The following section contains the collected quotes from Satguru Sirio Ji and earlier Masters of Surat Shabd Yoga.
“Time is the factor that may destroy us. Stress it’s all due to time. Running always after the next thing, never getting in time, always late. And we want to do a thousand and one thing. You are never at peace with just breathing, just feeling oneself alive and conscious. That’s already something. That is a great pleasure to feel yourself to be a conscious and a life being with awareness. That is meditation. Increasing these awareness of ourselves, the awareness of the fact of being alive.”
“When we sing the Holy Songs, if we sing them with due love, devotion, intensity, and professionalism then the mind becomes calm, quiet, and peaceful. And our within becomes charged up with His Holy presence, because there is no better way to attract the presence of God inside of us than singing the Holy Songs. So, when His presence is there, among us, in the space, inside of us, then the mind becomes kind of enchanted, drawn within. And we feel some kind of intoxication, some kind of bliss. We experience what Maulana Rumi calls the pleasures of the soul, which are so superior to the pleasures of the senses.”
“Unless you control the mind, it controls you because that it’s nature. Unless you lead it, it will lead you. And the mind’s tendency is always downwards. It’s never upwards. So, we have to make an effort to direct it upwards.”
“This physical reality seems to be very consistent, solid, and real, but time is something that makes it shaky and unreliable. Because every moment, the present becomes the past, it is like it was never there. So, time is the factor that makes everything unstable. Thanks God there is time, I must say, so we realize that it’s all an illusion.”
“We are stuck in this world. The Master we need to take us out of this world by His pure compassion and take us to the Absolute. We have come from the Absolute and we have to return to the Absolute. That’s our origin, that is the source of life from which are apart. So, the Master comes into this world to help us to get out of it. And they sacrifice a lot to help us. They are doing their best, because their Master has helped them to get out from the world. They know how precious it is to get out from this world, so they do their best to help us human kind to get out of this trap. A trap of time and space, a trap of mind, a trap of senses. So, they keep inspiring us to do the spiritual practice because that’s the only means by which we may get out of this. Therefore, they help us through their words, but even more, their example. The example of the brilliant life, fully dedicated to this endeavour. So, they do a lot of meditation and they inspire others to do the same. Because by meditating we put a break to the mind and when we put a break to the mind then we put a break to trap of time. This way we get out of it, that means we are going into the Light.”
“Reality is an infinite something with all possibilities, and we can draw from it into our life what corresponds with us. So, if you are in the light, you will attract light. If you are in the darkness, you will attract darkness. It is just like this. Why is like this? Because similar attracts similar. So, we should try to be in the light then we will attract light into our life. And light is love, light is life, light is consciousness. So, we want to become more and more conscious until we become super conscious. Therefore, spiritual practice is the mean by which we attract light into our life, because it’s a means by which we step out of this thinking process. We step out of all the negative emotions that our thoughts generating in ourselves. The tendency of the mind is naturally to go towards to the negative side, but we have to direct it towards to the positive side. And for this we have to make an effort.”
“Very rare are those who experience the pleasures of the soul. Most people just experience the pleasures of the senses, which are like the shadow of the pleasures of the soul. So, lucky are those who are inclined, who feel the need to experience the pleasures of the soul, because they become like the Saints or they become Saints themselves. So, for experiencing these pleasures we have to tune in with the ever-flowing Current of the Supreme Being. And to do so we need to still the body, and make it peaceful and silent the mind, which is the most difficult enterprise of any human being. When we sing the praises of God then to some degree more or less the mind becomes peaceful. And it becomes peaceful because the Holy presence of God emerges. And when there is God, there is no mind. When there is mind, there is no God. People might be so proud of their intellectual knowledge, but it’s just nothing. Everything in the mind it’s a game, it’s gymnastic. The power of God becomes manifest when the mind stops functioning. Master Kirpal used to say where all the philosophies, and ideologies of this world end true spirituality begins. So, it’s beyond the mind, beyond the intellect. It’s perception.”
“When we do the spiritual practice, when we sing the hymns and praise of God, when we with love we sing His Holy names the mind becomes quiet and peaceful. Because something from very deep emerges, which change the atmosphere and raises up the level of our consciousness. And that’s what makes meditation possible, because meditation is not possible when we are restless, stressed, nervous with an agitated mind. We have to make the mind peaceful if we want to meditate. So, we have to withdraw it from the usual thoughts that cross the mind all the time and focus on God, on His Holy presence. And for this there is nothing better than singing Holy songs, which are prayers to the Supreme, to bless us, to be with us, to uplift us. It’s all a matter of attention, either it’s spread everywhere or it’s well focused. When the attention is spread everywhere, we feel empty. When the attention is focused, then we feel full, full of something. Full of energy, full of magnetism. And that’s what meditation is all about. Plugging in with this electricity, which is in the air, with this magnetism. This magnetism is God’s presence. God is a very powerful magnet, but we have to activate it. It’s there, always, but we are not tuned in to it.”
“The desire is the driving force that binds us to this body and this physical world. So, what is going to bind us to God? How can we get out of this whirl, this perpetuation of desires? We have to develop another intense desire for something higher, something, which is not physical. Something that you can not touch, see, smell, or hear at least with these physical senses. So, which is this pleasure, which may make us detached from pleasures that come from sensual activity, from this physical world and this physical body? It is the desire for something higher, it is an experience with something higher that gives us a much more real, clean, and intense pleasure.”
“Life should be a blessing. The all of life whatever we do should be a blessing, should be a Satsang, in something that tunes us in with Holy Presence. So, whatever we do, we should understand it to be a sacred action, we should try to bring sacrality in all the doings of life. Then our life will be special. And in order to make it sacred, we have to try to be in the living present.”
“According to how much we are able to step out of ourselves, our tiny person and ego we will be able to englobe in ourselves this expansion of the Real Self. So, we dedicate our life through service to the Guru and to human beings, which is eventually service to ourselves. We consecrate our being to the cause we choose to stick to in our life, to be part of and we donate our mind. So, to donate our minds we have to acquire control of our minds and for doing so we need to do our spiritual practice. We have to try again and again with Holy patience to smooth down this mind, make it as still and focused as possible, so has to open the inner horizon and go within. Within where this our sense of I broadens and we become united, become one with the Divine. So, that is the purpose of meditation going beyond the ego to englobe the Divine.”
“Love is beautiful especially when directed to the Divine. Even among us human beings, when there is love and harmony, it’s so beautiful. When we love God, then it’s wonderful and extraordinary. So, falling in love is the secret to reaching a condition, which is superhuman.”
“Master Kirpal at initiation used to say: “Ok, begin with two hours meditation per day. That is the minimum you should do if you want to progress. But by and by taking it to four. If you can meditate four hours per day, you will have no problems in your life, your life will be like heaven on earth.” Then the Master Power comes into play in our lives, and we see miracles at every step. People want to see miracles, but miracles do happen when we live an intense spiritual life and do an intense spiritual practice otherwise there are no miracles. We are in the mind fields, and there there are no miracles, there is just disharmony. We have to live a very intense spiritual life then our life becomes extraordinary event. That is the only way.”
“The sweet remembrance of the Master is what allows in time eventually to absorb in us the good and excellent qualities of the Master. As you think, so you become. So, always have a high ideal in front of you. And the one who chooses a Master should be the best ideal.”
“For a seeker of Truth, for a lover of God is very important to keep the love, the devotion always alive, intense, heartfelt. Because it’s only when the intense love for God is present that a spiritual life it’s possible. Otherwise there is no real spiritual life. Spiritual life means to be tuned in with the Holy Spirit. And this Holy Spirit is the all pervading presence of God. So, we are immersed in this Divine presence, but most of the time we are unaware of it. We have to become as aware as possible of this fact.”
“Let’s be practical. Let’s be smart. Let’s be in control of our life. Let’s take our life into our hands; and direct it in the way we want. We don’t have to live a miserable life; we want a Real, Divine life. We want to tune in with the Divine. We want to live this as much as possible this life already, as if we were in heaven as if we were already in Sach Khand. As much as possible, we want to bring down into our life the Divine. There are two ways. Either we go to Him, or He comes to us. Both ways are possible. Sometimes we feel that we are uplifted, risen above body consciousness, and we merge into some higher planes of existence. Sometimes we feel saturated with the Divine in this very body; all body begins to be Divine, vibrating with the Divine presence.”
“It’s a great blessing to have the need of longing for something, which can not be defined, but which is a natural innate need of our deeper self for something higher, something that transcends the body and the mind, the physicality. This need can be a kind of torment, but that is the only way to realize what Truth and Reality are. So, this is love for something that goes beyond something that is transcendental. And those people who have it they are the lucky ones. Otherwise, it is just playing life with no perspective. If you always live in a plain area, you will never see the mountains, you don’t know what is a wider perspective. You can just see in front of you as far as the eye goes, but if you can climb a peak, then you can have such a wide view, 360 degrees. So, those who climb the mountains have the need for this wider perspective, for the exhilarating feeling that comes when you are up there. The same is for those who climb the peaks of spirit. They need to come up high and have a wider perspective of this material world and this material life. So, our spiritual practice is the hiking that we have to do to reach these peaks. Sometimes the grace of God comes, and you get there right away. It is like a helicopter taking you to the peak. Otherwise, you have to climb your way with much effort. So, the helicopter comes into play sometimes, but most of the time, you have to climb. So, our daily spiritual practice is what we have to do!”
“Feeling the Holy presence that is what gives us real freedom, real well-being. But we have to expose ourselves to situations where these may happen. We have to look for these with intensity, with all of our beings, want it, pray for it. This can happen when we withdraw from the world, give aside everything for a time and intensely do our spiritual practice, especially if we do it together with our Master. Then we feel His Holy presence permeating our body and saturating our mind. Then our all being is saturated and feeling the Divine and all our fibres vibrate like a musical instrument. Became like music, like sound, all of our beings begin sounding and vibrating. So, we will become harmony, we will become a melody, we will be a sounding being, saturated with His light and sound.”
“Sometimes the grace of God flows spontaneously, all of a sudden when you don’t think of it when you don’t expect maybe. So, you never know when the grace of God may descend upon you and bless your life by saturating you with bliss, ecstasy, and intoxication. So, we have to expose ourselves to the spiritual practice that makes this possible. Sant Ji used to say, “You have to sit below the Master’s window and wait there. You never know when He comes and pours something up on your head.” So, sitting at the Third Eye is sitting at the Master’s door or the Master’s window and wait patiently, that He showers His grace.”
“People who have no spiritual awareness whatsoever, who have never touched anyway the other dimension, the higher planes of existence they have a heavy consciousness, a heavy mind, and a heavy body. So, that’s the condition, which we may define as which dominates earth and water, which are heavy elements. In the spiritual people, those who do the meditation, those who get the grace of the Master and experience to a certain degree contact with the Divine Light, in them these other elements become predominant, that of ether and air. Consequently, subtle and light one feels when it is touched by such a condition, by such a blessing. One feels like somehow being suspended in the air, flooding in the air, even if your body is still there on the ground, yet you feel you are like suspended in the air. And that’s a wonderful condition.”