THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SIMRAN
by
Sant Ajaib Singh Ji
A question and answer session given December 29, 1985,
at Sant Bani Ashram, Village 16 PS, Rajasthan, India
Q. Master, when doing meditation, is it better to concentrate on the
Simran and listen to yourself doing Simran in the mind's eye until it is
perfect, or to keep the Simran more as a background to concentrating on
the Light?
M. Often I have said that satsangis should not do any thinking or any
fantasizing of the world while doing Simran. There are three means of
achieving liberation: Simran, Dhyan and Bhajan. All these three practices
can happen within our body. By doing Simran we vacate the nine openings,
and after crossing the stars, sun, and moon we reach the Form of the
Master. Simran takes us only up to the Form of the Master.
When we manifest the Form of the Master within us, that Form is very clear:
It is as clear as we are sitting here in front of each other. He will answer
all our questions. When the Form of the Master is manifested, we need Dhyan
to keep Him there. Usually when the Form of the Master comes within the
disciple, sometimes he feels that the Form has gone, sometimes he feels that
it has come; but that does not happen. It is not the Form of the Master
which comes and goes. It is because the disciple has not attained enough
concentration; he has not had much Dhyan or contemplation on the Form of the
Master, and that is why he feels that the Form sometimes comes and sometimes
goes. If at that time the disciple would contemplate so much on the Form of
the Master that he would forget his own self, so that he would only remember
the Form of the Master, then that Form would remain there forever and the
happiness which the disciple would receive cannot be described.
Many times when we do meditation, if we are aware of our mind then, when
we get a little bit of concentration and if suddenly the Light is manifested
within us, since we are not fully concentrating and since our mind is also
working, then we become afraid and don't know what to do. Many dear ones
stop doing meditation when they have such an experience. Many times it so
happens that when the disciple is meditating, and if his mind is also
working at that time, then if graciously Master manifests His Form there,
that disciple does not understand whose Form has come there, because his
mind is pulling his soul down while the Master is trying to pull him up. So
he becomes afraid and gives. up doing meditation. So it is very important
that when you do Simran, you should not be aware of your doing Simran.
There are a couple of things which I always say before we sit for
meditation. I say them to all the dear ones in all the groups. The purpose
of saying them is, that you should always remember those things whether you
sit for meditation here or back in your home. If you remember them, you will
be able to do the meditation correctly. I always say that you should make
the mind quiet, that you should not understand meditation as a burden, and
you should not pay attention to the outer disturbances. You should not allow
your mind to wander outside.
This is a reality: it has come in my own experience that when the Form of
the Master is manifested within you, He remains with you all the time; He
accompanies you like a shadow. Not even for one moment does He go away from
you. But the thing is that you should first manifest the Form of the Master,
and you can do that only when you are meditating correctly, when you are not
allowing your mind to play tricks on you.
When the Form of the Master is manifested, other people who have
[spiritually developed] eyes, they can also see that that Form is
accompanying you and that He is always with you. Once when I was going to
Punjab on the Rupur canal, at a village called Dyali, I saw a sadhu sitting
and many other people were listening to him. That sadhu had performed
austerities, and I felt like paying homage to him. You know, before meeting
the Masters, I also had done rites and rituals, and performed austerities.
So I always had appreciation for those sadhus who had really done austerities.
Even though I did not get anything from that, still I appreciate them,
because it is very hard work.
So when I went there, he was sitting with some other people of the village.
He was sitting on a rope bed, and as soon as he saw me, he got up from that
bed and welcomed me. I was trying to sit on the ground, but he said, "No,
don't sit on the ground, come and sit with me on the rope bed. Because I see
Someone with you." I told him, "No, I am like your servant, and I have come
to have your darshan; let me sit on the ground." But he did not let me sit
on the ground. When he insisted, I sat on the gunny sack which was there for
the people. While I was sitting there he would talk to the other people, and
after talking to a couple of people he would again tell me that he was seeing
Somebody with me dressed in white with a very great personality. When he
told me repeatedly, I told him, "Yes" - since I knew that it was that God
Almighty Kirpal Who is pervading everywhere, and it was all His grace that
the sadhu saw His presence and could tell that the Master was accompanying
me.
So when you are in meditation, when you attain that high position where the
Form of the Master is manifested within you, the people who do a little bit
of meditation and go up a little bit, even they can also see that the Form
of the Master is with you. They can very well see that.
But when you attain such a position you should be very careful; you should
not talk about that to other people, because other people will become jealous
of you; they will start thinking, "He is an initiate like us - how come he
has progressed so much and we have not? And why is Master so gracious on Him
and not on us?" Their jealousy may spoil their meditations. So I always say
that when you attain such a position you should protect it and not talk
about it to anyone except the Master. You should protect it the way a woman
protects her body. Because this is the grace of the Master, and when you
have had it you should not show it off to the other people.
Q. Sometimes when I do my Simran it sits in my throat and I can be
concentrated at my forehead, but sometimes with Your grace the Simran is
just in my thoughts. I find that I say it to myself a lot like I am speaking
to myself, like speaking from inside, and that's why it is just stuck in my
throat. And I wondered if, with time, does it move up from the throat? By
doing a lot of Simran, will it move up to the Third Eye?
M. I have often said that the work which we do every day, if we do it
regularly, we become competent in that. If you continue doing Simran in your
throat, gradually it will move up and it will start happening with the
tongue of your mind.
Do you think that the thoughts which you are having twenty-four hours a
day, all the thoughts which are bothering you, that you have not practiced
those thoughts, that you have not repeated those thoughts? Now you don't
need to work to have those thoughts or fantasies come in your mind; they
come by themselves. Do you think that you have not practiced for that? Ever
since we got separated from the Almighty Lord, no matter in which body we
went, whether it was the body of a bird or animal or any body, we always had
the thoughts of that body. We always create a desire for the worldly things
and materials and because of all those desires we have developed, we have
practiced those thoughts, and it is those thoughts which are bothering us
now. It is those fantasies which come in our mind without our making any
effort.
Saints have the knowledge of that (condition) and They know what it is
that keeps the souls in this world, and They tell us that at the time of
death there is no one in this world whose tasks have all been accomplished.
If anyone is able to fulfill ten things, five or ten other things remain
unfulfilled; and at the time of death those unfulfilled tasks and the
thoughts of those tasks go with that soul and in the next lifetime it is
those thoughts and fantasies that bother him. So, just as you do not have
to make any effort in having those worldly thoughts and fantasies because
you have practiced them a lot in your previous birth - you don't know how
many ages, how many births, you have practiced them but you don't have to
make any efforts in thinking those thoughts now-in the same way, if you
practice the Simran with the same amount of strength and energy, the time
will come when you will not have to make any effort in doing Simran; it
will happen by itself.
These thoughts and desires which we have at the time of death, our
intellect for the next lifetime is determined or decided by them. Our
thoughts and desires of the time when we leave the body have a direct effect
on our intellect. Because of those thoughts of the previous lifetime our
fate, our intellect, and our thoughts of the next lifetime are determined.
When I was commenting on Tulsi Sahib's "Ratan Sagar" in Colombia, in one of
the Satsangs I told a story that Master Sawan Singh used to tell, of a
potter. Once he was taking his donkeys loaded with clay to the palace, and
he was saying, "Come mothers, come sisters, come friends" - like that. He
was calling the donkeys "mothers" and "sisters" and "friends." So someone
asked him, "Why are you doing that? They are just donkeys!" He said, "I am
practicing, because I am a potter and I am in the habit of speaking very
loosely, so I don't want to speak any bad word in the palace; if I speak
any bad word in the palace, the king might put me to death. So I am
practicing now so that I may speak politely in the palace."
So why do the Saints always emphasize doing Simran? Why do They make us
do Simran? They make us do the practice of Simran so that at the time of
our death either we should be doing Simran or we may have the Form of the
Master within us. If we are doing Simran, or if we are remembering the Form
of the Master, we will go directly to Him.
Saints have the knowledge of how, because of the simran of the world, we
come into and we go back from this world; again and again we take birth in
this world because of the simran of the world. They know the weakness of our
mind and how we are stuck in this world, and They also know that the crop
which is destroyed by water can be healed or made whole only with other
water.
They give us the Simran which They have earned Themselves; and behind that
Simran given by the Masters, Their renunciation, Their hard work, Their
Charging, is working - and They know that only by doing the Simran of the
Master can we cut the simran or remembrance of the world. That is why They
tell us to do Simran. And as you know, when we do something without making
any effort to have the image or the form of that thing in front of us, that
form or that image comes in front of us - if we do the Simran given by the
Master, without our making any effort of having the Form of the Master in
front of us, we can have it.
In that Satsang I had talked about the personal experience of Master Sawan
Singh, Who used to say that there was a judge who all his life long gave out
decisions and worked as a judge. At the time of his death, on one side he
was about to leave the body, but on the other side he said, "Objection
overruled." Whatever simran he was doing all his life long, at the time of
his death he spoke the words according to that.
I also spoke about my own experience, that once there was a business man
in Padampur who never got married. He always had the desire of getting
married, but somehow he never did it. But he always used to think about it.
When he was about to die I went to see him, because at that time I was
practicing Ayurvedic medicine. When I went there and held his arm to feel
his pulse, he thought I was tying a wedding band on his wrist - because in
those days in India there was a tradition that people tied a piece of thread
to the wrist when they are about to get married. When I held his arm he felt
that I was doing that, so he at once said, "Are you tying the wedding band?"
I thought in my mind, "Brother, you are preparing for the journey to the
beyond; how can we get you married now?" So whatever simran he was doing
throughout his life, he remembered that at the time of his death and he
spoke out from that. So whatever simran, whatever remembrance, you do
throughout your life, you will remember it at the time of death.
Bhagat Trilochan, whose bani is included in Guru Granth Sahib, has written
that those who at the time of death do the simran or remembrance of women,
are born into the body of a prostitute where they have to indulge with so
many men. Nature is not a useless thing. According to our thoughts, we get
those desires in our next lifetime, in our next birth. So those who remember
women at the time of death, they become prostitutes and their death desire
is fulfilled; but in that body they make many more new desires and in order
to fulfill those new desires they have to come back into this world again.
Bhagat Trilochan says that at the time of death those who do simran of
their homes, they become ghosts and come and live there. Those who do the
simran of, or remember, wealth, they come back as snakes.
I have seen many married people who do not have any children. Whenever
they give any donations, or do any good thing, they always have this desire:
that they will be rewarded with a child. So He says that those who die doing
the simran of children, they come back in the body of a pig; you know that
pigs have a lot of children, and the sow is always bothered by children
because she gives birth to so many children at one time.
Finally Bhagat Trilochan Ji says that those who do the Simran of God,
those who love God Almighty, God manifests in their heart, and they are the
ones who get liberation. So we should always do constant Simran; because
only by doing Simran can we vacate the nine openings and open the tenth door.
Beyond that we do not need Simran, beyond that we cross the planes only by
climbing on the Shabd.
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