The paathi sings the Bani of Sant Tulsi Sahib Ji from the book: Santon Ki Bani, Vol I, pg 373
Sun ai taqi na jaayiyo zinhaar dekhna,
Sun ai taqi na jaayiyo zinhaar dekhna;
Apne mein aap jalvaae dildaar dekhna,
Apne mein aap jalvaae dildaar dekhna.
THIS IS THE BANI of Param Sant Satguru Tulsi Sahib. I had said earlier about Sheikh Taqi, he had gone on various pilgrimages and to Mecca-Medina. And then, he had come to Tulsi Sahib and told Him that he had not got peace in all of this wandering. Tulsi Sahib had then told him that, “Taqi, God is not outside, God is within your body.” Tulsi Sahib had told Taqi, “In order to have God Almighty reside within you, He's already within you, but to get to see Him, and for Him to reside within you, it is very important for you to clean your mind first.” And, to cleanse the mind, Saints have given Simran, Satsang, and Dhyan.
So, once the mind becomes pure after doing Simran, what happens further is what Tulsi Sahib is now telling Taqi. Taqi asks Tulsi Sahib, “God Almighty is residing above the seven skies, so that must be really long. How long will it take to reach God Almighty?” Even for traveling in this physical world, it takes very long. Even by flight, it takes about twenty-four hours to go across continents. And, by steamers and other means, it takes months to travel. So, Taqi says, “Across the universe and further skies, how long will it take me to reach God Almighty?”
Tulsi Sahib tells him, “No, Taqi. The God Almighty is behind your eyes. He is very close.”
Putli mein til hai til mein bhara raaz kul ka kul;
Putli mein til hai til mein bhara raaz kul ka kul;
Is pardaae siyaah ke zara paar dekhna.
Tulsi Sahib says, “If we look into the eye and we see the iris inside, and the black spot that we see, even smaller than that, is the Til. And the whole universe is behind that Til, or that sesame seed.”
When we withdraw the soul's attention and get inwardly focused there at the back of the Eye Center, the eyes get inverted, and the whole Creation is then seen behind that sesame seed shaped Third Eye.
So, Tulsi Sahib says, “Look behind this dark veil and you will see the Creation of God Almighty.”
When we cross that sesame seed behind the Eye Center, then our Third Eye opens. And first, we see our soul. And, thereafter, when we go up, we cross the sun, moon, and star, and then, go further up. When we go within, our soul gets sky bound. The sky opens up inside. And when we cross the sun, moon, star, then we see the Radiant Form of the Master within. And the Master then connects the soul with the Sound Current.
So, inside, we see the Jyoti also, and we also hear the Sound Current, the Anahad Nad. And once we hear that Sound, then that Sound never stops, it keeps increasing. Once that Sound opens up, then we hear that Sound all the time. And whether we are talking to somebody, or we are working, that Sound is always there. And, sometimes, that Sound is so loud that we are unable to focus outside.
Chaudah tabaq ka haal ayaan ho tujhe zaroor,;
Chaudah tabaq ka haal ayaan ho tujhe zaroor;
Gaafil na ho khayal se hushiyaar dekhna.
Once we see the Radiant Form of the Master, we see the Light, we see the manifestation of the Jyoti within, the Light within, and also the Sound Current manifests within. Then, clinging to the Sound Current, we go further up into the different planes up above. And Tulsi Sahib has said in His Bani, there are fourteen tabaqs. That is in Urdu. It is equivalent to sixteen mandals, which we use in the terminology of Hindi. So, with the help of the Sound Current, the soul goes up into these planes.
The six chakras below are the six planes below the Eye Center. It takes a long time to cross these planes first. Those are more difficult to cross.
In the Path of all disciples, there are four different stages.
So, the first stage, when we cross the first six chakras, that is the stage like an ant climbs. An ant, when it sees a ripe fruit on a tree, it understands that the fruit is ripe. And then, it starts climbing to eat that fruit. When it climbs, some wind comes, and then it again falls down. Again, it tries to climb. So, this way, it keeps climbing, falling, climbing, falling.
That process is what is akin to the first stage of our treading on this Path of Spirituality. When we sit in our meditation and we focus at the back of the Eye Center and do our Simran, as our Simran improves and it becomes more steady, then our attention of the soul starts gathering inwards and upwards. And, slowly, we start losing the sensation of our hands and legs, and the soul starts withdrawing up. Now, when we are doing this, we oftentimes get some other thought that we start following. And, as a result, this Simran stops. And, again, the attention gets back to its original position.
So, this is like treading the path of the ant, and it takes a long time for the soul to come to the seventh chakra that is at the back of the Eye Center. But an ant is a hard worker and, one day or the other, it definitely achieves what it wants, and it climbs to that fruit and eats it. So, it is hard work that the ant keeps doing every time to climb. And it achieves success at the end.
Likewise, as initiates, and as followers of this Path, we should never leave our effort on this Path, and we should keep doing that. And, definitely, we will get success, sooner or later.
Once the attention is focused at the back of the Eye Center, the second stage starts. The second stage is the stage of a fish. So, this stage is like the soul that starts climbing upwards like a fish. After we see the Radiant Form of the Master, with His Grace, we see the Jyoti in Sahasdal Kamal and we also hear the Sound Current. And once, after we hear the Sound Current and are seeing the Jyoti, the strength of the soul increases. And then, on the Sound Current, the soul goes upwards. It is like a fish. Even when there is a waterfall from a very high mountain, and that water flows down, the fish goes in the river’s direction of that stream, and even climbs that waterfall, and reaches to the peak of that hill. So, it is with these fish. When it rains, it also happens that they climb right up to the top at the peak of the mountain, following the current of the stream. And they also get into the clouds and they also fall in different places as a result.
So, as a devotee, we should do Simran and Dhyan. And, as our Simran gets more steady and more constant, and we continuously do Simran, our soul starts withdrawing faster. And it is only when this Simran gets cut by another thought − because the outwardly pressures of the world are also pulling us out − that those thoughts come, and we have a break in the Simran. Again, we fall back.
So, we should continuously try to make our Simran more steady. After the soul goes up in this stage as a fish, up to Par Brahm, after Par Brahm, it climbs further. And that stage is the stage of a spider.
So, after Par Brahm, the travel further is like a spider. If we see a spider, it casts its web, and it takes out a very fine thread, a very fine silk kind of thread. And it very easily moves on that thread. So, it goes back and forth. It catches a prey with that thread, and it does everything on that thread.
So, after Par Brahm, the soul, on the strength of its own light, travels further. So, as a spider, our speed increases. So, the speed of the soul is continuously increasing. As an ant, it is slow. Then, as a fish, it becomes faster. And, as a spider, it becomes even faster.
And when we reach Sat Lok then it is the fourth stage, which is of the hansa stage, the hans marg. It is the stage like a mythical bird, which flies fast. So, in one instant, the bird can be first at the top, and in the next instant, the bird can come down to the ground. If it sees a fruit, it can quickly fly up to that fruit.
So, that way, the soul then becomes free to move up and downward. From Sat Lok, within a wink, it can come into the body, and within a wink, it can go back. So, if we ask ourselves as to what is the fastest thing on earth, some people will say it is electricity, some will say it is light, or some will say it is sound, or so forth. But Mahatmas say the fastest thing is the mind. Because, in one instant, you may think of America and you are in America in the mind, in the next instant, you are back. It only takes a second for you to go there and come back. So, the mind is that fast. But mind doesn't have power of its own. The mind gets the power from the soul. So, we can imagine how fast the soul can move. The soul is like, at least, a thousand times faster than that, because the soul is a part of God Almighty. It is an element of Sach Khand-Sat Lok. And it is a part of the Creator of this universe.
Sun la-makaan pe pahunch ke teri pukaar hai,
Sun la-makaan pe pahunch ke teri pukaar hai;
Hai aa rahi sada se sada yaar dekhna.
Tulsi Sahib tells Sheikh Taqi, “You come to the back of the Eye Center and, from there, you go to Sahasdal Kamal. And at Sahansdal Kamal, you will see that, from Sach Khand-Sat Lok, there is this Sound Current, which comes to Sahasdal Kamal, which is beckoning you to come.”
And that Sound Current is calling you. It is at the back of your Eye Center. But you are unable to hear it and you are unable to see the Light within because you are outwardly focused. So, if you do Simran and you do Bhajan, then your mind will become purer, and then, you will be able to see the Light within and hear the Sound Current.
So, the Sound Current is coming from God Almighty, and it is at the back of the Eye Center. And once we get connected with the Sound Current, that Sound Current takes us back to God Almighty. So, the Path is entirely the Sound Current. That same Sound Current has come from Sat Lok through different planes, and the soul has descended down and has come to the physical body. And it is on this same Path of the Sound Current that it will go back to Sat Lok. This is the Path created by God Almighty Himself. It is not a path created by any Mahatma. And it has always been the Path. So, this Path has been forever, from the time that the human form has taken shape, that Path has been there inside, in the human form, at all times. It is on this same Path that the Saints have gone back to God Almighty, with the Grace of Their Masters. And it is on this same Path that we will go with the Grace of our Masters.
Milna to yaar ka nahi mushkil magar taqi,
Milna to yaar ka nahi mushkil magar taqi;
Dushvaar to yah hai ki hai dushvaar dekhna.
Tulsi Sahib tells Taqi, “It is not very difficult to go within. What is difficult is only to mend your broken mind, which is outwardly focused. And once the mind gets inwardly focused, then the Path is not difficult.”
Without pleasing the Master, we cannot see the Radiant Form of the Master within. And we need the Master both outside and we need the Master within also. Because, when we go inside, Kal and Maya also try to delude the soul within again, and they do not allow the soul to leave their sphere. And, even beyond that, in Maha Kal, in Maha Sunn, even though the soul has the power of twelve suns and the luminescence of twelve suns, it is not even equivalent to a small flame of a candle. There, it is the Master Who takes the soul in His own light.
So, it is good that the Master doesn’t allow the soul to get deluded within. The Masters take the soul through the Path created by God Almighty.
Tulsi bina karam kisi murshid raseeda ke,
Tulsi bina karam kisi murshid raseeda ke;
Raahe nijaat door hai us paar dekhna.
After explaining all this, Tulsi Sahib tells Taqi, “Without the Grace of a Master, that Path to go to God Almighty is very far away and out of reach. And it is not only that. You will not even be able to go within yourself.”
If we see the history of so many rishis, munis, and other mahatmas, then they have done so much penance and so much austerity for thousands of years, but they have not been successful.
In Sat Yuga, they have done austerity and penance for more than 60,000 years, 80,000 years. Even then, they have not been successful. In Kali Yuga, in such a short span of time, within our lifetime, the Master graces us, and He reduces the burden of our karmas, our deeds, which are more than the Himalayas. And then, He takes us within and keeps us in the higher planes. And then, He takes us to Sach Khand from there. So, it is so much Grace that only a Master can do on the soul and take him to God Almighty.
The Masters grace us through so many different means. They give us Prashad and reduce our karmas. They also give Darshan and reduce our karmas. Through Bhajan, so much karma is reduced. And through Satsang, so much karma is reduced. In the company of the Masters and in the Satsangs that we listen to, so much karma gets reduced. And even when we do our Simran and we sit for meditation, we cannot reduce as many karmas as They reduce when we are in Their company or we are listening to Satsangs.
So, therefore, Tulsi Sahib says, “It is impossible without the Grace of the Masters.” Saints always lead a very simple life, and They do not show Their mystic powers of riddhis-siddhis and the others and, therefore, it becomes difficult to believe Saints. Because God Almighty has not given Them the permission to show Their mystic powers, and They stay within the Word of God Almighty.
In the north, there was a Saint called Maluk Das, and He had an ashram there. And He had a few disciples in that ashram. Now, it so happened that, there was a drought during a period. And there was no water for three years. And people started suffering a lot and cattle were dying. There was no farming that was happening, and there was a lot of suffering.
So, all the villagers were suffering in this famine, and the sarpanch, or the head of the village, with a lot of other people, decided to migrate outwards and shift from that land. But then, the head of the village suggested, “There is the ashram of Baba Maluk Das. Why don't we all go there and seek His blessing?” And then, about a hundred, hundred and fifty villagers, agreed to go there and meet Him.
Around four o'clock in the evening, they reached there, and they pleaded with Him that this famine had really made their lives miserable, and it was now imminent for them to leave the village to survive. And there was a lot of suffering. So, if He could grace them by doing something, then they’d pray for His help.
So, He told them, “Okay, what we’ll do is, let us all pray together. I will also pray with you to God Almighty, and then, if He graces us, then that is a very great thing.”
There was a large open area of ground nearby, about a kilometer away. They all went there. So, they were all going to that ground. Meanwhile, one of the disciples of Maluk Das, he was a good disciple. He was a gurumukh and his Third Eye was opened. He had gone to fetch some milk from the village. So, when he got the milk to the ashram, he saw that his Master was not there. He inquired and was told that Maluk Das Ji had gone along with all the other villagers to pray for rains, and they have gone about a kilometer away from that ground to pray.
So, when he heard this, he got very angry. And he got very angry at the god of rain and thunder that is Indra Dev. He is the god of gods. And he said, “How dare Indra cause such hardship to my Master, that my Master has to go all this way to pray to him for making rain? I will now teach him a lesson.” And he took this iron rod, which is used for making chutney, and the iron rod pestle to grind things. He put that in his hand, and he looked inwards and threatened Indra, that he would throw this and, with this, Indra will fall to the ground, with his throne. And then, he was very angry.
Now, Lord Indra got very scared with this. And, because of that, he got all these clouds, which came there and, as the lord of thunder and rains, it started raining. So, it started raining, and rivers started flowing, and then, these people who had gone to worship to please gods, they then started returning, having only gone halfway.
Baba Maluk Das was wondering, “We didn’t even pray, and it has started raining.” So, He was feeling a little odd. When He came back to the ashram, the other devotees told Him that this disciple had done this. He had picked up this grinder to throw at Lord Indra. So, Baba Maluk Das got very annoyed with that disciple. And He said, “There was no need to threaten the gods like this. We could have done this by a simple prayer. There was no need to do this, and there was no need to show off your self like this. So, from now, you will not get to see me within.”
Once the Master is unhappy, then the disciple has nowhere to go. And that disciple felt very, very sad, and begged at the feet of his Master that, “Please forgive me for this. I realize my mistake. Tell me what I can do to repent on this. Please, show me Yourself within.”
The Master told him, “You have two choices. One is, you leave the ashram for good, forever. And, otherwise, go around the earth and come back. Go around all of these continents, and all of the seas, and come back. Only then, I will forgive you.”
So, he said, “Master I can't stay away from you. I can’t leave the ashram. So, I will go across the world, and I will come back.” So, he started running to take a round of the earth. And he went across the land, and then, he got into the sea and he swam inside the sea. He was swimming in the sea when people in a boat saw him, some merchants traveling in a boat. And they felt maybe his ship must have sunk, and that's why he's swimming here. So, they threw some rope towards him, and they pulled him inside the boat, and he went there. He thought he’d take some rest there. So, they asked him, “Where did your boat sink?”
He said, “My boat has not sunk.” He related that he had to go around the world. And he said, “I have taken this means of going via the sea because it is easier to swim, and faster. That way, I’ll go across the whole world faster.”
So, they were amazed to hear this. And they felt that, if this person is so strong, that he is swimming in the sea, then his Master will really be strong. So, they asked him who his Master was.
And he told them, “He is Baba Maluk Das.”
So, they decided to go and meet Him.
And then, he went back into the sea and went further swimming. So, he crossed this entire world. And he came back in about fifteen days. When he came back, he prayed at the feet of Baba Maluk Das, and he told Him, “I have done this, what You’ve said. Please, forgive me now.”
So, Baba Maluk Das then forgave him. Then, He explained to him, “We should never show off our powers. We should live within the laws of nature and within the law of Creation.”
Tulsi Sahib says, “The Sound Current is at the back of the Eye Center. The time that we take to reach there is to cover all of these chakras below and get focused at the back of the Eye Center. That is what takes time. Afterward, the Path is not difficult.”
So, it is because of our karmas that it becomes difficult. And, oftentimes, there are different burdens of different karmas for different devotees. Some get experiences sooner, some get later. There is no fixed time.
Often, devotees feel that there is a fixed time that they can get those experiences in that set time. The Path is of love and devotion. So, the love and devotion we have of outside world, if we focus that love and devotion at the Feet of the Master, then our success is much sooner.
The Path is difficult because our mind is colored by impressions of millions of its lives earlier. And, to get colored in the love and devotion of the Master takes some time.
As an example, there were two devotees. And one sat below a tamarind tree, and the other sat below a mango tree for meditation. So, they sat for meditation there. Now, what happened was, Narad Muni happened to come into this physical world, and he happened to see both of these devotees sitting, one under the tamarind tree, and the other under the mango tree. And he came there and gave them darshan. And both of them bowed to him and they inquired of him, they said, “Narad Ji, you go to heaven and you keep meeting God there. So, can you check with Him, as we are both sitting here for devotion? When will He grace us and give us His darshan?”
So, Narad Ji said, “Okay, I will go and find out, and I'll come back after about a week and answer your question.” So, Narad Ji went up to heaven and, after about three, four days, he met and he asked Lord Vishnu. He told Lord Vishnu, “These two devotees are sitting, doing their penance, one below the mango tree, and the other below the tamarind tree. And they have asked me to check with you, when will you be gracing them and giving them your darshan?”
Vishnu listened to this and laughed. And then, he told him, “Okay, go and tell them that the number of leaves that they have on the tree under which they are sitting, I will give them my darshan after that many years.”
So, Narad Ji, accordingly, went down to pass on the message. He first went to that devotee sitting below the mango tree. And he said, “I met Lord Vishnu, and he has said that he will give you darshan after the number of years that are equal to the number of leaves that are there in your tree.”
Now, that devotee immediately stood up, and he said, “Oh God, I can't live that many years!” And he walked away from there.
Then, he went to the other devotee who was sitting below the tamarind tree. Now, when he told him this, that devotee got up and started dancing. And he was ecstatic. And he said, “Okay, that’s great! So, finally, you have gone to God and God has promised you that He is going to give me darshan!”
Now, he didn't think about the number of leaves that were there on that tamarind tree that he would have had to wait. But, he was so ecstatic that God is going to give him darshan, hearing that only, he started dancing. And he started dancing in front of Narad Ji. And then, he danced so much and so selflessly that he completely forgot his self. He was so fully engrossed in the love of God, that he was going to eventually get darshan, that Vishnu came down in that moment, and he gave him darshan.
Then, Narad Ji told Vishnu, “You always do this! You say something, then you do something else.” So, he told Vishnu, “You always make me look like a liar, because I come here and told him that you will give after so many years, and then you come and give it immediately!”
So, Vishnu said, “The way, what I told you, was not incorrect. The way they were doing penance and meditation, it would have taken them that many years to see me. But when you told him, and when he started dancing, he completely forgot about himself. He completely transformed. Then, how could I stay away from him?”
So, that way, even in our Simran Bhajan, it is the love and affection for our Master, which brings about the transformation there.
Tulsi bina karam kisi murshid raseeda ke,
Tulsi bina karam kisi murshid raseeda ke;
Raahe nijaat door hai us paar dekhna.
So, Tulsi Sahib says, “Getting a True Master, and after getting a True Master, doing and following what He teaches, meditating for two and a half hours every day, that will get you to God Almighty. Then, that Path is not too far. He is just behind your eyes.”
Tulsi bina karam kisi murshid raseeda ke,
Tulsi bina karam kisi murshid raseeda ke;
Raahe nijaat door hai us paar dekhna.
Radhaswami.