The following section contains the collected quotes from Satguru Sirio Ji and earlier Masters of Surat Shabd Yoga.
“At initiation, we teach two main practices. One is for coming in touch with the Inner Light and the other is for coming in touch with the Inner Sound. So there are two separate practices. First, we do the meditation to manifest the Inner Light, then we do the meditation to manifest the Inner Sound. They are two different techniques which are to be done differently, separately. Some people are more inclined to see the Light, and others are more inclined to listen to the Sound as it’s easier for them to tune in with the Sound than to manifest the Light. But they are all important in the same way. There is no difference. The important is to tune in with this Shabad, or Divine Stream, that’s how we call it on this path, Surat Shabd Yoga. Connect Consciousness, Attention, Soul with Shabad, the Divine Stream that manifests as Light and Sound. In both practices, you can withdraw from the physical body and have an inner experience that really transforms you.”
“In India, initiation is called Naam Daan, that is “Giving the Name”. What is Giving the Name? The Supreme Being, the Supreme Reality has been given so many names by so many masters, this is what is called Mantra or Simran. At initiation besides the explanation of the inner journey is given a Mantra which are names of God charged up by your own master who has been meditating on these names in his all life, or most of his life, and also by the lineage of the masters of this path. They have all meditated on this Simran, on this Mantra. They are charged words which are given to you and help you to withdraw your consciousness, and your attention from the physical body and take it to that spot in the body from where you can exit the physical body and enter into the astral plane into the astral body and so on. Once the practice is explained very well then we practice at initiation, because theory doesn’t take you anywhere. You need to practice. Just as it was said in the quote “to know is one thing and to do is another”. I can explain to you anything, but if you don’t practice then you don’t experience anything. So the theory is given, the inner journey is explained, the mantra is given and then we practice. Because it’s through practice that we experience what it means to come in touch with the Inner Light.”
“Only one who has himself experienced what the great scriptures describe, can guide us to their real significance. But the task of a spiritual teacher does not end there. The elucidation of the true meaning of religion is no more than a first step. After the aspirant has understood the nature of his goal, he must pursue it practically and rationally. To know is one thing, to do is quite another. It is only after he has explained to the aspirant the end to be attained that the Master’s real task begins. It is not enough that the doctor diagnoses the cause of the blind man’s ailment, he must perform the operation as well. So too the spiritual guide at the time of initiation gives the disciple a first-hand experience of the Inner Light and Sound. He puts him into touch with the Divine Stream, be it at its lowest level, and instructs him in the sadhanas to be followed for consolidating and developing this inner experience to its full extent.”
“You are protected by the Master-Power working overhead. Depend on Him. You will have all the necessary inner help. The Master is waiting for His dear children to come to Him within.”
“The Masters do not tell us that we should give up the family which we have formed according to our karmas, and go to live in the jungles. They say, “No, you have to live with them, and you should understand them as of God. Pay off your karmas with them, attend to your responsibilities and, at the same time, keep your attention towards God.”
“Those jivas are very fortunate ones who, going to a perfect Saint, receive the Naam Initiation from Him and make their lives successful. A perfect Saint comes from God Almighty carrying the ship of Naam. Those who get into that ship of Naam, the perfect Saint saves them from the waves of this ocean of the world and makes them reach their Real Home.”
„Everybody knows how to love. But we have not understood the right way to love. That is misused. I would say. Love is ingrained in our own selves. God is love; and love is also ingrained in us, because we are of the same essence as that of God. Love knows attachment; that is but natural. We must have somebody to be attached to – it may be right, it may be wrong. We are spirit. The love of the spirit or the conscious being should be love with the All-Spirit, All-Consciousness. That natural love which is within us is attached to the outward things: to the body. to the passions. to the enjoyments. Those are not conscious. But the more you are attached to those things you feel drawn from inside; that is but natural. But that love has been misplaced. When that very love is attached to the body and outward enjoyments. it is called attachment. And when that very love comes in contact with God, it is called charity. It is the same thing – misdirected. Misdirected love is called attachment, and rightly directed love is called charity.”
“Just as we make temples and we make the doors to those temples, in the same way, this temple, the human body which God has created, also has the doors or openings. It has ten openings, nine of them open towards the physical world which we see. Those nine openings or nine doors are the two eyes, the two nostrils, the two ears, one mouth and two down below. And the tenth opening or the tenth door opens toward God, it opens within. We cannot open the tenth door by ourselves because we do not have the knowledge. We do not even know where that door is. So we will have to go to such a competent one who has opened this door, He Who goes through that door every day. The One Who owns this house has put a lock on that door and He Himself has the key. Unless we take refuge at the feet of the Master we cannot get the key and open that door.”
“It is not your karma that holds you back, nor is it responsible when you miss your meditations, but rather the treacherous misleading of your mind, which can be subdued and controlled by careful planning and execution.”
“Kabir Sahib also says, “The performer has come, and he beats a drum and everyone comes to see his performance, but when he finishes his act, when he finishes his performance, then he collects everything and he goes his way.” So God has also performed this performance, in which someone is made an animal, someone is made the human being, someone is made the mother, someone is made somebody else. He who has come here to do this act, this performance, he is performing his play, and everyone is involved in this. It is all deception and illusion. Those who understand the reality of this performance do not get attached to it; they are neither happy nor are they sad, and they know that when this act will end, they will go their own way. But the others, those who are attached to it, and those who do not understand its reality, they suffer a lot; sometimes they weep, sometimes they cry. This is all because of the deception. They live in illusion, they die in illusion.”
“In this world in order to achieve peace and happiness everyone is running here and there. As children we think that when we grow to our youth then we will be happier. But when we become teenagers we go further away from the peace and happiness because there are so many difficulties and problems at that age. When we are in our youth we think that older people have peace and happiness, but when we become older we find that we have gone even further away from peace and happiness. We do not have any peace or happiness even in our old age. When we are poor we think that rich people have peace and happiness, but if we become rich we find no peace and happiness from all the worldly wealth. If we are a low officer we think that if we become a high officer then we will get peace and happiness. But when we achieve high office, when we are promoted, even then we do not find any peace or happiness. When we advance in our position we lose our peace and happiness because “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” So Saints and Mahatmas lovingly tell us that you cannot find any peace and happiness from those worldly things. If there is any peace or happiness, you can get that only by going within and getting back to your Real Home.”
“The Master is always with His initiates working over their heads and He is never unaware of their inner longings and feelings. He helps to wind up the karmic debts so that they need not return for another earthly sojourn.”
“Masters tell us that if we have very good fortune, good fate, only then are we chosen by God Almighty for doing His devotion, and only then He sends us to the Perfect Master. If we have more good fortune then that Master accepts us and He connects us with the Naam. And if we have even better fortune, then we start believing in the Master and we start practicing the Path on which the Master puts us. So let us take advantage of this beautiful opportunity which our Beloved Masters have given to us to do the devotion. Let us all withdraw our attention from the outside and concentrate in the meditation.”
“The Master’s love for His children is unfathomable. Often the children are besmeared with dirt. He will not discard them or let them down, but will first clean them of the dirt and then will warmly hug them to His bosom.”
“If we could learn to withdraw at will from the body, while remaining in the body, we can then know the nature of our real self, the animating life-impulse in us. This has been the teachings of all the rishis and munis of yore and the spiritual teachers of the East and the West. It is all a matter of practical self-analysis. And it can be experienced directly and immediately with the active help and guidance of an adept or a Master of Para-Vidya or the knowledge of the beyond — the knowledge that lies beyond the senses, mind and intellect. It is a regular science of soul, knowing which, everything else becomes known and nothing remains to be known. We can then become a master in our own house, able to direct it as we like.”
“To achieve a degree of self-surrender to the will of the Master one must not look up to the deity in its abstract form but in its human form as the Master. For how else is one to know God’s will directly in order to surrender one’s self to it? What one may take as an intuition inspired by the divine may be really one’s own self speaking in disguise, and one may surrender to such seeming intuitions and therefore surrender to the self, the ego. However, if one has found a true Master (who is attuned to the Lord and is His mouthpiece) and obeys Him in all things completely and absolutely, he will surely destroy the ego and reach his heavenly home one day.”
“Often I have said that I got many opportunities to go to all the different societies and communities and religions, and I did almost all the rites and rituals which people used to do in India in those days. I went to different temples, mosques and other holy places. For me all the temples and religious places were the same: I did not hate anyone, I did not feel any difference between those holy places, because I was searching for God Almighty. And I performed austerities, I did the practices of water, I moved the rosary, I did all kinds of rites and rituals; but when I came to my beloved Master only then I realized that all the rites and rituals, all the outer practices which I had done, had no value in the Court of the Lord. If there is anything which finds a place in the Court of the Lord, it is the real meditation; and that is why when I realized the Reality I said, “O my beloved Lord, after giving up all the supports of this world, finally I have taken Your support. I have sought refuge at Your Feet and now you should shower grace on me and improve my life.”
“You will be glad to know that to sit in complete silence, reposing all in the gracious Master overhead, is what is necessary for the initiates, and all else is to come in its own time with His grace.”
“It is not true that so far no one has become successful in crossing this Ocean of Life. And it is not true to say that all the times, the jivas, the souls, have been wandering in this world, or in this creation only. All those souls who have gone to the perfect Master have easily been taken across. So that is why the Masters always come into this world, because They Themselves have gone across. So those who go to Him. They also take them across this Ocean of Life. Guru Nanak Sahib says that just as the rivers can go back to their origin only if they have the grace of God Almighty. in the same way, we also can go back to our origin only if God Almighty showers His grace upon us and only if we get attached to the Shabd. When God Almighty showers His grace upon us, only then we get the yearning, we get the encouragement to go to the Master, and the Master also connects us with that Shabd. So just as the rivers can go back to their origin only if God Almighty showers His grace upon them, in the same way our souls can also go back to our origin only if God Almighty showers His grace upon us through the perfect Masters Who have always come into this world.”
“One begins to do things in order to carry on with the higher ideal always before him or her, the fulfillment of which becomes an all absorbing vocation in one’s life.”