What can other people know of the condition of one’s heart? If the enigma of the mystery of life enters the heart, the person knows no peace until it has been solved.

Sant Kirpal Singh

The inner and outer man

By Sant Kirpal Singh, Sant Bani Ashram, USA,  11 October, 1963

Talk available as mp3 at www.audio.sant-kirpal-singh.org
You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Fb0tKzz1Y
with English subtitles


You Tube Talk - The inner and outer manReligions were made by man for his moral and spiritual uplift. These were made for man, and man was not made for them. The purpose of joining the religion is to know God, which is the highest ideal before us. Manbody is the golden opportunity that we have got, in which we can know Him, and in no other body. So all of us who are sitting here are fortunate that we have got the manbody and we have also joined various religions to achieve that object of life which we have got before us. We have to see now, how far we have succeeded in achieving the object of life which is before us.

Time does come that we have to leave the body. Body is not permanent, it is made of matter. Matter is made of elements and atoms, this is a composition of so many things which will decompose some time. So matter is changing, you see. We are the indweller of the body, the manbody. We are not the body, but we are the indweller of the body. What are we? We are conscious entities, conscious beings. This conscious being or our own self, as you might say, is made of one substance only and that is consciousness. What is made of one substance, naturally that has not to decompose or disintegrate. This is everlasting, unchangeable. But the body that we are carrying that is changing every moment of life. It has been said that the very particles of our bones are replaced, are renewed in seven years. So the whole universe is also made of matter, and matter is changing at the same speed as our body, which is made of matter, is changing. But God is all consciousness that is made of one substance, and as such cannot be decomposed or disintegrated – that is everlasting. So God is everlasting, unchangeable permanence, and similarly, our soul being of the same essence as that of God is also eternal. But the body that we are carrying is changing.

You will find, all Masters have said the same thing in their own language. Soamiji tells us, "Well, o soul, thou are the essence of something which is eternal." Similarly in Guru Granth Sahib it is said: "We are spirit in man. And the spirit is everlasting, why do we fear that we have to die?" So we are also eternal. Our soul being a conscious entity, its true home is naturally the one which is all consciousness, the true home of our Father. But it has been environed with mind and matter and outgoing faculties, and identified with them so much so that we cannot differentiate our self from the body.

The body is changing. We have identified ourselves with the body so that we now think we are everlasting, but that is a reflection of God within us. We never think of dying. Soul can never die, but it has to leave the body some day, you see. Our daily experiences show that our body is working so long as we are in the body, and we are in the body so long as some controlling power is keeping us in the body.

Manbody is a wonderful house we live in. It has got nine apertures: Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, and the genital organs, but we cannot run away out of it. It is a wonderful house we live in. Breathing goes out and it is again pushed back into the body, it cannot remain outside. There is some power controlling it back into the body. That very controlling power is called by different names: God, – and so many names.

So in the manbody we can know God, but first we have to know our own self because it is the soul only who can know God. Like knows the like. But as I told you we are so much identified  with mind, matter and outgoing faculties that we cannot differentiate our self from the body. We say so many things: "I am not the body, I am not the intellect, I am not the vital airs (pranas)", but can we analyse ourselves? We say, "It is my coat, it is my watch, it is my hat." You can put it off, at will. We also say, "That is my body." Can we shake it off? But we do see that time does come, when we have to leave the body, and this body is carried by people to the cremation place or to the grave, according to the customs prevailing in all religions.

So what is that which is enlivening this body, and that we are? All Masters say that this world is temporary, not lasting. We are all under a grand delusion, the learned and the unlearned, the old and the young, the rich and the poor. Why are we under that grand delusion? Because we have not known ourselves. We are the indweller of the body. Body is made of matter and is changing at the same speed as the whole world (around us) is changing. As we are identified with the body which is changing, and the whole world is also changing being made of matter, we think (it is stationary). When two things are moving at the same speed, those who are identified with them, they say, it is stationary. You may take two trains that are running, we are sitting in the trains and the trains are going the same way both, at the same speed, – sometimes it does happen. The men sitting in both the trains think: "O, we are sitting still here," although both trains are running fast. This is the delusion from which we have to come out.

Guru Nanak says: "So long as we do not know ourselves, we are all under grand delusion." How can we come out of this delusion? Simply, you know, how to leave the trains? The one sitting in one train goes out, he will be sure, "O, the train is very fast!" This is the delusion in which we all are. That has been the slogan with all Masters who came in the past. Christ said, "Know thyself!" Guru Nanak also said the same thing, the Upanishads say, "Know thyself!" Old Greeks also laid down the same thing: "Gnothi seauton."

So the purpose why Masters come is to awaken us: "Well, o man, you are identified with the body, and the outgoing faculties, and the enjoyments so much so that you have forgotten yourself." Manbody is the highest in all creation in which you can know yourself. How? By coming out of this delusion – by self-analysis, by rising above body-consciousness.

So, how to do? That's the point! We do leave the body some day, all, no exception to the rule, but if we now know how to leave the body, then this mystery of life is solved. If we know how to leave the body, we will come to know what is that power which is controlling us in the body. We become conscious co-worker of the divine plan. All Masters have been saying like that. Maulana Rumi said, "Well, soul, you are the resident of the true home of your Father which is everlasting, unchangeable permanence. You are stuck fast in dust and matter. Why don't you awake?" He says further, "It is a shame for you," – he is using the word 'shame' – "being the son of God, being the daughter of God, you see, away from your home, you are led away by mind and outgoing faculties, long away from Him. Where you are, just in a foreign country, you forget your home altogether. So think of your home, and who you are!" And how can we do that? In the scriptures we find, "Be still, and know that you are God!" We are spirit in man, we are conscious entities but identified with mind, body, and outgoing faculties so much that we have forgotten ourselves. One saint said that you have committed a heinous crime against your own self. What is that heinous crime? You are the indweller of the body and you have forgotten the indweller, your own self!

Now whatever we are doing we are doing at the level of the manbody. If you would ask a small child of three or four years old, "Who are you?" he opens his eyes, opens his mouth. He is experiencing something here (behind the forehead). As he grows in years you ask him again, "Who are you?" he says, "I am Mister Smith, I am Mister Josef, I am an American, I am a French, I am a German, I am an Indian." He has forgotten who he is. This is the delusion, you see. Forgetfulness or ignorance you might say, from which we have to come out. You can come out only when you analyse your self from the body.

All Masters who have come, they have been telling us the same thing, of course in their own language which was prevalent at that time when they came. In the scriptures we find: "Lay by thy treasures in heaven!" You see? "The treasures laying here will be eaten by moths and rust, and that is a place where no moths and rust can affect. There is something to store." Again they say, "Unless you lose your own self, you see, you cannot have everlasting life." We are living a superficial life at the level of manbody and we never dipped inside to see what we are, who we are. We are pinning ourselves to the outer casings of the walnut not caring for the kernel within.

Man has got three aspects: It has the manbody which is made of matter, it has the intellect, and man is soul – embodied soul. So we are fortunate, we have got the manbody. We have made a great progress physically in having outer possessions. Intellectually we are also making wonderful inventions, but with all that, whenever we ask anybody, "Well, how are you getting on spiritually?" he even asks – "What do you speak of?" We are living our lives of "eat and drink and be merry", an Epicurean way of life, never caring for our own self.

There are values of life, some are most important, some are less important, and some are the least important. So manbody is a gift from God, the highest rung in creation, the golden opportunity that we have got because in manbody only we can know God. Kabir says, "Maintain it as long as you can. Once it has passed out of your hands it is very difficult to get a manbody." Old Rishis have tried hard, they lived up to at least hundred years. Another Master said, "Well, maintain this horse which you are riding on!" – "A strong mind in a strong body." So body must be cared for, it is not to be left alone. But at the same time we must see that we are not the body, we are the indweller of the body. You will find, "Is not the body more than the raiment, and the life more than the meat?" Are not the possessions that we have got less important than our own body? And are we not still more important than our body? If the house is on fire and you have escaped, you say, "Thank God, I am saved!" So body is more valuable than the possessions. If any accident happens – you might pray for, God forbid! – we say, "Thank God, I am saved!" Our own life is more valuable than the body. But how are we behaving? Whole the time, twenty-four hours of the day and night we are caring for having possessions outside or maintaining our body only. Never we care a fig for our own self. Who will tell us we are wise, you see?

So you are the most valuable treasure in this manbody. God has kept it, shut up in different boxes, you might say. Any valuable diamond, I think, you keep it in one casket, then in a second, then in a third one. Similarly, God has kept the form of Christ within us – our own self, and that controlling power which is controlling us in the body. First is the iron casket, this physical body. Within that there is the astral body, still further we have got the causal body. So these are the three caskets, and being most valuable we are just kept inside. We have to shake off these to know our own self.

Prophet Mohammed says, "God says, I am the treasure hidden within you." You are God in man, you are spirit in man. When we are able to shake off these caskets, you know: "Father is in me and I am in the Father – I and my Father are one." – "Son is dyed in the colour of the Father, Father speaks through the son." This you will have experienced, but when? When you shake off this body. So macrocosm is in the microcosm of the manbody. We have to solve this mystery of life: what we are, who we are.

We have got certain values of life, we are advanced wonderfully physically, intellectually. But we have done little or nothing about our own self. With all these advancements physically, we have just found out so many systems, how to maintain the body, how it works, how it goes out of order, how it can be set right again. We have got so many systems, the oldest is the Ayurveda system, then comes the Unani system, then comes Allopathy, then Homeopathy, Naturalpathy, and many others, these are only to maintain your body.

Intellectually we are advanced wonderfully. We can hear the voices from thousands of miles through radios. We can now also hear and see who is speaking through television. The world has become small on account of the planes. In hours we can traverse from one end to the other end of the world. We can also go round the world in some hours. Wonderful! Now (1963) we are trying to reach the moon! But with all these advancements, are we happy? No! Every man is unhappy. Guru Nanak says, "Whole the world is unhappy." Kabir says, "I have not seen one man who is happy after coming into the manbody." And Tulsi says, "All are unhappy, either physically, financially or mentally." So is there any hope for a man becoming happy? We are all after happiness, is it not? We are earning money, we are having possessions, we are having buildings, we marry, we have children, only for what? For the sake of happiness! But we do not find happiness, still it is there. Real happiness is within you. So with all these advancements we have not been able to be happy. The reason is, the third side, our own self, the spiritual side is uncared for. If we say certain prayers, read certain scriptures or perform one way or the other rites and rituals, these are good actions. Reading scriptures, advancing intellectually is only a diet or a food to your brain, to the intellect. And from the physical food you give to the body, you become physically and intellectually strong. What have you given to your own soul? There is a bread of life and water of life. If we can have that, we can also become spiritually strong.

From where can we have that bread of life? Tulsi says, "Well, you should sit at the feet of a Master, so you can become happy. You will have the bread of life and the water of life. I hope you remember Jesus Christ when he went to a well, there was one Samaritan lady who had a pitcher full of water on her head. He asked her to give him some water to drink. But she said, "Well, strange enough, we are Samaritans. You people (the Jews) have nothing to do with Samaritans, why you ask me for water?" He said, had she known who he was who asked her for water, she would have given it to him. Then he told her, "Well, this water that you are carrying that only stills your thirst for a while. Again you thirst, again and again. But had you come to me, I would have given you the living water of life which would have finished your thirst forever." Then again he said, "I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life and this bread of life has come from heaven. Whoever eats me and drinks me has everlasting life." (Joh. 6,48 - 58) So a Master – you may say, at the human pole God is speaking, who is the mouthpiece of God – he can give you the bread of life and the water of life. And what is that bread of life or water of life? You will find (in the Gospel of Saint John), "Word was made flesh and dwelled amongst us." And what is the Word? God is wordless. Absolute God that has not come into being as yet. When it came into being, into expression, into action, that God-in-action-Power is called Word, Naam or Shabd. That is the cause of all creation. "In the beginning was the Word, Word was with God, and Word was God. The whole creation came up after the Word." And where is that Word? "Thy Word is settled in heaven." This Word is the bread of life which has come from heaven, you see. Where it has manifested, materialized in some human pole (Master), he can contact your soul and withdraw it from the mind and matter and give that bread of life to you. So you can be happy only if you have the bread of life and the water of life. I am quoting to you these things from the Bible because you people are more conversant with the Bible (than with other scriptures). Exactly the same words we find in the sayings of other scriptures, too – in their own language, of course.

So unless or until we have got spiritual progress, and have got the food of life, the bread of life, we are not happy. We have made so many inventions, and we are now in danger of atomic war. Thank God, that by His pity it has been shunned by now, you see. But still our own intellect has gone against us. Had we known our self first, well, all these things would have gone to help the humanity. Because we have known little or nothing about our own self, these very things are now hovering around us. Any moment it (such a war) starts, the world will end.

In a manbody only we can have this bread of life. Who can give you this bread of life? Who is Word-made-flesh. It is the God-in-man, God-in-action, manifested in man which can give you a contact with God, the Word, you see. For this purpose we have joined various religions. These are the basic teachings given by all Masters whenever they came. Those who met them, they had the bread of life and the water of life. How could they have it? By rising above body-consciousness, by analysing oneself from mind, body, and outgoing faculties. It is a matter of pure self-analysis.

Religion truly means: "re" means back (in Latin), "ligio" comes from the root "ligare" – to bind. "To bind back our souls to God again"; this is what is meant by "religion". One is the social side of religions. They have got their own customs, their own rituals, rites, and their own modes of prayer. These are all good actions. They lay down that we should read scriptures of our own. Well, what are scriptures? They are fine records of the findings, of the experiences of the Masters who came in the past, that they had with God and in knowing themselves, what things stood in the way, what were the helping factors. So this is a fine record of all that. You might say, past Masters (are) speaking through books. That creates in us an interest to have the same experiences that they had in their lives. And unless we have got the same experience, we cannot be fully satisfied. That creates an awakening in us, a desire or a craving in us to know God. They can create an interest, but cannot take us to have these ... experiences that they had. Saying prayers and performing certain rites and rituals, they are good actions, they develop in us love and devotion for God. They are good actions, they are for the preparation of the ground.

Kabir says, "Well, it is a pity, that manbody we have got, the highest in all creation, the golden opportunity we have got (but we do not use it)." He said, "O soul awake! If you do not awake now in the manbody, when will you awake?" Old Vedas say the same thing: "Awake, arise and stop not until the goal is reached!" The very words they are using! Rishis used the same words thousands of years back and Kabir only five hundred years back, you see. The same words were expressed by Guru Arjan Dev. He says, "Awake, stand up; awake, stand up, you are on the way back to God. Why you delay?" So what is this awakening? We are asleep. Where? At the level of the manbody and the outgoing faculties by identifying ourselves with that so much so that we are awake outside and asleep within. And that controlling power which is keeping us in the body we don't know. He is also within us. Guru Arjan says, "Two brothers are living in the same house, but alas! The brother does not talk with the other brother." And who are they?  Our soul and Oversoul above. He is the controlling power keeping us in the body. Another Saint says, "Soul and Oversoul – God – are asleep in the same bed. But the soul is just identified with the outgoing faculties, enjoyments so much so that she is awake outside but asleep within. And God is waiting for her when she opens her eyes." God is anxious to have us. But we are quite ignorant about it. Child is playing outside in dust with the children like anything and mother is waiting for the child to come back and to have the food. It is something like that, you see. That is why Masters say, "Be like little children, for the Kingdom of God is for the children." Children have love for all. If the child of a king and the child of a man going by in the street, if they both are let alone, they will embrace each other, they will love each other and enjoy themselves. There is no duality, no question of high or low, no distinction. And we people? We are rich, we are more learned, we are higher, the others are lower. So this is what is meant by "we should be (like) a child", you see.

I mean to say that the ultimate goal before us is to know God. For that purpose we have joined various schools or colleges of religions. We have to see whether we have attained that object or not. In all religions Masters have come, you see. By a parallel study of religions you will find that all said the same thing, of course in their own language which was prevalent at the time. So to say that one religion has only the reserved right to know God, actually history does not prove it. Well, they say the same thing, that you should have respect for all men! And what are the Masters? They are speaking – it is God speaking through them. "I and my Father are one." So they have known the truth, that Godpower is working through a manbody. Well, he who knows the truth, can let others know the truth. "Son knows the Father and others whom the son reveals." Tulsi said, "If you want to be happy, then sit at the feet of a Master."

What is He (the Master)? He is a man like you, having the same two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet, born the same way, inner construction of the body is the same. But there is a vast difference between Him and an average man: (Unlike Him) our souls are under the control of mind, mind is under the control of the outgoing faculties, and the outgoing faculties are drawn by enjoyments outside. We are not at our will and pleasure, we are not free, we are dragged like anything. Guru Arjan refers to an instance: Suppose there is a house, and there is a houselady there. And she has got some maid servants, four or five. And no maid servant obeys her orders. What will be the state of the house, if nobody is caring for the houselady, what she says? So the first thing is that those servants given to us, they must obey our orders. We should not be dragged down by them, but they should be under our control. We are the indweller of the house – the houselady, you see. There are five servants given to us: these outgoing faculties. There are five conscious outgoing faculties working through the gross outgoing faculties: Sight through the eyes, audition through the ears, smell through the nose, taste through the tongue and touch through the skin. These five servants have been dragging us outside, every moment of life. Sometimes you feel – we don't like to do something but we are drawn like anything to these outgoing faculties. So we must control these servants first. You must see, but at the same time with your eyes remaining open you should not see (if you do not want to see). Have control over your sight! You have got open ears, but you must have control over your ears! Even while sitting in multitudes you should not hear....

You know what is that will? Attention is the outward expression of our soul, you see. So from attention these outgoing faculties work. You must have got this experience from from day to day life: Sometimes you are sitting in some very absorbed state of attention, fully riveted in some thought. Somebody calls you, but you do not hear, although your ears are open. Sometimes your eyes are open, but you don't see. (It is said that) Newton was sitting by a roadside solving certain mathematical problems. He was absorbed in that so much that when a playing band went by him (he did not hear anything). Later on somebody came up and inquired, "Well, Newton, has there a band passed by?" – "No, I don't know." In daily life you find something that when you are very much absorbed, and somebody calls you, you don't hear, although your ears are open. Similarly, somebody comes and sits by you – comes and goes away, you are so much riveted that you do not know who came and who went away. What is that? That is our attention, the expression of our soul which is riveted, controlled, that other outgoing faculties even do not work.

So first thing is to have control over our outgoing faculties. That you control with one thing: your attention. If you can control your attention on some certain subject in a certain disciplined way, what will happen in that case? Your outgoing faculties, these servants won't drag you away. Now we are letting our eyes pass, see a beautiful scenery, and something will drag you like anything. You have become aware of the habit of going somewhere for seeing some sceneries, some cinema or anything. Actually you don't want to go, but your legs go that way. Habit becomes nature. So this is the natural way. We must have control over these senses, then only we will be able to withdraw from outside within, to find God.

Where is God? We seek Him in the scriptures. In scriptures there are given the experiences of the past Masters who found God. Where? They say, "Tap inside. He is the very soul of your soul. You are residing in the body and that very controlling power is also residing within you." Wherever a thing is – if you would like to find it, you will have to go there where it is. So the nearest approach of God is within us. He is the Power direct controlling us in the body. When can we invert to see Him? We must withdraw from outside! And to withdraw from outside we must be able to concentrate our attention in a certain way to have it under control. You see? This is one thing. If you come from the burning sun and enter a vestibule of a building, you feel refreshed. Of course you feel refreshed, but that is not sufficient. You have to rise above the senses. There you find God. First you have to withdraw from outside. For that the best way, and the easiest and the natural way, the God-made way is the controlling of your attention, withdrawing from outside. But you cannot withdraw from outside. It is a difficult thing. I will give you an example. A child is shut up in a dark room. What will he do? He will break the doors and cry. But if the child finds something very interesting, very attractive, very fascinating within, he will keep quiet.

With our mind it is similar. Why does it not stay inside, but goes away outside? Because in the outside things he seeks some pleasures. The outside pleasures can be divided into two things: one, good scenery, beauty; the other, very enchanting or fascinating sounds, singing, voice. Outward these are the main things that attract our attention always outside and we are having these from day to day. That day to day practice has formed a habit in us, and habit has been – just formed into nature in our daily life. This habit we have to unravel. We can only unravel it, if we find something more fascinating, more enchanting, more tasty within us. And God does provide it, that thing is also within you. And what is that? God is Word, which is the controlling Power of your soul within the body. That Word, God-in-action-Power, has two aspects: God is light and God is the sweet symphony of sound.

So when you withdraw from outside and see the light of God which is already within you, and hear the voice of God which is very enchanting, you see, when you have that taste or bliss inside, naturally you will leave all outside. It is something like that: there are two glasses of water and in one glass you put an ounce or half an ounce of sugar. In the other glass you may put in four or five ounces of sugar. If you taste the first glass, that will appear sweet to you, you won't like to leave it. But if you once had a drop from the other glass, and then you taste the first one, you won't relish it. It is not the mind to blame, I would say, we have given him such-like things, beyond that mind does not know any other higher sweetness.

When you meet a Master, he is competent to help you to withdraw from outside; He is competent to raise your soul above the senses. He can drag you up out of this iron curtain of the manbody, open the inner eye, so that you see the light of God which is most enchanting, most beautiful. He also opens the inner ear to hear that voice of God, the symphony of the spheres, the music of the spheres. They are most enchanting and beautiful – all glory and beauty lies within you. Astral plane is more beautiful than the physical plane. Causal plane is still more beautiful than the astral one. When you transcend all these, there is the most beautiful and enchanting. Tulsi, a great Saint of the East, tells us that when he reached the third plane, Brahmand, he said, "Very beautiful plane it is." Further he said, "When I transcended the Brahmand or the third plane, I thought, 'Oh well, Brahmand or the third plane was a filthy washing room."'

So these things you are tasting inside. When Masters speak of the most enchanting things inside, we don't believe it. Christ said, "Well look here, you don't believe what I say on outside things, how would you believe if I speak of the heavens?" You see? This is something lying within you. The light of God and the Word of God, the voice of God. You have got references in the scriptures. "If you shut the doors of the temple of the body you will see the light of heaven." – "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Others also say, "When your outgoing faculties are inverted, the light is there." You have not to create it, visualize it or premeditate it, it is a matter of pure inversion, tapping inside, as Emerson puts it, to peep inside, and then rise above senses – you will find the same.

You find in the outer holy places of worship that we have got with us, that they are made after the model of man. Hindu temples are all dome-shaped like head. There you find the symbols of light and sound: a bell is ringing and the light is there. Go to the churches: they are cross-shaped or nose-shaped (in the ground-plan).Therein you find a candle burning, light of a candle and bells ringing. When they say prayers in the Hindu temple, they light a candle and ring the bell. So these are models (of the manbody) placed before us to let us know that such like light and such like sound principle is reverberating within you. You will find it when you tap inside, invert, go within. He, whom we have to find, He is already within you, the very controlling Power of your soul in the body. "O ignorant man, why have you been seeking amiss? Why not seek Him there where He is? The nearest approach to you." When your inner eye opens, you see where you are.

If you meet a Master, He gives you this experience how to tap inside, how to withdraw from outside, enter within the laboratory of the manbody. He gives you an illustrative experience, and you testify that it is so. When do you find it? When you are given that first sitting (at initiation). Before that, we are blind. Who is a blind man? Masters define it, "Those who have no eyes on the forehead, they are not considered blind. Blind are they, who have eyes on the outside body, but the inner eye is closed." When Masters come – you will find in the history of all Masters – they used to give "eyes". Well, these are the "eyes" they used to give.

Before going to them, you were blind, not seeing that light of God. Your eyes were sealed. He breaks the seals and you begin to see light. When you return, you are an "eyed" man, you see. When you close your eyes now, you see darkness within. And after that initiation, whenever you sit, you find light within, it is a vast difference, or not?

When you come to Him, you are deaf. He breaks the seals upon your ears, and you begin to hear the sweet symphonies of the spheres. How blessed it is to have a living Master who is competent to give you this experience to start with! Mind that, Masters don't give you false promises of seeing after death! Who knows you will see it or not, have it or not? They want to give us something practical – cash, not credit! They say, "Well, while alive you are a learned man, even after leaving the body, you will be learned." If while alive you are quite ignorant, an unlearned man, by leaving the body you cannot become a learned man.

You are here in this room. If you go out of the room, you are the same as you are inside. So to have the experience in life (is a must). "A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush!" So Masters give you a cash, you see, something to have an experience in life. They even say, "Don't believe in the sayings of the Masters! Don't believe in the scriptures, too." You may take it up as an experimental measure but you cannot be convinced until you have the same experience yourself. This is what the Masters do. As a doctor is also a man but has developed that way by anatomy knowing how this system of the body works, similarly the man who has risen above body-consciousness sees the light of God and hears the voice of God. He appears to be a man like you, but He has the competency. When He wants He rises above body-consciousness, and traverses into the beyond. If anybody comes to Him, the God in Him – He is God in man and man in God – the God in Him helps others also to have the same experience. To solve the mystery of life, you are required to sit at the feet of somebody who has solved the mystery of life. To know God, naturally, you require the company of somebody who knows God. To speak of God is something else, to know God is something else. To speak of richness is something else and to be rich is something else. To speak of the laws of health is something else, and to be healthy is something else.

Whenever the Masters have come from time to time, they have given these very things, very practical things. "Son knows the Father and others whom the son reveals." The teacher of a man has to be a man, you see. When a child is born, mother is his teacher, his brothers are teachers. When he goes to school to learn something, some teachers are there. They are also man. When you have to develop in any way, any subject you want to take up, you naturally want somebody who is expert in that line. In all outward knowledges we are dependent on the outgoing faculties. Those who want to know God, who is beyond all senses, who is unfathomable, undefinable, whom you cannot bring in the scope of your intellect, for that don't you need anybody who can help you there? Decide in your heart of hearts! We do need somebody to have that experience, who has the competency to raise you up for a while, open your inner eye. You begin to see the light and you bear testimony to it, then and there – may it be little or more according to each man's past experience.

Man is in the make. So that is why Christ said to his disciples, "Blessed are you because you see things that the old prophets and righteous men could not see with all their efforts. You hear things that the old prophets and the righteous men could not hear." Then he told them, "What you are told in secret, you will go and speak on the house tops!" And you have found the truth. Solve the mystery of life to attract (to it also) the attention of those who are seeking after God.

We are fortunate to have the manbody. We have joined various schools of thought for that very purpose (to know God). Now we have to know whether we have reached these things what I have given you in a direct form of what all the Masters said and gave to who ever came to them for that purpose. If you got it, you are fortunate. If not, please – you have taken the first steps. You need not change your religion, you see, remain where you are, these teachings are there already existing. Truth is one. All Masters who came gave the same truth. Now you need somebody who can be a step further. You are reading the scriptures – good. But even to understand the right import of the scriptures you need somebody who has been on the way, because Masters gave out what they saw. If we are now going to interpret those scriptures at the level of intellect, we cannot prove justice to the work. When you have found somebody who has seen the way, the same experience he has had in life, he will give you the right import of this thing, you see.

Suppose you say, "This is a watch", by saying the word 'watch' I mean this watch only, not a dog or a house or an elephant or a building. Intellectuals give different versions of the same thing. If you like to have the right import of the scriptures, you must have somebody who has been on the way. Performing certain rites and rituals – that is for developing love and devotion in you. That is the first step. They are good actions. You have taken the first step, now take the other step, just to rise above body-consciousness. "Learn to die so that you may begin to live!" You will say, "How can we die?" Saint Paul said, "I die daily." Guru Nanak said, "Learn to die a hundred times daily", you see. Mohammedan saints say the same things, and also all others. It is a practical subject to be reborn into the beyond, you see. They say, "Open the inner eye which sees the light which is already there."

So I am here not to advocate any new religion to you. Remain where you are. Be true Christians! What has Christ said? "Open the inner eye and see the light of God within you." Who sees the light of God, he is a true Christian. But if he had not seen the light of God, then? We joined that school, of course, but we have not yet become true Christians. Similarly, a Sikh is one who sees the light of God. You may have the outer forms (of your religion), that is the first step. To belong, to live in some religion is a blessing, but we must rise above. If we do not live in any religion, there will be corruption or either we have to raise a new religion. Why don't you stay in the religions which have stood the test of times? If there is any thing corrupt, you see, just leave it aside and follow the true teachings what the Masters gave from time to time. As I told you, I have not come to advocate a new religion. Remain where you are! This is the truth that has been given by all Masters. Just try to meet somebody who knows the way. You want a teacher in each line, you see, whatever subject we have to take. Let us sit at His feet (at the feet of a Master). He is your true friend, your true brother, and He is competent to give you some experience. All credit goes to Him (God), no son of man can do it. But the God, who is manifest in Him, He is competent to raise you up and give you an experience of your own self.

They wanted me to speak something, what little I know, to the best, I have given you the digest of the same in few words. These words are for your calm consideration. If you have got true hankering, hunger, thirst for God, it is God alone who has to make the arrangements. He will bring you in contact somewhere where you can be put on the way. Whenever Masters come, they see from the level of the manbody or level of the embodied soul, not from the level of the outer badges or different religions that we are carrying. That is why His first work is to unite all children of God together – not to blend their religions into one, but to let them remain where they are. Simply rise above body-consciousness to come to the truth. The Master has the competency to raise you up and have the experience within to start with.