the message of the Masters Spirit of religion In thy heart is God, why seek Him elsewhere ? Truth is higher than everything : But higher still is true living. Not in repeating mantras is religion, He who sees the One in all is religious. Religion is not in wandering to tombs, Nor to places of cremation ! Religion is not in exterior postures,— asanas,—of contemplation, Religion is not making pilgrimages to foreign places, Religion is not bathing in rivers or temple-baths ! He who abideth pure Amidst the world’s temptation,— He hath known the spirit of Religion ! —Nanak Sat sandesh November 1969 Volume two number ten FROM THE MASTER The Master speaks : Higher values of life page 2 The Light of Life 27 OTHER FEATURES Poem : Spirit of religion inside front cover Nanak What will the future bring ? 17 Countess Blomberg Spirit of the quest inside back cover from “Poems of Kabir” Guru Nanak—Prophet of people 18 T.L. Vaswani From the editor’s desk 32 Sat Sandesh, Sawan Ashram, Shakti Nagar, Delhi-7, India. Editor : BHADRA SENA. Printer and Publisher : Bhadra Sena. Printed at : Nalanda Press, D-39, N.D.S.E., Part I, New Delhi-49. Subscription rates : Overseas edition : Annual US $6.00 or £2 Sterling. Single copy : 50 US cents or 3/6d Sterling. Inland edtition : Annual Rs. 12/. Single copy Re. 1.00. The views expressed in the articles and other contributions in Sat Sandesh are those of the authors and not necessarily of the journal. Sat Sandesh is not responsible for the opinions and statements of the writers. Contributions for publication and all correspondence should be addressed to : The Editor, Sat Sandesh (English), C/o. Nalanda Press, D-39, N. D. S. E., Part-I, New Delhi-49. The articles should be in English and typed with double spacing. No payment is made for the contributions published. THE MASTER SPEAKS Higher values of life N the previous talk (published in the we will know God. All scriptures say I October issue) we came to the con­ that we should love God with all our clusion that God made man and man heart, with all our soul and with all our made all social religions; that the pur­ might. As we are lovers of God—and pose of social religions was the uplift- God resides in every heart—we must ment of man. love all humanity. Those who came into contact with God became the mouth­ We dealt with the outer side of man; piece of God—God-in-man or Godmen, that man was born with equal privileges because of their love of God. We love from God. irrespective of whether he all scriptures because they are the trea­ belonged to one country or another or sures of the experiences of the Masters one religion or another. We have to with themselves and with God. We make the best use of all social religions also love all holy places of worship so that we may know all about man. because they are the places meant for singing the praises of the One Lord. We Our ultimate goal is to know God. love all holy places of pilgrimage too, First, we must know ourselves and then for the reason that there lived some 2 lover of God, someone who became Christ also said ‘know thyself’. Guru Na­ one with God and became the mouth­ nak too said: ‘Unless you know yourself, piece of God. Thus, for the sake of you are not in a position to know God.’ love of God, we love all others. If we All this delusion through which you are just love God and hate one Master or passing cannot easily be set aside. Is it the other, or hate one holy book or the not true that you are deluded ? You other, or if we hate other men, do we truly see bodies like the body you have. You love God ? Surely not; because God have seen with your own eyes that some resides in every heart, and our ultimate thing left such bodies and they were goal is God. The ultimate goal of all cremated or burried. You too are carry­ religions too is God. Then, how can ing a similar body. If you know so a follower of one religion or another much about your physical self it does hate anyone else ? If we would live up not follow that you know your own self. to what the scriptures say, that looks an impossibility at first sight. This question is before us ever since the world began. We have known so If we live up to these two command­ much about our outer self—maintaining ments—‘love God with all thy heart, with our bodies, supporting our families, living all thy soul, and with all the might’ socially and politically. We have given and ‘love all humanity since God resides rather too much thought to the body in every heart’—the Kingdom of God and bodily relations, but we have never will descend on earth. All other com­ tapped inside to see the inner man, the mandments hang on these two command­ inner self, who we are and what we are. ments. All prophets have laid stress on these commandments. They are all Unless the student opens his own one on these two fundamental tenets. consciousness, the teacher can impart nothing. He can only direct, counsel We would like now to probe further and define. But understanding cannot into : ‘what is man ?’ Unless man knows be imparted. That must come from himself, he cannot know God. All within, and through self-development. scriptures which we have with us today Of course, he gives you some experience say ; ‘Man, know thyself.’ They do of how to know yourself, how to analyse not say, ‘know others.’ Why? yourself from the body. You have to start with that, no doubt. But working Who are you ? What are you ? Are that way, in accordance with the guidance you this five, six-foot high body that and the help given by the Master, you you have ? That is not knowing your­ will one day come to realise that Reality self. You will see for your own self; is within you. the time does come when you have to caste away the physical body you are Souls are all divine in nature. They carrying—this muddy vesture of decay. are so many drops of the Ocean of Divi­ The body remains like a clod of earth nity, but are hemmed in by the mind and and is cremated or burried underground. matter. They cannot, as they are now, know themselves, differentiate themselves. If you know so much about our physical self, that is not truly speaking, What is the greatest study of man ? knowing yourself. The Greeks and the Is it theology ? I would say no. Is it Egyptians had inscribed on their temples knowing the law of Blackstone and other these very words—“Gnothi Seauton”. great man who came in the past ? Even The Upanishads say so : ‘Know thyself’. then the answer will be no. Is it the 3 study of works of man like Shakespeare, you will be able to quote so many things Milton, Dickens, Burns ? No. Is it from various books. But will you be occultism or Buddhism or Christianity or able to know yourself? No. Eliot, the Sikhism or any other social religion that Swedish poet, says : we may study ? Are such works the greatest aim of man’s study ? Again ‘Where is the wisdom we have lost I would say that the answer is no. Why ? in knowledge, Where is the knowledge we have lost If you become conversant with all in information.’ the scriptures left by the Masters, what Knowing the self is a result of self­ do they speak of? They speak of man. analysis, in practice, not in theory. We ‘Man, know theyself’. So, knowing see, many people asserting emphatically : man, both his outer and inner aspects, “I am not the body. I am not intellect. is the greatest study for us. The greatest I am not the vital airs—pranas. I am study of man is man. Pope, the English not the sense-organs.” That is all right. poet, has said: ‘Know then thyself, But have we ever analysed ourselves presume not God to scan. The proper practically by transcending body-cons­ study of mankind is man.” Until you ciousness and seeing for our own selves know man, all else is mere ignorance that we are some thing besides the physi­ and superstition. The more you study cal body, the intellect, the vital airs and the outer phase of the scriptures, the the sensory organs all of which go to more you realise that it is all nothing make the outer man apart from the inner but accumulation, hoarding up of ideas self. Have you ever risen above body­ and opinions expressed by others. consciousness, had a first-hand experience of your own self? You will find very Suppose you become fully conversant few persons who really have accomp­ with all the scriptures we have today. lished this. What does it matter ? As I have said, we in the twentieth century are fortunate So your study of man just consists in that all Masters who came in the past in hoarding certain information in your left for us their invaluable treasures brain. Some times you read the scrip­ of knowledge, gained by them by their tures. The purpose is that by reading experiences with themselves and with the scriptures you get enough informa­ God.