Satsang Commentary by Baba Somanath on Sar Bachan Radhasoami Poetry Verses of Soamiji Maharaj
Soamiji Maharaj: "With a gentle heart and a mind full of compassion, set out to solve the mystery of life."
Baba Somanath: Therefore, He says that you should first make your own heart gentle. Make it spotless and pure. When you are true within, then you are ready to set out in search of spirituality.
Soamiji Maharaj: Leave this plane of the senses behind, abandon the sensual pleasures,
And keep your surat (soul) constantly anchored in the Shabd.
Baba Somanath: Swami Ji’s bani is written in very simple language, and everyone can understand the meaning of His words. But the deeper meaning that He is conveying can only be grasped by someone with first-hand inner experience. What does He tell us first of all? Make your heart gentle and spotlessly pure. And how can this be done? At present, your heart is defiled with the sense pleasures and worldly passions, and until you remove all this dross, the heart cannot be purified.
But once you remove all the sense pleasures and indulgences from your heart, then mercy, continence, peace, and love will make their home there. When your consciousness radiates purity, when no thought of the world remains in your within, then attune your attention to the Shabd. Once your soul is purified, since the Shabd is also pure, then the two will unite, and the conscious Power of the Shabd will transport your soul to the higher regions.
The technique is very simple; nevertheless, as Tulsidas tells us:
सकल पदारथ है जग माहीं ।
कर्म हीन नर पावत नाहीं ।
"All things are available in this world,
But you cannot achieve them without effort."
Baba Somanath: This world is filled with good things. But the karmas we made in the past have shaped our intellect. Our intellect guides our deeds, and we receive the fruits of happiness and sorrow accordingly. So, the Saints teach us this simple method. First, purify your heart and draw back the fluttering veils of sense pleasures and evil tendencies that are obscuring your consciousness. Once your consciousness has become purified, then merge into the Shabd and ascend within. The technique is so simple, but as long as our heart remains lifeless and hard like stone, we will not be able to discern the subtle currents of higher consciousness flowing within us.
Soamiji Maharaj: Take the True Essence from the Guru, and increase your love for His lotus feet.
Baba Somanath: Now, along with this, He tells us that if anyone thinks that they can achieve success through their own efforts, then they are deluded because this is not possible. Because whatever we say on our own is based on the speculation and conjecture of the intellect. But the intellect itself is stark blind and unconscious. We have to take the guidance from the Inner Conscious Power; whether we call it Guru, or Light, or Soul, or Naam, it is all one and the same. So, first, we have to go to the Guru learn the Essential and True Path from Him. And then, according to His teachings, fix your contemplation in the Guru’s lotus feet. Tulsidas tells us:
श्री गुरु चरण नख मणि गण ज्योति,
सुमिरत दिव्य दृष्टि हिय होती ।।
"Dazzling light flashes from the nails of the Guru’s feet.
When I remember Him, His divine vision fills my heart."
Baba Somanath: When you go on contemplating, then gradually your sense of I-hood will dissolve and only the dazzling light of His lotus feet will remain. When the soul and the attention become pure, then a natural connection with the Shabd is established.
But if we try to accomplish this through our own intellect, then our efforts are doomed to failure. There will always be some selfish purpose inherent in our actions. When we assert with our own intellect, then we are always harboring some ulterior motive. In this way, we block the untainted conscious Power within us, and it cannot come to our aid.
Soamiji Maharaj: Catch hold of the Shabd coming from Agam, the unfathomable region, and unite your surat with it. Remain always absorbed in the inner Satsang.
Baba Somanath: Swami Ji says that the stream of Shabd is cascading down from Agam, the unfathomable region. That stream is Self-Existing and beyond the reach of the intellect. Uniting with that stream of Shabd, become the form of Shabd. Whatever thoughts keep coming in the mind — I am listening to the Shabd; this type of sound is coming; I am separate from the sound; now, I should be hearing some different kind of sound — all of these thoughts that go on arising in the mind must be removed. You must become the form of the Shabd itself; then, that Shabd will attract your soul and transport you into the higher regions.
Satsang means “the company of Truth.” So, when we contact the Shabd within, this is called Satsang; and, that gathering where the Guru gives out the teachings of Truth is called Satsang as well.
Soamiji Maharaj: The surat ascends and, glimpsing through the door in the inner sky,
It has the darshan of the astral realm and the three worlds.
Baba Somanath: When the soul crosses beyond etheric realm (Ākāsh Manḍal), then it has a direct view of the physical, astral and causal planes. The soul sees all that is below the third eye in the material world; it views the astral realm with its heavens, paradises, gods and goddesses, riddhis and siddhis (supernatural powers), all and sundry. And further still, the soul also experiences the Brahmand and in this way, comes to know the three worlds.
Soamiji Maharaj: Becoming absorbed in Brahmand, the soul travels beyond into Par Brahm.
The lotus blooms on the lake of Sunn.
Baba Somanath: Beyond Brahmand lies the realm of Par Brahm. Here you enter into the region called Sunn (Void) or Daswan Dwar (Tenth Door), where the soul bathes in the pool of Mansarovar. This is the region of the six-petalled lotus. It is in the Sunn region that you totally divest yourself of the four bodies: physical, astral, causal and super-causal. Here, the soul emerges in its pristine form and is called a hansa or swan. When all vestiges of the four bodies covering the Soul are washed away, the immaculate hansa flies free. Understand this as the state of Self-Knowledge or Ātma-Gyān; here, you attain complete knowledge and experience of the Soul.
Soamiji Maharaj: All the powers of Kal are defeated when the soul bathes in the Mansarovar.
Baba Somanath: When Dissolution occurs, all the regions up through Trikuti are rolled up. But when you rise above Trikuti and go into the region of Sunn, then you have risen beyond the reach of Kal. In this verse, Swami Ji refers to the “powers of Kal,” meaning Kal’s dominion over time. The cycles of the sun and moon are under his control. Day and night belong to him. Our life may last a day, a month, a year or a hundred years but in the end, we die — this is all under Kal’s control. What to speak of the physical plane, even in the heavens, the gods and goddesses, dwell there for a fixed span, and then they are destroyed. And further, when Dissolution or Grand Dissolution occur, one cycle of time ends and another begins. But, once the soul reaches the Mansarovar, then all the powers of Kal — which were in full force below — those powers are all destroyed and the soul emerges in its Self-Existing form. Once the Soul reaches that level, then it is no longer subject to birth and death in the lower three worlds.29
Soamiji Maharaj: Traveling onward, the soul merges into the form of Akshar (Par Brahm),
Leaving this foreign land behind.
Baba Somanath: Then the soul travels upward to the region of Akshar or Par Brahm. Saints refer to the creation up through Onkār (Trikuti) as the region of Kshar (perishable). When you go above Onkār (Trikuti), you enter the region of Par Brahm, where Akshar, the imperishable realm, begins, and all the alien lands, that is, the lower regions of creation, are left behind. For numberless days, the soul was imprisoned in those perishable worlds, but now it becomes detached, merges into Akshar, and travels onward.
Soamiji Maharaj: The purified soul soars skyward; the old palaces are all abandoned.
Baba Somanath: Becoming free from all coverings, the soul now ascends untrammeled. The realms where it has been imprisoned are all left below; that is, once the soul has been purified in Par Brahm, it ascends even higher into the Nī‑Akshar, the Realm of Truth, and becomes absorbed there.
Soamiji Maharaj: Climbing higher and higher, you rise into the realms beyond;
Stage after stage you discover the unique mysteries of Shabd.
Baba Somanath: Shabd reverberates in the realms beyond. Here, in the material world, the Shabd is at once intermingled with the five elements and also separate from those elements. When you reach the etheric astral world, there also Shabd permeates the whole region and yet remains separate from it. And when you ascend to Brahmand, once again you find that the Shabd is all-pervading and yet it is separate from all. In the region of Brahmand, the Shabd takes becomes the sound of onkār. When you cross over into Par Brahm, it resounds as rārang. But through all its stages, it remains separate and unattached. Shabd is complete in itself, the supporting Power behind all that exists and yet taking support from none. And when the soul rises higher still, it merges into the Sar Shabd, leaving aside all the lower sounds. And finally, taking the support of the True Shabd (Sat Shabd), it reaches the primal home of the soul, Sach Khand.
Soamiji Maharaj: Without the Saint, no one can understand the revelations that unfold as you ascend.
Baba Somanath: When you ascend into the Par Brahm and beyond, your entire experience arises from Shabd and Shabd alone. The vital airs (prāna vāyu) do not reach to that place; the buddhi (intellect) does not function there; the brahmākār vritti, and the knowledge that comes from complete identification with Brahm have been left behind.30 Only the soul who has manifested the higher Shabd and has experienced its secrets within can understand this condition. All the others who have only heard about these inner planes get some conviction about their existence. But they can only imagine with the mind’s eye the nature of the Shabd, the mysteries that lie hidden there, and the joy of the soul that attains that status. They have no actual proof from first-hand experience.
Soamiji: Without the inner experience, we can’t properly describe the inner Shabd. Our descriptions are just a meaningless jumble of words.
Baba Somanath: Until we have the inner experience, we cannot speak of the inner realms with the conviction of Truth. We take some words from here, some from there and put them all together to describe the inner reality. But our words can carry no authority, because they are not backed up by actual experience.
Soamiji Maharaj: Scholars build castles in the air, but without meditation and practical experience, the Light of illumination does not dawn.
Baba Somanath: The difference between the meditator with practical experience and the scholar who just talks is as great as the difference between heaven and earth. If some lowly laborer starts prattling about the grandeur of the royal court, what glory can he shed on its magnificent splendor. The poor fellow has never even seen it. In the same way, the scholars take one thing from this scripture and something else from another scripture. They pore over the Shastras, the Puranas, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and so on. Pulling together quotes from all the various holy books, they can deliver impressive sermons, explaining the mysteries of spirituality for the benefit of others. They become great orators. But if you glimpse within their hearts, you will find a barren wasteland. They are just playing with words without any idea of what lies behind them. But, in the end, spirituality is a matter of doing, not of talking. Until we have first-hand experience of the within, we are not capable of saying anything about the higher realms.
The scholars who rely on bookish knowledge do not practice the meditation and open the inner eye. And as long as the divine eye (divya chakshu) or eye of knowledge (gyān chakshu) does not open, we are unable to have a peep within. Instead, we collect the words that are spoken by the mahatmas who have experienced the inner worlds and then interpret their words according to our own intellect. We multiply everything ten times, add masala (spice) from here, there, and everywhere, and then give memorable lectures to other people. But nothing is accomplished like this. When your own heart is empty, you have nothing to share with others. It is like a person with tuberculosis trying to train a wrestler: “Now, every day you should drink three or four seers of milk. Then you should apply yourself to a program of vigorous exercise.” That wrestler might well ask: “My friend, what about your own condition?” And then, that trainer would have to admit: “Truly speaking, I only have about three or four days left to live. Then I will be departing from this world.”
So, this is the condition of those with bookish knowledge only. They have not controlled the mind, and they have not done any meditation, but with great enthusiasm they go on advising others about spirituality. What can be gained from this? Nothing at all. These learned people have no wealth in their wallet to distribute, and their listeners will go away empty-handed.
Soamiji Maharaj: Only a Saint knows the status of the Saints. How could anyone else fathom Their profound depths?
Baba Somanath: Until you experience the Shabd, you can know nothing of it. Therefore, Swami Ji explains to us that a Saint — one who has experienced the Shabd and discovered its secret — can understand the stature and condition of the Saints. This is the hallmark of the Saints — They first see and then say.
Soamiji Maharaj: Give up your conjecture and cleverness; acknowledge the Saint’s words as true.
Baba Somanath: Now it is clear that your intellect must, first and foremost, accept the Guru’s words. If you want to grasp this subject through your own intellect, you can go on trying for your whole life long, but you will not get a glimmer of understanding. Instead, believing in the words of the Saints, we should follow Their instructions. And what do they tell us: “If you meditate in this way, you will achieve that exalted status.” Such knowledge is totally inaccessible to the intellect.
But the intellect is such a mighty power that it is not ready to accept anyone else’s understanding. Your intellect will always try to interfere, putting some objection or other before you. And if you are swayed by its arguments, you are only harming yourself; what harm can it do to the Saints?
Soamiji Maharaj: He tells you what He has seen Himself. Why do you listen to His words and then twist them to suit your own limited understanding?
The Saints have seen the truth for Themselves; They have the proof of Their own eyes. And whatever They have experienced, They say only that much. But we people indulge in intellectual wrestling. We think the understanding of our intellect is more important than the words of the Saints. My friend, the intellect is stark blind, so what knowledge can you hope to gain from it?
Soamiji Maharaj: Radhaswami says to one and all: only someone who knows the inner secret can fathom the mystery of the Saints.
Baba Somanath: Now, Swami Ji has told us everything. He has spoken of the secret of the Saints. When the Saints are gracious, They reveal this secret. And those who accept the Saints’ words and apply themselves with firm faith will experience this mystery within themselves.
Komal chitt dayā man dhāro, paramārath kā khoj lagānā
कोमल चित्त दया मन धारो । परमारथ का खोज लगाना ।।१।।
इन्द्री थान विषय को त्यागो । सुर्त शब्द में नित्त लगाना ।।२।।
सार पदारथ गुरु से पाओ । चरन कँवल में प्रीत बढ़ाना ।।३।।
धारा अगम पकड़ सुर्त जोड़ो । इस सतसंग में सदा समाना ।।४।।
चली सुरत नभ द्वारा झाँका । अंडा तीन लोक दरसाना ।।५।।
परे जाय ब्रह्मण्ड समानी । सुन्न सरोवर कँवल खिलाना ।।६।।
अब तो काल कला सब हारा । मानसरोवर पैठ अन्हाना ।।७।।
अक्षर रूप निरखती चाली । छोड़ दिया अब देश बिगाना ।।८।।
सूरत साफ़ ऊड़ी ऊँचे को । छूट गया सब महल पुराना ।।९।।
आगे चढ़ चढ़ अधर समानी । शब्द शब्द का मर्म पिछाना ।।१०।।
संत बिना कोइ समझे नाहीं । आगे जो जो भेद दिखाना ।।११।।
कहने में आवे नहिं पूरा । उलटा सुलटा करत बखाना ।।१२।।
बाचक अपनी उक्ति लगावें । अमल बिना नहीं बूझ बुझाना ।।१३।।
संतन की गति संतहि जानें । और कहो कैसे पहिचाना ।।१४।।
अपनी उक्ति चतुरता त्यागो । संत बचन को करो प्रमाना ।।१५।।
वह कहते देखी निज अपनी । तू सुन सुन क्यों बुद्धि लड़ाना ।।१६।।
राधास्वामी सब से कहते । संत भेद कोइ भेदी जाना ।।१७।।
-- Soamiji Maharaj, Sār Bachan Radhāsvāmī, Chand Band
Bachan 20, Upadesh, Shabd Abhyās, shabd 27
On Hymns of Swami Ji Maharaj:
https://babasomanathji.org/satsangs/on-hymns-of-swami-ji-maharaj
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