The following section contains the collected quotes from Satguru Sirio Ji and earlier Masters of Surat Shabd Yoga.
“The Divine manifestation is a very powerful event. It’s a very powerful experience. And in order to inhold it in the same way, we need to be very powerful, very strong, and very intense. We don’t throw ourselves into a big flame; otherwise, we would burn. We have to get used to it by and by. Then there are people who can throw themselves into a flame and not burn. There are people who can walk on coals and not burn their feet, because they have been training themselves. The same is with the mystical path. The same is with to coming in touch with the Divine Power. It’s a very powerful energy. Master Kirpal used to say, “It’s much stronger than electricity.” We know that if we touch an electric cable, we will burn ourselves. So by and by, we have to get used to this intensity of the Divine Power. And the way to get used to it is to develop an incredible love for this Divine Power, for the Divine Light. So, all the practice that we do following the path aims to make us ready for this capacity of inholding the Divine Power.”
“Reduce the worldly involvement to the needed and try to find your joy, your peace, your bliss, in the spiritual practice.”
“So don’t be the cause of your own misery, be the cause of your own greatness.”
“We are the problem and we are the solution to our problem. And we solve our problem, with a sharp, focused attention.”
“So, now we are here for a meditation sitting in which we should not allow thoughts to come and disturb us. At least here, when we are sitting with our closed eyes, dedicating full attention and full time to the purpose of union. We have to try to saturate our minds with the repetition of Simran, doing it with longing, yearning, love, and devotion.”
“Honor your life, honor your person, and make meaningful this passage through this life by making it intense as far as love, compassion, mercy, and beauty are concerned.”
“It’s not wealth and power that make us great human beings. It is the intensity with which we do anything, small and big.”
“So we shouldn’t be content with just a common, ordinary, meaningless life that most people have in this world. We are just running after a few pleasures, a few belongings, sensations, and emotions. We should seek deep peace, deep understanding, and the totality of Reality, to make our life meaningful, special, and great. You find so many ordinary people in this world, but very few special ones.”
“Each one of us has their own potential. Each one of us is made the way they are made. It cannot be any different. But we can improve ourselves, definitely. And the best way of improving ourselves is spending time with people who have dedicated their lives to seeking Truth, seeking Reality, and trying to become a personification and a mouthpiece of this Truth and Reality.”
“We should not keep complaining about what we don’t get. We should just keep remembering and being grateful for what we get.”
“On the spiritual path, developing an intense and immense love for God and for our Sadguru is the most important aspect. This is what makes the path fulfilling and successful. This is what makes the path a joy, a pleasure. Love is what gives sweetness to anything we do on the spiritual path. With love, everything is impossible. Without love, nothing is possible. So if we have the good luck of meeting a Master, then we should try to get the benefit of such a meeting. And we can only get the benefit if we are fully open, present and available. If we are at such a meeting with our body and our mind is elsewhere, if we are closed up into our narrow mind, into our dark side, and do not open up to the Light, then we will stay in darkness. We build it for ourselves. So, when we are doing something, let’s do it wholeheartedly, with all our being, fully present, fully attentive, like standing on the tips of our feet. Because only this way can something meaningful happen. Life is meaningful, it’s beautiful, if we embrace it wholeheartedly, anything we do. But especially when we are in such a meeting, when we are in such a blessed, uplifting atmosphere.”
“No one may say that one catches God and holds Him. Because it is a being that is absolutely free and unpredictable. So if today somehow we catch hold of Him and we think it’s because of our skill or our capacity, then tomorrow approaching Him will be a great dilemma. So sometimes we find a way to manifest the Light, to go deep within, and we think that it will always work. But next time we try it won’t be the same, and after some time it won’t work anymore. Because the spiritual path is an ongoing process that is never going to externate in any form. You always have to find ways to manifest the Light. Sometimes it works to be well-focused in the center, sometimes it works just by repeating the Simran, and sometimes we sing a bhajan and find ourselves flooded with His presence. So there are several ways in which the grace may be manifested. But it’s a changing process. Today like this, tomorrow different. So it’s a continuous discovery. It’s a continuous exposing oneself with all sincerity and devotion. And let the Divine power work its way. From our side, we just have to be available and let it be. Don’t be morbid, just let it be. But that of exposing ourselves by sitting and trying our best, that we always have to do.”
“Sometimes people would show photos to Master Kirpal, saying, “Look, Master, it’s you!” And he would look at the photo and say, “This is not me. This is my body. It’s not me.” So, we have to acquire the awareness that this body is a dwelling—a dress in which we live for a certain period. We are not this body; we are consciousness.”
“We don’t recognise what is given to us, we just mind and complain about what is missing. So gratitude is very important. Because there are such situations in this world, in which our life, compared to that, is like heaven.”
“Singing the Bhajans is a very easy and effective way for attracting the grace of God, creating an uplifting atmosphere. It’s a direct effect that we get right into our cells, into our body. Then, Satsang is another way. Sanji used to say it’s a way to make introspection effective. It means becoming aware of who we are and where we are. Because we are presented with the reality of who we are and what we should be. Meditation on the Light and Sound is another helping factor to experience something which goes beyond body and mind. And when we are blessed with a very good meditation, then we experience by ourselves a certain withdrawal or detachment from this physical body and from the thinking mind. So, we come to know by personal experience that we are not this body. And that is very important because we have to know it practically, we have to experience it to know that it is like this. Otherwise, it’s theory again, belief. No, to any measure we are capable of experiencing it, it is very direct. It’s our own experience. And then Darshan, it’s a very easy way, it’s a very effective way. And it works wonders. So, we have to use all these tools in order to make our spiritual life effective, working and beneficial.”
“We are spirit, we are soul, we are consciousness. So, where do we go? We go to the Supreme Consciousness. Atma goes to the Paramatma. Thus, the individual soul returns to the Supreme Soul. It is as simple as this. We can complicate it as much as we want, but it’s just as simple as this. Our inner self is non-material. It’s spiritual, and it tends to go towards its origin, which is Supreme Consciousness. And willy-nilly, there we have to go. Let’s help this process; let’s not be an obstacle to ourselves. And which is the obstacle? This mind, this thinking process, is the obstacle. That’s why we meditate. We meditate to smooth down at least or stop as much as possible this flow of thoughts. So there are two rivers here, two flows: that of the thoughts and that of consciousness. Thoughts will always take us to the world, to misery, and consciousness will always take us to the Supreme Consciousness.”
“On this spiritual path, love is the door, love is the key, love is the way that leads to the door. We have to love what we are doing. We have to appreciate it and be grateful for it. In the awareness that we are doing the best thing that any human being may do. Life is composed of so many factors. But working on our self-improvement, self-realization, and God’s realization is the best thing that we human beings may do.”
“Master Kirpal used to say that the very first thoughts that we have about anything are the right ones. But then, when the reasoning comes into play, and then should maybe not be like this, but should be like that, but the other way is better, then we make a mess, usually. So, indecision is a very big impediment in life, not just on the spiritual path, but in life in general. About anything, we may take so many decisions and change, and become confused. We have to learn to just go by what comes first. Because the first instinct about doing anything doesn’t come from reasoning, from the mind. It’s an intuition, it’s something clear. But then, when the mind comes into play and brings about so many possibilities, then, in my view, we become confused.”
“Most of the people they just inspire us to gather more and more and to become more and more attached, more and more bound to this earthly existence. Where do we find somebody who inspires us with his life, with the example of his life to do a spiritual practice by which we transcend and go into the beyond? It’s a very rare something. The Master through his life, through the example of his life, the way he has been leading his life, and through the bright example of his life and his inspiring words. Always tries to build in us a longing, a yearning for this great experience of going beyond this physical body, beyond this physical plane.”
“It is said that when God is merciful on the people, on us, then he makes us meet a Satguru. So it is because of the grace of God that we meet a Master, and then it is because of the grace of the Master that we meet God.”