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