Revision as of 13:07, 20 November 2015

The Nirankari view of God

The Times of India, Nov 14 2015

Discourse: Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh Ji 

 Across ages, all saints and prophets motivated people to connect to the Almighty and attain salvation. But driven by an ignorant mind, human beings suffer the cycle of birth and death. The mortal journey ends one day but that of the soul continues. The five elements merge back with their sources but what becomes of the sixth one, the soul? For countless people who failed this chance up until now, time is not going to play back. For the ones born in Satyuga, Treta or Dwapar yugas, their “present time“ was “then“. For us, our “present“ is these moments in which we are living and breathing and not the time that is yet to come. But the ones living now need to contemplate whether they have availed of this priceless opportunity . Recent earthquakes in some parts of the world reveal how fragile the corporal form is. In an instant, all future plans of victims were squashed. So, the pre sent is all one has; so let's handle the present with care. Those of us who restrict ourselves to mere listening or narrations of scriptures are not going to succeed unless the knowledge so gained is put into practice.

Further, there are those, especially youngsters, who submit to illusions of the world with no awareness of the mind or no thought of what is going to become of the soul hereafter. They need to be awakened. Saints have cautioned, “Don't take this warning lightly“. When the message was given in Satyuga, the need for prophets or spiritual scriptures thereafter should not have been there. But such is human nature that the message has to be repeated time and again in novel ways. We have to prove that we are truly wise; that we have got knowledge of Truth from God-realised saints and that we seek clarity and strength from them to imbibe this knowledge in our everyday life. We too need to take the mantle of passing this awareness to others just like others became an inspiration for us.

Before this kind of transformation, we were not able to do so as we had not obtained the Truth. Arjuna revered Krishna in form but did not surrender to the real Krishna, the all-pervading omnipresent formless, until he was blessed with Godknowledge by Krishna.

Meerabai's devotion and love for Shyam was limited to an idol until Guru Ravidas revealed the indestructible form of the Lord to her. Sant Kabir says, “Allah is invisible but Guru has blessed me with sweet realisation. All my anxiety has ended, I see the Supreme everywhere.“ The vastness and expanse of the Supreme Consciousness has to be seen to be believed. All religious scriptures underscore the fact that the invisible God can be perceived with the grace of an enlightened saint and this holds true for every human.

I recall I had to strain my neck to see the top of CN Tower in Toronto. But the same tower looked like a toy when seen from the airplane. So what seems to be big looks rather timid when seen from “greater heights“. Similarly , when one attains spiritual heights by connecting with the formless God, materialistic achievements seem too tiny . The more humble, forgiving and large-hearted we become, the higher the greatness we achieve.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Everyone has to attain this state of mind and become a reason for peace and happiness for self and others.