Birthday celebrations pre-dawn session

Exactly at 5 a.m. Sant Kirpal Singh comes on the stage and looks at the vast gathering, larger than all the crowded sessions of the conference. Many shabads were sung and the whole gathering was singing, looking up to Sant Kirpal Singh.

Mr Reno Sirrine, Vice-President of Ruhani Satsang in the U.S.A. comes up to the stage and started to sing "Happy birthday to You Master" and all the five hundred delegates stand up and join him.

My Master, the great Hazur (Baba Sawan Singh) used to say off and on that 'He (Sant Kirpal Singh) would do the work after me' but I could not believe it. For when I looked at me I was assailed by doubts – how can it be possible? At last one morning – it was 12 March, 1948 – Hazur called me to Him and said, "Kirpal Singh, I have assinged all other duties to different persons but the work of giving Naam – initiating seekers after truth into the science of the Masters –  I have not entrusted to anybody as yet. That duty I now give to you so that the teachings of the Masters may grow and flourish." Tears came to my eyes. In my mind was the thought, what is He saying today? What is the life worth to a disciple after the Master? And then Master said, "This work You have to do." I said, "It is all Your doing. Your orders will be carried. We are mere puppets in Your hands, whichever way You wish we dance." And he said, "It will be so. It is my work."

It is He who is running the whole show behind the scenes. And that is a fact. I listen to all that is said by people and look at myself and silently pray, "O Master, it is all Thy grace working. The credit is all Thine. It is none of my doing."

... So dear brothers, you are all graced with the man-body, which is a golden opportunity. This is the first step towards realisation of God. God is there it is no doubt about it. If you sit at the feet of a competent Master you will get the awakening and that would change your angle of vision. Reading of scriptures and biographies of the Master kindles in one an interest and longing for spirituality. When we read that such and such person realised God we naturally ask, can we also see Him?

The sayings of the Masters are milestones for our guidance, telling us how they progressed, step by step, to reach the ultimate goal. You can compare and see where you stand.

(Extract) Sant Kirpal Singh

Public function, noon

Sant Kirpal Singh was honoured and felicitated on His 80st birth anniversary by the denizens of  Delhi at the public function presided by the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, the Ministers and others. Afterwards Sant Kirpal Singh addressed the audience with the following words:

The object of the Conference on Unity of Man is to propagate the idea of Unity of Man: That all mankind is one. All are born the same way, their outer and inner construction is the same and all are endowed with the same privileges from God. No high, no low, all are equal. We are drops of the Ocean of All Consciousness which is God. So we are all brothers and sisters in God.

Our ultimate goal is to attain atonement with the Supreme Power which controls all creation and controls us in this body. The whole world is His abode, and on a small scale, body is the Temple of God in which His eternal Light is shining. "Take heed that the light which is in thee be not darkness."That Light is in all of us. Our surat or attention has identified itself with the body and the outside world so much, so that it has forgotten itself. If it withdraws from all outside and rises into awareness of its true identity as a conscious entity, it can know the Supreme Power – God. For that we have to learn to die while living by rising above the body consciousness.

What is death? It is like the sun setting on one side and rising on the other. That is all. We have to realize the controlling Power, the source and sustenance of all that is. Why do we not see Him now? Because our attention is identified with the physical body and the world outside so much, so that it has forgotten that it is a conscious entity, the controlling Power behind the body. Let me give an example to explain the point. Suppose, I am looking in front of me. I cannot at the same time see what is behind me unless I withdraw my gaze from the front and look behind. Likewise, our attention is fixed on the visible world outside. It has to with­draw from all outside and recede within, to know itself. And which is the eye that can see the Reality within? That eye is different – it is the self-luminous Inner Eye mentioned in the scriptures as the Third Eye, Single Eye or Shiv Netra, of which it is said, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of Light."That Eye opens when we withdraw our attention from all outside and rise into awareness of our true identity and then realize the supreme Power. And when one sees Him immanent in all and working in all, one would love all creation.

All Masters, who came in the East or in the West, say that God is Love. Soul, which is of the same essence as that of God, is also Love. Love needs an object for attachment. The natural object for our attachment was God, but we got attached to the world, because we see it. All Masters say: "Love thy God. And since God is immanent in all forms, love all creation."We say: "How can we love Him, whom we do not see?" The answer to that is, seek the company of a Master who has realized Him. He will give you a practical demonstration of how to rise above body consciousness and see the Reality within. The Masters come to make people see who do not see. When the attention recedes within to concen­trate at the seat of the soul between and at the back of the two eyes, it realizes its true identity that is the indweller controlling the body; and there is a Supreme Power that controls it – the soul – in the body. Guru Nanak says in this context: "The Lord of Nanak is visible everywhere." And Kabir says: "I saw Him, the Uncreated Light Principle, immanent in all, and all my doubts were dispelled."

Love comes with seeing. One cannot love him, whom one does not see. How can we see God? The Upanishads say in this context: "Unless the outgoing sense-faculties are controlled, and the mind and the intellect are stilled, one cannot realize God." When one sees Him in all, he would naturally love all creation and seek the good of everyone. Guru Nanak was moved by the same experience to say: "Peace be unto all the world over, under Thy Will, oh Lord."

A true lover of God will love all His messengers who came in the past, all the scriptured records of their self-communion and communion with God. He will love all mankind and the rest of God's creation in many forms. He will love all holy places sanctified by the presence of a Godman at one time or another and now revered as places of pilgrimage. He will never injure nor molest anyone in thought, word, or deed.

Love knows service and sacrifice. Man is he who lives for others. An animal lives for itself and for its progeny. There is no dearth of preaching today. One may read all the books, but unless he acts up to what they say, it is no use reading. We have developed the head and neglected the heart. That is the reason for all the conflicts we see today. There is nothing new in all that I have said just now. I have given out the gist of the understanding I got by sitting at the feet of the Masters and from a parallel study of religions, and that is: "Oh man, know thyself, who you are, what you are."A Persian Faquir says: "Oh man, you know the worth of every­thing. If you know not your own worth you are a fool."The Masters make a man a true man in the first instance and then raise him to the level of an angel, and final­ly to that of God. The three prerequisites to God-realization are: Right diet, right conduct and right dealings. Guru Nanak says: "Oh Nanak, utter the name of God with a pure heart. The worldly defile themselves by their evil ways."Guru Amar Das says: " When the mind is unclean, all is defiled. Washing the body does not make the mind clean. The whole world is in the rut of delusion. Few there be who know the Reality."What is pollution and uncleanliness? The life of the senses. God plus desire is man. And man minus desire is God.

There is a great awakening now which I observed during my third world tour recently. The regeneration of society depends on the regeneration of man. Bricks may be manufactured in any kiln. If they are strong and of good quality, the house will be strong. If the bricks are not properly burnt and the material is substandard, you cannot have a strong house. So whichever the formation, man should be man in the true sense of the word. There is a general awakening today in every direc­tion. People are so unhappy; may God grant them peace and happiness. The way to that is to seek the company of awakened men.

The ideal was placed before you that mankind is one. We are all one, it is true, but we have not yet become one! When will that be? When we see Him in all and all in Him. But for that, some effort is required on our part. We should pray to the Almighty to give us strength to change our angle of vision. So I would request all brothers and sisters here to sit still, close your eyes and withdraw your attention from all outside and pray to God in all sincerity and from the depth of heart. A true prayer which comes from the heart is always answered. And what is a true prayer? When heart and mind and tongue are all unanimous and in perfect accord – what the mind thinks, the heart feels, and the tongue expresses. The Almighty heeds such prayers.

First of all, the prayer should be true, it should come from the heart, the tongue should express it the same way, and the mind fully concurs with it. That is a true prayer. The next step is to sit at the door and patiently wait. Hurry won't do. So I say to you, the ideal before us is that mankind is all one. The labels of various formations that we carry on our bodies came later. You are welcome to have them, they are the distinctive labels of the different schools that we have joined to know Self and to know God. The school is best which turns out a larger number of successful students who pass the examination. Pray to God sincerely and from the heart. He is within you and hears all your prayers. He knows the very trend of your thoughts, the way they are shaping. Now sit still, withdraw your attention from all outside and pray:

"Oh God, we are stranded. We have lost the way. Show us the way.
We are all one family, children of the same Father. And You are our Father!"

Concluding session

The foreign delegates were given full opportunity to express their views and an Essay Contest took place with a view to arousing consciousness among the youth of the world. Essays on Unity of Man were invited in English, French, Hindi and Urdu, either in prose or poetry. About 300 essays were received.

Dear brothers and sisters who have come from abroad, I submit that in these four days we have been very productive; all of us have laid our heads together and come to some conclusions. After all, what are these conflicts and schisms going on in each country? The fact is that unity already exists – we have forgotten it.

What is that unity? The right understanding that all men are born in the same way with the same privileges from God and the same construction outside and inside. As man we are all one – no high, no low. We were first man; then we became Christian or Hindu or Mohammedan or this or that thing by wearing all those labels. But that is not all; further, we are one at the level of that conscious entity which is administering this factory of the human body.

We are conscious beings and God is all conscious. Some Power is controlling us in the body, which works as long as we are in it; we live in this world only for a certain time, until that Power which is controlling us leaves. That Power is God into expression, and is called Word, Naam, Shabd, Kalma. So that Godpower whom we have to find, and he who has to do the finding, both live in the temple of the human body. But our attention, which is the outward expression of our soul, is identified with the world outside so much so that we have forgotten ourselves. So we have to just know ourselves, by withdrawing our attention from all outside and from the body below. When we know ourselves, we are able to know the Overself who is controlling us in the human body.

So please – there is no need of changing your religions or social bodies, but it is most necessary that you follow the teachings of those religions, that is all. And those are? God resides in every heart. All is holy where devotion kneels. And, He resides in every heart whether the labels are this way or that way.So for this purpose we come to some resolutions. I hope all these were repeated to you, read by my brother or friend. I take it that they appeal to you. If so, I think each one of you can raise some finger in assent. (Every hand went up from the assembled delegates.) It is for your good and the good of all humanity.

I thank you for your coming from far off and taking so much trouble. You have taken time from your busy hours, also spent so much money. Those who have come from India, we are thankful; but those who have come from abroad and spent thousands of dollars, they deserve more thankfulness. So I convey my thanks to each one of you, whether you have gathered here from here or from abroad. Today is the last day of these sessions. I hope you will carry this very thing practically in your lives. God bless you all.

Sant Kirpal Singh