Divinepower

Thursday, January 03, 2008

DHARAM PRACHAR(KHOJI)LEKH NO.17

LEKH 17 RELIGIOUS PREACHING PART 7
(Spiritual Aspect)

Gurus and saints have at different times according to need started different religions :
To teach humanitarianism by giving good and lofty
direction to human beings with barbarous intellect,
To make human beings divine,
to give awareness and motivation of the spiritual sphere,
To awaken the desire, hunger, thirst of the illumination
of spiritual sphere i.e. the ‘Shabad’, ‘Naam’,
Through this spiritual hunger or interest to get research
done of the spiritual sphere,
Finally to make them become eligible for the spiritual blessing
By Guru’s Grace through hard work.

But the human species has brought about limitless increase in the intellectual, external, scientific, materialistic knowledge which has brought about wonders of glittering, attractive flashes which have dazzled the people’s minds so much that people forgetting their core-God-are blindly horse racing at full speed running after the ‘shadow of materialism’. In this way man has increased the unnecessary entanglements of materialistic life so much that he:-

Does not think,
Has no interest








Lekh 17.1

Has no need
Has no time

for the lofty – noble spiritual knowledge.
The surprising thing is that in spite of
modern and easy methods of preaching religion
over a long period of centuries during which
there was development of many religions and sects
man’s deplorable plight of mental and religious decline continues to increase.

This painful mental and religious fall and decline is very clearly obvious from every aspect of our mental and religious lives.
This all prevailing universal corruption :
has entered
has lived
has been absorbed
has mixed
has merged

and has become interwoven and intertwinned so much in our lives that it has become the character and sustenance of our lives as a result of which religion has become
superflous
unessential
uninspiring
showy
dead ritual
We have degenarated religion and divinity in our thoughts & actions and installed corrupt, selfish and cruel regime of our ego, based illusionary ‘Maya’, which is playing havoc with humanity in all aspects of life.



Lekh 17.2





We have modified and denigraded religion to suit our own selfish ends and to ‘feed’ and ‘develop’ our little ‘ego’.
The unreligious, unbridled, developed chronic disease of egotism has lighted the flames of fire of desire, me-mine, greed, attachment-materialism all around-inside and outside-in the whole world making it a fiery world as a result of which there is an uproar of confusion of jealousy-duality, arguments, exploitation-extortion, enmity, quarrels-fighting, and bloodshed and in the name of religion oppression and brutality are taking place.
For the religiously inclined good ‘soul’ it has become very difficult to live, exist and follow the mandate of religion in such an environment of awe and suffocation because he has to confront and oppose corruption in every aspect of life.
The good religious persons can confront the vicious atmosphere of corruption up to a certain time but beyond that the very obstinate force of the five evils with frights and threats changes them (the good persons) to be like them. (Gurbani says):
‘They cause me suffering and immensely annoy me, and the village accountant bites daily’.
The painful thing is that the ‘religion’ and ‘religious places’ from which we were to receive peace and calmness have been lighted with our self-inflamed fire and there too there are flames of materialistic greed thus making an arena of jealousy-duality, enmity-opposition, we have brought about confusion.
But alas!





Lekh 17.3
Where is calmness?
Where is peace?
Where is comfort?
Where is relief?
Where is religion?

In this ‘fiery world’ only some rare ‘plant devoted to the Lord’-the Guru ward the beloved one who has taken the support of the ‘cool Divine Name’ is safe. That is why in Gurbani this advice is emphasised.

4.1 O, my soul hold fast the prop of God’s Name
Even the hot puff of wind shall not touch you. (179)

Religion cannot be the cause of this fearful and painful mental and religious downfall because religion motivates us towards lofty noble spiritual direction and gives us guidance:-

4.2 Say not that the Vedas and Muslim books are false.
False is he, who reflects not on them. (1350)
4.3 If someone grasps this thing, there is but
One religion of truth. (1188)
4.4 The Name is the best thing in the Vedas that they hear
not and wander like demons. (919)
4.5 Hearing the teachings of the Vedas, Puranas, and Simirtis
one enshrines them not in the heart even for an instant.
(632)
From this it is clear that the basic defect of our downfall and corruption is ‘not deliberating’ or our interpretation is superfluous or wrong. In this way we can have wrong conception of religion as a result of which through our cleverness, intellectual reasoning and devices, we subordinate the innate desire and lofty-pure mandate of intuitional Bani from the spiritual sphere to our insignificant intellect, and imposing the colouring of our mind, we have made it (religion) an ‘intellectual’ hobby and are just preaching this superfluous external intellectual knowledge.
Lekh 17.4

This external intellectual religious propagation is taking place:-
Based on the ‘triguni’ materialistic sphere,
In the circle of egotism,
In the ‘second love’,
In the darkness of materialistic doubt-fallacy,
On the basis of the imagined religious beliefs,
and its influence is just limited up to the intellectual circle. For this reason there is no change in our lives.These imagined beliefs too, change from time to time according to the inclination of our intellect and materialistic self-interest.

5.1 I am learned, I am clever and wise.
The ignorant knows not his creator. (178)
5.2 I am a great poet and of high family.
I am a scholar and I am a yogi and a solitarian.
I am a virtuous divine, a warrior and a donor;
such thinking perishes not ever. (974)
5.3 In pride he becomes true or false.
In pride he reflects on virtue or vice. (466)
In this way we are going further and are being deprived of the:
expectation

mandate

life-direction

guidance

spiritual knowledge

spiritual illumination

spiritual love-affection

Lekh 17.5
spiritual life
great-taste
shabad
Naam
of intuitional Gurbani.
The burnt-dry, devastated desert is spread for miles. In it at some places, there is a water-spring sprouting. Around it grows a small ‘island’ of greenery in which there is the feeling of ‘life-movement’. These ‘green islands’ are known as oases in English. Every oasis is ‘life-support’ for those who travel in deserts.
Our ‘triguni-materialistic’ mental life is exactly like this. With the ‘fire’ of attachment-materialism it becomes like the burnt dry, devastated desert:

6.1 With the inner fire, the world is being consumed but, to the
Lord’s devotee, mammon clings not. (673)
6.2 This world is but fire and cool is the Lord’s Name (1291)

Man crying in agony in his self-made mental ‘fiery grief-stricken ocean’ is living a painful life. Most people having become immune to this ‘fiery grief-stricken ocean’ are absorbed in it. But some souls take the support of religion to save themselves from it and they get some superficial comfort.
But some rare souls are not satisfied with the so-called ritualistic ‘religions’of materialistic sphere and they become absorbed in the research of the calmness of some lofty, pure, spiritual swing or spiritual-taste. Satisfied with the true-pure intense ‘spiritual hunger’ or desire of such rare thirsty souls, the Satguru showers his blessings on them by gracing them with awareness or meeting of some spiritual ‘green island’ or sadhsangat (Divine oasis)





Lekh 17.6
7.1 Informing me of the path, the Saint-Guru has pulled me out
of the very desolate forest. (1228)
7.2 The Guru puts man on the Lord’s path in wilderness and
reveals to him the Lord’s mystery. (810)
7.3 He, on whom the Exalted Lord showers mercy, obtains the
society of saints.
The more he frequents the saint’s congregation the more the
love for the Lord. (71)

This oasis is not some visible place. It is brought out in the innermost consciousness of spiritually elevated souls, the Guruward beloved ones, the saints in the form of:
Desire of love
Taste of love
Cup of love
Spiritual illumination
Colour of love
Spiritual bloom
Divine fragrance
Spiritual calmness
Touch of love
Nudge of love
Celestial music
‘Life current’
Shabad
Naam
One’s own self love.
In this way such Guruward Saints go about as mobile oases in this age of ‘the world which is being consumed with the inner fire’ through the aura of their spiritual lives like flowers, wherever they go, they quietly infect others with
Fragrance
Taste
Calmness
Love
Lekh 17.7

Affection
Eagerness
Happiness
Intoxication

8.1 In the saints’ society, good influence is produced on the
body. (1081)

In this way the materialistic life of prime truth seekers is changed into the life of meditation and in their ‘innermost consciousness’ the desire, hunger, thirst of ‘Divine life’ begins.

Thus these spiritually elevated beloved ones are true-pure ‘Divine preachers’ of intuitional religion of the Divine sphere. Their method of ‘preaching religion’ is not dependent on some external intellectual knowledge, rather like the fragrance of a flower the intense rays of their Divine illumination earned from their saintly lives automatically sprout in their innermost consciousness through the blessings of the Guru.

In this way these Guruward saints quietly, unknowingly, automatically earn the advice of ‘Yourself repeat the Name and make others to repeat it’. Unlike the ego-ridden, intellectual preachers, there is not even a little egotism in them.

That is why there is so much praise of such Guruward beloved ones and saints in Gurbani and in their greatness is said:-

8.2 Servant Nanak asks for the dust of the feet of that Sikh of
the Guru, who himself contemplates on God’s Name and
makes others contemplate thereon. (306)
And at the same time we are taught to make a supplication:-
8.3 Come and see me. O you the disciple of the Guru, come and
meet me. You are my Guru’s beloved. (725)
8.4 Kindly cause us to meet those true devotees by meeting whom, we
may remember and meditate upon Your Name.(Ardaas).
8.5 Let some saint, God’s holy man and my loved holy man come and
show me the way to my God.
I would rub, wash and bathe the feet of that man. (1201)

Lekh 17.8
9.1 Be You merciful, O my Lord, that I may pass my life in the society of
saints. (961)
9.2 Blessing with even a particle of the Name, the Exalted
Guru, saves myriads of men, O brother. (608)

This ‘Divine religious propagation’ is taking place:
In Divine will
According to the in-laid command
Spontaneously
Quietly
Silently
Eternally.

In it there isn’t any part of intellectual knowledge, cleverness, reasoning and devices, philosophies and egotism of man.
Behind the souls of these Guruward beloved ones there is the work of the illumination and power of Satguru’s will, mercy, blessing and grace. When Satguru’s Divine grace falls on some desirous truth-seeker, then through the spiritually elevated Guruward beloved ones their:-
Touch
Words
Glance of grace
Divine rays
Love-arrows

quietly enter, live and become absorbed in him (truth-seeker). Such blessed truth-seeker coming under the influence of Divine glitter of the spiritual sphere automatically begins to utter:-

9.3 Excellent, excellent, excellnt,excellent, excellent is Your
Name.
False, false, false, false is the wordly love. (1137-38)
9.4 My soul is bewitched by the unstruck melody, wondrous is
whose relish. (1226)
9.5 Bravo! Bravo! How nicely does he sing.
God’s Name is pleasing to my mind. (478)
Lekh 17.9
10.1 Hear O people, I have obtained the essence of love. (370)
10.2 Your servant, O Lord, is intoxicated with Your elixir.
He, who obtains the treasure of the Nectar of love, forsakes
it not to go elsewhere. (532)
10.3 Wondrous is this comodity, which cannot at all be
described.It is an incomprehensible commodity, O brother.
Its price cannot at all be assessed. What can anyone say and
utter? By narrating and describing, one can understand it
not. He, who sees, realises. (883)

In this way, the truth-seeker coming out of the materialistic
sphere, enters the spiritual sphere, the illumination of Naam, the love of one’s own self within and the land of bliss.

Our thoughts have power. Earned thoughts become very powerful. Similarly behind the thoughts of those blessed Guruward beloved ones who have the earning of meditation, there is limitless Divine power. Bhai Gurdas Ji writes thus about their delighted look:-

10.4 Knowledgeable people get blessed with ambroisal sight of
the Guru and then have no desire whatsoever.
Their body and vision turn Divine and their every limb
reflects the Divine light of the Prophet Brahm. (V.B.G. 6/9)

Through their:
Look
Language
Touch
Thought
Faith
Rays of life

of spiritual power, the soul of the prime truth-seeker continues to receive motivation, guidance, assistance and automatically his life changes and he is ‘pulled’ towards the direction of the spiritual sphere.

Through the meeting and company of the prime truth-seekers and the Guruward beloved ones at the level of the spiritual sphere, there is between them ‘trade’, ‘business dealings’
Lekh 17.10
‘commerce’ which are:-
spontaneously
unknowingly
quietly
invisibly
inaudibly
innocently
without speech
without bargaining

taking place silently.
Some scholar has written on this subject in English thus:






















Lekh 17.11




































Lekh 17.12









This is the high-pure and easy method of entering the Divine Realm. But the high pure evolved great souls leading spiritual lives are rare indeed and only the lucky souls are able to recognise them, meet them and have their company:-

13.1 Who preaches unto me the gospel of Lord God, absorbed
in love, night and day, I follow him.
My darkness is dispelled on meeting God.O Nanak, and I
am awakened after being asleep for numberless births
(204)
13.2 If I have very good great destiny I shall meet with the
Lord’d slave without delay. (881)
13.3 By the great good fortune, I have obtained my Groom.
The Guru has united me with Him through the society of
saints. (704)

In reality, in the spiritual sphere, this Divine ‘commerce’, ‘trade’is carried out on both sides by the Satguru himself in His own delight:-
13.4 The Lord Himself creates, Himself stains and Himself He
casts the merciful glance. (722)

In this trade of the Divine sphere ‘there isn’t any loss’ and is always

Lekh 17.13
beneficial because the ‘shop’ of ‘truth’ is one and one type of businessmen of ‘truth’ come and take with them the ‘benefit of God’s Name’:-

14.1 With the saints are my dealings and with the saints is my
business.
From the saints I have the profit of Name and my mind’s
treasure is filled with God’s devotional service.
The saints gave me the capital of the Lord’s Name and I
was then rid of my mind’s anxiety. (614)
14.2 O’ traders! Strike the bargain and take care of (the True)
merchandise.
Purchase such goods as may last with you. (22)

In this ‘Divine business’ of the spiritual sphere:-
The unique commodity
Love desire
Love of one’s own inner self
Pull of affection
Cup of love
Divine taste
Divine colour
Treasure of saints
Praises
Shabad
Treasure of Naam etc.

various amazing Divine commodities, valuable materials are being traded.
This trade of ‘unique and marvellous’ commodities of spiritual sphere can take place only among Divine businessmen-Guruward beloved ones. Partaking of Amrit is the symbol and expression of the business, trade, ‘fermentation’ of this very hidden Divine drama. Here the intellectual knowledge of materialistic sphere does not reach because the ‘feathers’ of intellectual knowledge, reasoning, devices, cleverness of materialistic sphere get burnt with the ‘Divine glitter’, ‘ray’ of the spiritual sphere. For this reason there is a command in Gurbani:-
Lekh 17.14
15.1 Have dealings with Lord’s dealers and gaining the profit rejoice
in your mind. (595)

That company in which such:-
Worthy commodity
Unique commodity
True commodity
Treasure of saints
Love-taste
Essence-shabad
True-Naam
Praise

is traded can be said to be ‘sadhsangat’ or ‘satsangat’.
In Gurbani such ‘sangat’ has been praised and admired:-

15.2 How is the society of saints known?
The Name of One Lord is mentioned there. (72)
15.3 If you desire ever lasting peace, O brother, the Guru counsels
you to associate with the saints.
There the Lord’s Name alone is meditated upon. By the saints’
society one is emancipated. (1182)
15.4 Meeting the society of the saints, one is blessed with the supreme
status and taking out butter, he eats it with relish. (982)
15.5 Like the durable dye of madder, supremely fast, is the Lord’s
love, acquired through the saints’ association. (985)
15.6 Meeting with the saints’ society, faith has welled up within me
and by Guru’s instruction, I taste the Lord’s elixir. (997)
15.7 Where is the mortal who obtains the saints’ society. Unto him,
Nanak is a sacrifice, a sacrifice. (104)
15.8 The Invaluable Name is in the saints’ congregation. By the
greatest good destiny, one obtains it. (909)
15.9 The ignorant mind is gladdend in the society of the saints. My
mind now wabbles not and has become stable. (890)
15.91 Ever, ever You keep me in the saints’ society and bless me with
the gift of this Name of Yours. (1078)
15.92 With the support of the saints’ society, one embraces affection
for the Lord. (966)

Lekh 17.15
16.1 Says Nanak, when I found the saints’ society, my desire was
quenched and I was immensely cooled. (913)
16.2 The Lord God abides in the saints’ society. Meeting with their
association, God’s virtues are known. (1335)
16.3 O brother saints, come and meet me so that getting together, we
may utter the Lord God’s Name. (1335)
16.4 Meeting with the saints’ society, I have attained the Lord’s
Name-elixir and the Transcendent Lord has entered into my
mind. (1348)
16.5 Associating with the saints, I shall assuredly be saved. (1071)
16.6 Without the society of saints, none does swim across. (373)

The essence of all these writings (lekh) is that the ‘Being of Love’, the Immortal Being has threaded man in every situation in His string of Divine love or ‘Naam’, and keeps the ‘string’ of His ‘command’ taut with His ‘love-pull’, and Himself continues to exert pulls of mercy, blessing and grace.

16.7 The Lord of wealth has drawn me with such a string that by
breaking, it breaks not, and by letting it go, it goes not. (827)

In this way all religions, religious propagation and their methods are:-
Symbols
Illumination
Expression
Fulfilment

of the pull of this Divine ‘Love-string’.


(continued…)









Lekh 17.16

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