Fundamental Steps
Hans: Please tell me the fundamental practical steps for spiritual practice.
Senapat: Enlightened by God the Guru has unraveled one mystery There is but one Truth One Best ower of with life May I never forget him. Japji
The Sikh religion draws the seeker of the Truth to the us in all our daily temptations and help us each day so as to f God without weaving a cobweb of intricate purify our osophical thought. A single saying of the Guru shows him and rent the veil of our egoism that we may truly see God the path of salvation. We have only to surrender ourselves wholly to the Guru-The Master Spirit-and He makes us face holy. No spiritual regeneration is possible unless the to face. The Guru is the perfect embodiment of the Lords love Sun rises in the firmament of our soul Without to sinful lye darkness reigns in our mind With all our sins and misdeeds our short-comings and failures we cannot reach unaided the Transcendent and Formless God men. He Absolute. We cannot go through the difficulties and trials also gives back man’s love to God as he brings us to without a helper a comforter a strengthener the Fathers who Arms after cleansing our mud-smeared hands will and washing our faces darkened with sin. Thus he completes the way backward and forward which leads to God. The Guru is a Cosmic Personality Impersonal-Person who being merged in God is above Time and Space. All power is given unto him.
Worship thou the Guru they personal God with all thy mind
The true Guru is the bestower of bliss He is the mainstay of all.
Practice thou the Word of the true Guru this indeed is the true philosophy.
Without His holy association all this attachment to worldly possession is as dust.
O my friend gathers in the Name of the Lord.
Thy mind will rest in peace in the assembly of the holy
And all they desire will be fulfilled.
All-powerful and infinite is the Guru
Fortunate is the one who seeketh His holy Sight
Incomprehensible Immaculate and Pure is He
O no one can equal the Guru.
Yea He is the Creator and the Cause through Him is all glory.
Without the Guru there is no one and all that happens is in His Will
The Guru is the Place of Pilgrimage the Guru the Kalpa-tree
The Guru is the fulfiller of our minds desires
The Guru is the giver of Nam wherewith the whole world is saved.
Yea He is All-Powerful the Formless the High Unknowable and vast
Ineffable is His praise what can a sayer say? All the rewards our mind seeks are in the Gurus hands
If it were so writ in them eternal destiny He blesseth thee with the Treasure of True Nam
If thou sleekest the refuge of the True Guru thou shalt not die again.
Nanak forgets not the Lord who hath blest him with a soul and life yea.
Sri-Rag
Hans: Yeah this life of inspiration is the Gurus gift. Senapat please I pray beseech the mercy of the Master on me that I may also experience this inner life of the spirit and earn the peace that you seem to enjoy.
Next day Senapat as usual went to the Gurus darbar. He wanted to say something but the Master stopped him and said well good poet your friend is stone-hearted and has no compassion.
Senapati: Lord what you say must be right but…
The Guru: Please wait for a day and you will see for yourself.
With these words the Guru beckoned to Bhai Daya Singh and asked him to go to a certain place at a little distance. Daya Singh would find a hill there on the right of which was a cave. Within this cave would be an ascetic whose week and feeble condition required compassion. He should be borne lightly in a palanquin by Daya Singh and brought before the Guru.
Before Daya Singh arrived with the ascetic in the palanquin the Guru asked Senapat to go and bring his Hans to the darbar. Hans arrived and bowing reverently to the Guru seated himself Mean while the weak and famished looking ascetic with sunken eyes and cheeks was brought by Daya Singh. The Master descending from the palanquin and lifting him up in his embrace seated him by the side of his throne. Tears welled up in the Masters eyes and with maternal love and affection he caressed the man whose frame had no flesh but bones
Lord Touch me not throw me down I am a sinner quivered his famished lips.
No my son thou are not a sinner Thou art innocent said the Guru. The Guru then offered him hot milk to refresh him and cheer him up. With affectionate care and nursing the ascetic was gradually restored. He rose humbly bowed to the Master and sat down. He thus related his story in a week and feeble voice:
Condemned to Suffering
I hail from Surat. When I was a lad of barely twelve a group of Jain sadhus and nuns visited our city. They tried to impart their faith to us and arranged to preach a sermon The nuns preached to the women and the sadhus to the men. Under the influence of their preaching I took a vow and offered myself to be converted as a Jain sadhu. About the time of my conversion a little girl who was my childhood playmate and who belonged to my home-town was also presented to the nuns by her parents. We were taken together to a hilly tract in northern India where we parted she to the convent of nuns and I to the monastery
My life at the temple under Hans was totally different 1 entered the rigid life of a Jain sadhu observing the various fasts for self-purification. Long afterwards one such day while I had gone to fetch flowers for puja in the wild forest nearby I met the girl who was my playmate in childhood and had joined the nunnery. Old memories brought tears to our eyes and we sat together conversing for a short while. We were not aware that we were not being watched by the Mother the head of the nunnery nor did we realize that what we did was objectionable despite our plea of innocence both of us were accused of an unpardonable crime. Punishment was meted out the girl was punished according to the rules of the convent she was deprived of both her eyes i was put to a number of hard and prolonged penances. I was being ridiculed by the others and proclaimed a sinner for I had violated a rule in talking to a girl. In despair I asked Hans ji if could do something to atone for my sin. He replied that the most appropriate punishment would be for me either to be deprived of my eyes or to enter into continuous
Penances for a further period of twelve years. Here I stand before you a bare skeleton after being subjugated to untold suffering for the crime I committed.
The Guru: Senapati this is the living picture of your friend Hansji. He was responsible for all this. Now you can see for yourself.
At this Hans rose and trembling fell at the feet of the Guru and said: It is true that I had been stonehearted and merciless. Hans then turned to the young ascetic and said: You are not a sinner. i alone am the sinner I beseech your pardon and crave that I should be forgiven.
The Guru made the young man over to two Sikhs bidding them to nurse him carefully and look after him. To Hans he said:
Hear thou the instructions of the perfect Guru And see thou near thee the transcendent Lord And with every breath utter thou the Name of Govind Thus the affection of the mind will depart.
The Master further asked him to search for the girl and to bring her to Anandpur.
After a long search Hans found the blind girl and took her to the Gurus darbar. Meanwhile the young Jain bramhcari enjoying the warmth of the Gurus great love and the care of his disciples was restored to complete health. He was initiated into the raj-Yog of Nam. While he was seated in the holy assembly and hari-kirtan (singing of hymns in praise of the Lord) was in full swing the blind girl entered. As the Master looked at her and blessed her she regained her eyesight and her face shone with celestial bliss. The Masters joy was great and he ordered that the nuptials of the young man and the girl should be celebrated instantly Great was the rejoicing of the disciples. Hans was also taken the same day into the folds of discipleship.
(Sikh Review)
Article extracted from this publication >> February 22, 1991
