these tests successfully, wll one day radate wth the glory of God.145
To obey and to surrender oneself are two dfferent thngs. Beng obedent to the Guru’s wshes does not mean you have surrendered yourself, although he who has surrendered s naturally obedent. But f you have surrendered you wll not thnk of why and what, you wll just do what he says. I have given Myself unto Your reckoning, so do what You will. When Hazrat Ibrahm’s slave was asked where he would lke to sleep, what clothes he would lke to wear, the slave repled, “Sr, you have bought me, whatever you wsh I wll do.” Ths s what surrender means. It s a very dffcult step to take, for hundreds of doubts enter the mnd.146
If you ever come to know what a Guru s, then there s nothng left to learn. The Guru teaches ths wth love, wth persuason—after all, they are hs chldren! If a chld s covered wth flth, he cannot kll t. Under the nfluence of the mnd, the manmukh has lttle understandng; he does not obey the Guru,
he does not lve for the Guru’s pleasure, but he s concerned wth hs own wll. The reason? He has lttle or no connecton wth the Shabd. When a person gets the connecton, he should keep t ntact and not break
t! Only then wll all the vrtues come, wthout effort.
The precous attrbute of true humlty wll grow n hs heart. Just lstenng to the Shabd s a treasure of all vrtues.147
For how long will you try to deceive your Guru?
Now recognize what He is.
Hdng the true facts, you thnk, “What does the Guru know? What we want to do s correct.” You get hold of an dea and place t above all else, consderng everyone else to be wrong—even f your Guru tells you somethng dfferent. How long wll you keep ths up? Make no mstake, he watches our every acton, for the Guru Power s resdng wthn our very beng. But we foolshly thnk that he s not present to see us, so we can do anythng and he wll not know. He entreats us to try to realze what a Guru s. The Guru s not the physcal form—he s not the human pole but s the all-omnpotent power of God whch has manfested theren. It s accepted that God s everywhere and sees everythng. Gve full attenton to learn what the Guru s, and then come to know t.148
From today, become a worthy skh—worthy even to be called a guruskh, the beloved dscple of the Guru. You can do ths f you obey the Master’s words.
You wll not do t? You wll have to do t—f not n ths brth, then n the next. Oh brothers, what s the use of comng agan and agan? Why not do t now? If this birth goes, it will not come again in your hands, and the precious life is wasted.149
We may have been gven human brth many tmes, but prde and ego klled us agan and agan, runng all our good work and causng us to return to the same scene tme and agan. In the past t was our runaton, and t s wnnng the present also. Do not obey your mnd—obey the words of the Guru, whch wll brng you great joy, whereas obedence to the mnd wll gve you unendng dstress—the mnd ever gave brth to trouble. Wash anger away wth love, just as your Guru does. If you refuse to understand, then nothng can be done.150 You wll just have to contnue payng up for your mstakes.151 If the Guru’s ntaton s followed by absolute obedence to hs wshes, all sns wll be washed away forever, along wth all the mseres of the worldly lfe.152
Why do Masters come and what s ther work? They release the soul from mnd and senses and connect t wth Naam. They come only for ths purpose, though they go through many dffcultes and work hard. Go to the Satguru and obey hm. The words of a complete Master, I tie on my heart. Te hs words close to you—
they should not enter from one ear and leave from the other—te them securely n your heart.153
If one s sprtually developed n lfe, he or she remans so n after-lfe, but f one s not so developed,
how can he develop after death? We have a golden opportunty now n the human body wheren we can develop to any degree of perfecton and can become detached from the thngs of ths world. When one has developed overwhelmngly n love and devoton for the Master and has advanced sprtually so much so that he or she has become detached from worldly thngs, he need not return to earthly lfe, but wll proceed onward n the Inner Planes wth the gudance of the Master-Power resdng wth hm. If only the ntates would do and act as they are told, surely they wll rse up nto the regons of Lght and Supreme Joy and meet the Radant and charmng Master face to face.
It may seem dffcult, but t s a practcal possblty and s wthn the reach of everyone wth the grace of the Master. Everythng that s holy, lovely and good s hard, but the rewards are supremely superb.154 Every
ntate of a competent Master s destned to reach hs True Eternal Home. The speed s accelerated when the dscple obeys the words of the Master. In ths way great progress s made here and now.155
He s not to be won by words, but by deed—if you love me, keep my commandments.156 If we scrupulously act up to hs nstructons, he wll make us a Sant lke hmself n due course.157