A Brief Life Sketch of Param Sant Kirpal Singh: Words & Pictures
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A Brief Life Sketch of Param Sant Kirpal Singh: Words & Pictures 1894 – 1974 When I go from here let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable. (Tagore) -1- Sant Kirpal Singh was born to a Sikh family at about 9 P.M. on a cold winter night on February 6, 1894 in the Punjab village of Sayyad Kasran in the Rawalpindi district (now part of Pakistan). Kirpal means gracious, merciful, the compassionate one. Singh means lion. His nickname as a child was Pal which means friend. His father’s name was Hukam Singh meaning “Bearer of the Divine Will.” His mother’s name was Gulab Devi meaning “the Goddess of Roses.” Master Kirpal had two older brothers, Prem Singh and Jodh Singh, and a younger sister named Sumitra. In the realm of spirituality, Master Kirpal was a child prodigy. He began meditating at the age of four. During his meditations he would transcend body consciousness and experience the inner Divine Light and hear the Music of the Spheres. (1) -2- Master Kirpal remarked about his childhood attraction to solitude and meditation: “It was not written for me to play on this Earth.” (2) In reference to his early meditations he stated, “In those days I saw the inner Light and many wondrous scenes of one inner stage or another; always such scenes were before me.” (3) From an early age, Master Kirpal had a very high standard of morality. When his father asked him why he would not eat meat Master replied, “Meat is dead flesh, and I do not want to make a burial ground of my stomach.” (4) When told by his father that “Our friends will be your friends and our foes will be your foes,” Master replied, “Life is too short and I have not come to have hatreds. I have come to love all.” (5) As a young boy the Master developed the power of clairvoyance. Once when he was in the fourth grade he told his teacher that he must go home because his grandmother was dying. The teacher was skeptical at first, but soon had a change of heart when a message was delivered to the teacher asking for the dismissal of the Master because his grandmother was on her death-bed. In addition to foretelling the death of his maternal grandmother, he also had similar premonitions regarding the passing of his mother, his elder brother and the wife of his elder brother. (6) When a theft occurred at the home of a neighbor, the young Kirpal told his father the name of the thief and where the stolen property had been hidden. (7) -3- Because of these and similar miraculous occurrences, people around him began considering him to be a saint and a prophet. (8) As the young Kirpal’s clairvoyant reputation spread, he realized that this ability did not help him advance towards his goal of God-realization. The Master prayed for the removal of his psychic gift and asked that he could live as a normal human being, solely devoted to the attainment of his goal of union with God. Kirpal Singh’s father, Hukam Singh, was a devotee of Lord Shiva. He would pass nights in the cold water of the village pond engaged in spiritual practices. Kirpal’s mother was also a seeker of God and would engage in daily readings of the Bhagavad Gita. The child Kirpal tried to follow his father by becoming a devotee of Lord Shiva and would also spend nights engaged in devotion while standing in cold water. -4- The Master’s devotion was rewarded with Shiva’s vision. When he was about seventeen, the Master had a vision in which a figure of light appeared and told the him that Simran was preferable to the practice of pranayam (regulation of breathing). After that vision, the Master gave up the practice of pranayam. (9) Kirpal Singh attended a Christian missionary school and was an excellent student, consistently at the head of his class. While other students studied to prepare for a particular career, the young Kirpal said that he studied “for knowledge sake.” While the Master had a voracious appetite for all learning, he had a particular fondness for biographies. He used to say that as a student he had read most of the books in three libraries and that he read more than three hundred biographies. (10) In addition to biographies, Master was very fond of reading and studying the scriptures of the world religions. “As a young boy I used to read the Sikh scriptures, the Guru Granth Sahib, which is a voluminous book. The beauty of it is that the teachings of so many Godmen have been gathered together. It is a banquet-hall of spirituality containing hundreds of hymns. I would carefully read only one hymn, and then I would write it down, considering that was the lesson given me for the day. All day I would think of that hymn and try to discover its meaning.” (11) -5- “Since I was in a missionary school, I was also familiar with the Christian teachings. There I found: “Except ye be born anew, ye cannot enter the Kingdom of God,” and “Learn to die so that you may begin to live.” These teachings are given in all scriptures, but the question remained, “How to do it?” “I would start reading the scriptures each night and my heart desired those things mentioned therein. I would study the whole night through, only to rise in the morning without having discovered the way out.” (12) From early childhood, Master Kirpal was able to function on very little sleep. He often stayed awake for the entire night studying or engaged in meditation. (13) In 1906, when Master was about twelve years old, he was greatly impressed by the life of the famous saint Ramanuja. “When I was small, about twelve or thirteen, I remember clearly that one day I read the life of Ramanuja (I was very fond of reading biographies). Now when Ramanuja was initiated by his Guru, he immediately went and stood on a platform and collected a huge crowd around him. He shouted to them, ‘Today I have been initiated by my Guru and I am going to tell you all about it.’ Some of the people were shocked and warned him, ‘Are you mad? You will go straight to hell for disobeying your Guru!’ I was deeply impressed by his answer. He said, ‘I alone will go to hell, but so many of you will get salvation!’ Reading this, I vowed that if ever I got any spiritual wealth, I would give and give without hesitation. My Master saw that I was a spendthrift, and that's why he gave me the work.” (14) -6- Master graduated at the top of his class from Edwardes Church Mission High School in 1911. Of that time in his life he wrote, “After my educational career was over I had to decide what to do with my life. I was a voracious reader of books and wanted big libraries. But I had to decide whether to pursue my worldly ambition or seek God. In 1912, I spent five to six hours daily for seven to eight days in the lonely wilderness deciding my aim in life. I came to the decision: “God first, and the world next.” (15) Also in 1911, Master was married to Krishna Wanti but did not take up residence with her for a long time. “Krishna Wanti was married to Kirpal Singh at an early age, according to the custom of the times. A very affectionate and self-sacrificing woman, she was a devoted wife and loving mother. She assisted her husband in social service, particularly during a deadly influenza epidemic. She was of a pious disposition and wrote poetry in Punjabi. In the summer, Kirpal Singh was fond of meditating on the bank of the Ravi River and would return home in the early hours of the morning. No matter how late her husband returned, Krishna Wanti would be waiting to let him into the house after hearing his gentle tapping on the door.” (16) Master’s Wife - Krishna Wanti -7- During 1911 his mother died, which Master had foreseen six months earlier at which time he told her to give up all worldly attachments. (17) Upon graduation from high school, the Master considered furthering his education by studying medicine, particularly homeopathy, or agriculture. Financial considerations made this pursuit untenable, so Master began a career in government service. Master joined the Military Engineering Service at Peshawar in 1911. In 1912 Master was transferred to Lahore to join the Military Accounts Department. Once in 1912, Kirpal Singh had only one anna (1/16 rupee) left with him and a week to go before pay-day. He refused to borrow money or food, and he lived for that week on gram and water. He held to this same principle throughout his life. -8- The one constant passion which dominated Kirpal Singh’s life from early childhood through adolescence into adulthood was his consuming love for God and his all-consuming yearning to merge with God. “I can tell you of my own condition, around the year of 1914. Background does have some bearing on one's life. One in whom this yearning for God takes root has some impressions from the past which come to the fore and develop during this birth, in those days while working in the office, the tears would flow without reason, spoiling the papers on the desk.