As a curious soul in search for silence, I have tried to observe the very moments in my life when noise prevails. I have reflected on experiences causing anger/annoyance versus those of happiness/tranquillity. I have noticed that being negative has almost always been the quickest, most automatic response to anything that disagrees with my way of life. However, the experience of positivity has almost always been a very subtle state of mind, comparable to the subtleness of breathing.
It has been suggested that an adult inhales and exhales around 20 times a minute i.e. approximately 28,000 times in 24 hours. How is it that such a subtle, physiological process, so significant to every second of our life, goes unnoticed? Ironically, we only seem to notice our breathing when it is disrupted in some way – otherwise we remain unaware of its process. This silent nature is such that we even take our very existence for granted. Just so, to love someone is subtler than hating; to accept others is subtler than criticism; and to be at peace is subtler than being angry.
As the essence of God (Nirankar) is so subtle, it is important that we go beyond what meets the eye in the pursuit of truth. When our mind connects the body to physical experience, such as sense perceptions, it severs the link to subtle internal experiences such as consciousness. We get lost in the gross experience (perception), and disconnect from the subtle nature of the experiencer (the essence which is perceiving).
However, when the body relates itself to subtle, inner experiences, even our physical experiences become more and more meaningful. Such a connection between the internal and the external harmonises our world together, creating a broader and more mindful perspective.
A few weeks ago, after attending Sangat (the Oneness Gathering), I was walking to my car with my grandfather. Suddenly out of the blue, an Asian man approached us and furiously began complaining about the cars that constantly block his driveway. He was so fed up. So much so that he was ready to leave the area for good, telling us he had put up with the situation for 20 years. My granddad looked at him, and with a warm smile and soft tone, said, “I can understand your frustration, but please don’t worry; everything is going to be alright”.
Normally, I would not have paid any great attention to such an incident, but on this occasion, what I witnessed was much deeper. I witnessed a man in need of kindness. I saw Nirankar (the Formless All-Pervading) giving a divine message through a Mahapursh (enlightened being or saint). Amazingly, the man felt better, responded with calmness and went on his way.
For me, this was no coincidence. It was just meant to be. These two souls, out of billions of people in the world, were meant to meet and exchange energies in this subtle moment. I was also meant to be there to witness it, and write the occurrence down so that it may be shared with others.
There is a deeper message in everything that comes to pass. If we could only look beyond the form, we would experience the Formless pulling us towards higher consciousness, providing moral choices and inspiring us to respond to situations with human values at the fore. The Formless is always giving us lessons and blessings, like an internal compass or torch that lights the way.
Those still searching for divinity or truth often under-estimate the subtler experiences that open up to the experience of Nirankar. There are two common routes. Some take the materialistic route, believing their peace and contentment to lie in greater wealth and the accumulation of belongings. Others opt for religious observances, feeling they will gain contentment through worship and the ceremony that surrounds it. I have learned that both routes are a means to an end, but no goal. The materialistic eventually realise the never-ending list of wants and desires. The ceremonial worshippers, in their regular performances, forget to understand the meaning behind the rituals. Both forget that we are what we seek.
We are the question and the answer. As the great sufi mystic Rumi says, “what you seek is seeking you”. Rumi highlights that we are ultimately seeking something beyond our perceptions. Our task is not to seek love, contentment or happiness, but to pull down, one by one, those barriers that we have erected against it. Ultimately we are divine; we are the truth. If we seek with our hearts instead of our eyes, we will realise that happiness is a choice and not a result. His Holiness Nirankari Baba often reminded us not to build walls, because we only run the risk of losing ourselves within them. Every utterance Babaji made, was a subtle direction. Through awareness and remembrance of these subtle experiences, we may become more conscious of the silent moments of peace, even in the midst of chaos.
Life begins within emptiness, and yet it is in those full spaces of pure consciousness that life is reinforced within the soul. The soul may be defined as the Formless within the form (i.e. our most subtle essence, within the gross material manifestation). The body gives rise to physicality, injecting sensation into every cell and pore and thereby creating the play of existence. When it is combined with the subtleness that is nothing and yet everything, it expands itself to experience life in its richest, purest form – Nirankar.
By becoming aware and more attuned with our subtle experiences, we realize that we are not our thoughts, our emotions, our body, profession or nationality. We realize that we are beyond all forms and superficial labels. Our identities go far deeper than anything we have so far perceived. The truth that Nirankar is no-thing, yet permeates every-thing, baffles the mind. There is no physical experience that can relate to what this means. Nirankar is much more than what the human being has identified with thus far. Lost in a false reality, the human being stands adrift from what he really, most genuinely is. The mind, with all it’s conditioned responses, is the greatest contributor to the mirage that has been established. It requires someone who can operate beyond the mind, to free us from our false sense of separation. Such a person has been referred to as Satguru – that truth which leads from the darkness of ignorance, to the light of knowing.
Satguru inspires the most subtle, most simple awareness. It is here that everything begins. Once we have silenced the noise in our life (the ego) and given way to simple awareness, we truly begin to experience the hidden power of the universe. That is also when we begin our journey to knowing, believing and being the subtle reality of all that we are.
-Harishta Kaur, Huddersfield
