The Path Through the Inner Realms (Repost)

[James Shannon]

THE FINAL PATH

by

George Arnsby Jones, Litt.D., Ph.D.

This is part four of a four-part essay which
appeared in Sat Sandesh magazine in 1975-76, on
the Inner Journey of the Soul back to its Origin.
Dr. Jones was initiated by Sant Kirpal Singh Ji
in 1955, into the Path of Surat Shabd Yoga. He
had a distinguished academic career and published
seven books; he was chosen by Kirpal Singh to tell
the story of His Second World Tour in 1963-64,
which he did in the book "The Harvest is Rich."
He just recently passed on to the inner realms.
------------------------------------------------

After emerging from the dark void, the Maha Sunna, the soul reaches
that inner level known as Bhanwar Gupha (Whirling Cave) in the
terminology of the eastern mystic adepts. This is the fourth inner realm
above the physical plane, and it is a region of spiritual substance with
the admixture of very little matter. As the soul progresses onwards, it
crosses a high luminous pass above a vortex of spiritual power known as
the Hansni tunnel; then it enters the massive entrance of the glorious
Rukmini tunnel, and there it beholds an incredibly beautiful structure.
The radiation from this structure impinges upon the sight of the soul,
and thereby causes the soul's nirat (power to see) and its surat
(power to hear) to attain complete consummation and true peace.

The soul then transcends to a higher level of this spiritual realm,
seeing on its right side bright cosmic islands of unfathomable beauty,
and on the left side many continents with radiant palaces, which appear
to be constructed of pearls, with their top stories fashioned with
rubies and studded with emeralds and diamonds. The beauty of all these
cosmic scenes fills the soul with a wonderous intoxication. Bhanwar
Gupha is ruled by a great spiritual Lord, whose name is translated as
"That am I!" in the terminologies used by the mystic adepts of the
Middle East and Far East alike. In fact, the Sufi adepts know the
entire region as Anahu, which again has the meaning of "That am I!"

It is within the region of Bhanwar Gupha that the soul comes into its
fullest realization of its kinship with the Creator, consciously knowing
itself as a drop of that divine Essence in the Ocean of all-Spirit.
Maulana Rumi has written about the plaintive strains of a flute, played
upon a mountain top, which tells of the separation of the soul from its
true Source. The music pervading this realm is that of a supernal flute,
and it was this music that sounded in the consciousness of the great
Rumi. Nevertheless, here again there is nothing in the physical world
that can compare with the beautiful strains of the melody of Bhanwar
Gupha.

This enchanting sound emanates from the glorious cosmic mountain
which rises majestically above this region, and above which the soul
beholds an immense sun that shines with a dazzling white light,
thousands and thousands of times more brilliant than the physical sun
of our solar system. Of this region Guru Nanak has sung:


Higher still stands Karm Khand,
the Realm of Grace,
Here the Word is all in all, and
nothing else prevails.
Here dwell the bravest of the brave,
the conquerors of the mind,
filled with love Divine,
Here dwell devotees with devotion,
incomparable as Sita's
illumined with beauty ineffable,
All hearts filled with God,
they live beyond the reach of
death and delusion.

THE JAP JI


Bhanwar Gupha is truly a realm of beauty and light, and the souls
who dwell there imbibe the elixir of the Sound Current as we on the
physical plane take in our daily food and drink. However, Bhanwar Gupha
and all the regions below it - supercausal, causal, astral and physical -
must eventually go into dissolution, according to the mystic adepts.
Dissolutions of relatively short durations extend to the top of the
causal region, whilst the immeasurably long Grand Dissolutions extend
through the supercausal realm of Daswan Dwar into the realm of Bhanwar
Gupha. And so the aspiring soul must journey further upwards in order
to attain true spiritual liberation, for only Sach Khand, the fifth
inner region above the physical plane, is unaffected by any cosmic
dissolutions, great or small. And Sach Khand is the True Home of the
soul.

This purely spiritual region is termed Sat Lok in Hinduism,
Muqam-i-Haq (realm of Truth) in the teachings of the Sufi sages of Islam,
and Sach Khand (the name used by the Indian mystic adepts or Satgurus)
in Sikhism. Sach Khand is entirely devoid of physical, mental and
spiritualized matter. In the words of the mystic adepts it is
"unchanging and eternal; all joy and all bliss; all wisdom and all love;
the Abode of God. Here, in ineffable wonder, dwell the perfected
spiritual beings and the supreme saints of all time." Guru Nanak has
said: "Here dwell the Bhagats or Sages drawn from all regions, who
rejoice in the True One and live in eternal bliss."

In Bhanwar Gupha, the realm below Sach Khand, there are eighty
thousand universes, and the inhabitants of these universes are all
followers of spiritual adepts who have themselves attained access to
that region. But in Sach Khand itself, tens of millions of spheres come
under the benign rule of the True Lord, and cosmic Isles of the Blessed
revolve around this realm, as our tiny earth circles its own sun.
These spheres are the abodes of hansas, pure souls who have never
descended to lower planes. In Guru Nanak's words:

Sach Khand or the Realm of Truth
is the seat of the Formless One.
Here He creates all creations,
rejoicing in creating.
Here are many regions, heavenly
systems and universes,
To count which were to count the
countless;
Here, out of the Formless,
The heavenly plateaux and all else
come into form,
All destined to move according to
His Will.
He who is blessed with this vision,
rejoices in its contemplation.
But, O Nanak, such is its beauty
that to try to describe it is to
attempt the impossible.

THE JAP JI

The Lord of Sach Khand is known in the oriental terminology as Sat
Purusha, the True Being. The esoteric scriptures state that this Lord
of Love radiates a light that is equivalent to the light of billions
of suns, although this is still a poor description of Him, for He is
beyond the capacity of human language or intellect to describe. Sat
Purusha directs and controls the creation and dissolution of the
entire cosmic system of universes beneath Him, but His own realm is
immune from any such change. This True Being ultimately draws His
power from the highest Lord of all, known to the mystic adepts as
Anami Purusha, the Nameless One.

Sach Khand can only be inadequately described in the language of
poetic imagery and symbolism, for the mystic adepts state that there
are no possible comparisons that can be made with even the most
beautiful things in this world. Sach Khand is the Father's House,
and the Father is Sat Purusha, and the soul is an emanation from Sat
Purusha, from Whom it descended eons ago. According to the mystic
adepts, the soul has the light of sixteen suns and moons combined
when it reaches this realm.

Guru Nanak has sung of the region of Sat Purusha in his inspired
hymn:

How wonderful Thy gates:
how wonderful Thy mansion,
From whence Thou watchest Thy
great Creation.
Countless the instruments and harmonies
that play therein,
Countless the measures, countless
the singers that sing Thy praises.

THE JAP JI

Swami Ji has also described the palace of Sat Purusha as a
fortress-like structure of ineffable beauty. In Swami Ji's description,
the pilgrim soul must locate the supreme Lord of Love upon His throne
when he arrives at that region, and must know the Lord of Love as the
True Lord of the entire universe of universes. Swami Ji has described
the wonderful fields and parks of the forecourts of the palace of Sat
Purusha, but again repeats that the scenery thereof is utterly
indescribable in earthly terms. Reservoirs of spiritual nectar abound
on this plane, from below which f(ow abundant rivers of light to supply
distant regions with spiritual sustenance. Golden palaces appear to
hover above cosmic gardens of silvery light, and the beauty of the
hansas, the pure souls who dwell there, is incomprehensible.

The pilgrim soul advances to the vestibule of the palace of the Lord
of Love, Sat Purusha, and a guardian hansa enquires of the newcomer how
he managed to reach this lofty region. The soul replies that it came to
the holy feet of a mystic adept or Satguru, when it was dwelling on
earth, and the mystic adept bestowed upon him the inner knowledge of
that high realm. The soul is then led into the palace, where he confronts
a shining lotus of ineffable beauty. A voice sounds from the central
light of the lotus and asks the soul its identity and for what purpose
or object it has ascended to that region. Swami Ji describes the soul's
reply as: "I met a Satguru and he gave me full instructions. Through his
kindness I now have the privilege of your darshan (blessed sight)."
It is now revealed to the soul that he is truly in the presence of Sat
Purusha, Whom he now recognizes as the spiritual power that ensouled
the mystic adept on earth and in the lower spiritual realms. The soul
now rejoices at his supreme good fortune and derives great pleasure
from the spiritual sight, or darshan, of the Lord of Love.

Then the Supreme Lord informs the soul of the mysteries of the
higher regions, and with His own spiritual power of love He aids the
soul on its further ascent through these regions. The mystic adepts have
said that the music of Sach Khand may be compared to that of a vina; all
the spiritual masters who have spoken of Sach Khand have testified to
the enrapturing wonder of its music. Like its heavenly music, the light
of Sach Khand is inexpressible in worldly language, even in terms of
billions of suns.

The mystic adept who initiated the aspiring soul into the mysteries
of the beyond thus has the duty of accompanying the soul safely to its
True Home, Sach Khand. Thereafter, it is Sat Purusha Who infuses His
own divine energy into the soul and sends it into the higher spiritual
regions of Alakh Lok (Invisible Region), Agam Lok (Inaccessible Region),
and Anami Lok (Nameless Region, which is the highest spiritual realm
of all.) To all intents and purposes the spiritual aspirant can only
grasp the concept of Sach Khand as being the highest spiritual realm,
and it is certainly a region of pure spirit and the True Home of the
soul. Nonetheless, the mystic adepts speak of the three higher realms
beyond Sach Khand, although they deem it completely pointless to
endeavor descriptions or explanations of these realms of spirituality.

Sufficient to say that, through the grace of Sat Purusha, the soul
is impelled into the next spiritual region of Alakh Lok, and then
proceeds to the cosmic palace of Alakh Purusha, Lord of that realm. When
the soul has received the darshan of Alakh Purusha, it goes higher to
Agam Lok, where it beholds the Lord of that region, Agam Purusha, and
receives His darshan, Again the mystic adepts endeavor to describe the
radiance of these regions in terms of billions and billions of suns.
Concerning the final region of Anami Lok, the mystic adepts keep silent.
In a few words Swami Ji has said: "From one step to another, the soul
beholds strange things which cannot be described in human language.
Every region and everything is utterly beyond words. What beauty and
glory! How can I describe them? There is nothing here to convey the
idea. I am helpless!"

The soul has now beheld the ruling Lord of each of the spiritual
realms beyond Sach Khand, and it has united its own being with them.
This is the summum bonum of the Mystical Path of Love, for the mystic
adepts have said that love is the supreme power in these holy regions.
When asked about Anami Lok, Swami Ji said simply: "It is All Love!"

Thus, on the Mystical Path of Love, the combination of the mystic
adept and the Shabd lead to jivan mukti, or spiritual liberation, and
the ascension of the soul to its True Home. If the spiritual aspirant
faithfully fulfills the mystic adept's commandments, if he lives
completely the way of love, this spiritual liberation may be completed
in one lifetime. The aspirant will hear the continuous symphony of
love, the supernal Music of the Spheres, and he will realize that
his true Self and the divine Word is of one and the same essence.
The music is so glorious that the chattering of the unregenerate mind
is stilled and the focus of the soul is absorbed completely within the
audible life stream, and is thereby drawn upwards beyond the planes
of mind and matter.

As the aspirant rises into the higher realms of life, he discovers
that this is indeed the only true freedom to which a human being can
aspire. It is the freedom from bondage to his lower self, the fears,
fantasies, hatreds, preferences and dreams which haunt him as he walks
the long road of recurring births and deaths. Man, individually and
collectively, can never be truly free on this physical plane of
existence; only the individual who has attained higher spiritual
consciousness, fulfilling his true birthright, has attained freedom
in the most complete sense of the word. The liberated soul may never
again be enslaved by the false appetites of the lower self or by
the machinations of those who believe that they control the transient
world of man by virtue of their own temporal power.

Spiritual consciousness is both the reason and the summit of man's
evolution, and its nature is beyond words, which are merely invented
symbols of human ideation, for it is a truly wordless and timeless
state of beatitude. He who has attained this spiritual consciousness
knows at the very center of his being that he is a free spirit, living
in the eternal realms of spiritual liberation. He has risen on that
celestial symphony of the spirit, as Guru Nanak has reiterated:

By practice of the Word, one rises
to universal consciousness and
develops right understanding;
By practice of the Word, one develops
clairvoyance and transvision
of the whole creation;
By practice of the Word, one is
freed from sorrow and suffering.

THE JAP JI

Once he has transcended physical consciousness, the spiritual
aspirant becomes fully aware of this tonal power of the universe.
In the inner realms its radiant tones are experienced as a miraculous
mosaic of subtle energies, sounding lights and luminous tones. As
Kabir has said: "The natural inner music is continuously flowing of
itself, but only a rare soul knows of this communion; the true simran
consists in the perpetual attunement of the soul with the inner music
without any outer aid. He who contacts this hidden crest-jewel is our
true friend."

Through contact with this inner music the aspirant loses his lesser
identity and eventually becomes "at One with God." Though he continues
to live out his allotted span in this world, he is "in the world but
not of it," being a jivan mukti, a liberated being. He is no longer an
impotent slave of the mind and the senses, but is established in true
Godhead. He lives perpetually in the divine light of the spirit and
listens constantly to the divine music in his soul. Eventually he
returns to Sach Khand, the Abode of Bliss or Muqam-i-Haq, the home and
source of the sounding light and of the soul itself. The spiritual
aspirant is now a conscious and liberated soul. This is the true
Salvation, Moksha or Nirvana, in the ultimate and most complete sense
of all.

(End of Part 4 of 4)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sant Mat, or the Path of the Masters, goes back to the dawn of
recorded history, and references to it can be found in all
scriptures and religious traditions of the world. It has been
taught openly in India in its present form since the time of Kabir
(1398-1518), who proclaimed the essential unity of all religions
and the possibility and necessity of the union of the soul with its
Creator (Surat Shabd Yoga) during one's lifetime. In modern times,
it is presented as the Science of the Soul, a most natural science
which can be followed by men, women and children of all ages without
any distinction of color, caste or creed.

Path of the Masters Site
http://members.iex.net/~naam/

Sant Ajaib Singh Ji Memorial Site
http://tornade.ere.umontreal.ca/~allegre/SantJi/

[James Shannon]

THE PATH THROUGH THE SUPER-CAUSAL REALMS

by

George Arnsby Jones, Litt.D., Ph.D.

This is part three of a four-part essay which

appeared in Sat Sandesh magazine in 1975-76, on
the Inner Journey of the Soul back to its Origin.

-------------------------------------------------

When the initiate leaves the region of Brahmanda, he traverses a
great stretch of inner space in order to reach the super-causal realm
of Daswan Dwar, where the final purification of the aspiring soul must
take place. In Daswan Dwar all the veils and coverings are lifted from
the soul, which then shines forth in its pristine splendor. It is in
this immense region that the soul bathes in the cosmic lake of
immortality, known in the oriental terminology as Mansarover or
Amritsar. Once cleansed of its last impurities, the soul yearns for
blissful union with the Supreme Lord of Love. Of this wonderful realm
Guru Nanak has written:


Next, the Realm of Ecstasy, where
the Word is enrapturing;
Everything created here is marvelously strange
and beyond description;
Whosoever tries to describe the same
must repent his folly.
Herein the mind, reason and understanding
are etherealized,
the Self comes to its own, and develops
the penetration of the gods and the sages.

THE JAP JI

Guru Nanak stated that the spiritual lake of Amritsar was the only
true place of holy pilgrimage, lying within Hindu, Christian, Muslim,
Sikh, believer and unbeliever alike. It is a cosmic center of
spirituality, where the questing soul can be shrived of its sins. A
few world religions have had their inception in the super-causal realm,
but these are exceptions to the general rule, for most of the social
faiths have emanated from the causal realm, with Kal or Brahm (under
various names) as their supreme deity.

Mystics and disciples who ascend to this rarified plane, where spirit
is blended with subtlized matter in varying degrees, are very rare
indeed. The entire cosmic region of Daswan Dwar has the configuration
of an eight-petaled lotus, which is permeated with divine melodies that
are reminiscent of stringed musical instruments on earth. However, here
again any comparison or analogy is totally inadequate, for the sounds of
our physical plane music cannot in any way compare in grandeur to the
Unstruck Music, the Anahad Shabd, that plays endlessly in this exalted
realm.

The spiritual lake of Amritsar is also known as Tribeni, the union of
three rivers of spiritual energy. These three cosmic streams of love,
light and power descend from the Supreme Lord to support and sustain the
universe of universes. This is the true shrine of holiness, where the
aspiring soul becomes immaculate or immortal after its bath of
purification. It has now transcended its causal, astral and physical
coverings, and has none of the qualities of the three lower regions of
mind and matter. The immaculate soul, radiant and refulgent, now shines
with the light of twelve suns.

It does not have to reincarnate into the lower planes again, unless
commissioned to do so by the Supreme Lord Himself. It has tasted the
nectar of the Unstruck Music and it has a complete insight into the
true nature of creation.

In the realm of Daswan Dwar, the liberated soul now fully realizes
that it is of the essence of love, the essence of the Supreme Lord of
Love Himself. The soul now truly knows where the Supreme Lord resides,
and its most sublime desire is for complete union with the Supreme Lord.
Of this state of consciousness the mystic adepts have stated that no
one is a true theist unless he has realized this God-essence within
himself. Until that great realization takes place, the aspirant relies
on the testimony of saints and sages. Such testimony has been
recorded in most of the world scriptures, but the reading of holy
books - however desirable in many ways - can never give the individual
a conscious experience and awareness of the Supreme Lord within.
Referring to outer spiritual practices, and comparing them to inner
seeking, Guru Nanak has said:


Pilgrimages, austerities, mercy, charity
and almsgiving cease to be
of any consequence, when one gets
an ingress into the Til - the Inner Eye;
Communion with and practice of the Holy Word,
with heart full of devotion, procures
admittance into the Inner Spiritual Realms,
washing away the dirt of sins at the Sacred
Fount within.

THE JAP JI

When the soul has been bathed in "the Sacred Fount within," the
lake of Amritsar, it joins the company of other pure souls, known as
hansas (swans) in esoteric literature, and enjoys the wondrous and
enchanting beauties of this realm. Then the soul ascends to the
higher levels of Daswan Dwar and, at a certain stage, beholds on its
right the Inconceivable Island Kingdom (the Achint Dip), with its
glowing configuration of a twelve-petaled lotus; and on its left it
sees the Blissful Region (Sehaj Dip), with its Magnificent
configuration of a ten-petaled lotus. Then the soul reaches the first
vestibule of the terrifying Tibar Khand or the Maha Sunna, the region
of darkness.

At the vestibule of the Maha Sunna, the soul is given the most
esoteric knowledge of creation. This knowledge may only be imparted
at this high spiritual level, and it may never be revealed in spoken
or written words on the lower planes of creation. When the soul has
imbued this knowledge it starts across the great Maha Sunna, which is
a vast void of unutterable darkness. In this somber region Maha-Kal,
the highest form of the Negative Power, has placed a myriad of
frightening obstacles in the path of the aspiring soul. Only the soul
who has crossed this black void once, with the help of a mystic adept,
is free to traverse the Maha Sunna at will, from that time onward.

Countless souls, each shining with the radiance of twelve suns,
dwell within this region, but they are unable to extricate themselves
from this bondage; for even though the soul has such a great radiance,
it finds itself overwhelmed by the stygian darkness, and it cannot pass
through the black void without the benign grace and protection of a
mystic adept of the highest degree.

Before the soul starts its journey across the Maha Sunna, it is
apprised of the existence of four secret spiritual regions, which are
not mentioned in the outer teachings of the mystic adepts. These secret
regions are the planes of the highest spiritual prisoners, known as the
bandivan in the oriental terminology. These prisoners are under no
duress in their own realms, but they cannot travel beyond them. Some of
them will sometimes see a soul which is ascending in the company of a
mystic adept, and they will implore that soul to plead their cause, so
that they too can ascend to the higher spiritual realms. Only the mystic
adept may accede to such a request if he sees fit to do so, for he is an
indispensable guide to the soul who would make a safe journey through
the expansive dark void of Maha Sunna and the other secret regions.

Beyond the region of Maha Sunna there are five immense spiritual
realms, each one of increasing importance as the soul ascends. The
lowest of these is Bhanwar Gupha (Whirling Cave), the final region
before the soul arrives at the realm of the Supreme Lord, the True Home
of the spirit. As the soul approaches this ineffable region of Bhanwar
Gupha, it hears the melodies of four sound currents, each emanating
from invisible sources. One of these cosmic melodies predominates
above all others, and the soul finds its melody ineffable and
indescribably beautiful. The soul also beholds five egg-shaped
universes, all of which are macrocosms of other cosmic creations. Each
one of these cosmic systems has a predominating color, like yellow or
green, and each one is permeated and governed by a great Brahm-like
spirit. In comparison with these regions, the entire universe beneath
the realm of causality appears as insignificant as a speck of dust.

(End of Part 3 of 4)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

[James Shannon]

Matthew Breuer (neomis...@phast.umass.edu) wrote:
: James Shannon wrote:

: > THE PATH THROUGH THE CAUSAL REALMS
: >
: > <snip>
: > When the aspirant ascends beyond Sahansdal Kanwal, the negative
: > powers working under the lordship of Kal are at their worst. Kal can
: > neither create nor destroy a soul, but he can keep souls trapped in
: > the causal, astral and physical realms. He imprisons the souls of men
: > with the chains of worldly pleasures, and when a soul aspires to return
: > to its True Home, Kal brings his forces to bear in order to prevent the
: > soul from ascending. But the Supreme Lord of Love, Sat Purusha, is the
: > highest deity of all, and He is the creator of all the universes. The
: > perfect mystic adept is His incarnation and can escort the soul safely
: > through the regions of Kal.

: <snip>

: Dear James,
: I think it would be helpful to others to indicate that some of the
: illustrations in these writings are allegorical and not accurate descriptions
: of the actual geometry of the places described. For instance, the reference to
: the diameter of the entrance to other realms being as small as the tenth of a
: mustard seed is an indication of the uniqueness of viewpoint and spiritual
: conditioning for such things. Otherwise, the ill-informed might consider
: there'd be quite a backup getting into "heaven", kind of like getting stuck at
: the Lincoln Tunnel into New York city at rush hour. In my opinion, analogies
: shouldn't become stumbling blocks to understanding, which they can if not
: explained. I felt, in the article you posted, that these analogies were taken
: from various eastern sources and presented as accurate descriptions, and could
: be taken as such by others. When mixing information from different traditions I
: think it's pretty important to maintain clarity of meaning.

: Sincerely,
: Matthew Breuer

Dear Matthew,

Loving greetings in the name of the great Masters of the
Surat Shabd Yoga -- who have given us the most complete and
natural Way for going within and returning to the Source from
which we were separated, aeons ago.

While it is true that many past Masters did describe what
they saw within on the inner planes in an allegorical way
(the sayings of Jesus, for example), the modern line of
Masters of the Sant Mat beginning with Kabir (1398-1518),
and especially those Masters since the time of Swamiji
Maharaj of Agra (1818-1878), have given out exact and accurate
descriptions of what they have actually and literally seen
within.

These written accounts, such as the one which I just posted,
by Dr. Jones, which was based on the satsangs of Hazur Baba
Sawan Singh and Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj, are accurate
descriptions of that which exists on the inner spiritual,
planes. The Masters' records of their experiences on the
inner planes are meant to give us understanding of what to
expect when we resolve to undertake that spiritual journey
ourselves, and help inspire us to do so.

Their acccounts of what is there are not allegorical. For
example (and in reference to the excerpt that you quoted),
the Masters have seen that at the top of the astral universe
there is a very narrow passageway or tunnel (called "Bunknal")
which the soul has to cross, in order to reach the next higher
region. This actually exists as the Masters have described it.

The Masters tell us that there are vast regions inside. The
macrocosm is in the microcosm. The purpose of Them telling
us all this, is so that we may appreciate the fact that the
human body affords a wonderful opportunity to go inside by
the practice of the meditation which They teach, and thus we
can see those things which they have spoken of for ourselves;
it is a matter of seeing, and not relying on faith, inference
or intellectual reasoning.

The Masters' only purpose in all this is to show us the Way
off the endless wheel of transmigration which we have been
turning on for trillions and trillions of years (yes, trillions)
ever since we left our Original home (Sach Khand), and have been
wandering in the 8,400,000 different kinds of species (of which
the human form is only one, and very hard to get, btw). We
desperately need to hear about this true state of affairs of our
soul; otherwise our coming and going will merely continue on
interminably. That is why the Masters bring their unique message
to us. Blessed are those with the eyes that want to see it and
the ears that want to hear it.

I am just a lowly usenet poster. Perhaps it would be better
if I let someone more qualified speak to you on this subject.
Here are the words of the American physician, Dr. Julian Johnson,
who was one of the first Westerners to recognize the grandeur of
this great science; (he went to India and sat at the feet of the
Great Master, Baba Sawan Singh Ji of Beas in the early 1930s),
and experienced for himself some of those things of which the
Masters' have spoken:

July 4, 1933:
Palampur, India

"This Holy Path is not a theory. It is not a system of beliefs
or dogmas. It is not even a religion, although it embraces all
of the values of religion. It is an actual Way, a genuine road,
to be travelled; involving, of course, certain preparation and
training as one goes along. In fact, the word "path" is not
altogether appropriate. It is more properly speaking, "El Camino
Real", or the King's Highway. It belongs to the Royal Masters,
and it leads the traveler from earth upwards through kingdom
after kingdom, from country to country, each one more splendid
than the other, in an advancing series until the upper terminus
lands the traveler at the very feet of the Supreme Lord of all
regions.

"And this is *no allegory*, *no figure of speech*, *no flight
of the imagination*. It is a *literal*, *actual* *highway*,
over which the Saints and their disciples travel, passing through
numberless and vast regions, stopping at different stations en
route. The passage is really a succession of triumphs; for the
disciples of the Saints are enabled to master each region as they
enter it, to absorb its knowledge and powers and become citizens
of it. No Hannibal or Alexander, or any Caesar, ever made such a
triumphal advance.

"The Saint is the Great Captain leading the soul from victory
to victory. It is a long and difficult passage; but the saint has
been over it many times, and he is Master of it all. He is, in
fact, Lord of all the intervening regions through which this
Highway leads, and before him numberless multitudes bow down as he
passes. It is therefore, a long succession of triumphs, even until
he reaches the Grand Terminus."
- Dr. Julian Johnson

(The complete letter from which this quote was taken, appears
in the next posting to this thread.)

Loving best wishes,

James

[James Shannon]

The following letter was written on July 4, 1933
by Dr. Julian Johnson -- a Western disciple of

the Great Master, Baba Sawan Singh Ji of Beas

(1858-1948). It appears as Letter #14 in "With A
Great Master In India (1934; Radha Soami Satsang
Beas) -- a book of letters written by Dr. Johnson
to friends and fellow students in America, during
the first fourteen months of his stay with the
Master -- and has for many years served as an
inspiring overview and introduction to the Path
of Sant Mat, or Surat Shabd Yoga.
________________________________________________

Letter Number Fourteen


Palampur, India, July 4, 1933

Dear Fellow-Travellers,

This is American Independence Day; but I am thinking more
of the Independence of the soul, of its emancipation from the five
enemies that have so long enslaved it and from the domination of
the Negative Power. I am thinking of -

THE PATH OF THE SAINTS

that Royal Highway which leads to complete and eternal freedom of
the soul. I am thinking especially today of the Great Deliverer,
the noble emancipator, the Master, the true Saint, by whose grace
the sojourner in the realms of Kal is enabled to break the last
fetter that binds him and reach his home in the Supreme Region.

I would like to sketch this Path today, if I might, and make
it so clear that all men would see it. If only we could make it so
plain and definite that it could not be mistaken again, even by the
casual reader! This Holy Path should be so differentiated and
marked out that none could ever miss it. Its main features should
be so clearly set forth that it will be easily distinguished from
all other paths of a religio-spiritual nature. This path of the
saints is indeed unique and individual. There is no other way like
it, or even approximately similar. There is no other way "just as
good". For it there can be no substitutes; for there is only one
Way that leads to the Supreme Goal.

This Holy Path is not a theory. It is not a system of beliefs
or dogmas. It is not even a religion, although it embraces all
of the values of religion. It is an actual Way, a genuine road,
to be travelled; involving, of course, certain preparation and
training as one goes along. In fact, the word "path" is not
altogether appropriate. It is more properly speaking, "El Camino
Real", or the King's Highway. It belongs to the Royal Masters,
and it leads the traveler from earth upwards through kingdom
after kingdom, from country to country, each one more splendid
than the other, in an advancing series until the upper terminus
lands the traveler at the very feet of the Supreme Lord of all
regions.

And this is no allegory, no figure of speech, no flight
of the imagination. It is a literal, actual highway, over which

the Saints and their disciples travel, passing through numberless
and vast regions, stopping at different stations en route. The
passage is really a succession of triumphs; for the disciples
of the Saints are enabled to master each region as they enter it,
to absorb its knowledge and powers and become citizens of it.
No Hannibal or Alexander, or any Caesar, ever made such a
triumphal advance.

The Saint is the Great Captain leading the soul from
victory to victory. It is a long and difficult passage; but the
saint has been over it many times, and he is Master of it all.
He is, in fact, Lord of all the intervening regions through which
this Highway leads, and before him numberless multitudes bow down
as he passes. It is therefore, a long succession of triumphs, even
until he reaches the Grand Terminus.

MANY SPLENDID CONTINENTS AND WORLDS

In each region through which the traveler passes, he
discovers new continents, new worlds, and meets their
inhabitants. He beholds their dwellings and modes of living.
He studies them; perhaps visits there for months or years,
before he advances. Then he passes on to the higher planes. The
journey may require many years, all depending upon the
difficulties one meets within himself, of his karma and the
general fitness with which he enters upon the journey. But if
he persists, by the grace of his Master, he arrives at last at
the end of the Highway, at the Supreme Region, the Home of the
Saints and the abode of the Supreme Father. And this is the end
of the journey, because there is nothing higher. He has reached
the ultimate region.

THE JOURNEY MADE DURING LIFE

This journey is undertaken and completed by Master and pupil
while both are living here in the physical body. In fact, it must
be done while they live in the body. If it is not at least begun
while they are both here in the body, it cannot be accomplished
after death. That is the supreme value of this physical body.
It offers everyone the most priceless opportunity to escape from
the entanglements and bondage of earth and return to his true
home above. But if he lets this opportunity pass, until death
overtakes him, he must inevitably return to this life before he
can even begin his upward journey.

NOT CONFINED TO THIS BODY

But the enquirer may ask: "How can you, or a Saint, really
make a journey to a far country while you are still living here
in the physical body? You certainly cannot take it with you."
This question reveals a misunderstanding which must be cleared up.
WE ARE NOT CONFINED TO THIS PHYSICAL BODY, EVEN WHILE WE ARE
STILL LIVING IN IT. You are imprisoned in this body only because
you do not know how to get out of it. The body is no part of
ourselves. It is only a covering, a house of clay in which we
live for the time being. It is simply an instrument of contact
with this physical world. That is all.

If then we wish to travel in regions far above this plane,
where this clumsy body cannot go, we have only to step out of it
and go. We need not break the connection. We can return to it when
we like, and resume its use. This, all of the Saints and their
disciples who have reached the first region above, do at will.
They are quite free. How to do this is one of the first lessons
taught their disciples by the Saints. Naturally, it is the initial
step to be taken before they can even begin their upward journey.
But once gaining this freedom, the soul is ready to begin its
long and difficult but triumphal journey to distant worlds.

The reader is now asked to follow in his mind the journey
over the Royal Highway of the Saints, stage by stage, as it
will be given in some detail. Let him make note of its main
features; so that never again will he have the least doubt
concerning the Path of the Saints, or fail to understand how
it differs from all other paths. The description is necessarily
extremely limited and meagre. Only the merest hints can be
given here; for it would require volumes to describe the Way,
even if one were capable of doing it at all.

PREPARATION FOR THE JOURNEY

As in all other cases of travel, naturally some preparation
must be made for the journey. This usually means the gathering
together of a lot of luggage to be used on the trip, or at the
other end of the journey. But in preparing to start on this trip
over the Royal Highway of the Saints, the process is exactly the
reverse of the usual program - IT CONSISTS IN GETTING RID OF ALL
LUGGAGE. Though we may not fully realize it, it is nevertheless
a fact, that most of us are going around carrying on our backs
piles of useless luggage which weigh us down and hold us in
slavery. Our plight is worse than that of the poorest coolie.

The very first step is to break the ties that bind us and
rid ourselves of the useless luggage that holds us down to earth.
These consist of the manifold evil ways, the gross sins, unholy
desires, the self-indulgences, the passions, the love of the
world, its pleasures, its pomp and vanities. All of these things
constitute the load of luggage each one is carrying about with
him, and by them is hopelessly and literally weighted down to
earth and bound here. Until the soul and the mind break loose
from these and stand free from them, we cannot take the first
step on the Path of the Saints.

How to break these bonds constitutes the moral philosophy of
the Saints. But in this there is nothing unique. The moral
philosophy of the Saints differs but little, if any, from that of
all great world religions. This knowledge is a common possession
of mankind. No one has a monopoly of the knowledge of correct
living. The Saints take but little time to inculcate morality.
That is taken for granted. It constitutes but the most elementary
step on this Path. Perhaps no better system of morality has ever
been formulated and given to mankind than that of the "Eightfold
Path" of Prince Gotama Buddha. But here all religions meet on
a common ground. In this respect the Path of the Saints differs
little from all other systems. We simply must disburden ourselves
of this world. We cannot take this world and its ways with us
to higher regions. That is the sum of the whole matter.
Disentangle yourself from the world and stand aloof from it.

MORALITY ALONE NOT SUFFICIENT

Before passing from this point, it would appear fitting
to call attention to one vital consideration, usually lost
sight of by most teachers and systems. It is this:
MORALITY, EVEN THOUGH IT BE OF THE MOST PERFECT SYSTEM
IMAGINABLE, AND EVEN THOUGH ITS EVERY PRECEPT BE MOST
SCRUPUOUSLY OBSERVED, IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO BREAK THE CHAINS
OF SLAVERY WHICH BIND EVERY SOUL TO THIS WORLD AND TO THE
WHEEL OF BIRTH AND DEATH.

And this leads us to one point regarding the moral
philosophy of the Saints that must be especially noted. In
this regard alone, it may be said to differ from the teachings
of all other systems. The Saints tell us that it lies not in
the power of any man to free himself by his own unguided efforts.
He is entangled and bound here by the chains of the five enemies
that he cannot effect his own escape without help. It is just
here that the saint comes to the rescue of his disciple. The
Master, and he only, has the power to break those fetters.

Without him, the individual may struggle as he will; he
may fight manfully to the end of his days, and all he can do is
to better his condition a little, to store up more favorable
karma for the future. But in the end he is still bound, and
he must return to earth again and again under the "Wheel of
eighty-four" - that is the endless circle of transmigration.

This is a vital truth overlooked by most teachers of
moral philosophy. Many students boast that man is master of
his own fate; that he must look to himself alone for liberation.
It is a vain boast. For he will return here birth after birth,
age after age, until he finally places his destiny in the hands
of a real Master. We believe that this egotistical assumption
of many students is a sort of natural reaction against the
useless intervention of the priest. But the position of the true
Master in his relation to his disciple is as different from that
of the priest, as day is different from night. While the priest
is not only useless, but highly detrimental to the individual,
the Master is absolutely essential to spiritual liberation and
upward progress.

PREPARING TO LEAVE THE BODY

Assuming now that the outer preparation has been made,
that the student has divested himself of all evil luggage which
bound him down and obstructed his upward passage, his next step
is to close all of the nine avenues of sense that connect him
with the outer world, and then go inside and prepare to leave
the body. How to do this in the best and most effective manner
every Saint teaches his disciples at the very outset. The method
is so clear that he cannot mistake it and the student is amply
safeguarded against all possible errors. He cannot be misled
if he follows instructions.

His first exercise is to concentrate his mind at the
Tisra Til, or third eye. He must pull in his wandering
thoughts, restrain his restless mind, and hold it steadily at
one point. The mind is often compared to a monkey, hopping
around. But it must be brought to a standstill, to absolute
rest at the given center. In due time, if the process is
complete, the individual spirit current or substance is
slowly withdrawn from the body, first from the lower
extremities which become feelingless, and then from the rest
of the body.

The process is identical with that which takes place at the
time of death, only this is voluntary, while at the time of
death is involuntary. The whole spiritual being gathers at the
given center, or focus, its powers increasing because of the
concentration. Eventually, he is able to pierce the veil that
intervenes - which in reality is "not thicker than the wing of
a butterfly" - and then he opens what is called the "Tenth Door"
and steps out into a new world.

The body remains in the position in which he left it,
quite senseless, but unharmed by the process. He can return
to it at will. He may remain out of it for hours, or even
weeks, and months. The life processes slow down almost to a
standstill, but the body remains in perfect health until the
owner is ready to return to it.

In all of this the student is never asleep or unconscious,
- not for a moment. In fact, the reverse takes place. He is
superconscious. He knows all that is going on in and around
him and vastly more than he ever knew before. He is intensely
awake and will remember all of his experiences vividly. He is
now in a world he never saw before and of the existence of
which most people are unaware. But it is a world which
impresses itself upon the traveler as being more real than
this world. It is also much finer and more beautiful, and full
of light.

Here he beholds a great variety of scenery, of landscapes,
of rivers and mountains and trees and flowers and buildings.
Here he meets with multitudes of people, gathered from every
nation and tribe of earth. He converses with them; for there
all languages are understood by all. The light and colors of
that world surpass anything he ever saw before. All of these
things the student traveler looks upon for the first time,
and with a new pair of eyes which he never consciously used
before. He is now operating in his astral body and using his
astral senses for communication, the same as he used the
physical senses before.

Our student is now in the position of a man who has
been all of his life confined in a semi-dark prison and has
just been given his freedom. He steps out from behind prison
walls into a beautiful park or garden in from of the prison,
ready to begin his journey home. In fact he is now ready to
actually begin to live. His freedom is intoxicating, joyous.
And he is just now ready to begin his journey on the Path of
the Saints; for that is the way that leads to his homeland.

Up to this moment all he has done is to prepare himself
for the journey and open the door of the prison house which
held him in. Up to this point there is but little that is
absolutely unique in the process of his preparation. Many
others besides the Saints have reached this region. By dint
of the most strenuous efforts and the practice of certain Yoga,
many of the ancients and some modern students have reached the
astral plane. They have subdued but not overcome the passions;
and their excellent concentration has given them powers of
penetration into the lower astral regions. Their understanding
and their powers over the forces of Nature have increased
correspondingly. Many of them, rejoicing at the great beauty
and light of this region, have quite firmly believed that
they had reached the highest heaven and that the Lord of this
region was the Supreme God.

But, in fact, this is only the very lowest threshold of
that vast system of heaven-worlds which lie above and beyond it.
It constitutes the very first stage or resting place on the Path
of the Saints. In reality, their journey begins here since this
is the lower terminus of the Royal Highway of the Saints. And
yet for most of the world-religions, this is the end; for their
founders never went beyond this region, and so they believed it
to be the ultimate.

At this point the student traveler enjoys so many new
sensations, so much that he is quite bewildered. He is fairly
intoxicated with delight. He is conscious of a marvelous influx
of power. His vision is lucid. Space is obliterated. Time
has disappeared; for now all events stand before him clearly
outlined, the past, the present and the future. He now
realizes the shadowy nature of the lower world from which he
has just escaped. He beholds its pitiful limitations, its
passing deceptive show, its panorama of births, under the
Wheel of Karma, or the law of cause and effect.

All of these things are now clear to his illuminated
consciousness; and yet he has taken but the first step. For
the Royal Highway begins just as you step through the tenth
door, out of the physical body, and into the first astral zone.

STUDENT HERE MEETS HIS MASTER

It is here on the very threshold of the upper regions
that the student traveler first meets his Master face to face
in his Radiant Form. From that moment on, through the
remainder of his life, that radiant form is the constant
companion and he may always ask the Radiant Master any
questions he may wish to ask and receive an answer. From that
happy day forward, he needs no other teacher. All information
on any subject, is ready at hand.

It is this Radiant Master who now takes command of the
upward journey. He will be his guide all the way. A few of
the bravest of men have reached this region by their own unaided
efforts; but even they doubtless had the help of some men who
had already gone that far. A few may advance a little further;
but only the Saints and their disciples may travel the Royal
Highway to the higher regions. Fortunate indeed is the student
who has a real Saint as his Master. For he alone will ever
reach his home in the exalted planes of the Region of Truth.

THE SHABD, OR SOUND CURRENT

It is quite necessary to call attention here to the
Sound Current. For that is a vital factor in the Path of the
Saints. From the very first, the disciple begins to listen to
its sound, during the hours of sitting. By and by he will
come to hear it at any and all the times, even while he is
about his daily duties. Gradually, the sound becomes more
distinct and sweeter in tone. Only when he reaches the first
region, the true Sound is heard, the real Shabd. This Sound
Current is the most vital factor in his further progress.

From it, he constantly draws energy, and by it he is
enabled to overcome all hindrances and weaknesses. It is
extremely musical, sweet and delightful. Its attraction fairly
pulls the soul upward; and throughout the entire journey, this
Sound Current is his constant companion and support. Without
it he could never make the journey. Consequently, the Sound
Current and the Master are the two vital factors in making
the upward journey. Without them both, it cannot be made.
These two then, are the all-important factors in the Path of
the Saints - the Sound Current and the living Master.

LOCATION OF THE FIRST REGION

The location of the first region should be kept in mind.
In the Radha Soami literature, mention is often made of the
three grand divisions of creation. The first, or highest, is
that of the Supreme Being, His residence, and it consists of
pure spirit, unmixed with matter of any sort, and is free
from all imperfections. It is called Sat Desh. In that
region, there is not even mind, only pure spirit. That region,
is so vast in extent that all the rest of creation below it
appears no more than a small cloud floating in its sky. It is
inhabited by vast multitudes of pure spirits who are not
subject to death or change. They are supremely happy.

Then comes the second grand division, called Brahmand,
the middle division. It is of a very high order of creation,
mostly spiritual; but it is mixed with mind and other very
fine sorts of matter. In fact, mind itself is an extremely
high order of matter; for, it is not self-conscious and is
wholly dependent upon spirit for its life and function. This
grand division is the realm of universal mind. All souls,
in their descent from Sach Khand, here take on their mental
apparatus for purposes of contact with the worlds below;
and here, on their upward return journey, they discard it.

In this grand division are located all of the heavens
of the great world religions, most of them in the very lower
sections of it. Compared to the physical worlds, this
division is also vast in extent and is divided into
numberless distinct regions, or planes, world above world,
and is inhabited by millions and billions of refined beings,
many of whom believe that they are in the highest heaven.

Then comes the third grand division, the physical
universe, called Pinda. In it are all of the suns, moons,
stars, and planets, all of the unnumbered worlds noted by
our astronomers; and far beyond the range of their most
powerful telescopes, still other universes without number.
Our earth is only one of the small planets belonging to one
of the suns of this system. The earth is comparatively but
a mere microscopic speck of dust floating in the sky of one
small universe.

Now, the astral region, which our traveler has just
entered, lies at the top of this third grand division, just
beyond the topmost border, or frontier, of the physical
universe. It lies in a sub-division of Brahmand, called
Anda. Its substance, while very coarse when compared to
the finer worlds above it, yet is extremely fine when
compared with the earth substance. It vibrates at a much
higher speed, than any known earth substance, and its light
is much greater in intensity. It has its own laws and
characteristics.

It is a distinct plane of life and is the first of the
numberless sets of three dimensions, extending upwards beyond
the earth planes. So, even this physical plane of ours is
only one of these sets of three dimensions, arranged in an
ascending scale. There are other planes of life below us,
coarser and poorer, and their inhabitants are of a lower order
of being than ourselves. As a rule, the inhabitants of one
plane are wholly unconscious of all other planes above them.

They live and die somewhat as we do and pass to other
regions, as their karma impels them. The duration of individual
life increases as you go from lower to higher regions. Always
the passing from a lower to a higher plane depends upon the
life one has lived and the assistance of his or her Master.

Such is the order of creation - plane upon plane, world
above world, universe beyond universe, in endless succession and
variety. To break the bonds of one plane and to traverse other
and higher regions is an accomplishment. To do so, one has
to qualify for a permanent residence in the upper region. He
need not stay there permanently, but he must qualify for it.

In fact, he must master each region before he passes to
the next higher. That being done, he must learn the secrets of
breaking down the barriers in his way. These secrets can be
obtained only from the Master. But the Way is always open for
those who sincerely seek the upward Path.

It may not be amiss to just mention in this connection
one of the most vital and important principles of all progress.
It is this:

MAKE YOURSELF MASTER WHEREVER YOU ARE; THEN PASS TO
A HIGHER DEGREE.

Now, our student, having broken the bondage of the
physical body, steps out upon the first of the upper worlds.
But he has not yet entered the city which constitutes his first
real station on the Royal Highway. There are many sub-divisions
in this, as in all other realms. There is much to be seen of
that vast and beautiful region called Sahansdal Kanwal, so
named from a gigantic flower-like light, looking like
thousand petalled lotus. This region has been briefly sketched
by Soami Ji, in his Sar Bachan. He calls them only hints. They
are but little more than that. But let us read what he says:

SOAMI JI DESCRIBES FIRST REGION

"I will give you the secret of the Path; a few hints
concerning it. First fix your mind and soul upon Tisra Til.
Gather together mind and soul, again and again, and bring them
inside. Then behold a window; and beyond that an open maidan
or field. Concentrate the attention upon that and hold it
there. You will see a five-colored flower garden, and inside
of that, behold the Joti (candle or light). Enjoy this scene
for some days. Then see the blue-colored sky appearing like a
chakra (circular disc). Impelled by love and longing, pierce
through this. Then gaze at the Joti with detached mind. Hear
the undending bell sound and become absorbed in it. Next you
will hear the conch. Let yourself become saturated with it."

This description is quite incomplete of course. It
omits to mention thousands of things of the most absorbing
interest. In that region are suns and moons and stars. In fact
many of them are seen before you reach the real Sahansdal Kanwal.
There are people of many sorts, living in different styles and
engaged in various occupations - of course, not of a commercial
nature. Mostly, they spend their time in concentration,
meditating upon the Lord of that region. For this, as all
other regions, has its own lord or ruler, and he is the creator
of all below him, including the physical universe. He derives
his powers from the Lord next above him. It is not surprising
that he is often mistaken for the Supreme Lord of the entire
universe of universes, by those who go no further than his
region and who know nothing beyond that.

Just before the Tisra Til, near the entrance to this
region, at Ashtdal Kanwal, the student first meets the Radiant
Form of the Master. From here on they make the journey
together. Let us now proceed to the second stage.

REGION NUMBER TWO, TRIKUTI

With our great Captain in command, we resume our
journey. He alone knows the Way, and he alone has the key to
all regions: for he has traveled them all many times, and
besides, he is the recognized Lord of them all for the time
being. The true Saint is king of kings, and is universally
recognized as Lord because he is ONE with the Supreme. His
power and authority are recognized all along the route. All
other lords, rulers and people, pay obesiance to him. Under
his protection we now enter Trikuti, the second stage on our
journey. Here we may rest and study for a long time, even
years. There is much here to absorb attention, besides, one
has to himself grow and develop before he can advance. Let us
quote a brief description of this region from Soami Ji:

"Now, my dear companion, prepare to enter the second
stage. Behold Trikuti, the abode of the Guru, where the sound
of Onkar is heard perpetually resounding. Then you go up and
open a gate and enter the bankanal *crooked tunnel), passing
on to the other end of it. Then you cross high and low hills.
Now, the vision appears to be reversed, and one sees as if from
the opposite side of the veil which he has penetrated. Looking
upward, he passes into a fort-like region which he enters and
becomes Master of it. He reigns there as lord of that region.
Here the soul becomes adorned with the attributes of devotion
and faith. Here the seed of all karma is burned, destroyed.
You will see thick dark clouds, from which peals of thunder
constantly resound. When rising above these dark clouds, the
entire sphere is red, with the beautiful red sun imparting its
color to everything.

This is where the Guru really gives Nam; for the
Master's Shabd Rup is here. This Shabd is, in fact, the Fifth
Veda. Here you will see the red four-petalled lotus spoke
of by the Saints, the details and colors becoming visible as
one comes nearer to it. Here the bell and conch sounds are
left behind and the sound of mardang (like a drum) is heard.

After that, the soul resumes his upward journey.
Now comes the sound of a huge drum, beating incessantly. Here
the soul has grasped the Primal Current, from which all
creation emanates. Innumerable suns and moons are seen here
and many kinds of skies, filled with stars. The soul here
realizes its complete separation from Pind, and rises to the
upper Brahmand, as if intoxicated with joy. He sees and
traverses deserts and mountains and gardens. In the gardens are
flowers arranged in artistic designs and groups everywhere.

Canals and rivulets of transparent water are flowing
in abundance. Then one approaches an ocean,, which he crosses
by means of a bridge. He then beholds the three mountains,
or prominences, called Mer, Sumer, and Kailash. (From these
the region is named). After this, he passes on to a region
of the most unalloyed delight."

Again, necessarily, much has been omitted. Volumes could be
written and still tell but little of the worlds crossed by the
Saints. Much of it cannot be told in mortal language, because
we have nothing like it here with which to compare it. So we
must pass on along this Royal Highway of the Saints. They have
given us only hints, just a word here and there. Having reached
this region; the soul finds itself in possession of new powers
and understanding never realized before. In fact, he has to
grow as he advances. That is one reason it often takes years
to reach the higher regions. He must be fitted for their
higher and purer atmosphere. Each successive stage brings him
just that much nearer to sainthood itself.

But very few of the ancient yoigs, seers and prophets, ever
reached this second region. None of the founders of the great
world religions ever reached it. And yet, no doubt, each one
thought he had reached the highest, the abode of the Supreme.
For so it appeared to him. In his delight, he could not imagine
anything greater, and he had no Guru to instruct him concerning
the many worlds beyond.

Traveling alone, no one can hope to go beyond the upper
frontiers of the first region. A few of the Yogishwars reached
the second, and still fewer the third, by aid of their gurus
who had gone that far ahead of them. Beyond that none but the
Saints and their disciples have ever gone. From this second
region, the Vedas emanated, and consequently, they know of
nothing beyond it; although the Lord Krishna hints at a higher
region when he tells his disciple, Arjuna, to transcend the
Vedas. They believed it to be the ultimate region and its lord
they accepted as the Supreme Being.

REGION NUMBER THREE

Let us now enter the third region. The student may perchance
abide in the second region for years before he advances to the
next. But as we are now traveling in imagination only, we may
proceed. Quoting again from Soami Ji, we read as follows:

"Now, the soul goes up and opens the third veil and
hears the voice of the Sunna region. This is Daswan Dwar, with
very brilliant light. The Akash (sky) of Sahansdal Kanwal and
Gaggan (sky) of Trikuti have been left behind. The soul here
bathes in Mansarover and joins the group of Hansas (swans).
The soul then circles about and rises to the top of Sunna, and
there hears the kingri and saringri (stringed instruments,
something like a guitar). After hearing this sound one
penetrates in and crosses Tribeni (a place where three streams
meet), there entering the vestibule of Maha Sunna, where he
picks up the secret knowledge.

This great sphere alone is seventy palangs in
circumference and in this sphere there is at first pitch
darkness. Four Sound Currents are heard emanating from invisible
sources, the music varying, every minute changing in tone. The
sound of the jhankar predominates and is indescribable in mortal
language. One hears them and is entranced by their sweetness.
Here are five egg-shaped regions or worlds all full of a variety
of creations and each is permeated and governed by a Brahm.

How can one describe the beauty of these creations?
Each has its own predominating color like green or yellow or even
white. They are quite vast in extent in comparison with which
the entire universe below Trikuti appears very insignificant."

Students who attain this third region gain corresponding
increase of power and understanding in proportion as this
region is vast in extent beyond those below it. But there is
constantly increasing difficulty as one goes on up in giving
expression to anything relating to those higher regions. They
are further removed from the earth and its language, even its
ideas. The very ideas in those upper regions are beyond the
grasp of earth's inhabitants until those regions have been
traversed and then one is unable to put them into earthly
language.

Crossing this third region not only indicates another stage
passed on our journey but it marks a distinct epoch in the
progress of the soul. Here he leaves the last remnant of earthly
impurities, and the least of the three bodies in which he lives
and operates while here. In this region, wholly purified, the
soul for the first time see itself as it is, pure spirit, a child
of the Supreme Lord. So, here for the first time it is absolutely
untrammeled and free. And from here on its tendencies are all
upward instead of downward.

The attraction of still higher regions becomes overwhelming
and the soul is impatient to go on., From here he returns no
more to be born in the flesh -- except those who now come on
special missions of redemption. Being now free from all
impurities, the soul here attains a brilliancy equal to twelve
of our suns, and now it rises rapidly to the more perfect
regions above. Let us then resume our journey. We traverse
almost measureless space and approach the Fourth Region.

REGION NUMBER FOUR

Quoting again from the descriptions of Soami Ji, we read:

"Now prepare for the fourth stage, O soul, and catch
the sound. Cross the pass above the Hasni tunnel and enter the
Rukmini tunnel, where you will see a strange and beautiful mark,
or structure; seeing which, the surat (power to hear) and the
nirat (power to see) both attain peace and rest, satisfied.

On the right side there are bright islands, and on the
left are many continents covered with palaces, appearing as if
made of pearls, having their top stories made of rubies and
studded with emeralds and diamonds. This innermost secret I
have described. Only the brave spirit may venture this far. I
then saw the Bhanwar Gupha mountain, approaching which I heard
the Sohang Shabd. The sound emanating from there is like that
of a keen flute. Here the soul beholds the white sun above, with
immense light. The region is most beautiful and full of light.

The souls there live on the Sound Current, as their food.
Playing about on the great maidan are groups of hansas, and
along with them are many devotees, sojourners in that region, on
their way to Sach Khand. Here are vast and innumerable plains
and worlds, abounding with a variety of creations, and inhabited
by numberless devotees, living on the nectar of Nam."

Kabir Sahib also mentions in this region eighty-eight thousand
islands or continents, all set with beautiful palaces, as above
described. This region is truly the gateway to the mansion of
the Lord of Sach Khand. It is the vestibule to the Supreme Grand
Division of Creation.

The approach to the Fourth Region is guarded by a zone of such
deep, dense, darkness that none but a pure Saint may ever cross it.
Only he has the light and power to cross it, and to take his
disciples with him. By his grace, therefore, we have come thus
far, and not let us enter the gateway of the Supreme Lord of Sach
Khand. He is the Great Father and Lord of us all and of all
regions below Him. He is boundless love and light.

It is said by both Kabir Sahib and Soami Ji that His
brilliancy is so great, so intense that even one hair on his body
(although in reality there is no hair there) radiates a light
equal to that of many millions of suns combined. It is utterly
beyond comprehension. But let us now enter His region.

REGION NUMBER FIVE

Soami Ji, with increasing difficulty of expression, has given
a few hints concerning this region. We read:

"In the fifth region is a fort-like place wherein is
situated the throne of the King of kings. You should know him as
the true king. The soul now advances to a great and wonderful
field, or park, the scenery of which is absolutely indescribable.
There is also a great reservoir, from below which flow abundant
streams of the most delicious nectar, and this nectar flows out
through large canals, to supply distant regions.

Golden palaces are set in open fields of silvery light.
But the landscape is indescribable, and the beauty of the hansas
living there is incomprehensible, the brilliancy of each one
being equal to the combined light of sixteen suns and moons.

The soul then passes on up to the real entrance. The
watchers by the gates are the hansas. Here the Sahaj Surat asks
the soul: "How have you managed to reach this region?" The
new-comer replies: "I came across a Saint and he gave me
knowledge of this region." Saying this, the soul then pushes
on and enjoys the darshan of Sat Nam, and rejoices with an
exceeding great joy.

A voice then emanates from within the lotus, saying:
"Who are you, and what purpose or object brings you here?" He
answers, "I met the Sat Guru and he gave me full instructions.
Through his kindness I now have the privilege of your darshan."
From this darshan the soul derives immense pleasure. Sat Purush
then speaks of the mysteries of Alakh Lok, and with his own powers
and love, he aids the soul to make further advance toward the
still higher regions."

Our traveler has now reached the highest Grand Division of
Creation, the region of immortality and of Truth. While still in
the lower regions of Brahmand, he is always liable to return to
earth, and to rebirth and death -- "the Wheel of eighty-four."
But when he reaches this pure region of Sat Lok, the first plane
of which is called Sach Khand, there is no more return to earth,
except as a Redeemer. Here the student traveler enters upon the
full reward of his long and arduous course of training. He
becomes a Saint himself; and the mission of his Guru is finished,
so far as this journey is concerned.

But the soul has yet to travel over the most sublime and
beautiful part of his journey. Above Sach Khand there are three
other planes, or regions, of utterly inconceivable splendor. But
from here on, the Great Father of Sach Khand takes over the
responsibility of guiding the soul to the end of his journey. By
his great love and light, he directs the advancing traveler through
all of those exalted regions. First he becomes united in a mystic
way with the very essence of the great Sat Purush, and so, becoming
one with him, partakes of all his attributes. He then advances to
the three remaining regions.

THE THREE HIGHER REGIONS

The next one is Alakh Lok, presided over by the Alakh Purush
and the next after that is Agam Lok, presided over by Agam Purush.
Finally, the traveler arrives at the end of his journey, the region
of the nameless ONE, or of Radha Soami, the Supreme Lord of all
that exists. Although the name Radha Soami may be ascribed to him,
it is fully recognized that no name can describe him. No thought
can embrace him. No language can tell of him. He is the formless,
all embracing ONE. He is the impersonal, infinite ocean of love.
From him flows all life and spirituality, all truth, all reality.

He is all wisdom and love and power. All visible lords of
all regions are his manifestations - He taking form, many forms,
in order that His gracious purposes might be carried out in all
creation. They are all His forms; but none of them expresses His
totality. He may take millions of forms but He himself remains
formless, impersonal, all-pervading. He is universal Spirit;
universal life. Why multiply words? No one can tell of Him.

When the traveler reaches this supreme region, called by
Soami Ji, the "regionless region," he is so absorbed in its joys,
so lost in its unutterable splendor, that he at once realizes the
futility of even attempting to tell the story to earth-bound
people. Say what he may, they can form no conception of that
region or the life there. Soami Ji finishes his descriptions by
saying:

"The beauty of Alakh Lok is utterly incomprehensible.
The soul, unable to describe those regions, goes on up and sees
the Alakh Purush, the Agam Purush, and then the Monarch of all,
Radha Soami. From one step to another, the soul beholds strange

things which cannot be described in human language. Every region
and everything is utterly beyond words. What beauty and glory!

How can I describe them? There is nothing here to convey the Idea.
I am helpless."

"The soul has now seen the three regions above Sach
Khand, and the ruling Purush in each one. He has seen them and
united his own being with them. All he can say is that here in
these Holy Regions --

LOVE PLAYS THE SUPREME PART.

IT IS ALL LOVE.

So says Radha Soami."

We are now at the terminus of the Royal Highway of the Saints.
We have finished the journey we set out upon, from the common level
of earth life. It has been a journey of the greatest glory and
triumph. It has led us stage by stage, from the low levels of
earth to the highest conceivable realm of bliss. The traveler, the
student, by virtue of his advancement, has changed from the status
of a mere man, crawling in the dust of the earth, to a real god of
such unclouded glory, wisdom and power, that no language can
recount his triumphs. What he has now become must forever remain
quite inconceivable to the ordinary earth man. He may catch only a
few glimmerings of it. And this is the Path of the Saints. Among
all of the systems of religion or philosophy that have ever engaged
the thought of men, is there anything comparable to the achievements
of this Path?

The position of the Master, or Saint, must now be apparent. The
journey to the higher regions can never be made without him, either
in this life or after death. Therefore, the Saint is the Supreme
necessity, if one is to reach those regions. For this reason, the
way to those regions is called the Path of the Saints. The entire
Science is called Sant Mat, or the teaching of the Saints. Happy
indeed is the soul who takes shelter with a Saint and undertakes the
journey in company with him. Among all the sons of men, he is the
most fortunate.

With greetings of love and all good will, believe me,

Your grateful fellow-student,
Julian P. Johnson

___________________________________________________________________

[Matthew Breuer]

James Shannon wrote:

> THE PATH THROUGH THE CAUSAL REALMS
>
> <snip>
> When the aspirant ascends beyond Sahansdal Kanwal, the negative
> powers working under the lordship of Kal are at their worst. Kal can

> neither create nor destroy a soul, but he can keep souls trapped in

[James Shannon]

[This four-part essay on the spiritual journey of the soul
through the higher planes is being reposted by request.]

THE PATH THROUGH THE ASTRAL REALMS

by

George Arnsby Jones, Litt. D., Ph. D.

This is part one of a four-part essay which

appeared in Sat Sandesh magazine in 1975-76, on

the Inner Journey of the Soul back to its Origin.
Dr. Jones was initiated by Sant Kirpal Singh Ji

in 1955 into the Path of Surat Shabd Yoga. He

had a distinguished academic career and published
seven books; he was chosen by Kirpal Singh to tell
the story of His Second World Tour in 1963-64,
which he did in the book "The Harvest is Rich."

He just recently passed on, to the Inner Realms.
------------------------------------------------

According to the teachings of the mystic adepts, there are
seven cosmic islands and nine immense divisions in our universe of
universes. These divisions, "Mansions in the Father's House," may
be conveniently divided into four Grand Divisions of the cosmic
scheme of creation: 1. The purely spiritual region; 2. The spirito-
material region; 3. The materio-spiritual region; 4. The material
region.

The mystic adepts inform us that the exploration of the inner
realms (consisting of the first three Grand Divisions) is the heritage
of each soul, and if we do not go within and traverse these regions the
fault is ours.

Kabir, the poet-saint of India, probably described these regions
most completely in his writings, but they have also been described by
Guru Nanak, the first guru of the Sikh religion, Swami Ji and Baba
Jaimal Singh Ji, two supreme mystic adepts of the nineteenth century,
and, in the present century, by Baba Sawan Singh Ji and his spiritual
successor, Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj.

The third and lowest inner region, the materio-spiritual region,
is the nearest Grand Division to that of the physical universe. The
central power-source of this materio-spiritual region is known in the
oriental terminology as Sahans dal Kanwal (Lotus of a Thousand Petals),
and it is from this power-source that the entire physical universe
derives its motor energies. This third materio-spiritual region is
also known as the "astral plane" in western occult literature and in
theosophical writings. The time-scale in the astral region is shorter
than that in the second spirito-material region, but it is in the
Astral realms still much longer than that in the physical universe.

The astral realm, up to and including the region of "universal mind,"
goes into dissolution at the end of a lesser cosmic life-cycle, which
lasts for many millions of years. The "heavens" of most of the world
religions are located in this region. Here can be found the Heaven of
Christianity, the Paradise of Islam, and the Swargas of Hinduism.
These "heavens" are very beautiful, but they themselves are subject
to eventual dissolution.

The commencement of the mystical Path of Love, the way of return to
our true home, takes place in the fourth and lowest division of creation,
which comprises the entirety of our physical universe: all the planets,
suns, stars, solar systems, galaxies and cosmic schemes known and
unknown to modern astronomy. Matter in our physical universe is in its
most coarse, most dense form, with a very limited admixture of spirit
substance, just enough to vivify matter and maintain life. The physical
structure of our universe is the lowest projection of a cosmic idea
channeled through the medium of "universal mind." The entire physical
universe, with its millions of galaxies, separated by immeasurable
numbers of light-years, is as a speck of dust in comparison with the
inner realms beyond it.

The beginning of the mystical Path of Love takes place within the
human consciousness, when the aspirant has focused his attention at
the third-eye center, between and behind the two eye-brows. The third
eye possesses its own illumination, being vivified by the light of the
soul, and thus is not dependent upon external forms of light as our
physical eyes are. Through the grace of a mystic adept the aspirant
has been given a simple technique to transcend body-consciousness and
to rise into the inner realms. First, he closes his outer eyes and
sees with the inner third eye. He also closes his outer ears and hears
with the inner spiritual ear. When these things are achieved, the
current of consciousness throughout the body will withdraw and become
concentrated at the third-eye center. The body itself will become
senseless, but the aspirant's awareness of his soul, his true self,
will thereby be heightened. This is the initial stage of what the
mystic adepts call turiya pad, the fourth state of existence, which
is the state of transcendental or super consciousness.

The disciple of the mystic adept has previously been given a
Simran (repetition practice) of five charged words as the first step
for rising into the spiritual realms. He collects the entire current
of consciousness - mind and soul - at the third-eye center, and the
repetition of the five holy words mentally helps him to achieve the
required result, and he finds his consciousness withdrawing from the
physical world. His first view of the astral region may differ on
occasions. He may behold a magnificent blue eye, a brilliantly
lighted window, or a blaze of radiance before him. He passes through
this way of light and sees a colored symmetry, with a bright astral
point of light within its center. The initiate then meditates upon
this glorious light and soon finds himself impelled into an azure
blue sky that appears to his inner vision as a circular disc or a
chakra.

Through the loving grace and protection of the mystic adept, the
devotee may bypass the lower astral levels; although sometimes these
are revealed to him for his own instruction. The lowest astral level
is a place of unbridled desires, a true infernal region, where
unregenerate and bestial people gravitate to after death. In these
dark and terrible surroundings, evil entities reap the harvest of
their wicked deeds on earth.

This is not the "eternal hell" of the scriptures [no "hell" is
ever eternal, according to the Masters], but a place of correction
and eventual release. There are other levels, gradually improving in
environment, on this lower astral plane; some are extremely pleasant,
with wonderful scenery and "inns of rest" for ordinary people who are
awaiting reincarnation upon earth.

The aspirant, having quickly transcended these lower levels, finds
himself traveling through a truly "astral" region, studded with stars
and glowing suns. He hears the Sound Current as an unending melody and,
ascending through the stellar sky, he passes through a Sun and Moon,
which appear to dissolve or shatter as he passes through them. These
stellar bodies are not like the physical stars, planets and satellites
with which we are familiar in our physical universe, but spheres that
are far more luminous and refulgent than our physical luminaries.
The aspirant now hears the melody of a celestial bell and becomes
absorbed in its sonorous tones; then he hears the melody of a conch
and becomes saturated with its music.

As he progresses onwards and upwards the aspiring soul becomes
increasingly aware of the Sound Current, or Audible Life Stream, the
unstruck and unfathomable Word that underpins all creation from the
realm of pure spirit to the plane of matter. As the river of life
this "God-in-expression" power exists in a fluid state, altering its
tonal nature from level to level, yet always remaining the same in
its primal essence. The practice of linking with this ineffable Word
is a prerequisite of ascending the mystical Path of Love, as Guru
Nanak has stated:

By practice of the Word, one speeds
on to the Higher Spiritual Planes
unhindered;
By practice of the Word, one gets
into the spiritual planes openly
and honorably;
By practice of the Ward, one escapes
the bypaths of Yama, the king of Death;
By practice of the Word, one gets in
close touch with the Truth.
O, great is the Power of the Word,
But few there be that know it.

THE JAP JI


As the aspirant ascends further into the astral realms he is
confronted by three paths. The path on the left hand side is a dark
forbidding region, where strange rishis, yogis and adepts of a lower
order abound. This left-hand path is the abode of Kal, the Negative
Power, lord of the realms of mind and matter. Kal is also known as
Brahm in some of the oriental teachings, and he is the ruler of the
Fourth Division and lower levels of the Third Division of creation.

However, while Kal has dominion over the lower levels of creation,
he still works under the divine laws of the Supreme Lord Himself.
Modern theosophy and other mystical schools of the present day affirm
that there is an "inner government" of the world, and that its primary
task is to control the stream of evolutionary influence among all
races and nations, while also serving the cause of world betterment.
This occult government comes under the jurisdiction of Kal.

The term Kal literally means "time " and Kal thus comprises within
his being the past, the present and future, as commonly understood by
human beings. However, it is impossible to fix a cosmic date for the
origin of Kal, or to predict when he will come to an end. Beginnings
and endings are unreal concepts, created by man's outgoing senses,
which see an apparent commencement and an apparent termination to
everything that transpires in his environment. From a viewpoint of
higher awareness, that which can be seen as the beginning of an event
in the physical world has previously been occurring invisibly as an
idea in the mental-astral realms; and beyond these realms are regions
which transcend time (or Kal) itself. Nevertheless, it may be said
that the "duration" of Kal extends from one major cycle to another,
during which the composite universe of mind and matter remains in its
manifest form until its dissolution.

It is the primary duty of Kal, as the Negative Power of creation,
to bind humanity to the Wheel of Birth and Death, and mankind's long
upward struggle against the force of the Negative Power is designed by
the Supreme Lord to purge us of our sins and impurities and to make us
ready for our journey to our True Home, the Abode of all love and all
bliss. Once man's evolution through the Wheel of Rebirth is achieved,
his work in the physical universe should be completed; but the
downward flowing pull of the Negative holds the soul of man in material
thraldom.

Kal is the author of the laws of nature, which all must obey while
living in physical incarnation. As the creator of the lower worlds, he
is known as "God" to most of the social religions. He is served
faithfully by the hierarchical agents of the lower mental, the astral
and the physical levels of life. Only the mystic adepts and their
disciples know of a higher God than Kal, and yet the Negative Power is
worshiped by millions as the supreme Lord of creation. In comparison
with the perfection of the true Supreme Lord of Love (known as Sat
Purusha in the oriental terminology) Kal is only a subordinate in the
hierarchy of the cosmic universe, and as such a subordinate he is not
entirely free from imperfections. However, compared with the majority
of mankind, Kal is an exalted being, an embodiment of light, wisdom
and power.

The hierarchical representatives of Kal, known in the East as
"incarnations of Brahm," are the avatars and prophets, whose mission it
is to incarnate themselves in every age in order to root out
unrighteousness and evil, to protect the good and punish the evil doers,
and to establish righteousness in the world. These incarnations thus
bring the promise of redemption to the righteous; but such redemption
is still bound by the time-scale of the lower worlds and thus is not
lasting. The current of Kal, or "time," is endless in its course for
humanity, but souls with the help of a mystic adept of the highest
order may transcend time and space and ascend into the timeless realm
of the Supreme Lord of Love. Such a mystic adept is not part of Kal's
inner government, although he has a deference for all who play their
roles in the ordering of creation. But the mystic adept is an emissary
from the Supreme Lord, and is commissioned to save souls and escort
them to their True Home.

The inner domain of Kal, then, is the left-hand path of three paths
that the aspirant beholds on his upward journey through the astral
realms. In this domain, thousands upon thousands of holy men, enthralled
by the wiles and blandishments of the Negative Power, are to be found
absorbed in deep meditation. Embodiments of lower spiritual powers,
known in the oriental terminology as riddhis and siddhis (miraculous
powers), are the guardians of this left-hand region. These embodiments
are concrete and visible and are endowed with advanced consciousness.
Standing as implacable sentinels of these regions, in order to obstruct
the further ascent of the soul, they will offer the aspirant great
knowledge and psychic power; but they cannot stand before the Simran of
the five holy names, given by the mystic adept, and they will dissolve
before the uttering of these names.

People who have wandered into these astral regions without the
guidance of a competent mystic adept have often been grossly misled by
these supernatural powers; and many of the occult cults that have
mushroomed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries derive their
inspiration from the riddhis and siddhis. There are also millions of
prophets, of greater and lesser degrees, together with incarnations of
minor deities and spiritual hermits, who are stranded in these regions.
Until they are released from the bondage of Kal by a mystic adept of
the highest order, they will be unable to proceed to the regions of
pure spirituality. No soul who has traveled this way without the
assistance of a mystic adept has ever reached the spiritual planes of
pure love, which are far beyond the materio-spiritual planes. However,
for the aspirant who has been initiated by a competent mystic adept,
the way of ascent lies free of any obstruction.

The path on the right, facing the aspirant, provides ingress to far
higher universes; but the true high road of the mystic adepts is the
central path, an immeasurable luminous way which leads ultimately to
the realm of the Supreme Lord. The aspirant ascends this bright way
until he eventually arrives at the region of the Bankanal, which is
the vestibule of the mental or causal regions. It is at the high level
of Sahans dal Kanwal, in the upper regions of the astral realm, that
the aspirant beholds the radiant spiritual form of the mystic adept,
and this is his first inner revelation as to the true nature of his
spiritual guide, whom he has hitherto only seen in the covering of a
physical body.

Tulsi Sahib, a mystic adept of the highest degree, declared that in
the inner realms: "Blinding light flashed forth from the nails of the
Master's feet and illumines the very soul of the devotee." Maulana
Rumi spoke of the experience of seeing the luminous form of the mystic
adept thus: "As the light of the Master dawns in the soul, one gets to
know the secrets of both worlds." Guru Arjan stated: "The Blessed Form
of the Master is in my forehead. Whenever I peep within I see Him
there." And Khawaja Moeen-ud-Din Chisti spoke of this inner contact
with the mystic adept in these poetic words: "O Master! the sun cannot
stand the resplendence of Thy face. The moon also has covered herself
with cloud to escape Thy dazzling light.... In the very Person of the
Nabi (Prophet), the Light of God has taken up a material form, just as
the light of the sun does in the body of the moon." The Christian
scriptures have also described the experience of seeing the luminous
form of the mystic adept in graphic detail:


And I turned to see the Voice that
spake with me and found One like
unto the Son of Man, clothed with
a garment down to the feet and girt
about the paps with a golden girdle.
His head and hairs were white like
wool, as white as snow, and his
eyes were a flame of fire. And his
feet like unto fine brass, as if they
burned in a furnace, and his Voice
as the sound of many waters.

REVELATION I: I2-I5

The luminous form of the mystic adept now reveals the highest
levels of the astral plane to the gaze of the aspirant; and, in the
company of the mystic adept, the aspirant finds himself in the region
of Sahans dal Kanwal, the thousand-petaled lotus of cosmic energy,
powerhouse of both the astral and physical universes. Sahans dal
Kanwal is a glorious pulsating cosmos in itself, and this radiant
region is illuminated by a central flame of the most intense radiance
in all the astral realms. Countless melodies and harmonies of ravishing
beauty proceed from this great flame, and those who dwell in this
region truly believe that they are in the highest heaven. And yet they
are only on the first step of the great ascending highway of the mystic
adepts of the holy Shabd, for it is from this plane that the real
journey of the soul, in the company of the mystic adept, truly
commences.

On arriving at the region of Sahans dal Kanwal, the human mind
awakens to the awareness that it has truly slumbered for countless
incarnations, and it is now consciously awakened to the reality of
the higher realms of the inner cosmos. Sahans dal Kanwal is the final
and highest plane reached by even the most advanced yogis, for the
life-currents, termed pranas by eastern mystics, which are necessary
in yogic practice, cannot reach beyond here. This high astral level
is incredibly vast and awe-inspiring, and the holy ones who dwell
here cannot comprehend that countless more beautiful and far higher
spiritual realms lie beyond Sahans dal Kanwal. But the disciple of
a mystic adept must ascend much higher in order to gain true
spiritual liberation.

(End of Part 1 of 4)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[James Shannon]

THE PATH THROUGH THE CAUSAL REALMS

by

George Arnsby Jones, Litt. D., Ph. D.

This is part two of a four-part essay which

appeared in Sat Sandesh magazine in 1975-76, on
the Inner Journey of the Soul back to its Origin.

------------------------------------------------

When the aspirant ascends beyond Sahansdal Kanwal, the negative
powers working under the lordship of Kal are at their worst. Kal can
neither create nor destroy a soul, but he can keep souls trapped in
the causal, astral and physical realms. He imprisons the souls of men
with the chains of worldly pleasures, and when a soul aspires to return
to its True Home, Kal brings his forces to bear in order to prevent the
soul from ascending. But the Supreme Lord of Love, Sat Purusha, is the
highest deity of all, and He is the creator of all the universes. The
perfect mystic adept is His incarnation and can escort the soul safely
through the regions of Kal.

In the higher astral planes, immediately before he reaches the
vestibule of the causal planes, the aspirant meets indescribably
beautiful men and women, and these offer incredible allurements in order
to prevent the soul from further ascent. However, the protecting Shabd-
power of the mystic adept will render these seductive astral beings
invisible to the aspirant. No negative power of any kind whatsoever can
approach the Shabd-radiation given out by a perfect mystic adept.
Maulana Rumi has spoken of the protecting grace of the mystic adept: "O
brave Soul! take hold of the garment of One who knows well the various
planes - physical, mental, supra-mental and beyond - and who is able to
remain with thee as a true friend, whether in life or in death, in this
world or in the next."

The aspirant now prepares to take the second stage of the upward
journey; but before it can enter the causal regions he has to pass
through an incredibly narrow pathway, a crooked tunnel or curved pipe,
known as the Bankanal to the oriental mystic adepts. Kabir has described
this tunnel to the mental worlds as one-tenth the size of a mustard seed,
and he likens the mind to the size of an elephant in its striving to
effect an entrance into this tunnel. Guru Nanak has also described this
tunnel, comparing it to a passage that is one-tenth the width of a hair.
Other mystic adepts have compared it to the eye of the finest needle. It
is impossible for the aspirant to pass through this tunnel without the
help of a competent mystic adept, but with the help of such a master of
spirituality the pathway is widened, and the aspirant may then ascend and
descend without further difficulty.

Thus the initiate enters the causal realms through the U-shaped tunnel
of the Bankanal. The way of progress extends straight and level for some
distance, and then descends suddenly. After a descending curve the way
again ascends and the initiate traverses a level pathway which leads to
a region that has been termed the "seventh heaven" in Sufi literature.

When the initiate has journeyed to the higher end of the Bankanal
tunnel, his vision and perspective appear to be reversed, and he sees
everything as if from the opposite side of a veil or mirror that he has
penetrated. He is now in the second great Division of creation, known as
Brahmanda (the Egg of Brahm) in the oriental mystical teachings.
Brahmanda is so called because of its apparently eliptical shape. It
embraces within its totality both the materio-spiritual and the physical
universes, but it is far more vast than the combination of both of these.
In point of fact, the three lower Divisions of the entire cosmic creation
may be conceived as a totality, with the summit of this region as
Brahmanda, the spirito-material Division, and the middle section as the
astral realms, the materio-spiritual Division, and the lowest section as
the physical universe itself.

The inhabitants of the causal regions are unutterably happy, but they
are still subject to eventual rebirth into the physical universe after a
long sojourn in Brahmanda. They are thus not immortal as are the
liberated souls in the purely spiritual realms, but they do live in an
infinitely vaster time-scale than do the beings in the astral and physical
universes. Brahmanda is ruled by Maha-Kal, also known as Par-Brahm in the
oriental teachings. Maha-Kal is the higher aspect of Kal and resides in
the upper and more spiritual regions of Brahmanda, as Kal himself resides
in the lower and more material regions. In the lower regions of Brahmanda,
mental matter is supreme, for it is the plane of mind, and mind itself
is composed of a subtlized form of matter with a certain admixture of
spirit.

The aspirant ascends into the lower planes of Brahmanda and finds
himself in the realm of Universal Mind, known as Trikuti in the oriental
teachings. This realm of Universal Mind has been erroneously conceived of
as "God" by many metaphysicians and mystical theologians, but it is still
only the beginning stage of the second step of the upward journey of the
mystic adepts and their disciples. As he ascends through this region of
Trikuti, the aspirant hears an exalted melody, which resembles a tonal
enunciation of the word "Om." It is a resonant and rumbling sound,
reminiscent of the thunder of the storm clouds on earth, but with an
unearthly sweetness and harmony. In my book, "The Journey of Sounding
Fire," published in 1956, I referred to the soul's descent into
incarnation, through the planes of Universal Mind, in the following
words:

"Thus I returned to Myalba (earth), through the rumbling planetary
pathway, regained the numbing cloak of sentient self's desire, to
take once more my Journey of Sounding Fire."

Trikuti is a plane where the soul can journey through a "rumbling
planetary pathway," quite literally a pathway through pulsating planets.
As the soul of the initiate gazes upwards, in the direction of the
"rumbling planetary pathway," he passes into a region of fortress-like
buildings, with high towers and turrets. He lingers for a period of time
in this region, and filled with the attributes of devotion and faith, he
sees himself as the lord of the mental planes. The fortress region is
the storehouse of human karmas, the record of the actions and reactions
of the past and present. The Law of Karma, the immutable law of cause and
effect, governs the entire three-fold creation of the causal, astral
and physical universes. Each person's individual karmic pattern has
determined his destiny. The way in which a man has acted during his
present life, and during past cycles of life, ordains what he is at the
present time. The karmic law works constantly, for "as a man thinketh in
his heart, so is he."

How can man's karmic debts be completed or rendered ineffective, other
than by the long and apparently endless cycle of birth and rebirth? Part
of the answer to this question lies in the fortress region of the causal
worlds; but no one can get there without a competent spiritual guide.
On the physical levels it seems that as soon as man has atoned for past
mistakes, he creates new karma for himself, and the just law of action
and reaction must take its toll. Kal holds the supreme court of judgment
in the causal, astral and physical universes; he is the Lord of Karma,
and only one embodiment can be empowered to change certain decrees of Kal,
for the purpose of liberating a soul from the Wheel of Birth and Death.
Such an embodiment is the mystic adept of the highest order, known in the
oriental terminology as a Sant Satguru. Once such a mystic adept has taken
an aspirant under his protection, that aspirant is freed from bondage to
Kal, the negative power, and his karmic debts-part of which are dissolved
at the time of initiation - are subsequently dissolved through the grace
of the mystic adept.

When, through the grace of the mystic adept, the disciple reaches the
fortress region of Trikuti, the seeds of his past karmas are eventually
seared to nothingness, although the soul still retains the stain of much
impurity garnered through many incarnations. During his stay in the
fortress-realm, the disciple gazes above the high turrets and sees dark
clouds of great vastness, from which peals of cosmic thunder constantly
resound. Then, when the purpose of his stay in the fortress-realm has
been fulfilled, the initiate ascends beyond the black clouds and beholds
that the entire sphere is a sublime cosmos of vibrant red color, with a
glorious red sun in the center of the sky, imparting its crimson tones to
the entire region.

Trikuti, in addition to being the grand storehouse of human karma (a
vast reserve which has been accumulating for millions of lives), is also
the region of knowledge. It is within this sphere that the three cosmic
attributes - harmony, action and inertia - have their origin, and the
creation of the astral and physical universes was made possible by their
interplay. These three attributes are personified in the Hindu scriptures
as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, which are collectively termed Mahadev (Great
God). Under the glowing red skies of Trikuti, reminiscent of the most
beautiful dawn that can be seen on earth, the radiant form of the
mystic adept is seen in an even greater glory, and the initiate
experiences higher impulses of the heavenly Shabd in a manner that
overshadows all his previous experiences in the astral and physical
regions.

The initiate sees the cosmic form of a resplendent four-petaled
lotus, and its predominating red color evolves into exquisite details
and manifold radiant tones, becoming more and more pronounced as he
approaches it. He now hears the magnificent sound of a collossal drum,
beaten incessantly, and its deep tones accompany him on this stage of
his upward journey. As the initiate progresses onwards, he wheels
through the profound space of the causal regions, with the melody of
the drum sounding all about. He now consciously grasps the import of
the celestial Shabd, the audible life stream, from which primal power
all creation has come into being. The initiate ascends through a pulsating
stellar pathway, speeding onwards and upwards, with innumerable suns,
moons and stars appearing and disappearing. Words are completely
inadequate to describe this experience, for the disciple now fully
realizes his complete separation from the universe of materiality and
from the languages of the physical world.

Rising to the upper regions of the causal realm, the initiate becomes
intoxicated with the joy and bliss of his newly found freedom. He speeds
across glowing cosmic mountains and glorious plains. Below him, he sees
wondrous gardens where vibrant flowers are arranged in symmetrical
patterns everywhere, in a symphony of color and sound. Radiant rivers
and canals of ethereal "nectar of Brahm" flow abundantly through this
region, and ultimately the initiate approaches a great ocean of radiance
and crosses this ocean on a mighty bridge of light. He now sees before
him the awe-inspiring prominences of Mer, Sumer and Kailash, the
incredible cosmic mountains from which the region of Trikuti derives its
name. This level of consciousness is the ultimate end of spiritual
attainment, according to the Vedantic teachings of the old rishis (holy
men), who meditated upon the nature of the cosmic universe from their
snow-capped mountains in the Himalayas. But it is yet only the second
stage on the mystical Path of Love.

Guru Nanak has described the realm of Brahmanda in the following way:


Countless the Fields of Action,
countless the golden mountains,
And countless the Dhrus (saints) meditating therein.
Countless the Indras, countless the suns and moons,
and countless the earthly and stellar regions;
Countless the Siddhas, the Buddhas, the Naths,
and countless the gods and goddesses.
Countless the Danus (demigods) and the Sages,
and countless the bejeweled oceans.
Countless the sources of creation,
countless the harmonies, countless
those that listen unto them,
And countless the devotees of the Word,
Endless and unending, O Nanak! this realm.

THE JAP JI

This glorious realm, then, is the plane of Universal Mind, through
which the Supreme Lord has created the cosmic universes. However, the
Supreme Lord is not that Universal Mind, in spite of statements to the
contrary made by many modern metaphysicians and mystics. Universal Mind
is a projection of the Will of the Supreme Lord to manifest part of
Himself in His creation. Man himself, made in "the image of his Creator,"
also creates through the medium of his own mind, but he is not that mind.
Man is a living soul, a spiritual entity who is the essence of God, and
on his upward journey the aspiring initiate sees that the human mind is
still far lower on the ladder of the inner universes than the spiritual
aspects of the human being, in spite of the mind's wonderful functions
and creativeness. Beyond that realm of Universal Mind is that region of
which Christ spoke: "There is nothing covered, that shall not be
revealed, and hid that shall not be known." (Matt. 9:26).

The aspirant must remain in this causal region, a realm of unalloyed
delight, for a period of time, during which his entire karmic burden is
liquidated in the fortress-like dominion. He is instructed by the mystic
adept to meditate for a long time in this causal realm, so that his soul
may be further cleansed of impurities. When this purification is
achieved, the mystic adept urges the initiate on to the higher regions
beyond Brahmanda, The ascent now must be made to the supercausal realm,
known as Par-Brahm (beyond Brahm) or Daswan Dwar (the Tenth Gate) to
the oriental mystics.

(End of Part 2 of 4)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

[James Shannon]

Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj (1858-1948):

"You are now mounting to Trikuti, the land of Brahm, through a
crooked tunnel, a U-shaped pathway known as Bunk Nal (the curved pipe).
It extends straight along for some distance, then descends suddenly and
again ascends, leading you on to a level road which takes you to the
second heaven. This pathway is *infinitesimal in breadth*."

(for the complete satsang talk, see below:)

O BROTHER, TURN THOU HOMEWARD NOW

by

Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji

(1858 - 1948)

The following satsang discourse, based on
a hymn of Swami Ji Maharaj, was published
in the book "Discourses on Sant Mat" (1939,
revised 1970; RSSB-A Books, 73-675 Juniper
St., Palm Desert, California 92260-4754).
__________________________________________

O BROTHER, TURN THOU HOMEWARD NOW

(Dham apne chalo bhai)

by

SWAMI JI

l. O brother, turn thou Homeward now,
Why dwellest thou in a foreign land ?

2. Attend thou to thine own real task,
Be not involved in others' work.

3. And hold thou just to Guru's Nam
This wealth alone shalt thou retain.

4. Impure are all the worldly dyes;
Heed my advice, let them be washed.

5. All worldly pleasures are short lived,
Renounce them, then, as time goes by.

6. Steadfast in surrender to Satguru be,
Tirelessly in this task engage.

7. Withdraw the mind and soul within.
Upwards attend: catch Word divine.

8. Ensnared in this vast net art thou,
There's no release except this way.

9. Compassionately the Master says,
These words obey: cherish always.

10. Why waste thy life in straying out ?
'T will lead thee not to thy True Home.

11. And dwell thou now, betwixt thine eyes,
Focus attention therein thou.

12. Thus shalt thou abjure duality
In Jote(1) attention fix within.

13. The darkness shed; to light hold on,
To Melody Divine attune thyself.

14. The gateway of Bunk now pass thou through,
And reach the Realm of Trikuti(2)

15. To Sunna(3) then thou shouldst ascend,
And cleanse thy soul in Maansrovar.(4)

16. Pitch dark; Mahasunna(5): this region pass through;
To Gupha, then, thou 'lt have access.

17. Purified thus, Sach Khand(6) achieve,
To heavenly veena's sound lend ear.

18. A wondrous land there doth exist,
Which lies Alakh(7) Agam(8) above.

19. There, Radhaswami meet, the highest Lord
Gain mind and soul Eternal Bliss.

(1) The first Spiritual Region above the physical universe.
(2) The appellation of the second Spiritual Region.
(3) Daswan Dwar, the third Spiritual Region.
(4) The Pool of Immortality in the third Spiritual Region.
(5) The region of intense darkness situated above the third
Spiritual Region, Daswan Dwar and below the fourth Region,
Bhanwar Gupha.
(6) The fifth Spiritual Region, presided over by Sat Purush
(True Lord).
(7) The sixth Spiritual Region: literally, indescribable.
(8) The seventh Spiritual Region: literally, inaccessible.

The saints, sages, mystics and prophets of all ages, in whatever
part of the world they were born, have been unanimous in declaring that
this material world is not our Home. They say:

"Man, thou art a stranger in this land."

We are in an alien land, where nothing is our own; nothing is
lasting. We are not permitted to stay in the same body forever. The
wheel of Karma turns: man and beast, bird and insect, god and goddess-
many are the forms that the soul dwells in here. If this were our true
Home, we should continue without interruption to be human beings and
our body should suffer no dissolution or decay. Such, however, is not
the case and the life of man is puny, contemptible and short: it is
indeed an illusion. We have complicated matters still further by
forging artificial barriers between man and man. Religions, castes,
creeds and vocations turn us into separate entities and make confusion
worse confounded in this dark region, earth. A man is not a man: he is
a Hindu, a Sikh, a Muslim or a Christian. Even a Christian is not
simply a Christian: he is a potter, a blacksmith, a weaver. Man is a
creature "moving about in worlds not realised."

"Recollect thou that which is from the blissful spiritual
Realms, but which cometh not into thy memory. Since
those realms hast thou forgotten, art thou helpless and
bewildered." (Maulana Rum)

"Wherefore art thou rolling in this earthly existence?
Go thou into those orchards and gardens, where thou
hast been."
(Shamas-i-Tabriz)

Feeling instinctively that the earth is not his Home, man has
been investigating restlessly to try to make a true appraisal of his
predicament in this "Isthmus of a middle state," and to discover his
real Home. Two principal methods have been adopted by him for this
purpose: one of science and the other of religion. Scientists seeking
for truth outside the body, have delved into the earth, flown in the
sky, crossed the mountains, reached the poles and formed some idea
(even though their conceptions go on changing from age to age) of the
nature and formation of the earth. They have not, however, discovered
the Ultimate Truth by their investigations and have no inkling at all
of our True Home. As a matter of fact, even modern philosophy,
borrowing indiscriminately from modern science, has moved farther from
the Truth by emphasizing the material aspect of the mind and the
mechanical nature of the body.

But the second group of investigators, whom we call Saints,
Perfect Masters, Mystics and Prophets had found a complete answer to
man's query about his real Home. Working with much finer instruments
and on higher planes, they have made remarkable discoveries which the
world is as yet far from appreciating fully. A most wonderful fact is
that their researches, conducted within the human body, which is itself
a natural laboratory, have yielded similar results in all ages, climes
and countries. They have rent the veils of illusion and have discovered
truths that are eternal and immutable. In their books (which we call
scriptures) they have left details of the inner spiritual journey.
Now let us find out what they have to say about our True Home and the
Path that leads to it.

"These are truths on which hundreds and thousands of
mystic adepts are one. Not even by a hair's breadth do
they differ, as intellectually learned people do."
(Maulana Rum)

The analysis of the self, as given by the Saints, reveals that
there are three separate entities in man: the physical body, the mind
and the spirit. The essence or real man is the soul or spirit, while
the mind and body are accretions that the soul has acquired during the
course of its endless wanderings. This earth is the home of the
physical body alone (we have two other bodies, the astral and the
causal, but these belong to higher realms). The home of the mind is in
Trikuti (the second Heaven) whereas the home of the soul is in the
highest of heavens called by Swami Ji as Radha Swami Dham, meaning
"Abode of the Lord of the Soul."


"Thou art such that without the body (physical) thou
hath a body (astral). Be not afraid of getting out of
thy mortal frame" (Maulana Rum)

And yet our attachment to this earth, which is not our true
abode, is extraordinary. When the infant arrives in this world, his
attention is turned inward. But soon he opens his eyes, beholds the
material world and forthwith falls a prey to its lure, gradually
forgetting all about his Divine Home. The child harkens with his ears
and starts listening to the conversation of those around him. His
contact with the earth becomes closer. When he learns to talk, he is
firmly bound to father and mother, sister and brother and the like.
And in the end, after passing through all the seven stages of life,
after fretting and strutting its hour upon the stage, the soul of
man finds itself burdened with its earthly freight, that has been
collected during its lifetime.

"Birth after birth art thou humiliated and shamed,
And art in countless' genera tossed.
Anguish'd each breath in distress and pain,
In spirit broke, thou dost invoke in vain.
Fruitless thy calls for help remain,
In hell art thou cast, in Yama's domain.

Much wander-vex'd this body thou dost gain,
Sway of mind and senses thou dost retain.
Though Saints and Masters much exhort,
And of the Tenth Gate give you supreme import.
Thou art not firm, thou dost follow not,
Time and again dost thou in nine doors rot."
(Swami Ji)

The Saints warn us against becoming too much engrossed in this
material world, which is a land of Kal and Maya (the male and female
principles of the Negative Power). The former is the deity generally
known in this world as "God". This world belongs to him and he permits
no one to stay in one place permanently. The body is a rented house.
It is a cage of Kal and after the allotted span, we are all obliged to
leave it here.

"The world holds us in thrall
A vast and deadly snare."
(Guru Nanak)

"Illusion hath conquered the world,
Vanquished, it all lieth at her feet.
Yogis, ascetics and those with supernatural powers
Never can they escape, them she doth also beat."
(Paltu Sahib)

"O simpleton of man,
Thou hast completely forgotten thy original Home
And wandereth thou in endless births and rebirths,
Lucifer hath treacherously woven a spell around thee.
How sad that caravans upon caravans go down the abyss.
Amazing that thou dost not take heed and pitieth
not thy wretched condition
Awake, O lone traveller ! There is still time and
opportunity."
(Shamas-i-Tabriz)

"What all thou beholdest is bound to vanish
Even as the shadow of a cloud.
Sayeth Nanak, Regard the world as unreal,
And take thy refuge in the Lord."
(Guru Teg Bahadur)

So far as our own activities in this world are concerned, none
of these is of any real benefit to us. We are toiling either to earn
for our family and children, or to serve our friends and companions, or
to enable our mind and senses to enjoy worldly pleasures. None of these
constitutes our real business. The only activity of lasting value is
Simran (repetition of the Holy Names revealed by the Guru) and Bhajan
(listening to the Celestial Melody from within). Parents and children,
power and pelf, wealth and possessions - none of these can we carry
away with us to the land of the Hereafter. Two things alone are our
permanent companions - the Master and the Word. If we have any true
kinsmen in the world, it is these two. Yet our affection for these
two true friends is woefully meagre.

"Seek ye some saint, o brethren
True Nam from him obtain;
And treasure:
For every creature doth this Nam Sustain,
Both hereafter and here."
(Guru Arjan)

"Forsake this domain of pleasure and pain,
Rise to the skies and Sat Nam attain.
Transient and shortlived is this life,
Leavest thou here after weary strife
Wealth and relations, so valued here
Avail us not when death draws near."
(Swami Ji)


"Who ignores the Word and its meaning forgets
Suffers at death dismay and regrets."
(Guru Nanak)


"Most unfortunate is the poor blind soul
Who does not knock at Satguru's door.
This human life, so dearly bought,
He throws aside without a thought."
(Guru Ramdas)

"Sing the praises of Satguru, O Paltu,
These alone by thee will stand.
Floweth out the water (life's breath)
Hurry, wash thou thy hands."
(Paltu Sahib)

The whole world is engaged in carrying burdens that are not
its own. Throughout life people trudge along with heavy packs on
their backs - just like oxen and donkeys.

When death arrives, they give up the ghost in an ignominious
manner. Empty handed they leave this plane, with nothing that they can
call their own. It behoves us, therefore, not to waste the gift of
precious life in merely working for another, but to do something that
will ultimately liberate us from this `prison house'. The wealth of
Nam alone can we carry with us to the next world; and this we should,
in right earnest, try to accumulate. Every second should we value,
and every moment should we take inventory of our own activities, in
order to know if we are really doing something worthwhile that will
help us both here and beyond. Liberation can come only if you look
within and ascend to the Kingdom of Heaven through the repetition of
the Holy Names.

Yet these words alone do not constitute Nam, which cannot be
brought within the confines of any language, be it Arabic, Turkish,
Sanskrit, English or Persian. It transcends language and is not to be
found in books. It is something that obtains in the realm of the
spirit. If words alone constituted Nam, we could easily get them from
our holy books. Nam is an unwritten law: an unspoken language.
Wandering in exile in this gross material universe, we have lost touch
with that luminous kingdom wherein it resides. Thick veils hide it
from our vision. The Master alone possesses the magic key or the
`sesame' that will unlock the gate giving access to the realm of Nam
- a realm which lies within our body.


"With the dirt of many lives is the mind rusty;
And in the company of Saints is it cleansed."
(Guru Ramdas)

"In this cavern (body) lies an inexhaustible
storehouse, in it dwelleth God, the unseen;
the illimitable."
(Guru Amar Dass)

"The invisible is inside but is not seen,
Because of the separating wall of egotism."
(Guru Arjan)

The wealth of Nam alone is imperishable and indestructible.
Steady and unremitting labour is needed for ascending to those heavens
where it is forever resounding, just as it is necessary to work
persistently and regularly if we wish to awaken the power of knowledge
that lies dormant within us. The university of spirit has its own
teachers whom we call Masters and requires the same constant
application as is needed for winning academic honours.

Usually, however, we do no such thing. We crave sensual
pleasures. Lust, anger, avarice, attachment and the ego keep the mind
in eternal flux. Without giving up this material dross - this delusion
and dust that slips our hold, time and again, as we try to catch it -
the soul cannot be cleansed of its impurities and finds itself powerless
to ascend to the inner worlds. All earthly activities ere coarse and
mutable. Look, for example, at kings. Today they hold sway over vast
kingdoms; but tomorrow a war starts and they lose everything. Consider
a business magnate. He has a host of factories: a fire starts and
everything is reduced to ashes. Take the case of a house-holder with
a large family: plague breaks out and all his children are swallowed by
it; he is left utterly alone. The other worldly boons are equally
sordid and transitory: a sudden collapse, and like bubbles, they burst
and disappear.

"They who forsake the beauteous Lord
And set the desire of their hearts
On objects rather than on Him,
Are like leeches sucking a leper."
(Surdas)

"Man flingeth away a ruby,
And runneth after an empty shell.
He forsaketh truth
And yearneth after falsehood."
(Guru Arjan)


"What is your life? It is even a vapour
that appeareth for a little time and then
vanisheth away."
(James 4:14)


"Though life cannot be prolonged,
Still foolish people sin recklessly." i:
(Dadu Dayal)

The first step that leads us towards our Home is detachment
from the world. The transitory carnal enjoyments must be gradually
discarded, for so long as they persist, the soul finds it impossible
to attach itself to Nam. As you keep firmly rejecting material
gratifications, your love for the world will go on decreasing.

Estranged from voluptuous sensations, the mind will
automatically incline towards the spiritual side, for its nature is
ceaseless activity. After getting initiation from a Master, it is the
duty of the disciple to learn what pleasures are taboo and which ones do
not urgently need to be curbed. Developing love for the Master and
listening to His discourses constitutes your own work. As you rise
above worldly temptations and lie in complete surrender at His feet, you
become free from all sins and weaknesses that impair.

Spiritual wealth may be accumulated in two ways. First: by
toiling hard at meditation; second: by a complete and unconditional
surrender to the Master. The first is the easier way. It is not hard
to lie awake at night, to limit oneself to frugal repasts and to work
ceaselessly at one's salvation. The second method is, however, hard to
practise, though it is much more efficacious. If the disciple lies in
absolute surrender at the feet of his Master, he has really completed
the course of meditation. It means that he has given up the ego, like
Guru Angad who had merged himself completely in the Guru and had
forgotten his separate individuality. The word of the Master is law
for such a disciple, as sacred as the Quran or the Vedas. This type of
absorption in the personality of the Guru pulls up the soul forthwith
and it rises within, without any let or hindrance.

But the mind is a great hurdle in the way; it does not permit
you to annihilate your ego. Many a disciple initiated by a perfect
Master is in despair because, even after the lapse of a couple of decades,
he may not have been able to see a single flash of the inner light. The
reason is that he has never taken refuge in the Master. It is no self
abnegation to permit the mind to wander and stray outside to rivers,
mountains and forests while you are sitting in meditation. So long as
thoughts are being secreted and ideas keep chasing one another in the
mind, self surrender is but an illusion and a deception.

Implicit faith in the Master is a pre-requisite on the path.
Determination must be firm, and surrender utter and complete. It is
then that the disciple takes the next step: meditation on the Master's
form.

But first, we must answer the question - why meditate on the
Master's form and on no other? In order to find an answer to this
query, let us consider the entire world that stretches before us in all
its diversity and richness. So long as God Himself does not appear to
us, we have got to worship some sentient being. Now everything around
us has been woven out of the five states of matter or Tattvas - earth,
water, air, fire and ether. In accordance with the type of matter that
constitutes it, Indian sages have divided the entire material creation
into five classes made up of the tattvas (essences or elements) in
different combinations. To the first class belongs man, whose body is
made from all the five elements. Animals, who have only four tattvas,
come next. The Akash (Etheric) tattva is lacking in them. Birds form
the third class; they have three elements (fire, air and water) in them.
Insects and reptiles such as scorpions, lizards, newts and so forth are
lower still. Fire and air are the only two elements active in their
composition. The vegetable kingdom comprising of trees, fruits,
flowers and crops, is the fifth in this order: water is the element that
dominates its bulk.

If man worships vegetables and trees like the Peepal tree or
the Tulsi (Basil) plant, do you think he will progress? Rather, he will
sink lower in the scale of evolution. Similar will be his fate if he
worships forms composed of two, three or four elements. A man, who is
at the top of the evolutionary ladder, is the equal of any other man.
Why should he bow down in adoration to another of his own species? This
line of thought may lead one to become a scoffer and an atheist.

After taking these facts into consideration, the Saints point out
why we should meditate on the Master's form and on no others, by using
the following illustration :

Consider the telegraphic system of sending messages through
wires connected by batteries. If the circuit is complete, a message can
be sent or received from one end to the other. But if it is broken, no
transmission or reception of messages can take place. If a number of
batteries are placed in a room beside some jumbled wires without
connection, do you think there will be any type of communication with
the outside world? Of course, not.

Now, like a telegraphic system, man's mind is equipped both with
batteries and wires. The course of spiritual training under a Perfect
Master, who alone is an expert technician in handling this mechanism,
consists in making your spiritual telegraphic system work actively. Our
soul and the Word (the Audible Life Stream or the Divine Melody) must be
connected like the wires and batteries of the telegraph system. The
Master Himself has His network of wires arranged so perfectly that He
is receiving and transmitting messages all the time. Him must we worship
and adore, for He is in tune with the Infinite. And yet He is so modest,
so utterly lacking in vanity, that He shows us how to attune ourselves to
the Creator in the most unassuming manner. As you continue working at
your own inner mechanism, under His instructions, He charges you no fees
and is always ready to call Himself your servant, rather than your Master.
The Master is:

"He whose heart is filled with love of the Lord,
Who considers himself less than the dust,
And all others his betters."

"Arrow like the Word of a Perfect Adept,
Flieth in directions all.
It arouses the sleeper,
And he whom it smites
Finds true salvation."
(Dadu Dayal)

"Renounce thou thy ego
And turn thou into dust
And on thy body let the grass grow
If in the radiance of thy Master
Thou dost turn into ashes,
These ashes would be an alchemy
That would transmute thee into gold."
(Shams-i-Tabriz)

It behoves us also to follow His directions completely with
full faith in Him.

It would not be out of place here to say a few words about the
real nature of the Master, since we are to become completely absorbed
in Him. The Master is an embodiment of the Lord Himself. He descends
from the highest of heavens - Sach Khand - bestows upon us the gift of
initiation and ultimately takes us with Him to our True Home in Sach
Khand. His only purpose in incarnating Himself on this gross plane is
to shower illimitable grace on man. He denounces no established creed
and founds no new one; He willingly offers Himself as a servant who
will ask no recompense. Nevertheless, many among whom He works, quite
often regard Him with suspicion. They mistrust Him, presuming that He
has some axe of His own to grind in the matter. They are like the lout
who went to a certain shopkeeper, made a few purchases from him and,
even though the shopkeeper forgot to collect his charges, grumbled that
he had profiteered. There is another anecdote with a similar moral that
illustrates a common attitude towards a Perfect Master. A porter was
sitting in the scorching sun, when a kind hearted man took pity on him
and invited him to come under the cool shade where the latter was sitting.
The porter wished first to know how much he would be paid for doing so!
In like manner the Master also invites us to accompany Him heavenward,
to the land that is free from the eating cares of this world.


"Whatever cometh to them is welcome
Be it nectar or torture fire,"
(Maulana Rum)


"Knock, and it shall be opened,
Ask, and it shall be given."
(Christ)


"Dispelling their darkness
The Satguru hath opened the closed eyelids;
The ears of the deaf hear,
The dumb begin to speak."
(Dadu Dayal)

While the disciple is in the physical body, the Master too is
in the human garb and has wife and children, caste and creed. But His
real form (and the true form of the disciple as well) is very different.
The disciple is really Surat (pure spirit) and the Perfect Master is
"the Word become flesh". If you wish to behold the real form of the
Master, it is necessary for you to work hard at your meditation, and
this you can do only if you are frugal in diet, moderate in converse
and keep a vigil at night. The disciple is just like a school boy
"creeping like snail, unwilling to school, whereas the teacher wants
him to work hard so that he can get his graduate and post-graduate
degrees.

When the disciple has surrendered himself unconditionally to
the Master, He exhorts him to withdraw his consciousness from the nine
portals of the body (two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, the mouth, two
lower outlets). These nine orifices in the human body are called nine
doors on which the spirit-current plays, thus directing its energies
outward. When this consciousness is turned inwards, then alone one
finds the tenth door, which is a narrow lane,lying between and above
the two eyes. It is by opening this "gate" that the oscillations of
the mind cease, it becomes motionless and the soul of itself ascends
to higher planes. But the conquest of the mind is not easy. It leads
to the conquest of Brahmand (the entire creation on the physical,
astral and causal planes).


"He who conquers the mind
Is Lord of all mankind."
(Guru Nanak)

"Mind is the Satan and 'tis not without,
But doth within our inmost being live.
No kindness can this imp subdue.
Gainst it by valiant fight hold out,
And to this dog no quarter give;
Make of it useful servant true.
When piece of wood's chiselled and planed,
Both charm and smoothness hath it gained."
(Shamas-i-Tabriz)

So long as we do not succeed in entering into the eye centre,
we remain utterly destitute of spiritual wealth and keep wandering in
the labyrinth of lives. Time and again we come and go and find no
satisfaction anywhere.


"The light of the body is the eyes,
if therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light."
(Math: 6:22)

"In the pupil of the eye is a black spot,
Which concealeth the entire secret of the Lord.
Gaze thou beyond this dark veil
(If thou dost wish to realize Him)."
(Tulsi Sahib)

"And above that, Brother,
Lotus Ambrosial view,
See two forms - white and the other
That is sable in hue.
At the back of the eyes is this domain,
Where Nijman doth in glory reign."
(Kabir Sahib)

"Open thou thy inner eye, to behold
the Lord's splendour,
Become thou eyes alone, shut thy mouth and ear."
(Moinuddin Chishti)

On the earth plane, our soul has three states of being -
wakefulness, dream and slumber. The tenth gateway, however, leads to
a state of superconsciousness known as Turiya.* (*Turiyapad: another
name for Sahansdal Kanwal. The state of superconsciousness, where the
soul makes its first contact with the Real Shabd.) This lies beyond
the experience and comprehension of ordinary mortals. So long as we
are awake, the soul occupies a position in the middle of the forehead,
between the two eyes. Thus even a blind man, if you call him, will
answer by exerting pressure at this centre. In the dream state the
soul lies at a point in the throat, while in slumber it falls to the
navel. Just as the farther we are from light the darker does it
appear, so also dreams, which come when the soul has fallen from its
refulgent position in the forehead, are vague and incomplete. The
spirit cannot function normally and our experiences are chaotic. One
may see a head but no feet; or the feet may be visible and the head
invisible. In the state of deep sleep, the soul drops still lower to
the navel, and coarse covers envelop it. Those who practise pranayam
(the science of breath control) do so at this low navel centre. True
peace can be found only in the regions above the eye-centre. As you
draw nearer this centre, you feel greater peace descending upon you,
exactly as you begin to get a cooling sensation when you are climbing
a mountain and begin to approach the summit. That is why the mind and
soul must be fixed and made motionless at the eye centre. As soon as
this is done, the current of consciousness in the entire physical body
will withdraw and collect at that centre and the body will become
senseless. This is real pranayam and leads to the fourth state of
existence - Turiyapad (the state of super or transcendental
consciousness). The lower pranayam is wasteful.

The Masters now reveal the inner or esoteric experiences that
the soul enjoys while rising upwards through the various heavens, step
by step. The first step for rising within is the repetition of Holy
Names. This will result in collecting the entire consciousness at the
eye centre. The Audible Life Stream will then make its appearance in
the form of a divine, unending Melody, and the Soul will cross a starry
region, the Sun and the Moon. These are not the planets with which we
are all familiar but orbs far more luminous than the sun or moon, which
lie at the top of the physical universe. Beyond these regions is beheld
the Master's Radiant Form.

The mind and the soul now acquire an inward tendency. The
astral land lies open to your gaze and you find yourself in the thousand
petalled Lotus - Sahansdal Kanwal - with a central Jyoti (Flame) of
intense light. Muslim faqirs have called it the Land of Allah. When
sages of the past reached this region and saw this effulgent light, they
gave us an imitation of the inner light by burning a Jot (a flame that
burns in Hindu temples and on shrines of Muslim saints, and which consists
of a cotton wick immersed in oil, contained in an earthen holder).
Instead of ascending to those realms, we now build temples of bricks and
stones and place burning jyotis in them. We prepare lamps of dough and
pouring a little ghee (clarified butter) in them along with a wick, we
make an imitation of that inner flame.

From the great Jyoti, or Light of Sahansdal Kanwal emanate
countless Melodies and Harmonies. These we now imitate in this world
by beating gongs and blowing conch shells. Actually, however, the
overpowering light of the Kingdom of Heaven has no parallel in this
material world. It is this light that is referred to in the Quran, the
light that Gabriel was afraid of nearing, as it would singe his wings,
when he brought Mohammed, the great prophet, to the astral land and
regretted his helplessness to proceed any higher.

"The strains of bani (Word) emanate
From deep within the flame."
(Guru Nanak)


"There's a well inverted, in skies within,
A flame-eternal, still - doth burn therein."
(Paltu Sahib)

"Where the Divine Melody plays,
Burns there the resplendent Flame."
(Surdas)


"The eternal flame is devoid of fire,
And is met within thyself."
(Keshodas)

"Losing thyself thou dost realise true life,
And beholdest the eternal Flame."
(Darya Sahib)

On reaching here the mind, which had been lying dormant for
millions of lives, awakens to consciousness.

From the astral land emerge two paths: one through the dark
side and the other through the bright one. The dark side is the side
of Kal (the Negative Power) and the luminous one leads to the land of
Dayal (the merciful one; the true God). From the central Jyoti ascends
a fine pathway that leads to the plain of Set Sunn (the white Void).
Just as a marksman shoots at the target while holding his breath and
with his attention fully concentrated, so also are you to shoot your
soul carefully into those regions with intense love and devotion. In
this place thousands of rishis and munis (sages and holy men of the
past) are found absorbed in meditation. Embodiments of spiritual
powers, concrete and visible and endowed with consciousness, are the
guardians of the heavenly path. They are known as Riddhis and Siddhis,
and they stand as sentinels of those inner realms in order to obstruct
the onward spiritual ascent. Countless prophets - major and minor -
incarnations and hermits are stranded there, unable to proceed to
higher stages. But for the soul initiated by a Perfect Master, all
does stand, open.

You are now mounting to Trikuti, the land of Brahm, through a
crooked tunnel, a U-shaped pathway known as Bunk Nal (the curved pipe).
It extends straight along for some distance, then descends suddenly and
again ascends, leading you on to a level road which takes you to the
second heaven. This pathway is infinitesimal in breadth.


"Strait is the gate that freedom gives,
Fine as the needle's eye,
The mind like an elephant is,
How may liberation be? "
(Kabir Sahib)

Our mind has through the aeons become coarse and elephantine.
The ego sticks to property, to sons and daughters; it swells with pride,
vain of being a scholar, a learned man or a man of parts. How can the
narrow gateway be passed through unless we give up worldly attachments
and purify the soul?

It is said that Guru Nanak went to Kaaba (the sacred shrine of
the Muslims at Mecca) where Qazi Rukun-ud-Din, a celebrated Muslim
divine, asked him to give a description of the Palace of the Most High.
The Guru replied that the Mansion of the Lord is the human body - a
palace that has nine outer portals, with a tenth inner portal that leads
to Nur Mahal (the refulgent Celestial Abode) in which God Himself
resides. This Palace has twelve minarets and fifty two turrets (thirty
two teeth and twenty nails). The twelve minarets are the two hands,
two forearms, two upper arms, and the two feet, two legs, and two
thighs. In short, it is in the human body that the kingdom of heaven
lies.

To continue: the Bunk tunnel has the breadth of a hair.


"The pathway to heaven is narrow indeed,
Its breadth is the tenth of a mustard seed;
The elephant cannot through it pass,
For ego bars the gate, alas!"
(Guru Nanak)

It is not God alone who lives within the human body that is
His temple; there are also millions of lands, divisions of creation
and abodes of Brahms within. But without hard labour the way cannot
be traversed. To obtain this wealth, devotion is the price; it cannot
be begged or borrowed.

After crossing Bunk Nal, the soul hears the Divine Melody,
playing tunes of "Om". Muslim saints interpret this music as Allah-Hu
(the sacred sound of God) and name the region after that. Hindus call
the region Trikuti. It is the second spiritual region above the physical
universe, and is a vast storehouse of karma - a reserve that has been
accumulating for endless lives. The devotee is obliged to stay here
for a considerable length of time since before he can ascend higher,
the entire karmic burden must be liquidated. Swami Ji Himself refers
to His long sojourn in this region. The soul is cleansed of its
impurities through a lengthy period of meditation. As soon as purity
has been achieved, the Master exhorts you to ascend to the region of
Par Brahm (beyond Brahm), which is also called Daswan Dwar (the Tenth
Gate). It is the third great Spiritual Region above the physical
universe and it is here that all veils, or coverings, are removed
from the soul. The soul then shines forth in all of its innate and
pristine radiance and glory.

The soul here bathes in Mansarovar, the lake of the Nectar of
Immortality, and becomes immortal in its then pure state. Cleansed of
its last impurities, it yearns for the divine Bliss of union with the
Absolute Lord. Next, the soul rises to Tribeni, the confluence of
three streams, or currents, of Love, Light and Power, descending from
the Highest God to support and sustain the universe of universes.

When the Sikh Gurus built the Golden Temple at what is now
the city of Amritsar they surrounded it with a pool of water, to
represent on earth the Mansarovar Pool or Lake, of the third Spiritual
Region. This pool they called Amritsar, which has the same meaning as
Mansarovar - the pool of the Nectar of Immortality. In the same way,
the Indian Rishis and Munis (sages and holy men of the past), called
the confluence of the Ganges, Jamuna and the now vanished Saraswati,
Tribeni, to symbolize on earth the meeting place of the three great
streams of refulgent Light in Daswan Dwar. But the real thing that
gives liberation lies within and not without.

"Ida, pingla and sushamana* at one place
do the three meet,
Their confluence, O Beni, is true Paryag
and there doth the mind bathe."
(Beni Sahib)


"In Tribeni, the confluence of the three
Do thou merge thyself and then go beyond."
(Kabir Sahib)

(*In the Turiyapad there are three veins: the left, the right and the
middle, called ida, pingala and sushamana. The path lies in sushamana.
The Tribeni of Par Brahm is different and it is here that the soul
loses all its coverings.)

Par Brahm is the shrine where the spirit has a bath of
purification and becomes immaculate. It has now transcended the three
bodies - physical, astral and causal - and is neither black nor white.
Its light is now the light of twelve suns. This sounds incredible to
us in this world where the light of one sun is enough to dazzle us with
its glare. Actually, however, on this material plane the soul is like
an incandescent lamp thickly wrapped in several coarse covers, which
create an impression of darkness. In Par Brahm the atman is without
any coverings and is, therefore, radiant and effulgent.

Guru Nanak calls this Tribeni, Amritsar - the pool of the Nectar
of Immortality. It is the true centre of pilgrimage lying within every
Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian. If you bathe in that pool, your
spirit will be purged of all the sins that have covered it for countless
ages. This dirt cannot be washed off by means of bathing at a place of
pilgrimage on the earth.

"True Amritsar exists,
Within the human frame;
If Mind in love persists,
It nectar drinks from same,
Ambrosial pool so pure,
Here, there and everywhere."
(Guru Nanak)


"The microcosm holds the macrocosm,
Bathe thou in the pool of Immortality."
(Kabir Sahib)


"In the body floweth the Pool of Immortality,
By drinking its nectar thou dost lose egoity
And birth and rebirth do for ever cease."
(Namdev)


The soul, when it has been cleansed of all impurities, becomes
absolutely free to stay in the higher worlds or to incarnate at will on
lower planes.

"Free is the Gurmukh (true devotee of
the Guru) to come and go."

Most world religions emanate from Brahm, the ruler of Trikuti,
and only in exceptional cases from Par Brahm. Saints and devotees who
ascend to higher regions are very rare indeed.

Above Daswan Dwar lies Mahasunna, a vast void of such utter
darkness that the spirit, which is now a glorious thing giving forth
the radiance of twelve suns, finds itself overwhelmed by the pitch
darkness and cannot pass through it without the benign Grace and
guidance of the Satguru. In this region there are many thousands of
spirits, each with the light of twelve suns shining round it, yet
unable to extricate itself from this region of darkness. But the
spirit that crosses it once with the help of the Master is, thereafter,
free to do so at will.

"If a hundred moons appear,
A thousand suns anear,
If Master be not here,
Its veils you cannot tear,
The darkness is so sheer."
(Guru Angad)

"The Saints are like proverbial hens,
That lay the golden eggs.
In the fourth watch of the night
When they ride on seven heavens
They become their suns.
When they sleep,
They make sun and moon their pillow.
Beyond the three worlds,
They go into the fourth.
And to thousands of born-blind
Thro' their compassion do they grant sight."
(Shamas-i-Tabriz)

"How many in this dark age have become
immortal through Guru's teachings:
How many are continually perishing
for lack of these!"
(Dadu Dayal)

It is clear, therefore, that a living Master is the pre-
requisite for a safe journey to the regions beyond Maha Sunna. Yet
people commit the blunder of depending on saints and prophets who
left the earth plane centuries or, in some cases, aeons ago. Those
holy men are not able to help the people now living on earth. A
schoolmaster, for example, who died fifty years ago will not arise
from his grave to teach your son. If some one should insist on
having his wrongs redressed by Vikramaditya, a semi-legendary king
of long ago, we may pity him for his illusion. Dhanwantri, the
celebrated physician of a bygone age, is not going to treat your
dying son, nor is Lord Ramchandra going to be the husband of some
lady of today. If she wishes to have children, she must marry some
living hero.

After emerging from the expansive sombre void of Mahasunna,
the soul reaches the Fourth Spiritual Region, which is called by the
Saints Bhanwar Gupha, the whirling cave. This region is ruled by
the great spiritual Lord Sohang whose name means "That Am I". Here
the soul realises its kinship with the Creator; and learns that it
is a drop of that divine Essence which constitutes the Ocean of Spirit,
the Eternal Deep, whom we call God.

From here the soul journeys to the Fifth Spiritual Region,
Sach Khand (the Region of Truth). This is the Father's House, its
True Home, from which it descended ages ago. The music emanating from
this land is that of the Veena (a stringed instrument). All the Saints
who have reached this Region, mention the enrapturing sweetness of this
music.

"In the changeless abode
Of the Formless Lord,
Shall Veena play,
The endless Melody;
And Rama will I say;
Detached inwardly."
(Namdev)

"The glory of the Lord,
Forever I behold,
Where tunes of Veena play,
O Nanak, night and day."
(Guru Nanak)

"In the Fourth Realm doth Sat-purush reside,
And in that bliss the saints do ever abide.
That Home was shown to me by the perfect Guru
Wondrous the dulcet strains of vina play."
(Swami Ji)

"In the Sat lok above
There emanate the sweet strains of vina."
(Gulal Sahib)


"The sound of vina ringeth in heaven,
Where the Supreme Lord hath His throne."
(Bhika)


Tens of millions of worlds like ours are under the benign
governance of Sat Purush (the True God), who is the Ruler of that
Region. Eighty eight thousand Islands of the Blessed are revolving
round this Region, as the earth revolves round the sun. These are the
abodes of Hansas, pure souls who never descend to lower planes. This
may well sound incredible to us. But our position and our inability
to grasp the immensity and beauty of the Higher Worlds may be
illustrated by the following parable:

A beautiful white swan, whose home was the sea, was once
flying from one ocean to another. Feeling tired, he descended to the
earth and rested on the edge of a well. A frog from inside the well
hopped up to him and asked him who he was. He replied that he was a
poor swan from the sea. The frog then enquired how big the sea was,
and the swan replied that it was vast in area. The frog retreated a
few hops and asked if he had covered as much area as the sea. The
swan, greatly amused; told him that the sea was much bigger than that.
The frog then hopped a much larger distance and asked if he had now
correctly measured the area of the ocean. The swan of course said no.
Desperately the frog jumped around the entire curve of the well and
asked if that indeed gave an exact estimate of the vastness of the
sea. The swan again replied that it did not. Thereupon, the frog
called him a liar and a knave, for the sea could never have a bigger
area than the world in which he (the frog) was living.

Now the entire world, which at present forms our home, consists
of seven Dweeps (islands) and nine Khands (divisions). Even this area
we have not explored fully. Our intellects are limited; our minds
narrow. Never have we ascended to the inner realms of the spirit.
We have been petrified by the worship of idols. The Vedas and other
scriptures reveal to us the existence of tens of millions of suns and
moons that are in the kingdom of heaven within us. But if we do not
go within, how shall we ever behold them ?

In Sach Khand, as has been already said, the Audible Life
Stream sounds like Melodies played on the Veena. But this simile is
used simply to give an idea of that enrapturing music, which is
matchless and ineffable. The muslim faqirs call this land Muqam-i-Huq
(the abode of the True God). The Master who has initiated us in this
body, has the duty of taking the soul as far as Sach Khand. Thereafter,
it is Sat Purush, the Lord of this vast region, who infuses His own
divine energy into the soul and sends it to the higher worlds - Alakh
(Invisible Land), Agam (Inaccessible Region), and Anami (the Nameless
Region, the Eighth and Highest Spiritual Region).

"Next (to Sat lok) is Alakh lok, O brother,
Ruleth there the Lord Alakh-purusha.
Billions of suns equal not one hair of His,
Such Alakh have I beheld."
(Swami Ji)


"Then comes the Agam lok, a unique place,
Wherein the soul of a rare saint findeth access."
(Swami Ji)

Cross Alakh and Agam and look beyond. What indescribable Bliss!
Here in Anami or Radha Swami Dham (literally, abode of the Lord of the
soul), there is "the peace that passeth understanding."

"Above that there's Anami lok, Brother,
Inhabited by Anami Purush, no other.
Who reach that land know only they,
For words can naught of that convey."
(Kabir Sahib)

In this Highest Spiritual Region the soul, which is a drop of
the Highest God's divine essence, merges into the sea of which it was
a drop, and loses its separate entity. Life and death, pain and
pleasure, joy and sorrow - all these terms now become meaningless.
But how is access to these lands to be effected except through great
good fortune?

Radha Swami is what has been called Anami and Swami by Guru
Nanak (Anami - Nameless one; Swami - Lord or Highest).

"Beyond the realm of death art thou,
and dost no Kal obey,
Alakh, Agam - these names are thine,
and some Anami say."
(Guru Nanak)

"Supreme is He: beyond access,
The Swami Lord is limitless."
(Guru Nanak)


"Of Swami shall I always sing,
First Cause of everything."
(Tulsi Sahib)

"From there comes in view the eternal Tower
Wondrous is indeed the palace of Radha Swami.
Supremely enchanted,
The soul mergeth in the Anami-Purush."
(Swami Ji)


That region is the true home of the Saints and indescribable
is Their greatness, for They are one with the Supreme Being, yet so
meek and humble are They that They never speak of being Perfect
Masters while They are in the human body. You may regard the Master
as friend or elder brother. It is only when you rise within that you
will realise His greatness. Meanwhile, it is well to be thoroughly
imbued with devotion to Nam and Satguru.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[James Shannon]

by

by

SWAMI JI

(Dadu Dayal)

imbued with devotion to Nam and Satguru.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Matthew Breuer]

James Shannon wrote:

Good lord, I just made an observation or two and got a library dumped on my head.
Wouldn't it be better to just publish and save the bandwidth? And I still believe the
descriptions are allegorical, or else someone's off their medication. It doesn't jive
with the overwhelming body literature out there. And I don't really want to get into
it!

Sincerely,
Matthew Breuer

[James Shannon]

Matthew Breuer (neomis...@phast.umass.edu) wrote:

: Good lord, I just made an observation or two and got a library dumped

: on my head. Wouldn't it be better to just publish and save the bandwidth?
: And I still believe the descriptions are allegorical, or else someone's
: off their medication. It doesn't jive with the overwhelming body
: literature out there. And I don't really want to get into it!
: Sincerely,
: Matthew Breuer

Hi Matthew,

There is no reason to feel offended. I was merely pointing out refernces
in the literature which show that the experiences which you say are
mere allegories, are in fact, what is actually experienced by anyone
who goes within and sees what is on these planes. The Masters of the
Sant Mat are the ones who know every square inch of the inner terrain
and they have been known to corrorborate Their own eye-witness
testimony pretty well, century after century, over the last several
hundred years (at least from the time of Kabir, anyways).

Your opinion is understandable and no one is arm-twisting you to change
it otherwise. Since you posted your opintion that the writings of Dr.
Jones are not what they imply (i.e. actual experiences within), I
likewise merely counter-offered what to me is proof that they are
truly what constitutes reality. As far as it "not jiving with other
literature out there," I again would submit that that is not the case,
but there is probably no point in getting into that with you.

What actually happened, I think, is that instead of posting this to
"alt.consciousness.mysticism," instead I posted it to "alt.consciousness"
by mistake, which as I have seen, tends to be more of a "mind"-type
group (as opposed to a "mysticism"-type group -- i.e. dealing with
direct mystical experiences as a subject). That is probably why we
seem to be on entirely different wave-lengths, and for that I
apologize (I am assuming that that is the home-base from which you
are reading and posting). Both are equally valid states of
consciousness; people move into whatever areas they need to do
work in, as dictated by their karmic pattern.

Anyhow, nice meeting you; who knows -- maybe you may have stumbled onto
something which may have some relevance later on in your life (my
experience is that there tends to be no accident in regard to these
things). Even to hear of the fact that such a Path exists (whether
you believe in it or not) is a gift of the Supreme One on you. No
one was as skeptical as myself when I first heard about it. But at
the same time, once I heard of it, I was never the same again...

At any rate, best wishes and happy travels.

Respectfully,

James

[Daly de Gagne]

Namaste:

Matthew Breuer raised the point that in his view the descriptions of the
different regions are allegorical. James Shannon, who has been posting
works related largely to Param Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj, replied the
descriptions are not, and quoted from a letter by a westerner who was a
devotee of Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharah, indicating the literal nature of
the descriptions. In a later post, James further posted the entire
letter, which I have just now saved and printed.

For one fairly new to Surat Shabda Yoga, this letter is indeed of
interest and, were it not for James' courtesy in giving a full response
to Matthew's query, probably fairly inaccesible for the average person
without an extensive library.

So it is with a little dismay that I read the following:

Matthew Breuer wrote:

> Good lord, I just made an observation or two and got a library dumped on my head.
> Wouldn't it be better to just publish and save the bandwidth? And I still believe the
> descriptions are allegorical, or else someone's off their medication. It doesn't jive
> with the overwhelming body literature out there. And I don't really want to get into
> it!

The question Matthew raised was a fair one, a question often asked by
people new to Surat Shabda Yoga. If Matthew provided _more_ of a
response than was anticipated, it does not justify these lines. Whether
one agrees with the response or not, it still seems to lack in courtesy
to react to what James wrote in response to the original query.

Personally, although I realize it may be too lengthy for some to go
through, I found the letter by Dr. Julian Johnson of considerable value,
and am grateful to James for posting it.

Similarly, his postings and those of Michael Turner's writings from the
Sonic Spectrum, provide much useful and thoughtful information on Surat
Shabda Yoga, and keep us from straying into some of the sectarian
sniping and grandiose claims which otherwise clutter this news group.

Daly

[Matthew Breuer]

Dear Daly and James,

Okay ... I'll make an effort to respond more clearly to specific points of contrast in
the document, and to be circumspect and measured. Here goes...

**********************************************
<snip>
text:
...all other paths of a religio-spiritual nature. This path of the

saints is indeed unique and individual. There is no other way like
it, or even approximately similar. There is no other way "just as
good". For it there can be no substitutes; for there is only one
Way that leads to the Supreme Goal.

comment:
There are many paths that bear fruit, not just one. I understand that a teacher may claim
there is only one way, as Jesus did, or as this teacher is doing, meaning that the approach
takes a singular stance of consciousness, or state of development, or state of mind. But I
would not subscribe to such a statement in a narrow-sectarian way. As has happened with
Christianity, in the hands of followers who are not themselves illumined there is always
the possibility of fanaticism. So I have reservations about this. But let's see what else
the text contains...

text:
<snip to save bandwidth>

The Saint is the Great Captain leading the soul from
victory to victory. It is a long and difficult passage; but the
saint has been over it many times, and he is Master of it all.
He is, in fact, Lord of all the intervening regions through which
this Highway leads, and before him numberless multitudes bow down
as he passes. It is therefore, a long succession of triumphs, even
until he reaches the Grand Terminus.

comment:
I'm assuming Saint here is a generic saint, pertaining to an individual who has developed
some spiritual facility with which to help others.

text:

In each region through which the traveler passes, he
discovers new continents, new worlds, and meets their
inhabitants. He beholds their dwellings and modes of living.
He studies them; perhaps visits there for months or years,
before he advances. Then he passes on to the higher planes. The
journey may require many years, all depending upon the
difficulties one meets within himself, of his karma and the

general fitness with which he enters upon the journey. But if...
<snip>

This journey is undertaken and completed by Master and pupil
while both are living here in the physical body. In fact, it must
be done while they live in the body. If it is not at least begun
while they are both here in the body, it cannot be accomplished
after death. That is the supreme value of this physical body.
It offers everyone the most priceless opportunity to escape from
the entanglements and bondage of earth and return to his true
home above. But if he lets this opportunity pass, until death
overtakes him, he must inevitably return to this life before he
can even begin his upward journey.

comment:
I agree with the preciousness of the opportunity of birth, and working with an "advanced
mentor"...

NOT CONFINED TO THIS BODY

But the enquirer may ask: "How can you, or a Saint, really
make a journey to a far country while you are still living here
in the physical body? You certainly cannot take it with you."
This question reveals a misunderstanding which must be cleared up.
WE ARE NOT CONFINED TO THIS PHYSICAL BODY, EVEN WHILE WE ARE
STILL LIVING IN IT. You are imprisoned in this body only because
you do not know how to get out of it. The body is no part of
ourselves. It is only a covering, a house of clay in which we
live for the time being. It is simply an instrument of contact
with this physical world. That is all.

If then we wish to travel in regions far above this plane,
where this clumsy body cannot go, we have only to step out of it
and go.

<snip>

As in all other cases of travel, naturally some preparation
must be made for the journey. This usually means the gathering
together of a lot of luggage to be used on the trip, or at the
other end of the journey. But in preparing to start on this trip
over the Royal Highway of the Saints, the process is exactly the
reverse of the usual program - IT CONSISTS IN GETTING RID OF ALL

LUGGAGE. <snip> Until the soul and the mind break loose

from these and stand free from them, we cannot take the first
step on the Path of the Saints.

comment:
Yes. But that's the side-effect of being here in the first place. How else can we learn
what matter does without being in it, and learning to discriminate the real from the
unreal, that which is there from that which we're projecting is there out of desire, fear,
need, etc.?

text:

How to break these bonds constitutes the moral philosophy of

the Saints. <snip> We simply must disburden ourselves

of this world. We cannot take this world and its ways with us
to higher regions. That is the sum of the whole matter.
Disentangle yourself from the world and stand aloof from it.

comment:
Again, yes, that's a central part of eastern thought and, in general, it's good
counsel. But also not. For those who've not developed an integrated personality this
approach to spirituality becomes a closet of neurosis and abberation. I don't believe it's
as simplistic as it's being made to sound here. I also realize this chapter is taken from
an overall book, other parts of which may realistically address this point. But, in
general, if a person tries to jump across the gap between the downswing into matter, and
the upswing, without having gone through the byways and seen the merits and dismerits of
each, then such a path becomes an obstacle. It allows all sorts of denials and repressions
about genuine problems to be whitewashed over, and a "spiritual subpersonality" could
develop and justify all sorts of inconsistencies in a person's life. Wouldn't a fully
balanced approach be the most successful?

text:

MORALITY, EVEN THOUGH IT BE OF THE MOST PERFECT SYSTEM
IMAGINABLE, AND EVEN THOUGH ITS EVERY PRECEPT BE MOST
SCRUPUOUSLY OBSERVED, IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO BREAK THE CHAINS
OF SLAVERY WHICH BIND EVERY SOUL TO THIS WORLD AND TO THE
WHEEL OF BIRTH AND DEATH.

And this leads us to one point regarding the moral
philosophy of the Saints that must be especially noted. In
this regard alone, it may be said to differ from the teachings
of all other systems.

comment:
I've read the following and, in general, it does NOT differ from the main body of eastern
thought, although it may with western interpretations of it that are not backed by direct
experience.

text:

comment:
In general, it is true that, without some kind of method, which may be supplied by a
spiritual leader, people are apt to run around in circles in their efforts. And it is also
true that there are inner aspects to a working relationship with a teacher that quicken the
growth of the disciple. But the individual, once receiving a direction and some useful
insight, must do the freeing him or herself. This is something the "master" cannot do. Each
person must stand by his or her own efforts. But, in a spiritual context, this happens most
quickly in that working relationship.

In the remainder of the text there is description after description of lovely places to
see and visit. Many of these are described using imagery from Hindu culture. Along with
these are descriptions of sights of chakras, lotuses, and numerous descriptions of sounds
(thunder, roarings, stringed instruments, conch shells, etc.) The colors, shapes, sounds
described are not uncommon to the mysic experiences of other traditions, such as Buddhist,
for instance. There are numerous internal signs attending the staged withdrawal of
consciousness from the body, and numerous others associated with what occurs after this
dissociation. The name of your path contains the word "shabd" or sound.

I think my initial reaction was at finding something of this stature on an
international newsgroup, where there is such vying for "spiritual grandiosity and
one-upmanship" that this struck me as more of the same. I think this document describes
many genuine internal experiences, many definitely associated with, and others not
associated with the physical body and its subtle nervous systems. However, I cannot but
question the utility of posting it indiscriminately so that it can so easily be taken out
of context. I believe much difficulty comes when advanced descriptions are placed before
those unprepared for them. The personality that has not cultivated self-understanding but
which seizes upon something like your document as a means for an alternate reality, as a
means for avoiding whatever difficulties are experienced in life, could take a definite
turn for the worse. I understand the motive for wanting to help others, but I would also
say that if we genuinely wish to help then it requires careful thought. Placing a large
sword in a small scabbard only destroys the scabbard. Placing a heavy load on a
consciousness unprepared for it is not as responsible as it could be. This is supported by
your promotion of the working with a spiritual guide. He or she will build the bridges
between any given system and the efforts of the individual, and introduce things in their
right time. That is why I took exception with the "dumping of the library" I referred to in
an earlier post. Revealing the entire journey before having helped the aspirant digest it
as she or he is ready only comes off as being grandiose, leading either to denial on the
part of the individual, or flight from what is too overwhelming. Or it leads the person
being exposed to it to believe somebody's a little deluded. And I say that because of the
traditional silence of holy people of the east in the face of those who are unprepared
(there is no telling who is reading here.) It is done out of compassion for those
approaching, and out of plain old commmon sense about what works and what doesn't.

I believe you may have found the genuine article here, out of all the usual "glitter,
imagination and nonsense" I see so often posted on newsgroups. It is only natural to want
to share what one considers to be of worth with others. I am happy for you in your
discovery, but would also encourage you to consider how best you might serve others with
it. The old axiom "when the student is ready the teacher appears" still holds true, in my
opinion. In the meantime how might we best preserve what is most useful so that it will do
the most good when its time is right?

With best regards,
Matthew Breuer

[Manuel]

Re: Odontologist - Professional Know-how Exchange
Italian odontologist Doctor Lucio Allegri
Would Like to link friendly contact with
American colleague, for specific know how exchange
E-mail club.ital...@iol.it
Or write to Mister Lucio Allegri
Odontologist Studio - Via Cavour 45 - Stresa (VB) Italy