#shabda

PODCAST: The Yoga of SOUND, Part 5: Sant Mat, the Path of the Masters -- Spiritual Awakening Radio with James Bean -- Listen @ Youtube: https://youtu.be/6JYqjVk1HNY

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Today, Part Five of the Yoga of Sound Series! It's time to learn about the Path of the Masters of the East: Sant Mat, the Way of the Saints, Living Gnosis Now, and the Inner Light and Sound Meditation practice (Surat Shabd Yoga) that lets the soul ascend back to the Pleroma (Fullness), Nirvana, Sach Khand, Sat Lok (the True Eternal Timeless Realm), the Kingdom of the Heavens, Radhaswami Dham.

There are inner Sounds that one receives instruction from a true Master about at the time of initiation into Surat Shabd Yoga (Inner Sound Meditation, the Yoga of the Audible Life Stream). These Sounds are perceived to come from the right side or center and represent the Ascending Current. Sounds that appear to be coming from the left side are of the descending current flowing downward into the material creation or multiverse. One is instructed to focus on the Sounds of the Ascending Current or Audible Life Stream — certain Sounds. There are of course many other sounds one might hear, but one has to focus on certain Sound Currents. The reason for this is these Sounds, if focused upon during meditation practice, will keep pulling the soul’s attention up to ever higher and higher levels. These are coming from regions Above. Other sounds, though mistaken for the Sound Current, are interesting, miraculous or even mystical, will not help the Surat-soul to ascend or make spiritual progress.

Sometimes in the news there have been reports about people hearing a mysterious sound that seems to be coming from nowhere. One of these has been called “the Taos Hum.” In, Philosophy of Liberation, Maharshi Mehi states that not only are there spiritual sounds associated with the heavenly realms, but there are also many vibrations or semi-subtle sounds associated with the gross-material realm. He says one should not falsely assume they are accessing the real inner Sound Current just by hearing ANY kind of sound that may manifest itself in one’s perception during the silence of meditation:

“There are sounds due to gross vibrations in the material body. To meditate on these gross-material sounds and believe it to be as the full practice of the Yoga of Sound shows a lack of knowledge of Yoga.” There are gross-material sounds one can hear in the silence of meditation that do not lead one Above, do not lead to spiritual growth, transformation or enlightenment. Swami Vyasanand: “This is because only the Central Sound has the power to attract the consciousness to the center and carry the soul to the center of a higher realm. Other illusory material sounds do not have that magnetism to attract the consciousness to the higher realms.”

“Various sorts of Sound Currents reverberate in the human system from which the initiate has to pick up the right one and listen to it, otherwise he will go astray and lose his equipoise. The practical Guru forewarns his disciple and directs which Sound to listen to and which one to discard.” (Shiv Brat Lal)

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God is the Ocean of Love and All-Consciousness.

In Divine Light and Sound, Gnosis, Peace, Jai Guru, Jai Sat Naam, Satya Raam, Radhasoami, James

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* Introduction to Sant Mat Spirituality and Meditation: http://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com/santmat

Closing of the Ears in Meditation

Swami Santsevi Ji Maharaj in, “Quintessence of Yoga, The Secrets of Success”, writes: “Closing the ears when we hear the Divine Sound within ourselves is the best approach. There is no harm in it. We can include this along with other practices. This practice of inner Sound can go on in the night, because there is no noise at that time and environment is peaceful... When the inner Divine Sound merges into the imperishable Supreme Lord, there is the absolute State of Soundlessness (the Ultimate Reality).”

You may ask, what does it mean to “close the ears”? There is a technique initiates learn to do just that in order to focus on inner Sound. Also, sometimes people use earplugs to block outer sounds during inner Sound practice [bhajan]. But there is another meaning. Some clarification is given in the book, The Harmony of All Religions, by Santsevi Ji, who states that closing the ears is primarily an internal reality that occurs after one’s awareness [attention] has gone within: “When you focus your gaze within the ajna chakra [third eye] then automatically your physical ears will close and the inner ears will open.”

For more on this topic, read: Hearing the Celestial Sound Current During Meditation -- Discourse on Inner Sound Meditation -- material from Shiv Brat Lal, Maharshi Mehi, Swami Santsevi Ji, and Swami Vyasanand about inner Sound Meditation, useful points from rare writings of Sant Mat that some may benefit from:

Inner Sound Meditation: “The ascension of the soul in the reverse direction of flow of streams of sounds can thus be compared to the swimming of fishes. Hence the Yoga of Sound has also been referred to as “mīna mārg” (mīna meaning fish and mārg meaning path). Thus, climbing further and further, leaving all the five spheres behind one after another, the soul finally transcends even the domain of the Quintessential Unstruck Sound and merges into the ‘Anāmī’ (Nameless/Soundless) or ‘Kaivalyātīta’ (beyond Kaivalya or the Conscious) State to be one with [merge with] the Supreme Godhead, to be God Himself. Thus yoga or union or bhakti (devotion) gets completed.”

– Swami Achyutanand’s Online Book on Surat Shabd Yoga – Inner Light and Sound Meditation Practice: Read Or Listen to it as Audio Online: https://archive.org/details/YogaOfInnerLightAndSound/page/n33/mode/2up?view=theater

Or Download: https://ia800700.us.archive.org/33/items/YogaOfInnerLightAndSound/Yoga_Of_Inner_Light_And_Sound_.pdf

Mystic Poetry, Hymn by Haricharan Das, Disciple of Vimal Sahib

The Surat (soul) is blind without Shabad,

Say... where can she go?

If she can't find the door of Shabad,

she remains entangled and wandering. (1)

In the three Realms Shabad is foremost,

this is taught by all SANTS.

Das Haricharan says -- 

By Communion with the WORD -- Guru Nanak's Jap Ji (Morning Prayer)

True is the Lord, True His Holy Word; His love has been described as infinite. Men pray to Him for gifts, which He grants untiringly. When all is His; What can we offer at His feet? What can we say to win His love? At the ambrosial hour of the early dawn, Be you in communion with the Divine Word And meditate on His Glory. Our birth is the fruit of our actions; But Salvation comes only from His Grace. O Nanak, know the True One as immanent in all...

By communion with the Word, one can attain the powers  of Shiva, Brahma and Indra; By communion with the Word, one can win esteem from all  irrespective of one's past; By communion with the Word, one can have yogic insight  with the mysteries of life and self all revealed; By communion with the Word, one can acquire the true import  of the Sastras,(1) Smritis(2) and Vedas;(3) O Nanak, His devotees live in perpetual ecstasy, for the Word  washes away all sin and sorrow.

1. Sastras: The philosophical treatises of the Hindus. 2. Smritis: The ancient scriptures of the Hindus. 3. Vedas: The earliest books of human thought.

By communion with the Word, one becomes the abode  of Truth, contentment and true knowledge; By communion with the Word, one gets the fruit of ablution  at sixty-eight pilgrimages;(l) By communion with the Word, one wins the honour of the learned; By communion with the Word, one attains the state of Sahaj;(2) O Nanak, His devotees live in perpetual ecstasy, for the Word  washes away all sin and sorrow.

1. Ath-Sath: Literally these two words mean Eight and Sixty, i.e. sixty-eight. Nanak is once again making use of the Hindu belief that ablutions at sixty-eight places of pilgrimage bring purity from all sinful acts. see footnote under VII ibid. 2. Sahaj: This term refers to the state when the turmoil of the physical, astral and causal worlds with all their enchanted panorama, are transcended and The Great Principle of life is seen within.

The Mind is Filled with the Divine Music of the Spheres -- Guru Amar Das

The Lord placed the soul in the body’s cave, And the breath held the Music of Life. He made each body with nine gates, (1) With the Tenth Gate (2); remaining well hid. And the Tenth Door was opened to him Who truly loved the Guru’s wisdom. And there lives the Lord in His myriad forms, as well as the nine treasures of the Name. His limit cannot be found.

Says Nanak, the Lord placed the soul in the body’s cave and the breath held the Music of Life.

Listen to this Song of Bliss, you blessed ones, And all your heart’s longings shall be fulfilled. You will reach the Transcendent Lord, and your sorrows will depart. All afflictions and sorrows are destroyed at the Sound of the True Word, And my friends, the saints were in ecstasy when the perfect Guru revealed it. Those who speak and those who listen are pure, And they see the All-pervading Lord everywhere. Nanak prays: Attaching to the feet of the Guru, The mind is filled with the divine Music of the Spheres.

— Guru Amar Das, from Anand Sahib, Peace Lagoon translation _____ Notes:

(1) “nine gates”: The nine visible orifices of the body.

(2) “The Tenth Gate”: The Tenth, or Hidden, Gate of the body: The Third Eye, in essence, is the Portal to inner realms. The Upanishads describe a human being as a city with ten gates. Nine gates (eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth, urethra, anus) lead to the outside world. The Tenth Gate, the Third Eye, opens onto inner worlds: the whole spectrum of levels of consciousness.