I AND MY COSMIC FATHER

BY Niranjan Mundhra

 A year ago, I was haunted by questions about my life and my very existence, such as “Who am I?”, “Where did I come from?”, “What is the purpose of my life?” Thus started my quest for the self. So intense was my desire to explore, that the more I looked outside for answers, the more I found them within.

 It all started when the roller-coster ride of my life at the cruel hands of destiny plunged me into a great financial crisis, due to all fault of mine. My family was shaken up and disturbed, as we underwent the most agonizing experience. Nothing was going the way I wished. I would lock myself up and cry for hours together until the tears dried up. So torturous was the hammering of the time, that once I attempted to embrace death, when some supernatural power came to my rescue.

 It was then that Nirankar (God Formless) disguised himself in the form of one of my family friends, Rev. Resham Singh Bedi, provided me solace and inspired me to surrender at the holy feet of the Satguru or True Master. I apologized for the hurt I inflicted on others and realised my mistakes. I began attending the congregations regularly.

 After a month or so, by the grace of the Master, I had the privilege of receiving the blessings of Rev. J.S. Kamal. He embraced me and impressed upon my family that:

            One, who is protected by God, enjoys bliss;
            One, who is protected by God, never faces a failure;
            One, who is protected by the Merciful, cannot be harmed by the world lings;
            God can kill or save one as it pleases Him.
                                                                                                    (Avtar Bani, Hymn 192)

 Most benevolently, Rev. Kamal imparted to me God-knowledge (Gyan). Gradually, as the time crawled by, I underwent a sort of metamorphosis, and the more I submerged into the discourses delivered by Baba Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj, the more divinity dawned upon me.

 Now I realise that life is a gift, a rare gift, which is to be valued and enjoyed with awareness. Life is purposeful. By leading life according to the teachings of the True Master, there can be proper and positive progress. Life is transformed into greater, deeper and more intense spirituality and thus becomes a pure delight.

 I have discovered that man is an amalgam of several elements and forces. On death, the physical body disintegrates and the elements return to their respective cosmic wholes. However, the soul being immortal, survives. Nevertheless, while embodied, it gets attached to desires. It is to fulfill these desires that rebirth takes place. If the desires remain unfulfilled in lifetime, Liberation is almost impossibility. In other words, for Liberation, desirelessness is a prerequisite, which, in turn, is possible on attaining God-knowledge.

 I gradually learned from the discourses of many saints, now that I had attained God-knowledge, I could choose between truth and falsehood, peace and conflict and love and fear. However, the essence of our being is Love. And, as we blend the wisdom of the True Master with God-knowledge, we can sublimate our personality.

 What a transformation! It has been a simultaneously humbling and soaring experience, as I understood how miniscule and insignificant I am. The more I pondered, the greater was my affinity for the boundless, infinite Nirankar or God Formless. Earlier, emotions ruled and ruined me completely. But now I have become positive by basking in the immense positivity of Nirankar.

My True Master for me is the cosmic father in whose enigmatic self I have briefly seen a vision of the universe wherein my ego and self is a worthless speck. I have full and firm faith in both my True Master and Nirankar, because if I am alive today, it is due to their divine benevolence.