TO FACE THE TIGER
by
Sant Ajaib Singh Ji
This talk was given on July 5, 1980
at Sant Bani Ashram, N.H. and is the
second in a series of fourteen talks
on the Gauri Vars of Guru Ramdas Ji.
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Within the mind is the disease of egoism.
The rascal manmukhs are lost in the illusion.
We know that if we are sick we cannot do any work in the world. If the
body is not fit, how can we? In the same way when our mind is sick, we
cannot get ourselves connected with Shabd Naam, or meditate properly. What
are the diseases which our mind has? Lust, anger, greed, attachment, and
egoism - these are the sicknesses by which our mind is affected.
We can serve our Master only when we have a pure mind, because a pure
mind doesn't take us away from the service of the Master. When we connect
our soul with Shabd, after completing our Simran, and crossing the stars,
moon and sun, when the form of the Master is manifested - reaching that
place then "I and mine" go away.
When the I-hood disappears and only "Thou" is there, then the duty of the
disciple ends and the duty of the Master starts. After that, Master takes
the soul from one plane to another until he finally reaches his Home.
We can do only one work at a time. Either we can do the meditation of
Shabd Naam, or we can enjoy worldly pleasures. Where there is lust, Naam
cannot be manifested there; where the Naam has been manifested, at that
place lust never comes. A man who has manifested Naam within him is not
bothered by lust.
Kabir Sahib has compared lust and Naam with night and day. He says that
as night and day do not exist at the same time and in the same place, so
lust and Naam do not manifest at the same time in the same place.
So Guru Ramdas Ji says that you have this disease within you, and if you
want to remove it, you should go to the Perfect Master.
Now this question may arise: you may say that you do go into the company
of the Master always, but still this power of lust has not decreased within
you and you have not become free from it. There is no doubt that you come
to Satsang and that you have love for the Master also, but your condition
is just like a stone in the water. No matter how long you go on pouring
water on a stone, it will not absorb a single drop; even after a year, the
stone will remain dry.
In the same way, no doubt you come to the Satsang, have love for the
Master, listen to Him; but the things which are talked about there and
which you are expected to do, and are told to do, you don't do them. And
that is why this energy of lust doesn't decrease in you.
Masters explain to us that no matter how much wood you go on putting in
the fire, it will never be extinguished in that way. The more you feed the
fire the more it will grow. In the same way, if you think, "Let us enjoy
lust today, and tomorrow it will stop," that is not possible. The more
you enjoy lust, the more desire for enjoying it will come.
So Guru Ramdas Ji says, "O Nanak, if you want to remove this disease, go
in the company of the Gurumukhs and do what they tell you to do." If you
want to remove the sickness of mind, after going in the company of the
Master, do meditation as much as possible; only then will you be able to
purify your soul.
Nanak says, Get free of this disease by meeting
with Sadhus and Satgurus.
The mind and body of the Gurumukhs are absorbed
in the love of the Lord.
What is there in the meditation of Shabd Naam? By doing the meditation of
Shabd Naam, when we reach Trikuti and the limits of Brahm, we leave our
mind there. Once we have taken our mind to its original home, after that
when we come back, our mind who has been behaving like an enemy to us
starts behaving like a friend. Instead of retarding our progress, he helps
us in progressing more.
Nanak says, I take refuge in You, O Lord.
Make me unite with You with the grace of the Guru.
Guru Ramdas Ji Maharaj says, "I lay myself down in front of my Master, I
sacrifice myself for the Master, because great is my Master who saved me
from this disease."
You are the Creator, the Unreachable Being.
With whom should we compare You?
If there were someone like You we would have said so.
You alone are like Yourself.
Now Guru Ramdas Ji sings the praise of the Lord. He says, "O Lord, You are
the greatest of all. There is no one to whom we can compare You. You are
Almighty. You are the Giver, the Protector for everyone." Kabir Sahib
says, "If you ask a dumb man to describe the taste of rock candy, how can
he do it? All he can do is show how happy he is. In the same way when you
have realized God, if someone asks you what God is like, how can you
express it? He cannot be contained in any expression. All you can do is
show how happy you are if you have realized Him."
Master Sawan Singh Ji often used to say that if you want to describe
the beauty of Taj Mahal, the famous building built by Emperor Shah Jahan
in India, by comparing it to any other building we cannot do that: there
is no building in this world to which we can compare the Taj Mahal. So if
we cannot even compare the Taj Mahal to any other building in this world,
how can we describe the beauty of God? How can we say that anything is
like God? God is unique and His beauty cannot be described. It is better
to concentrate and go within and see the beauty of God for ourselves.
You are present within everyone;
But only Gurumukhs can realize You.
You are the True Lord of all and are higher than all.
Whatever You do happens - Why should we grieve?
Guru Sahib says, "O Lord, there is not even one place where You do not
reside. You reside in everybody, even in the bodies of animals and birds,
and everywhere. There is no place without Your presence in this world.
But within whom do You get manifested? You manifest Yourself only within
the Gurumukhs" - because Gurumukhs have manifested God within them. That
is why they see God functioning everywhere, and why they come into the
world with the message of God. They tell us that God resides within
everybody - within you, and us - and that is why Gurumukhs say that we
should always see God working in everyone. They say this because they
have manifested God within them. So here Guru Sahib says, "There is no
place in this world where You are not present. You are present everywhere."
Mahatmas tell us that there are two types of people who live in this
world: the Gurumukhs and the manmukhs. Gurumukhs are those who have
manifested God within them, who see God everywhere. The manmukhs have not
manifested God within them, they do Not believe in the existence of God,
and say that God does not reside in everyone. So Guru Ramdas Ji in a way
is putting a question to us. He says, "God made man of five elements; if
anyone wants to be equal to God let him try making the man with four
elements, or even with three elements."
In the field of medicine, people have progressed a lot. They have even
performed things which seem miraculous: they have invented many medicines
and devices by which they have eased the pain and the sufferings of the
bodies. But when the time of death comes, no doctor has been successful
in finding the place where the soul comes out of the body, or where it
goes after it leaves. And nobody has ever succeeded in postponing death
even for a moment.
Kabir Sahib says that the doctor gives the medicine but the soul is
not in his control, because that belongs to God and whenever God wants
He can take it.
I have love for the Beloved in my mind and body
during all the eight watches of the day.
Nanak says, O Lord, shower grace so that meeting
the Satguru I may live in happiness.
Now He says, "I have manifested God within me and twenty-four hours
a day I have unbreakable, constant love for God within. But by whose
Grace have I been able to do all this? It is by the grace of my Master,
my Satguru, that I have been able to have constant love for God."
In whose heart there is love for the Beloved,
Whatever they speak is pleasing.
Nanak says, God Himself knows whom He has blessed
with love for the Beloved.
Within whom is God manifested? God is love, and when that love is
manifested, that person is always liked by others, and God also adores
him; God likes whatever he does; because God likes the innocent people
and God knows those within whom He is manifested.
Masters make us understand that if God could be realized by bathing in
holy waters, the frogs and fishes who live in that water would have
realized God before us. If God could be achieved by cleverness, the
innocent people would never have had the chance to realize Him. God is
such a thing which cannot be bought. If He could be bought by material
wealth, then only the rich people would have got Him; the poor people
would have found no place before Him.
Bulleh Shah says: "O Mullah (priest) now you stop reading and quoting
from the books. Tell me something of love."
He was the same Bulleh Shah who was very learned, and had been a priest
in the mosque of Lahore. And yet he uttered those words. When he came to
Inayat Shah and got Kalma or Naam - initiation from Him, he asked his
Master, "Because I have this job of priest of the mosque, if I stop doing
all the things I am doing there, then people will say I have become an
atheist; what should I do?" Inayat Shah told him: "Bulleh Shah, I don't
tell you to stop doing those things, but now that you have got this Kalma,
you should meditate upon it. And after meditating, if you see that the
things which you are doing now are better than what you have been given,
then you can continue doing them. I won't say that you should stop." So,
when Bulleh Shah went back to his job and meditated also, and he realized
the greatness and glory of the Master, he stopped doing all the rites and
rituals. When he went to see his Master again, Inayat Shah asked him, "Do
you still go to the mosque and do all the rites and rituals and make
prayers there?" Bulleh Shah answered, "Master, now what can I do? Should
I make the prayers or should I look at You? I have forgotten even the name
of the Kaaba, I have even forgotten that I am supposed to go to the mosque;
because wherever I look, I see only You."
You are the Creator. You are unending,
and are not subject to any error.
O True One, whatever You do is good.
One understands this only when the Master
makes one understand through Shabd.
"O Lord, You never forget anything. You have created this creation and
every soul and You never forget any of them. Whatever is happening in this
world, whatever You are doing in this creation, that can be realized only
by the Gurumukhs."
You are all-in-all and are capable
of doing everything.
There is no one like You.
You are the unreachable Gracious Lord.
All meditate upon you.
All the souls are yours and you
are the owner of them and
you are the only liberator.
Now he says: "You belong to everyone, and you are Gracious. And those who
meditate upon Your Name and those who remember You and do Your devotion,
You forgive them, You liberate them, and You cut the attachments of the
world for them, and You remove the bindings of the Angels of Death, if You
are gracious on them, You can remove those bonds and liberate them."
He says that the devotion of the Lord is the giver of happiness and the
remover of sins. It is like Nectar. The devotion of the Lord is the remover
of lust, anger, and other passions.
Those who search for God lovingly and have faith, they definitely reach
God. But we cannot realize God by our own efforts. We can realize God only
after meeting the Masters and only by having Their guidance.
Listen, O Dear One, to the message of love,
hearing which the eyes are attentively fixed on the Lord.
Nanak says, Those who are united with the Beloved by
the Master live in happiness.
When we heard about such a God and got the message of God, we broke into
tears of remorse that we didn't remember such a God. And at once the Name
of God came on our lips, and day and night now we are in the remembrance
of God.
Master used to say that the coming of the loving soul to the Master is
just like bringing the dry gunpowder in contact with fire. If the gunpowder
is damp, it takes some time to make it dry, and after that it catches fire.
In the Way of the Saints it is not necessary for anyone to be initiated
for twenty years or fifty years before his soul is withdrawn from the body.
It all depends on the efforts of the dear one. Only by his efforts he can
withdraw the soul from the body as soon as he wants. It all depends on his
efforts because the grace of the Master is equal and it is always there.
Those who stay up in the night and work hard, always become successful.
Kabir says, "Happy is all the world who eat and sleep. But unhappy is Kabir
who stays up and weeps."
Satguru is the gracious giver
who always showers Grace.
Satguru is without enmity from within
as He sees only One Lord within all.
Now he says that Satguru comes into this world as the gracious One, and He
knows only to shower grace on everyone. He has no enmity towards anyone;
He is without enmity.
You may read the history of the Masters and you will find how people
harassed and troubled the Master but Masters never cursed them. When Guru
Arjan Dev was made to sit on the hot pan and when the hot, burning sand was
put on His head, at that time Mian Mir, one of his devotees who was very
devoted to Him and was very loving, came there and he felt terrible because
such a bad thing was happening there. And he requested Guru Arjan Dev, "O
Lord, if You allow me I can raze the city of Lahore to the ground. If You
allow me I can do anything." Guru Arjan replied: "Mian Mir, I can do that
also, but this is the Will of God and I want to remain in the Will of God.
I like the Will of God, it is very sweet." He said, "O Lord, Your Will is
very sweet, and Nanak always asks for the boon of Naam."
When Mansur's hands were cut and his eyes were taken out, still he said:
"O Lord, have mercy on them so they may recognize me. They are doing this
because they do not recognize me." Still He prayed for the well-being of the
dear ones.
When Prophet Mohammed was compelled to leave the city of Mecca, as he was
leaving the city the people were standing with baskets full of dirt on both
sides of the street where he was going to pass and they threw the rubbish
on Prophet Mohammed. But instead of becoming upset at them, Prophet Mohammed
said: "O Lord, forgive them."
And after Prophet Mohammed left that city, he went and sat in a cave in
meditation. And the people who were opposing him followed him; they beat
him and in a way killed him. From their side he was killed. But after that
they thought, "Let us take out his teeth so he may not live after this."
And at that time when they were trying to take out his teeth then also
Prophet Mohammed uttered these words: "O Lord, forgive them."
Only he is a Gurumukh who doesn't become pleased or happy if God
graciously gives him the kingdom of the three worlds. And if for some reason
God takes back that kingdom, if he doesn't become displeased with God, only
he is called a Gurumukh.
Those who keep enmity toward Him
who is without enmity are never happy.
Now he says that Master is without enmity, He is gracious; and if someone
becomes the enemy of such a person who has no enmity or jealousy towards
anyone, then such a person becomes hollow from within.
Satguru wishes good for all.
Why should bad things come to Him?
Nanak says, The Creator knows everything -
nothing is hidden from Him.
Master always seeks the welfare of other people. And since He is in God's
favor, even if people think ill of the Master, still no one can harm Him.
God sees the Gurumukhs as well as the manmukhs. Nothing is hidden from God.
Whatever karmas one has done, God makes us pay off those karmas.
No one can fool God. If after making mistakes, we throw that on some other
person, and if we taunt other people, or blame other people, it doesn't
mean that by doing that, God will accept what we are saying as coming from
that person, and God will stop his progress. God sees everything, He has no
enemies, and He always gives us what we are supposed to have. Masters have
no enemies and God also has no enemies; and They always give us what we are
supposed to have.
Mahatmas tell us that we look at other people's faults and laugh; but we
never look at our own faults which have no beginning and no end.
He whom the Lord makes great is considered
the Great One.
God forgives those with whom He is pleased,
and they are liked by Him.
Only he becomes great who is made great by God. Only he is forgiven whom
God Himself forgives. If God makes anyone great, if God makes anyone worth
worshiping, only he is worshiped.
If anyone competes with Him he is an ignorant fool.
If anyone imitates one within whom God is manifested, saying, "Why do
people worship Him and not me?" such a person is ignorant: he has no
knowledge, and he is misled.
He whom the Master unites with Himself sings the
Master's praise,
Nanak says, He who has understood and is absorbed in
the True One is perfectly true.
Now, only he on whom God is gracious can meet the Master. No one has any
control over the Master. No one can order the Master. We can get things
from the Master only if He wants us to have them.
God is true, unaffected by Maya; the immortal One,
Without any fear, without any enmity, and formless.
Those who meditate on Him with one mind and one heart
Lose the burden of egoism.
Those who are selected by God and do the devotion of God, from their
head the burden or veil of egoism is lifted and they have only God and
Master within them.
Saints and Mahatmas are not equal to God, they are the dear children
of God; and if the loving dear children want their Father to do anything,
they can make their Father do anything they want.
Praise to the Gurumukhs and the Saints
who have meditated on the Lord.
If one criticizes the Perfect Satguru,
the whole world curses him.
Now He says, "I bow down to those who mold their lives according to the
teachings of their Masters." And then Guru Ramdas Ji says that if anyone
criticizes the Perfect Master who has molded His life according to the
teachings of His Master, he doesn't get praised by the people and everyone
curses him.
The Lord Himself resides in the Satguru
and He Himself is the Protector.
Now He says, "Within the Satguru God is working, and God is manifested
there. When God is manifested there, why should he worry about anything,
why should he be afraid of anyone?" He says, "Oh Lord, if I lose my honor
then also it is Your honor. If I am praised then You are praised."
Blessed are the ones who sing the praises of the Master.
I salute them.
Nanak says, I sacrifice myself to those
who meditate on the Creator.
Now He says, Blessed is my Master, Guru Amardas, who did the meditation
of Shabd Naam."
He Himself created the earth;
He Himself created the sky,
He created the creatures
and He Himself feeds them.
Often I have said that it is because of the Power of God working within
us that our body is functioning. And when God withdraws His Power from
our body, after that its features are useless: the eyes are still there,
but they stop functioning. Only when the Power of God was working within
our body were we able to use our hands to feed ourselves. That is why
Guru Sahib says here that God has created all the creatures and He
Himself is feeding them.
He Himself resides in everyone;
He Himself is the abode of qualities.
Nanak says, Meditate on Naam
so that all the sins may be cut.
God Himself resides in everyone and God Himself comes in the form of the
Master. And He tells us that you can remove all the sins, if you meditate
on the Shabd Naam.
Kabir Sahib says, "As soon as the Naam was kept in the heart, all the
sins were burned off." It is just like lighting a match to a pile of dry
grass.
Sehjo Bai also says, "Earlier, by making many mistakes, we collected
a great burden of sins, but as soon as we came to the Master and
surrendered to Him, in just a moment millions of our sins were removed."
You, the True Lord, are the Truth;
the Truth is pleasing to You, the True One.
Those who praise You, the True One,
the servants of Yama do not come near them.
Those within whose heart the True Lord is pleasing
Have bright faces in the court of the Lord.
The false ones are thrown back.
Those in whose hearts there is falsehood and deception,
They always get pain.
The faces of the false ones become black,
And the false ones become unreal.
Now He says, "O Lord, You are Truth, You are permanent, You never perish.
Those who sing Your glory, those who come in contact with You, those who
manifest You within, the Angels of Death never come to them." He says that
there are those who have not done the devotion, not done the meditation,
but still sit in front of people and say, "Come to us and we will liberate
you." But God can never be deceived, and when such people will go to the
Court of the Lord, He will not accept them; understanding them as waste or
refuse, He will reject them and throw them out. Guru Nanak Sahib says that
such people's condition is like that of the rat who cannot go through a
hole by himself because the hole is too small. But with him he is carrying
a big sifter and he wants to carry that sifter through the hole through
which he himself cannot go. So this is the condition of those people who
cannot themselves get liberation but promise liberation to others.
No one has been successful in deceiving God, and no one will ever be
able to deceive God. The waste, or the refuse, get rejected there and God
never accepts them.
Guru Nanak Sahib says that once the cranes imitated the swans. The swans
fly in the air for a long time, but the cranes cannot. So looking at the
swans, the cranes imitated them, and what was the result? The cranes were
drowned in the ocean. The condition of those who don't do the devotion but
still act as the Masters, their condition is like those cranes who try to
imitate the swans but cannot fly. They imitate those who have become one
with God, but because they have not become one with God, they always fail.
You can read the history of any Great Master of the past and you will
find that all the Masters worked very hard; they did a lot of meditation.
Guru Nanak Sahib meditated for eleven years in a very difficult situation;
even though he was a Param Sant from the very beginning, still he meditated
for eleven years and worked very hard.
Similarly, Guru Amardas used to serve His Master all day, and during the
night He would stay up and do His meditation. That nail still exists to
which Guru Amardas used to tie His hair when He would feel sleepy during
the night in His meditation. He would tie His hair to the nail so He would
not sleep. That nail still exists in India.
Hazur Swami Ji Maharaj, founder of the Radhasoami faith, meditated for
seventeen years in a dark room. He used to lock Himself up in that room
and meditate there.
In the same way Baba Jaimal Singh also worked very hard in His meditation.
Whenever He would get hungry He would eat old food, making it wet by
putting it in water; and after eating, again He would start doing His
meditation.
There was one initiate of Baba Jaimal Singh whose name was also Jaimal
Singh. He was more than a hundred years old. And he used to come to me and
tell me that Baba Jaimal Singh had a stick and whenever He would feel very
sleepy He would beat Himself with that stick so that He would remain awake.
In the same way Baba Sawan Singh used to work very hard in His meditation
and He also meditated a lot. He used to have one bairagam, a wooden stand,
and He would stand and meditate whenever He would get bothered by sleep;
and many times He would not come out of His room for two or three days
continuously.
And there are still many other dear ones alive who know how Master
Kirpal obeyed the commandments of His Master and worked very hard in His
meditations. I have met many people who used to tell me, that if anyone
wants to see the fruits of meditation they should go to Delhi and meet
Kirpal Singh. They called Master Kirpal Singh a great meditator.
It was the same with Baba Bishan Das: Even though he had the knowledge
of only two planes and had perfected only up to those two planes, still
to achieve the perfection of two planes is also worthy. And the one who
has perfected up to two planes, it is worth sacrificing for such a person.
And I have seen Baba Bishan Das meditating: He had one wooden bench in
which he had nails fixed, and whenever he would feel sleepy he would sit
on those nails and meditate.
I myself have spent a large part of my life away from other people,
underground; and I know what meditation is.
During the Second World War when Hitler was advancing everywhere, in
India nobody was ready to join the army, because everybody was sent to
fight with Hitler. And everyone was sure that those who would go to fight
with Hitler would never come back and death was certain for them. But I
was very happy in giving my name to go there. At that time I was very
young and those who were seeing me were very surprised, looking at my
courage. They would say, "Look at that young boy. He is so young but still
he wants to go and fight and he is ready to sacrifice himself." Before
going to the front, when we were sent for the medical check-up, the doctor
asked our commander who should be recommended for having milk. The
commander felt very sorry for all of us and said, "They are all the goats
of sacrifice, so it is better if they can have milk in their last days."
So that was such a time when nobody wanted to go the front. I was
feeling very good about going to the front, and I was very willing to
do that because I was very courageous. And I was feeling proud of that
also: that I was going to the front when nobody else wanted to do that.
At that time people would accept imprisonment for twenty years, but would
not go and join the army. But I saw it as a very easy thing to do. But
later on when I went underground for meditation, I know how difficult it
was for me to meditate, and how much easier it was for me to go to the
front anl sacrifice my life. Because when we meditate, the mind comes and
stands in front of us like a tiger and tells us, "Now I will not let you
go within." Mind is such a strong enemy that you have to fight with him
daily. Meditation is just like inviting your mind to fight with you. Those
who have stayed up in the night and have suffered a lot of pain, those who
have given much pain to their body for meditation, they know meditation
is a very difficult thing to do.
Tulsi Sahib says, "To fight in the battlefield may be the work of a
day or two, but to fight with the mind is a battle which you have to do
always with no sword or weapon."
Kabir Sahib said, "By enjoying and laughing nobody has ever achieved the
Beloved God. If Beloved God could be achieved easily, then what would be
the use of suffering all these pains?"
So we should be courageous, we should work hard, and we should never
become lazy in our hard work.
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