(Excerpts from Discourses of Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh Ji)
Everybody wants to be a boss, to be served, honored and
exalted, but has he ever thought what does he do for others? He only gives pain and
suffering to others and makes others feel inferior and little. He only wants to satisfy
his ego. Such a person is not accepted in the Kingdom of God. Only the virtuous, noble and
humble is the accepted one.
Without total devotion nobody becomes virtuous. Happiness is the crown of virtuousness.
In devotion you will have to invest money, mind and body. Without this you cannot be
happy. In business also you will have to put the above three things. Without capital, if
you have put other things, your business will not be successful, It is the same with mind
and body. As in the business so in the service of God, you will have to invest all the
three.
You do whatever your Master says. Whatever job you are assigned, you do it with total
devotion. The devotee always wants jobs to be assigned by his Master. There is a story
that a devotee was working in a Guru’s stable. He was made the commander. The devotee
accepted the new assignment, but begged not to be deprived of the job of working in the
stable.
Our life gets polished in the company of saints, by devotion and service, by praising the
Lord. Whenever the devotees meet, they sing praise of their Guru and the Lord. As in the
army everybody is geared collectively for the victory, so in the business also, every one
there thinks how can we make more profits. So the company of saints gathers for the
performance of act of devotion together.
Simran (remembrance) forms the major part of devotees’ life. We are to adopt it and
remember the Formless (God).
We are to make simran (remembrance) a distinct act of our life, we are to remember the
Formless (God) all the time. When the saints become one with God, no misfortune fails on
them.
Real devotion starts after realization of God. You saints have merged with God Nirankar,
love has become your life blood. Outlook broadens only after realizing the Formless (God).
The link meeting is called congregation. One who joins the company of saints, his life
becomes the words of God. To attain that status, attending congregation is very important.
One who comes into such company of saints does service and remembrance as well.
Saints (Gursikhs) feel happy and pleased in the congregations because they are linked as a
family and share their sufferings and sorrows, pleasures and pains together. They respect
and love everybody as children of God. Congregation inculcates Sewa (service), Simran
(remembrance), and devotion.
To attain God-knowledge is not enough. It is more important to act according to it. In
fact good deeds are saints’ wings by which they fly higher and higher. One without
the other is incomplete.
In the world there are two sides to everything. When people cross river by boat, in case
of a storm some start blaming other, putting blame for the disaster on others. Due to
their bickering they cannot give due attention to the boat. The result will be that they
will remain in trouble. They won’t be able to save the boat. This is one side of the
coin. The other side is that in case of trouble we all join hands to steer through. In
this way we will be able to be out of trouble. This is the other side of the coin. Rather
than blaming each other if we join together in service of God, we can easily attain our
goal of happiness.
Saint is not the name of any figure of form. Saint is the one who, perceiving God,
remembers Him all the time. Though leading life of a householder, he does not accept the
attributes of passion and pride of the world.
Saints help other at the cost of their own. As I usually say that inspite of lots of
snakes coiling round the sandal tree, when chopped down by an axe, gives its fragrance to
its chopping axe. So it will be saints nature to wish well of those who even hurt them.
We are to increase and expand our congregation of saints. Once Baba Avtar Singh asked the
congregation as to who is your best friend, and worst enemy. One Gurmukh said, “The
one who helps us, shares our grief is our best friend.” In this way many others told
different things and expressed their opinion. But at the end of it Baba Avtar Singh told
the congregation and “He who links you with congregation/God is your best friend. The
one who takes you away from congregation and God is your worst enemy.” Staying away
does not mean staying away physically, staying away means not to listen to the word of
God, to what is said in the congregation. So we will have to be very attentive.
Now-a-days discipline is forced from outside. Discipline exerted from outside doesn’t
work. It should be from within. Leaders resort to the pressure and force to keep
discipline. It will not work. It will work through love and compassion.
The Saints don't look different from outside, but from inside they are linked with God.
They eat, drink and sleep like anybody else but whatever they do, they do under the will
of God. Therefore, it is accepted.
Guru loves all the devotees. Everybody is his favourite. Nobody is more, nobody is less.
One who loves all loves his Guru and is favourite of his Satguru. One who does not,
remains incomplete. That is why we should love all, respect all. That should be the motto
of our life.
To lift the fallen is the most difficult task. It is easy to hurt than to heal. If
somebody is ill, you will have to find a doctor. If you can’t find him nearby, you
will have to travel long. If you can’t find him in the village, you will have to go
to the city. It is not difficult to give somebody a wound. It is very difficult to heal
it. This difficult task is given to the saints. This is what we are to understand. The
Prophets and Gurus are given the task of healing the wounds, to submit to the will of God.
If you keep yourself in the company of God all the time, only then you can lift somebody.
Only those can lift who have lifted themselves.
To love somebody who loves you is not enough. Even thieves and robbers love their fellow
comrades. Then what is the difference between them and you? Your greatness lies in loving
those who do not love you. If we don’t love ourselves, our neighbours, we can’t
love all.
Whether saints lived thousands of years ago, they still give us inspiration. May be their
lives were dedicated to the Satguru, they spent their lives in the service of God, that is
why they are source of inspiration to us even today, and we quote them. I will tell you a
little story. Some dry wood was needed for Guru’s Langar (community kitchen). As it
was rainy season, nobody could find the dry one. A saint was lying on his bed thinking
about the problem. Suddenly he looked at the ceiling and saw some dry timber. He
straightway got up, dismantled the roof of his house and took the dry timber to
Guru’s Langar. Saints simply don’t talk about good intentions, they put them
into practice.
When God’s word (Nam) takes abode in somebody’s heart, he feels happy and makes
others happy. A worldly man might feel happy in himself or at the most in his family. But
because whole world is saint’s family, he feels happy when the whole world is happy.
Human life is not given to behave like animals. If man has not helped anybody, he does not
deserve to be called a human being.
An ordinary person can say, “How can you love an aggressor, the persecutor?” But
that is being an ordinary man. You are not, you are God’s men. God does not take
revenge on anybody. So are you. A writer has said, “Don’t rejoice at
enemy’s death, a friend is also to die one day.”
We are to stop selfishness, baseness, because it shakes our faith. It is the baseness
which makes man an animal. We are to become human beings, virtuous and help everybody,
respect everybody.
Farmers put manure in the field to get a good crop, but we see that weeds start growing in
the field. the farmer hoes the field and removes the weeds. If he does not, the weeds will
eat away all his manure and nothing will be left for the real crop. In the same way we are
to take weeds out of our Mission’s crop to get a nice and beautiful crop of our
Satguru’s teachings. If our energies are wasted on hatred, arrogance and egoism, we
will have no energy left for our constructive work. Wherever you are, wherever you go, you
should serve the humanity, only then your life will be worth while.
True definition of a ‘Gurmukh’ is that he is our real friend, helps us, keeps
our confidence and reminds us of our weaknesses honestly, to help us to be nice persons.
When we waste our energy in finding faults in others, trying to make them feel low and
inferior, we are at the lowest ebb. In contrast if we sit in the company of saints, praise
the Lord, help each other to root out our weaknesses, then we are real Gurmukhs.
A Gurmukh says, “ Perhaps I am greedy, naughty and vain, that is why I am not so
happy.” One who reminds us of our weaknesses is our true friend.
A worldly man is full of ego, arrogance, a saint is full of humility and modesty. We are
to finish ego and arrogance completely. Saints adopt fairness and modesty. Wherever they
live, they shower love and Godly fragrance.
The difference between a saint and a villain is that one is noble and pious, the other is
wicked and arrogant. We see that when one’s mind is in insolence, he is stormed with
bad ideas. He has fear in him. In that state of mind he resorts to cruelty, because he is
so obsessed with himself that he feels nobody is seeing him. In contrast where there is
enlightenment, every act becomes noble. This enlightenment shows us the way. Due to our
Guru’s teachings we are kept on the right path. If we shut our eyes to light, it is
not going to help us in any way. Small obstacles can topple us. The saints always pray to
be kept away from bad feelings of enmity and selfishness.
The villain in man gets engrossed in worldly vices, passions and arrogance, with a little
bit of power and authority, he becomes aggressive and arrogant and indulges in oppressive
acts. Outwardly he may not shun people away from God but inwardly he will. Therefore,
saints tell us to stay away from such persons, lest he may weaken our faith. In contrast
saints strengthen our faith in our Satguru, that is why they are our greatest friends.
The sign of a saint is that he is a man of action. That is why he is called a soldier
saint. He is imbued with saintly virtues. He is never hateful. Being a man of action, he
does perform acts in the world, but never thinks to be himself the doer. If he is given
the job, he thanks the Lord for the opportunity. He does it with a spiritual discipline.
‘Gurmukh’ gives preference to the company of saints, while a villain to the
wayward (bad people). It is due to the good company that saints spread fragrance. In fact
it is the feelings of the person which make him good or bad. Fire, on the one hand can
cook for us, on the other hand it can destroy our property as well. Also strong wind can
carry away clouds and can make us sit in heat, the same wind can bring clouds for rain,
which will help in the growth of vegetation. The company of good people will give us peace
and prosperity while the company of bad people will give us nothing but pain and
sufferings.
Blissfulness is not a phase, it is a state of mind, a way of life. Submitted is the
blessed one. Dedication does not mean to donate money and material, it is to sacrifice
ego. it does not behove saints to have ego and arrogance. This is the greatest sacrifice
of the saints.
Recognition of a saint is that he loves humanity. His actions match his humility and
sweetness. Real saint is one whose words match his actions.
On many occasions we make different types of sweets. Some make sugar horse, monkey or a
camel. When we eat them, all are sweet. Now if somebody says horse is sweet and starts
arguing about it, this is the mistake. Their attribute is not sweetness. If you want to
test the quality of sweet you can do it only by the measure of sweetness. So a saint can
only be measured by his sweetness, not by his appearance.
Once a devotee/disciple asked his Master as to who is a real devotee. The Master told his
disciple that he will find it in due course. One day a man brought some fruits for the
Master. The Master asked his disciple to throw the fruits in the gutter, but Master talked
nicely to man. When the man went away the Master asked the disciple whether the man went
happy. “NO”, said the disciple, “He was rather very angry.” Then
someone brought some sweets for the Master. The Master turned his back at the person and
ate some sweets. When the man had gone, the Master asked his disciple, “Whether this
man went away happy?” The disciple said, “No, Sir, he was very angry.” Next
day another man brought some offerings. The master ate some and distributed the rest to
other people, and talked praise of God with the man. The disciple said to his Master,
“This man went away happy.”
The Master told his disciple, “You must have got your answer. The devotee should be
like this. I threw away first’s offering but talked nicely, he was not happy. To the
second I turned my back, but ate some of his offerings. He was not very happy. To the
third man I did accept his offering, but talked about the Provider rather than the
product. Like this, the one who forgets about the Provider, cannot be happy. So the one
who remembers the Giver and the given, is a real devotee.”
A saint serves with devotion and dedication. His life becomes model for others. He does
not say one thing and do another.
Saint is the one who has the qualities of a saint. He should have love, patience, and
dedication. He should mould his life according to the teachings of Great Masters. We
should lead life like this. We should bring people near to us by service and devotion,
love and affection. People are already full of hatred, with a little bit more they will
perish. We are to make this world full of love and affection.
Even if you have chopped a sandal tree, it does not stop giving fragrance. In the same way
we should love those who even hate us. In fact this is the true test of saintliness.
People who were ridiculing you until yesterday, now acknowledge that your way is the right
way, your principles are right. You have to stick to it. That is the best measure of your
righteousness.
One who wants everything for himself and nothing for any one else is not great. I have
just recalled a story. Once a man borrowed a large sum of money from the King. He could
not pay. The man pleaded for mercy and the King forgave him. But the man had lent a little
amount to someone else. When he could not pay, the lender went to his house and resorted
to force and violence. The police produced the man for violence in front of the King. The
King recognized the man to be the same whom he had forgiven for so big an amount. The King
put him to the hardest of labour till he had paid the last penny back.
Likewise, man wants everything for his family, his tribe, for his class, but he is not
prepared to give anything to other people. Saints are not like this. They are
everybody’s well wishers.
There is modesty and sweetness in devotee’s life. His doings are pious. His vision is
divine. His life becomes an example. He has faith in God. He only asks from God and nobody
else. He knows God is the supreme Giver. Streams may be different but the source is the
same (God).
Devotee’s vision is always fixed on God. He is always in the company of saints. He
deals only with pious people. When a saint sees another saint, his face shines, his heart
is overjoyed. Why is it so? It is due to enlightenment. Their Guru has linked them with
Nirankar (God). They feel one, they respect each other. If the respected one thinks it is
due to something he has done, quoted lot of scriptures to impress, he is mistaken. All the
respect he is getting is due to his Satguru. One who lives such a life, sustains his
prestige.
Saint keeps Him(God) in his mind all the time, wherever he goes, whatever he does. He
feels God with him that is why his life keeps going ahead.
In fact a saint is not judged by the worldly possessions he has got. If we think, he has
been coming to Sangat for so many years, he must have become a rich man(in the worldly
sense), this is ignorance. In fact it is his perception, his devotion, his way of life
which is the measure of prosperity. His tranquillity, his submissiveness are his
achievements.
If a saint lives in society, then the pains and sufferings of the society will affect him
as a nature of fact. His greatness is that he keeps aloof of worldly attractions. He tells
others to submit to the will of God.
From times immemorial sages have been trying to teach man not to be proud of worldly
possessions. He should get rid of worldly attachments, money, mind and body, arrogance of
his power and position. He should respect man as a human being. If you do this, you will
become happy.
God provided man the worldly material (wealth and power) to serve and help his fellow
beings, but in arrogance and ignorance he has been hurting and oppressing them, whereas
saints have been using them for the service of the humanity, for the welfare of others.
Their feet take them to the place of need, or to spread the message of Truth. Their tongue
only sings the praise of the Lord, their actions are devoted to Him. In fact the energy is
the same, it depends on how and where you apply it. As one makes a weapon from the bamboo
tree, another a flute to sing praise of God. Difference is not of kind, but of quality.
That is why saints’ greatness lives or ever.
Man’s egoism and arrogance is the cause of his degeneration. Man boasts of being God
lover, worshipper of the Almighty, follower of Gurus and Prophets, but if he has ego and
arrogance, how is he pleasing God? God doesn’t like ego and arrogance. How can God
reside where there is ego and arrogance, the two cannot live together.
Saints are always salvaged. They are beyond death. They are higher than Iness. Believing
God in everything, they are the humblest of all. This humbleness comes through the
knowledge of God. Those who are haughty with attainment of power are far away from the
teachings of Gurus.
If in a pot filled with water we ask the milkman to put some milk, he would not be able to
do it, it will spill. If we want milk to be poured in the pot, we will have to throw away
the water before we can put any milk into it. Those who have ego and arrogance in them,
they cannot imbibe humbleness and modesty, unless they throw away the ego and arrogance
first. The two cannot be contained in the same pot.
One who remains humble and modest, is great in the real sense of the word. In doing so, we
will be respecting and rendering honour to our Gurus and Prophets. One who has attained
that state is a real saint. Then he will neither be proud of his wealth and power, nor of
his wisdom. He will believe that everything is given by God. If he has got power or fame,
he will give credit to God. He will say, “I don’t possess anything, it all
belongs to Him. I am only the executor of His will”.
Standing on the ground if we look at a high building, it will look massive to us, but if
we look at the same building from an aeroplane, it will look small to us. Likewise, if we
look at wealth from the worldly point of view, it will seem to be the most important
thing, but if we look from Godly point, it will be insignificant for us.
Saints don’t attach much importance to it, but simply thank God who has provided them
for existence.
Egoism has no place in the tenets of Gurus. They only teach us humility, humbleness and
modesty. If we engrain them in ourselves, we will be exalted, but if we hanker after
worldly possessions, we will never be happy. Saints consider God their only support, and
put faith in Him only.
A saint is always humble, so he has an unwavering faith in Guru and God. He is never proud
of his being a good orator, a poet or a singer. He believes everything is God’s gift.
His belief is that it is He who is making him to do these things. If He had not given him
the voice, how could he speak or sing?
Saints say, “The humblest is the highest, the lowest is exalted.” He is not
arrogant, because everybody hates arrogance. Whenever a man gets a position of power, he
brags of it. ‘I can do this, I can do that,’ is always on his lips. As long as
he is arrogant, he is not loved in the real sense. Saints are humble by nature of course,
that is why they are loved and respected.
As long as man stays away from egoism, he rises higher and higher, the moment he starts
learning the language of egoism, he starts going down. If someone doing service, starts
thinking he is something, and he is doing everything and the man sitting on the stage is
doing nothing, the fruit of his service goes waste. In fact service is very noble, whether
one is doing a little job or a big one. When Iness comes in him, all goes in vain.
As long as one is proud, whether of money, mind or body, he goes down and done; it leads
to denigration. He might be thinking that it is his achievement which has given him honour
and positions. He might say, “I can make anything happen when I want.” Ravana
(mythological King of Sri Lanka who in his proudness lost a Kingdom of gold), after
millions of years, we know how he is remembered. On the other hand saints preach love and
affection, are humble and modest. How much regard we have for them, everybody knows fully
well.
If we want to be happy, we will have to be humble and modest. To portray humbleness as a
sign of weakness is wrong and mistaken. If a strong person is humble, it is a jewel in his
crown. Modesty is a tool for the development of one’s true personality.
One who had renounced ego and arrogance is never villainous, he is never acrimonious. On
the other hand a man of ego will try to do villainous acts to satisfy his ego, to prove
his worth. The arrogant and egoist never live in peace.
The poison in a bottle does not harm the bottle, but ego in one’s mind destroys the
person in himself. If you have ‘Nam’ (God’s word) fragrance in your heart,
not only your own life will be fragrant, others will also enjoy fragrance.
This morning when we were coming down the hill from Mussoorie, there were thick clouds and
dense fog. There was no visibility outside the car. Inside the car we could see each other
well. As we came down everything became clear.
As long as we are under the spell of ignorance and arrogance, we are unable to see
anything around us. We don’t care about anybody else. We think we are the greatest.
When the veil of ignorance is removed, we start seeing other people’s greatness.
At that time, another thought came into the mind. While sitting inside the car we could
not see anything outside. It did not mean that there was nothing outside. Everything was
there behind the fog, only we could not see. If we believe that there doesn’t exist
anything beyond our vision, it does not mean that things don’t exist there. It is an
illusion. It can create problems for us. So long as there is a veil of ignorance in front
of us, we can’t see anything else, resulting in problems.
God sees the seen and the unseen, knows the hidden and visible. He (God) is capable of
seeing everything. The problem for the ignorant is that he cannot see the Truth. He blames
others for his problems. He cannot understand that it is all due to his ignorance. There
is a saying, “Fallen from the donkey, blames the owner.” The same is true of
man. He blames others for his own failures. The saint, when having a problem, begs Lord to
forgive and bless. He thinks that perhaps, it is due to some of his failings, that
something has happened. He prays for mercy.
Devotion helps when Iness tries to over-power us, mind wavers, ego overtakes. When Iness
is there God cannot be there, when God appears ego disappears.
Vanity not only hinders spiritual progress, it hinders worldly progress as well. So the
devotees are told to stay away from vanity. We bear the responsibility for our actions,
both good and bad, what we do selflessly does not become fetter on us.
When we do actions selflessly not only our personal life becomes peaceful, our social life
becomes virtuous as well. Vanity is the root cause of our unhappiness. Saints live in
modesty. That is why their life becomes prosperous and sublime.
When a river flows down, it broadens and becomes one with the ocean. Who the water gets
stuck at the top, it stagnates. Same way, we can only merge with the Supreme, if we bow
down, and be modest.
Not only does egoist feel miserable, he makes others miserable as well. A virtuous person
enjoys the bliss of virtuousness, and gives fragrance to others. He is honored in this
world and next as well.
When you climb up a hill, you have to bend forward, when you are going down you have to
straighten yourself. So when you are modest you are going up, when you are arrogant, you
are going down.