
The following section contains the collected quotes from Satguru Sirio Ji and earlier Masters of Surat Shabd Yoga.
“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.”
“We enter the temple of silence to experience bliss. And we pray, we beg the Supreme Being to give us His Darshan. So, that we may experience this ecstasy and intoxication, to get rid of all the pains and troubles, all the sufferings of life. And then by His grace, we may go to the temple of Samadhi where we merge with the Supreme Reality. So, that will be left no difference between us and Him. So, that we might finally go back to our origin, to the spring of Life and live that ineffable condition.”
“This is the society nowadays. It’s not in our culture to be committed to something. It’s the society of ‘use and throw-away’. It’s the culture of nowadays, which is not a culture, it’s just the opposite.”
“What does the true seeker of Truth do? He/She will wake up every morning at sunrise and will sing the songs and praises of Satguru and then sit down in meditation. So, that’s the sign of a real devotee, a real seeker of Truth. In the morning we shake off His/Her laziness. With determination, we get up, get ready, and then sing the songs and praises of God and sit peacefully in meditation. Then one can face life with a better attitude. More calm, peaceful, and detached from events. The thing is if you do this the challenges of life will be less sharp, and less harmful because we will create around ourselves a kind of protective field that we keep away negative influences and negative and painful events. Therefore, this should be the lifestyle of a Satsangi. As we feed our body, the same way we feed our soul and our spirit. And the food for the soul is Light. And this is what we come in touch with more or less when we sit in meditation. Even if we don’t have great experiences, anyway we relax the nervous system, we quite down the thinking process. And we pray to the Absolute, to bless our lives and bless the life of the world, bless everybody.”
“We human beings need something to give sense, value, and pleasure to our life. So, in the absence of something great, something superior, something Divine, then we become addicted and dependent on so many outer factors and substances. They make us slaves. They make us depend on something to live. But spiritual Masters try to give us something which gives us inner pleasure, an inner fulfillment by which we can detach ourselves from all these outer addictions. That’s why the Masters, when we ask for Initiation, when we want to come on the Path, then they give us a certain lifestyle to follow and live up to. Because they want us to be free from any dependence, from any addiction. And through Initiation, they give us a blessing so that we may have something to rely upon. They give us an inner bliss, an inner pleasure, which is superior to those of the senses. But then we have to practice to keep alive this first-hand experience, which we are giving at Initiation. So, the meditation on the Light and Sound makes us aware that real freedom is freedom from any addiction. When we can find everything we need inside of ourselves, that’s freedom! So, that’s why we come on the Path to becoming free people. Free from any addition, free from any dependence, free from any slavery. People who are complete in themselves. Fulfilled in themselves.”
“The play of life, it’s all about being present or being absent. When we are absent, because of our mind dragging us here and there, then it’s like we are not living the actual life, the living present. We are always somewhere else. In fantasies. And that’s no life. That’s the shadow of life. When we are present, focused on the living present then we are alive. And our perception of life becomes intense. It magnifies. So, a spiritual person should always try to be present in the living moment. That should be our constant effort. Not to be dragged away by the mind in thoughts and be present, well-concentrated on what we are doing.”
“The life without God is useless. Because the difference between the life of a person deprived of God’s awareness and the life of a person that has this Divine perception there is such a huge difference. A person who doesn’t have any awareness of the Divine lives an aimless life without any direction, without any purpose. And a person who is in tune with God lives a fulfilling, joyful, happy, and blissful life. So, any intelligent human person should try to experience in His / Her life something that transcends physical, sensory perception, and mental activity. Should try to raise above all of these and experience something sublime, is Divine, of a Superior Quality.”
“Once you start in your quest for Truth, you never stop. Keep going, because that is the way to reach your destination. And we have to travel within ourselves. Trying to discover and come to know everything that we are. So, we have to analyze ourselves. Am I this body? No, because this body belongs to me. I’m not this body. Am I this mind, these thoughts? No, I’m not because they come to me. I’m not them. Am I this sensory perception that I have? No, I’m not because I use the senses. I’m not the senses. So, who am I? I am consciousness. I am a conscious being. A drop of the ocean of all consciousness. So, we want to return to our origin, which is the ocean of all consciousness. And we never find peace until we reach there. That is our destiny.”
“The spiritual Path is a Path of total dedication, total giving of oneself without reserves. Then, we may experience the totality of the Path. Otherwise, according to how much we give to it, that much we get. According to the percentage we dedicate to the Path, according to how intensely we take it, that’s what we get. Because this is the law of karma, give and take. Cause and effect. Wanting and having.”
“On the mystic Path, if you want to be successful, if you want to experience something great and sublime, we have to live it with all of our being. We have to dedicate all of our energies, love, devotion, and service to it. Only this way it works. And we get the immense benefit that it may offer. And according to the intensity by which we live, the Path we get the benefit. So, if you want a complete transformation, we have to have a complete dedication.”
“For His grace to descend upon us we have to be fully available and fully present. Spiritual practice, spiritual experience it’s all a matter of attention, sharp attention. This allows us to be receptive to the all-pervading power of God. If we perceive this Holy Presence, then meditation is very easy and enjoyable, then we can go within. If we don’t, then we have to struggle with our mind, which is also ever-present. So, let’s keep our attention sharp, focused, concentrated.”