(Part 1 of 10)
"When I look into your eyes,
Your love is there for me.
And the more I go inside,
The more there is to see."
(The Beatles)
(Note: With the death of Sawan Singh, most Satsangis focused their devotion on Jagat Singh, eminent Satsangi of Sawan, and the man designated as heir to the ghaddi (essentially, throne of leadership) and Dera Baba Jaimal Singh. From this lineage came Charan Singh (Sawan’s grandson) who was designated Master of the Dera a few years later upon Jagat’s death, and then most recently Gurinder Singh (Charan’s grandson) who was designated by written will to be Charan’s heir upon his passing in 1989.
However, not all people followed Jagat Singh. A solid group of Satsangs believed with all their hearts that Kirpal Singh – another awakened soul extremely close to Sawan Singh – was heir to the actual mastership (if not the ashram), and they followed him as he left the Dera and moved to Dehli. From Kirpal arose a variety of Spiritual Teachers – both east and west. Given that my lineage flows through Kirpal, I have chosen to continue my biography series of Surat Shabda Teachers through him.
I want to make it clear that in choosing to continue this series of biographical sketches through Kirpal Singh, I am in no way attempting to raise him over Charan Singh, or any other lineage. I have – and have always had – incredible respect and love for Charan Ji. I am simply telling the story of my spiritual family tree. All my love in Naam, Michael Turner )
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And now we take up the life of one of the greatest Spiritual Teachers of the 20th Century, and one of two major successors to Sawan Singh: Sant Kirpal Singh. The information for this biography was mostly drawn from “Portrait of Perfection” SK Publications, and “Kirpal Singh: A Brief Life Sketch”, Ruhani Satsang Books, with most pertinent facts coming from the latter. I ask your forgiveness if my words fall short of doing him justice. It is all I can do to write them down
Kirpal Singh was born on February 6, 1894, in the village of Sayyad Kasaran, in the Rawalpindi district of India. His parents were devout Sikhs who prayed for a spiritually-minded child, and there were several early portents that their prayers would be answered. It has been said that the name “Kirpal” itself means “The Gracious One”. Moreover, his parents’ names were also auspicious: “Hukam Singh” (his father) meaning “Bearer of Divine Will” and “Gulab Devi” (his mother) meaning “Goddess of Roses”. And the name “Singh” means “Lion”. Indeed, to borrow from historical novelist Taylor Caldwell, the name “Kirpal Singh” could be taken to mean “Great Lion of God”.
As I mentioned a moment ago, Kirpal’s spiritual interest was manifest at a very early age. By the time he was four, he had already developed a meditation technique by means of which he could leave his physical body at will and explore the inner regions. This youthful predilection for inner travel foreshadowed that of his famous American student, Paul Twitchell, as well as Paul’s successor (and my Teacher) Darwin Gross.
It was also during Kirpal’s childhood that he made the decision to be a strict vegetarian, announcing to his parents that he didn’t want his “body to be a graveyard”. He also developed a well-defined sense of what was spiritually appropriate and what wasn’t. For instance, Kirpal had “paranormal” talents such as transvision, precognition, healing, etc. Yet he was anything but enamored with them (and, in fact, often yearned for a normal boyhood). He intuitively knew that such abilities were of a psychic nature, a distraction from God and, as such, to be generally avoided. All that mattered to him was being an obedient instrument of Divine Love. Kirpal commented on this many years later when he wrote,
“Miracles, spiritual healings, psychic phenomena, fortune-telling, akashic records and worldly desires are all to be left aside, for these are positive hindrances on the Path. The entire energy is to be conserved for internal progress.
‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all things shall be added unto you.’
...The miraculous powers achieved after a lengthy period of time are instrumental for doing both good and harm, and as they are utilized more for harm than anything else, they are termed as a disease by all truly spiritual persons. The Masters are in possession of Supreme Power but their mission is sacred . . . To hesitate to believe in a Master without seeing miracles is as foolish as our refusal to believe that a certain man is a multimillionaire unless he shows us his money . . . Those who are anxious to see miracles are not true seekers . . . Making prophecies and performing miracles are simply collections of mind.”
Regarding spiritual healing, He further stated,
“Spiritual healing is prohibited by the Masters. It has reasons and deeper significance behind it, which ordinarily people ignore, considering the face value of the profits accrued and attributing it as service to the suffering humanity. The inexorable Law of Karma is supreme and demands adjustment of each farthing . . . (T)he reactions of past karma must demand adjustment and as such are too borne by the victim. The healer, whosoever he may be, conducting this service, takes the karma on his head, to be borne by him at a later stage . . . Again, this sort of healing becomes professional and at times encourages corruption and misery. It not only invites malpractices, but brings in more of mental agony and wretchedness in multiplied form added with interest. This is a causal postponement of payment for a future date, and adds strong fetters over the soul.”
In keeping with the above admonition, Kirpal never performed any overt miracles or healings throughout his life. Instead, he aided the suffering humanity by selflessly serving those in need (such as in the case of the flu epidemic that broke out during World War I), tending the sick, administering medicine and using good old-fashioned TLC to comfort those who suffered.
http://spiritualfreedomsatsang.org/michaels-blog.html