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SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT OF PRISONERS
We're Presenting these extensive excerpts from a recent free SANT MAT FELLOWSHIP eNewsletter, because that particular issue did such an excellent job of summing up the main points of the Sant Mat way of spiritual discipline -- especially for people who are physically confined, such as prisoners.
Most of the daily newsletters are are not this long. Often they are quite short. It depends on what members and the moderator have posted that day. They usually arrive on your email late at night, so they are a welcome way to do some daily spiritual reading at the end of the day -- or the next morning.
These newsletters are easy to print out, so anyone who is corresponding with an incarcerated friend or relative could easily share them. (Spiritual literature is one of the few things that are hardly ever rejected by prison mailrooms.)
If you find these excerpts strike a chord in you, you may want to use the link at the bottom of this page to go to the Sant Mat Fellowship website. Joining is easy and fast. We have found this free newsletter to be immensely valuable.
THE FOLLOWING ARE EXCERPTS FROM:
A translation of a talk given in Delhi, India, on October 25, 1998, by Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj. It is based on three verses of a ghazal by Sant Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj. [our intertitles added]
We have been exploring the verses of Sant Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj and had begun verse one and two of a ghazal about "the colors of morning." Today we will explore three more verses of the ghazal and its beautiful imagery to help broaden our understanding of the spiritual path.
The third verse of this ghazal says:
The temple was overflowing with brightly-colored idols,
But, O my Beloved, it was your simplicity that caught my eye.
This ghazal of Sant Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj is particularly beautiful and full of poetic craft. In each verse, he sets up a situation and then surprises us with its opposite. In the first two verses that we explored last Sunday, the opposites he sets up had to do with the evening of life being infused with the colors of morning. Then he brings in another set of images in which even though the breeze disappeared, spring arrived anyway. In the second verse he describes a garden of pleasure filled with sorrow. Now, in this third verse we find another pair of opposites. Here he is describing a temple filled with brightly-colored idols. One would think that the bright colors would be more attractive to the eye. But the situation is quite different. He is not attracted by the bright colors and the outer beauty; rather, he is captivated by the simplicity of the Beloved.
This verse is describing some of the basic differences between the outer or exoteric side of religion and the inner or esoteric side of religion. The images of idols in the temple refer to the side of religion that has to do with rites and rituals. The Beloved, on the other hand, represents the side of religion, which is its spiritual heart, the path of union of the soul with the Eternal Beloved. The soul is not drawn to the customs, rites, and rituals. The soul is drawn to the undadorned simple Truth. The soul was captivated by God in its purity and simplicity, stripped of all outer coverings.
In the outer world, we find some people attracted to glamour, to pomp and show. Some are attracted by fancy and ornamental dress or furnishings. Yet there are others who shun outer show and find simplicity more attractive. These people look behind the outer coverings and see the beauty hidden within.
This verse is telling us that if we look behind the outer trappings of a religion, we find the beauty of the very essence for which the religion was created. We find God Himself. Religions only came into being after followers of a saint, a prophet, or an enlightened being who had a divine revelation or union with the Lord decided to formalize their teachings. Saints do not come to make a religion. They find the truth and they share with others the method by which they can do the same. It is only after the saint or prophet or enlightened being leaves the earth that followers try to keep their teachings alive by reading scriptures of what they said, by following customs, rites, or rituals, and worshipping in holy places. Usually, the saint concentrated on the method of prayer and meditation by which one could find the Lord and the saint put disciples in touch with the divinity within. But after the saint departs, if there is no one left who is competent to connect people with that divinity, the followers, to cover the fact that they can no longer provide the spiritual experience, hide behind a cover of rites and rituals. Instead of attracting new followers through offering the spiritual exprience the saint or founder gave, they have to attract them through brightly-colored idols, elaborate rites and rituals carried out in the temple, and intricate customs. They rely upon reading the scriptures rather than trying to meditate to experience for one's self what the scriptures are describing.
Sant Kirpal Singh Ji used to say, "If you have not developed love for God, then you have ladened yourself with books and scriptures like a donkey. You have filled libraries in your brain, but not a drop has reached your soul." Lifeless idols and scriptures can point the way to the spiritual experience but cannot provide us with the spiritual experience. For that, we need the contact of a living Master who can give us a conscious experience of the inner Light and Sound of God.
Every soul who is yearning for Truth undergoes this experience when it comes into the company of a being who is one with the Truth. The soul recognizes its own essence. Since the soul is one with God, it recognizes its own nature radiating from a saint. Through that attraction, the soul awakens. It realizes that there is a higher power that is calling to it. It is pulled by the divine radiation flowing from the saint. That attraction causes the soul to focus on the esoteric side of religion, the side that shows it the way back to God.
In Sufi and Persian literature there is a concept similar to the one portrayed in this verse by Sant Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj. The image is one in which a lover of God is in a temple. He is standing next to both God and his spiritual Master. The question is raised, "To whom do I bow first?" The reply comes, "I must bow first to my Master because he is the one who has taken me back to God."
In both verses the lover is expressing a great reverence for the spiritual Master of the Beloved. In Sant Darshan Singh Ji's verse he is saying that the outer formation of religion has not led him to what he is looking for. It has not satisfied his yearning to know God. But the lover has received from the Beloved a gift beyond compare. The Beloved has put him in touch with the divine Light and Sound within. He has taken hem above body-consciousness and shown him the glorious splendors within. He has shown him that he is more than just a body; he has shown him that he is soul, the essence of God. For this reason, the lover in Sant Darshan Singh Ji's verse is attracted to the Beloved. Similarly, the lover in Sufi mysticism is also attracted to the spiritual guide because it was the Master who took him to the lap of God. God Himself did not reveal Himself to the yearning soul until the Master interceded and brought about the contact. That is why in Sufi mysticism there is a sense of gratitude so great that one would bow first to the Master because he was the catalyst that united the soul to God.
There is an account from the life of Guru Amar Das that illustrtes the example of one whose soul was searching for something beyond what could be found in the outer side of religion. Guru Amar Das took twenty pilgimages to holy places before he found his Master. On his last pilgrimage, a young ascetic asked, "Where are you going?" He replied, "I am going to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges. Where are you going?" The youth replied, "I am also going to take a holy bath." So, the two decided to go there together. They reached Hardwar, bathed in the Ganges River, and headed back for Punjab. When they reached Amar Das's home, he invited the youth to spend the night. The young man asked, "How long have you been initiated?" Amar Das said, "I do not have a Guru." The young man was shocked and yelled out, "Is it true that you do not have a Guru? If I had known that, I never would have eaten food in your house. Now I have lost all my merit by associating with one who has no Master." The young man quickly packed his bedding and left the house.
(CONCLUSION of excerpts on next p
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