The following section contains the collected quotes from Satguru Sirio Ji and earlier Masters of Surat Shabd Yoga.
“If we get out of the clouds of our consciousness and of this limited person that we think we are that make us believe that we are just nothing, then we experience that we are not an individual I, but we are universal I, we are God Himself. And it’s not an exaggeration. Because what is God? God is the sum up of all the living beings. We are all part of it, and He is us. So, if you get out of this wrong idea of being a limited and individual I, then we become a universal I. And that is beautiful, it’s keeps value to life, it makes it precious. It’s a wonderful thing to go through life with another level of consciousness, relating life in a different way with awareness of what’s all about.”
“In the process of spiritual growth in the beginning, we work on it for ourselves, but later on, if we improve in it and if we come experts in it, then the Divine Power will put us in situations by which we will be by any means compelled to help other people. It is normal. You are a boy, grow up, become a man, get married, have children. Before you were a boy, your parents were taking care of you, giving you what you needed. Now you become a man, have children, you take care of them. So, if we become real spiritual men, then God will use us to inspire and help others because that is the process. You can not keep anything for yourselves. Nothing belongs to us. Whatever is given to us is to be used for the betterment of humanity.”
“If you die out of love for God, then you go to God. If you die out of love for the world, then you go back again to the world. Because as you thing, so you become. And where your heart is attached to, that’s where you go. So, those who come on the Path and try to develop any degree of love for God and passion for a transcendence and going Beyond, they are so lucky. We don’t know how lucky we are! But that’s the most precious things what we can do in our life, it is the most important thing that we can do and accomplish while living in this body and in this world. And the purpose of which we come in this body and this world it is to develop while we are here in this world this love for God and experience as much as we can conscious contact with the Divinity and with the Divine Light of God. So, the spiritual practice that we do is so important. And the more we do of it, the more love, passion and attachment will develop for our Beloved. And that will be our treasure when we leave this world, because we can take nothing from this world with us. The only thing we can take with us it’s the love of God, which we have developed.”
“Morning and evening, sunrise and sunsets they are the most auspicious moments to sit in the sweet remembrance of God. These are the moments in which the extemes and opposites meet. And when the opposites meet, it’s always a great time. Therefore there is a peculiar kind of energy in the air, which is more conducive for meditation. And all the great lovers of God they always spent time in His sweet remembrance at this time.”
“In a spiritual life, discipline is the most important factor. Without discipline, you can nowhere. A spiritual person is a disciplined person. So, what does it mean to be disciplined? It means to have a certain lifestyle and stick to it.”
“The best service we can do for the human kind is raising the frequency and the level of consciousness of this planet. A level of consciousness generates certain kind of thoughts, feelings and emotions, and the higher is the frequency, the more loving thoughts we will have, the more good we will be. And that is how things get better. People who do meditation they do not just benefit themselves, but they benefit the whole planet, the whole universe. So, we don’t just meditate for ourselves, the act of meditation is service.”
“We didn’t make this world and this Humanity. It’s God who has made all of this. And we are all the children of the same Supreme Power. So, we are all a family. Let’s try to understand this. Let’s try to grow into this awareness.”
“Nobody can give us what a Master can give us because even the best wishers, those who love us the most, they may give us what? Love, affection, protection, money, security. But always on this physical plane always, things related to this body. But we go to the Guru to have something else, something which is untouchable, which you can not hold in your hands, although it comes in your hands also. Something, which is transcendental, which goes beyond body, mind and senses. And that is the Shabd, the Divine Light of God. That is what the Masters put us in touch with. So, that’s the most precious something we may get from anybody. That’s why there is no donor equal to the Guru as Kabir Sahib also says.”
“The Path is the boat by which we may sail across the ocean of life. If we follow to stick to it, then this crossing takes over. The Guru is the one that gives us that inspiration, example, and encouragement to keep going, to persist and persevere in doing our spiritual practice, in keeping ourselves connected, tuned in with the Path and the practice, with God’s Power, and eventually with the Light within us. So, we should feel very fortunate to have this inclination to have met the Master that keeps inspiring us with His words and His example. And we should never allow the mind to make us confused and forget the very precious pearls and diamonds that we discover in Satsang as Sant Ji used to say. Because on the Path, there is always this dual tendency or inclination. There are these two elements that take over. One is the mind and one is the soul, the spirit, the wisdom. And the mind always tries its best to make us confused. And it’s not because it’s an independent bad element. It’s an instrument in the hands of God to try out our determination. Because when we are seeking something precious, there are so many impediments. Precious things are difficult to get, and you have to overcome so many obstacles. And only if you are able to overcome those obstacles then you reach that precious something. So, also, God is the most precious thing, and we don’t get there easily. We have to be wise and always discriminate between what’s wrong and what’s right. What takes us away from realization, and what makes it possible for us? So, tests are always there on the Path at every step, and it is good that it is like this because only those who are very determined and wise enough reach there. Eventually, we all reach there, but we have to win over. So, keep doing your practice always, every day as you eat food to keep your body going at the same time you contact with the Light of God to keep you going within, to keep your spirit well fed and nourished.”
“Sant Ji used to say that at the time of death, nobody will come to your rescue. Even those people who love you won’t be able to help you, because they are in the same condition that you are in. Who is going to help you at the time of death? Only your Master may be able to help you, and the spiritual practice you have done and the inner connection you have developed with the Satguru Power. Only that will come to our rescue.”
“There are two ways in which Satguru unites the separated ones. One is that brings together people who are part of the same spiritual group and they have the journey upwards together. That is a Sangat, a group of people who seeks for Truth together. And the other way it’s inside, He unites us, the separated ones, with the Divinity within us. And this is done by meditating with the Master, spending time with the Master, having Darshan, sing the Bhajans together, listen to Satsang. This is what by and by causes this Union to happen. Of course, we know very well each one is on a different stage of His/Her evolution, so it happens differently with everybody like everything is different with everybody, here is also the same. But all those who seek for Truth and Enlightenment in the company of the Master reach their level best in their lifetime.”
“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.”