Mystic Verses of Sant Maluk Das of Allababad - Classic Sants of India - Sant Mat

 

Mystic Verses of Sant Maluk Das of Allababad - Classic Sants of India - Sant Mat

About

"Maluk Das (1574–1682) was an Indian devotional poet of India. He was born in Kada, near Allababad. Themes of his songs such as social reform, religious tolerance, goodwill among men, equality and the oneness of God, resemble other singers of the Bhakti movement such as Kabir and Guru Nanak. Maluk Das believes in God as a Formless Being and the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who, at the same time, pervades through each and every shape. Maluk Das addresses Him by several names, e.g. Nirankar (That which has no form), Avinashi (That which does not perish), Allah, Parameshwar, Jyoti Saroop (The form of Light), Parmanand (The absolute Joy), Sirjanhaar (The Creator), etc..." (Dharmapedia)

"Maluk Das (Hindi:मलुक दास, 1574) was a devotional poet-saint from Prayagraj (Allahabad), India, a religious poet of the Bhakti Movement. These Compositions are most famous: Ratna Khan, Maluk Shatak and Gyan Bodh." (Wikipedia)

"Sant Maluk Das was one of the great poet Saints of India with the universal message of love and oneness of God. He was a Saint who taught love, amity and devotion, and looked upon everyone as equal and was never biased on the basis of caste and creed. His ashrams continue to send out a message of spirituality, integrity, and harmony to this day. They are a sanctuary where people from all walks of life come to find peace within and around. Like all great Sufis and Saints, Maluk Das revived the true spirit of religion with the ultimate objective of finding communion with God through love and devotion, not through rituals.

"The tradition of Indian Saints is all-inclusive, all embracing. It concerns the well-being of entire humanity and the Being only. This is why Sufis and Saints of the Bhakti cult like Guru Nanak, Kabir, and Rumi, Baba Farid and Maluk Das were never confined to any organized religion or sect. They aimed at direct communion with the Supreme Sovereignty. Sant Mat or Sufism shows the path leading to the union of the soul with the Ultimate Soul which Sufis or Saints call Sat Naam or Al-Haqq. Like Nanak, Kabir, and Rumi, Maluk Das adopted poetry as the medium to and spread his message of spirituality, devotion, and universal brotherhood. His poetry also deals with temporal issues and various aspects of human concerns. It seeks to promote social reform, religious tolerance, and goodwill among men. 

"Maluk Das believes in God as a Formless Being and the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who, at the same time, pervades through each and every form." (The Concept of God in Maluka’s Poetry, By Mohammad Saleem, Research Scholar, Department of English Studies & Modern European Languages, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, pages 1 and 2)

Selections of Sant Maluk Das's Mystic Verses

"Like Kabir, he does not believe in rituals such as pilgrimage, etc. When he has realized that his heart is itself the abode of God, these exterior forms are unnecessary."

"He enlightens his disciples that realization of one’s self leads to salvation and the divine bliss."

"When the seeker attains this stage, he is able to recognize God in every particle of the universe, and he does not need to seek God at specified places of pilgrimage."

"He seeks only the final refuge, i.e. God, Who is all pervading and can be found only through love and devotion to His name." 

"He further says that when he has realized that God dwells everywhere, in every object, and all ideas emanate from Him and end onto Him, why the Limitless Soul should be confined to a mere stone or a book?"

More Sant Maluk Das Verses (Hindi [followed by English translation])

Poem 1

“Tar hai chitai lāj karu jan kī, ḍāru hāth kī phānsī.

Jan tē tērō jōr na lahihai, rachchhapāl avināśī.”

[“You stand at the shore, mindful of your servant’s honor—cut away the noose from my hand.

Your servant cannot summon the strength on his own—O undying Preserver, deliver me.]

“Kahai Malūkā chup karu ṭhagani, auguṇ rākhu durāī.

Jo jan ubarai Rām nām kahi, tāte kachhu na basāī.”

[“Malūk says: ‘Be silent, you deceiver—hide your faults away.

If a devotee is saved by chanting Rām’s Name, you have no power to stop him.]

Poem 2

“Sōtē sōtē janam gaṃvāyā—

[While asleep, one has wasted life.]

“Māyā mōh mēṃ sani paḍō sō, Rām nām nahīṃ pāyā.”

[So immersed in worldly illusion, you never obtained Rām’s Name.]

“Mīṭhī nīnd sōyē sukh apnē, kabhūn nahīṃ alasānē.

Gāfil hōkē mahal mēṃ sōyē, phir pāchē paḍachitaānē.”

[You slumbered sweetly in self-indulgence, never once rousing yourself.

Heedless, you slept in your palace—only afterwards did regret set in.]

“Ajahūṃ uṭhō kahā̃ tum baiṭhē, binatī sunō hamārī.

Chahūṃ ōra maiṃ āhaṭ pāyā, bahut bha’ī bhū’ī bhārī.”

[Even now, rise—why do you linger? Listen to my entreaty.

I sense the signs from every side—the weight of the earth has grown heavy.]

“Bandīchhōra rahata ghaṭ bhītara, khabar na kāhū pāyī.

Kahat Malūk Rām kē paharā, jāgō mērē bhā’ī.”

[The Liberator dwells within the heart, yet no one notices.

Malūk says: Rām stands guard—awake, O my brothers.]

Poem 3

“Ab tērī śaraṇa āyō Rām.”

[Now I have come to Your refuge, O Rām.]

“Jabē suniyā sādh kē mukh, patit-pāvan nām.”

[When I heard from the saints’ lips saying the Name that saves the fallen.]

“Yahī jān pukār kīnhī, ati satāyō kām.”

[Recognizing this, I cried out, tormented by worldly desires.]

“Viṣaya sētī bhayō ājiz, kaha Malūk gulām.”

[Exhausted by sense-pleasures, says Malūk, Your slave.]

Poem 4

“Bābā man kā hai sir talē—

[O father, the mind rests beneath the head.]

“Māyā kē abhimān bhūlē, garva hī mēṃ galē.”

[“Lost in illusions of pride, you languish in conceit.]

“Jibhyā kāraṇ khūn kiyē, bāndhi jampur chalē.”

[On account of the tongue, you have committed murders—bound, you proceed to the land of

Death.]

“Rāmajī sōṃ bhayē bēmukh, agini apnī jalē.”

[Turning your face from Lord Rām, you burn in your own fire.]

“Hari bhajē sē bhayē nirbhay, ṭārahūṃ nahīṃ ṭarē.”

[Those who worship Hari become fearless; they do not waver in their resolve.]

“Kaha Malūkā jahā̃ garībī, tē’ī saba sē bhalē.”

[Malūk says: Where there is humility, those people prove the best among all.]

(from an unpublished book of 108 Satsang Talks Given by Maharshi Mehi)

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Book of Kabir Panth Prayers, by James Bean - A Critique of Ascender's Comment

 

A Critique of  Ascender's Comment and My Own Comments Regarding This Wonderful Book of Kabir Panth Prayers, by James Bean

Reviewer: ascender - August 15, 2024

Subject: Need for a Living Master

"Sant Kabir was the Guru of His time. Only those to whom he personally gave initiation while in His human form can return to Sat Lok in His Name. The vast expanse of darkness of Mahasunya or Maha Sunn is said to be 80 billion miles, it cannot be crossed without a living Satguru to take the soul across to the purely spiritual realms above the region of Sunn. The worship of dead saints cannot liberate the Jiva. Only a living Master can do so. The search for God in the human form; Shabd incarnate, "The word made flesh and dwelling amongst us" is the greatest imperative for the devotee wishing to reach back to the Absolute Lord. However, the sacred bani of the sants, of Kabir Sahib and others, is a guide and inspiration to assist us in our understanding, and increase our longing for our True Home."

My critique of the review left by the person with the username Ascender made on August 15, 2024 at the Internet Archive titled, Need for a Living Master, as well as a brief exploration of the book being commented upon, Kabir Panth Book Of Prayers -- Sandhya Path -- The Path of Spiritual Realization. And this also serves now as a kind of Forward for this rare book in the Sant Dharam Das Kabir tradition of the Anurag Sagar.

Not as Ascender suggested, but as the contents of the book and the title of the book clearly state, this is NOT a collection of verses all attributed to Guru Kabir but actually represents a compilation of compositions made by many over the centuries in the Satsang Community of Kabir. These are used as prayers, psalms (hymns)  and sayings of wisdom by those satsangi disciples part of the living sangat related to Kabir. Indeed, the modern-day lineage of Sant Satgurus of Sant Mat connects directly back to the Sant Dharam Das line of gurus of this Kabir community in fact. There are many such collections of writings from the Sant Dharam Das line of Masters, and some of those other texts such as the Anurag Sagar (The Ocean of Love), Kabir Sagar (Ocean of Kabir), and others have also been uploaded to the web as wonderful ebooks, done with the motivation of edification and education of those curious about the spiritual path. "You can not just brush the surface of a culture and pretend that you’ve found an answer. We must turn inward to the deepest of our own roots to find the very best of who we are." (Ravi Shankar)

So, yes Kabir taught the need for a living Master as have his many spiritual successors all the way up to the living present time. It would be a fallacy for anyone to suggest being curious about the earlier writings of the Sant tradition of India somehow would mean that one would not be interested in being initiated by a living Master. Rather, it's the opposite of that. It is not an "either or" proposition. The interests of the faithful devotee of Sant Mat encompassess both. Those who are initiated by contemporary Masters, those who are followers of the spiritual practices of Sant Mat, are precisely the ones who are most-of-all fans of the literary treasures, the spiritual classics, scriptures, the poetry and prose, the banis and bhajans of the earlier generations of these Saints and Mystics. Studying the teachings of the Masters is also a way to break free from being stuck in one's mind -- our habitual thinking patterns, and practice Remembrance of the spiritual path (satsang).

And if one actually takes the time and reads this, Kabir Panth Book Of Prayers, they will soon discover that it does advocate sitting at the feet of a Living Teacher of one's own time: "By devotion, all the sufferings of Dharam Dass vanished. It is by the good deeds of millions of births that he met Satguru Kabir." "Who is greater than Ram and Krishna? Even they accepted a guru. They were masters of the three worlds, but were humble before the guru." "As many saints, mahants and sadhus there were, they all served at the lotus feet of the guru." "Do not go through life without a guru. Keep this firm principle in mind!" "Without a guru, who else can remove doubts? In what way can the heart possess discriminative spiritual knowledge? Without a guru ignorance cannot be removed, and the soul does not realize it's true form." There are whole sections of this book extolling the need for a living master of the time! 

The traditional format of a satsang is for someone to recite or sing from some earlier collection of Sant verses such as from the Bijak of Kabir, the Adi Granth, Anurag Sagar, Paltu Sahib, Namdev, Tukaram, Tulsi Sahib, Soamiji Maharaj, etc... and then a Master or whoever is giving the satsang discourse comments upon those verses. Traditional Sant Mat from India, as it has always been, focuses upon the teachings of the living Master, the earlier Masters of the lineage as well as the great collection of banis, bhajans, granths, all this vast Sant literature that has accumulated over the centuries out of the utmost respect for all of these great Masters, Saints and Sages that have blessed the world over the millennia, the various yugas, great epochs of time. One is counseled constantly about the need to have satsang every single day, to hear from one's teacher (Sant Satguru), to spend some time studying the instruction and wisdom of the Saints, to do simran and to meditate each and every day. "You should do your Bhajan and Simran every day." (Baba Jaimal Singh) "Do not live even a single day without inner meditation." (Baba Devi Sahib of Moradabad)

This Kabir Panth Book of Prayers is one such valuable collection, I dare say, is one of the more colorful assemblages of verses intended to inspire the satsangi to do the spiritual practices of the Sants: Simran: the Remembrance of names of God, Dhyan: inner visions of Divinity, radiant forms of Light, and Bhajan: the Unstruck Melody of the Sound Current or Audible Life Stream. And beyond these, one is encouraged to become a bhakta, a devotee approaching the Supreme Being with a spirit of love and devotion at every step. One is the "drop" of the soul merging into the Divine Ocean of Love. So the place we wish to ascend to is not to just any astral occult realm of esoterica but the Most High heavens of the Eternal Truth and Love, "the Far Country" that is the Goal of this Path of the Masters. 

"The tenth gate is the gathering point of consciousness. Therein lies the path for our return. The tenth gate is also known as the sixth chakra, the third eye, Bindu, the center located between the two eyebrows. This is the gateway through which we leave the sense organs' gates, enter the divine realms, and finally become established in the soul. We travel back from the Realm of Darkness to the Realm of Light, the Light to the Divine Sound, and the Realm of Sound to the Soundless State. This is called turning back to the Source." (Swami Santsevi Ji Maharaj, Book of Sarvadharma Samanvy)

How could the love between Thee and me sever?

As the leaf of the lotus abides on the water, 

so thou art my Lord, and I am Thy servant.

As the night-bird Chakor gazes all night at the moon, 

so Thou art my Lord, and I am Thy servant.

From the beginning until the ending of time, 

there is love between Thee and me;

And how shall such love be extinguished?

Kabir says: "As the river enters into the Ocean, so my heart touches Thee." 

(Guru Kabir, Songs of Kabir)

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Every Day is an Opportunity to Meditate and Study the Teachings of the Masters

 

Every Day is an Opportunity to Meditate and Study the Teachings of the Masters

"If we listen to Satsang every day, and we do Bhajan Simran every day, then we will definitely get success on this Path, and we will be fit for getting the Grace of our Masters." (Baba Ram Singh Ji)

The Third Eye in Meditation: “Close your eyes as in sleep, and look sweetly, lovingly, intently into the middle of the darkness lying in front of you. You will see a dark veil. That which sees the dark veil within, without the help of your physical eyes, IS the inner eye.” (Kirpal Singh)

"The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love." -- Meister Eckhart

"Saints come into this world and They enlighten us. They remind us of our True Home of God Almighty -- our True Father. They encourage us to go back. And They motivate us to go back. So, we are indeed fortunate to get this human body and get this life. And it is with the Grace of God Almighty that we have the company of the Masters. Now, we should make the most of that and follow the Teachings of the Masters and make the efforts to go back to our True Home." (Baba Ram Singh)

"Morning time is ideal for meditation. But anytime is good if we are sitting for meditation." (Baba Ram Singh)

"We cannot do or listen to Satsang once in a fortnight or once a month because our love and affection in the world outside is drawing us all the time. And if we want to get that love and affection towards our Master and towards God Almighty, then we have to bring it into our everyday life."  (Baba Ram Singh)

"That is why we should do our Bhajan Simran every day and we should listen to Satsang every day and fulfill the purpose of the life that has been given to us."  (Baba Ram Singh)

"Recognize the Path to your Beloved, O travelers and take the route of the anguished lover in separation. Keep the Master’s grace in your thoughts, and reflect upon his pure teachings. Develop love and devotion with endearment, and keep the thought of the Creator always before you. Try to merge yourself into God like water and water. Fix your mind within by following the Path of the Sound Current. A yearning will arise; make then an intense and anguished call. Repeat the Name of your Beloved, day and night, again and again and again. With care in thought, word and deed, you will cross to the other shore." (Sant Dadu Dayal)

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