By Sant Kirpal Singh, extract from "Light of Kirpal" – chapter 37

Question: Master, for the last few years I've had a strong desire to see God but because I was not always happy and life was grief and now earth life is becoming very enjoyable and I've lost quite a bit of my desire to see God.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Because you are indulging in outer things, that's all.

Question: But maybe if I got sick again?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Look here, outer things are for your help – not for enjoyment. Make the best use of them, that's all. You have begun to enjoy them, and naturally the tendency is changed. If you have got more desires for the worldly things, naturally the other side will slacken. So the best motto should be, "God first and world next."

Question: I don't desire anything outwardly. I don't want anything in the world.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Your own statement is contradictory. You say now your desire for God is lessened, is it not? Have I followed properly? Before it was very strong. The reason is apparent – your tendency has changed more toward the worldly things. If all desires are stopped, then that is good. But that will come only when you come in contact with the God-into-expression Power, not before. Upanishads say, "What is that by knowing which all other desires are finished?" That is by coming in contact with the way you have been given.

Perfection walks slowly. Time factor is necessary. Go on, regularly; after some time you'll find that you are on the way up. Sometimes you advance a little, then recede, then again you get some advancement. So diary is meant for that purpose. Keep your diary very strictly, like a hard taskmaster. Don't spare yourself. As you criticize others, so you must criticize your own self. By leading such a life, in two or three months you'll change, sure and certain. We spare ourselves. We see, we have something wrong, but think, "Don't tell it. Who knows it?" But the God in you knows it. You cannot deceive Him. So that is why I always say: Be true to your own self. God is within you and the Masterpower is there. You cannot deceive Him. Be sincere to your own self. I don't say, "Be sincere to me." That Godpower is within you already. You cannot deceive Him.

Why do you loiter away – waste – fritter away time in useless pursuits? You're here only for that purpose. I have told you, I think, more than a dozen times this very thing. Make the best use of your time here. Stop all thinking of past and future. Forget. Be here wholly, solely; live in the living present. Live in the present moment. If you continue, that will continue for eternity. The child does not learn running all at once. He wants some support in the beginning. He then wants to stand: after attempts, falls. Then the mother helps him. After some time he begins to run. So go on with it regularly. To meet God is not difficult. To make man is difficult.
You must make a man out of your own self. God is after finding such men. He's going around, "Is there any man?" Kabir says, "I'm so much purified from within that God is running after me, 'Oh, Kabir, oh Kabir where are you? Come up.'" So God is very near and Master is running very close behind you all calling, "Wait, wait, wait" if you purify yourself. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Purity lies in what? You know? Purity of mind lies in the fact that no other thought than God should remain. God is in every heart, everywhere, we are swimming like fish in the Waters of Life. You may have many things in your brain. You may fill up your whole brain with all libraries, and the scriptures of the world, but that won't help you. Only that much will help you which you have formed as the very part of your life.

Question: It seems the people that have the Truth burn with passion to share it with others.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Why is this so? God has sent them for that very purpose – to distribute to His children. Remember when I went to America first time in 1955? There, as everywhere, talks were given all free. Hitherto, these places had donation boxes and sold tickets. I told them that we didn't want these things. On the first day when I gave a talk one man stood up. "Where is the secretary?" – "Why do you want him?" – "I want to donate five thousand dollars." – "What for?" – "You have given a wonderful talk." I replied, "It is a gift of nature and like all the gifts are it will be given free." You have not to pay for air, sun, do you?

So when I left people offered some bags of money. I told them to just spend it in this Mission here. They were in tears, telling me, "It would have been much better if you had taken away dollars, you're taking away our hearts." So this is your gift – free within you. Who is retarding you from that?

"God does not change the life of a man who does not like to be changed", the Koran says. If you have a little inkling that way, He will help. If a child wants to stand, the mother comes up to help him. If he is lying, sleeping, no help is given. She has many other children to look after first. So we're all children of God. The Master is there to help you – the God in Him.

Question: The gifts of God are life and free will.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Yes. That is what I am telling you.

Question: I think man's position should be, since he has got the free will, to will such a life of praise to God – acceptable to God.

Sant Kirpal Singh: That comes when a man is fed up, when he comes to that ultimate urge within him. Naturally that would be a most fortunate day in the man's life when this urge comes up in him. Then naturally the help will come. Where fire burns oxygen comes to help. So it is a matter of your decision – decide one way or the other. When I left my school, educational career, I had to decide. What? There were to things before me – God and the world. It took me about seven or eight days, all alone at night, in a very lonely place, reflecting on what should be the aim of my life. I am speaking to you about a question that came up in 1912. I decided: God first and the world next! God first and the world next.

So if you have got some definite aim before you, even if you take one step towards that, you will be nearer the goal. But sometimes you are for God, sometimes for the world. Plus – minus nullifies everything. So decide finally what is your aim in life.

Question: Decision is important.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Surely. We have not decided yet. We are trembling here in the way. Sometimes here, sometimes there. And mind comes in like a very good gentleman. "Look here, this is your duty, why don't you do it?" Help your children, that's all right. I also will help your children. God has united you. Why have not others been united to you? It is the flowing pen of God that has united you, as brothers, sisters, wives, husbands. Attend to them properly. Pay off give and take. And? You have got the human life to know God. That's our ultimate goal. Don't sow more seeds. Wind up all your affairs. And Master helps you in that winding up, give and take, that's all. You simply live up to what He says.

Question: It seems so easy, simplicity leads you to eternity and complexity will lead you to perplexity, because you have too many things to distract you.

Sant Kirpal Singh: Simple food, simple living, simple life are helping factors. Once there was a chief minister of Akbar the Great, a great emperor in India. One day, as was the usual course, ministers keep standing up while the king comes in and sits down on his throne. But in that overcoat which he was holding over his arm there was a scorpion. Now out of respect, he could not move and the scorpion bit him here, there, then again. He could not move because that would have been disrespectful. When the king sat down, he said, "Well, look here, out of devotion to the king I have not even cared that the scorpion bit me so many times." Then he threw off his overcoat and ran away. "Thank God, God I will be your devotee." Akbar the Great said, "This is my chief minister, I rely on him for everything. Why has he run away?" So he sent a minister to request him to return. The minister pleaded, but he wouldn't return. "Oh no, I was once his servant. I was doing everything he wanted. And now I have become the servant of God." Then the king himself came and told him, "Well, dear Wali Ram, you are my chief minister. You are the big wheel of my empire." "Dear King, I was fully devoted to you for the time I was there; now I have changed my devotion to God." – "How will you eat?" – "I've got hands to eat. I don't need any plates." Yesterday morning – perhaps you were there – some people were eating vegetables on leaves, there were no plates. "Well, what you have for your pillow?" the king asked. "My hands." The king then asked, "Tell me what you want?" – "Well, I want you to be away from me."

So simple life is the ultimate. We take hours to make ourselves ready. We take hours to adorn ourselves. Give rest to the body, save it from cold and heat outside. That's good. Give it food. Give rest to the body, so that it may work properly, but not all twenty-four hours. If you take too much work from a horse, you see, it will not help you.

Question: If you work too hard, that's not good?

Sant Kirpal Singh: Not too hard, but as much as the body bears. Sometimes you have to sacrifice for the good of others, that's another thing. That's the law of sacrifice. Give rest to the body, save it from heat and cold outside so that it may be strong enough to carry on your work, that's all. But all the time you spend in getting ready, well, you are wasting time. Keep the body clean, that's all right. It's a temple of God. Keep it clean outside and also inside. See things in their right perspective.

Simple life and high thinking will work in no time. Simple life and high thinking – that's all. These (other things) are only subsidiary questions. The main thing is to come in contact with God who is within you already. You have not to go anywhere. Outer temples are made after the model of manbody. Why leave the original temple and go to the temples made by the hand of man? God resides in the temple which He has made, in the womb of the mother. Is there any machinery lying inside there? That's God's work.