By: Joginder Singh

How often we have heard or read: "That fellow may be knowing price of everything but value of none." Obviously, price is different from value, though, at times, we use these words as synonyms.

As a matter of fact, the equivalent that is paid for acquiring a thing or commodity is its price. Since payment is generally made in currency, the price is also expressed in terms of currency. In common usage, it is also called its cost:

Price of this cycle is Rs. 15,00.00

One kilo of flour will cost you Rs. 8.50.

However, price by itself is not the determining factor for us to go in or not to go in for a particular thing. A thing may cost us only a few paise, yet we may not purchase it. On the other hand, we may go in for another thing, price of which may be a few hundred rupees, which we willingly pay. The factor that guides us to purchase a particular thing is its value. Value is the utility that we expect to derive from a thing. This is also called its worth. For example, a book has all the value for a student, though it is worthless for an illiterate person. Again, a needle may be worthless for a teacher, but it has all the value for a tailor, because it is an indispensable tool for him. It is for this reason that a jeweller, who knows the value of a diamond, is prepared to pay lakhs of rupees, whereas an ignorant person may hesitate to pay even a few rupees because for him it is merely a shining stone. However, coming to know of the reality, the latter may repent for not knowing the value of what he mistook to be merely a piece of stone.

It is not essential that value of a thing is great only if its price is high. For instance, price of a sword may be one hundred rupees. But what we would have not paid as price for Netaji Subhash Chander Bose’s sword if the person, who had acquired it, so desired. Surely, we would have paid any price demanded, may be thousands or even lakhs of rupees to acquire this particular sword. We all know that in this rocket age, sword as a weapon of war has lost all its significance. Yet, we wanted this particular sword, because for us it was of tremendous sentimental value as a relic of Netaji.

Again, salt is a very cheap commodity, though it has a great value for us. Suppose we spend a few rupees for a dish of peas and cheese. We prepare it in pure ghee but fail to add salt into it. The dish will not give us taste. But a little salt added to it will remove its insipidity and we may exclaim: What a tasty dish! Now we will be relishing the same dish, which a moment earlier was declared tasteless. The question that comes to our mind is what contributed the taste? Obviously, the pinch of salt that was added to the dish! The price of the salt added may be just a fraction of a paisa as against the total amount already spent for the dish, but the value of the pinch of salt was, undoubtedly, much greater that of its actual price.

Man is a bundle of needs and desires, which are essentially material in nature. But he has also an inherent quest to know his Creator. The self-styled saints and religious preachers know this very well and are, therefore, ever ready to exploit this urge. Accordingly, they name and even extract a heavy price from the seekers for imparting God-knowledge. There is a price, so to say, to rinse every sin and enter into the heaven! However, in the name of God-knowledge, they prescribe renunciation, pilgrimage, performance of rites and rituals, charity and so on and so forth. The seeker most willingly pays the price named because he attaches great value to God-knowledge. But what he actually gets is mere religious routines or performance of rituals, turning him superstitious and orthodox. At times, he is forbidden to undertake journey or wash clothes or hair or to take a particular kind of pulse on certain days. The seeker has to abide by all these in his own interest, without knowing their real significance. Even a slight deviation from or negligence of these is always threatened with dire consequences, if not in this, then in the next world! Thus the seeker of bliss of God-knowledge is actually ‘blessed’ with routine religious practices, superstitions and dogmas. With the passage of time, he fancies himself as having attained salvation and becomes a closed minded. Realisation of God remains a far cry for him. This is quite understandable. Instead of approaching a True Master, he fell a prey to those who pretend to reveal God, whom they themselves have not realised. Consequently, seeker’s quest for God-realisation remains unfulfilled, and despite all material comforts at his disposal, he finds his life to be insipid.

God is all pervading, formless and eternal. Therefore, God realisation cannot be a momentary experience or a flash or (divine) light, as is generally contended. Having once been told who her bridegroom is, she becomes aware of him for all times to come. In the same manner, from the moment of God-realisation, we ought to perceive and be conscious of God at all times and at all places without any special effort or contrivance, as we are conscious of hunger, cold, heat, the food we eat, the clothes we wear or the persons we talk to . If it is not so, it can be anything but God-realisation and, therefore, we will be perfectly justified in not accepting the same. To repeat, knowledge of all-pervading and eternal God is not a momentary experience but a state, which abides for the rest of the life. Of course, only a True Master, who is himself a God-realised being, can bless us with God-realisation. A True Master, whose sole mission of life is redemption of the humanity, never demands any price to impart God-knowledge, because this knowledge is not a commodity for sale. He imparts God-knowledge to the earnest seekers out of sheer love for the humanity, human redemption being the chief mission of his life. He steadfastly upholds the principle that the more the God-knowledge is imparted, the more it flourishes. However, such a True Master may be one in millions. It is our great good fortune that we have amidst us such a True Master in the person of Nirankari Baba by whose benevolence and grace God-knowledge is imparted to anyone who nurses an earnest quest for the realisation of the Lord Creator. The seeker is not questioned about his caste, colour, race, nationality, his past, the way he lives, what he eats, how he dresses or the belief he holds. In fact, none of these and such factors are a bar to God-realisation. It is natural that such factor should very from place to place even in the same country, depending upon the geographical and climatic conditions, culture, customs, etc. of the region. But so fat as seeker’s quest for God-realisation is concerned, he should be treated as a human being as such. It will not be out of place to mention here that imparting knowledge of the all-pervading and omnipresent God implies no time lag, as is the case with introducing one person to another person, provided one knows the persons being introduced. For this very reason, the question of prescribing methods, plans and practices to realise God does not arise. Since God is all-pervading, all that we need is someone to tear off the veil of our ignorance about Him.

We cannot name any price for the God-knowledge bestowed upon us, bout for which, rather in whose name, the so-called saints and gurus load us with rituals and religious practices and disturb, even destroy our normal life through renunciation and rigid Do’s and Don’ts, all of which taken together are no substitute for God-knowledge . In truth, God-knowledge is priceless. Seekers having earnest quest should, so to say, make their otherwise insipid life savoury by adding to it the salt of God-knowledge, which though invaluable, is given free!