The Paathi sings a Bani by Paltu Sahib....
Guru jo diya hai soyee tu liye rahu,
Guru jo diya hai soyee tu liye rahu,
Usee mein bahut biswash karnaa.
THIS IS THE BANI of Param Sant Satguru Paltu Sahib. Like I always talk about Paltu Sahib, He was a great Saint Who was from Ayodhya. He was a very fearless Saint and He would say the Truth on the face of it, and He would criticize all these wrong practices that were developed in those days. And, as a result, all those people who were practicing as such started getting annoyed with Him.
These other people got so annoyed and angry at Him that, one day when he was sitting for meditation in the early morning hours in his hut made of straw, they came and they set it afire. So, He left His body in His meditation and He attained Samadhi there itself. But, he had promised one of the villagers that He would be coming to give him initiation.
So, after one month of this incident, He appeared in that village. He gave Satsang also and He gave initiation also. And after that, He again disappeared.
So, this is His Bani, and in this Bani He has praised His Masters and He has said, " From the Master, Who has initiated you, be content with what He has given."
Why do we go to Saints? We don’t go to the Saints because we have to get rid of some illness, or get rid of some sorrow, or go for getting some profit in our business or getting some such other material benefit. We have to go there and surrender to Them to get rid of this bondage that we have been perennially in.
So, what is that bondage? What is that illness? We are suffering from the illness of life and death. We have been perennially in the cycle of getting different forms of life and then, again, dying and then, again, being reborn in this same cycle of life and death. So, we have to go to Them to get out of this sorrow, to get rid of this illness.
When we go to the Master, He initiates us. He connects us with Naam within and He takes on our responsibility. Then, whatever be it here, he never leaves us. He always is by the disciple, even in this life, and even beyond this. The Master does not ask for anything in return for our being given Naam. He doesn't ask for any benefit.
He gives us the Naam Daan, the donation of Naam.
There are so many other donations. We can donate cows. We can donate food. We can donate wealth and there are so many other kinds of donations that can be given. But, all these donations will not get us salvation.
Only Naam Daan gets us that salvation. It is only Naam Daan that can get us out of this sorrow and it is only Naam Daan that can get us reconnected with our Father, God Almighty.
Therefore, the instructions given by the Master when He initiates us, which is to sit for meditation for two and a half hours every day, we should follow that instruction. When we follow that instruction, slowly but surely, our karmas will start getting redeemed as we start sitting for more and more meditation every day. And, gradually, these karmas will get redeemed and our mind will become purer and purer. And, on one occasion, with that pure mind, our attention of the soul will get refocused back to its seat.
But, if we do not leave our longing for all these worldly things and all these worldly desires, and while we pursue all of these desires outwardly we just show respect and only a little bit of love and affection for the Master, we will not be successful on this Path.
Like the foundation of a building is the strength of the structure. (A poor one can be a stumbling block for the entire structure.
Like that, faith in the Master is the foundation of devotion.
Hoyegaa bahuth fir sabhadh jo lagaiga,
Hoyegaa bahuth fir sabhadh jo lagaiga,
Chitth kau cheth ke dhyan dharanaa.
So, Paltu Sahib says, "If you follow the instructions of the Master then, one day that treasure of Naam will open up to you. You will go within and that huge treasure of Naam will unfold to you." When you manifest the Naam within, then you get that treasure of Naam. All your wants, all your desires that you have here, all of that gets satisfied. You'll get everything in this world, everything in this Creation.
We try so many different paths and so many different methods to control our mind. The mind, by its very nature, likes enjoyment. It likes that attraction and it keeps seeking for more and more such attractions. So, when it gets the attraction of Naam, then that is the best attraction.
There is so much attraction, there is so much intoxication, and there's so much love in that Naam, which is unparalleled in this whole Creation. And when the mind gets in connection with the Naam and it gets that enjoyment, it kicks off all the other pursuits of enjoyment that it had in this world. And it realizes that it is an element of Brahm.
Outwardly, if you try to control your mind, the mind only becomes stronger and stronger, and one day it shows you that strength and it doesn't leave you anywhere, neither of this world nor of all spirituality. When the Naam manifests within and the mind gets in connection with that Naam, it wakes up. It leaves and kicks off all of its other desires and all other pursuits.
Chathur jo hoyegaa karegaa kasab ko,
Chathur jo hoyegaa karegaa kasab ko,
Bundh hi bhundh samudhr bharnaa.
Paltu Sahib says, "If you are smart, you will do your meditation and you will start collecting that treasure of Naam, drop by drop, and fill that ocean of Naam. And one day, when you have filled that ocean of Naam, it will manifest in the form of a huge wave.”
If we look into the history of all Saints and all of the Mahatmas Who have achieved or have been successful in Their devotion, all of Them have done Their meditation regularly and They have spent a lot of time in the night doing meditation. They have sacrificed food and other enjoyments and They have focused on doing Their meditation.
This work of doing meditation is our very own work. It is not the work of others. And each one will have to do this work for himself.
Swami Ji Maharaj was a ready soul. He had come as a Saint. But, even then, He spent eighteen years in a dark hut and He did His meditation, sacrificing all the other enjoyments.
Even Jaimal Singh Ji Maharaj, when he was in the military, he had to give very long hours of service and, in those days, it was twelve to eighteen hours of service. But, even then, after that, he would sit in a trench made by him and he would sit for meditation there.
That way, if you see other Saints also, Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj used to stand for meditation all night and he would tie his hair up and he would stand with his bairagan and do his meditation.
So, whoever has gone within and manifested that Naam, he has made that effort and he has done that devotion and that meditation. So, all of us also will have to put in that effort.
All of the Saints have worked very hard at Their devotion and doing Their practice. And all of us also have to do this meditation regularly and have to put in hard work.
Now, we cannot try to convince ourselves that this hard work and everything done by Saints is only because They were Saints, that They could put that kind of effort. No, every ordinary human being can do this if he puts in that kind of effort.
We have been pursuing these outward desires of Maya and that comes very naturally to us. Saints say and Masters say that this same effort, which we are putting outwardly, if we start directing it within and focus on our within, then we will be easily successful.
Daas palatu kahein sifath hai surath ki,
Daas palatu kahein sifath hai surath ki,
Aur koi khyal mein nahi paranaa.
So, Paltu Sahib says, "All this boils down to your thought. It is only about your thought, which you have to control."
He says that it is all reduced to your thought. It is our thinking and it is that same thinking of ours that leads us to outward desires and all of our affections and everything that we are pursuing in this world. And it is only about inverting that thinking. If we start inverting that thinking to go within, then success is very automatic and natural.
Masters, to clarify what this thinking process is and what it should be, They give the example of a turtle.
So, if we observe how turtles get their young ones, the turtles are in the sea, and when they have to lay their eggs, they come on the beach and they lay their eggs and cover those eggs with sand. And then, they go back into the sea. They do not wait there to look after those eggs or warm those eggs or hatch those eggs. They go back into the sea. But, how do those eggs hatch? That is simply because of the attention of the turtles. So, whatever that turtle does, it goes about eating, it goes about swimming, protecting itself, and it does everything in the sea. But, its attention at all times is focused on those eggs, which it has laid in the beach. And it is only with that attention that those eggs hatch and the young ones come from the eggs and they go back into the sea.
So, like that, we should keep our attention within at all times. Whatever we are doing, our attention should always be within.
It is only on very few occasions that you need that attention, wherein you are doing some particularly intellectual work in your office or you’re doing some mathematical things or things like that. That's where you need that attention.
But, otherwise, in most of the other activities, you can manage to keep your attention within, and yet, do that activity.
So, that way, we should keep our attention within on our Simran. That way, we will progress spiritually also at all times and we will also complete our duties in this world and we’ll also complete all of our other work.
Daas palatu kahein sifath hai surath ki,
Aur koi khyal mein nahi paranaa.
Santhosh ke ghare se khay ghaj pet bhari,
Santhosh ke ghare se khay ghaj pet bhari,
Swaan ik tu ka ko kethik dhaawe.
Paltu Sahib says, "You should keep your attention focused within."
He gives the example of King Janak. King Janak ruled the kingdom of Videhaas king. He carried out all his duties as a king, but his attention was always inwardly focused and he had his devotion to his Master. And that attention was always kept within while he was doing all of his other activities very successfully.
When King Janak passed away, he had done a lot of meditation and he was spiritually very evolved. And, while on his path within, while he was going on the way, there was this door of hell. So, he stepped into hell and there he saw the suffering of all the souls and everyone was in great hardship and was suffering a lot and he felt sad for all of those souls. So, he asked the Lord of Judgment, "Is there a way that these people can all be redeemed of these sins?"
The Lord of judgment said, "Yes, they can be redeemed of their sins. If someone who has done meditation gives some benefit of that Simran, some benefit of that meditation, to them.”
So, he sat there for meditation for two and a half hours. He sat there and gave the benefit of that meditation to all of those souls who were there in hell. And he prayed that all of them should get salvation from there. So, as a result of that, all the souls, which were there in hell, all of them got redeemed of their sins. And all of them were brought back into the chaurasi, into the 8.4 million life forms, because you cannot get direct salvation from hell.
Nanak Sahib in His Bani has also mentioned this episode of King Janak and He has said, "Because of one moment of meditation of King Janak, the whole hell got redeemed of all of the sinners there."
And, accordingly, the Masters have adopted the base of Simran, which was used for redeeming all of those sinners from hell, and They have made that Simran as the base of devotion.
The Simran that King Janak was doing was Vivek simran. That vivek Simran is the Simran that the soul does, the mind does, when it comes to the Eye Center.
So, when the soul comes up, the attention gets focused to the Eye Center. you get Vivek. So, at the Eye Center, that is, at the Sahasdal Kamal, you get the power of discerning and that is the Simran that King Janak had.
But, the Simran that the Saints are giving, that is Sar Simran, and They give the Sar Shabd . And so, the power of the Sar Shabd is much, much higher.
Paltu Sahib says, "However your Master keeps you, whatever your condition is, you should be satisfied and content in that condition."
So, we should be content in whatever condition we are in. We have come into this world with our baggage of karmas and, according to that baggage of karmas, we get our pleasure and we get our sorrow. So, we have to go through that process of that enjoyment and sorrow and be content within that.
Most often, we aspire for more and that leads to our discontentment and we are unhappy and we keep asking for more from our Masters.
So, Paltu Sahib says, "You should be content in what you have because that has come to you as per your own karmas." What happens is that we aspire for more and that leads to our discontentment. We are forever lost in worries and anxiety about that and that keeps us away from our meditation. It keeps us away from our devotion.
If we are content in what we have, then we get better progress in the meditation and in our devotion towards our Masters. So, we should be content with what we have.
Paltu Sahib gives the example of an elephant. The elephant is such a huge animal and he is chained at the door of his master and he is given food. So, the elephant is content and he is sure that his master will keep giving him food. And, therefore, he does not create a problem there. He stays there and he is happy and content with what he's getting, and his stomach is getting filled.
Often, our anxieties also lead to illnesses. It also leads to more worries that we carry, and that is something we should avoid by being content in what we are getting.
As opposed to the elephant, if one looks at a fox, the fox’s stomach is much smaller in comparison to the elephant, but he is discontent in what he's getting. And he roams from village to village trying to get more and more food and he remains discontent as compared to the elephant, which stays there at that door and is content.
Santh ki vruthi ajdahaa ki chaahiye,
Santh ki vruthi ajdahaa ki chaahiye,
Chale bin fire aahaar paave.
Paltu Sahib says, "How should your devotion be? Your devotion should be such that you should be in the remembrance of your Master and God Almighty. Be at one place. Be content and do your devotion. It should not be such that you go from door-to-door asking for things and asking for alms or collecting material things while you're doing your devotion."
So, you should be content and do your meditation at whatever place is convenient. Even if it is below a tree, you can sit below the tree and do your meditation and be content in that. The God Almighty never leaves you unattended and hungry. He will always take care of you.
In Sant Mat, asking for alms or asking for such help is forbidden, whether you wear saffron clothes and you ask for food or other things, or otherwise. You should not be asking because that is like taking a debt. It is like taking a loan and you have to come back to redeem it and pay it back.
So, Paltu Sahib says, "The way that Sadhus and Saints should be is that They should be content in Their devotion, wherever They are, and God Almighty will take care of Them.
He gives an example of a python, which is a huge snake. This python cannot move around, it is not very agile. And as it grows old, it becomes even more fixed to a particular place. But, despite the fact that it cannot move, it is well fed and it continues to get its prey, and God Almighty even takes care of that python.
Sinh aahaar ko karath hai sahaj mein,
Sinh aahaar ko karath hai sahaj mein,
Syaar das bees ghar mood naave.
He gives the example of a lion and the lion, quite easily, gets its prey. Once the lion roars, the animals get scared and they are quite easy to prey on. So, he gets his food easily, unlike that fox which is discontent and keeps running from village to village to fill its full stomach.
Daas palatu kahein aur kuch naa karein,
Daas palatu kahein aur kuch naa karein,
Bhakti ke mool santhosh laavein.
Paltu Sahib says, "We should be content. And contentment is a base for devotion. So, we should be content and we should do our devotion because Saints believe that everything that you are going to get is as per your past deeds, as per your karmas. And that is preordained. You will definitely get it whichever way. So, you should be content in what you are going to get.
And, on the other hand, if you're doing meditation, if you're doing Simran, you’re redeeming your karmas by doing the Simran. And, as a result, your Master is happy, God Almighty is getting happy and, perhaps, you may even get more than what is ordained for you.
Therefore, faith in the Master, faith on the Path and devotion, are two basic foundations for progressing on this Path
Daas palatu kahein aur kuch naa karein,
Daas palatu kahein aur kuch naa karein,
Bhakti ke mool santhosh laavein.
Dhrusti kachchap keri dhyaan jo laayiye,
Dhrusti kachchap keri dhyaan jo laayiye,
Andaa surathi se seyi aave.
Paltu Sahib says, "You keep your attention within while you're going about your activities, like that turtle who keeps the attention on the eggs for hatching them. So, while you go around taking care of your loved ones, your children, and your families, and doing all of the other things, keep your attention focused within.
Thaar makari gahe uthari kai aavathi,
Thaar makari gahe uthari kai aavathi,
Ulati ke thaar gah feri jaavai.
Paltu Sahib says, "As you progress on your devotion, the state you achieve is like that spider, which takes out the thread and it makes a web from that thread. It climbs on that and it can travel on its own thread.
So, once we have manifested the Sound and the Light within, then the soul travels on that Sound and Light within.
Chetukaa giraa jyon alakh ke pachch ka,
Chetukaa giraa jyon alakh ke pachch ka,
Jamaa par beech mein ulati dhaavae.
Paltu Sahib gives the example of the alal bird. This alal bird reference is there in Kabir Sahib’s Anurag Sagar. And, otherwise, this reference is not there in other Scriptures or other books. Kabir Sahib has also explained this bird. And the uniqueness of this bird is that it is always in the sky, it never comes on the ground. And the male and female, both are up and manage to live in the sky only by flying, and they lay an egg also in the sky only while flying. The egg also hatches on its way falling towards the ground. The young bird also comes out of that. It develops its feathers and wings and it develops its feet while it is coming down. And, when it is close to the ground, it realizes that it is not something that belongs to the ground and it inverts and turns and flies back.
So, the example of this bird is akin to those souls who are doing their meditation and who are successfully on the Path of meditation. They ride on the Sound Current. They realize that they are not from this world and that they have to go back to God Almighty because the soul is an element of God Almighty. It is the daughter of God Almighty. It is encased in this body here, but this body doesn’t belong to it and it doesn't belong to this body. It doesn't belong to this world. Its True World and True Home are back with God Almighty. So, that is the realization of the soul.
Daas palatu kahe brungi jo keet ko,
Daas palatu kahe brungi jo keet ko,
Dheth jiyaayi thyon chith laavein.
Another example given by Paltu Sahib is that of the mason wasp. This is also a very unique insect. It does not lay its own eggs, but it has young ones. This reference has also been made by many Saints.
So, this mason wasp is a very unique insect. What it does is, if we observe some of these windowsills, it gets wet mud and it makes small chambers there in some of the corners of these windowsills or doorframes. And then, it goes and fetches these young caterpillars from trees.
First, it injures the caterpillar, making it half dead so that it doesn't escape. And it keeps each of these caterpillars in each of these chambers that it has made. Then, it seals the chambers so the caterpillars are inside. And then, it makes its sound and makes them listen to the sound.
So, those caterpillars, which are there within, they are in these sealed chambers. So, every day, early morning at four o'clock, the mason wasp comes and makes the sound. And it makes them listen to its sound.
Now, those caterpillars that pay attention to that sound start transforming into the form of that bee. They start getting their wings and they start getting their legs and they transform into that bee. And those which do not listen to that sound, they die and perish within that chamber.
So, Saints are like the mason wasp. They initiate souls, They awaken the souls, and They give them initiation of the Naam, of the Sound Current. And They teach them how to do their meditation and how to go within. And, when the Sound is manifested within, then those souls are transformed like the Masters Themselves.
Kabir Sahib gives the example and He says, "Saints are better than the philosopher's stone." The philosopher's stone makes and converts iron into gold. So, whatever you touch with it turns to gold. But, it does not make that iron or gold into a philosopher's stone.
Unlike that, Masters have the capability of making the other person into a Master. So, with Their Grace, those people who come in Their contact and those people who follow Their Teachings and do the meditation and follow as They have taught, they get transformed and become like the Saints themselves.
Daas palatu kahe brungi jo keet ko,
Daas palatu kahe brungi jo keet ko,
Dheth jiyaayi thyon chith laavein.