by Peter Holleran


   I have seen many teachers and learned much from their company, but for me such a one with qualities to aspire to was my first Guru, Sant Kirpal Singh. He, like Kabir and Rumi, taught the mystical and gnostic Surat Shabd Yoga, a gradual path, what might be called the 'light-hearted way to duality’s resolution', in which the soul, which is consciousness, concentrates with one-pointed dhyan or devotion, on consciousness in the form of the primal Shabda Brahman, the living current or Word of God, responsible for the presence of all worlds ‘created’ or uncreated, finally leading to the ocean of consciousness, from which one returns as the enlightened soul, her sovereignty surrendered to the true Lord, blessed with the nectar of the Naam or Name and living in a halcyon condition of reality. It is a non-dual path, in the sense that the one who actually ‘sees’ the inner light is the soul, when dhyan is perfect. It is not the ego who sees, in a subject-object manner as the philosophers are wont to say, although until ones absorption is complete, that is mixed in with the soul’s seeing. But there is more than seeing, there is transcendental hearing. This is an audible lifestream, a sonorous light or luminous sound. Even Anandamayee Ma talked about it, the Shabda-Brahman, the primal sound of God. It is not an arbitrary assortment of astral phenomena, but a primal manifestation of consciousness, which the soul is eternally linked with. Finally, when the soul is so absorbed into the current that it has shed all coverings or koshas, it realizes its ultimate subjectivity as pristine soul, and then merges in stages with Absolute God. This is non-duality in full, far from the superficial waking state ‘consciousness’ of the talking school gyanis, those who teach that directly beneath ones personal ‘story’ lies ultimate reality. Beneath ones personal story lies many layers of self, before one truly knows and is himself as pure consciousness. In Sant Mat, the jiva is said to die at every plane quit by the soul. Thus, this path is one of death-in-life. While quite serious, Kirpal used to joke that when one felt himself drawn up by the sound of the big Bell, he should 'make out his will.'

   There may be other legitimate paths, but this one is certainly ‘ancient, eternal, and authentic.’

   While esposing and embodying this timeless, gradual path, Kirpal here and there hinted at present-time non-duality, and the heart, in the manner of other sages, hints that were preciously timed and delivered. When talking about himself he would often say, "I am MR. ZERO." Once when asked about God, he pointed to his forehead and said, "the Higher Self is God." When, to his question of whether I wanted anything, I answered, "no, nothing," he exclaimed, "You're an emperor! I'll kiss your feet. Nothing is God!" Another time, in a quiet mood, he put his hand on his chest and said, "the Master resides here." And in a compassionate, human gesture he set us at ease by saying, "Look here, I am a man like you. I am no bug-bear. Do you think I have a heart of stone? I have so much love for you." His last words to me, in 1973, were, "Convey my love to your parents," and, "Do you need any money?" Just imagine such solicitude.

   All in all, despite emanating an aura of grandeur, perhaps one of the last of the great godmen, he was a very human individual, in his personal life a simple man, for whom the role of guru was the last thing he would have wanted - yet one he took on solely out of a sense of obligation, and in a manner perhaps bound by his tradition. With a world-weary look he once remarked, "that man who wants to be a guru, I feel sorry for him." In a sense, I think that he ended an age, and presaged a new one. He prophesied that in the future many more saints would come, much like Ramakrishna who said they would manifest "like grapes in clusters." Yet they would appear more in the role of Friend than great master, more human and unapproachable, viewing humanity as one, and with realisation not seen as a rare goal, attainable only for a few. This on a grand scale may be years away, but its beginnings are showing themselves even today, and is the inevitable evolutionary destiny of the divine World-Idea residing in the Mind of God.

   As a young boy Kirpal was gifted with transvision and could see things happening far away. He prayed to God to take away this gift so that he could live a more normal life. In his twenties during the Influenza epidemic of 1918 he organized a service league to carry dead bodies that no one was willing to touch to the cremation grounds. After work he would visit the homeless and sick in hospitals, reserving the hours between midnight and eight in the morning for meditation. He kept up this practice through thirty-five years of government service supervising hundreds of people and twenty-five years of discipleship under his own Master, Sawan Singh. Earlier on, his devotional practices led to the awakening of the kundalini, a fire which he could only quench by meditating standing chest-deep in a fast-flowing stream. Later, six years after seeing the radiant form of his gurudev within, he took initiation into Shabd Yoga, the path of Sant Mat. In this path one mystically inverts and retracts the emanant or ray of the soul to its source, first entering the ‘beyond’ (in Sant Mat the term referring to transcendance of the trigunatmic "Egg of Brahm", Hiranyagarbha, the Demiurge or creator of the three lower worlds); then reaching the ‘Great Beyond,’ (or Sat Lok), where the soul, having shed its five sheaths or koshas, as earlier mentioned, comes 'face to face' with the Sat Purush, or ‘God as a Person’; and, getting absorbed therein, via three progressive final stages reaches Anami Lok, an infinite, formless, transcendental region, or 'non-region'. Some saints speak enigmatically of a wonder region’ beyond that.

   Even after attaining this station, however, Kirpal continued to seek out other masters for confirmation as to whether this was indeed the highest attainment. In other words, he had doubts about his state, he had humility, and he kept questioning. After all, one never stops learning. So long as the world goes on, we will always remain students. Then, as guru himself, he had a constant influx of teachers: Buddhists, Sufis, Sikhs, Zen masters, visit his ashram, and I am sure along the way he 'compared notes' and evolved further. Why do I feel this way?

   The following are some of the reasons, besides my experience in his company, that I feel certain he kept maturing and became the true Satguru, realizing what may be beyond even the highest of mystical stations. There was a woman spiritual confidant of mine, who confessed to having been taken to Sat Lok at the time of her initiation (remarkable in itself), but, being possessed of an extreme rational mind, was still moved to ask, "Master, who am I?", to which he replied, "Who is asking?" And when questioned if he still meditated, he answered, "If a man gets his PhD, does he still need to go back and learn the ABC's?" Moreover, Master Kirpal was fond of quoting Kabir on the nature of the absolute. He would say, with a mysterious chuckle, "If I say He is One, the question of two arises!" So he knew more than a little something of non-duality [and unity], even while teaching an uncomplicated mystical bhakti path to the majority of his followers.

   Once, while sitting in his wicker chair, a toddler came over and took him by the hand. He remarked, "You see, sometimes the Father leads the child, and sometimes the child leads the Father."

   When asked about other teachers, he would usually just say, "Gold is gold."

   Mystical fulfillment, transcendental insight, boundless compassion, a profusion of life-energy, selfless service throughout life, deep thinking, and a sensitive, personal touch: the absolute, the divine, the heart, the intellect, and the human: in my mind the full five-pointed star. When looking at his face, one saw the Ancient of Days, a teaching in full, an unfathomable and mysterious depth of mercy and grace. Yes, may all beings be blessed to meet - and strike a bargain - with such a Friend.

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   Also see Kirpal Singh: Beloved Master.