“If we live in His will and if we are grateful to Him for whatever He has given us, then we feel extremely happy and light.” ~Maharaj Charan Singh

During one of his visits to Bahota, the Great Master met a sadhu who wished to discuss spirituality with him. When the sadhu, expounding from the Vedas and other Hindu scriptures, finally exhausted his learned arguments, the Great Master asked, “Sir, how far does your spirit rise inside? Have you ever gone inside?”

“Inside what?” the sadhu asked in a puzzled tone.

A woman dreamt she walked into a fruit shop in a bazaar and, to her astonishment, found God behind the counter.

“What do you sell here?” she asked.

“Everything your heart desires,” said God.

Believing what she was hearing, the woman decided to ask for the finest things a human being could yearn for. “I want peace of mind, love, happiness, wisdom and freedom,” she said.

Then as an afterthought, she added, “Not just for me; for everyone in the world.”

God smiled and said, “I think you’ve got me wrong, my dear. We don’t sell fruits here. Only seeds!”

Jaimal Singh ji was born in village Lath Ghuman (Ghoman) near Batala, Distt. Gurdaspur, Punjab, India, in July, 1839. His father was Sardar Jodh Singh ji a farmer by trade, and his mother was Sardarni Daya Kaur ji. She was a devotee of Bhagat Namdev, and from the age of four Baba ji started visiting the local shrine dedicated to the memory of this Sant Mat Sant.

At the age of five he started his education with Baba Khem Singh ji, a Vedanti sage. Within two years he became a good reader of Guru Granth Sahib and read Dasam Granth also.

At the age of 12–13 years his studying of the Guru Granth Sahib brought him to the understanding that this scripture rejects Pranayama, Vairagya, Hatha yoga, Japa, places of pilgrimage, fasting and rituals as means to finding the absolute God described by Nanak and the other sikh gurus. He reached the conclusion that to follow its method of realising God, he must first find a perfect Master, a Satguru who practices Anhad Shabad, the meditation on the inner sound principle.

In particular he understood his search must be for a master who could explain the reference in the Granth Sahib to the Five Sounds (Panch Shabda). For example a key phrase for him was the following quote from Guru Nanak “Ghar meh ghar daykhaa-ay day-ay so satgur purakh sujaan. Panch sabad Dhunikaar Dhun tah baajai sabad neesaan.” Which can be translated into english as “The True Guru, the All-knowing, Primal Being shows us our true home within the home of the self. The Five Primal Sounds resonate and resound within; the insignia of the Primal Sound is revealed there, vibrating gloriously.”

Some time after the death of his father when Jaimal was fourteen he started the search for a Perfect Master of Panch Shabdi Naam as per the description in the Guru Granth Sahib. After temporarily returning home he again took up the search, undergoing a long and arduous journey around northern India from age fifteen to seventeen. Finally, in Swamiji Shiv Dayal Singh of Agra, he found the one whom he accepted as his Satguru and was initiated by him 1856.

After taking initiation he asked his guru Shiv Dayal if he could become a sadhu and devote his attentions fulltime to abhyas. But his guru told him that the Sant Mat tradition was for followers to earn their own living by honest means. Jaimal told Shiv Dayal that his family tradition was farming but that would involve marrying which he said felt no inclination to do. Therefore Shiv Dayal advised the teenage Jaimal to join the local regiment of the British Indian Army, which he did in 1856.

In Oct 1877, Shiv Dayal ordered Baba Jaimal Singh ji to start initiating “true seekers” in Punjab Swamiji advised him not to interfere with the religious choice of a devotee, and to “steer clear of sects and creeds.”

During his service in the Army, Baba Jaimal Singh ji met and initiated Baba Bagga Singh ji in Multan, now in Pakistan. Bagga Singh started a new line of gurus at Tarn Taran after Jaimal’s death.

Baba Jaimal Singh Ji retired from the Army on June 7, 1889 and started living in his village, and later built a hut in village Bal Saran at the bank of river Beas, Punjab, India, and started living there. Slowly, a number of devotees increased and one of his devotees donated three beeghas of land for the colony known as the ‘Dera’ and Radha Soami Satsang Beas.

Once he went to Mari Pahar, a city in Pakistan, where he initiated Baba Sawan Singh ji who became the successor guru at Dera Beas after Jaimal’s death.

Baba Jaimal Singh spent his whole life in the service of Dera Beas and its devotees. He left his mortal body on Dec 29, 1903.

He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, “It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you.”

The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. “I am going to give each one of you a seed today. One very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here after one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor!”

One boy named Ling was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.

After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing.

By now, others were talking about their plants but Ling didn’t have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went by, still nothing in Ling’s pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing.

Ling didn’t say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow. A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn’t going to take an empty pot.

But honest about what happened, Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful in all shapes and sizes.

Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, “Hey nice try.”

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back.

“What great plants, trees and flowers you have grown,” said the emperor. “Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!”

All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front.

Ling was terrified. “The emperor knows I’m a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!”

When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. “My name is Ling,” he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him.

The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, “Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!” Ling couldn’t believe it. Ling couldn’t even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor?

Then the emperor said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds, which would not grow.

All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!”

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.

If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory.

If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony. If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation. If you plant openness, you will reap intimacy.

If you plant patience, you will reap improvements. If you plant faith, you will reap miracles.

But

If you plant dishonesty, you will reap distrust.

If you plant selfishness, you will reap loneliness.

If you plant pride, you will reap destruction.

If you plant envy, you will reap trouble.

If you plant laziness, you will reap stagnation.

If you plant bitterness, you will reap isolation.

If you plant greed, you will reap loss.

If you plant gossip, you will reap enemies.

If you plant worries, you will reap wrinkles.

If you plant sin, you will reap guilt.

So be careful what you plant now, it will determine what you will reap tomorrow.

A man prayed to God: “I Want Happiness” God said: First remove ” I ” that’s ego, then remove “Want” that’s desire, and see you are left with only “Happiness”?

Isn’t that the simple truth of the matter. Drop ego/I. Drop desire. And we have happiness! That’s how to be happy.

Thoughts?

The word “inspiration” usually means something that mentally stimulates you.

But “inspiration” also means to breathe in.

The meanings poetically combine when you think of yourself breathing in thoughts, filling your body with ideas.

But don’t forget to breathe out.

Some people watch hundreds of TED talks, looking for inspiration.

Tech entrepreneurs visit Hacker News every few hours, looking for new inspiration.

Musicians, writers, artists, and everyone else, all scouring the world for inspiration.

Breathing in, and in, and in, and in.

Yet most of them aren’t feeling inspired enough. They’re looking for more, thinking something else out there will truly inspire them.

Want to know why?

Because nothing is truly inspiring unless you apply it to your work.(“work” meaning your life’s output, whether creative, business, or personal.)

In other words, your work, itself, is the inspiration.

You may hear something or see something that gives you a new idea.But it’s only when you stop and think of your work through this new perspective, that you actually jump up and go turn the idea into reality.

That’s the real inspiration that everyone is looking for!

The inspiration is not the receiving of information. The inspiration is applyingwhat you’ve received.

People think that if they keep reading articles, browsing books, listening to talks, or meeting people, that they’re going to suddenly get inspired.

But constantly seeking inspiration is anti-inspiring.

You have to pause the input, and focus on your output.

For every bit of inspiration, use it and amplify it by applying it to your work.

Then you’ll finally feel the inspiration you’ve been looking for.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan (via wahiduddin)