18 | Self-realisation – the way back to God (Part 1) | Dr. Harbhajan Singh

This is an insightful part of a question-and-answer session with Dr Harbhajan Singh, following an introductory lecture he had given the day before.

The premise of this informal talk is that self-knowledge precedes God-knowledge – the aim of human life. The approach to it should not be mistaken with the various methods of meditation offered today, but needs the help of someone who knows the inner regions and the dangers therein. To enter in the astral region is easy, but of no help to the soul – on the contrary, astral experiences make emotional and often cause mental diseases.

Spiritual life means to be in a state of equipoise. A real Saint makes no show of his competence. He furthers the consciousness and right understanding, which creates yearning to reach the homeland of the spirit and meet the Lord.

The lecture was recorded on 22nd May 1995 in Stockholm, Sweden

Transcript of „Self-realisation – the way back to God“

The way back to God is through self-realisation. Without self-realisation you cannot step forward, because you are not knowing in which direction you have to go. So, a lot of people, what are they telling? They are telling things different from this thing, the positive life. These (ways) are full of magic, these are full of other things, these are full of astral beauties. This is no spirituality, as I told you.

Only if we believe the word of the Christ we can go back home. Christ has warned us – where the world philosophy ends, there the religion starts. So the world philosophy does not end with the end of this world, with the end of this physical body, because there are still two earths. One is the astral earth, then there is the causal earth – earth is earth.
 So these three worlds are controlled by the negative power and within (these regions of) the cause and effect there is no heaven that is taught by the Christ. The heaven that is taught by the Christ is above the cause and effect of the world. When you really cross the three worlds, the cause and effect of the worlds, then there is the heaven that is taught by the Christpower, not below that.

You can read it very carefully that this is a place of the gods, goddesses and avataras and they are subject to transmigration, they are subject to coming and going, they are bound to the man. They serve the mankind. They are within us, they are the servants of this holy body. So, no exception to the rule, in the three worlds it is only a magic play of the negative power. What is that magic play which has no essence? It is only a food for the mind. Mind sees something and it starts to dance and nothing is in your hand.

As I told you yesterday, (it is) just like fireworks: During night-time you see very brilliant lights, many, many sceneries in fireworks, but within a moment there is nothing, there is only a heap of dust that remains. So similarly, those who take these sceneries into the heart, they are affected. And those who do not take it, they are not affected with it. So, people get mad only due to these miracles. There are a lot of people who have no equipoise state. They do not know, how to control this man-body, they do not know it, because they are directly under the clutch of the mind.

So what is that equipoise state? You are God intoxicated, but no one knows you are intoxicated. Who could know Christ? Who could know all other competent Masters? They were just men like us. And they were totally connected with the Godpower. When one is connected with the God-into-action-power, he has minimised all his things to zero. His work in the world is (going on at a) very equipoise state. He  creates a normal state, a universal thing in you. His purpose is very definite and very accurate because you will remain in the body, yet you will be above the body-consciousness. You are in the world, yet you are out of the world.

Those experiences which we are getting in the astral and the causal plane are only bound with the physical body. They create outward actions – a reaction of everything is there. So mind is not controlled, the intellect is not controlled, the senses are not controlled. The negative power does it in the outward expression, the Masterpower does it in the inward expression.  He will take your soul inside, He will show you the way inside. So, His purpose is very unique, it is an equipoise state. There is an eternal happiness, that means, millions of such (other types of) happiness cannot tally, cannot equal that happiness which is the eternal happiness within. Because then you are above the three worlds.

So, in this way, it is that experience which Christ had given to all his followers. As I told you yesterday, never in the history a Master had created a disciple. No, he would never create a disciple. He says, “My Master is the same and your Master is the same.
We are the conscious co-workers of the divine plan. He creates some conscious people around Him and tells them,” Become the ambassadors of truth.” And then, if we really become the ambassadors of truth, what will be the result? We are one with Him. We start to work for Him, and then we are very close to that Power.

All Masters created conscious people around them. So our purpose is now to become conscious. And this is the real teaching of the Jesus Christ, and this is the real teaching of all Masters like Guru Nanak, Kabir and Sant Kirpal Singh.

Now I tell you a little bit about Sant Kirpal Singh. Referring to Him needs no special praises, because He did whatever all other Masters did: He gave the very practical experience which everybody wants. To anyone who came He said,” Sit and see!”; provided one was receptive and had analysed that this is the highest thing, He would give the practical experience to him. So He did – and what does the Master give?
He has three qualities in Him. He will give you that experience which all Holy Scriptures proclaim. And then He will guide you within and outside also throughout your life. And at the time of death, He will stand by you just to take you back. He will not leave you in this world. He will take you back to home eternal.

And there are thousands such examples in the world. Those who are one time given that experience, means, you are reborn – when you come in contact with this holy light, you are in the midway, you are having this experience. And that will make you perfect while you are in the world.

What will happen? That you become a perfect person, while you are in the body. You can analyse all those things, then you can overcome all your difficulties, then you will finish with all this give and take process. Because our concern with this man-body is to give and take. Why is it given to us? Because we owe much to our Master, we owe much to this world. This is why we have come into this man-body, just to pay off these debts.

Master tells us that this man-body is a capital given to us, and this world is a big market. And we are the trader in this man-body. What have we to do? We have to undertake a very beautiful business just to pay off all the debts. That is our purpose.

So we have come into this world to pay off all the debts. If you clear it, you are free from the world, you are free from the judgement. The gift is in the hand of the Giver – when does He give? When he gives the clearance,” This soul is clear, now it is fit for going back home.” And from that moment we have millions of happiness together, because our soul rejoices in all love, in all beauty because then the soul is able to see its glory.

Now I tell you, people claim to have (got) something from different Masters, but, sorry to say, their angle of vision is not changed, their life is not changed. They have no purity in thoughts, deeds and actions. Because all that they have got is on the level of mind. And those people, who are going within into the astral and the causal plane – sorry, (to the) causal plane, nobody is going, because they cannot get rid of the astral plane. When people are going into the astral plane, these are the astral diseases. What are diseases? Diseases of the mind are the astral diseases and people are affected. They do not control their activities. Mind leads them where it likes. So that has become a condition.

There are many, many things which seem to be miracles that are within the approach of man.
So these miracles, all that what is going in the world, various tricks, this mesmerism [healing] and all that makes us wonder is only an act of the negative power. Because you are not getting anything out of it. Your life is not changed. You do not know how to rise above the body-consciousness, you do not learn to die before death. You want that experience with which you must rise above this physical body and you should have that experience, which happens at the time of death. That is what we want. If that is given somewhere, well and good. But it is given, it is a grace of the Godpower.

As I told you yesterday, there is only one creator, one Master of the whole creation, this is the Christpower, Masterpower, Godpower. As I told you, who is the Christpower? Jesus and Christ, they were two. Jesus was the son of man on whose pole the Christpower worked. Christ lived before Jesus. Christ is the Power which has no beginning and no end. And He has created the whole creation and sustains the whole body, all human bodies. So our contact with the Christpower is direct and independent.

Then who is the Master? It is said that there is only one creator and He is the Master, but where can you find him? Where the world philosophy ends, there the religion starts. When you rise above the cause and effect of the three worlds, there you can have the experience of that, there is the holy light. This holy light and the music of the spheres prevail everywhere, you enter into that sphere that is the heaven that was taught by the Christ. This is the first step – we enter into the heaven that is taught by the Christ. That starts where this world philosophy ends, from there it starts, and people have forgotten it.

 It is not due to the fault of any Master, it is due to the fault of our ignorance. Because we have not learned it, we are not taught in this way. It is not the fault of, I would say, of the human beings. Everybody wants to have the God-into-action power, [wants] to see it, but who are in fault? These paid preachers, alas, those “masters” who are doing with it, they are befooling all of us. That is their doing. Everybody wants to come in contact with it, but nobody gets it. It is said, when Christ came into the world, how many were there? He was the [only] one. When Guru Nanak came, how many came along with Him? He was the one.

So this Power mainly came as one, I tell you. Hardly there were two, as history tells us, but then they were one in two bodies, their work was one. The Masterpower worked in two bodies, but their function was one, but most of the time this Power remained as one in the world. But there were hundred-thousands who attacked this Power. They said: „No, he is not telling the right thing. He is diverting our attention.”

But to our fortune, now we have the Holy Scriptures. Their experiences are with us. Nobody can befool us, because we see. Their experience must become our experience. So we are not afraid of the consequences, because they tell us, “Believe the testimony of the Masters because they speak only what they have seen and not things they had not seen.” So we should believe those Holy Scriptures. We should try to gather all those practical things, potent things, positive things which we need for our life. That is our real subject. You can become a true Christian, you can teach this Christianity in the whole world because then you are the right one. You are in the body, but you are a universal person. You can spread your thoughts everywhere, because these are potent and positive. And there may be winds, many storms may come, you are potent and positive, you are above everything. Because your purpose, your, even yourself is fully attached with the God-into-action power. You are a lighthouse unto others.

So such is the teaching, which is being destroyed in the world for lack of right understanding. Right understanding is within us. But who is responsible to get it?
There is somebody who is responsible to give it. If that is not given, we won‘t have even yearning. And without yearning, nobody can know. The angle of vision is changed when you know what is what. Otherwise, without knowing, without using the discriminating power nobody can have yearning. So in the Holy Scriptures it is said: Without a competent Master even yearning is not there. When yearning is not there, there cannot be a ruling passion in us. Then how we can attain this purpose?

Blessed are those who come in contact with a pole, with a lighthouse. And Master comes to create a lighthouse out of each of you. There is no high, there is no low, I tell you. We are all one, we are all reading in one and the same class. That is what Guru Gobind Singh did, what Christ did. [To] their followers they said,” Go and preach the truth everywhere.” This purpose is always with us and that will never leave us.

Now the thing arises, how to get it. So, you can put me any questions, regarding these things. Only I have revised those things to you. And those revision must be taken into full consideration, so that you are knowing, what is what; before you leave this place, you should have a gift in your hand.

You can become a man of actions within a moment, I tell you. There is no need to stress upon your nerves later on. Once you decide for something, you are equally good for what you want to do. There is nothing that is hidden from you. [All] that is within you. You are having your heritage within you, you have not to get it from outside. Everything that you need is within you. Only the God-into-action-power helps you, when you are closer to it. So Master brings you more close to the right understanding, to the spiritual aspect of life that is within you.
So, His purpose is very unique.

 Kabir has told in his book that when God heard the voice, the sufferings of the humanity, He, that God-into-action-power came down, He said: „What is the problem?“ The problem was created by the negative power. And he said, „I have controlled all people, because I have created the hell and the heaven for them. Because your children, while in the world, had created a lot of wishes, which concerned me. And he (man) could get all those wishes fulfilled by himself, but he became dependent. So now in lieu of that he has strengthened my hand. Now I have created the hell for the sinner and the heaven for the pious egoist. And there is no way out, you can take the soul from my clutch.“ That is what the negative power says.
It is in one of His books, that is called „Mansur Sagar“, Kabir Mansur. It is a big book that is written by Him. So He says: „Nobody can detach the soul from me. I have a very hard attachment with it. I know where to put this soul. You cannot take it back.“ So Kabir told: „I have only one reason, I have only one way: I will change the man from his heart.“ Master’s teaching changes our heart. So that is a subject of the heart, as I told you, not of the head.
Once you take everything from the heart, it will concern you, it concerns your consciousness.

And what is there? Everything is there in the consciousness. So whatever we have forgotten, that is already there. Suppose as for example, a house of five-hundred years is lying vacant and it is locked and there is full darkness there. Would you beat it, just to get rid of the darkness? You cannot beat the darkness with rods. So all those systems which people are doing, they are doing it with rods, they are doing it forcibly, they are doing it with Hatha yoga, and other yogas. This is not the right way. Only there is a way : You lit the light there, put the candle there – five hundred years of darkness will disappear at once. It will not be there.

So there is only a shortcut to our self-analysis, for our godhood: that you come over here (to the seat of the soul in the front) and start going above. You always think, because your contact is there with the consciousness, God- into- action power, you will get all replies there.

One time I went somewhere, they gave beautiful examples, they gave beautiful versions about the Holy Scriptures, but there were a lot of students, they said, „Yes, please, we want answer to this and this question.“ And they (the organisers) said, „Well, please, there is no time, we can send the letters to you, we can send the replies to your homes.“
Anyhow, my turn came afterward and I noted down what was to be given, what was not given there. So I gave those answers within twenty minutes. So there was one person who had organised all these things. He said: „Well, we would like to give you one hour more to speak on this subject because you have answered all persons who already spoke, in a very nut shell.“ I said: „This is the spirituality, this is a way of life. You don’t want to move further, you must come back to yourself. That is my purpose.“
So then there was one boy, one student, he got up: „I have one question with you.“ He gave me the sheet. I said: „No, keep it in your pocket, I will give the answer.“ So another student stood up, he said the same thing: „I have also a question I want to solve.“ I said: „Keep your sheet with you, I will give the answer.“ So I asked the first student: „Now you have put me a question, you want to put me a question, do you know the answer of it?“ He said: „No, I do not know.“ I said: „If I give you the wrong answer, would you take it, would you consider it, would you appreciate it?“ He said: „No.“ I said: „Why?“ He said: „I do not know.“ I told: „Because the right answer is within you.“ He said: „This is right.“

Without yearning, without discriminating power, you cannot even have the questions, I tell you. So these questions and answers will arise, when you really rise above. The question is within, the answer is also within. Because when you are a conscious co-worker of the divine plan, then even you need not to search the books. All that is written in these books that is within you. So a Masterpower is not dependent upon the Holy Scriptures, He is dependent only to give the references, otherwise not. Because everything is within. The question is within, the answer is within, the disease is within, the remedy is also within. The whole creation that God has created is within the man body. It is a wonderful house we live in. So all that I have told you concerns all of us.
, then unity is there, love is there, God is there.