from Spiritual Gems by Baba Sawan Singh Ji (Sat Sandesh, April, 1975)


   “The Supreme Creator and the individual spirit in the creation are connected together through the Sound Current. But Kal, also the creation of the Supreme Being, separates the individual from the current by coming in between as mind and forms.

   Hence the individual feels disconnected; but not so the Creator. There are three minds, and corresponding to these three minds are three kinds of forms. In Trikuti the Nijman (innermost mind) or Brahm (universal mind) covers the spirit. The forms here are made up of very pure Maya (mind), so much so that a majority of the seekers have failed to see here the spirit apart from the Maya or mind and therefore considered Brahm as all-pervading. Lower down in Sahansdal Kanwal the forms of Trikuti get another covering of mind and form, both coarser than the above; the astral form here being governed by the Andi man (astral mind).

   In this zone there are the hells and heavens and numerous other lokas (regions). The tendencies of the mind are directed inward and are elevating. This mind behaves like a wise enemy (seeking to keep us here). Further down in Pind, the astral form gets another covering of coarse material with which we are all familiar.

   The mind that governs this form is called the Pindi man (physical mind). Its tendencies are outward and diffusive, and it is most difficult to control. Now, a body actuated by mind and spirit cannot help performing Karma, and the Karmic Law - "As you sow, so shall you also reap" - continues to work, and the account is complicated with time. The more one works the greater the entanglement, like a bird struggling in the meshes of a net.

   So cunningly has Kal arranged the snare of forms and minds that it is well nigh impossible to escape from their working in these minds and bodies. No matter how good and godly we may be, it will not take us out from these regions. Says Lord Krishna: "Good actions are as binding as bad actions; good actions may be likened to fetters of gold and bad actions to those of iron, and both equally keep us tied." The escape is through the Sound Current which is the substratum at the bottom of these minds.

   Only when the attention catches and follows the Current does the mind become dormant and gets out of action. At all other times, when the attention is off the Current, the mind gets the upper hand. Through the long and indefinite time since the spirit separated from its ocean and associated itself with the minds and bodies, not only has the upward passage been blocked, but the spirit has been so bewildered, entangled and enfeebled that it has lost all memory of its home, and is contented to live a wretched life in this wretched material world."

   "Now, there are two ways of looking at this creation: from the Creator's point of view and from our point of view - or in other words, from the top end and from the bottom end. From the top it looks as though the Creator is all in all. He is the only doer and the individual seems like a puppet tossed right and left by the wire puller. There seems no free will in the individual, and therefore no responsibility on his head.

   It is His play. There is no why or wherefore. All the Saints, when they look from the top, describe the creation as His manifestation. They see Him working everywhere. Now, looking at the thing from below, or the individual viewpoint, we come across variety as opposed to oneness.

   Everybody appears working with a will, and is influenced by and is influencing others with whom he comes in contact. The individual is the doer, and is therefore responsible for his actions and their consequences. All the actions are recorded in his mind and memory, and cause likes and dislikes which keep him pinned down to the material, astral or mental spheres, according to his actions in an earlier move in the cycle of transmigration.

   The individual in these regions cannot help doing actions and having done them cannot escape their influences. Individual is the doer, and therefore bears the consequences of his actions.

   As stated above, the observations differ on account of the difference in the angle of vision. Both are right. The individual clothed in coarse material form sees only the external material forms. His sight does not go deeper than that. If he were to rise up, the same individual from Sahansdal Kanwal will see the mind actuating all forms. The form will be secondary only; mind will be the mover in all. The same individual from Daswan Dwar will see the Spirit Current working everywhere and will see how the mind gets power from the spirit.

   From Sach Khand the whole creation looks like bubbles forming and disappearing in a spiritual ocean. An individual is endowed with intelligence and does every action knowingly. It is therefore incumbent upon him to find a way of escape from this entanglement. To raise his spirit he must struggle against the mind; for he lives by struggle. And where there is a will, there is a way.

   He cannot say this is no part of his duty. Now, the Karmas are divided into three groups: Kriyaman or new actions; Prarabdha or fate; and Sanchit or reserve. Take the case of a farmer: he prepares his land for seed; he has the option to sow whatever he likes. Suppose he decides on wheat and sows it. The crop matures and he gathers it. Some of it he keeps for his consumption during the coming year, and the surplus he puts in store. For the next year he will have to live on wheat, for he has nothing else by him.

   If he now wants something else - say, corn - he can sow that next season. Suppose he now sows corn and gathers the crop at the end of the year. Like his wheat crop, he keeps some for his consumption and keeps the surplus in his store. Year after year he is living on the previous year's gathering and increasing his reserve in store to be utilized in time of scarcity or need.

   You will see that he is living and hopes to live on what he himself sows and gathers. Similarly, whatever we do in this life becomes fate for oar next life; and some of this is kept in reserve by Kal to be given to us if by any chance (of course, the chance is practically nil) we run short of Karma. Without Karma Kal cannot keep down a spirit in a body, and without a body no Karma can be performed.

   It is open to Kal to add from reserve to Fate, or deduct from Fate for reserve. Like the farmer who is preparing his land for the coming season, and is living on the gatherings from the last season, with a confidence based on his reserve, we are doing our fate, in which we have no choice. But we have the choice to work anew as we please for our future good. And we have a surplus which is our reserve from past lives, of which we have now no knowledge.

   We are therefore at present doing a dual function: (a) in regard to fate, we are helpless; but (b) in new actions we have a free hand to sow for the future. To distinguish between these two types by intelligence alone is not easy for the individual; but a rough rule may be laid down: that what comes in spite of our efforts and spontaneously is due to fate. But those whose attention is concentrated and who have access within can read their fate easily. It is an open book to them.

   Now, in the physical body actions are done from the heart center. As long as the mind is centered here (in ordinary individuals, heart is the center of mind action) it will be influenced by mind actions. The sensations of joy and sorrow will be felt as the body is worked by mind from this center. When the mind has been elevated to the eye focus by concentration, or in other words, when the mind has changed its seat or center from the heart to the eyes, then the feelings caused by outward influences working on the physical body will be felt imperceptibly.

   Joys of the world will not clevate and its sorrows will not depress him. The fate actions are stored in the eight-petaled lotus in Anda above the eyes. Their influence is felt forcibly as long as that center has not been crossed. When that center is crossed and the Master's astral form is seen (for that form resides there) the influence of the fate actions will be perceived nominally. The mind has then become strong and it has the power to bear them without eflort.

   But fate cannot be eflaced or altered; it will have to be undergone. An arrow after leaving the bow must find its mark. The reserve actions are stored at the top of Trikuti; and only when a spirit has crossed the third mind or Trikuti, is it said to be free from all Karma. Below this the spirit suffers from the ills of Karma.

   All actions are performed with a motive and the motive is binding. It is not easy to conceive of an action which is performed without a motive. The mind 'is consciously or subconsciously active, and it is ridiculous to talk of Karma without a counter-Karma. There is no escape from counter-Karma. By doing actions, however good, there is no escape. Charity, offerings, or pilgrimages must bring their reward, and the soul doing these things must receive the reward in one body or another.

   Men are reborn and reincarnate with a span of life pre-fixed on the Karmic reactions of our past lives - "no more, no less." Christ said, "Thy days are numbered." The length of life depends on the breaths we take. Proper use and misuse thereof can prolong or shorten our lives on this earth. Normally a man breathes fourteen or fifteen times in a minute, but in passionate moments of life one breathes 24 to 26 times in a minute. Thus the allotted breaths are exhausted in a shorter period. If, however, you are of temperate habits and are devoting time to spiritual practices -the number of breaths goes down to four to six per minute. In this way life is prolonged. Yogis control the breath in kumbhak for months and sometimes years, prolonging their lives for hundreds of years.

   The escape from Karma lies in the protection afforded by Saints. They are themselves Karmaiess. Their actions are not binding on them, for their spirit works from Daswan Dwar, a center above the three spheres of mind and forms, as stated above. They show us the way out.

   [Note: this is interesting - usually it is said that the Sant works from Sach Khand, or that Sach Khand is the 'office of the Master', not Daswan Dwar; one who has reached Daswan Dwar is usually considered to be a Sadh. One may wonder what Sawan Singh meant here. Perhaps - and this is pure supposition - the matter is resolved in his own aforementioned words, that from Daswan Dwar one sees the spirit current working in all creation, while from Sach Khand one is merged in non-duality and can see no distinction nor has he a vehicle to work with in the lower worlds. Daswan Dwar, in some systems is also considered the Buddhic plane, or the plane of Unity (Sach Khand or Sat Lok being the Divine or Monadic plane), and may be the intermediate position between the lower and higher worlds, a sort of resting place for a Master to work above or below - ?].

   They say, let new actions be performed in the name of the Master, the individual working in the capacity of an agent only. The new actions, DONE IN THIS SPIRIT, will not be binding. The fate actions will have been undergone by the time the life comes to an end; the reserve actions Saints partly take upon themselves, and partly are undergone by the devotee as the Saints think proper.

   They put the individual spirit in touch with the Sound Current, the substratum; and as the spirit catches it and rises up and throws off the influences of mind and matter it gets stronger and stronger. The more the individual works on these lines, the easier the Path for him. Otherwise the course becomes lengthy; but the Saints are pledged to see him throngh, after they have initiated him. The practice of the Sound Current cuts the root of Karma.

   The Current acts like a magnet on the spirit. It attracts the spirit to itself, and if the spirit were not covered by the rust of mind and matter it would go up like a shot. The rust of attachments and impressions is removed by repetition. The repetition of thoughts of the journey within replaces our common day thoughts; and the mind instead of wandering outside begins to take rest and peace within; and when it comes in, the spirit comes in with it; and when the spirit is in, the Current in its turn pulls it up, and when the Trikuti has been crossed (which will only be when all Karmic accounts are settled) the soul never goes back in transmigration. It will go up to merge in its ocean.”

   Summary and comments

   Now, just to give some perspective. The teachings of the Sants is that there is a power controlling the human being; in one respect it is the soul that gives power to the intellect, mind, pranas, and physical body. In the body is the attention of the soul, or the emanant of the soul, which is consciousness, and which gives power to the human being. However, the Power of the All-Soul or Oversoul is controlling and sustaining all creation, including the souls. The Oversoul manifests all of its creation through the soul. So within the body are said to be both the soul and ‘God’ or the Oversoul. [This is from a 'bottom-up' perspective; from the top-down', it is all One]. The Oversoul is All-consciousness, and its expressive Power is the Light and Sound, or Word, which is not just Light and Sound but a current of Life and Love as well. This Power, then, along with the souls, are emanations of the All-Soul or Oversoul, the Sat Purush, which proceeds from the nameless One.

   The sage Plotinus described this arrangement as the The Divine Mind or Intellectual Principle (God), itself the eternal outpouring of the One (Godhead), emanating eternal Souls as well as the Divine Idea of all creation. Paul Brunton re-interpreted this philosophically as a World-Mind emanating individual Overselves, as well as a ‘World-Idea’ which is simultaneously projected through each Overself, manifesting a sensible world and body. The divine Soul then projects an emanant of itself into that World-Idea in order by experience to come to self-consciousness through a process of evolution. This puts a positive spin on what in gnostic teachings is often a negative ‘fall’ of man or the soul. Thus, we have the paradox that the Soul is in the world and the body, and from a higher point of view the latter are also within the Soul:

   "But soul is not contained in the universe, on the contrary the universe is in the soul. Soul is contained in the Intellectual Principle [Nous, Absolute Soul, or God] and is the container of body." (Enneads, v.5.9).

   The Soul, while in truth omnipresent, has its true Home in Sach Khand, the first plane that came into being by His Will. To say the ‘first’ is unavoidably misleading due to our dualistic language, because this is happening atemporily, prior to the mind. It is a ‘realm’ of All-consciousness, beyond the physical, astral, mental or causal, and super-causal bodies and planes (or Pind (physical), Anda (Sahansdal Kanwal), Brahmand (Trikuti), Par Brahmand (Daswan Dwar/Bhanwar Gupta). At every plane until full realization there is an apparent dualism of the Soul and the Current or Naam, both being of the nature of consciousness and ‘magnetically’ attracted to each other, and both coming from the same Source. Thus, the ultimate truth of non-dualism is not violated. Moreover, the notions of both 'controller' and 'controlled' are ultimately transcended in mystery.

   While in theory non-duality is always realizable, Sach Khand is the first of the 'inward-bound' non-dual stages, as previously explained.

   The path of Sant Mat has generally as its first task for a person to merge his attention in the light and sound current and transcend all bodies to know itself as pristine soul in Sach Khand, where the All-Soul merges it by stages (Alak, Agam) into Anami or the Nameless One. This is ‘seeing no longer in a glass darkly, but face to face.’ When returning to the physical plane, one has of necessity to take on again the coverings of the soul and function as a normal human being once again, but now with perfect knowledge of who and what one is and what God in its expressive aspect is. One retains the realization of the higher planes, but still, experiences things at somewhat of a lesser intensity or directness, inasmuch as the lower planes are reflections of the higher. This is probably why the Buddha spoke of his nirvana, and then paranirvana: at death or in the higher planes the reality is more directly and fully known. But a great value is gained by the ascent. As it is written in the book, Mount Analogue, by Rene Daumal:

   “You cannot stay on the summit forever, you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.”

   A higher task remains, which is to integrate the awareness of Sach Khand or the true Home with every plane quit by the soul on its upward journey. This leads to a complete non-dual realization. All may not fulfill this to the same degree, and that may depend on various reasons, including one’s destiny for service. In any case, residual karma is played out until the bodily term is over, and one then can return home forever. It is perhaps misleading to say, “From Sach Khand the whole creation looks like bubbles forming and disappearing in a spiritual ocean”, because of course on earth the liberated soul will see things as others do, but also with depth of knowledge and penetrating vision.

   While the Master on this path puts a direct hand to the work of eradicating one’s karmas, this process must also be seen in terms of our everyday life, and not just in meditation or by His grace. This implies experiencing what is known as tapas, or ‘heat’ in the traditions - the burning up of one’s karmas in the lower three bodies, which interpenetrate, and also exist in worlds of their own. This happens 'at our own expense', as the Christian mystics might say, through the resistance that comes up through our attempts at right living. Coming from another school, the sage Papaji writes along these lines:

   “I feel such strong heat. Strong burning fire. What is it? All the store that you have accumulated and collected with great care and much interest—you have put a match to it and burned it. Now enjoy. This is a fire that burns all karmas so you won't have to appear again in this suffering. You have seen your own cremation. All the karmas are finished. This burning is the fire of knowledge. The ego, mind, senses, and pleasures are all burned and over. Everything is over. This is called fire. It is a very lucky person who will see his own cremation while alive. And he is putting fuel into the fire, until the corpse is completely burned. And then he will dance! This is called Shiva's dance. He has  won. Everything is finished. No more notions or thoughts or desires. All ended in the fire. And then happiness will come and you will dance the eternal dance.”

   Sant Darshan Singh wrote:

   "We are people of little faith and fail to recognize and appreciate the hand which guides and which sustains. Hazur (Baba Sawan Singh Ji) used to say that once a saint has taken a soul under his wing, he is keen to compress the progress of twenty births into a single one. And if we desire to pack the accomplishments of twenty lives into a single one, we must pay for it." (source misplaced)

   Kirpal Singh spoke of the 'scrubbing' one often undergoes once he is initiated, in which process his back karmas are gradually wound up:

   "It is during this probationary period that the soul will feel some discomfort. It has become so besmeared with the dirt of the senses that it has lost its original purity of heart and is not fit to be raised out of the prison house of the body."

   "Even though the door has been opened, it is so attached to the things of the outside world that it does not wish to be free. It is only when the soul begins to regain its original purity of heart and mind that it can at last want to be free of the desires of the flesh and outward attachments. The loving Master tries to avoid all possible discomforts to the child disciple by explaining what are the vices to be avoided and the virtues to be developed in order to regain this purity."

   "Unfortunately, more often than not the words of the Master do not sink in and little or no action is taken by the disciple to amend his ways. Therefore, the Master Power must take firmer measures to bring home to the disciple the importance of the truths that have been explained in words. Hence the discomfort that is sometimes felt by the dear ones in their day-to-day living...If a child gets itself so dirty that the only way the mother can wash it clean is by using a scrubbing brush,can it be said that the child will feel comfortable during the scrubbing process? It will only feel comfortable after the scrubbing has ceased and it is shining clean and pure."

   "Help and protection is always extended by the Master to his followers. He looks after their comforts in every way, both outer and inner. Even the effects of the reactions of the past - from the gallows to an ordinary pin prick - so much concession is given. As the mother sacrifices everything for the sake of the child, even so does the Master sacrifice everything for the sake of his children. The follower does not dream of what the Master does for him. He fills his followers with his own thought, with his own life impulses. When we remember him, he remembers us with all his heart and soul." ("The Cage of the Soul", Sat Sandesh, September 1976, p. 25-26)

   "The Guru may give happiness or misery, for he has to make a beautiful form from a rough piece of stone and therefore has to wind up all the karmas; but a true follower will never complain, no matter what condition he has to face in life - no matter what hardships the Guru allows." ("Joyfully I Surrender", Sat Sandesh, Feb. 1972, p. 9)

   One of the ways that the disciple comes to know himself and the Oversoul is by rising above body-consciousness during meditation. He then sees what is what in greater and greater degrees. Yet there is a lesser known 'method' or process by which one also comes to know of this Controlling Power. This is when it, while still controlling, for it cannot do otherwise, apparently lessens its 'sustaining' power for a time, leaving one 'high and dry'. Here one 'knows without seeing', and is sustained by faith. This traditionally has gone under the name of the Dark Night of the Soul. It can be a short or very long process. Please see the comprehensive article on this website, The Deeper Meaning of the Dark Night of the Soul for more on this important topic. Paul Brunton writes:

   "If the Overself did not lead him into and through the final dark night, where he becomes as helpless as an infant, as bereft of interior personal possessions as a destitute pauper, how else would he learn that it is not by his own powers and capacities that he can rise at last into enduring illumination?" (Notebooks, Vol. 15, 3.54)

   This need not happen for all, but it happens enough that it is worth mentioning.