The following section contains the collected quotes from Satguru Sirio Ji and earlier Masters of Surat Shabd Yoga.
“The more experience we gather in this life, the more knowledgeable we become. So, having understood that we are not this body, we are not this mind, we are not these senses, and that we are conscious entities then we should experience ourselves as consciousness separated from this body. That’s when we experience ourselves to be conscious. When we can withdraw from this physical body. Then we see that I’m not this body because I can detach myself from this body, get out from this body, and still I am alive. There is a wonderful thing about withdrawing from this physical body because this body becomes like a corpse, more or less, but you are not dead! You don’t die! You keep living. And then you understand that I’m not this body. I was mistaken to identify myself with this body. I’m a conscious entity that keeps living even when this body is like death.”
“Life is the phenomenon that we are living. Life and consciousness are the same thing. We are conscious, we are alive. So, we need to study this life, we need to analyze it to understand it. We need to analyze ourselves. Who we are, and what we are to understand what is our real nature. What we consist of and what we are not. So, Master Kirpal something used to analyze this way. Am I this hand of mine? Am I this arm of mine? No, I’m not because this hand is my hand, I’m not the hand. Am I this body? No, I’m not this body. I have this body. It’s something in which I dwell for a certain period. It’s a dress I wear, but I’m not this dress. I’m not this body. Like if you wear a coat or a dress, we don’t say I’m this dress. This is a dress I am wearing. In the same way, we are wearing this body, but we are not this body. We are life, we are consciousness dwelling in this body. So, what are we? I’m not his body. Maybe I’m this mind. But this mind is also my mind, something I use or by which many times I’m used. But it’s not me. These thoughts come to me. Very often I don’t want them, but they come anyway. So, I’m not these thoughts because I don’t even like them. So, I’m not the body, I’m not the mind. What I am? So, I’m a conscious entity that for a given time is wearing this body, using this mind, and going through this life to learn and to progress. To understand better what this life is all about.”
“Inside of us, there is a good guy and a bad guy. The good guy is God and the Master and the bad guy is the mind. The mind always trying to mislead and spoil what is good, making bad what is nice. So, we don’t listen to this bad guy. The monkey man inside of us. The barking dog. But why did God put this crazy monkey inside of us? What’s the purpose of it? It is to test our intentions. Because when you want to move in a certain direction, if it’s easy then it’s not valuable. There must be somebody poking you with sticks all the time. Then if you win the battle you are really valuable. So, the mind is a testing factor inside of us. If you win the test then we are special. If you don’t win then we stay in the bondage of the limits of the mind. So, it’s an enemy, but it’s a friend. Because it’s going to test all our pretenses. All of our truth and fake truths. All of our wrong convictions. What is not truth the mind will make it crumble down. What is Truth the mind doesn’t have the power to crumble it down. So, let’s move towards the Truth by living a real, truthful life.”
“We can make our life something special, precious, valuable or we can make it an ordinary life in which we eat, we go to the toilet. Sometimes we are fine and, good health, sometimes we get sick. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are depressed and desperate. But no real purpose. That’s the miserable thing I see in most of the people. They have no purpose in life. What’s their purpose? Eating and some few enjoyments and that’s all. But we are human beings. We can realize something great. We have a great potential, a divine potential. We have God inside of us. We are Divine beings. Let’s become that. Divine beings. And if our mind tells us, it’s a dream, you will never succeed. We don’t listen to the mind, because the mind is the bad guy, you know. Always telling you the wrong thing.”
“If you want to be free, run away from your freedom. Bow down your head to somebody who is worthy of worshipping. Accept the authority of somebody who has authority. And listen and learn. That’s the way to freedom.”
“Sant Ajaib Singh used to say: “The only happy people are the holy people. Those who are in tune with God. They are the only happy people. Otherwise, both rich and poor, learned and unlearned, good health or bad health they are all miserable. They are all suffering from so many diseases. From lust, anger, greed, attachment, vanity, jealousy, hate, possessiveness. The minds of people are full of these emotions.” So, we want to get rid of all of this. We want to be happy people. We want to be people who are just fulfilled in themselves, they don’t need anything. Happiness and joy must rise from inside of us. It doesn’t have to come because of an object that we get. As far as our joy depends on these we will be never really happy, because life is very tricky and we will be always disappointed. So, in life it’s good to have what’s really needed, to have a dignified life. And all the energies, all our efforts have to go towards uplifting our consciousness and experiencing something valuable that makes our life precious.”
“The message of Sant Ajaib Singh was very intense. You have to realize God in this lifetime. That’s the purpose of your life. So, do your best.”
“Sant Ji used to say: “For you is the matter of a second, and for us is a matter of so much work, so many efforts.” So, when the wind of the Divine Presence blows on us then we right away find ourselves in a state of peace, bliss, ecstasy, and joy. But when we have to uplift ourselves through our own efforts, through our own means then it’s very difficult. Nonetheless the grace of God descends on us whenever He wants, the way He wants, on whosoever He wants. And there is no questioning why. One can not question God and His decisions! It is as it is. It is as it happens. And we just have to bow down and accept His will. Because His will is Supreme and our will is nothing. Doesn’t count. From our side, we can only shoot to the sky a request, a prayer. But then He will answer whenever He feels to be appropriate, when is the right moment. So, for many years we may go on sometimes in a state of bliss, sometimes feeling the grace and feeling the blessing that comes on us and makes us feel wonderful. And then alternating with periods in which it seems that this grace is withdrawn, it’s just behind the corner, but we don’t feel it. So, then we don’t have to give up, because then we will never get into that state of grace again. We have to persevere, we have to keep going. We have to keep showing that we care. That we are here waiting. Master Kirpal used to say: “When you sit at the tenth door, you are sitting at the door of a very powerful being. And you sit there and keep calling on Him by repeating the Simran. Well, He might not open to you, one day, two days, three days, anytime. But, eventually, if you keep staying there and keep calling on Him, He will have to come and say: “What do you want?” And then with love, you say: “I just want you and nothing else”.” Therefore in every meditation sitting that we have, we have to be available. Sit there with full attention while focused and concentrated. And with love and devotion keep calling His names. Then the door will be opened if and when He wants. But even sitting there is so good. Is the excellent work that we may perform.”
“We have to have the self-assurance, the determination that I will go back to my source, to my origin, to my home. Because we will never find any peace till we reach there. So, we live such a life that makes it possible to go back home. A life in which we don’t spread much in this world. We don’t want to be like an oak that spreads wide with it’s thousand branches. We want to like a cypress that goes up straight, vertically. So, our direction is not horizontal, it’s vertical. That’s how it should be. Having to do with this world as much as necessary to live a life, but all our longing, yearning, and pining should be upwards, towards the source from where we have come. So, spiritual practice is the key to this. It’s so beneficial. It does well not only for our spirit, our consciousness, and our soul. It does good for our body also. It’s a healing process for the cells of the body. They get lots of benefits from spiritual practice. Singing is so beneficial for the system in general. All the songs we do, are all prayers. They are all invocations to the Supreme Being. And the saying goes like this “One prays better while singing.” So, a sung prayer is much better than a spoken prayer. Because singing brings harmony and melody. And that is so beneficial for the cells of the human body, our central nervous system, and our spirit. So, just as a healing process for ourselves, we should never miss our daily meditation. If you can’t do much at least some we should do always. Sing some songs then sit peacefully for as much as you can. And enjoy some peace, some being cut off from this world.”
“The spiritual practice that we do is meant to take us to that realization that the Supreme Being that is working our Master is working also in us. And is there ready to come and dwell in us and we make a space fit for Him. Kabir Sahib used to say: “God is looking everywhere, here and there for a person in whom He can dwell. Rarely He finds one. But when He finds one then He is very happy.” And Sant Ajaib Singh used to say: “We have to make a very holy and clean space inside of us in which God may come and reside. We can’t expect God to come and reside in a filthy place, in an unholy place.” So, we have to become those very good, holy human beings that attract the Divine into their own selves. So, every meditation we do, we clean out this inner space of ours, that the Beloved may come and dwell.”
“We have to think in terms of expansion, giving, wanting to share, because it makes our person beautiful and special.”
“The Master is a human pole through which His grace is conveyed to us. That’s how always related to my Masters. Understanding that the Supreme Being dwells in this body and through this person all the blessings are conveyed to me. And I always wanted to understand my Master is the Supreme Being whose feet everybody bows down. Not the human being, but the Supreme Being works in that Human being. So, if we have this kind of attitude and relation to our Master, then wonderful things happen, then the relation becomes a superior kind.”
“We have to get out of duality and snap into unity – then we are free.”
“There is a point in space where I am, and there is a time. But when we withdraw from this physical dimension, we go into the spiritual dimension, and there is no time and no space – we can move anywhere we want in the universe, and we can move to any point in time; past, now, and future….
From that point of view, everything has already been done; everything has already happened. It’s all an illusion. We have to get out of duality and snap into unity – then we are free.”
“Sacrality is the condiment of our spiritual life that makes it flavourly, the sense of sacrality towards life, towards everything. And one of the problems this modern society, especially this western culture is losing track of this sense of sacrality. Which deprives life of the most valuable thing, the most valuable aspect. So, you can analyze life, you can find out from what it is made, study the laws that govern the universe, and come to understand a lot about how everything works. But if you lose track of the sense of sacrality towards life all your knowledge is worth nothing. So, the Path wants to teach us this. To reveal life, to bow down to everything. And especially to bow down to all human beings, all of humanity. And understand others as part of ourselves, as God manifested. God is not confined to any particular thing. God is all permeating.”
“So when we take up a Path and we choose a Master, we should be so proud of the Path we follow and the Master we follow. Is the choice that we make for our lifetime and we should honor the choice that we make. Because it’s our life. It’s what we have chosen to do in this life and what is the destiny of our life. So, we should be very happy with what we are doing, once we decide then there is no going back. It’s our decision. In a way, it’s not our decision, it has been decided for us. But from our point of view, it’s our decision and then we should honor what we have chosen to do. We should follow it with all our good intentions and be proud of it. Sant Ji used to say: “Those who hide their Master, they are not worthy of their Master.” One has to be proud of having such a Master that one loves and the Path that we have chosen to follow. And following the Path means doing the practice that the Path teaches us. We want to be good at what we are doing. We don’t want to be a middle way. We want to be excellent. That was always my attitude on the Path. I wanted to be good. I wanted to show that the Path and my Master’s are worthwhile and it’s great and show it through my life. So, let’s be good Satsangies, let’s be good seekers of Truth. And let’s stick to the Path we have chosen with our best possibility, with our best intention.”
“We have to go through life, whether we like it or not. So let’s go through it, understanding that we can do a lot: we can move mountains and dry the oceans and we can achieve what we want to achieve. The attitude is very important. We can have the attitude of a miserable person who understands oneself as unable to do anything, a failure since birth, or we can have the other attitude that we are capable human beings, that we can do anything and we will succeed. As we think so we become. That’s the all key here: as we think so we become. So let’s think positive, let’s be optimistic, let’s go towards the light and not the darkness.”
“We keep learning from our mistakes if we want, we keep progressing. In this process of progressing towards our final destination, which is God-realisation, we go through so many ups and downs, so many joys and sorrows, and so many factors that are the process of life. Do we have any choice in this? Yes and no – it’s a process that we have to go through willy-nilly.”
“If I believe that I’m going to realise God and I understand that I have all the potential for doing it and I act upon this and I do what I am supposed to do in order to realise God, then I might succeed. But if right from the beginning I understand that I don’t have the potential, I don’t have the strength, I don’t have the discipline, I don’t have the capacity to live such a life that allows me to realise God, then you are a looser right from the beginning. The mental strategy is what is helpful here, the mental attitude, the understanding of what we have. Then eventually if there is real free will or there isn’t, it doesn’t really matter at this point. It matters what kind of life we live and the attitude we have, going through this life.”
“On the spiritual Path, the most helping factors are Guru, Naam, Satsang, Darshan. So, finding a real Master with whom we tune in, with whom we feel at home, whose teachings talk to our heart and our mind it’s so very important. Without this there is no spiritual Path, there is no progress, nothing. Then what does the Master do? Gives us initiation into the Holy Naam, which is the Holy Light of God. So, He tunes us in with this Divine Light, manifesting it by His grace. So, we have something on which to work. It’s a capital by which you start and you can develop. If you have nothing you cannot develop anything. So, at initiation, the Master gives us a blessing, a capital. And it always works according to how receptive we are. That’s what determines how great or less great experience we have. Then He gives us Satsang. His teachings sharpen our intellect, our understanding of life, and our understanding of ourselves. And then Darshan. This is a gift, a very free gift the Master gives to us. You don’t get it from a statue, from a painting, from a photo. You get it from the eyes of a person who has meditated on Naam his all life. And that’s the spiritual transmission that happens through the eyes. So, all of these it’s a good package that we get freely and on which we can work and develop.”