The following section contains the collected quotes from Satguru Sirio Ji and earlier Masters of Surat Shabd Yoga.
“After the theory is given at Initiation, it explains the Inner Journey, the Mantra is given and then we practice. Because it’s through practice that we experience what it means to become in touch with the Inner Light. In this hour of meditation practice, the blessing always comes to everybody who is initiated. Of course, not the same for everybody because nobody is the same. We are all different. We all find ourselves at different levels of our inner progress. So, according to how we are, the way we are, and where we stand in our evolution, we are allowed to have contact with the Divine Light, which can be less or more intense, but everybody gets something. Everybody at Initiation feels that it’s a special event that touches the Inner Being, the soul and you feel that you are blessed to a certain degree.”
“In India, Initiation is called “Naam Daan”, which means giving the Name. What is giving the Name? So, this Supreme Being, this Supreme Reality has been given so many names by different Masters. This is what is called mantra, or Simran. At Initiation besides the explanation of the Inner Journey is given a mantra, which is the names of God, charged up by your own Master who has been meditating on these Names for most of His / Her 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 withdraw your consciousness, and your attention from the physical body and take it to the spot in the body from where you can exit the physical body and enter into the astral plane, into the astral body.”
“Once you are ready and have changed your lifestyle and understood the teachings, and you want to take it, then the Master will give you Initiation. And at Initiation, the Master will explain to you very well what is the Inner Journey. What we are as human beings and what we are not and we think that we are. But there is also something of us that we don’t know about, the Inner Being, the Inner Man. We are not only this physical body, but we have also an astral body, we have also a causal body. And there is an astral plane, there is a causal plane, which we have to cross to reach the adobe of Truth. So, this is the theoretical part of the Initiation.”
“The purpose of a Master is transmitting to you. First of all, He is explaining to you the teachings and makes you understand what the scriptures talk about. And then give you the experience. The experience of coming in touch with the Inner Light and Sound. That comes through Initiation. So, what is Initiation? Initiation is that session in which the Master explains to you what is the Inner Path that you have to follow to reach your destination. Sach Khand, the abode of Truth.”
“What is the Master’s grace? What is the Master’s blessing? The Master’s grace reduces anything in a harmonious way, which is going to be helpful and not harmful. Master Kirpal is used to say, “The Master’s grace is such that it will reduce the sentence to death into hearting yourself a little bit.” So, in this case, the person who hurt himself could have maybe died. But it was reduced so much that He was just hurting Himself a little bit. The other person, if He had gotten so much more gold, which maybe was meant to happen, would have just left the spiritual Path and forgotten everything about and become a worldly man and spoiled His life and become very corrupt. But it was reduced to just finding a bit of gold, so it would just help His life to go better. So, how does the Master’s blessing and grace work? It works in such a way that whatever happens in your life is going to be like a helping factor and not a harmful factor, something that is going to spoil your life. So, whichever is the case, we get something pleasant or we get something painful, whatever it is, it is meant for our growth and betterment. So, the Master’s grace works in this way once you are coming to the Master’s aura and you take initiation whatever is going to happen then on in your life it’s meant to be a helping factor for your growth. Whether it is sorrow or it is joy.”
“According to the example that we set, the change that people see in us they will also benefit because there is no better teaching than a living example.”
“The grace of the Master Soul is what radiates from the Master if you are receptive. Receptivity is very important. In spiritual experience, in the spiritual field is not important the reading, is not important the doctrine, is not important the theology, what is important it’s receptivity. Because here it’s a spiritual transmission, which happens if you are receptive. If you are not receptive, you have to develop receptivity and do practices that you can develop. It’s a skill. It’s a quality that you have to develop.”
“Light comes from Light. Life comes from life. So, the life impulse or the spiritual impulse, which is a spiritual transmission, doesn’t come from somebody who lived centuries ago. It comes from somebody who is alive. To whom you can go, look into His face, look into His eyes, entering His aura. And there you experience something, which you can never experience by reading books, by having faith in somebody who lived even 10 years ago, but He is not here anymore.”
“The practice without a Master is not as effective. It means you are trying to learn a skill by yourself. For example, you want to be a carpenter. You begin buying some wood and tools and begin practicing by yourself. You will make so many mistakes. You will do so many wrong things, which you will have to repair and change and redo again. But if you go and study with an expert carpenter, then you will make very few mistakes. Because he will tell you the way to do it, he will show you how to do it. So, it becomes so much easier. And especially on the spiritual Path, we need so much the guidance of a living Master because is something, that is not physical, it is not mental, it is not sensory, it is something, which we don’t know anything about, which is immaterial. So, that’s much more important. The guidance, the help, the protection of a living Master.”
“A Master becomes a Master by learning from another Master. Master Kirpal used to say: “If you want to light a candle, then you have to get it close to another lighted candle.” If you want to learn something, if you want to be competent in something, you have to learn it from somebody who knows it. So, a Master, first of all, He/She has learned the skills from another Master by spending lots of time with this Master, by listening to the teachings of this Master and then applying it in His/Her life.”
“The Master Soul, the Master of the Spirit, is one who can lead us from the human to the Divine, guiding us to experience something that goes beyond the physical perception and into the realm of spiritual perception, which transcends the body, senses, and mind.”
“Once we acquire the capacity of controlling all of these lower tendencies (lust, anger, greed, attachment, and egoism), then we are growing as a real human being, different than the other.”
“Keep improving, never get tired. It’s a work that we have to do all of our life.”
“We have to become different human beings. We have to show that all the practice we do and all the blessings we get on the Inner Journey, then we transform it into action and practice. It means we transform how we think, how we talk, and how we behave. And this is the most difficult process.”
“Master Kirpal used to say: ” Realizing God is very easy. To become a real man, it’s much more difficult. ” On a spiritual Path inner experiences are not everything. They are very important to begin walking on the Path and to begin to understand the methodology, the dynamics, and the reality of the inner journey. But then all of these experiences have to transform you from an ordinary human being into a Divine human being with Divine qualities. So, you have to transform yourself.”
“Your body, mind, possessions, your eyes, mouth, nose, ears, hands, feet, all these worldly paraphernalia, all belong to Satguru, to the Supreme Being.”
“There are so many things happening in this world that seems to be terrible. Terribly wrong. But they are not wrong, because that’s what we have to go through to make a step forward in our evolution.”
“Everything is perfect and appropriate. Even if it may seem so out of place. This is the gap we have to fill. Going from the totally wrong conviction, that everything is out of place, to get to the conviction that everything is perfect and appropriate. It doesn’t mean it’s perfect in the absolute sense of things. It’s perfect for the level we are in in this time. To make the next step, we need to stand where we are.”
“All we do, it’s not done by us, but it’s done by Him. And it’s His work. We’re just working for this Supreme Being. We’re not working for this boss we have or the company for which we work. These are tiny specks of dust in the immensity of the Divine Plan. We’re working for the wider scheme of everything. The wider scheme of this Supreme Plan of God.”
“Whatever you do, always be convinced you’re doing Satguru’s work. This is the Supreme Satguru we are talking about. Not a human being, but this immense Divine Power. The Divine Intelligence that leads, governs and moves everything, according to His plan. So we should always be deeply convinced that all the work that happens in this world, anywhere, everywhere and with everybody, is moved by His Will. Its always accomplished by this Supreme Power. We are not the doer, He is the doer.”