

Sant Kirpal Singh

Q. What is God and how can we know Him?

A. God, as all the scrip­tures and the Saints have said, is name­less and unknow­a­ble. Then how can we know God? The answer is that Abso­lute is not know­a­ble, yet makes Him­self known by man­i­fest­ing Him­self as Light and Sound prin­ci­ple. Most reli­­­­g­ions tell us that the crea­tion began from these pri­mal man­i­fes­ta­tions. Now the Divine Light and the Divine Sound or Word may be con­tacted by ris­ing above the phys­i­cal con­scious­ness. They exist in a latent form in all of us. Our goal must, there­fore, be to con­tact them and develop them within us. To do this, we, through med­i­ta­tion, learn to with­draw our soul to its seat behind and between the eyes. Hav­ing once con­tacted the inner Light and Sound, we can progress towards their source, pass­ing from plane to plane until we reach God.

Q. What is God? Can you give a sim­ple answer that we can under­stand?

A. God is abso­lute. Nobody can ever know Him. God when com­ing into action, creates all beings, sen­tient or insen­tient, and con­trols them. Our phys­i­cal bod­ies work so long we are in the body, but we can­not run away out of it through the open eyes, ears, nose and mouth etc. That God-into-action Power is called Word or Naam or Kalma etc. It con­trols our souls in the body. When that Power is drawn, our souls leave the body. Breath­ing goes out of the body but can­not remain out­side. Some power pushes it back into the body. That God-into-action Power con­trols the whole of the crea­tion. That is called God. God is the Supreme Law work­ing in all crea­tion seen or unseen. He can­not be seen or heard in His abso­lute form, but when He came into expres­sion, He man­i­fested in the form of Naam – the Divine Light and holy Sound prin­ci­ple. The low­est links of this Divine prin­ci­ple are avail­a­ble in the human body which can be expe­ri­enced by ris­ing above body con­scious­ness with the help of the liv­ing Mas­ter.

Q. What is sci­ence of the soul?

A. There is one God, and only one way to Him, and for this we employ a com­plete and def­i­nite sci­ence, old­est of the old­est, most ancient and nat­u­ral, which is the prac­ti­cal side of all reli­­­­g­ions of the world as borne out by all the scrip­tures. This sub­tlest of all sci­ences is called Para Vidya, which has a prac­ti­cal aspect and is the way back to God dur­ing life­time. Now­a­days this sci­ence is called Sant Mat. It is true nobody can know God. Past Mas­ters can­not help, as man needs a liv­ing God Man to under­stand things which one can­not fol­low by mere the­ory. There­fore, a liv­ing Mas­ter is nec­es­sary to gain the prac­ti­cal side of this sci­ence. Unless the expe­ri­ence of past Mas­ters becomes our own expe­ri­ence, we get nowhere. The fact of the mat­ter is that God Power works on a cho­sen human pole. A liv­ing Mas­ter is there­fore God plus man, God Man i.e. the mouth­piece of God. Guru, a word often used, is a cor­re­spond­ing word in San­skrit lan­guage. A Guru in one who can remove the dark veil within and show us the real Light of God.

Q. Why are these teach­ings referred to as ‘sci­ence of the soul’?

A. In this age of sci­ence, spir­i­tu­al­ity, as well, has to be treated as a reg­u­lar sci­ence, to make it accept­a­ble to the peo­ple. But unlike other sci­ences, it is very def­i­nite and very exact. It yields ver­i­fi­a­ble results of per­en­nial value. Its his­tory dates back to time out of mind, to the hoary past, when man began to reflect within, on the mean­ing of life. It has ever been the nat­u­ral urge in man to solve the rid­dle of life. Time and again sages and seers appeared, indif­fer­ent parts of the world, and gave out the spir­i­tual expe­ri­ences, which we have with us in the form of sacred texts of scrip­tures. We are indeed very for­tu­nate to pos­sess the fine records of those gifted per­sons, for they kin­dle in us the desire and long­ing to solve this most baf­fling prob­lem and inspire us with hope that we too, like them, can unravel the mys­tery of life and solve the prob­lem of human exist­ence. The­ory pre­cedes prac­tice. The prac­tice leads to con­tact with the liv­ing link within. For this expe­ri­ence, the soul must tem­po­rar­ily dis­con­nect itself from the body and senses and become a pure soul with no strings attached. Nanak tells us: Unless one rises to the level of God, one can­not know God.

Q. Can the dis­ci­ple see God?

A. God is abso­lute, whom so far nobody has seen. When He came into being, God became Light and Sound prin­ci­ple. You can see His Light when your eye becomes sin­gle.

The light of the body is the eye; there­fore when thine eye is sin­gle, thy whole body also is full of Light. – Luke 2:34

And you can hear His voice when your inner ear is opened. The A.B.C. of the Masters’ teach­ings start when you rise above the body-con­scious­ness. No one can rise above the body-con­scious­ness by him­self, he needs the Grace of a com­pe­tent Mas­ter.

Q. How would you dif­fer­en­tiate between the soul and spirit?

A. There is no dif­fer­ence between the soul and spirit, both rep­re­sent the con­scious­ness per­vad­ing the human body.

Q. If one could see the soul with these eyes, what would it look like?

A. Nobody can see the soul with these outer eyes and as such it is beyond the ken of human com­pre­hen­sion to know it. The soul is the enliv­en­ing prin­ci­ple per­vad­ing the human body and it can be real­ized within by intro­ver­sion when the senses are con­trolled, mind stilled, and the intel­lect silenced.

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