By Dr Harbhajan Singh, extract from a tape, 18 October, 1989

All of you know very well that the purpose of human life is to meet good end and for that purpose we have to live in the world with higher values of life. Higher values of life concern us to know the very cause of life. Knowledge about the higher values of life lies in man but unless until he doesn't rise above the plane of senses and the shackles of the mind he cannot know the real cause of this life. Where the world's philosophies end there the religion starts! According to the teaching of the competent Master our real life starts only when we tap inside. Competent Masters see the very root-cause of this life and they tell us about the higher values of life.

Unless until one doesn't rise above the causal mind, above the causal body, he cannot know the cause and the effect of the world. So the mystery of life or the riddle of life always remains unsolved. It is not so easy to determine the purpose of human life, for that purpose we must have the ruling passion in life. If once we know the very cause of our life then we can know more and more towards this. All of you know that we are the same essence as that of God – man is next to God. And to go back we have to follow exactly what is written in the holy scriptures.

You know, now there are faiths after faiths, religions after religions, sects and isms, and those differ from the basic teaching. And how can one know the reality by coming in contact with those people? So never any competent Master so far advised us. The teaching remained one and the same or it is written with one opinion by all competent Masters of the world. Whether they came in the East or West, at different places and at different times, this one opinion exists in the holy scriptures as well. So Masters tell us, "The experience of the competent Master must become our experience." Today we will know the very important things. If we remember those things we can never be misled in our life. We will never be deluded in the world. Two things are very much needed: what is meditation, and who is the Master. Because now the purpose of human life is told everywhere in the world. But where is man misled? When he meditates or in selecting the Master! Most of the people are misled on these two points, because they never know what is meditation, how to meditate. The second thing is that they also do not know who is the Master. If somebody says, "I am the Master", then we should know that in the holy scriptures it is said, that those who claim themselves as Master, they can never be the Master. And further there is said that there is none in a million, maybe one in a billion. When Christ, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Guru Gobind Singh and all other competent Masters came into the world, how many came along with them? They were few, either one or two, not more than that. There were already hundred thousand such so-called masters who also appeared now. So, during that very time, those competent Masters stressed upon the experience that one must get. Because all competent Masters went through the same way. They are all one. All positive powers are one. Some time this power came in the form of Jesus Christ, some time in the form of Guru Nanak, some time this power came as Kabir, some time as Ravidas, and now this power came as Sant Kirpal Singh. They are all one! So search out of the holy scriptures, their experiences are there. Religion, outer rituals and rites, countries, different faiths, they are no bar to spirituality.

Spirituality means you have to learn something. It is a science, it is as definite as two and two make four. Just like in schools and  colleges we learn one subject, – this is also a subject: this is the Divine science of the soul and we are thought just to learn that very subject. So today we will try to understand the most important subjects – meditation and who is the Master.

The seat of the soul in the body is between and behind the two eyebrows. From here it withdraws at the time of death and just below there is the mind and just little more below there is the intellect. Now, between the soul and the mind there is an ‘iron door' that separates the lower body from the upper body. The upper part is the true temple of God and below it is the three-(fold) world (physical, astral and causal world) we are living in. Gods and goddesses live there and with the lower body we can transcend to those barriers by various ways (but not beyond). But Masters tell us, where the world's philosophies end there the religion starts. Just to understand this point is not difficult, because you cannot withdraw from the body-consciousness. You can come above the body-consciousness but you cannot withdraw it. What happens? Now you see everywhere in the world people are meditating. Where they are meditating, how they are meditating, that's the subject. They have not withdrawn from the body but they are meditating. And when they are meditating, their mind and intellect are working. Whereas it (a true experience) is the same experience as it happens at the time of death. So that experience is only possible when you are able to withdraw from the body-consciousness. We cannot do that, it is impossible, unless this ‘iron door' is opened. This separates the body from the upper part which is called the true temple of God. As for example, we may try our level best – some people may suffer – but they cannot rise above body-consciousness. Because of this iron door which is only opened by the help of the Masterpower. So now for your right understanding, people meditate, they see the light, they remain happy but this is not the practical experience, that is not the positive experience. Because ways are open for the negative power as well as for the positive power.

When people meditate without entering through the Third Eye or the same experience which happens at the time of death, the mind overinfluences and takes the soul into the chakras or into the astral plane. There you can experience light that – if somebody wants to come out of it – he cannot do it. And what will be the result of it? Rishis and Munis spent their whole life in this meditation. They became a skeleton of bone, but they could not get rid of it, they could not get out of it.

So when the mind is active while people are meditating and their intellect is working, where will they go? They will go where the mind takes them. They are meditating in the presence of the mind, so mind will take them through the tentacles anywhere and when we are stressing forcibly on certain points it is called Hatha Yoga. People may meditate by some so-called masters, it is the same experience as when people stress and they go to the same place. So there are many, many ways, which are revealed by different so-called masters or those who are competent of various other Yogas. Except the way of the Light- and Sound principle, the way back to God – they are all doing with their own systems, which have nothing to do with the reality, with spirituality. Now you know that those so-called masters who give experience, their experience also differs. Anybody who went in any chakra and told about that one, other went into another and he told the glory of the other – their experience in the astral plane differ from one another. Whereas the experience of all competent Masters is one and the same, that does not differ at all. So to go back into the body you can go with many, many ways. But to rise above the body-consciousness there is only one way. So this teaching, that tells us the higher values of life, taught and practised by all competent Masters – this is our purpose. What will happen then, we will tell later on.
Something has to be remembered and should be recorded in our daily life: that the experiences that lead through the astral plane with the mind are very charming. They have illusionary nature. There can be excess of light, but it is a trap. You can enter into it, but the light is so excessive, that the soul cannot come out of it. Light without sound is stationary, so you cannot be helped there in any way. Those who go this way are all the time caught by the negative power and cannot get free from it. They lose their life – not only in this birth, but they go for a very long journey, till they are helped by a competent Master – and  it is a big fortune if someone meets such a Master.

So there is no way for anybody who is engaged in this work, who is doing such type of meditation. Where will he ultimately go? Into the domain of gods and goddesses, into the domain of the negative power. They can go into the hell and the heaven – but it is not that heaven where we have to go. That heaven which is explained, it is even worse than the hell. Hell and heaven, they both are in the first plane. Those with good karmas, they settle in the heaven. Avataras also live in the heavens and enjoy their life through the senses. Because gods and goddesses, avataras, they could not get rid of the mind. Whatever problem is within man, the same problem is with them. So those avataras, whose names are very popular in the world, one time they were in heaven and then they were in the hell. And that was the result of their meditations and the result of their karmas and that was the cause of their wishes. – What is the fate of a man who is only meditating on them? Kabir says, "The weed is growing on their heads, they cannot see the water of life."

Do you think, those who are meditating on the level of the mind and their intellect will be taken care of by the positive power or by the negative power? Certainly it will be understood. They are meditating for the negative power and they will be caught by the negative power. They are working as instruments of the negative power. They will remain in the domain of the negative power and there is no way for them to come out. Once they have selected their ways it is very difficult for them to come out of it. Their life is worse than that of a man. Ordinary man is like a white paper, everything can be written on it. But the person who has started like this, there is no hope for him. He can only be helped by the grace of a competent Master who transcends him above the body-consciousness and gives him the fresh positive experience. He must forget that very negative experience – only then there is the possibility.

Black magic, spiritual healing and lots of miraculous things are the offshoot of these meditations. One can fulfil lots of wishes and help others to fulfil their wishes. Such people become the doers of those wishes, and there one is caught. When one starts to work as doer and starts to give miraculous promises, there is no hope for such people. I am telling you the truth now, please remember it. With these negative forces hundred thousand human beings are misled from their ways and their houses are spoiled. If you meditate on them they will spare you, if you do not meditate on them, if you do not obey their orders, they will create problems in your house. Murder, accident, suicide, these are created by the antiforces in the whole atmosphere. All worldly problems are created by those powers. Whatever Kabir has written that is beyond explanation. Whatever negativity is prevailing in the world that is only due to these powers, with the Riddhis and Siddhis, miraculous things and all those antiforces which are increasing in the world day by day. And this is the time when these powers have started to multiply in the world. In this time they will start to create very attractive design of their power. They have the power to deceive man at any stage and at any time. I tell you, there is a definite way to overcome all these forces. It is not only that you can simply overpower them, you can (also) help a lot of people to overcome these problems. There are hundred thousand forces which are working there, but there are very few positive forces who are on the defensive side.

Today I am telling you what is going on everywhere and how to get rid of the effect of these things. You should have the outlook to know what is going on in the world and what is good for you and what is bad for you. Somebody tells you, "Here is the Master, yes, you come, he is a very good Master, he is God himself." What is the proof with you that he is a Master, that he is a God? You must have a proof also. For that purpose, if you do not trust those words, at least go back to your holy scriptures. What do they tell us? A competent Master will give you a very different experience. He will first withdraw you from the body-consciousness, take you through the Third Eye and lead you this way through the darkness – he takes you a straight and very narrow way within, but then it is open. And there is a way to come back. If you want initiation, you can go everywhere in the world (and try to get it). What is the criteria to prove (if you can get a true experience there)? You are here – here is the seat of the soul. Here we withdraw from the body-consciousness. Ask that "Master", "You withdraw me from here, you withdraw me through the Third Eye, take me through the darkness and show me the door, the heaven within." He will withdraw you into the sky...

I am telling all those things very openly because here people are misled. They are knowing each and everything but when they come over here (at the Third Eye) – here they are misled (by so-called masters). Everyone says, "Our Master is the best", but who is the real Master? The radiant form of the Master is our Master, and that is in the body. So this is the biggest criteria which Master has laid down before you.

Whereas, if you are doing these outer Yogas, and when this serpentine power (kundalini), from the root of the spinal cord starts, transcending all the chakras and opens over here (the Purush in Sahasrar), it is a death trap for you. And we have seen many, many persons who are suffering from this disease and there is no way (out). Last time when I was here, one person asked me, "Are you a Master?" I said, "No". "Then who are you?" I said, "I am doing the work of my Master! What do you want to tell me? I am the borrowed servant of my Master, I am doing my duties. Whatever duty He has given, that duty I am doing." And he was affected with this problem (which I described above): he had been initiated by some person but his body started to burn. He was very receptive, and receptivity (but wrong meditation) took him to a lot of problems. For four years he could not get rid of these problems, day and night he was restless. It was an awful life for him. Then I asked him, "What happened with you?" He said, though he went to his Master lots of times and each time he gave a fresh initiation and every time his problem grew more and more. "But today", he said, "while sitting in Satsang, this problem went away and I feel refreshed. There is no sign of any problem here." This is the help from the Master. Masterpower could get rid of his problem which he could never do (out of himself). Even if he tried his level best until death, this power would not leave him.

It is very easy to jump into such meditation, but the consequences are very bad. The outer effect of this meditation is only to go into the trap of the negative power. There you are caught and you will never be let free. You are caught there for all the times. When in the holy scriptures it is said that Rishis and Munis became a skeleton of the bones, they could not solve the riddle of life – after all, where did they go? Did they go to the Godpower? They had not solved the mystery of death, so where did they go? Where they meditated! They are caught all the time in the net of transmigration and there is no hope for them. They could not control their mind, what to say of their passions. Mind becomes more active while doing this Yoga.

So this is why I tell you: those who meditate on this very subject they will speak much, but they do not have the practical life. Those who speak too much, they are empty from within. They are caught by the negative power. When you go to such persons, they will talk a lot of things, but they will keep you there where they are. They are caught, they cannot get rid of this power. Once this power starts to take work from them, it will not leave them. So you cannot solve the problem through your mind, because mind itself is the problem. It will create more and more problems. I mean to say, those who are meditating over here at the level of the mind. Only when you withdraw from the body-consciousness you will come to the level of the soul; only when this door is opened to you – then the effect will be positive for the soul. You will forget the body, your mind will be stilled, your intellect will not move at all and you do not know what is going on in the body below. This is the positive experience and Masterpower will withdraw your attention as you can  remove the hair from the butter. So easy it can withdraw from the body-consciousness.

The teaching of competent Masters is very simple, easy to understand, easy to digest and easy to get. And also easy to overcome all other problems of the worldly things. With the Word of the Master  you can transcend all the barriers and come back. Negative power cannot stand. The fear is withdrawn from the soul. The way back to God is full of vibration, love and harmony, because there is oneness in this path. There is no second way. Each step you are getting the new life within. You are getting more and more vibration within and in the worldly way souls gets strength. Then one is able to overcome his short-comings and is not afraid of any consequences of the world.

When one is initiated by the Masterpower, he doesn't get anything new – it is already there in man. He only awakens this power (in us) and negative power cannot come. If it wants to stay with it, it will start to burn. Man is next to God. Gods and goddesses, avataras – these negative forces, they are the servants of the holy body. But we became the slave of the senses and the negativity therein. So directly or indirectly man is giving food to the negative power through the senses and is miserably misled day after day. The fate of man is just like that if he cuts his throat with his own knife.

Now, just for self-realization you believe the teaching of Christ with very few words, "You cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you are born anew!" When you shut the ten doors of this temple you can see the heavenly light within. So with all those Yogas neither you are reborn nor are you able to shut the ten doors of this temple. Try to understand – it is very easy to understand. The teachings of all Masters say one and the same thing: you need the help of somebody who can shut the ten doors of this temple. This means that you are withdrawn from the seat of the soul in the body, you are taken back (again) to the seat of the soul so that all your five senses – eyes, ears, nose, mouth and touch, these are the five senses – stop working. This is the outward expression of the soul and there is also the inward expression of the soul. That leads you to the thoughts. Thoughts are very potent. If you are withdrawn from outside and the inward expression of the soul starts to work, it is very potent. You cannot get rid of it. So Masterpower helps you both the ways – outside and inside. Inside He overcomes your thoughts, He transcends you on that very place from where you came down into the body, where there is the seat of the soul – what a great difference. And from there He withdraws you above, that is the big difference (to all other Yogas). You understand now?

If you understand that very secret, then there is no problem. You take these two words: "It is our turn to meet God." Everyone needs it, no way out. If you do not solve it (the riddle of life) now, when will you solve it? All Masters say that all others are side-issues. Do it right today! Don't delay it, it is your work! You have neglected your work so far. You are very lazy. You do not obey the order of your Father. Your work is pending. Who will do that? Nobody can help you. You have to help yourself!