Guru Nanak

 

No one can comprehend the Creator, who is beyond human grasp, immeasurable. The soul is deluded by maya, drugged by untruth. Ruined by the demands of greed (such a person) repents eternally, but he who serves the One knows Him, and his cycle of birth and death comes to an end....

For Nanak

 

"all gladness and emancipation is in hearing the divine melody within." The guru thus "intoxicated" with the divine sounds "relinquishes all other music." When one attains to God, then "within one rings the blissful unstruck melody."

TURYA

 

If you ask what that is, it is called Turiya, which means the fourth state. Why is this name used? This name is proper because it seems to say the three states of your experience – waking, dream and deep sleep – are foreign to you and your true state is the fourth, which is different from these three. Should the three states – waking, dream and deep sleep – be taken to form one long dream, the fourth state represents the waking from this dream. Thus it is more withdrawn than deep sleep, also more wakeful than the waking state. Therefore your true state is that fourth one which is distinguished from the waking, dream and deep sleep states. You are That only.

The Adi Granth

 

The Adi Granth makes frequent reference to the human encounter with a Divine Light: "God, being Truth, is the one Light of all." God "shines out in His own splendour." Moreover, "His brightness shineth forth" with "the blaze of the splendour dazzling like the sun."

Guru Nanak added more on this issue in other writings. For Nanak, God is "the light of all light." The light of God "illumines land and seas." God is "the embodiment of light; the lamps of the sun and moon and all their light emanate from Him...." God is "pure light"... the "ever pure light." This "all-wise Being of light sits on the throne eternal." God's light is "infinite," and God Himself "is immaculate and all light."

The Adi Granth also makes it clear that this Divine Light can be found within one's self: "the Eternal Light indwells in the human mind, and the human mind is the emanation of that light." Further, "the best light is the Light of God in the heart." Ultimately, the Sikh aspirant wishes to be immersed in the Divine light, as was Guru Nanak: "as waves blend with water, so my light is blended with the Lord's Light."

Annamalai Swami

 

You have to keep up the enquiry, 'To whom is this happening?' all the time. If you are having trouble remind yourself, 'This is just happening on the surface of my mind. I am not this mind or the wandering thoughts.' Then go back into enquiry 'Who am I?'. By doing this you will penetrate deeper and deeper and become detached from the mind. This will only come about after you have made an intense effort. 

Swami Sahajananda Tirtha

 

The path chosen by a human being to meet the creator is always unique to that individual. And the Supreme Divinity’s grace is always present, no matter which path is taken. The idea of the Divinity is unique and different for every individual, as the nature of earthly knowledge possessed by each person differs.

Aurobindo

 

“be the superman is to live the divine life, to be a god; for the gods are the powers of God. Be a power of God in humanity. To live in the divine Being and let the consciousness and bliss, the will and knowledge of the Spirit possess thee and play with thee and through thee, this is the meaning. This is the transfiguration of thyself on the mountain. It is to discover God in thyself and reveal him to thyself in all things. Live in his being, shine with his light, act with his power, rejoice with his bliss. Be that Fire and that Sun and that Ocean. Be that joy and that greatness and that beauty”

The Upanishads

 

The Spirit is beyond sound and form, without touch and taste and perfume. It is eternal, unchangeable, and without beginning or end; indeed above reasoning. When consciousness of the Spirit manifests itself, man becomes free from the jaws of death.

Prashna Upanishad 3:5-7

 

“And then at the moment of death, through the nerve in the center of the spine, the Udana, which is the fifth Prana, leads the virtuous man upward to higher birth, the sinful man downward to lower birth, and the man who is both virtuous and sinful to rebirth in the world of men.”

Mundaka Upanishad 1:1:8

 

“Brahman willed that it should be so, and brought forth out of himself the material cause of the universe; from this came the primal energy, and from the primal energy mind, from mind the subtle elements, from the subtle elements the many worlds, and from the acts performed by beings in the many worlds the chain of cause and effect–the reward and punishment of works.”