The Paathi sings the Bani of Sant Kabir Sahib from the book: Kabeer Saaki Sangrah, pg 33
Kabeer guru ki bhakti karu,
Taji bisayaa ras chouz,
Kabeer guru ki bhakti karu,
Taji bisayaa ras chouz,
Baar baar nahi paahiyai,
Manush janam ki mouj.
THIS IS THE BANI of Param Sant Satguru Kabir Sahib. Kabir Sahib says in this Bani, “This opportunity of getting a human life doesn't come again and again. So, use this time and spend it for the devotion of God Almighty.”
Masters have adopted a straightforward Path for salvation and going back to God Almighty, which is devotion. There are several other practices and principles, like Ashtanga Yoga, pranayamas, japas, tapas, etc., but, Masters have adopted this very simple and straight forward way of going back and getting salvation.
In this Path, we do not have to leave our home, we don’t have to wear saffron clothes, and we do not have to leave our places. It is something that we can practice, while we are staying at home. We have been following our mind and following the world and getting ourselves attached in all our thoughts across that. But, when we have gone to the Masters, and They have initiated us, then it is incumbent on us to follow Their Teachings and do our devotion.
Masters say, “This world is not true. It is not permanent. And all our attachments in this world, all our relations in this world, none of those are true and permanent.” They say, “You should stay in this world, nevertheless, and do your duties, but do that as a duty belonging to the Master.” So, do all these things that you are doing, currently, as a matter of duty on behalf of your Masters. And keep your love and affection at the feet of your Masters. The love and affection, which you currently have, are attached and lost in all our outwardly attachments and desires. You should move that to the feet of the Master. Get your love and affection at His feet.
When we have our love and affection at the feet of our Master, and we are identifying ourselves with the Master, then the Masters also understand our responsibilities and They also help us in our worldly matters.
But, the mind deceives us, and we begin to believe that these are our duties, or things that we are doing, our occupations, our livelihood, these are not going to happen without our deep involvement. And, therefore, we get away from the affection of the Masters, and we start worrying and get anxious about all the things that we are doing for this world.
When we get associated with and fall to the deception of the mind, then a lot of these difficulties that we face make us very anxious, and we have a lot of worries and troubles because of that.
But, when we keep our Master in front of us, and then we go about our duties of this world on behalf of the Master, then a lot of things are eased out by the Masters themselves.
Why do we go to the Masters? We don't go to the Masters to ask for material things. We don't go to the Masters to get rid of our sicknesses. We go to the Masters to get us out of this ocean of life and death, and to get us salvation.
So, therefore, it is our responsibility that we should listen to Satsang every day. We should do our bhajan Simran every day, and reduce the burden of our karmas. By that, we are making the work of our Master a little easier.
Therefore, Kabir Sahib says, “This occasion of human life has been given to you and it is very precious. So, while you are getting the opportunity to sit here as a human being? Use that time for the devotion of God Almighty.”
If we don't spend that time in devotion, and we follow the mind, then the only thing that happens is, at the end, at the time of death, we only have repentance, because all the things that we have identified with and which we have believed to belong to us, all those things have to be left behind. So, He says, “You should control the five vices, that is, your five karmendryas, the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and our senses of touch. These have to be controlled because, if these are not in control, then we get away from our devotion.”
Bhakti beej binasai nahi,
Aayi padai jo chol,
Bhakti beej binasai nahi,
Aayi padai jo chol,
Kanchan jo bistaa padai,
Ghatai na thaa ko mol.
Kabir Sahib says, “The seed of devotion that has been planted in you, that will never get destroyed. That will grow at some time.”
When the farmers sow their seeds, they don't see whether each seed is upright. They just sow the seeds and go about it. And when the seed grows, even if it is inverted, it grows out and it grows up, eventually.
It is like gold. Even if gold falls in the mud and the filth, it doesn't lose its value. The goldsmith will clean it and sell it at the nominal value of that gold.
Like that, the seed of Naam, which has been planted in everybody, whether he is a sinner or whether he has good deeds, that seed will grow, eventually.
Guru bakti athi katin hai,
Jyo kaade ki dhaar,
Guru bakti athi katin hai,
Jyo kaade ki dhaar,
Binaa saach pahuchai nahi,
Mahaa katin byovhaar.
Then, Kabir Sahib says, “Devotion is a little difficult, though it sounds very easy. It is a little difficult.”
We have to follow the Teachings of the Masters. So, devotion, the example He gives is like walking on a fine-edged sword. If one is not steady, then he will fall by the wayside and get cut. In devotion, one has to have faith in the Master. One has to have a resolve, a very strong resolve. And he has to have determination and love and affection for the Master. He says, “It is walking the fine edge of a sword because one has to stick to truth on this Path.”
So, on this Path, one has to tread by being truthful in behavior, by being truthful in our thinking, and by being truthful in our dealings with other people. Because, if there is deceit in this, there is deception, we are causing harm to others by our thoughts, by our actions. Then, regardless of whatever we are meditating, and whatever devotion we are doing, the storehouse of deeds that we are attempting to redeem, as a result, again, is building up, due to that deception.
Kabir Sahib says, “In whose heart there is truth, there God resides. And where truth is not there, where there is deception, there God does not reside.” And, because we are unable to maintain that truth in our life, we face difficulties. And that is why the continuity of our devotion is not maintained.
Bhakti duheli guru ki,
Nahi kaayar ka kaam,
Bhakti duheli guru ki,
Nahi kaayar ka kaam,
Sees uthare haath se,
So lesi sathnaam.
Kabir Sahib says, “Devotion is difficult because, for those who have fear in their heart, it is difficult for them to do this devotion.” Devotion is for those people who want it with a firm resolve and who are fearless in this. And they understand that this life that has been given to them is priceless. They have to use this opportunity to get their salvation and do the devotion of God Almighty.
So, they tread fearlessly on this Path with a firm resolve. It is not outwardly, but within, that we have to surrender to the Masters. If we do not surrender to the Masters, we are unable to get the Grace of the Masters. So, on this Path, when we follow the Master within, we have to understand that we have to surrender to Him. And we have to understand that our occupation, our livelihood, is what belongs to Him. Our family belongs to Him. All the things that we are supposed to do, all our duties that we are doing, are on His behalf. So, we have to very clearly understand that we are servants of the Master, and we are simply performing our duties in this world on His behalf. We need a very firm resolve to do it here and now.
Those people who procrastinate and push their devotion to be done later, they are not able to be successful on this Path.
Kabir Sahib says, “What you have to do tomorrow, you should do today. And, what you have to do today, you should do it now, because one never knows when this breath that we are taking will stop.” Therefore, we have to have a very firm resolve to move forward on this Path. And we should be fearless to face all kinds of difficulties that we may face in our lives, while we tread on this Path. So, we may have sorrows here, we may have difficulties, but we should be continuous and firmly resolved that we will be moving forward on this Path.
You may have heard this about Sant Ji, Ajaib Singh Ji Maharaj — that he had built this Kunichuk Ashram. This was his life savings that he had put in this ashram. There was land of around two Murabba. It was a big ashram, and he had constructed buildings there. He had a fair amount of livestock there, and he was doing farming there also.
Now, when Kirpal Singh Ji visited him, on his second visit, Sant Ji was sitting and resting below a tree. And he had taken out his turban and his slippers, and he was sitting there because it was hot. And, in Rajasthan, it is quite hot. And he was doing farming and, as a result, he had stopped for some time to take rest under the shade of a tree.
Just then, Kirpal Singh Ji came in his car, and He told him, “Ajaib, you have to leave this place. You have to leave this ashram, and you have to go elsewhere and you have to do your meditation there.”
Then, when he bent down to take his turban, Kirpal Singh Ji said, “Why are you taking your turban?”
And then, he went to take his chappals.
So, again, He said, “Why are you taking your chappals?”
So then, he just walked away from there. He took the word of his Master, and he
just walked away from that place, and he went elsewhere to do his meditation. He
left there and did not look back.
That place was maintained for some time, it was taken over by his relatives for some time. And, subsequently, I think it was donated to some poor people, or it continued to remain with his relatives, something like that happened. But, Sant Ji never came back, never looked back at that place. He went elsewhere to meditate and he settled elsewhere. He simply walked away from that place on the instructions of his Master, and he didn't give it any more importance than a blade of grass.
This was a very great thing, considering that he had spent his whole savings on that. His whole retirement benefits had gone into creating that ashram. So, he did not bother to think much on it, following the instructions of his Master.
That is the kind of surrender that we should have in our mind. Thereafter, he went to 77 RB, and then, he went to 16 PS. And there, he did his meditation for about eight years. And, you can see that his Master gave him so much, and He graced him so much after that.
But, generally, we follow our mind. The mind deceives us so that, without our intervention, without our involvement in this whole thing, nothing will happen. That is how the mind deceives us.
There are many Great Souls, there are many great Masters, Who have had families. And, despite Their families, They have been very successful on this Path. For this, we have to be able to sacrifice, but not outwardly show of sacrifice. We should, in our mind, be clear about our sacrifice.
Bhakti duheli naam ki,
Jas kaade ki dhaar,
Bhakti duheli naam ki,
Jas kaade ki dhaar,
Jo dolai tho kati parai,
Nischal uthare paar.
Again, Kabir Sahib points out, “Doing the meditation and devotion of Naam requires a very firm resolve. And, those people who are, by nature, wavering in their mind, they fall aside.”
So, those people who follow the Teachings of the Master, and they sit regularly for their meditation and do two and a half hours of meditation every day, they definitely get the Grace of their Master.
And those others, who don't do this, and who follow their mind and, sometimes they sit for half an hour, sometimes they sit for an hour here and there, that is not devotion.
It is prescribed that those who are living in a grahasthaashram, or in families, living a marital life, for them who are doing their farming, or are engaged in other means of livelihood, for them, they should do two and half hours of meditation every day.
And, for those who are living a life of a sadhu, who are bachelors and who are wanting to only do this practice, for them, there is no time limit. But, at least, six hours is what is prescribed for them because, when they are sadhus, and they are living this life to be entirely devoted, then people come to them, and they seek their blessings, and then, they have to give blessings to such people, they have to part with some of their benefits. So, the benefit that they’re getting from their devotion, that also has to be parted with, to the others. Those who have tried to follow the Path like that, for them, they have to meditate day and night, and then only, they get success.
Otherwise, it is a very difficult Path because, when we do our devotion, sometimes we also do deeds by which we add on karmas and, again, make our mind impure. So, therefore, when we are doing meditation like that and we are, again, doing some deeds, which are, then, offsetting that meditation, we do not see the fruit of that meditation. We are unable to have those experiences and see the success in our meditation.
We have to listen to the instructions of the Masters. If we listen to the instructions of the Masters and follow Their instructions, and we sit for our meditation for two and a half hours a day, then we will definitely see a transformation coming about us.
Kabeer guru ki bhakti ka,
Man mein bahuth hulaas,
Kabeer guru ki bhakti ka,
Man mein bahuth hulaas,
Man mansaa maazai nahi,
Hon chahath hai daas.
Kabir Sahib says, “All of us feel like becoming gurumukhs, and we all aspire to do that. But then, we do not guard our mind, and we do not focus on keeping it clean.”
If we keep our mind clean by listening to Satsang every day and doing our meditation of two and a half hours, then the mind will definitely remain clean, and we will get the benefit of the Grace of our Masters.
But, if we do not cleanse our mind, then we will not be able to progress further in our devotion. The way of cleansing our mind is to sit for our meditation, to do Simran, and to contemplate on the Form of the Master within. By doing that, we are able to clean our mind and reduce the karmas, reduce our deeds, and make the mind cleaner by that.
Harsh badai dekh kari,
Bhakti kare sansaar,
Harsh badai dekh kari,
Bhakti kare sansaar,
Jab dekhai kachu heenatha,
Avgun dharein gavaar.
Kabir Sahib says, “When we tread this Path of devotion, if we are getting importance, and we are getting respect, and we are getting all kinds of other support and facilities then, when we do this devotion, we are happy doing it. But, otherwise, we succumb to talking bad about this Path.” So, Kabir Sahib says, “Whatever we face on this Path, whether it is anything bad, whether someone is criticizing us, or we are finding it difficult, or we are not getting that kind of importance, even then, if we continue our devotion, that is the correct devotion.”
Bhakti nisenee mukti ki,
Sant chade sab daay,
Bhakti nisenee mukti ki,
Sant chade sab daay,
Jin jin man aalas kiyaa,
Janam janam pachtaay.
Seeing that devotion as the sign of salvation, the Masters have jumped into this ocean of devotion and They have got salvation.
Those people who keep thinking about devotion, keep intellectualizing about it, they have not been able to jump into this devotion and get salvation.
When people go searching for pearls in the ocean, these people are fearless. Two people go in a small boat and they look for these oysters with pearls. And they have no fear for their life, to plunge into the deep ocean, and search for this oyster. They go deep into this water and, where they see these shells floating on the surface, they dive down deep and they search for their oysters.
So, between the two, one of them goes down with a rope, and he dives down to the bottom of the sea there. They have to face all kinds of threats. There are very big fish, which think they are insects, and they come to eat them. And there are other creatures that they have to fight against. And, at the same time, they have to search for those oysters.
When they get those oysters, they put them in their bag, and they just collect all of those oysters, and then, go back to the boat. They bring all these oysters up and, these shells, some of them have creatures inside, some are empty, and only a few of them have pearls.
So, as opposed to these two people who go there fearlessly, if a group of people decides to procure those pearls, but then, they sit on the shore, and they start thinking about ‘what is going to happen, how deep the waves will be, how deep the ocean will be, what will happen if something happens to me, what will happen to my family, what will happen to my children, how will we have a livelihood’, such kind of thinking is not going to get them those pearls.
Kabir Sahib says, “Only when you have a very firm resolve and you have faith, then you will be able to get success on this Path.” Therefore, Masters have seen the Path of devotion as the Path of salvation. And, without looking anywhere else, They have plunged into this ocean of devotion, and They have been successful.
Sant Ji used to refer to this story. In the Ramayana, before Ramayana actually happened, about ten thousand years before that, when Maharishi Valmiki wrote this Ramayana, he had said that Lord Rama would come to this Pampapati Sarovar, this pond. And he would give his darshan to all the rishis, all the sages, who were there, who settled around there.
So, reading this, what Maharishi Valmiki had written, a lot of sages settled down at Pampapati Sarovar, and they settled, some six thousand years earlier, some four thousand years earlier, before Rama was even born. So, they all settled there and they were doing all their practices, spiritual practices, there on the banks.
There was also a tribal woman, called Shabri, who also was there, and she was also wanting to get the darshan of Lord Rama. So, she also settled down there, closer, a little away from all the other settlements of all the sages. She was also devoted to Lord Rama and she felt that just sitting like that and waiting, instead of that, she should do some seva for all of these great sages who were there. And so, she decided to do that. But, she feared that she was of a lower caste.
In those days, there was a lot of caste-ism. And, being a tribal woman, she was of a lower caste, and all these sages were of a higher, brahmin caste. She feared to come in front of them and do any direct seva there. So, what she decided was that she would clean this path, which they would use to go from their ashrams to the Sarovar, to the pond. So, all these sages would walk on that path every day, and they would all find it very clean and well kept. But, none of them bothered to try and find out who was doing that.
There was a very old, revered sage called Matang Rishi. And he also wondered, “How does this path remain so clean, and who is it that is cleaning it? Because, in daytime, we don't see anybody. So, someone is cleaning it in the night.” He was curious to find out who was the person who was cleaning this.
So, he asked two of his disciples to sit there overnight and hide and see who was the person who came and cleaned that path every day. And, when they would find that person, they should bring that person to him. So, they hid behind a tree and they waited. And when Shabri came to clean that path, when she started using a broom to clean it, they came and they stood before her.
So, looking at these two sages standing in front of her, she started trembling, fearing that they would curse her.
But, they told her, “No, we have not come to curse you. We want to take you to our Master.”
So, when they took her to MatangRishi, she bowed down, and there, she pleaded and said that she had made a mistake, so she should be forgiven.
But then, MatangRishi told her, “You have not made any mistake. And I am very pleased with the service you have been doing and keeping this place clean. So, I have not called to curse you, but I've called to bless you.”
So, she bowed down and she said, “I don't have any initiation on your path.” And then, MatangRishi initiated her there, and he blessed her. And he told her, “If Rama will come here to Pampapati, then he will definitely first come to your house before he goes elsewhere.” So now, once he gave her a blessing like this, she was worried that, when Rama will come, what will happen about his food? What kind of food will she be able to offer him? Because it was a deep forest, and there were only trees and leaves and some berries. There were lots of berries there, trees of berries, so she selectively chose good berries and tasted them and kept them. When she got all these berries home, she wanted to make sure that the berries would be sweet, and they would not have any insects in them. So, with each berry, she ate a little of that berry, to make sure that it was sweet, and to make sure that there was no insect inside. And, whichever berries had insects, she would weed them out, and whichever berries were not sweet, again, she would weed out. So, she collected all sweet berries without any insects.
Then, that time eventually came when Lord Rama came to Pampapati, and everyone was standing outside their ashram. Each one’s ego thought that Lord Rama would first come to visit their ashram. But, Rama first went to the house of Shabri.
So, she received Rama with a lot of love and affection, and then, had him sit on a small, wooden platform. And then, she took out those berries, which she had selectively tasted and kept.
Seeing that Rama had gone to the house of Shabri first, all those rishis and all those sages got together and they discussed it. And they questioned whether Lord Rama was really an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Because, if he is an avatar and he has come, then he would not have gone to that low caste tribal woman. Instead, he would've come to them and visited one of their ashrams. But, the other side of it was, that if he was actually an avatar, they thought, “If we disrespect him like this then, perhaps, he will leave and we will lose this opportunity of meeting such a great avatar.” So, they felt that they should test him.
Now, they went to Shabri’s cottage. And they started looking and trying to peep inside and see what was happening inside.
So there, Shabri was giving all her half-eaten berries to Rama, and he was eating all of those berries, which she was offering him.
Then, they thought they would test him. They went and bowed before him, and requested him, “This water of Pampapati, this Pampapati Sarovar, this pond, is infested with insects and it is impure. Though it is good enough for having a bath and cleaning our clothes, etc., but we cannot drink this water. So, you are an avatar of Vishnu. If we take the water from washing your feet and we put it in the pond, then it should get rid of all of these insects, and it will clean the water.”
But, Lord Rama understood what they actually wanted to do. And he understood that they were trying to test him. So, instead, he suggested to them that, “Why me? You are such great sages yourselves. You have been doing austerities for ten thousand years, six thousand years, four thousand years, so if you take the water of your feet and put it in the pond, it should, automatically, get cleaned.”
So, they momentarily believed him, and they all took the wash water of their feet and they started putting it in that pond. And that pond got more infested with insects. So, they came running back to Lord Rama, and they said, “The insects have actually increased in the pond.”
So, Lord Rama told them, “Okay, take the water of the feet of this lady, Shabri, and put that in the pond, and see what happens.”
Lord Rama requested Shabri, and he told her, “Mother, why don't you go and put the water of your feet into this pond?”
Now, she could not refuse him, but she was terribly scared of doing this, considering her caste, etc. So, she went, very scared, to the pond, and she quickly tried to put some water on her feet and put it in the pond.
But, as soon as she did it, the entire pond got very clean. So, that was the true devotion of Shabri. And, for three days, Lord Rama stayed in her house. When he, then, requested for leaving from her house to go onwards, she could not refuse him. But, the moment he stepped out of her house, because of the pangs of separation from him, she gave up her life there.
So, devotion is a very great thing. Those great sages have had years of austerities, but they had huge egos and, on the other side, Shabri had devotion. She had love and affection, and she had humility. So, devotion is a very great thing.
Bhakti nisenee mukti ki,
Sant chade sab daay,
Bhakti nisenee mukti ki,
Sant chade sab daay,
Jin jin man aalas kiyaa,
Janam janam pachtaay.