Question: How many different levels should we understand you on?

Sant Kirpal Singh: As a man first; as a man to man. Then in the inner way, you see. First we are man. A man is required for guidance of men. If He comes from above then how can we hear Him? Master should be One Who has passed through His man life. You see the difference in Christ as the son-of-man and as a God-in-man? That's the first thing. When I went to the West they said, "He has got a human nature, the human touch." I'm a man first, of course. We should be man. Man should be perfect all around: physically, socially, lovingly. These are things only to be explained from the level of man. If you make sure everybody is fed, you won't remain hungry.  If you don't allow anybody to go naked – you won't go naked. That's the only thing we have to learn.

And for that, right understanding is: God made man with equal privileges. He has got the man-body. He is not the man-body but is the indweller of the body. He's a conscious entity: a drop of the ocean of all-consciousness. We're all brothers and sisters in God. That's the right understanding. If you think like that then right understanding and right thoughts will come – then right speech will result and right actions will follow.

***

Question: Understanding is greater than intellect.

Sant Kirpal Singh: The right understanding will give you right thoughts. You'll see the things in their right perspective, by understanding: then right thoughts will be the outcome. Right thoughts will result in right speech. And right speech results in right action. There are few who have got real right understanding.

Question: The understanding comes without thought.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Thought is the result of understanding. You understand one thing, and that you give out. It's almost the same, but still a very fine difference. You understand something, then you say something – mentally or by word of mouth – if you've understood.

Question: You can rise into understanding...

Sant Kirpal Singh: Yes. If you can control your thought – it is only that thought that entangles; and back of thought is your consciousness.

Question: Master, understanding comes only through experience, doesn't it?

Sant Kirpal Singh: What do you mean by experience? Define that I may give reply. Experience by physical...

Question: You can't understand... can you understand the spiritual realms unless you go inside and see for yourself?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Understanding is first learned at the level of the physical plane; by learning from word of mouth, seeing or going through the sayings of the teachers who understood. They gave out something to help others to come to that understanding. So these are helping factors. Right understanding is that you are a soul, oversoul – conscious entity. You are a soul – that is Oversoul. That is the right understanding, but you have not realized it. Do you see? That is why Masters say, "Meet somebody who has right understanding, by meeting whom you'll come out of the delusion. View things in their right perspective. Those who have Seen sometimes give you a little demonstration, you might say. When you sit in meditation you forget your body, you see some separate something: This is only a little beginning. When you rise at will, transcend into the Beyond, then that is also not the end. There are veils under veils – physical, then the astral, then the causal. And you are at the back of it. I tell you, these are delicate questions. Unless you rise above yourself, you cannot really follow.

So first thing is, come out of the house which is on fire. That's all. That happens when He is able to withdraw you from the body for a while – give It to you. Then go, day to day by regular practice. Practice makes a man perfect. Then help others to go out of the house which is on fire, if you can. These things are not very clearly given in books, they're just given in digest form. But I have followed it and found almost all [scriptures] say the same thing. The mode of expression may be different; the way of a language may be different, but the basic thing is the same. I got a letter the other day from one very learned man – he always puts questions in a very intellectual way. So he referred to some book – he says on such page it says like that, on such page it says like that. I appreciate that he's a good, learned man. He's an initiate, but his letters are always intellectual wrestling. So I answered him: it sometimes required one page, two, three pages to reconcile. "The basic principle is that God is Spirit and you are Spirit. You can pray with Spirit only, you see." He says the soul does not dwell in the body or work through the body; what difference does it make? These are his questions. He says some other power works through him. He sees it. We are conscious entities.

So these intellectual wrestlings or wrangling, I would say, will lead you nowhere. Some letters are very interesting. There was one – 40 pages. O my Lord, he asks questions like anything – 101 questions. I think three pages of questions – I had to write three pages to answer one question. It's just at the intellectual level. Granted that helps you in understanding a bit, but the whole delusion does not become clear unless you rise above the intellect. So that is why it is said: It is not known by the outgoing faculties, mind or intellect. Be still, then – you'll see you are at the back of it. So these things are explained in different languages, but the basic principle is the same. When we dip into it we see, "Oh it is all the same." You see sometimes the Masters say something from a certain level.