Surat Shabd Yoga
The two things that emerge from an examination
of the popular forms of yoga that were evolved after Patanjali are: first that the
soul can rise above physical consciousness, given means whereby it can focus
its energies, without recourse to the arduous control of pranas, and second
that full spiritual realization or true samadhi
is not merely a matter of transcending the physical (though that is necessary
as a first step), but is the end of a complex inner journey in which there are
many intermediate stages the attainment of which, under certain conditions, may
be mistaken for the final goal and may thus debar further progress. The problem
that arises before the true seeker in the face of such a situation is to
discover a means other than that of pranas, jnana, or bhakti of an Isht-deva,
as not only to enable the spirit-currents to be released from their present
physical bondage, but also to enable the soul to be drawn upward unhindered
from one spiritual plane to another until it transcends completely all the
realms of relativity of naam and rup, of kala and mahakala,
and reaches its goal: at-one-ment with the Nameless and Formless One.
The
Sound Current
It is in the context of this problem that Surat
Shabd Yoga, or the yoga of the celestial Sound Current, assumes its unique
importance. Those who have mastered this yoga teach that the Absolute, though free
of attributes in Its primal state, projects itself into form and assumes two
primary attributes: Light and Sound. It is no mere accident, they point out,
that in the revelatory literature of all major religions there are frequent
references to the "Word" which occupies a central position in their
pattern. In the Gospels we have:
In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
In ancient Indian scriptures we read repeatedly
of Aum, the sacred Word pervading the three realms of bhur, bhuva and swah (i.e., the
physical, astral and causal). Again, Nanak says:
The earth and sky are of
naught but Shabd (Word).
From Shabd alone the light was born,
From Shabd alone creation came,
Shabd is the essential core in all.
Shabd is the directive agent of God,
the cause of all creation.
Prabhati
The Muslim
Sufis declare:
Creation came into being from
Saut (Sound or Word)
and from Saut spread all light.
Shamas-i- Tabrez
The Great Name is the very
essence and life of all names and forms.
Its manifest form sustains creation;
It is the great ocean of which we are merely the waves,
He alone can comprehend this who has mastered our discipline.
Abdul Razaq Kashi
Moses heard the commandments
of God amidst thunder and flame, while in Zoroastrian
and Taoist thought alike there are
references to the "Creative Verbum," the "Divine Light,"
and to the "Wordless Word," the silent Word.
Some learned scholars and theologians in
subsequent times, because of their own limited experience, have interpreted
these descriptions as metaphoric references to intuitive or intellectual
enlightenment. On closer examination such a position will be found to be
untenable. The terms "Word" or Logos as used by the Greeks,
Hebrews and Europeans, may be distorted to mean "reason" or
"order," and "light," may even be made to mean no more than
mental illumination, but their equivalents in other religious literature--nad,
udgit, akash-bani, shabd, naam, saut, bang-i-Ilahi, nida-i-asmani,
sraosha, tao, and jyoti, prakash, tajalli, nur-i-yazdani, etc.,
refuse to bear such a travesty of their original mystic meaning. What is more,
some seers have stated their real connotation in such a way that there can be
no scope for equivocation or room for doubt that what is involved is not
figurative expression of ordinary mental experience, but transcendent inner
perception. Thus, in the Revelation of St. John we have:
His eyes were as a flame of
fire...
His voice as the
sound of many waters…
His countenance
was as the sun shineth in his strength…
And I heard a Voice from
heaven,
as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of a great thunder:
and I heard the voice of harpers, harping with their harps.
While in the Upanishads we are told:
First the murmuring sounds
resembling those of the waves of the ocean,
the fall of rain and then running rivulets, after which the bhervi will be
heard,
intermingled with the sounds of bell and conch.
Nad-Bind-Upanishad
The Prophet
Mohammad heard celestial music which gradually assumed the shape of Gabriel and formed itself into words;
while Baha U'llah relates:
Myriads of mystic tongues
find utterance in one speech, and myriads
of His hidden mysteries are revealed in a single melody;
yet alas, there is no ear to hear nor heart to understand!
Blind thine eyes, that thou
mayest behold My Beauty, and stop thine ears
that thou mayest hearken unto the sweet melody of My Voice.
These references to Light and Sound, say the
Masters of the Surat Shabd Yoga, are
not figurative but literal, referring not to the outer illuminations or sounds
of this world, but to inner transcendent ones. They teach that the transcendent
Sound and Light are the primal manifestations of God when He projects Himself
into creation. In His Nameless state He is neither light nor darkness, neither
sound nor silence, but when He assumes shape and form, Light and Sound emerge
as His primary attributes.
This spirit force, Word, Naam, Kalma or
God-in-action, is responsible for all that is, and the physical universes that
we know are not the only ones that It has created. It has brought into being
myriad regions and myriad creations over and above the physical. Indeed the
whole is a grand unfathomable illimitable pattern in which the Positive pole (Sach
Khand or Sat Lok) is a plane of pure, unalloyed spirit, while the
Negative pole (Pind) is of gross physical matter with which we in this
world are familiar. In between are countless regions which those who have
journeyed from one end to the other often divide into three distinct planes in
accordance with the balance of Positive-spiritual and Negative-material forces
in each plane.
The Masters teach that the one constant principle
that links all these planes from pure spirit to gross matter is the principle
of the flaming sound or the sounding flame. The Word or Shabd as it
descends downward assumes a varying density of spirituo-material forces.
Mystics speak of the purple light and the light of the noonday or setting sun,
and refer to the sounds of flutes, harps, violins, conches, thunder, bells,
running water, etc., but though manifesting differently at different levels the
Shabd yet remains constant in Itself.
As a river springing from the snowy peak of a
towering mountain flows toward the sea, it undergoes many changes of setting,
shape, motion and appearance, and yet its waters remain the same.
If one could discover this audible life-stream
within oneself, if one could discover its lower reaches, one could use it as a
pathway leading inevitably to its source. The currents might at certain points
enter gorges and rapids, but nevertheless they are the surest way on the upward
journey. Be a range how-soever unscalable, the waters will have cut a pass and
carved a passage, and he who will avail himself of their guidance would never
fail to find a way. And since this Naam or Word-current springs from the
Anaam or the Wordless, he who holds firmly to It will inevitably reach
the starting point, transcending plane after plane of varying relativity until
he arrives at the very source of name and form; thence to merge into That which
has no name or form.
KIRPAL SINGH
Sawan Ashram,
(from: The Crown of Life)