Mar - Kirpal Singh

all religions is to know God; and toknow God we must know ourselves first,because God cannot be known by theoutgoing faculties, mind or intellect;soul alone can know the Oversoul. Likecan know like. So God is one, thoughthere may be many outer ways of worship,you see; but the ultimate, the innerWay, is the same for all. Rajab, a MuslimSaint, tells us, The archers may bemany, but the target is the same. Andthe Kingdom of God can come onearth; peace will reign supreme in theworld, if some spiritual Master is therewho can give us a demonstration of theinner Way-which will give us truepeace and right understanding. No politicianhas ever been able to bring peaceto the world, and harmony, and cooperation.But if their work were in harmonyand cooperation with the spiritual Masters,peace would be achieved quickly.When the Masters come they are consciousof God from the very beginning;even in childhood they are conscious ofHim. Guru Nanak was sent to school tojust have some education, and the teacherbegan to teach him, "One, two-"The teacher proceeded further, but GuruNanak said, "Wait, stop, wait-what doyou mean by one?" A child of four orfive years old! And Nanak said, "Thisone means there is one God." You see,he was conscious. Then he said, "Whatis He, that all this creation has come outof Him? He is eternal; the Maker of allcreation; the ruling Power; He has gotno equal-no enmity with anybody, nofear of anybody; He has come about ofHis own Self-no one is His maker."Then the teacher asked him, "What isthis? How can it be had?" He said,"With the grace of a Master; it is the giftof a Master." Further, he said, "1 do notmean, when I say 'God is one,' that Heis one; I mean, this 'one' stands forsomething else which is expressed as'one.' But He is neither one nor two. Heis something, which can be experienced.We can go into Him, absorb into Him;that experience can be given by a Master,and he can give us a realization ofthat for which the figure 'one' stands."And how? He said, "Burn away all yourouter attachments; burn them away, andfrom their ashes make ink, and withyour conscious Self go on writing thepraises of God." As long as we are attachedoutside, we cannot know ourselves;when we know ourselves withour conscious Self we can see what Heis. Kabir says, If I say "one," then thequestion of "two" arises; that amountsto calling Him names. God is neitherone nor two; He is something, expressedby this word, "one." So, He is, withinHimself-something, which can be realized,not expressed in words.Guru Arjan gives a reason for thatwhywe call Him "one." He says, Weare finite, 0 God, You are infinite; becausewe are finite, we can only measurewith our finite scales. Is it not true? Sothe Absolute God cannot be seen byanybody, and nobody has seen Him sofar-the Absolute God, Nameless God,Wordless God, which has not come intoexpression. That Power which came intoexpression, that is called "Word," thatis called Naam; the outer expression ofthat Power is Light and Sound, and thatLight can be seen, that Voice can beheard. That is why the Bible says, ThyWord is a lamp unto my feet and a lighton my path.Every man has a secret chamber withinhimself, which is called the "closet ofthe body." That is higher than the mindand heart both, and provides mind withunderstanding to a certain extent, andthe heart with feelings of love. Thischamber is the Kingdom of God within6 SAT SANDESH