Question: Master, my greatest problem seems to be... truthfulness.

Sant Kirpal Singh: That's all right that you do not keep this reserved, but at the same time weed out. You say, "I'm taking poison daily a hundred times a day," but stop taking further poison. Do no more. That is what is wanted. It is good that you don't deceive yourself, but you're not trying to weed out. Diary is the means to weed out. If you know that so many scorpions and snakes are underneath you, you must clear them out. Whatever poison you take can be cleaned from your stomach. Don't take more, that's all.

Question: When filling out our diaries I find a situation where suddenly I become pretty egotistical, how do you sublimate that?

Sant Kirpal Singh: This is difficult of course, but not impossible. It is easier to be calm and quiet when you are in places where everything is at your command, your beck and call. But to maintain yourself when you are fighting the hard battle of life is what is wanted. You learn swimming where? In water; not in theory or while on land, do you see? Swimming instructions are all right, "Just move your hands and legs, like this." That you learn in theory, but in water you'll have to really swim, otherwise you'll drown. So in the hard battle of life we have to be made into men.

I was in the firing line for about four to five months working under bombs and cannons booming and machine guns going off like the roasting of wheat. Still I did my practices. So we have to learn like that. So anyway He won't let you go into the wilderness and pass your life at the sacrifice of others, no. Wind up all give and take. Don't sow more seeds, that's all. Otherwise action, reaction will go on.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 79)

* * *

Question: Master, most of us here, before we came on the Path, have taken drugs. Will the fact that we have taken drugs adversely affect our spiritual progress?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Surely. I tell you, we are conscious beings. We have to become more Conscious. Anything which has gone to mar our consciousness – that will take you to the lower strata of life. That is killing yourself, I would say.

Question: A lot of us became aware of the spiritual life through drugs ...

Sant Kirpal Singh: Leave it, that's all. Don't take more poison, that's all. A little poison taken can be ...

Question: But our progress now will be affected by what we did before ...

Sant Kirpal Singh: Only if you put in more time (in spiritual practices) these things will be cleared. Put in more time. Don't leave off that effort. That's all right. Whatever poison you have taken in your stomach can be washed out. But stop taking more poison, that's all. What more is there?

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 31)

* * *

Question: I wonder about how to rise above the ego.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Ego? How to lose the ego? So long as we are the doer, whether we do good, right or wrong, we have to bear the fruit of it. Good and bad actions come up, just like chains of iron or of gold. You will lose your ego only when you become Conscious Co-worker of the Divine Plan. You see He is doing--you are not the doer. You are merely a puppet in His hands. So this is the only way ego is lost. "I" and "mine" are lost only when you sit at the door of the Guru or the Master, when you are receptive and you come in contact with the Light of God and Sound Principle. In due course, by regular practice you'll see some Higher Power is working. It is not you who are working, but some Higher Power. You are merely a puppet in His Hands. That is the only way of losing the ego. You, please?

Question: Why do I feel depressed sometimes when I sit (in meditation)?

Sant Kirpal Singh: This is the reaction of your own past; day to day thoughts. That is why you should weed out all imperfections within you. The reactions, depression, of good or bad. At times you'll have boost, you will be joyful, at other times, not. Sometimes the society of others affects. If you come in the society of a very learned man, naturally you will feel that effect. If you come in contact with an ignorant person, then? Become strong; you should not be affected by others. You must develop strength to affect others. That is why I say, never look into the eyes of others. Eyes are the windows of the Soul. Out of the abundance of whatever is there, that radiates there through the eyes. If the other man is good, good radiation will come.

Question: You mentioned in the book "Morning Talks" that it's not right for us to touch others if we wish to remain chaste. But in America everybody wants to shake hands. So what should we do when someone outstretches their hands?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Look here. Children meet mothers, or sisters meet brothers, or daughters meet father or mother. The whole poison lies in the mind. You see, mind should be chaste. When a daughter is lying in the lap of her mother or father, how chaste they are. So it is the mind; poison lies in the mind. In India also, I think, forty years back, sisters would like to play with their brothers out of love. Mothers who kiss their children never dreamt of anything. Now because of the values they have got, now everything is different. Now if a father is sitting by the daughter, they will say, "Oh, what is going on?" It is a poison of the mind. I have seen in the West, it is a custom, they shake hands, all right. To kiss also that's a custom. But all the time they don't mean it. Or if a daughter kisses father do you mean to say they are going around?

* * *

Question: I can, for example, go for many weeks feeling very loving, and everything goes smoothly and nice, and then one morning I wake up thinking all kinds of stupid thoughts which should not run in my brain.

Sant Kirpal Singh: When you sit by snow or ice there's no heat left. You come in contact with that higher Power not as a matter of assumption. So without seeing that He is all round, He is everywhere, and you don't see Him actually working, then that's the fault. If you see, then nothing will happen like that – you will have no ego troubles. Sometimes thoughts come up because all heat is not gone from you. In the beginning you have to weed out all your imperfections for, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." So purity of heart consists of good thoughts, good words and good deeds: righteousness. For that we have to prepare ourselves. To get to God is not difficult, but to make a man is difficult. You see? Our subconscious mind is not devoid of all these lower things. Sometimes, you sit and you get some bliss, but again that thing comes up. So unless the reservoir is cleared, these things keep coming up. So have conscious contact with God-into-Expression – I have been especially laying stress on that. If you are seeing something, sometimes it is a matter of inference I tell you, or it is a matter of feelings. So feelings and drawing inferences are different things from seeing. So can you see that God-into-Expression Power? That's the point. "If thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of Light." Do you find Light there?

Question: Yes, I do.

Sant Kirpal Singh: That's all right; then just remain in contact longer and weed out all imperfections from day to day.

(From the book "Light of Kirpal", chapter 84)

* * *