THE BEAUTIFUL WAYS OF KAL
by
Sant Ajaib Singh Ji
Wonderfully Kal has deluded the world;
How can I describe it?
He has made people do the things in this age,
Which were made for previous ages.
IN THIS HYMN, Swami Ji Maharaj is telling us that two Powers are
working in this world. One power is called the Negative Power or "Kal"
and the other is called the Positive Power or "Dayal". The Negative Power
can neither create souls nor destroy them.
Sat Purush or the Positive Power created the Negative Power. It came
in God's Will to become many from One; and then He created sixteen powers
- sometimes they are called the sixteennn sons of the Positive Power. Kal
was one of those sixteen. The Negative Power did the devotion of God for
seventy ages. Kabir Sahib has said that for seventy ages he stood on the
support of his thumb and meditated.* Again for sixty-four ages he meditated
and did the devotion of Sat Purush. God was pleased by his incessant
devotion, and sent another one of His sons to Kal telling him, "I am
pleased with your devotion. What do you want?"
And Kal said, "I don't like Your creation. Please give me permission
to make another one. And in that creation I should be the master. Nobody
should question me if I take anbody's skin off, or if I make anybody sit
on hot irons."
Because God was pleased by his devotion and his seva, He gave
orders to the Negative Power to make this creation. God gave a number of
jivas to Kal and He told them, "I have been pleased by his devotion, and, \
because I have given him my word, you go with him. The Negative Power will
make many good things for you and he will provide you with everything."
Some of the jivas said to the Sat Purush, "We don't know the Negative
Power. Who knows whether He will keep us in good places or whether he will
give us pain? If he gives us pain, is there any way we can ask for help?"
Then God gave them this promise: "If anybody among you is given pain by the
Negative Power, if you cry for Me, I myself will come to liberate you. He
will make many bodies of animals, insects, vegetables, and he will compel
you to go in them; but he will also give you the human body for one time,
and if you cry for Me while in the human body, I will come to help you."
The jivas are the food of Kal. When he started devouring the jivas, Sat
Purush sent Kabir Sahib in this world and said, "Those who are yearning for
Me, go and bring them back to Me." Kabir Sahib was the first incarnation of
Sat Purush to come in this world, and He came in all the four ages. In the
Golden Age His name was Sat Sukrat; in the Silver Age His name was Maninder;
in the Copper Age His name was Karunamai, and in the Iron Age He was called
Kabir. In the book "Anurag Sagar" ("The Ocean of Love") He has clearly
written how many people were initiated by Him in all four ages, and all
about His coming in this world.
When Kabir Sahib came to liberate the jivas, the Negative Power fought
with Him very much. He said to Kabir Sahib, "Sat Purush has given me this
world, and now You have come to destroy it. You are my elder brother; you
also give me some boon." And he even tried to get the knowledge of Naam from
Kabir Sahib, deceiving Him; and he told Him, "If you will tell me what the
sign of Your disciple is, I will not touch him." But Kabir Sahib was not
afraid of the Negative Power, and never did He give the knowledge of Naam
to him, coming in deception.
Then Kal said to Kabir Sahib, "All right, now I will tell everybody to
eat meat and drink wine; and in all the houses people will start doing it.
You will go and say that people should give up eating meat and drinking
wine, which is difficult, and nobody will do it." Then Kal sent for some
of his servants, saying, "Kabir is my enemy, and He has come to liberate
the jivas. You play whatever tricks you want to disturb Him." But whenever
Kabir Sahib came, He was never afraid of the tortures given to Him by the
Negative Power.
Once His feet were chained and He was thrown in the water. But He was
never afraid of the Negative Power and He still preached the Naam, and He
gave the knowledge of Naam to the jivas. Kabir Sahib said, "God has sent
me into this world to preach the Naam, but Kal does not allow us to preach
it easily. It is very difficult to preach Naam in this world."
When Master [Kirpal Singh] gave me the authority to preach the Naam and
give Initiation, I told Him about my shortcomings. I said, "You are such
a great Power, but even so people criticize you and even write books
against You. And I am illiterate. I know nothing about the world. Then Hazur
looked at me and said, "You look at me." And then He told me one thing: "If
a bad man is not stopping his bad deeds, then why should a good man stop
his good deeds?"
Worldly people don't have any happiness. If you see a happy person and
you talk with him in private, he will also report many pains and sufferings.
He is filled like the ulcer: from the outside he looks good, but from within
he is having much pain. Swami Ji Maharaj says, "Kal has entangled us in
this world in many beautiful ways." Some are happy drinking wine; some are
happy gambling; some are happy in doing the other bad deeds. Nobody is
afraid of death. Everybody says that no one is going to ask them for their
account - "This world is full of happiness. Who has seen the other world?"
We also see our dear friends and relatives dying and we ourselves take them
to the cremation ground.
We already know that when someone goes he doesn't take anything from
this world. But we think that only other people are going to die and that
is only for them. All the wine and other worldly pleasures are for us, but
death is for the other people. We forget our approaching time of death.
You see, in this world there were many dictators and great people who were
frightening others. And where are they now? They have become bones; they
have passed from this world. Now we don't even treat their tombs well.
And the time will come when the same thing happens to us and our body will
become a collection of ashes.
Swami Ji Maharaj says that the Negative Power has kept souls from doing
the meditation of God in many beautiful ways. In this small hymn He will
tell us what the beautiful ways are through which we are kept from the
meditation of God. Some of the beautiful ways He is talking about are
ways which people were liberated in earlier ages, but we don't realize that
those ways were then taught by some living Master, and under the guidance
of that living Master, the souls pleased Him in that way and they were
liberated. But now in this age [Kali Yuga] also we need the living Master.
We forget that.
God provided milk for the baby who was born five thousand years back.
Similarly, the same God is providing milk for the baby which is coming into
this world now. It is not true that the mother who was born five thousand
years back is providing milk to the baby who is born now. Similarly, if you
say that God needed to send the Saints to this world five thousand years
back or two hundred years back or five hundred years back, but not now,
that is not true. Just as God was sending the Saints to this world then,
He is still sending Them and in the future also He will continue to send
Them.
Four or five persons of our time are necessary: the magistrate of the
time can decide our lawsuit; the doctor of our time can give us medicine
and cure us; the husband or wife of the time can marry us and produce our
child; the teacher of the present time can give us academic knowledge; and
the Saint or Master of the time can give us the knowledge of Shabda Naam.
Foolish fellows, whose minds like
to wander about, get stuck to
water and stones.*
Intelligent and proud people have
become the slaves of the goddess
of learning.
(*That is, holy rivers and/or baths, and idols.)
Two types of people come into this world. We call one of them "fool" or
"illiterate"; the other we call "educated" or "learned." We call the
illiterate people fools because if somebody tells a fool or an illiterate
man to worship the sun, he will worship the sun and he will understand that
he is worshipping God. If somebody tells him to worship water or any other
outer thing, he will do so with the understanding that he is worshipping God.
And the learned people lay much emphasis on learning and reading books day
and night, thinking that by learning and reading the scriptures they are
doing the devotion of God. The majority of the people of the world believe
this; but they are not ready to live up to the teachings which are
contained in the holy books or scriptures.
Saints do not say that learning or reading is bad; but they do say that
whatever you read or learn, you should at least try to live up to it. You
should think over what is written. Mahatmas say that if, after reading,
you have not lived up to it, then what is the use of reading? Or what is
the use of making other people read? If after reading we still have our
bad habits with us, then what is the use of it?
The rest lying in between
these two categories,
who are neither foolish nor intelligent,
Take to recitals (japa), austerities (tapa),
fasts and other delusive actions,
and, poor people, they burn
themselves in five fires.
The jivas who are neither illiterate nor learned go wherever they are
directed because they don't have their own brains to think with. If someone
tells them to fast for one day or two days, they do it. If somebody tells
them to perform an austerity, they do it. Some people "burn themselves in
the five fires" which means they perform the austerities of that name. I
also performed austerities before coming to the feet of Baba Bishan Das
and our Master [Kirpal]. One sadhu told me that performing this austerity
is good for realization of God.
He told me to sit in between four fires burning on four sides and under
the heat of the sun overhead. In the month of June it is very hot in our
country and he told me to perform that austerity for four hours a day from
twelve noon onward, and he told me to repeat the name "Ram" 24,000 times.
Despite the June heat and the heat of the fires, still dear ones sit in
love, because they want to realize God in any way they can. He told me to
do the simran, the repetition of That name 24,000 times; but instead I was
doing it 48,000 times, and instead of sitting for four hours, I was sitting
for eight hours in between those fires. But my mind didn't get any peace or
happiness from that; my soul didn't get any peace or happiness in that. I
only got ego in my mind, saying that I have also performed an austerity and
I am also something. No doubt people were giving me respect, saying that
I was a good mahatma because I had performed that austerity. But I was
feeling ashamed within, because people were calling me "mahatma" but I
didn't have any qualities of a mahatma. And when I went to Baba Bishan
Das he asked me what was the need of burning the fires outside when the
fires are burning within?
The fires of lust, anger, greed, attachment and egoism, the five fires,
are burning in the body. Then what is the need of burning the fires
outside? How will you survive when within and without, everywhere, the
fires are burning? When he showered grace on me, then I realized that
those five fires were burning within me. He gave me some assurance about
life and he opened the way of spirituality to me. It was his boon and
blessing that he told me that what remained would be given to me in my
own ashram: that the Giver Himself would come there to give it to me. And
according to the boon foretold to me by Baba Bishan Das, Hazur Kirpal, my
long separated Hazur Kirpal, came into my ashram, gave the bread of life
to this hungry one, and gave me that nectar for which my soul was thirsty.
See the tricks of Kal!
some are knocked down by his head,
some are smashed with his feet.
He has bewildered the whole world
and led it astray and no one has
rest or peace.
Swami Ji Maharaj says, "Look at the ways of the Negative Power! How he
is washing away and destroying this world." He is destroying everybody.
Not even the disciples of Saints are free from his tricks. Masters tell
us that God is within us and they tell us how to practice and collect our
scattered thoughts and realize God. But the Negative Power is misleading
us at the same time, and he is preventing us from walking on the Path
shown by the Masters.
He is leading us away from this Path so that we think we have been
sitting for a long time and have got nothing. But we never introspect our
mind carefully to see when we were sitting, whether our mind allowed us to
do Simran or whether he did some other work during meditation.
Seeing such conditions,
Sant Satguru appears in this world.
When the jivas give up the devotion and worship of God and start
worshipping stones, water, or books, then that God Who planted the seed -
because He is very much concerned about the harvesting of that seed - He
Himself comes in the human body to give us the real Knowledge. It is just
as, if any child is kidnapped by gypsies, his father will come in the form
of a gypsy to take him. If he comes in his real form, the gypsies will
never allow him to come among them. So he changes his form to that of a
gypsy and then he can go there. The gypsies think that he is one of them
and they allow him to come to their place. Then that father tells his son
about his real home. In the beginning the son may not even be ready to
listen to him. But because of the daily company of his father, he starts
understanding what his father is talking about and one day he becomes
ready to go back to his real home.
Similarly, when we forget God, God Himself comes in the form of a Saint
or Mahatma, and then He tells us, "You may call me as your brother or
father or whatever you want; but if you do the practices about which I am
telling you, you will be able to go back to your real Home."
Satguru says, `Service to the Master,
achieving Naam, and Satsang are the
important things.' These are the three
methods which He explains; all other
practices are useless.
After coming into this world He tells us to catch hold of three things:
one is Satsang; one is meditation on true Naam; and the other is the Master
- because only a perfect Master can givvve you the perfect Naam. All things
except these three are useless. Without Master we cannot get the Naam;
without Naam there is no liberation; and without Satsang our introspection
is not completed.
Useless is the reading of the Vedas,
Shastras, Smritis and Puranas.
Pandits*, for their own self-interest,
criticize the Saints.
(*pundits, or learned priests)
Saints do not tell us that reading and learning are bad, but they say
that the reading or learning which you do like a parrot, you should also
live up to it. They are bringing our attention to the things which are
written in the Vedas and Shastras, that is, the holy books. And the people
who have made reading and learning their business, they speak against the
Saints and Mahatmas.
Lovingly Saints explain to them
also, but they do not understand.
They are desirous of name, fame and wealth
and are devoid of spirituality.
It is the policy of Saints and Mahatmas when they come to even try to
explain the Path to the people who are laying much emphasis on learning.
They tell them with love: "Just look at your books and see what your books
are saying: they are talking about Naam, Satguru, and sangat." Saints and
Mahatmas tell them, "If you practice the things which are written in your
books, you can get liberation." But those people are working for name and
fame, and they do not obey the Saints and Mahatmas.
They go round in the cycle of 84 lakhs.
Again and again they go into the
four categories of birth.
They read the knowledge of the previous ages
Some talk about law, some about the Vedas.
When we are not meditating on Shabda Naam and are wasting this human
body, when we do not appreciate this human body, how does the Negative Power
punish us? He sends us back again into the cycle of 84 lakhs births and
deaths, and again we are born - sometimes from eggs, sometimes from
moisture, sometimes from seeds, sometimes from the womb.
They do not realize the correct
method of liberation and are
proud of their reading.
As they do not learn the knowledge
of this age,
The poor fellows fall down.
Now Swami Ji Maharaj says that such people have made a business out of
learning and reading, and they understand that learning and reading are the
means of liberation. And they are proud of that learning but they do not
realize the truth. They do not know the knowledge of this present age.
What are the teachings of this present age? All the different ages - Golden
Age, Silver Age, Copper Age, Iron Age - have religions of their own. In each
age the life span of human beings is different. It is written in the holy
books that in the Golden Age (Sat Yuga) people lived up to 100,000 years;
in the Silver Age (Treta Yuga) people lived up to 10,000 years; and in the
Copper Age (Dwapar Yuga) the average lifetime was 1,000 years.
In the previous ages, the lifetimes were long and health was very good,
and with only the slightest attention we went back on the path of God. And
in this Iron Age (Kali Yuga) we already know how good our health is: we
cannot sit for one hour in one position without moving. And we cannot hold
our attention even for one second at the third eye. That is why the
religion of this present age is liberation only by the means of Naam.
Swami Ji Maharaj says that in this Iron Age, there is no other means of
liberation except that of Naam. No other worship or way of devotion to God
can help us in getting liberation except that of the practice of Naam.
Guru Nanak Sahib also said, "Now the Iron Age has come - meditate on Naam."
If you are doing anything else except the meditation of Naam, you are
planting seeds of the wrong season: those seeds will never sprout and they
will never be harvested.
Now the question arises of which Naam or name we are to meditate on.
That Name is not any word: that Naam has created the world. Guru Nanak said
that in this Iron Age, that Naam is hidden everywhere, is all pervading, and
is within our body. This Path is not made by any man. No Saint can decrease
it nor increase it. This Path is as old as man himself.
When our God was making our body, and when He made the openings of nose,
eyes, and mouth, etc., at the same time, He made the opening which leads
back to Him, in our body. This Path is not made only for any particular
type of people or any particular country. It is for all people, whether
they belong to America, Africa, India, or anywhere. The Path is for all
human beings. Masters tell us that there is no need to give up your family
and children. What you have to do is only to collect your scattered
thoughts at the third eye, and walk on the path shown by Him. If you do
this, you can reach your home early.
Humility and purity are the path of this age,
And Guru Bhakti is the surest way for liberation.
So become pure and holy within
And rise to Gaggan (eye center),
catching the Shabd.
At the time of Initiation, Saints tell us some habits from which we have
to abstain. They tell us to give up wine; to develop humility within us;
and to meditate on Shabd Naam. They tell us to give up egoism because
egoism is the greatest obstacle between us and God. What is egoism? It is
egoism when we are always thinking, "This is my community," "This is my
family," "This is my country," "These are my things" - all the belongings.
Guru Nanak Sahib said, "Egoism is the greatest disease - it is incurable."
But then He said, "If the disease is within us, it's medicine is also within
us." God Himself, when He wants to shower His grace on some soul, brings
the soul to the path of Shabda Naam. Death comes from within man and the
power of survival also comes from within. That is why Saints say to
develop humility, give up bad deeds and do good deeds.
The Inner Path is of Surat and Shabd;
The Five Sounds are the goal.
Step by step, riding on Shabd,
We reach Sach Khand.
What do They tell us when They come? They tell us to meditate on Surat
Shabda - to take our soul and reunite it with the Oversoul. We need to
bring nothing from outside because our soul is within us and Shabda is also
within us. They say that you can go back to your real home, Sach Khand,
after taking your soul up by climbing on the Shabd. When the sages and
seers asked Guru Nanak what was the way though which man could be liberated
from the ocean of this world, He replied that the way of Surat Shabd was
the only way.
That is why, first of all, remember
Master: know all other works
to be less important.
Fix your Master's Form in your
heart and cherish your love for Him
Like the moon bird does the moon.
Now the question arises: what is the first thing which is required of us
in the devotional practice? To remember the Master who has connected us
with the Shabda. No Mahatma tells us to worship himself. Nobody tells us
to contemplate on himself. Instead of accepting praise to others, he gives
praise to others. High officials would come to see Hazur, and they would
bring garlands of flowers to greet the Master; but just as they were going
to garland Master, He would take the garland and tell them, "Just as you
want to be happy in garlanding me, I also want to be happy, so let me do
that." And He Himself would garland those people who came to garland Him.
Once a man came to our Ashram and told Master [Kirpal] that when his son
was dying, He had come and taken him up. Master replied, "Yes, it is all
Master's grace. I am a human being like you. You see I am standing near
you. I am not going anywhere and doing other things. It is all Master
Sawan's grace." Saints and Masters never tell their disciples to worship
them, but unless a disciple is remembering his Master, he cannot progress;
the way of progress is not open to him, unless he is remembering his
Master. All Masters have laid emphasis on "Guru Bhakti" or devotion to
the Guru. They tell us to be in the devotion of the Guru just like the
"chakor". The chakor or moon bird loves the moonlight in the same way as
They tell us to be in love with the Master. When the moon comes in the
sky, then the moon bird gazes on the moon. As the moon moves, he also
moves his neck and does not move his attention here or there. He is
always attentive to the moon.
Once a man came to our Ashram and wanted to touch the feel of the
Master, but looking at him, Master laughed and told him, "What is there in
my feet? Everything lies in the eyes! Eyes give only to eyes."
So long as your love is not so intense,
practice only this method.
When Guru Bhakti is completed,
then the soul ascends
to the higher planes.
Unless we have devotion like that of the moon bird, unless we remember
the Form of the Master - just as that moon bird remembers, we cannot
progress.
Know them as foolish, who without
completing Guru Bhakti
attempt to catch Shabda.
When with Master's grace Shabda is
heard, it is the Powerful Guru
Who pulls up the soul.
Generally, all the satsangis do not give attention to Simran.
They don't know up to which point they have to do the devotion of Master.
At the time of Initiation Master tells us everything very clearly, but we
do not try to understand what He says then. The Simran which is given to
the disciple is Guru Bhakti. And when you have completed the course of
Simran, after that Naam Bhakti is started. With the help of Simran, we
have to collect our scattered thoughts and bring them to the third eye.
We can go up to the sun, moon and stars with the help of Simran, and
manifest the form of Satguru.
And when the form of Satguru is manifested, then Master tells us to
catch hold of the Sound, and after that, the devotion of Naam is started.
But what are we doing? Before completing the devotion of Guru, we start
towards the Sound. But even if we hear the Sound, at this stage it does
not pull us up. So that's why we should not forget the Simran even for a
moment, whether we are traveling in an airplane, or talking, or walking,
or anything.
We should not give up our Simran, even if we are talking. When the
course of Simran is completed, after that Master Himself pulls our soul up.
It is His work; just as a student's duty is to go to school, and after
that, it is the teacher's duty to teach him. In the same way, the
disciple's duty is to collect the scattered thoughts and reach up to the
third eye, and, after that, the responsibility, the duty, of the Master
starts. It is His work to pull the soul up. Any soul who is doing his
work can see how Master is working for him and is helping him.
Without the completion of Guru Bhakti,
the soul won't rise above,
The sky won't burst
and one won't get Naam.
Guru Bhakti is the root
of everything, other things
are the branches of success.
Unless we complete the Simran, we may see the Light, but the way up is
not open to us. We cannot go through that "gaggan" unless we complete our
Simran. The gaggan is in the third-eye, and we have to go into our brain,
because that is where the way is. But, even though when we collect our
thoughts a little bit at this point, we do see a little bit of Light, or
even if we see more Light, we cannot go beyond this without completing our
Simran.
As the mother loves the son, as the
lover loves his woman, as the fish
is sustained by water, as the
rainbird loves the rain ...
Now Swami Ji Maharaj gives us very beautiful examples: Unless we have
love for our Master like that of a mother for her son, or of a fish for
the water, or of the rainbird for the rainwater, or of a lover for his
woman - unless we have that kind of love for our Master, we cannot
progress.
When you develop such love, only then
will you be able to proceed on the Path.
Whatever I had to say, I have told you.
Now it is up to you
to believe it or not.
Now Swami Ji Maharaj says that unless we have love like the four
examples he gave in the previous verse, we cannot progress on the Path.
He says that now he has told us everything: how the Negative Power has
deluded us; how the Negative Power is misleading us away from the Path;
how God comes in the form of Sant Satguru into this world to liberate us;
how He gives us the knowledge of Naam Initiation; how, after Initiation,
we have to do the seva and the devotion of Satguru; and how much we should
love our Master.
Now it is up to you. It is your choice whether to believe it or not,
whether to practice it or not. Man is independent for the time which he
has been alotted to live in this world. Whether he does the devotion or
not, is up to his will, because he is independent. Saints never impose
their devotion or their way on any soul. They come and they lovingly tell
the people, "If you practice this, it will be good for you."
We are not doing any favor to anybody by doing the devotion; in fact,
we are having mercy on our own soul. Swami Ji Maharaj says, "Have mercy on
your own soul and save it from the cycle of 84 lakhs births and deaths."
Then He says, "If one does not have mercy on himself, who else will have
mercy on him?"
The daily meditation and the daily devotion we are doing, that is the
mercy on our soul. And Swami Ji Maharaj says, "I have explained to you
about the two ways. If you choose the good way, it will be good for you;
but it is up to you whether you choose the good or the bad way."
There was one officer of the Ganga canal system near our ashram, and
once I told him, "Our Satguru has come to the ashram, and He knows a very
good way of realizing God. If you will come to Him, He can help you to
realize God, if that is what you want." So he came to the Master, but
instead of listening to the Master, he told Him how he had been practicing
this path or that path, and all the help he had been getting from that.
Instead of getting the way of Naam, he was imposing his path on the Master.
Master told him, "All right; you read some literature of Sant Mat and, if
you should get interested in this, if I come again, you can come to me and
I will help you."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BACK TO CONTENTS
