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One day, a young disciple approached his Sufi Master and asked him

My Venerable Master, what are the steps of the Way, please tell me,
humbly asks the disciple.
The Master gives a very long answer to this question. So today we break
the question up into sections and understand the Master’s answer.

The Master answers the young disciple : My Child, first and foremost
open your heart to my words and listen:-

Quote : Real spiritual progress comes only when your will is guided by soul
discrimination to choose good instead of evil, anytime, anywhere, because
you truly want good for its own sake. Seek to do brave and worthy things
which are left undone by the majority of people. Give gifts of love and
peace to those whom others pass. Then you will be really free. Unquote.

Here the Master bring about a term called soul discrimination – when you
will is guided by soul discrimination.

Many a time, we have heard Huzur Ji on Q&A sessions that every

individual has a conscience which is activated and guided by the soul and
higher mind. It knows the difference between right and wrong. Some
force within tells the individual that this is the right thing to do and that
is the wrong thing to do. But the lower mind, which is guided by the
senses, does not have a strong will power to listen to the conscience and
therefore acts based on its lower and carnal desires.

Soul discrimination, in this instance, is not the process of separating out

things or people, but rather of identifying both differences as well as
that essence that is common to all. It is the power of the clear,
perceptive mind that can see unity behind differences, the truth behind
all concepts, and the One that lies hidden within all form and this comes
about only when we have a strong will power to listen to the conscience.
How to develop that will power. Meditation. When our currents a channel
from outside to inside.

In the path of the Masters, Julian Johnson writes

In becoming a disciple or in approaching this Path, the first requisite is

Viveka. This means right discrimination. Simplified, it means that one is to
use all of his intelligence properly. He must think out things thoroughly,

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especially regarding this path and his own spiritual interests. He must
think long and deep.

This is first step because this is one of the differences between humans
and animals. Viveka, the power of discrimination – between good and bad,
between right and wrong, between love and hate and so on. It is this
discrimination that takes us towards the Master. Not many can come onto
the path by means of pure faith in the Master. There has to be a certain
level of intelligent thinking and discrimination. The mind at the physical
level uses viveka which depends largely on physical intelligence which
concerns brain thinking. Its like Moses who taught us the 10
commandments – Thou shalt not do this or thou shalt not do that. We are
using viveka to guide us in becoming good moral citizens, good seekers on
the path, good beginners on the path. But using the faculty of
contemplation it learns to shed the mind and matter away from its
consciousness and develop a higher consciousness- i.e. from brain
discrimination to heart discrimination which now is called soul
discrimination.

Soul discrimination is the power to choose wisely, in every aspect of life.

It is that faculty of mind that allows us to see our way out of the mire of
illusion to that which we call truth. It is the key that unlocks the meaning
of all our daily experiences; it shows us how these experiences are
expressions of our personality nature and symbols of the soul's purpose.
We also perceive through mental discrimination of the mind how to free
ourselves from these limiting experiences. Through right discrimination
we can see, in every instance, the best path to take when making choices,
and thus tread the path unerringly toward the light and love of our inner
soul and the contact the Radiant form of the Master.

Discrimination leads us to the path of service to humanity and to the

larger whole. Discrimination allows us to find our purpose in life and
identify the particular aspect of the Divine Plan that we recognize we are
responsible for carrying out. It allows us to wisely identify our area of
service, seva, and to apply that which we know for the assistance and
understanding of mankind.

If we read the bible, Moses gave the 10 commandments to guide our sense
of discrimination at the intellect level but Jesus gave us the commandments
which concerned only the soul. Eg. He did not only say thou shall not do this
or that. But he said,

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“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”, or Blessed are the
poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and so on.
Huzur Ji says - The meek and poor in spirit means those people who are
humbly patient, submissive and are filled with love and devotion for the
Father. Only they will inherit the earth - meaning that heaven where the
Father lives - not this physical earth. They will be able to go back to the
Father. This is a very key point made by Christ for He tells us that only
such people will be able to go back to the Father. Without this quality, it
will be impossible to go back.

“Meek” refers to those who are humble or full of humility. When we are
able to eliminate the ego, when we are filled with love and devotion for the
Father, then we are humble. The Father is indescribably great and mighty.
When we realize this, we also realize how insignificant we are before the
Father. Then we don’t see anybody else in the world but Him, and this
creation doesn’t exist for us. Only the Father exist and we exist for Him.
Then we’ll realize that we are really humble. He is superior and we are
inferior before Him. But the Father is in every being and every human being
is potentially the Father himself. When we realize this, then real humility
comes, real love and the desire to become one with Him grows. These are
the meek.

When one has love for the Lord and his creation , than other qualities
follow: they are compassion, modesty, temperance, humility, sympathy,
forgiveness, mercy, understanding, caring, kindness, humbly patient, giving,
fellow-feeling and heart-felt attraction. Its proof is that one’s heart melts
like butter on seeing the suffering of another and sincerely helps his fellow
man in his short-comings. Sheik Sa’adi says that if there are no feelings of
kindness, mercy or love in a man, then there is no difference in such a man
and the figure of a man on a wall. Both are useless. Even animals have some
feelings to a certain extent.

At this stage we develop what is known as soul discrimination.

It allows us to see the soul shining brightly in the heart of every human
being, and gives us the power to nurture and stimulate that Light through
mediation. Discrimination shows us the difference between an illusion and
the reality and between outer appearance and the inner life. It shows us
the distinction between body, emotions, and mind, between personality
and soul, between soul and Shabd, and between every grade of objective
and subjective substance in the universe.

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Soul discrimination is acquired by the full development of the mind

through daily being in touch with the shabd or Nam which the Masters
have shown us the technique during initiation. Then it lifts us up By its
vibration such that everything may be seen in its light. Through countless
incarnations each individual has made choices and has experienced the
inevitable consequences of both good and bad decisions resulting in good
and bad karmas. Through pain and suffering we come to realize what
choices lead to the good, the true, and the beautiful, and which do not.
Gradually our whole mental nature is lifted up and strengthened until
right choices are repeatedly made as we constantly keep in touch with the
shabd. That’s why the Master says real spiritual progress comes only
when your will is guided by soul discrimination to choose good instead of
evil, anytime, anywhere, because you truly want good for its own sake

As we spend more time inside, the intensity of this form of discrimination

sharpens. We learn to think clearly. Our internal Spiritual intuition
develops and guides the actions of the lower mind. Our will power is
redefined on a different plane altogether. By stilling the mind, it helps
the disciple hold the mind steady in the light and observing the daily
activity as the view of the Onlooker. When the intuitional impressions are
consciously registered in the mind, then "right thinking" becomes a normal
part of our lives. Our past sanskaras, our past impressions from our
former lives are slowly being shed.

Then the Master continues

Seek to do brave and worthy things which are left undone by the majority
of people. Give gifts of love and peace to those whom others pass. Then
you will be really free.

When the Master says give gifts of love and peace to those whom others
pass – its like Christ saying – Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall
be called the children of God. Huzur Ji explains this – he says we are
peacemakers when we are able to obtain peace within ourself. We obtain
peace within when the soul gets release from the mind, and we are able to
realize ourself. We can only give gifts of love and peace when we are at
peace with ourselves.

Many of us give in to the will of the mind and never listen to our
conscience. When we give in to our desires and weaknesses, we truly

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become slaves of the mind and end up in misery by returning to this god
forsaken world. By developing our soul discrimination, we learn to make
decisions not of the body but of the soul, of the shabd. Its very easy to
give in to temptations but only the brave are able to resist. In the Sant
Mat books, so much has been written about the constant struggle
between what the mind wants to do and what it is supposed to do. When
we start moving towards making decisions in our lives which brings us
closer to the Lord, we know we are doing good. But how do we know what
we do brings us closer to the Lord? Through soul discrimination. And when
we make decisions based on that, we don’t worry about what others say
about us, or we don’t worry about ourselves for we know who we truly are.
But only the brave are able to do this. So when the Master says seek to
do brave and worthy things which are left undone by the majority, it
means not many are brave to resist the temptations of this world. Not
many can take the road less traveled for there is much struggle and many
obstacles – but the rewards measure beyond many many times the pain we
go through.

We always want to be close to those who are high and mighty. We humble
ourselves to them but never do we see the rest of the people, who have
no status, no riches, no material wealth with the same eye as we do the
rich. Only when we learn to love everyone equally, even those who others
turn a blind eye, are we truly accepted in the Kingdom of God, are we
truly his sons. When we treat all equally do we become really free. How
do we become free. Its because we don’t subject ourselves to the laws of
this world, to the rules of the county but to the laws of Love because God
is Love. If God is free and he is Love, then to be free is to be in that
sphere of God’s love. The demands from us if we want to be free are
very high. How do we do that?

The Master then continues

Good habits are your best helpers; preserve their force by stimulating
them with good actions. Bad habits are your worst enemies; against your
will they make you do the things that hurt you most. They are detrimental
to your physical, mental, moral, and spiritual happiness. Starve bad habits
by refusing to give them any further food of bad actions. It is only when
you discard your bad habits that you are really a free man. Until you are
your own master, able to command yourself to do the things that you
should do but may not want to do, you are not a free soul. In that power
of self-control lies the seed of eternal freedom.

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The whole process of meditation is to change our attention and

contemplation towards the Higher Consciousness. At this physical level,
our consciousness is at a more base level. In physics, as the electron gets
more and more energy, it moves to higher and higher levels. Likewise, if
we reverse our attention inwards and upwards, our energies brings us to
higher and higher levels. But the mind does not know of the beauty of
these levels and is stuck thinking this is it, this is the only way we can get
happiness. So it pulls us down to lower levels of consciousness and what
could be lower, the animals.

So our animalistic tendencies in the form of lust and anger, our egoistic
tendencies, our greed and our attachment to all of this creation is based
on the lowest level of vibration, lowest level of consciousness. So our
habits are also created based at this level of consciousness. When the
Master says – good habits are our best helpers and preserve them by
stimulating them with good actions. We have to fundamentally find out
how to reverse our attention from the lower planes to the higher planes.
We have to find out what exactly is it to be human, to be humane first.
Even though we have heard that we are spiritual beings having a human
experience – this is not true if we are still acting below the level of the
human. What is a true human and what should be our habits and actions
be. For the mind, the 5 perversions is truly food for itself. Worst than
the pig, who acts only because of its animalistic instincts, we delve in the
dirt even though we have discrimination and conscience, even though we
have access to the higher level of consciousness.
Now this has been happening for eons, for ages. So many of the bad
habits have been deeply grooved into our minds and we have to start the
process of annihilating them, burning them away. Sometimes, out of
instinct, we act in the wrong manner – the Master says, we have to
control these bad habits which translate into bad actions. Until then, we
are not free. We are trapped. We are servants of the mind. He says, in
that power of self control, lies the seed of the eternal freedom. We
should realize that every time we control ourselves from those five
perversions, from our bad habits, you give yourself power – power of
what? Power to be free from this world of pain and suffering. That’s why
he says, only when we discard our bad habits, we are really a free person.

Then we ask ourselves, aren’t already free? Since we can do whatever we

want today? The Master continues -

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To be able to do whatever one pleases is not the real meaning of freedom

of action. You should understand to what degree you are free, and how
much you are influenced by bad habits. To be good just because it has
become a habit to be good is not freedom. Nor to be tempted is sinful,
but to be able to resist and overcome temptation is greatness; this is
emancipation, for you are acting by free will and free choice only.

So here, the Master is saying, just because many of us can do whatever

we please is not the real meaning of freedom of action. Many of us, we
grew up in a good environment, our parents thought us good values. That
is nurture. Not nature but nurture. Our conditioning was good. Huzur Ji
always tells us, whatever actions we do, how do we know that they are not
a consequence of our molding, of our programming as we grew up, our
education, our upbringing, and so on. So everything we do is conditioned on
our background and there is no real free will. So if we do good actions, we
should not think that we are actually free. Our upbringing help us make
that decision. The true challenge is, when we are subjected to
temptations and in our hearts, our conscience tells us, No, this is not
right and I will not do it. If we listen to that power, that positive power
within. If we listen to what sometimes the Master says, to our Higher
Mind, to the plea of our soul – please don’t do this because you will be
subjected to the laws of karma, the laws of pain and pleasure, when we
listen to that higher Voice, then the Master says – THAT is Greatness,
that is moving towards liberation, emancipation. Desires don’t come from
the material point of view only. Desires come when Kal presents to you,
craving of the flesh, craving of the tongue, craving to put someone down,
craving to gossip, craving to hurt intentionally, craving to retaliate, take
revenge. Desires come from all angles, from everywhere – constantly and
very strongly if we are on the path because Maya does her job to the
maximum and does it very well - else, Kal will hurt her. And she enjoys
that job. And the Master says, just because you are tempted, does not
mean it is sinful or its wrong. But to be able to RESIST, to be able to
OVERCOME temptation and desires – that force is power. When we have
true free will, that is true power. So in our daily lives, in our duties, we
have to think very hard, when we are tempted, when our desires start to
ignite, what do we do? If we resist, then we are developing soul power, we
are sharpening our soul discrimination. But how do we do this? How do we
develop that power?

The Master continues

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Always perform small as well as important duties with deep attention,

remembering that God is guiding and stimulating every worthwhile effort
you are making to achieve a noble ambition.

Freedom means the power to act by soul guidance not by the compulsion
of desires. Obeying the ego leads to bondage, obeying the soul brings
liberation. You cannot be free unless you have burned the seeds of past
actions in the fire of wisdom and meditation.

Through difficult daily lessons you will sometime see clearly that negative
thoughts and actions nourish the tree of unending material desire,
whereas good habits nourish the tree of spiritual aspirations.

How beautifully, the Master tells us. Every action of ours should be
performed in his name. No matter how small or big our duties, we should
perform it as though God is guiding and stimulating our effort and not us,
not our ego. Whenever we want to accomplish something, we always think
of the end result, thinking of the reward.

Chuang Tzu, disciple of Lao Tzu, gave a very interesting story to illustrate
this.
Chi’ing, the chief carpenter in a province in old China, was carving wood
into a stand for musical instruments. Whenever he finishes making the
stand, the work would appear as though it was of supernatural execution.
It would be the most beautiful piece of stand no matter how simple it
would be. So Prince Lu asked him one day, What mystery is there in your
art that no one can make any instrument stand look so beautiful they
Chi’ing makes it.
Chi’ing replied, your highness, its no mystery but there is something I do.
When I am about to make such a musical stand, I guard against any great
importance of my own power. I first reduce my mind to absolute silence,
absolutely dormant – three days in this condition, I then become oblivious
of any reward or praise to be gained. Five days, and I become unconscious
of my physical frame. With no thought of my ego present in my mind, my
skill becomes concentrated, and all disturbing elements from without are
gone. I enter the mountain forest, I search for a suitable tree. It
contains the form of the stand required which is afterwards elaborated.
I see the in my mind’s eye and then set to work. Beyond that there is
nothing. I bring my own native capacity into relation with that wood. What
was suspected to be of wonder and supernatural execution in my work is
solely due to this.

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When we look at the sun, the moon, the beauty of nature itself, it all
looks beautiful because it is the creation of God. So when anything done
in his name, with sincerity, one will notice that it is as though it was the
work of God itself. So Chuang Tzu is trying to tell us that all our daily
actions when we want no reward, when we seek to do because we want to
do a good job, then as he Master says - God is guiding and stimulating
every worthwhile effort you are making to achieve a noble ambition. The
outcome is supernatural. But when ego comes in, when we think its we who
are achieving and seek reward, then the outcome is completely out of his
hands.

The Master continues – he says

You are your own enemy and you do not know it. You do no learn to sit
quietly. You do not learn to give time to God. And in meditation you are
impatient and expect to attain salvation all at once. You cannot get it by
reading books or by listening to discourses or by doing charitable works.
You can get it only by giving your time to Him in deep meditation.

Do not look for a spiritual flower everyday. Sow the seed, water it with
the right endeavor. When it sprouts, take care of the plant, pulling out
the weeds of doubt, indecision, and indifference that may spring up
around it. Some morning you will suddenly behold your long-awaited
spiritual flower of Realization.

To the devotional call of that disciple who struggles, who prays, and
meditates in order to know God in body, mind, and soul as the all-
pervading, ever-new Joy - as the ever-increasing Bliss of meditation; He
silently and deeply responds. The love of God cannot be described. But it
can be felt as the heart is purified and made constant. As the mind and
the feeling are directed inward, you begin to feel His joy.

For your many blessings be thankful every day. The basis for your
gratitude should not be material prosperity. Whether your worldly
possessions be many or few, you are still rich in gifts from God. Love Him,
not for the outward things He may give you, but for His gift to you of
Himself.

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Here, the Master says think of him and be thankful for everything that is
happening to you. Ask for Him and not for the things of this world.

Devotion to God is not to be calculated on the basis of the institutions

one has started or helped, the temples one has built or renovated nor the
donations one has given away. These are not vital. What matters, is a
devotion untainted or untouched by any tinge of desire for the benefits
that flows from it or the fruit or consequence of that love. It is love that
knows no particular reason for its manifestation. It is of the nature of
the love of the soul for its source, the Creator, the love of river for the
sea; the love of the creeper for the tree, the love of the star for the
sky.

He says -

In countless ways He is daily seeking your love. He does not punish you if
you refuse Him, but you punish yourself. He is the nearest of the near,
the dearest of the dear. Learn to see God in all persons, of whatever race
or creed. You will surely know what divine love is when you begin to feel
your oneness with every human being, not before. Love Him as a miser
loves his money, and as a drowning person loves breath. When you yearn
for God with that intensity, He will surely manifest.

He wants you to escape this delusive world. He knows how hard it is to

attain liberation. But you have only to remember that you are His child.
You must seek His love for it encompasses eternal freedom, endless joy
and immortality. That love is the only Reality.

When you have found your Perfect Master - there should be

unconditional devotion to Him, because He is the vehicle of God. His sole
purpose is to bring the 'you' to Self and God realization. The love that
the Guru receives from his disciple is given by the Guru to God. A true
disciple obeys his Guru implicitly in everything because the Guru is
wisdom and purity.

One day, two astrologer pundits drew out each other’s astrology charts.
Typically, astrologers can see other’s future but not their own. One of
the astrologers told his friend – I see that you are going to die soon and

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that you will be an elephant in the next life. His friend replied, and I also
see that you are going to die soon and will be reborn as a worm in the
next life. So the future worm fell to his knees and begged the future
elephant, you'll not cease until you find me in my worm incarnation, and
immediately put me out of my misery so that I may be reborn as a nobler
creature. Please promise you’ll do this for me. Just step on me; one foot is
enough. The future elephant remained silent for a while. Finally, he said,
“Yes. I shall do that for you, my friend.”

As ordained by fate, they soon died within weeks of each other and were
reborn. The astrologer elephant had perfect recollection of his previous
incarnation and his sacred vow to his friend. He immediately set out
exploring the jungle, lifting rocks, looking around the forest. But he could
not find his worm friend. He asked other animals and no one has seen him.
After months passing, one day he came across a funny looking rock.
Lowering his huge head, he saw steam rising from the rock. Peering still
closer, he noticed that the smoke was coming from a little tube
protruding from the stone. It looked like a chimney. He used his trunk to
lift the rock and found himself looking straight down into a tiny little
house… and there was his friend in a rocking chair, reading the evening
news in front of a nice fire, with his wife and kids preparing a nice dish of
rotting vegetables.

The elephant trumpeted, “My friend, I am so happy to have found

you. Now I can fulfill my vow,” and he lifted his foot. The little worm
cried “No, no, forget the foolish promise we made. That was before I
discovered how good it was to be a worm. The deal is off, it's cancelled!
Don't do it! The elephant calmly replied, “You'll thank me later,” and
squashed him.

This is what happens to all human beings. The soul and mind, promise
never to go down to the lower speicies. After death, they take a rebirth
and promise to work towards moving upwards the evolutionary ladder.
Even the disciples, we promise our Master or may have promised our
Master in our past life to do our work towards realizing the soul. But like
the worm, we forget our promise to the Master. The future worm
thought that being a worm was going to be awful and he wanted to be
quickly put out of his misery. But he started to enjoy worm life. The
elephant symbolizes the spiritual master, who pushes us outside of our
comfort zone, prodding us mercilessly to remember our divine self. He
crushes our illusions, our ego, and our attachments to the world. Yes, it is

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painful. But as the Sufis say, “When the ego cries at what it has lost, the
soul laughs at what it has gained.”

The Master then talks of the importance of the Guru – he says

God does not talk directly to the disciple. He manifests Himself through
the channel of the Guru and the true disciple is the one that allows
himself to be fully discipled by that channel.

If you allow yourself to be led by the wisdom of the Guru whose will is in
tune with God's, He will then seek to guide you so that you may travel on
the road back to Divinity. The difference between a worldly man and a
Saint is that the Saint has attuned His will to the Divine Will; and thus
obeying His wishes is in reality obeying the Creator.

To keep company with the Guru is not only to be in His physical presence
as this is sometimes impossible, but it mainly means to keep him always in
the heart and to be one with him in principle and to attune yourself with
Him.

You cannot make steel until you have made the iron white-hot in fire. It is
not meant for harm. Trouble and disease have a lesson for you. Your
painful experiences are not meant to destroy you, but to bum out your
dross, to hurry you back to your source and to liberate you from the
prison of birth and death. No one is more anxious for your release than
the Guru.

A true Guru is the servant of God, carrying out His plan for your eternal
emancipation. Realize this, and you will always obey, until you find perfect
liberation. Even the greatest of Masters listen humbly to their Gurus,
because it is the way to righteousness.

And with a gaze full of mercy and compassion the Guru now imparts to His
devoted disciple the final wisdom:-

My dear son, remember and believe this Truth. That the Beloved is the
primary lover; and thus the resonance of love in your heart is but a feeble
echo of His infinite love for you

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