What Is He Like?

An extract from Heaven on Earth about Hazur Maharaj Ji’s visit to USA

On the morning of May 9, 1964, Hazur Maharaj Ji began the most significant part of the trip – his first visit to the mainland of the United States of America. The end of the flight from Honolulu “would be the beginning of a mission of love, the fulfilment of a promise,” wrote A.V.M. Sondhi. “He would meet in the flesh hundreds of disciples and seekers after Truth, most of whom knew of him only as others had described him or from photographic representations, the best of which fail to convey the true image and grandeur of the real Master in human form.”

For years, even decades, the disciples had been looking forward to the Master’s visit to America. His visit was a great event in the life of the American satsangis, particularly for the large number of disciples who had not yet seen the Master in his physical form. A satsangi described the first arrival of the Master thus:

‘What will he be like? Will he be as wonderful as they say?’ We have accepted, in a typical western, very rational fashion, a philosophy, because it answers all our questions. But the living person behind this philosophy – how will our analytical faculties respond to him? And when the jet airplane bringing their divine guest was coming in for landing, the satsangis felt a great surge of joy well up within them. When the Master entered the waiting hall, not one of us could take our eyes off the one man who was standing at the door. … And this is Maharaj Ji. How can we describe him? He looks like his photographs, of course, but there is something more, something infinitely more. All our hopes are fulfilled – even hopes we never before realized we had, are fulfilled.

One thing is certain, the well-memorized list of criteria of a perfect Master has been forgotten. Not because it is overlooked, but because we have passed into some new kind of experience where analysis and comparison are meaningless.

‘What is he like?’ they ask us later. How can there be an answer to that? We can only say to those who ask: You must see for yourselves. We will talk about his visit for days, months and years; we will use millions of words; but only when you see that happiness that we have, only when you feel the feeling of love that we feel, only when you know the blessings we have received, will you begin to understand.

The Master is like a looking glass. In whatever way, with whatever feelings or thoughts we look at him, the same thoughts are reflected back to us. Try to manifest your Master within. Then he will always remain with you and you will be able to see him and talk to him whenever you like.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Quest for Light}