THE MASTER: If there is any particular thing you would like, we can talk it over.

QUESTION: At the Friends Meeting House, Master said that he never asked his Master any question in his life, except three questions. I think it would be very interesting to know what those questions were that the Great Master had asked his Master. (Master laughs.)

When I went to the feet of my Master (Baba Sawan Singh Ji), after a few days I asked Him, "This method is very perfect. What is the proof that it will remain even after you?" That was a very insolent question, of course. But I did ask him, because I was very much interested in the competency of the system. Everybody gets experience and advances on the Way so quickly, about which we generally know very little. This is the last, ultimate thing which we have to attain. But the Master's grace is there: he gives it the very day of Initiation.

Then he said, "To whomsoever I will authorize, I'm responsible that this will continue. For others, I'm not responsible." It naturally happens that when a Master leaves the physical body, so many people take up the Way, considering perhaps that it is a matter of honor or income. So He said, "To whomsoever I will authorize, I'm responsible that this will continue. For others, I am not responsible."

Then further I questioned him: "Well, in what form will he be?"

He said, "he will be in the Sikh form." You see? Some people, as they were not in Sikh form, began to imitate and adopt the Sikh form. Last of all, I requested of him: "You give initiation from one end to the other on the very first day. Would it not be better if You gave lessons step by step?"

Then he turned to me and said, "Do you know why this science has been forgotten altogether?" Then he said, "Suppose one man went to his Master; he progressed within up to two planes, three stages; and the Master passed away. The result was that he thought perhaps this was the ultimate goal. Another man went to his Master, and he progressed only two stages; and the Master left the body. He thought perhaps that that was the ultimate goal. The third one went to his Master, and he only developed to the first stage. He thought perhaps that was the only, ultimate goal." So, he said, "The whole thing is explained on the very day of initiation. Even if the disciple does not have the occasion to see him later in the physical body, he knows where he stands. That is why the whole thing is given the very first day - explained, and some experience is given to start with."

These were the three questions I did ask him. Otherwise, I learned all by sitting quietly at his feet. Just see: when a man is an actor, he acts in all phases of life. Whether he is eating bread at home or abroad, if you simply watch him, you'll see so many beauteous things. Now we cannot see that beauty. Why? We just try to see through the very glasses we have formed for ourselves. From that level, we cannot look beyond. If you simply look on, then you will see.

The eyes are the windows of the soul. Radiation comes through the eyes and also through the whole body. If you simply remain attentive - I mean, receptive - within the field of the area of the radiation, you will receive life. With words, you only have what you ask. If you leave it as is and keep quiet, you will receive radiation. This is what man learns most.

It happened that I went to Berlin in 1955 on my return from the United States. There, as I did not know the German language, I simply engaged an interpreter to interpret what I said in English. (The interpreter was here the other day, too - here, no - I think it was in Miami.) Well, after a few minutes, the people in the audience said: "Look here, stop! You don't interpret correctly. We understand more from his eyes than from what you say."

So receptivity gives more than words: it gives life-impulse. Even if you don't know the words "warm" or "cold," you will receive warmth and coldness. Do you see? You are not in need of using the words "warmth" or "cold." It is more wonderful, of course.

That is why it is said that if you sit at the feet of some Master for an hour or so, in a quite receptive mood, you will gain more than you would by your drawing intellectual inferences for forty years - for a hundred years. There you speak and infer; and here, you receive that very thing which you have inferred. To think of a fire ablaze and warmth-giving is something else other than sitting by the fire. This is something like that.

And whenever one speaks, he speaks out of the abundance of his heart - out of what dwells in there. For instance, if the wind blows against a great conflagration of fire and passes to other side of it, any men sitting on the other side will have a warm wind. And similarly, if the wind passes along any ground on which there is snow, those who are sitting on the other side will get a wind that is cold. The wind is the same. But it is a question of what it contacted as to which wind will be received - whether it contacted fire or snow. Similarly, if the heart in which the love of God and the love of all humanity is overflowing, any words he uses will be charged. Do you see? And anyone who hears those words will receive that very effect. If a heart is full of passions - evil thoughts, violence, so on - any words he utters will be charged with that very thing. No matter how many sweet words he may utter, the charging will be the other way. If, for instance, you have love for someone and he sometimes calls you names, those names appear to be very sweet. Is it not so? It is just like putting flowers of very fragrant perfume in a room: anyone sitting in the room will have perfume. The perfume emitted by the flowers radiates throughout the whole room. Whether you put those flowers in a room or in a cloth or in the dust, everything will become perfumed. So, whoever comes within the field of action of the radiation of one who has the God-intoxicated way of life will have the same effect. That is why it is said, "Spirituality cannot be taught, but caught." Do you see? It cannot be taught; it is caught, like an infection.

This is what has been spoken of by all Masters: all scriptures said so. That is why Christ said, "Where more than one man sits in my name, I am there" - by radiation. The Master may be thousands of miles away, but when you simply become receptive, you will receive his radiation. You can hear men speaking from thousands of miles away through radio and television. Similarly, if you turn your face towards the Master, you will receive his impulses.

Once someone was asked, "Where is God? Where does God reside?" And he said, "If you want medicine, go to a hospital. And if you would like to have an education, find it in schools and colleges. If you'd like wetness, walk through the grass in the morning; there you will find all-wetness. And if you'd like to find God, where should you go? Where God resides - to His house."

Maulana Rumi said that it was asked of God, "Where do You reside?" And Prophet Mohammed said, "God says, `I am so big that all My creation is not sufficient to contain Me - I am still more. But strangely enough, I reside in the heart of a Master. If you would like to find Me, go there.'"

God resides in every heart, as well. But what is the difference between the two? In one heart He is made manifest; in the other He is not. Do you see? To have Him manifest within us, we simply have to withdraw our attention from the outside.

So it is a great blessing to sit by a living person at whose pole the God Power is manifested. One of the Hindu scriptures says: "You cannot reach God so quickly by reading scriptures, by doing penances, by observing fasts, by leading a life of continence, and by controlling your senses as you can by sitting near a Master." You may be reading scriptures from morn till night, but you cannot even have their right import without someone who has had that experience or has seen that which is given in the scriptures. Moreover, he is competent to give you something of that experience to start with. Understanding the scriptures at the level of the intellect cannot give you their right import. Why are there so many religions - schools of thought? Because the people who belong to them have not seen what the scriptures describe. Had they seen it, they would have said the same thing. That is why I say there is a religion beyond all religions, and that is the religion of seeing Truth - of finding Truth - which all Masters who came from time to time gave out. Those who have the good fortune to sit at the Masters' feet and do care, have it. Those who live by what they say advance quickly, like anything.

You know, Aristotle was the teacher of Alexander the Great. And with all that, Aristotle was still going around in the streets looking for someone whom he could educate. One day Alexander the Great told him, "Look here, I am Alexander the Great. I am your student, your disciple; am I not sufficient for you?"

He said, "Yes, you are my student; that's right. But you cannot become an Aristotle. I am after finding someone who can become an Aristotle. I want him to become like me."

Who can be like their Masters? Those who obey. The ABC starts from there. They not only obey, but they go by his injunctions. They lead the life he likes. And without anything external, whether they are in their Master's presence or in his absence, they follow that life. For them, the absence or presence makes no difference. Suchlike men rise into the Master. They are born in Christ; they are born in Master. It is not very difficult. The difficulty is that we always go by the dictates of the mind and not by the dictates of the Master. We cannot leave off the ordinary pleasures of the senses outside, knowing full well that there is great wealth, a great treasure, the priceless pearl, within us. Knowing all that intellectually, we still do not dare do it, because we are more attached to the outside things than to the treasure within. To have it, you have to live up to it, that's all.

All Masters have been saying that. God is everywhere: only our inner eye is not open to see Him. First, when we see Him within us by inversion, the body appears to be the temple of God. When that develops, we see that the whole of creation is the temple of God. Guru Amardas said, "With the Grace of the Master, you will see for yourself that this body is the temple of God, because God resides in you."

There was once a disciple of a Saint, called Bheek. What did His disciple used to do? He always repeated the name of his Master: "O Bheek, O Bheek, O Bheek." For him the Master was God. All Masters say that the "Wordless God was made flesh and dwelt amongst us." Those whose eyes are open see that the very God Who dwells within us is the wordless God manifesting to us.

In the Mohammedan reign, religious restrictions were very strict. It was heresy to consider a man to be God. Someone asked the disciple of Bheek, "Who is your God?" The disciple said, "Bheek!" "Who is your Prophet?" And again, "Bheek!"

They arrested him and passed the sentence that he should be hanged on a certain day. Orders of capital sentence were passed by the king. The disciple was produced before the king, and the whole case was reviewed. The king saw his face, and in his eyes there was intoxication. The king said, "Leave him!" Then he asked the disciple, "Who are you? Who is your God?" "Bheek!" "Who is your Prophet?" "Bheek!" Then the king ordered the ministers: "All right, leave him!"

And all the ministers said, "Oh king, what are you doing? A sentence has been passed to kill him. He says his Guru is a God, and the Prophet is also his Guru; everything is his Guru."

The king said, "No, leave him be." After all, those who are made kings are also God-gifted; to some extent they are, because they have been given charge of so many children of God who are under them. Then he said, "Well, look here. There has been a dearth of rain in our country; there's a great famine all around. Will you ask your Bheek to send rain down for us?"

"Oh, all right, I'll tell Him." This is a question of one who is confident to see that God is in him, being God. He is God. None other than He can be God.

The king said, "All right. Then when will you come back?"

"I'll come the day after tomorrow."

"All right," said the king. The ministers said, "He will flee! He won't come back!"

"Never mind," said the king.

And the next day it rained so much that the whole country overflowed with rain. On the third day, the disciple appeared before the king. He said, "Thank your Bheek who has sent us rain." Then he wanted to give the disciple lands as a gift to be taken to his Master; because wherever Masters are, many people gather together for food and other arrangements. When he wanted to give him the written deed, the disciple said, "Oh, no, no, no. I don't want this."

"Why? Take it to him."

"Oh no, this is only a perishable thing. Do you think I can take it to the imperishable?"

Do you see? He refused it. So those who are intoxicated - not with the God as the physical body, but the God in him - become one with Him. And when he went to his Master, Bheek said, "Oh madman, when you asked for a certain thing, it was done. Had you asked me to make you God, I would have made you God."

So it is not the physical body which is the Master, mind that; it is the God Power or Christ Power - call it by any name you like. It manifests at different human poles to guide the child humanity back to Him. And what do people do, do you know?

Some people complained to God: "We are adrift in the world, in the material world. Why don't you send your apostles to guide us?"

God said, "Yes, I did send those who declared that they were God; They were one with me. And what did you people do? How did you treat them? Some you put on the cross, like Christ and Mansur. You cut off the heads of some; you stripped off the skin of some; and some, who said that they were God-in- them, you put into the burning fire. This is how you treated them.

"Then, I also sent some people like those who said, `We are servants of God; it is only His grace working. I am a man like you.' And you said, `Oh, he is nothing; he himself says he is nothing. Why should we listen to him?' Those who said, `We are Gods; we are Godmen; we are one,' you treated by persecuting Them. Yet, when I sent men like that to work at your level and tell you, `I am a man like you; you can also develop in that way,' you said, `Oh, he says he knows nothing. Then how can he do anything?' So you simply ignored him. What should be done now?"

When the time comes, where there is hunger in someone, there will be food for him. Where there is thirst, there will be water for him. When fire burns, oxygen comes to help. When the chela is ready, the Guru appears. He appears! He is not dead, mind that. He manifests. He is already working; some people call him by different Names; others see him as God. In the case of Swami Shiv Dayal Singh, people did not dare to look at the lights burning in His house. They were afraid that they would be affected. Suchlike people we are!

Guru Nanak was once traveling around, and he was arrested and sent to prison. And there, like the other prisoners, he was supposed to be grinding corn. But he was in the remembrance of God, and that work was going on by itself. People were amazed. They reported it to the king. Then he let him out.

So people don't care. If a man says, "I know," - if he uses the word "know" - they say, "How can he say 'know'?" If he says, "I do everything by the grace of God; God is the one who is working," then they think, "Oh, he is an average man; we know better." If he says, "I am God" - "Oh, he is a heretic!"

So what is there to say to these people? Guru Nanak said, "In the world, it is very difficult to carry on. If you keep quiet, they say you have no sense, no brains to talk. If you talk to them, they say, `Oh, he is in the habit of talking. He has a mania for talking.' If you go and serve them, they say, `Oh, he must have some motive behind it.'" Such is the case of the world. But still, with all that, they go on. Some people do come up whom God sends, and they are benefited. If He sits quite quietly, they say, "Oh, he is a man," and if he shows some miracle: "He is just a mesmerizer, a hypnotist." What is there to do, if people are like this?

Truly, the greatness of a Saint lies in the fact that he is able to give you some experience of rising above body-consciousness - but not by hypnotizing or mesmerizing you; you experience it consciously. There are really very few who know what Spirituality is. Some consider It to be only the performance of certain rites and rituals. Others consider It to be only contact with the spirits who have left the body. Some think that It helps them develop some miraculous powers within by certain methods, and they think that perhaps that is Spirituality. Well, none of these is Spirituality. Spirituality is purely a science of knowing oneself, by analyzing oneself and seeing God Who is controlling all of creation.

God that is not manifest - that is, God before manifestation - cannot be seen. But God Who is manifested is Light and Sound Principle. Someone who can raise your soul to that level and then make that Audible Life Stream manifest in you is a Saint. He is one who can remove the dark veil you see when you close your eyes and can manifest Light. These are the true criteria of a Saint. You'll find that there were very few like that in earlier times, and even now there are few.

So there is a religion, as I told you, beyond all religions - above all religions of rites, dogmas, and rituals - and that is Truth. That is called mysticism. Philosophies deal with theories, and mysticism deals with Reality. In psychology and in all philosophies, you have to make some hypothesis; there is some subject and object, and there is duality: you have to rise above it. And mysticism is the direct contact with the God-into-expression Power, which is Light and Sound Principle, which, once contacted, has the power to drag your soul to the source from where it emanated in the wordless state of God.

The book, "The Crown of Life", gives a comparative study of all yogas and their scope and of how the Masters went further and transcended the yogas and became one with Him. The other ways of yoga are very hard to follow. But this way, even a child can follow. What you receive in other ways after years and years of penances, you receive here the very first day of initiation. What greater concession can there be. And somebody once told me, "If it is so easy, we don't want such an easy method."

So, fortunately, you have got the Way with the grace of God. Be rest assured: the one who has put you on the Way can never leave you. Do you see? You may leave him; he won't leave you. That is why it is said Christ said, "I shall never leave thee nor forsake thee till the end of the world." Do you see? That is the God Power, the Guru Power, that manifested God at some human pole entrusted with a commission. That Power never dies. Human poles do change, do perish; that Power continues.

That Power works in a very mysterious way. Even to those who do not know him physically, that Power appears in that physical form in which he is working, long before they really meet him physically. And they wonder, "Who is he?" I met my Master within seven years before I met him physically - quite consciously, rising above body-consciousness, traversing into the Beyond. I thought perhaps it was Guru Nanak. When I came in contact with him physically, I found he was the same man. Even now that is happening. I went to Pakistan. There was a Mohammedan Sufi who saw the form of the Master within, three years before. He was wondering: "How can a Sikh appear to me? What is all that about?" He never believed in the Sikh form. And he was initiated.

So, even now you'll find suchlike instances everywhere. God Power never dies. And those who have come under his care, why should they worry? They simply have to abide by what he says, that's all. And I tell you one thing: if they abide by it, well and good; they will go on quicker. Those who have made the will of the God-in-the-Master their own will progress wonderfully. And those who do not - even then he will not leave them. The seed of the Naam or Word which has been sown cannot die out. If he does not do anything at all, he has to return to the world - but in the man-body, not below it; because only in the man-body can that seed grow.

Masters wish first and foremost that everybody should go Home then and there, when they have been given that inner contact. And to one who resists, he gives a long rope at first: but he will take him by - what do you say? - hook or crook; he won't leave him. He has to take him, you see. Our Master once said, "Look here, why don't you obey me? Go on doing it. As is the case in civil disobedience, you wish to be carried away forcibly in truck loads. Why don't you walk and go yourself? He will take you: when He has been destined to take you, then He will take you. Why do you wish to be dragged away and carried onto trucks?" That Power which is manifested in the human pole, That saves. Do you see? The words of the Masters are the words of God, although they appear to be coming through the throat of a physical person.

It seems that Indra Mati was a lady saint. She was a disciple of Kabir. When she, while progressing, reached the True Home - I mean, Sach Khand - She saw that Kabir was the Sat Purush. She said, "O Kabir, why didn't You tell me that you are the Sat Purush? Had you told me before, it would have been much better. Why after so long?"

Kabir told her, "Even if I had told you that I was the Sat Purush, you would not have believed me." Everybody claims, "I am God."

Truly speaking, tell me: who can give any account of God to us, God Who has no equal, no brothers, no sisters, no father, no mother? Who can give you a contact with Him, or who can give any description of Him? He will have to say, "God alone, Who is manifested at any human pole, can give it." But to realize that, you have been given the Way: you will see that for your own self. Master is there in the higher planes: That works, helps, extends all protection, and gives all guidance. When you see this for yourself, that's all right.

Someone once put a question to our Master: "As what should we regard You?"

He said, "Take me as your brother, as your father, as your friend, as your teacher. And obey what I say. If you find me working in the higher planes when you leave the body, then you may call me anything you like."

Masters don't assert themselves, I tell you. They say just what appeals to the common sense. And moreover, now the times have changed. In the time of Christ, you will find he always said, "Sell everything; come to me. Leave all and follow me." This is what Lord Krishna said, and what everybody said in earlier times. Now what do They say? "All right, go on with your families or your livelihood; just nourish yourself and your children. And love God. Don't leave the world and your hearths and homes and follow me." But, all the same, they are competent to give you some inner experience to start with, the very first day of initiation. They want only two, three, four hours of your time for meditation. And even at that, we say we have no time. What is he to do? Whatever you get in other ways after so many penances and after so much time, you get the very first day of initiation. And if you don't find two or three hours daily for that purpose, what more can be expected?

Who can give you a contact with God? This is very common-sense talk. Can anybody give you a contact with Him when He has no equal? You may say, "Catch your ear this way or catch your ear that way: it is the same." Some say, "Masters cannot be God." But they are none other than God: they say it is God working in them. And some say, "Oh, he is God. I have seen him; he is God." I just quoted you the case of the disciple of Bheek, in which he said Bheek was God. As Rai Saligram said, "Swami Ji is everything: he is the wordless God, the Ultimate, Nameless, come into being." Do you see? This is the ultimate realization that very few get.

Truly speaking, only those who have become the mouthpiece of the Master or the Guru are called gurumukh. They do not speak: it is the Guru in them that speaks. "It is I," St. Paul said, "It is I, not now I, but Christ lives in me." Is it not so? Similarly, the gurumukh does not say anything of his own self; he sees that his Master is speaking through him; he is conscious all the time. He sees that His body is fitted in his own body. Sometimes he forgets himself altogether. This is the ultimate feat of love, devotion, and surrender. "As you think, so you become." Hafiz said, "My name is Hafiz - people call me Hafiz, of course; but I am no more Hafiz; I am He. My Master is living in me. People call me Hafiz. I've forgotten all about myself. Did I ever exist?"

Master is the God-in-man. And if you become a Guru-in-man, then what will happen? You will be God-in-man. That is the quickest way. That is why Christ said, "If you cannot have love for your brothers whom you see, how can you love God Whom you have not seen?" If your eyes are open, you will see that he is God-in-man. And you will forget yourself: you rise or you are born - you are born in Guru or Christ. This is what is meant by the word "gurumukh." This is the ultimate goal to which we have to come. Naturally, all attachments will be cut off.

So, how fortunate are those who have had the good fortune to sit at the feet of a Master who has given them a contact within! It remains for us only to obey, to put in some time for meditation. After a year and even after millions of years, that will remain here. Even the body which comes along with us when we enter the world does not go along with us after death. How can we expect all the other things in the world to which we are devoting ourselves to go along with us? To us it is the world first and God next. We are worshipers of mammon, of the world. How can these things go along with us?

It does not mean that you are to leave everything and go. Remain in the world. You have developed physically and intellectually; you must maintain yourself. The man-body is the highest in all creation. It is the golden opportunity given to you, with the Grace of God, to know God: "Be still and know you are God." That you can do only in the man-body. We spend the greatest part of our lives attending to the worldly things.

Maintain the man-body, because only in the man-body can you know God. But it is only a passing phase; it won't last long. All who had the body had to leave it. And we will also have to leave it. Those all around you won't go along with you, mind that - Yes! at least those will who have been knit together in the silken bonds of love and initiation, I would say: they will remain together, even after leaving the body. That is a relationship that cannot be broken off. There is no power to break it.

Our Master used to give an example: You are going across the river. Master is one who carries in the boat all the passengers from one side to the other. Some are already there on the other side. And the others will also go there. They will be together there, too. This is the Grace of God, which comes through the God-man or Guru or Master, that joins us in a relationship that can never break, even after death. This is no exaggeration, I tell you; facts are being given. This is a true relationship in which the Godman or the Master has united us. We are all friends, mates, lovers of the same God. The human body makes no difference: whether man has the man-body or the woman-body makes no difference. Our souls are to be wedded to God. Blessed is the soul that unites with God.

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