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In
order to realize ourselves, to recognize our own inner nature
and to be able to lead a complete life, we have to search
for and find the true meaning of life. Since time immemorial,
saints and spiritual masters, who have themselves succeeded
in this quest, stand as living examples for us to emulate.
They have found the true life and have offered help and
guidance during their lifetime. Sant Thakar Singh is the
living, competent Master today and he says: "We should
use this short life span in the proper way because the purpose
of the human life is to realize oneself as soul and to find
God."
Sant
Mat, the science of the soul, is a natural and practical
method for attaining self-realization and God realization.
In Sant Mat, translated "the holy path", the following
fundamental principles are recognized:
·
the help and spiritual guidance of a living, competent Master
· the
regular meditation on the inner light and inner sound.
and,
especially helpful factors include an ethically pure way
of life and selfless service which can speed up our development
and inner progress.
Why do we need
a Master?
Whatever
we learn as human beings is being imparted to us by other
human beings. From our parents we learn basic skills and
information like how to walk, how to talk, how to eat, and
what kinds of foods to eat, how we are to behave, etc. In
school, we learn from a teacher, at the university, from
a professor. The higher the goal, the more the necessity
for a teacher who not only imparts knowledge, but who also
gives practical help and guidance, a master in his or her
field of study.
If
we want to study and learn about the inner worlds and life
beyond our physical boundaries, we have to entrust ourselves
to somebody who knows this subject first hand. If we want
to know if God exists and what God is, we have to turn to
somebody who knows God and who is in conscious connection
with God and who can help us to journey along the way to
God.
God
pervades the entire creation, including our own self. Like
electricity, with which the atmosphere is charged, we can
neither see nor feel it, nor can we derive any benefit from
it unless it is transformed through a powerhouse into energy
and fed through lines to be switched on and off at our command.
Similarly, God is present in everything. The "energy"
God is revealed to us through a direct experienced with
the help of the Master, who, similar to a powerhouse, transforms
the God current, and makes it available to us. All great
mystics and spiritual masters have once been disciples of
a Master themselves. Why then do we especially, educated
and enlightened people, believe that we can achieve everything
by ourselves?
It
is a natural law that a soul entering into this physical
world needs to come through the womb of a mother. Only in
the human body can we receive a conscious connection with
God and acquire God-realization during this lifetime in
this world. It is also a law that we can only enter into
God's infinity with the help of a true Master.
When
we, as soul, separated from God, like a drop from the ocean,
we clothed ourselves during our descent into the material
world with various "bodies"; the "causal
body cover", the "astral body cover" and
the "physical body cover". These "body covers"
themselves are already a great miracles of creation. How
wonderful then is our soul, our innermost self or being?
Despite all our efforts we are not able to fully understand
all the functions of our earthly body, let alone control
them. On the way back to God, the source of all being, the
Master is freeing the soul by and by from all covers and
restrictions.
This
journey into our secret, inner self, surely is an adventurous
and difficult journey. Many mystics spoke about the dangers,
hindrances and temptations that this journey involved. The
astral world alone, into which we usually go after leaving
this physical world, has unlimited areas of existence, whose
lower ones are described as "hells" and whose
upper ones are described as "heavens". In the
hells we suffer, surrounded by darkness and mental conditions
which we have molded with our minds during our earthly life.
In the upper heavens there is so much beautiful light, music
and happiness, that we want to remain there. Whoever is
able to journey to the causal worlds is filled with the
prevalent wealth of joy and creating power found there,
to such an extent that he/she mistakes this region to be
the highest of God. Many paths and masters lead to this
plane. But only a true Master can protect the soul from
temptation and can guide it through the veil of the next
higher plane into the plane at which it can be then called
a "freed" soul. From here, the further journey
of the soul commences without restrictions into unity with
God.
The
Masters come to help all humanity. For those who entrust
themselves to the Master's care, the Masters act as guides
and take the responsibility of leading them towards self-realization
and God-realization. The relationship between Master and
disciple is an inner relationship, and is not dependent
on outer circumstances.
The
spiritual path may also be called the path of love, for
God is the source of love. But how can we love
God? We have never met Him, and many do not even believe
in His existence. God reveals Himself in His highest form
in the Master who is the embodiment of this love and teaches
us to love God. In this way we also learn to love ourselves,
our neighbors and even our enemies.
Who is a spiritual,
competent Master?
A competent or true
spiritual Master is one who has developed in himself a permanent
connection to that higher consciousness which we call God,
and from this level of authority he receives the power and
competency to act as the spiritual teacher for humanity.
The
Master lives here physically among us as a human being,
a living example of what the ideal life is. He has come
to know, through personal experience, the highs and lows
of the mundane human existence and understands the diverse
life situations of all humans.
The
human being is body, mind, intellect and soul. As soul we
are a part of that which we call God. But at the time of
our birth into this world we lost the conscious connection
with our higher self, with God. The true Master has the
capacity and ability to once again establish this conscious
connection within us, to activate it. In doing so, he gives
everyone, at the beginning or initiation, a personal, first-hand
experience of the inner Light and inner Sound, the two manifestations
of God through which creation came into existence.
Our
actions in this world cause reactions, karmas, which we,
according to the law of nature, - if not in this life, then
in the next lives, are liable to receive. Impressions which
are being imprinted onto our minds during this life determine
our inclinations, dispositions and future patterns of behavior.
The "wheel of life", a constant cycle of birth
and death can not be broken by our own efforts, as all mystics
teach us.
If
the Master accepts a soul at the time of initiation, this
then starts a great task for him. He has to free us from
the effects of the karmas and has to clean us so that we
become receptive to the highest form of energy, God. We
are literally turned inside out. Deeply harbored fears and
well-worn patterns of behavior will all be made visible
and cleaned. The meditations on the inner Light and inner
Sound are the best means to further our inner cleaning and
development.
The
Masters do not found any new religions. They want neither
to be worshipped nor do they practice any rituals, rites
or performances of austerities. They want only our sincere
hearts and sincere endeavor to find God through meditation.
A
Master is the embodiment of humility; with all his powers
and greatness he never claims credit for anything. He is
always a giver and never a taker. He earns his own living
and does not charge for any of his services. He is at peace
with all and never angry with anyone, but only loves and
blesses whoever comes to him.
There
has never been a time in which this world was without such
a God-realized being.
What is initiation?
Initiation
literally means the beginning or start of something new.
Before initiation we, as soul, have been following the "binding
powers" of creation (the matter creating power) - the
so-called negative power. After, we will then be connected
with the "detaching powers" (detaching us from
mind and matter), the positive power, God power, Master
power. The initiation works on the inner level and does
not denote the joining of a new religion or institution
of any kind. It is a personal connection between the Master
and disciple and between the soul and the higher self. At
the time of initiation, the soul is withdrawn from body
consciousness through the power of the Master and is given
a contact with the inner Light and Sound. The initiate is
now starting a new journey, an inner journey and a new life,
the life of an awakened soul.
The
Master power, which awakens our new life, takes a permanent
place in us at the time of initiation. Each initiate receives
the "radiant form" (the Light form) of the Master,
which becomes embedded with the soul of the initiate. From
that time onward, the inner Master guides and protects the
initiate not only on this physical level, but beyond the
door of death, until the initiate has reached full completion
in God.
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