35 | The inner and outer man – Part 1 | Sant Kirpal Singh

The soul is the conscious core of our being, distinct from outer possessions, body, and intellect. This can be realised by rising above body consciousness, through self-analysis. In this podcast episode, Sant Kirpal Singh introduces this subject from all angles, with various examples, analogies, and citations from Saints of the past.

The lecture was recorded on 11th October 1963 in Franklin, NH, USA.

Transcript

Religions 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. Man-body 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 man-body 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 man-body. 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.

Man-body 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 man-body 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: “Oh, 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, “Oh, 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.” Man-body 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 man-body. 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 man-body 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 man-body which is made of matter, it has the intellect, and man is soul – embodied soul. So we are fortunate, we have got the man-body. 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 man-body is a gift from God, the highest rung in creation, the golden opportunity that we have got because in man-body 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 man-body.” 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 man-body. 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 man-body. 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 man-body.” 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 this treaty1 has been signed 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 man-body 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. 

[1]  Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty