Trusting the Master

Saints come into this world to pull their marked sheep back home to the Lord. They tell us that this world is not our true home and give us the strength and inspiration to realize our real home within.

We can take nothing with us when we die. Everything will be left behind. The evidence is all around us, yet we easily fool ourselves as we are swept along by our karmas, attachments, and desires, along with the relentless pull of the world. To guide us home, a living Master is sent to reveal the way. Summarizing a satsang by Maharaj Jagat Singh, the author of With the Three Masters, Vol. III, tells us: “You should prepare for the journey after death, which is the real purpose of human life. God lives in your body and beckons you from within, but your attention is turned outward and you do not hear him.”

The Masters implore their disciples to devote themselves to this journey by making time for our spiritual practice through meditation. The Lord continually reassures us within that we can face anything in this life. That reassurance enables us to trust, defined as “a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something.” Trust expresses our confidence in the Master, in both his teachings and his love for us. We can best demonstrate our trust by following the tenets laid out by the Masters, with faith and unwavering determination. In Maharaj Charan Singh’s first satsang, he said that we “should try to follow with confidence and firmness the path of Surat Shabd Yoga.”

The saints tell us that within everyone is a “ringing radiance” – what the Sant Mat masters call the Shabd – a creative power that is hidden in all forms of life. That power is love, which invites us to experience within ourselves what is true, real, and unchanging. Maharaj Jagat Singh referred to this power as “the call of God inside the human body.”

The Master assures us that long before most of us have experienced the Shabd, we are being protected, cared for, and looked after. Maharaj Sawan Singh wrote in Philosophy of the Master, Vol. V: “The Masters … look after their disciples whether they be near at hand or far away.”

We assume that we know what the word “near” means, but when a Master says that he is near to every initiate, he is describing a mysterious and profound link. It is a link that begins, really, from birth. Maharaj Charan Singh confirms this when he says in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol III:

Well, brother, to be very frank … actually, master takes charge [of us] right from birth…. But we become conscious that we are being taken care of only when we see the master within – then we know that we are being helped, we are being taken care of. Before that, we are not conscious of it.

If this nearness is hard to fathom, it is an even greater challenge to comprehend that every initiate is dear to the Master. “Every initiate” includes those of us who struggle, who are distracted and unfocused, who are forgetful and unappreciative. Included would be the whiners, the complainers, the skeptics, the impatient, and the undisciplined. Especially included would be those of us who struggle with meditation and who believe that we lack faith, hope, and gratitude. Even so, as hard as this might be for us to comprehend, we are all precious and dear to the Master. This relationship with the Master is a holy bond. It is our most significant and primary relationship. Every initiate is a beloved child of the Master.

Yet, every relationship requires time and attention to flourish. We nurture our relationship with the Master through meditation. Meditation is the best way to please him while growing our love and devotion for him. Hazur revealed how best to fulfill the longing to be close to the Master when he told us, in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. III: “Whenever you are attending to the master within, you are showing your presence to him physically, within. The master is within you. So be in his presence; you are physically present before him.”

Saints tell us that the entire path of Sant Mat could be reduced to one word: meditation. The answer to every question is meditation. The solution to every problem is meditation. Bringing our attention to the eye centre through meditation is the struggle to replace the scattered and unfocused thoughts of the world through the unbroken repetition of simran. It is the struggle to turn away from worldly attachments and desires; to reverse the downward and outward flow of our energy and attention; and to conquer our ego so we may turn our face toward the Master. By meditating on his name, by attending to the Master within, we are drawn into his divine presence.