Question: Master, if I or if we followed your teachings exactly, how long would it take us to reach the inside?

Sant Kirpal Singh: There's no hard and fast rule for that. The more accurately you live it – you'll have quicker results. Some men come with background – they start – if they go on like that – regularly – then they will go on progressing. Another man – who has started here afresh – who has no background but is really on the Way ... If both of them go on regularly – that's all right. But if the one who has got background – goes by fits and starts, first runs like a hare sometimes, then sleeps sometimes; the other man who has started afresh and who's regular, will go ahead of him. You follow what I mean? Regularity pays. Even those who have got background will have more if they put in more time. If they have background and they don't put in more regular time then, naturally, the other man will go ahead. So there's no hard and fast rule for that. You can finish it all in this one birth! The proper guidance and help is there and you are to live up to that.

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Question: I think man's position should be, since he has got free will, to will such a life of praise to God – acceptable to God.

Sant Kirpal Singh: That comes when a man is fed up, when he comes to that ultimate urge within him. Naturally that would be a most fortunate day in the man's life when this urge comes up within him. Then naturally the help will come. Where fire burns oxygen comes to help. So it is a matter of your decision – decide one way or the other. When I left my school, educational career, I had to decide. What? There were two things before me – God and the world. It took me about seven or eight days, all alone at night, in a very lonely place, reflecting on what should be the aim of my life. I am speaking to you about a question that came up in 1912. I decided: God first and world next.

So if you have got some definite aim before you, even if you take one step towards that, you will be nearer the goal. But sometimes you are for God, sometimes for the world. Plus – minus nullifies everything. So decide finally what is your aim in life.

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Question: When I'm doing my diaries, the last few days it seems I don't have much to put down and I felt that can't be possible, that I must not be looking hard enough.

Sant Kirpal Singh: I would say that's good if you've got nothing. What more do you want? When we can put nothing down then it's all right. But, still have self-introspection. Later you won't need it. On the way, we still need it, now and then something creeps up.

Question: When you say "self-introspection," you mean watch everything we do all day as we're doing it, to see what we're doing?

Sant Kirpal Singh: To see if you have love for all, no attachment, no ill-will against anybody. Naturally if you have no harsh words, you won't backbite; you won't call names; you won't strike anybody, is it not so? You feel and see God in every man, they're all chaste. You see Him in everybody, you'll love everybody. No hatred. You'll be of service to others. When you're serving man, you're serving God, then? This is what you have to come to, is it not? Diary is a blessing, I tell you, for all. I have been keeping one from my student life, too, you see. Firstly the number of failures grow more. Don't be afraid of that. It is not growing more; it is only that you are now becoming more conscious of those failures which you are doing. So, don't mind; there may be hundreds. Then weed out. When all failures are shorn, you'll have blessedness. You'll feel purity. You'll kiss your body. Body is the temple of God. Just as Saint Paul says, "It is not I, not now I, but Christ lives in me." So blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Purity means, to have no thought other than God. Then? This is true purity. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see . . . What is purity? Not only to be chaste, you see. But not to have any ill-will, any hatred. Don't deceive anybody. Don't usurp anybody's rights. Where you have love, all these things follow. But there's one difference between love and charity. Love begets attachment sometimes. You're bound. You're caught. But if you have got charity, then? That's the difference between the two. You now understand what is purity? Whose heart is pure, in which no other thought than God comes up, while eating, drinking, sleeping, anywhere. That's the ultimate, you will have the Ringing Radiance. It is going on already. But so long as these ripples are in the mind, in the reservoir of mind, you cannot see your face. If you are still, you can see your face there. So these are things on which you can keep notes. You won't find them given very clearly in books.

There's something very beautiful in what the Masters say. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. So purity lies in that thing. In few words, no thought other than God arises within, that's all. That's it, purity, true purity. When there's otherness also, that is not sufficient; there is duality.

Question: Master, I've heard of different aspects of your life from childhood but everything seems to be perfect, something like you have to be perfect all through life in order to reach God.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Love beautifies everything. When you see through the eyes of love, that beautifies; even the darkest thing will appear to be very beautiful. But really, man is in the make. Some come as made, some are made here. This fate awaits everybody. Every Saint has his past and every sinner a future. If you continue to have only thoughts of God, say for a few days, you'll feel blessedness. When you eat, thank God that you're remembering. When you go to sleep, all right, "I'm going in Your Lap." You're not to leave or go into the wilderness. We have to learn swimming in water, not on dry land. To be aloof, cynic-like, you won't learn then. That is why in the lives of very great Rishis there were failures. A cobra or a snake is very harmless but when you make him angry? You must be air-conditioned, that's all.