The Paathi sings the Bani of Sant Paltu Sahib from the book: Paltu Sahib ki Bani, Part II, pg 8
Bina satsang na katha hari naam ki,
Bina satsang na katha hari naam ki,
Bina hari naam na moh bhaagai
THIS IS THE BANI of Param Sant Satguru Paltu Sahib. The life of Paltu Sahib was very much like the life of Ajaib Singh Ji Maharaj. He also spent about seventeen years doing Pranayamas and other rituals. And he had also attained riddhis and siddhis, spiritual powers, but there was no peace of mind. It was only later that Guru Gobind Sahib initiated him and he came on the Path of Surat Shabd Yoga. And then, thereafter, He preached the Surat Shabd Yoga, and He was a very fearless Saint.
This is His Bani, and He says, “Without Satsang, one doesn't know the glory of Naam.” Because a lot of talk is there about Naam, but most people don't know what Naam means. So, a lot of people misunderstand Naam to be some mantras, or they also misunderstand it to be the name of some deities or gods, like Rama. They mistake Naam for all of this. But, Naam is a very great thing, and that is the Naam that has been spoken of by the Masters.
So, Swami Ji Maharaj has said, “Naam is a very great thing. All the fifty-two letters, everything, all the literature, the Vedas, the Puranas, the Scriptures, all of that which is written, is all contained within the fifty-two letters. All of this is contained within Naam.” And, ultimately, these fifty-two letters will perish. All that is written here will all perish. But, Naam will not perish like this.
Everything that we see or listen to, by our ears and eyes here, is all destined to come to an end. Everything here will be destroyed. But the Naam that the Masters speak of, that is the Naam, which can only be seen and heard by the eyes and the ears of the soul.
The Sound Current comes from God Almighty, and it resonates at the back of the Eye Center. That is the Sound Current, which is called Naam by the Masters. Masters have sung the glory of that Naam. And, it is only by going and attending to Satsangs, and the company of the Masters, that one comes to know of Naam, and one comes to know of what is true and what is false. So, it is only in the Satsang that one comes to know of the importance of this human form and human life that we have, which the Masters explain to us.
So, why have we got this human life? What is the purpose behind this life? What, actually, are we doing instead? All of this is explained to us, and we come to know of all of this, only by means of a Satsang in the company of the Masters. Masters also explain that, only through a Satsang, we come to know of Who is a Satguru, who is a Satsangi, how is God Almighty, and all of the things surrounding that. All that is understood only by means of a Satsang, coming to it, and having it explained by the Masters.
Paltu Sahib says, “Till we get Satsang, we do not understand the true meaning of Naam, and the reality of it.” So, once we come to know of this in the Satsang, then we get connected with Simran Dhyan. And then, the attachments that we are all entangled in, we start getting out of those attachments. As we do our Simran, the attachments that we have with the outwardly world and all around us, all that starts getting cut off, and we start getting love and affection at the feet of the Satguru.
So, Paltu Sahib says, “Till we get a Satsang, we will not know the importance of Naam. And, till we get Naam, we will not be able to get ourselves free from these attachments that we have around us.”
Moh baage bina mukti n milaigi,
Moh baage bina mukti n milaigi,
Mukti bin naahin anuraag laagai.
Then, He says, “Till we cut off all our attachments, we will not get salvation. And, if we do not get our salvation, we do not free our soul, we will not be able to get and understand true devotion.”
In this world, there are two types of love. One is the love, which is associated with our body and our being here, all our attachments, love and affection for all around us. And the other is what is called as anuraag, and that is the love between the soul and the Oversoul, or God Almighty.
Impure love is the love that we have around here. And, pure love is the love between the soul and God Almighty. That is also the love between a disciple and his Master.
So, till we are able to get out of our attachments, we will not be able to get salvation and free our soul. And, if we are not able to get our salvation, true devotion, or anuraag, we will not be able to develop that love for the Satguru and for God Almighty.
There is the story of Mansur. He was a great merchant in Afghanistan. He used to purchase things there and he would sell them in India. And then, once in India, he got a Master and he got initiation. And, he also was a great meditator. So, this is a story about him.
So, after Mansur got initiated, He stayed here. And, in His meditation, He focused within and He got salvation and He went and met God Almighty within. And, after His stay here in India, He went back to Afghanistan. And there, He kept repeating this word ‘Anal Hagg, Anal Hagg. Anal Hagg means ‘I am God Almighty’. So, He was so much in love that He said this, and He would roam around in the plains of Afghanistan, saying this.
News spread and people took offense to this. And the priest even complained to the calipha, the king there, about Mansur.
So, the king then handed this matter to his kazi, his chief priest, and he told him, “You award appropriate punishment for this action of Mansur.”
The kazi was very jealous of Mansur and he did not like Mansur. So, he got this opportunity of punishing Him, and he ordered the guards to cut His limbs first, and then, cut His body also and, finally, hang Him.
So, when they were taking Mansur for awarding this punishment, there were other mahatmas also that saw Mansur, and they said, “See the love that this person has.” So, they asked Mansur what Love meant. And what is Love?
Mansur said, “If you want to see what Love is, then you wait for three days.”
So, when they started the punishment, they first cut His hands off. Then, Mansur started laughing, and saying, “You have cut these physical hands of mine, but my hands are at the Feet of God Almighty.”
And then, they cut His legs off. And then, Mansur said, “You cut, again, my physical
legs, but my legs are in the dargah of God Almighty.”
So then, the kazi said, “He's talking too much. You cut His tongue off.”
When they came to cut His tongue, He told them to wait for a minute. And then, He
closed His eyes and He prayed and He thanked God Almighty. He said, “O, God Almighty,
You are so gracious. You are so gracious that they have cut my hands off, they have
cut my legs off, and I haven't even felt the pain of an ant biting me. So, you are
so gracious.” So then, He called them, and told them, “Okay. Now, you come and cut
my tongue off also.”
So then, after this, there are spears, which are put in the ground, and they throw the person on the spears from the top. And then, the spears pierce the person from the bottom and come out from the head. That is how a person was given a sentence of death there.
So, They put Him at the altar and, from there, they pushed Him over. When he died like that there, his blood had spilled all over. The sound of ‘Anal Hagg, Anal Hagg started coming from all of those droplets of blood. When this started happening, the kazi said, “This is not right.” So, he said, “Collect all of this, and burn it.” So, when they collected all of that, they burned all these things, the blood and everything.
Then, the next day, after it had all burned down and was ash then, from the ash also, this sound of ‘Anal Hagg, Anal Hagg started coming. So then, the kazi felt, “This is also not right. You take all the ash and throw it in the river.” They collected all this ash, and they took it to the river, and they started throwing this in the river, then again, from the river also, this same sound, ‘Anal Hagg, Anal Hagg, started coming.
So, when this was done, the river and God Almighty got very angry, and the river started flowing and it started flooding the area, and the flood started building up towards the city.
Now, Mansur had earlier told His disciples, “This is all going to happen. And when all this happens, you take my pajamas, and when the river comes towards the city, you put these pajamas in the river, and then, that will quell the anger of the river and it won't come, it won’t hurt everybody.”
So, those were the three days. The first day, when they tortured and killed Him, the Anal Hagg, the sound, kept coming. And then, the next day, from the ashes, the sound came. And the third day, it was from the river. So, that is how this Love is. This is what Anal Hagg is.
By doing Simran when there is this Love between the soul and God Almighty, each cell of our body, each drop of our blood and flesh, all of them get completely soaked in this Love. And, that is how the Love emanates from each and every cell of the body.
That is why Paltu Sahib says, “Without mukti, we will not be able to get salvation. And, without salvation, we will not be able to develop the Anal Hagg, or the love for God Almighty.”
Bina anuraag se bhakti na milaigi,
Bina anuraag se bhakti na milaigi,
Bhakti bin prem ur naahin jaagai.
So, therefore, He says, “Till we develop, the love for God Almighty, to go and meet God Almighty, we cannot say that we are doing our devotion.” Till we develop that anuraag, that love, we cannot say that we are doing our devotion. And, if we are not doing our devotion, we will not be able to develop that love for God Almighty or go back to God Almighty.
Prem bin naam na naam bin sant na,
Prem bin naam na naam bin sant na,
Paltu satsang bardaan maangai.
Paltu Sahib says, “Without love, there are no Saints. And, without Saints, there is no Naam. So, Naam, Saints, and Love, all of these are the same thing.” Therefore, Masters say, “Our soul is also Love. God Almighty is also Love. And, the Path for the soul to go back to God Almighty is also Love.”
Prem bin naam na naam bin sant na,
Prem bin naam na naam bin sant na,
Paltu satsang bardaan maangai.
Paltu Sahib says, “O God Almighty, give me the boon of Satsang because, only with Satsang, I will be able to discern and I will be able to get to understand my Master and go within.”
Without Satsang, we do not understand the true meaning of this life. We feel that this life has been given to us to attend to all the things around us, to attend to our families, and our businesses, etc., and, basically, to enjoy life. But, Masters come, and They explain to us, “No. This life has not been given you to you to do all of these things. But, this is a very precious jewel that has been given to you to do the devotion of God Almighty and get rid of the cycle of sorrow that you are in.”
And then, even after we get into the company, we feel, “Okay, we are quite young. Now, let us enjoy life, and then, when we are old, maybe around sixty, seventy years old, we should start our devotion.”
Masters say, “No. You have to do your devotion when you are young only, because, as we get older, our faculties, our senses, all get weak. And then, it is very difficult to do our meditation and practices.” Masters say that you should do it when all of these faculties are working well, all of your senses are working well.
So, Masters say, “There is no times specification, or age specification, to start doing your devotion.”
Prahlad and Dru, they started meditating when they were five and about three and a half years old. So, there is no limitation on your age for starting to do your devotion.
Paltu Sahib says, “O God Almighty, please give me the boon of Satsang so that, with Satsang, I will keep my attention focused at the Feet of the Masters.”
Kaun tu sakas hai chet kar aap ko,
Kaun tu sakas hai chet kar aap ko,
Kahaa tu aayi kai mann laaya.
Paltu Sahib has explained the importance of Satsang. Now, He talks about the human body, the human form.
He asks a question to the human being, and says, “Who are you? Where have you come from? And, what have you become here?” He questions us saying, “You are identifying yourself with this body, but this body is different. This place around you, which you are identifying with, is, again, not your True Home. Your True Home is somewhere else.”
He says, “This life, which has been given to you as a human being, this life is given to you to redeem your deeds. It’s been given to you for a short span of time, and you are not this body. You are the person who is running this body. You are the soul who is running this body. If you were the body, then all of these things around you would have been, actually, yours. But, they are not yours.”
So, who is yours? God Almighty is yours. The place of God Almighty is your place. This place around you is not your place. He says, “Where there is no Kal, there is no night, there is no day, and there is bliss at all times, that is your True Home.” There, it rains nectar all the time. And there, the soul becomes God Almighty. And, it is completely imbibed in God Almighty. That is your place.
The soul is a form of Light and Sound of God Almighty. It is not this body. It is
not the body of any of the 8.4 million life forms. The soul is not a male or female.
But, here, it has taken different bodies. It has become a male or a female here.
It has become an elephant here, or it has become an ant here. But, it is neither
of these. So, there is only one form of the soul. And, that soul can go into the
smallest of bodies, like an ant, and it can go into the biggest of bodies, like
an elephant. But, the soul is the soul.
So, when the soul goes back to God Almighty and, from there, it sees the entire Creation, it can see everything from there. The situation is that the soul was a princess and was to marry a prince and stay with a king in a palace but, instead, she has married a beggar, and she is suffering now.
So, what is she reduced to now? She has married a beggar and, now, while that beggar
cleans the streets, she has to carry the burden of all of the filth that he puts
in the basket on her head. So, the soul was the princess and she should have its
rightful place with God Almighty, to be as a part of God Almighty. But, instead,
she has married the mind, as a beggar.
And, what is the mind doing? It is constantly building up karmas and loading all
these karmas on the head of the soul. Now, to settle all those karmas, all those
deeds that the mind is constantly putting on the head of the soul, she has to, unfortunately,
go again and again in this cycle of life and death and redeem all of these karmas.
So, the Master says, “Now, it is time to stop. Okay, you have done all these karmas
in the past. But, now is the time to stop, to relook at what you're doing, to spend
your time in Bhajan Simran, and to have a purer life, so that you help the Master
also in taking you back to God Almighty.” Because, if we don't do that, then what
happens is that, we have to redeem those karmas on our body. We have to go through
suffering. And, when we are suffering, even our Master is suffering. Even He feels
sad and He also suffers.
Kethik ber tu gayaa tagaay hai,
Kethik ber tu gayaa tagaay hai,
Apana bhedh tu nahi paaya.
Paltu Sahib says, “Whenever God Almighty in the past has given you this opportunity of a human life form, mind and Maya, Kal and Maya, have always deluded you, and they have always kept you away from Reality.” Whenever the soul takes birth in a human life form, in the womb of the mother, the soul is kept on two supports of Light and Sound.
So, when the soul is in the womb, it is supported by the Sound Current, by the Light and the Sound. And, because it is connected with the Sound Current, it is aware of all of its previous lives, all of the things that it has done in the past. And that is because it is connected with the Sound Current. And it also grows. The body forms also because it is connected with the Sound Current. So, it is connected with the Sound Current. It is connected with God Almighty. And there, the soul is aware of all of the previous lives and it sees for itself, what kind of suffering it has gone through in the previous lives. And it also sees and realizes that it is encaged in this dark chamber.
So, there, because it sees so much suffering that it has gone through, and it is scared of the dark chamber that it is encaged in, the soul prays to God Almighty, and it is constantly in prayer. It prays to God Almighty, “You please take me out of this, and as soon as I get out of this, I will only do your devotion. And I will not do any other thing. I will, absolutely, not do any other thing.”
So, what happens is that, after nine months, when the body is born, the baby comes out, Maya covers the soul with its curtain of illusion. And, with that, the Sound Current stops, and the soul can no longer hear or see the Sound Current, because of this veil of illusion put by Maya. As soon as the baby is born, it comes out, and as soon as it comes out, the connection with the Sound Current is lost, as it cannot see or hear the Sound Current. And that is why the baby cries as soon as it is born. So then, it is fed milk. And then, it is fed other things. And then, all its family members get together, so the illusion that it has been covered in, that starts building up. And it completely forgets the promises that it had made to God Almighty. And, thereafter, the baby gets into this ‘mine’ and ‘me’ and all of that, and it completely forgets God Almighty.
So, therefore, Masters come and remind us that, in the womb, you had promised to God Almighty to do the devotion, but you have come here and, now, have completely forgotten. Because you were remembering God Almighty in the womb, He was taking care of you and protecting you there. And now, you have come out and you've completely forgotten God Almighty. But, if you do the same prayer and you remain in touch with God Almighty here, then He will take care of you, even in your life here.
So, God Almighty has kept His entire Creation within this human form and He also is residing within. And the Path to meet Him is also created within the human form. So, all that, He has done within the human form.
Bhatak yeh mitaigi kaam tab hoyagaa,
Bhatak yeh mitaigi kaam tab hoyagaa,
Kethik ber tu bhatak aaaya,
Paltu Sahib says, “When will you stop your wandering? You will stop your wandering when you go within and when you, again, manifest that Light and Sound within.”
Once you manifest that Light and Sound within, you will be able to get out of this wandering of life and death, and life and death again. When we do our meditation and go within, we manifest the Radiant Form of the Master within. Then, with His Grace, He gets us to see the Jyoti again. He gets us to get a glimpse of the Jyoti, and He manifests the Sound Current within. And, thereafter, the soul climbs up each plane on the Light and Sound Current, and the Master is there at each of these planes, waiting for us.
Daas paltu kahe hoy sanskaar jab,
Daas paltu kahe hoy sanskaar jab,
Bina satsang na chutein maaya
Paltu Sahib says, “When you have sanskaras, you have good sanskaras, that is, you have, in your previous births, attempted devotion, you have done your devotion to God Almighty, whatever forms you have done, those are the sanskaras that are imbibed in you.” And the impressions that are imbibed in you, those impressions are what help you to get to a Satsang and, thereafter, get Naam and go within.
So, only when one has these impressions of previous births, when they go to Satsang, and they listen to the Masters talking there, then each word that the Master says creates an impression. It creates a transformation. It brings about a transformation in that person. So, this comes with the previous life impressions that they have.
Without impressions, there are so many people who listen to Satsang every day, and they listen from one ear, take it out from the other ear, and there is no impact.
It is only because of impressions that we listen to the Satsang and, those words spoken by the Masters, they bring about a transformation in us. And then, we follow the Path, as per the Teachings of the Masters. And when we follow the Teachings of the Master, we listen to them, and then, we ponder on those Teachings, we think about them then, definitely, what the Masters say will bring about a transformation in the way we look at things and the way we go about our daily lives. And then, we imbibe what is said in the Satsangs in our daily lives. And our thought processes change, the way we look at things change, and we transform ourselves completely.
Satsangis should follow the Teachings of the Masters. When the Masters talk in the Satsangs, they should listen to those Satsangs and they should, thereafter, imbibe that, think about that, ponder on what is said, and bring it into their thought processes and into their behaviors. Such that, when someone sees a satsangi, he should know that this person is truly a disciple of a great Master.
If we listen to Satsangs and we do not think about those Satsangs, we do not imbibe those Satsangs or Teachings of the Masters within us, then we will not be able to bring about a transformation within us. Then, we are only as good as any other outsider.
Satsangs have a lot of power if we are able to imbibe what is said in the Satsang in our daily lives.
When I was in Bombay, I listened to only one Satsang. And this was also a taped Satsang, because Baba Ji was, in those days, in Bangalore. But, when I listened to that Satsang, I thought a lot on that Satsang, and that Satsang gave me a lot of answers to my questions, and it resolved a lot of things that were on my mind. And, with that one Satsang only, because I thought so much on that, and I brought it into my being, that helped me completely transform.
I used to listen to Satsangs every day, and when I went back from the Satsang hall, when I walked back home also, I would think on that Satsang. Then, in the night, while sleeping also, I would think about the Satsang. And, in the morning, when I went for my work also, I used to keep thinking about what was said in the Satsang.
So, in only about one and a half months of listening to the Satsangs like that, that so radically transformed me, because I developed such a strong pang of separation with the Satguru, or the Master, that I felt like leaving everything and going to Bangalore. After about a month and a half, I left for Bangalore, only with trousers and a shirt. And, thereafter, when I met Baba Ji here, I stayed here only for fourteen years. I never returned.
So, Satsang is a very great thing. It is very powerful. It is very powerful when one listens to it and thinks about it and brings it into his life. He imbibes it and makes it a part of his life.
The other thing is Simran. If we do Simran as our daily routine, when we’re doing everything, we continue to do Simran, we can watch for ourselves, how fast it will be able to transform us, and changes a person from a human being to God Almighty.
But, if we listen to Satsangs and we do not imbibe that and make it a part of our daily lives, we take initiation but we don't do Simran, then we will be as we were. There will be no change. There will be no transformation.
Daas paltu kahe hoy sanskaar jab,
Daas paltu kahe hoy sanskaar jab,
Bina satsang na chutein maaya.