The following section contains the collected quotes from Satguru Sirio Ji and earlier Masters of Surat Shabd Yoga.
“If you have some time with the Master, heart to heart, that gives you more than hundreds of years of penances.”
“It is not you who are to control the mind. It is that Power within you, the contact of which has been given to you. The more you come in contact with That, mind will be controlled. It is only God Power that can control it, and you have been given a contact with that God Power in the form of Light and Sound. The more you come in contact with That, the more the mind will be stilled. When that sound begins to be heard, without closing your ears, all the time, then your mind will be controlled.”
“If you reform yourself, the whole world is reformed.”
“When it comes in Your Will, You make us sit under the earth.
When it comes in Your Will, You make us fly in the sky.”
“When we go into a deep sleep state, sometimes we mutter something. Whatever our subconscious reservoir is full of in the way of worldly thoughts, those very things come out. We mutter something very deeply about which we do not know, because of the overflowing of the thoughts already in the subconscious reservoir of our mind. Kabir says, “What is the criterion of a man who is devoted wholly and solely to God? If in a deep sleep state, the word of God or the Master comes out of his mouth, then such a man is wholly and solely devoted to Him. What would I offer to such a man? I would offer my flesh, my skin to make shoes for his feet”. You follow, which form of devotion bears forth full fruit? It is that which is wholly and solely devoted to One. Our mind is devoted to so many things. Such devotion will not bear forth fruit. If we want our devotion to bear forth fruit from day to day and that we should see this fruit in our lifetime, then our whole attention should be rivetted to the Feet of the Lord, or the Lord manifested in the God-in-man. The result will be that if you love all the world for His sake, you will not be attached to the world.”
“I may not be able to see you or you may not be able to see me physically, but the God-power, which is the true Master, now resides with you and shall never leave you till the end of the world.”
“If you come across somebody who is competent to give you some Light, that means His inner life is clear. Just sitting and repeating something hundreds of times may be good actions but not clean life. Light will come up only (it is there), will manifest only when somebody in whom that Light is reflected simply directs it. If a child is born in a cave, he will be in all darkness. If a mirror is put in, through which the light of the Sun is reflected into the cave, the child will see that light. Any heart that has got the Light of God will reflect that same Light and this in turn will be reflected in whom it is directed. This is the difference between a true love and a physical love. You cannot have this thing from a man who has not reflected the Light of God within him. There are so many masters in India and elsewhere. They have good propaganda. Propaganda can be had by money and that anybody can do. But what is the criterion? He has to give you something. So a true Master is one who can withdraw your attention from outside, bring it up from the outgoing faculties and then give you some reflection of Light. This is a sort of gift and is the criterion to judge right from wrong. Books refer to these things, but words cannot explain them as vividly as I am telling you now. So love God and others in whom He is reflected. What is the criterion? When He initiates you, when you think of Him, the Light will be boosted up within you. He is competent to give you a first hand experience on the very day of Initiation.”
“Every day brings in a new life full of vast opportunities. You must not apprehend any fears whatsoever and instead try to harness your faculties for attaining the goal of spiritual perfection. Take and accept life with all its vissicitudes in easy terms of joy and bouyancy. Just face the situation bravely with mental equipoise and stability. The tree of life reared in storms yields more of cool shade and rich fruit. Failures should serve as steppingstones to success. It is persistent effort which overcomes all difficulties.”
“Just as we need food for the body, so do we need food for the soul. We are very careful in giving food to the horse of the body, but starve the rider – the spirit – the life-giving fountainhead that enlivens the body and without which it has no value. We must provide food to spirit more regularly than we do for the body; no matter where we are, whether at home or abroad, and no matter what the circumstances may be, this should be our first and foremost concern.”
“The people are crying for peace. How can we have it? Peace should start from our hearts. This will be achieved if we give right understanding to the people at large, which will result in right thoughts. First comes understanding, then comes thoughts, then comes right thoughts will result right speech. And the right speech will result in right actions. The whole thing starts from the right understanding. So, Masters say all is holy where devotion kneels. So, this is the first right understanding: we are living in Him, being in Him, He is in us, out us, above us, below us. Like fish we are having our existence in Him. That is right understanding.”
“Service before self counts for much on the Path of the Masters. The little self or ego within has to be eliminated by dissolving it into service of humanity. For all are children of one God, no matter how and where situated, or in what inhibitions and limitations of one kind or another they might be living. You may have to face heavy odds, for it is an uphill task, but all adverse winds blow over. If one is able to efface oneself for a higher cause, this in itself provides a shield and a buckler to the true crusader, and helps in overcoming the seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The tougher the struggle, the brighter shines the metal within. This helps to liberate the finer instincts, until one has risen to a Great Spiritual Stature, towering like a beacon light, shedding rays of hope and encouragement to the lone and weary traveller, shipwrecked on the stormy and strife-driven sea of life.”
“Truth is higher than everything but higher still is true living. Truth and true living are not exclusive of each other but go together; one supplements the other and their combination forms the God-like life. One who practices true living will always earn his living by the sweat of his brow and feed himself and his family on rightly procured foods consisting of fruits, vegetables, nuts, cereals and permitted dairy products. Furthermore, he will be honest and above-board in his dealings with others. These three aspects of conduct are indispensable aids to true living. One can gauge his or her spiritual progress by the measure of conscious control that he or she has over their thought pattern. One who has in some measure achieved this control will not be swayed or upset by outer conditions, stresses and strains that his environment may place on him. If one cannot rise above, be in full control of, and handle with ease, the circumstances of his outer environment, he will never be able to succeed in the way of spirituality.”
“There is only one remedy for all such discord and that is Love. He who has not mastered its secret, can never hope to be received in the Court of the Lord. It is the beginning and the end of spirituality. He who understands Love in its true nature and who lives and moves by its light shall, surely as two added to two makes four, attain the Lord.”
“Who is a true lover? One who has cleansed himself from the dirt of all worldly thoughts and desires by burning them in the fire of devotion and separation. His mind is always restless to meet the Lord, just as thirst makes a man restless for water. The lover’s mind and body have been pierced by the arrow of God’s Love. His real friend and Beloved is none other than God Almighty.”
“I see the caravan of camels as well as their drivers happy from head to foot in the intoxication of love. The rich are intoxicated, the priests are intoxicated, my friends are intoxicated, and even my enemies are intoxicated. I see them all in a state of unique bliss. O heaven, how long will you continue moving! Look at the movement of the elements: Earth is intoxicated; Water is intoxicated; Wind is intoxicated; Earth is intoxicated; and even Fire is intoxicated. This is the state which I see outside. But please do not ask me about the state of my inner being. My senses, my intellect and even my soul are intoxicated, and they have achieved a permanent bliss of intoxication. The roots of these tree-like bodies are drinking the secret wine of love. Have patience, because even you will one day wake up into this state of intoxication. In my mind there is a festival of bliss. You should try to feel the effect of the wine of Divine love, so that even the walls and the doors are all intoxicated.”
“Come, let us go to Sukhman,
That land of calm, unruffled by passions.
Let us sit there and enjoy a drink of great rarity,
With sweet of knowledge and mahua flowers of meditation,
Brewed in faith with the water of the mind.”
“Always be buoyant and fresh when you sit for meditation and wait patiently, like a loving baby looking up into the eyes of the nursing mother.”
“Whenever a Master appears in this world, seekers of the real truth are attracted towards him like moths, and like bees they hover round that loving flower of spirituality and enjoy its taste. They are attracted towards him as the moon-bird is attracted to the moon in the sky. They cannot endure separation even for a moment. Because of the divine power of the Master, soul are attracted towards him, and the fire of steadfast love and devotion is awakened in them. This love and devotion is the means of making the disciple a recipient of the Lords’s mercy and of taking him to the original home.”
“Where is that moon that never rises or sets?
Where is the soul that is neither with or without us?
Don’t say it is either here nor there.
All creation is Him but for the eyes that can see.”
“The only way to become a conscious co-worker of the divine plan is to know that He’s doing it, you are not. You will have to become a mouthpiece of God. Masters speak as inspired by God, and we all have to become that. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Every king wants his son to be a king, not a minister. Every Saint wants his man coming up to be a Saint.”