Perhaps you have read in Jap Ji that there are planes and planes; there are skies and skies when you rise above. References have been made there but people don't know how to interpret them, that's the pity. Once when Guru Nanak went to Persia he said, "There are planes, there are skies and skies; there's no end to them." And somebody reported to a Mohammedan Saint that we have in our Koran only seven skies, but here is a Saint saying there are skies and skies and limitless skies. When he came up to Guru Nanak, Guru Nanak told him, "If your vision is open up to seven, that's all right, but there are still further regions, there's no end to them." References are given in the books. People read Jap Ji daily, but they don't know what it means. Books can only give references to what They, the authors, have seen. Guru Nanak saw that there are planes and planes and skies and skies, there's no limit to that, they cannot be counted. God is limitless. How can you count His creation which is also limitless? The beauty of that stanza is not understood.
    People read without understanding, but truly speaking, this superficial knowledge is ignorance, I tell you. We have to use this language; we have to talk from the level of the people in the language known by them, but words are inadequate. Now, as was stated in Jap Ji, there are planes and planes; there are skies above skies, they have no limit to them. How can you count them? And God who created them is also limitless. That's all you can say, I think until you see them or have some access to them, only then you'll see their beauty.
    Maulana Rumi, a Mohammedan Saint, says, "I have taken the very gist, the very life, out of the Koran and am giving you that. I've left the flesh and bones for the dogs to fight over." The words he has used are very strong. These are his exact words. "I've taken the very brain out of the Koran and left the flesh and bones for the dogs to fight over." Most will only speak by the letter of the law, "This word can only be pronounced in that way, and this in that way." They're fighting over these minor points and they don't get to the kernel of these things. So Maulana Rumi says, "I have taken out of the Koran the life of all scripture,'' he was a Mohammedan, really a very high Saint, I tell you.
    We have to describe to other people through language, but language can only give a reference to It. When going on a plane you can see different layers of clouds below the plane. You see them, first one, then the other, like veils. Now how can one who has not been in the airplane understand this description, even if you write it in books? The digest of the whole thing is: know yourself, not at the level of feelings or drawing inferences, but by self-analysis. When you rise above, your angle of vision is changed. You need no literary knowledge for that. You see it. For explanatory purposes a learned man will give you so many instances from outside to bring home that very point. An unlearned man will only use the vocabulary at his command. As I have told you, Bulleh Shah went to his Guru, Inayat Shah by name, who was a gardener. He was just transplanting saplings from here to there. Bulleh Shah asked, "How can God be reached?" Inayat Shah said, "Oh, that is very easy work; it is just like removing one sapling from one place and putting it in another place." You withdraw your attention from outside. It's a question of all attention, that's all. If I look at you, let me wholly look at you and nobody else. God does not like you to think of anybody except Him. If you have got a special friend, naturally he would not like you to think of anybody else but him. God is all alone. He wants everybody to come to Him all alone, not even bringing intellect, outgoing faculties, children, money, or wealth. He is all alone.
    What is all this creation? It is just like a written document when rolled up. When again he opens it all this creation is begun. But you do not understand these things in their right perspective unless you see. Feelings, emotions and drawing inferences are all subject to error; Seeing is above all. Naturally every man wants to go to his origin. As I told you the other day, if you light a candle, the flame will go up. Even if you up-turn it the flame will go up. The origin is the sun above. Soul is of the same essence as that of God. It will, when unbound, cut off from all environments, go up. To have longing feelings like that is all right, but unless you reunite... That very separation will give you the fever of aspiration. So everyone has the natural tendency to go to his origin, that's all. We're simply bound by outside things, outside faculties whether physical or astral or causal. That is why it is very necessary that we should have no attachments. When we are attached we cannot leave. It's just like some flowers painted in a portrait on the wall. The flowers cannot leave the wall. We think so much of and are so imbued with the worldly things that we cannot withdraw from them.
    So the Master gives you some demonstration of how to rise above body consciousness on the very first day. If you completely withdraw all your attention from the body--that's true renunciation. I do not tell you to leave hearth and home and go to the wilderness. Leave the body. That's the difficult thing. To leave all the rest is very easy. To leave all attachments of the world is very easy but to control the mind and rise above body consciousness is difficult. Unless you control the mind, how can you rise above? You are bound hand and foot, you see. In the old days, they had hydrogen gas balloons which were tied to the earth by strings. When the strings were cut off, the balloon flew up into the air. It is something like that.
    We are not of the physical world. We are of the other world, other worlds, I would say. We are stuck fast here, enchained hand and foot. We cannot leave the world and its environments. And Master says to the learned, with all your learning, how can you leave? So Master gives you first hand a little demonstration of how to come up on the very first day. The ABC starts from there: There are yet planes and planes and planes.
    It's said of Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, that once he went to Holland to learn how ships are built. I saw the ship he worked on still lying in the museum on my last tour. [1963-64] So he dressed in the laborers' clothing--he was the Czar of Russia--working like other laborers. There were some who had been driven out of Russia. He met them and asked them, "Dear friends, why are you here? Why don't you go back to your homeland? .... Well, we've been driven out by order of the Czar; we cannot go back." "All right, that Czar of Russia is known to me. I will recommend that he let you go back." Some people did believe. "He appears very strong; he might be known to the Czar," said those who really heard him. So he went back to Russia, they followed him. When he entered Russia, the people bowed down in respect for him. Those who had followed him said, "The man appears to be very influential, everybody respects him." When he reached Moscow, the capital, he went and sat on the throne. Then they said, "Didn't I tell you he was something?" Following a Master is something like that, you see.
    God is waiting for you now--that friend is lying waiting for you--go back as soon as you can. Pay off all your debts here, your give and take.
    So astral planes are more beautiful than the physical, the causal are still more and those further, still more. When you have had a little taste of that, you would not like to stay here for a moment. But just look at the sacrifice of the Masters. The Tenth Guru said, "I did not want to leave, but I was ordered to come." So they have come only to take you back. The God in them, not the son of man, no, no. All that remains is to live, act up to what they say. Even if you hold millions of dollars, will this go along with you? But the means by which you have earned that money will go with you. If you suck the blood of somebody, usurp the rights of somebody, you will have to pay off. So that is why I tell you when you sit for meditation, pretend you are dying. That will help you. But this thought of death cannot come to you, I tell you, if you are so much imbued with the worldly color that the other color cannot come through.
    So solitude is necessary for developing that. In my early life, you see, if anybody wanted to find me after my office duties, he would either go to the cremation place or to the riverside. At the cremation place, I would see bodies coming and going and wonder, "Oh, what is this all about?"
    You are very fortunate to have your breakfast served already; you've not to cook it up. And even then we say we have no time to meditate--we have important works to do.
    And you say, "All right, tomorrow we will see." You only lie to Him. Procrastination is the thief of time. "All right, I'll do it tomorrow, the day after." "Let me finish this work, then I'll devote time." Suppose you die today, where will you stand? Well, the soul does not die but that has to leave the body. If there's a criminal case against you, and the warrants come without any surety, you may stick to your home; you don't want to leave; but they'll drag you anyway. But if you are already leaving the body, then where's the sting of death? "All right, come on, I'll go." After all, everybody has to go. If perhaps you have made some arrangement to live here forever, then very kindly tell me too. Have you got any special arrangements for that? Then? Everybody has to go. You must learn how to go, so that you may go in all peace, joy and smiling.
    Our Master used to say, "If you would like to see how the Master works, go to some initiate at the time of death. Ask him, he will tell you." My wife passed away on the 3rd April. On 31st March she was having the Master within her. She said, "I am going on the 2nd." I told her, "Don't go on the 2nd; there will be thousands of people here [for the Bhandara--Sawan Singh's Death Anniversary]. This will cause a great disturbance." "All right, then the day after on the 3rd or 4th I will go." On the 3rd I asked her, "Are you ready now?" She said, "Yes." "All right, go." She smiled and left.
    So everybody has to go. We should at least go jolly. How far have you progressed while in the physical body? You will go directly to the place to where you have progressed while in the physical body. You can progress more here in the man body. If you have divested yourself of all the vestures of the different planes you'll go directly Home. What takes months to do here, there takes years to do. How important it is. Again I might tell you this is not given in books. You have to learn to leave the body, is it not so? Is there any doubt about it? Perhaps you have arranged something here? I don't think you can. So that's the foremost thing that you must learn--to leave the body. When you leave the body all environments are cut off.

Master, does that mean when you die, if you have once in your life reached a higher plane and you never reach there again, do you go to that plane?

    Well, dear friend, you're wrestling, intellectually wrestling. Once somebody has taken pity on you, has taken you to some place to show you the highest plane, then you must learn to leave--go by yourself. A child wants to walk, but he cannot. So the Father takes him in his lap and takes him there himself. Then next day he says, "All right, walk now!" Do you see?
    So the foremost work, truly speaking, our private work, is to leave the body. Then start on the way. All other works are secondary. Pay off debts, and stop sowing new seeds. We will always put off: "All right this I can do later, let me finish this work." Then "Let me finish that work first and then do others." God first and world next. This we have not decided as yet. We have to leave the world; we have to pay off give and take. Don't sow any further seeds, that's all. Finish off.
    So you have got so much food to digest in here, you see. A spiritual man is one who lives in the spirit. A spiritual man is one who lives in the spirit. Very simple definition.