My dear friends
Continuing talk by Sant Kirpal Singh: “What is God, and how we can know Him”
The complete text can be read here, under the website of Unity of Man:
http://spirituality.unity-of-man.org/en/spirituality/god-ocean-of-consciousness/276-what-is-god-and-how-can-we-know-him.html
Have a good time in reading and digesting
All good wishes
Didi
What is God, and how can we know Him? (Part 4)
So on these two commandments hang all other commandments. The Sermon on the Mount, the Eightfold Path of the Buddha, the Niyama yama and Sadachar of the Hindus all speak of the same thing, in their own languages and, of course, in their own ways.
If we live up to what the scriptures say, there will be peace on earth, and the Kingdom of God will surely come on earth. Then there will be no danger of any war. What a pity: these things are given in our holy scriptures, but we follow, if at all, the letter of the law at the cost of the spirit. That is the cause of discord.
All Masters came to unite men, not to separate man from man. They were the lovers of God, and they taught men how to love all humanity. You will see, this is one side of the thing that we have before us. We are to love all humanity because God resides in every heart.
The holy scriptures, with all the rest of the sayings about the various aspects of God, have not been able exactly to say what God is. Some phase of it, some part of it they did express, out of loving devotion. But from there we can only deduce some idea of God.
Man’s highest thought of God never has and never can measure the Eternal, but it constitutes self-revelation. Your highest thought of God is not the measure of God, but the measure of our own hitherto unknown propensities. Each Master has been saying the same thing: When I attempt to speak of the highest, I cannot. I become as one dumb. How then can we express it? Even out of the love and intoxication they have of Reality, they give out something, but it still remains as unsaid as ever.
This is what the scriptures lay down. I told you this is the outer aspect of religion – social religions. When you think that God resides in every heart, you will not kill anyone. You will respect each man, when you know for certain that God resides in every heart.
When we live up to what the scriptures say, we should all love God. Naturally, we will have respect for all others, for all living things.
The human body is a true temple of God, in which God resides. The body is the true temple of God. All Masters say so. If the body is the true temple of God, how then can we destroy or kill it?
Wrong preachings are given by ministers of the various religions instead of giving out the truths which are already in our scriptures. They have been simply proclaiming that their religion, their fold, is the highest and others are in the wrong. The result is, division between man and man and, of course, clashes between class and class. They will be ready, excuse me, just to destroy so many true temples of God – human bodies – for the outer temples which we raise with our own hands.
God resides in temples not made with hands. He resides in the true temple of the body that you are carrying. Of course, we are to maintain our outer temples (bodies) and keep them clean and chaste. These bodies are the temples of God. If the right preaching is given you will see love between man and man. Paid services, in almost all religions, I would say, have gone to make matters worse.
Now, some people think that they have special privileges. Well, God gave equal privileges to all. You see the outer form. Each has two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, a mouth, two arms, two feet and two legs. The outer construction is the same, and the inner construction is also the same. Each man has lungs, stomach, brain. God has given equal privileges to all. They are born the same way; they die the same way.
When men suffer from fever, irrespective of whether they belong to one religion or another or one country or another, they suffer the same way, and there is the same remedy to cure their fever. When you go to a doctor, an adept in medicine, and tell him that you have fever, he gives you some medicine. He will give the same treatment to anyone else for the same trouble.
I mean that the outer expression, the outer privileges, are the same for each man, as given by God. The inner privileges are also the same. We are souls. God is a limitless Ocean of All-consciousness. We are conscious entities, drops of the Ocean of Life. Of course, our conscious self is hemmed in by mind and matter. It is given over so much to the organs of sense and identified with the body that we cannot now differentiate ourselves from the body.
The inner disease is also the same. Masters are physicians of the souls which have been given over to the influences of mind and matter. They tell us how to analyze the soul from the outgoing faculties, from the organs of sense, and rise above body-consciousness to know oneself, enter into the Kingdom of God and know God. All mankind suffers from the same disease.
Well, for God there is no East or West, no North or South. All creation is one. God is One.
Where do we stand now? We are all one. All Masters, all the holy scriptures say that we are the children of God. Prophet Mohammed says that we are members of the same family of God. The Sikh Masters also say that we are all brothers and God is our Father. The Christian scriptures and all others say the same thing.
Mankind is one, and God is One. We are worshippers of the same God. When we are worshippers of the same God the archers may be many, but the target is the same then, naturally we should have love for one another. You will find that two drunkards will embrace each other irrespective of whether they are of the east or the west, or belong to one religion or the other. But do you find that among those who profess to be lovers of God – between followers of one religion and those of another? They are lovers so far as their own faith is concerned. If they are lovers of God, they all should sit together and love one another.
The heads of the various religions are supposed to have contact with God. Whether they reach Him or not, that is another question altogether. But they are supposed by their followers to have seen God and to be one with God. They also profess that they are Godmen themselves. If so, why should they not love and embrace each other? There is one God overhead. It is all one humanity. We all are the same soul – conscious entity.
Man made social religions for the uplift of man. We have to make the best use of them. The best we call have out of the social religions is to know ourselves and to know God. Of course, we have to lead an ethical life. An ethical life is a stepping-stone to spirituality. These are the teachings of all Masters who came in the past.
As lovers of God, we should love all humanity. Having been born in any religion, it is a blessing to remain in it. Nevertheless we should rise above so that we become lovers of God, and then all mankind will have one religion.
Guru Nanak was once asked: “What is the highest form of religion in your opinion?” He replied: “Well, look here. I take all humanity, all men, as reading in the same class, seeking God. We are all classmates and I consider men the world over as classmates for the same ultimate goal.” We should love one another.
The tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, was asked: “What do you think about man?” He replied: “All mankind is one – I tell you the whole truth – whether he is wearing a hat or a turban or is a recluse in a yellow or a black gown.” That makes no difference. These are the outer forms.
Excuse me if I ask you: What is the religion of God? He is all-consciousness. He made all men equal. Did He stamp anybody that he was such and such? No. When you know yourself, you will analyze yourself from the body and discover who you are. When you rise above body consciousness then you will find out. Religions pertain only to the outer forms of our life. We have to make the best use of them.
I have love for all social religions. That is all right. But the point is these social religions should go to help us on the way, to love God and to love all humanity. This is our ultimate goal. And further, to know ourselves and to know God, and have a first-hand experience of that Reality. Although that Reality cannot be expressed in words, still it can be experienced.
True religion is the first-hand experience of oneself, with his own Self and with God. That is the only true religion you have before you. There is the outer religion, and here is the inner religion. When you think everyone is all equal, then you will have love for all.
Our ultimate goal is to have love of God. Those persons or human beings whose souls came in contact with God, became the mouthpiece of God. They spoke as inspired by God. They are called Masters, or Godmen. We love them also for the sake of our love for God.
What did Christ say? He said:
No man knoweth the Son, but the Father;
Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son,
And he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.
That is why your love goes to them especially. They have had a first-hand experience and they are competent to give us a first-hand experience of that Reality within. They tell us how to rise above body consciousness, to know ourselves and to know God.
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