Surat Shabd Yoga: A Natural Way of Being
Michael Turner
by Michael Turner
© February 1997, 2009
(Based upon a satsang I gave following a reading from “The Teachings
of Kirpal Singh”)
“The course of Surat Shabd Yoga,
as described by Guru Nanak,
is the most natural one. Even a
child can practice it with ease...”
- Kirpal Singh
There’s a lot packed into these two pages (a reading from “The
Teachings of Kirpal Singh”). It is a very simple message which Kirpal
Singh relates. He says so much in very few words. It’s almost
contradictory, in a sense, because at one point early on He says it’s
an “easy path. “It’s easier than Ashtanga Yoga, Pranayama, Hatha
Yoga, or Gyan Yoga . . .
“...all of which call for stern and severe
outer disciplines, which a common
busy man in the work-a-day world of today
has neither the patience nor the time nor
strength nor the leisure to do with all the
wits about him. The Surat Shabd Yoga, on
the other hand, can easily be practiced by
everyone, man or woman, young or old, with
equal ease and facility. It is because of its
naturalness and simplicity that it is often
termed ‘Sehaj Yoga’.”
- Kirpal Singh
Then, a few paragraphs later, He states that it is a very difficult
path, which might seem contradictory.
“You will be able to observe that the more
the Kali Yuga (negative age) increases its
force, the more grace does the Guru bestow
to save any soul. The path is straight and
narrow and difficult, very difficult and exacting,
but for one who is truly willing, every help is
promised, and he can attain the goal (of Jivan
Mukti) in this very life.”
- Kirpal Singh
Yet, it is both easy . . . and difficult. Or perhaps I should say
it’s simple, and difficult. The simplicity lies in the very nature of
the technique, the very nature of the practice.
“The references to Light and Sound, say the
Masters of the Surat Shabd Yoga, are not
figurative but literal, referring not to the
outer illuminations or sounds of this world,
but to inner transcendent ones. They teach
that the transcendent Sound and Light are the
primal manifestations of God when He projects
Himself into creation.”
- Kirpal Singh
What is “Surat Shabd Yoga” (or as I like to call it, “Shabda
Meditation”)? It is taking time every day to attune yourself to
Divine Spirit. It is acquiring an understanding of what this Spirit
is, from whence It comes and to where It returns. By applying your
attention to this, on a consistent basis, It will lead you back Home.
The result of this is self-realization, God-realization and spiritual
freedom in this lifetime. It is extremely simple. Nothing could be
simpler.
Basically, you learn to sit, listen, tap into the inner Light and
Sound Current (known as Shabda, Naam, Word, Kalma, etc.), letting It
lift you up and take you Home. There aren’t a whole lot of rules and
regulations, no difficult postures, no austerities.
In the eastern approach to Surat Shabd Yoga there are certain diets
they prescribe which are combinations of good, sound health practices
and Indian tradition. One finds that one is better off, generally
speaking, staying away from red meat, and most animal flesh. It tends
to have some karmic weight to it and, if you’re trying to work off
karma, it behooves you to try to avoid accumulating more karma.
It’s like the old story of washing the cat. You wash your cat and,
the minute you’re finished, it runs outside and rolls in the dirt. So
you have to wash it off again. Because of this ingrained tendency,
you want to keep it inside until it at least dries off a little bit.
My cat used to do the same thing. The minute I’d give him a bath, he
would just immediately want to go get dirty.
From my perspective, the dietary restrictions Kirpal Singh mentions (a
strict lacto-vegetarian diet, which is pretty much consistent among
all eastern Sant Mat masters and paths) are advisable things. But
when Sant Kirpal Ji says that this path is “designed by God Himself
and not by any human agency. And therefore it admits no addition,
alteration or modification.” He’s not saying that a particular diet is
mandated by God. You can eat whatever you want. You will simply find
that certain foods have certain effects. This is just a fact of
nature. It’s no different from taking a hammer and hitting yourself
on the head with it. It generally hurts, right?
The laws of karma are dictated by God. It’s not like God is setting
out to punish you or say “You’re bad, and you’re good.” It’s really
just a matter of spiritual physics: up-down, right-left, action-
reaction. As a result, it is the prerogative of spiritual teachers –
just like any teacher, whether the subject is chemistry, martial arts,
music, history, literature, computer science, economics, etc. – to
expect certain things of those souls who wish to be their students.
I remember when my late stepmother taught in an open school-within- a-
school, at the high school she taught at. This was back in the
1970’s, and it was a popular thing to get stoned in high school. But
she was very firm about “Don’t come to my class stoned!” Not because
it’s intrinsically bad, but because “I’m not going to waste my time
with you if you’re not going to be all here.” If you’re not adding to
something, you’re detracting from it. There’s no such thing as
neutral when you’re in any kind of group environment. If you’re not
adding to it, you’re dead weight. Without even actively detracting
from it, if you’re just hanging out there, you’re dead weight.
When I was in college, I was in a liberal arts program for a couple of
years that offered a credit/no credit situation for working through
your general education requirements. You’d get your two years of
lower division out of the way, and there was an evaluation every
semester on a credit/no credit basis. So, there were no grades, we
weren’t pushing for an “A”. For a lot of the students there, it was
really cool because they were self-motivated, self-initiating,
creative people who were seeking that kind of environment to express
themselves, to have the latitude to find something that really
interested them, learn a lot about it and then convey it to other
people.
But there were no real parameters for allowing people in, or
restricting them from getting into the program. So anybody who wanted
to could join, regardless of their background and motivation. So we
had a certain percentage of people fresh from high school who were
used to the grade thing, multiple-choice quizzes, etc., and they saw
this as an easy way to get through two years of college, to get their
GE’s out of the way and party. As a result, there would be people in
class who would slack off. We’d be dealing with group situations (and
these were small classes, 12 people in the class, little seminars),
where people would come in and two-thirds of the class had read the
material, but an influential minority had not. You know, you’re
reading Kafka or something and everybody’s into it except for three
people, who were saying “Excuse me. What page was that on?” So the
class had to slow down and go back and do the whole thing over again,
and it tended to detract from the situation. What I’m getting at here
is that you can go as far as your lowest common denominator – the
chain is as strong as its weakest link.
This, in the same sense, is one of the reasons why different teachers
have different rules in addition to the basic focus of, “Sit. Do your
spiritual exercise every day, and it will work.” Anybody can sit
down, close their eyes, sing the Hu and commune with Its LightSong of
Eternal Love. It’s well known these days. In the last 40 years it’s
become very popularized. Anybody can pick up a book on Shabda
Meditation and learn about the path. You can pick up “The Teachings
of Kirpal Singh” at the local library, or “The Crown of Life,” or “The
Path of the Masters,” “The Tiger’s Fang”, “From Heaven to Prairie” or
any number of books by Paul Twitchell, Kirpal Singh or Darwin Gross.
You can read their works, and the works of other Shabda Meditation
teachers, sit down and do the basic practice and have some degree of
success.
At the same time, if you want to actively work with a teacher – if you
want to avoid the trial and error that come with doing it yourself,
and trying this technique or that technique with limited success –
then that teacher has certain rules. In Kirpal’s case, he was really
into a modified diet. Most of the Indian Shabd Yoga teachers are.
Personally, I think it’s up to the individual. If you’re serious
about becoming an open vehicle for Spirit, then you will begin
studying this path out of your own desire to check things out and
really give it a chance. Over the course of time, there will be some
natural behavioral modifications that go along with it. But they
generally won’t occur overnight. True unfoldment takes time as we
learn to let go of our negative actions, words and thoughts, and allow
the LightSong of the Shabad Dhun to fill us with Its Essence, embrace
us in Its love, and carry us back to Its – and our – Source.
As a starting point, set aside a period of time every day, hopefully
around the same time each day, to do a half hour of meditation, or at
least 15-20 minutes. It won’t always be easy, especially at first.
Making meditation a regular, consistent part of your life takes time,
and persistence, which is one of the reasons why it is important to
have a set time at which to do it. It helps you imprint meditation as
a new routine, a new habit in your life. Even when there isn’t a
whole lot of observable phenomena going on within, it’s important to
keep at it.
I know there are times when I wake up, and for whatever reason, I’ll
sit in meditation and it’s not happening. Maybe I didn’t sleep well,
or my allergies are acting up, or I overslept or I sit down and
suddenly, just as I’m getting into it, I’ve got to go to the
bathroom. And then all of a sudden it’s time for breakfast and the
whole thing gets blown out of the water, or whatever. But at least
I’ve sat down and done it. As Baba Jaimal Singh used to tell Sawan
Singh, meditate every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes. Take
the time every day to make sure you commune with the Word.
So, what I want from people who I work with actively is to give this
path of Shabda Meditation some quality attention. Show some interest.
See if It works for you. If you only do it halfway, you’re not really
going to find out if it works or not. So give It some sustained
attention.
It is important that people who are serious, who do want to attain
Jivan Mukti – spiritual liberation in this lifetime – to have the
interest and dedication to work some of these things through, and say
“Well, maybe there’s something to this. I’m going to give it some
serious focus.”
So give it a shot. As Gary Olsen puts it, give it six months. Give
it six months of steady practice, and if you don’t dig it, fine. Go
back to smoking or whatever you want to do. No biggie.
I think that this practice of Shabda Meditation is sufficiently
interesting that, once you get a handle on it, it’ll grab you. If, as
soul, you are ready for being plucked from the tree by the hand of God
– if you’re in the final ripening phase of your spiritual evolution in
this particular universe, you’ll find the nectar of Naam to be just
exactly perfect. You will want what it offers and will be willing to
let go of a few things in order to reach that end result.
One of the things I like about Sant Kirpal Singh is his directness,
his kindness and how comfortable he is to be with. When I started
delving into His studies in the early 1990s and having inner
experiences with Him, I realized He was an old friend. He’s like a
department chair these days. He teaches on the inner planes, is the
department chair at this spiritual university, and He has office
hours. He’s incredibly powerful, incredibly direct, and amazingly
gentle and kind.
It’s really cool. Sant Kirpal Ji is there for people who can stretch
their awareness into other dimensions. He won’t manifest himself here
in the physical universe much because to do so takes a serious amount
of effort, as well as taking on karmic weight in order to have the
necessary mass to manifest on this material level. It’s like deep sea
diving – you have to put on these deep sea diving wet suits to deal
with the pressure of denser realities – even putting on an astral body
or mocking up a light body, it’s like putting on this extra coat
around yourself. Whereas, once you’re working on the very borderlands
between the dual worlds and the true spiritual worlds, it’s a drag to
have to really come back down here and manifest yourself. And that’s
not really Kirpal’s style. This is also one of the reasons is why the
Lord is always manifesting ItSelf in human raiment as a new living
master, and allowing masters who have come in the past to enjoy their
retirement, so to speak). At the same time if, through the agency of
currently humanly embodied Satguru, you can reach within and connect
with Sant Kirpal Ji (or Paulji or Darwin or any other Master, Prophet
or Saint Who has come in the past), He’s there for you. He will escort
you around. And once you can tap into His presence, His beingness,
His eyes will grab you. They just . . . they penetrate right through
you. It’s really cool because you can focus on them, and they focus
on you – and everything else just melts away. And it’s just you and
the Satguru.
It’s interesting too, because some people are pretty cynical of the
whole thing. They’ll tell you, “It’s just your mind making things
up. It is an overactive imagination – or wish fulfillment. You want
to see a particular teacher, and so you see him or her. If you are a
Christian, you will see Jesus, a Buddhist will see Buddha, a Jew will
see Moses or Abraham, an Eckist will see Rebazar Tarzs, etc.”
But, true Satgurus are able – by the very nature of their beingness –
to put themselves in whatever dimension of consciousness they so
choose. Likewise, wherever you place your attention, there you are.
That is a spiritual law. People who are true masters have mastered
these laws, and wherever they place their attention, they truly are.
In addition each master, while being a crystallization of God through
Spirit, is also a unique individual. Sant Kirpal Singh Ji is a very
distinct personality – not in an egoistic sense, but rather as an atom
in the body of God. He has a distinct vibrational frequency – as do
Shams i Tabriz and Jelaluddin Rumi and Darwin Gross. My inner
experiences with Jelaluddin Rumi are very different from my inner
experiences with Sant Kirpal Singh, or Darwin Gross or Sawan Singh or
Guru Nanak. They each have their areas of interest. They have places
they like to hang out. They have ways of teaching.
When you learn through the practice of communing with the Shabda to go
inward and start exploring these inner dimensions, you can touch base
with these individuals, and they are more than happy to spend some
time with you, and show you around town. It’s like if you’ve never
been to Portland, Oregon – I’ve got this friend in Portland who would
be glad to give you a tour of the city. He probably won’t fly here
and pick you up and fly you back up there. But if you want to fly to
Portland to visit, he’ll take a day or two and show the sights. It’s
that simple.
You see, here’s the thing. There is so much rhetoric in spirituality,
so many images, so many thought molds that people have about what
spirituality implies, and God and religion. In the Heavens of the
Lord, the dual worlds, even the higher worlds, everybody is real and
everybody is matter-of-fact. The inner regions are just as real as
Reno, Tucson, San Diego, Portland, New York City, Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale. In a sense, they are no
better and no worse. They’re just places. They have distinct
vibrational frequencies, and there is stuff you can learn there.
Everybody and everything is as real and distinct as going to a
university where you want to check out the arts & sciences
department. You can go to a painting class. You can go to a physics
class. You can go to a history class. You can go to an economics
class. It’s the same thing with the inner worlds and schools of
spiritual learning. All of the great Masters, Prophets, Saints and
Teachers who have come in the past still exist on the inner planes.
They still teach and are available for consultation if we can extend
our awareness to their respective region. They teach specific
subjects. They are unique and individual. The dimensions of heaven
are unique. It’s like here on earth, where if you want to study
chemistry, go study chemistry. If you want to study the paintings of
Picasso and the etchings, go study that. If you want to learn about
early Nineteenth Century American history, you can study that. The
same is true within the inner realms. It’s all there. It’s all very
matter-of-fact, very simple.
That’s the beauty of it all when you learn to consciously realize you
are soul. Your fundamental beingness, above and beyond everything
else, is soul – which is an unlimited particle of pure divine love
consciousness. You can be wherever you want to be, because you are
wherever you want to be. There is such an immense amount of freedom.
I can’t describe it. You have to use your imagination. Take a moment
and project your thoughts from sitting down where you are to standing
in the corner of the room yourself. Now you are standing in the
doorway. Now you are standing back in the hallway. Now you’re in
front of your house. Or you’re visiting a friend in another city.
Think of a friend, who lives in a different city than you, some place
you’ve visited. Imagine it very clearly until you can see every
detail, until you are there. Now refocus your attention back here.
You are unlimited. This unlimited mobility of consciousness is a
tangible benefit of the practice of Shabda Meditation. It is a path
of total freedom, and total love.
Out of this freedom and love comes responsibility. You learn not to
misuse your freedom. Some people start getting into ideas of freedom
of consciousness and they start getting the urge to do a little
pranking. They will try to spy on people or see through them (kind of
like the ads for “X-Ray Specs” in the backs of old Marvel comic
books), or do various things that are more for fulfilling their ego
and self-aggrandizement. Doing this is a misuse of such talents, and
the karmic repercussions are usually pretty swift.
When you’re working with a living Satguru, the karmic repercussions
happen really fast. You get spiritually slapped. Not good. Now if
you’re not working with a living teacher and just reading about a form
of inner travel like astral projection in a new age bookstore, the
karmic backlash may be a bit slower. You might get in a little bit of
trouble before you are given detention. But when you are working with
a living teacher, the repercussions are immediate. If you are sincere
in your devotion to the path you will learn that it’s important to act
out of love and service, and that will become the focus of your
attention and effort.
Speaking of “spiritual spying”, I’m reminded of is a story an Eckist
friend of mine told me some years ago. She and her parents went to a
series of European Eckankar seminars in the 1970’s. During their trip
they were planning on traveling to East Germany behind what was then
called the “Iron Curtain”. But the Soviets got all bugged out of
shape (along with the East German government) because they were afraid
these Eckists who practiced soul travel would leave their bodies and
spy (laughter).
No, really, there was a lot of interest in psychic research at this
time, much of it recounted in a book from that era called “Psychic
Discoveries Behind the
Iron Curtain”. The Soviets were very interested in this stuff– and
there was a lot of active experimentation in this area. I wouldn’t be
surprised if our respective intelligence agencies were actively
pursuing these matters. Paul Twitchell alluded to it in his novels
(including the now discontinued classic, “East of Danger”), which were
probably a lot more real and on the money than he liked to let on. He
tended to use the novel format, writing under the guise of fiction, to
get some information out, and at the same time keep it light and
amusing.
So, these things (psychic feats, out-of-body exploration and the like)
are doable. But that’s what I mean by “responsibility”. The power of
consciousness, the freedom of consciousness, is really there for your
spiritual unfoldment, and for the ultimate result of being a creative,
loving co-worker with God. That’s the whole purpose to this work, the
whole school we are in, that we go through incarnation after
incarnation for. It is learning to have compassion for our fellow
beings, as well as tapping into our own spiritual awakening. And we
can have a lot of fun in the process.
Any questions?
Q. Well, is there anything else that we’re
supposed to do besides coming to this Satsang,
and doing the daily practices?
M. Really, in terms of the actual practice, that’s about it. You see,
that’s the funny thing. I was at a seminar with my Satguru Sri Darwin
Gross in 1992, and one of his most long-term students was talking
about Sri Paul Twitchell. She was discussing all of the books he had
written, and she said that Paul once told her that the entire works of
this path of Divine Spirit – the essence of it, everything that has
been done – could probably be put into two or three paragraphs. That’s
really the whole thing.
But people want something tangible. They want to keep their minds
occupied. They want to give their minds a playground, and that’s one
of the reasons Paulji kept writing all of these books. That’s why a
lot of teachers will put out books of their satsangs or their talks,
just to give people something upon which to place their attention.
I’ve been reading this stuff for a long time. Before I began studying
the Light and Sound Teachings, I was reading Ram Dass. Every day, I
pick up something about this path to read, at least a paragraph or
two.
Not that the reading of itself is going to give anyone Jivan Mukti.
It is simply a reminder of where we want to place our attention. It
keeps our minds on God. This is why I put a book list on the back of
my brochures. These are some great, handy dandy things. You can look
at my book shelves. Anybody’s welcome to come over and check out
anything I have for a couple of weeks and give it a gander.
So I would suggest finding something, getting a book and reading it.
It will give you a better understanding. You know, I can talk for a
while, and you can listen, and you can sort it out, ponder it, mull it
over and chew on it a bit. But it’s good to have other perspectives
just to get a more well-rounded awareness, a more comprehensive
understanding of this path, so as to encode its core precepts in your
human consciousness, in your nervous system. It’s simple, and yet for
some reason, the mind really likes to just soak it in. That’s just
the way the mind works. The imprinting process is ongoing.
One good book which has nothing outwardly to do with this path is
“Psycho Cybernetics,” by Maxwell Maltz. It’s one of the best books
I’ve read about the nervous system, and the process of encoding and
imprinting new thought forms and perspectives.
Q. Master, what are your rules regarding
smoking?
M. Personally, I prefer that people around me – at least when coming
to class – if you have habits like that, that you leave them at the
doorstep. Leave them at your doorstep before you even leave home to
come here to satsang. I say this because (a) it detracts from your
ability to really give Shabda Meditation the attention it deserves
when you’re working with me; and (b) it brings an astral cloud as well
as a physical cloud with you. Whether it’s an intoxicant-based cloud
or a tobacco cloud, it is perceptible and I can feel it. It messes
with my reality. It’s like trying to shine a light through a
cloudbank. There’s this stuff in the air, and I have to pay extra
attention to clear it out and let the LightSong shine through.
Now, I’m not trying to say you’re “bad” if you smoke. Soamiji Dayal
(Shiv Dayal Singh) smoked a hookah. I smoked cigarettes for half of
my life. I know what it’s like. It’s a habit I picked up in Persia
and Turkey 800 years ago, and it just carried through to this
lifetime.
However, smoke is still smoke. I don’t care if it has additives or
not. Take out the phosphorous and everything else. I don’t care
whether it’s tobacco or pot or the latest herbal cigarette. Smoke is
smoke. It fills your aura. It clouds things. If you smoke in your
car, or even burn incense, you get a film of stuff across the
windshield and the windows that impedes the light. It’s not
necessarily good or bad per se. It just is what it is.
Q. I wonder if you’ve ever
talked about the process of
simran when some of the newer
students have been here.
Because that’s kind of another
thing that I sometimes do, and
you mention that you did it a
lot when you first started.
M. Simran is something I’ll go into one of these days very soon,
because Sant Kirpal Ji refers to it at length. Simran means
“repetition” and is basically repeating a series of words, or mantra,
which have been spiritually charged words by a living adept. In most
of the Indian versions of Surat Shabd Yoga they use the “Five Holy
Names of God”, the five names of the deities ruling the respective
inner planes (astral, causal, mental, Etheric and Soul). These names
are repeated mentally with the “tongue of thought” in an upwardly
ascending sequence, and basically serve as stepping-stones to higher
consciousness. They also help to focus the mind and concentrate our
attention.
There are a number of words we can use, even prior to becoming a
student of a living Satguru. A good initial step which provides an
easy way of doing this meditation is picking out a name of God which
resonates with you, and repeating it over and over again internally,
while gazing with the eyes closed at the blackness in front of you.
Many people starting this path find great success with familiar,
comfortable words like “God”, “Jesus”, “Allah” and “Jehovah”, to name
a few. Another good word is “Hu”, an ancient Sufi name for God which
can be pronounced “Hue” or “Hoooo”.
Whether it’s a mantra I give you at initiation or a word or prayer you
feel comfortable with, what you want to be doing is making the
internal simran or repetition a daily habit which extends beyond
meditation. It’s a very powerful thing to work with in meditation,
especially as you enter into your mediation every day. That’s what
the Hu is, a form of simran which gets you in tune. You can start out
singing it out loud to establish a level of harmony between your
physical body and Divine Spirit, and then continue it internally. You
can just go throughout your day singing “Huuuuuuu”, or perhaps “Hu-
Wah”. The latter is a variant I like and have used for many years.
It has two syllables, which create a binary rhythm and flows into our
day. It even harmonizes with our footsteps – we can mentally chant
“Hu-Wah, Hu-Wah” as we go walking down the street, at work, shopping,
anything at all. It just works that way.
I will say one thing, though. Kirpal made a point in one of His books
that we are always doing simran. Sri Darwin Gross called it “inner
speech”. We are always talking to ourselves. That is a form of
simran. Simran is really just our inner talking. We walk through the
day, go to work, drive the car, shop, and we have this constant inner
conversation happening. It might be about driving the car, making a
shopping list, getting angry when someone cuts us off in traffic,
reflecting on the work to be done that day, etc. These things are
always on our mind, in our mind, filling it with primarily negative
thoughts, and cluttering it with unnecessary baggage. And one of the
purposes of spiritual simran is to gradually cut through all the dross
of the mind
and bring it back on target to the Eternal LightSong of God.
Thank you.
Michael
Michael112658@ yahoo.ca
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SFS/
alt.meditation.shabda