Extract of a talk by given by Sant Kirpal Singh, July 22, 1974, approximately a month before Master's physical departure

Sant Kirpal Singh: Yes? Any questions please? You? Anyone? We have got an hour today in good company. A full hour more. Yes, please.

"How can one know if one is true to oneself when one is working at the level of mind?"

Sant Kirpal Singh: For a while you have to still your mind. When the outgoing faculties are controlled, mind is at rest, and intellect, after understanding something ceases to work – only then That will come. So you are under the influence of mind, which will carry you all outside. All impressions which ready already embedded in the subconscious reservoir will come up. We are not always working at the level of mind. We are, but not always. For a while withdraw attention from outside. Be still, mentally still also. You should be physically still and mentally still for a while. If you are mentally still, your intellect and mind are both stilled, then you have a glimpse of the Truth. Do you follow me? Do you follow now? You are working at the level of mind all day. So to rise above we have to control the outgoing faculties, and the mind has to be at rest. And mental chattering should also be stopped, for a while. Then you can have a glimpse of the Truth, not before. Unless you are working at that level, you will never have... Your attention is always outside. You are asked to just withdraw inside, look inside now. You are there. For a while you have to do this. For a while. That's the only way.

"When I attempt spiritual discipline, it seems to be accompanied by a sense of doership. Pride in doing. How can I eliminate that?"

Sant Kirpal Singh: You are right. You are the doership. So long as you are the doership, you reap as you sow. You will only be surrendered totally when no doership remains. When you become a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan, knowing that He is the doer, not you, then you can leave off being the doer, not before. Now we are doing everything at the level of mind, because we have not become conscious of that Power working. Becoming a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan only comes when the mind is stilled for a while, when you forget yourself altogether. Do you follow me? Spiritual discipline starts when? When mind ceases to work for a while. Now we are all working at the level of mind, not spirit. We are spirit in man. We are spiritual, but now that spiritual aspect is working under the garb of mind. Do you see? The difference will come to you when you become a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan, not before. That is why it is said, whether you sow good seeds or bad seeds, in both cases you have to reap what you have sown. Good actions and bad actions are equally binding when they are done at the level of doership. So when you forget and lose doership, no seeds will be sown and there will be nobody to reap the fruit. That's the coming gift. The more you come in contact with the Light and Sound Principle within you, you'll slowly see your doership and ego lessen. Doership will slowly die out. You remain. Yes?

"Does love for the Master develop at the same time as Light?"

Sant Kirpal Singh: Inner love of the Master means ... love is the attribute of your soul. You are love personified. You are just to think of the Master, who is overflowing with love. That will give you a boost. So: "As you think, so you become." This will give you the way up.... Please go on.

"I want to be free, Master."

Sant Kirpal Singh: Free? You are bound? I wish you to be free. All are bound – by mind, by intellect, by outgoing faculties. Master comes to make you free. When you know the Truth you are free, you are made free. You become free only when no doership remains. Take the example of a mill that is run by a powerhouse. The man sitting by the powerhouse says, "Not a single portion of the machine can move without the powerhouse." And the man who is not sitting there, but is sitting at the table where the machine is working, says, "Don't put your hand here, it will be cut." You see, that's the difference. When you sit by the powerhouse, you're free of dirt, everything will be all right, no doership will remain. That power is working, all the machinery is working. The grinding machine is going on. There is one handle by which the operator holds and moves the wheel.

All grain seeds which are put within the two parts of the machine will be ground. Those which rise, coming near the handle will be saved. You move along as a conscious co-worker, you see? That's the only thing. So long as discrimination works, your intellect is there, you are bound. You have to rise above discrimination, then everything will be clear to you. The whole cause of coming and going is our ego. When ego does not remain, who will come and go? Yes, anyone else?

"Master, I have another question. There's a person that said she usually falls in a state in meditation that she doesn't know if she is out of the body or sleeping. How can she tell?"

Sant Kirpal Singh: When you are in the body, you know the body. When you forget your body, naturally for the time being our impression of self is gone. When you rise above at will, you see your body down there on the floor and you traverse into the beyond. That is when you really rise above. When you forget all thought of your body, then you are not the body. But anyhow you have not become a conscious co-worker, you have not risen practically above it. When you rise practically above it, you'll traverse into the beyond. You'll leave it, you'll see you have risen clear out of the body. So this is a golden opportunity we have got to enter into the body and derive the full benefit. While in the man body only we can derive that benefit. We are so much identified with the outside things, congealed outside, we cannot think otherwise. It is as difficult to leave as it is for a painting on the wall to leave the wall – we are now so identified with the world. And this meditation means what? To withdraw slowly from outside, by regular practice. Yes, anyone else, please?

"Master, what's the greatest obstacle to one's being totally devoted to You?"

Sant Kirpal Singh: No ruling passion. Want of ruling passion.

"Want of ruling passion?"

Sant Kirpal Singh: That's all. When you have a ruling passion, your mind cannot go anywhere else. You will try to withdraw from outside and put your whole attention with something higher. Now we are identified with the world, as I just told you, congealed with the world, just as paintings cannot leave the wall. Paintings are on the wall and cannot leave the wall. Similarly, we are so much identified with the body and outward environments that we cannot think of leaving them. This work is done by regular concentration of meditation. Ever since we are born, we have been receiving impressions through our eyes and ears, and all other outgoing faculties as well. Eighty per cent of these impressions come through the eyes, and fourteen percent through the ears. So we are so much identified with these impressions that we cannot withdraw from outside; they are embedded. So when you are identified all outside, in the world, you cannot withdraw.

Master gives a demonstration of how to rise above the body for a while. Again try to go above it, by regular practice, then you can withdraw at will. At present, it is difficult, because we are congealed, identified with the outside things. We know we are not the body; we have the body. We know we are not living in this house. This house is for this body. You are not the body. You know that intellectually, but can you withdraw? This is what has to be learned in meditation. Suppose a silken cloth is spread over a thorny bush. If you drag it, that cloth will be torn. But if by daily practice you try to remove the cloth from the thorns slowly, the first day you might take a longer time, but after a week or ten days that can be removed quicker. Then it is very easy.

So concentration means that. It is no miracle to him who is adept in that. He has had it. And the other man wonders how he got it. By regular practice. That is why it is said, "Every saint has his past, and every sinner a future." And Masters do own these things. Guru Amardas, when he came to the feet of his Guru, became in conscious contact with God, within him. You know how to come in contact with God Power, within? Withdraw your attention from all outside: from the outgoing faculties, from the mind, from the intellect, and body. He says, "I was one day like you, drowned in the abyss of the outgoing faculties, the poisonous water of the outgoing faculties. Now we are risen above it, ever since God's Grace descended to us through some human pole. Now we are above it. We were once like you, that's all." So there's hope for everybody.

It is very difficult for the man who's identified with worldly things to concentrate. Shut yourself in the closet of your body. Step by step. Then from the body, too. That means regular practice. When you can completely withdraw from the body, you may cut yourself and will not feel it. This is by regular practice. When you leave the body at will daily, at your will and pleasure, then there is no sting of death left. When a silken cloth spread over a thorny bush is removed all at once, it is all torn. That is why it is difficult at the time of death to leave the body. We are identified with it. We have to induce – don't think of the outside, give it a little way up. But because he has formed habit and habit has turned into nature, he cannot withdraw. That is why regular practice is required. You must have had some practical experience of this in your lives. If somebody calls you when you are sitting quite absorbed in some thought, you do not hear. Why? Your attention is not in the ears. By regular practice, you can withdraw completely from the body. Then, when taking an injection, you say, "All right." You withdraw your attention. "All right. Inject." You feel pain, but less, naturally. If you can completely withdraw, there is no pain. This requires practice. Some people have got their background: well and good; others have to do. So to think of oneself as body is the most heinous crime. We daily strengthen our identification with the world - with the body. There is a new world within you, you see. The outside world is only a superficial way of living we have got – superficial.

He is all attention, you see. Attention is the force which carries on the whole machinery of the man body. If you withdraw all your attention from the body outside, then? All the machinery stands still. So the ABC of spirituality starts when you rise above this. Where the world philosophies end, there religion starts. World philosophies are connections with what? – outgoing faculties, mind, or intellect, that's all. The self has to understand certain things, up to a certain level, not beyond. You must be reborn. All Master's teachings are like that. You have to leave the body someday. Why not try now to leave the body? Learn to die so that you may begin to live – have an everlasting life. So spirituality starts when you rise above body consciousness. ABC starts. Outer features tell if you are a Hindu, you are a Christian, you are Eastern or you are Western. This is your conscious entity, not the body. There was great bigotry going on between the Hindus and the Mohamedans in the time of Kabir and Guru Nanak. There were daggers drawn. A time did come when a Master (Guru Nanak) visited the earth. Straight of He told them, "Look here, I am neither a Hindu nor a Mohammedan, because God or Allah – anybody whom you worship – is the same."

Now, we're born in the same way. No high or low. Our souls are all drops of the Ocean of all Consciousness. All are brothers and sisters in God. But Guru Nanak was asked, "You're standing under the label of Hindu. Tell me who you are, tell me." He said "If I tell you I am bearing the label of Hindu you will beat me, kill me, eve if I am a Mohammedan like you." Then He said, "To tell you the truth, I am a conscious entity working in this man body. The body is made of five elements. I am that – that consciousness that drags this body. That Power is neither Hindu nor Mohammedan. That Power is the Godhead." Real unity starts from there. It is already there. We have forgotten. As man we are One, born with the same privileges from God. As soul we are all conscious entities, drops of the Ocean of all Consciousness, brothers and sisters in God. That Power which controls us is the same Power called by different names. We have forgotten that unity. When you see we're all equally born, we're all brothers and sisters in the family of God, we worship the same Power and you see no difference, then do you think you will harm anybody?

So the first criterion on the way back to God is not to torment anybody, not to hurt the feelings of anybody. So Masters say, "Well, if you want to meet God, don't harm the feelings of anybody." Thoughts are very potent, you see. As you rise in this way on the Path, everything follows. We waste our lives. It's all a dream, a role we are passing through. At the last moment a man says, "Oh my Lord! What have I been doing?" What can you say? There is no use crying over spilt milk. What can he do? And only then at that time, you see, he becomes conscious co-worker of that Divine Plan controlling all of us.

We can know about that Power now if we rise above the physical body. You are here only for what? Only for this. The more you can derive benefit, the better. That is why I enjoin all of you not to fritter away time in idle talk, gossiping, this and that. Put in as much time as you can in your meditations or something on the subject. You will, just by radiation, be affected by the company you have. It is better to have no company or only such company who is on the way, or who is more advanced. So the foremost thing that we have before us is to know ourselves. So Masters give us a demonstration of that by withdrawing your Self for a while from the body, showing that you are not the body, and giving glimpses of the beyond. He opens your inner eye to see the Light of God and opens your inner ear to hear the Voice of God – Music of the Spheres. By regular practice, as you daily come and go, you enjoy all glory and beauty lying within you. Then you will very joyously go back. The world is afraid of it, but you will be very jolly to go. This is why I enjoin you to put in more time; make the best use of your time here. There you cannot have so much time at your pleasure. You have got a hundred and one other things to be done – physically, socially. There's action and reaction of the karmas in connection with the children and others coming in contact with you.

So this is most personal, most private work that we have to do; and for that we say we have got no time. We always put off. This day an old lady came before me at the last moment. "I know I have wasted my life." She is right. So it is high time, you see. In man body we've got so much time at our leisure.

When you go back, everybody will be after you to do this, do that, with Satsang and so many other things. Now you're all free. But you know what we do? We sit down, we think of the past, think of the future, making schemes. The past and the future take away most of our time, most of our time – these two sprites eating into our veins of life. So forget the past, forget the future, live in the living present. When tomorrow comes, you'll see what will happen. When you're here, be fully for the purpose you are here. That's all. So that when you go back you'll know that you have had progress. So cut off contact, from all outside, to rise above body consciousness. This is the real way back to God which lies within you. This we have to learn, in one day, one month, one year, one life, that's all. Whoever has learned this, he's the wisest man, though he may be in the sight of others a very average man. Develop your own self – no obligation on anybody else. That's all. Have pity on your own self, it will save you from coming and going.

These are evident, self-evident truths, being put before you. We have got the body, we have to leave the body – no exception to the rule. Man body is the highest in all creation. It's a golden opportunity in which you can know God. To know God we must know our Selves. When knowing our own Selves is at the level of feelings, emotions, or drawing inferences, this is subject to error.  is above all: to know your Self by self-analysis, by rising above body consciousness. The demonstration of this Self may be given at the feet of a Master. He gives you the way up, for a while. It is before us in the man body. We can do this in the body which you have got already – in no other body. How far we have succeeded is for us to see. That is why I always impress : be not aimlessly adrift. When we put our efforts into one thing for some time, success follows. If we dig a pit, here two feet, there four feet, there six feet, some seven feet, some five, all are there but no water. If you go digging in the same pit, you get water, that's all. And further, what you can do today never put off till tomorrow. Procrastination is the thief of time. This is why we have delayed so far and are delaying even further.

Now you've come to know what your real work, your personal work, your private work is. It is to know Self and to know God. And for that purpose you're here. So try to put in more time on this work, that's all I can say. This work we are to do – our own self for our own Self. Nobody can do it for others. Others give a boost, that's all right. Come out of this delusion. You have been in great delusion, working at the level of senses. All right. God bless you.