"There was a time when people did not understand who the Almighty Power, the Param Sant, is. Kabir is the Almighty Power, and now our Master followed Him. People mixed up our Master with other Saints. But when Master left His body, they felt His grace getting more and more. They saw that what had not been possible before, was possible now. People are astonished now and ask themselves, “How is this Power working?” You know, in the books it is written that without a Master you cannot realize the truth. But why are the people realizing it now? We need a contact with this Power, and this contact is already there – for the Father Himself is helping us. Is it a necessity therefore that one must call himself a Master now? People say that they are Masters, but they are really no Masters. When you know that your Father is a king, can you say that he is a beggar? He is a king! This must be told. You have to surrender to the king. If now anybody claims that he is a Master, he is a fool. It is the Grace of the Almighty Power alone that is working now."
We take lots of measures to think about various necessities only to live in the world, but we hardly ever think about how we will leave the world one day. But this is very important. Our purpose is now to think how we can leave this world in the best way. There are too many attachments in the world, and with attachment pride and ego come along.
In Gurbani it is said: Body is just like a mud and soul therein is like a frog; it jumps but it cannot leave the mud. And as we think that it is beyond our approach, we do not tackle this problem.
But Master says, “Alright, then with pride and ego develop His love.” We use pride and ego for worldly purposes – so use them to develop more love for the Masterpower. Master speaks about what is of great importance. Our body is just like the shadow of a tree; you can enjoy the shade of the tree, but you cannot grasp the shadow. When Master gives this reference of a tree, we should see the necessity of this manbody: only in the manbody we can realize ourselves and realize the Godpower. That is its purpose. But we should not cling to it. As we can look at the tree and enjoy the shadow of the tree but cannot grip it, we should not have any attachment for the body.
Master says, “Your life is just like a bubble of water; you can look at the bubble, but you cannot catch it. You can enjoy its beauty how it forms and disappears, but you cannot catch it. You cannot have the control over it.” Similarly, we can solve the mystery of death: it (the body) is a wonderful house we live in, but we do not have the control over it because everything is in the hand of the Masterpower, Godpower. He is the indweller of this house. Unless we become the conscious co-worker of the divine plan, it is beyond our possibilities.
There are four seasons in a year. Autumn is the season when the trees shed their leaves. Farid says: “The tree is very unhappy, as it does not know that it has to get new leaves, and new buds will sprout forward.” Similarly, we have to shed all our old, old habits just like a tree. The spring season is coming up shortly, let the new buds grow! But the attachments are a very big problem.
We are just like travellers in a train. Some people are not good travellers, they have to learn how to travel in the world. Some people go from their home for one day only and they are very tired, and others move around the whole world and yet are not tired; they enjoy it. What is the difference? Suppose you go by train and you just want to make friendship with someone and have a talk with him, but this will be only for a short time because you know your destination and this fellow also knows the destination where you have to go. You have booked a seat and therefore you are not going to give away an inch of your seat, but when the destination comes, you have to leave it and you do not have any hold on it. To the companion with whom you had a good talk and made friendship you can say, “Perhaps we can meet again some day.” But since your destination has come, you separate. You don’t say, “Because you have made friendship with me I want to go along with you.” No, he who forgets his destination is not a good traveller. A good traveller says, “Good-bye, I am going now, I have reached my destination.”
Master says, “Live in the world like this.” You know that no one is going with you; no friend will be going with you. When your destination comes, your soul has to go alone. You have to leave the train, this world. You cannot stay here. The others also know, but they will not help you. We must know how to leave these attachments, these worldly things. Still pride and ego are there in us, but some Masters said, “Alright, if there is pride and ego, use it for the Master, and out of this pride and ego develop love for the Master!” Then it is also a good thing. If you are proud of something, use it for the Master, and out of ego develop love for the Masterpower. But since we use pride and ego as food for the mind, it takes us to the wrong direction.
A few days ago we were talking about certain things from the teaching of Kabir. These are very, very important things that have been neglected so far. Kabir’s teaching is very direct. And if there are some sort of controversies, outside or within, and we say it is humility not to clear these things, then we ourselves suffer and we let others suffer for it. This is no humility! So Master has a very direct way of expressing things. He says, “Let people know the direct things. Let all know the things in a very direct way, so that there may be no misuse.” The teachings of all the competent Masters are there, but the teaching of Kabir (the highest Power) has a different tone.
Belief in the Master must be there, then we develop receptivity. With receptivity we are drawn more to the Master and more belief is developed. As the intensity of our belief, so will be the comfort to our soul – not only here but on the inner planes as well. You know, our Master said that throughout His life He put hardly any question to His Master because he already knew all these things: He had written the “Gurmat Siddhant”, and the belief in His Master was hundred percent. Right from the beginning He knew what He had to do. Even before He had gone to the holy feet of Baba Sawan Singh He knew it and expressed it to that Power which appeared to Him within. He said that these inner blessings were sufficient now, and started with the selfless service. Right from the beginning He did both: meditation and selfless service.
There are various stages of Mastership. Up to the third plane everything is within the three gunas (within the mind and its main faculties). There is attachment. Up to the three regions all is attachment for us. What is going on in the first, second or third region, that is all described by the Masters. There we have no rest, and our attention does not work hundred percent. When by the grace of the Master our attention is completely withdrawn from the regions of the three gunas by the Light and Sound, our soul enjoys the celestial beatitude of the fourth plane. The fourth plane is the plane where Christ said, “I and my Father are one.” Guru Arjan said, “Father and Son are dyed in one colour.” It is a stage which is called “Sadhavasta”.
A “Sadh” is a disciplined soul. When after this fourth plane the Master takes the disciple into the fifth plane, he is called Sant or Saint. A Power that is capable of going into the fifth plane is called a Saint. He goes there, and anyone He likes He can also take to that plane. It is the house of the Saints. A Saint gets power from above and uses it in the regions below. He works like a pipe: one end is attached above and the second end is below. Whatever he sees or hears, he delivers down, that is his purpose.
When after leaving their body some disciples go into the fifth plane, He can only help them by handing over such souls to the Master of the sixth plane. He does not go there Himself, as He is dependent. In the fifth plane He is independent, but to transfer the soul to the sixth plane, He is dependent. He only delivers it. Similarly, it is with the delivery of a soul from the sixth plane (Alakh) to the seventh plane (Agam), and from the seventh to the eighth (Anami). But when the Saint travels through all these planes – Alakh and Agam – and goes up to the eighth plane of Anami, He is called Param Sant.
Many people speak about the Param Sant as the Almighty Power. It is only another name. You can also only call Him a Saint, you can call Him Father or anything you like. Only out of love we can know Him, because everything is under His control. Beyond there is the Absolute God whom nobody has seen so far. Only His manifestation – the Light and Sound Principle – can be experienced.
Kabir came as the Almighty Power. He came in all the four ages and controlled all; you already know it. So the Almighty Power is the Param Sant. He is God Himself. He is the controller of all the universe. He works in all these planes at one and the same time, and His control is everywhere in the world. And one thing is very important: He does not leave the physical body till His work is finished. Outwardly we see that He has left the body, but He is capable of manifesting and materializing wherever He likes. Many Masters left their body, but why did Kabir not leave it? He was even burnt in the fire, but it could not kill Him, for He was the Word personified form. People did not know what had happened. He was thrown into the Ganges river, tied with a very strong chain of iron, but the chains were totally broken, and He was standing there on the riverside again. He went on doing His work without giving any importance to what had happened to Him. When somebody asked, “You were thrown into the violent waves, into the fast current of the river Ganges”, He said, “Yes, it was so strong that it broke the iron chains. The water could break them.” It had not been like this, it had been His power, because He is fully independent. He knows what to do and what He has reserved for us – He is very gracious. When He comes, there is one significance, there is one beauty in Him: He says: “Come – let us go back home!”
He takes all souls back to God – in one moment, without any stoppage. He may take you in any plane, He has His certain rules. Where He goes, He takes all souls back. But what does He do? He takes the work from them and when He goes, He takes all those disciples with Him. At the time of Kabir many people were initiated but only very few could know Him.
This is why Master said: Maybe a hundred thousand years ago such a time was there, and now it is again like this. Read the history of many Rishis and Munis, they spent thousands of years of their precious life doing their practices but they could not rise above the body-consciousness to solve the riddle of life. They were in the body and could only rise a little bit above the plane of senses, and very few could go into the astral plane. Normally, the soul has to wind up its astral karmas, causal karmas, and supercausal karmas. This takes much time. It may be that some souls have to stay in those regions for thousands of years to go back home. One beauty with the Param Sant or the Almighty Power is that He takes us back through this direct way. It is His option. Some of you may have heard it when Master said: “You are fortunate that you are in contact with such a Master. Hundred thousands of years ago this Power came, and now you are fortunate to have come in contact with that Power.”
That is the Almighty Power. Love Him, and He will take you back. If anybody remembers Him only two hours before his death, He is sure to come. This was spoken by the Master – He Himself said it. At the time of death man is so much influenced by the negative powers and the tentacles of the mind that he is miserably affected and cannot get out of it – just like a man who is in prison and is locked from outside. Who can help him? But if there is only some essence in man regarding reality and truth by having heard something about the Masterpower, or if he even came in contact with Him, if he saw the Master or had a little talk with Him, that will help him at the time of death. Master approaches there. The teaching of Guru Nanak reveals: “He who hears of this Power or comes in contact with It will never die nor be born again.” Even if they are not initiated, Master helps those who have only seen the Masterpower or have heard the Satsang. When they withdraw from the body, Masterpower is there to help them. That is the work of the Almighty Power. A Saint is not made in one life; it takes a lot of time. It is according to the rule that such Power – the Almighty Power – comes at certain times to do the work Himself. When Kabir came into the world, He materialized and manifested directly – He came directly, He had no parents. When He came, no one knew about His father or mother because He Himself is the Father and Mother of everybody. He is the Almighty Power – the Father of everyone. He has no relative, no brother, no sister.
There was a time when people did not understand who the Almighty Power, the Param Sant, is. Kabir is the Almighty Power, and now our Master followed Him. People mixed up our Master with other Saints. But when Master left His body, they felt His grace getting more and more. They saw that what had not been possible before, was possible now. People are astonished now and ask themselves, “How is this Power working?” You know, in the books it is written that without a Master you cannot realize the truth. But why are the people realizing it now? We need a contact with this Power, and this contact is already there – for the Father Himself is helping us. Is it a necessity therefore that one must call himself a Master now? People say that they are Masters, but they are really no Masters. When you know that your Father is a king, can you say that he is a beggar? He is a king! This must be told. You have to surrender to the king. If now anybody claims that he is a Master, he is a fool. It is the Grace of the Almighty Power alone that is working now.