Page 122 - Wisdom Unfurled

sins of his followers. The destination of the souls is Paradise, Hell or Purgatory depending on the nature of their actions, good, bad and or intermediate. There is no higher conception as to the real destiny of the soul.
The Sufi tradition, a mystic one and the spiritual undercurrent of Islam, is however refreshingly different. It runs quite parallel to the way adopted by the mystic traditions of this land, namely, that of devotion, surrender, unconditional faith in the Master and the effacing (negation) of the disciple in the Master who is regarded as the final goal, even God being regarded secondary. In the southern Viashnavite tradition, we have the instance of the azhwar Madhurakavi dedicating his all and everything to his Master Nammazhwar or Satagopa and singing only his praise. We find a similar approach by our Revered. Master who regarded His Master as all in all and did not look anywhere else for His sustenance and progress on the path towards the Ultimate. The Great Master Lalaji Maharaj is believed to have come in the highly revered lineage, the Nakshabandhi Order.
Master on Realization
The Master makes a clear departure from all that has been said above. He observes that as long as it can be defined, it is not Realization. It is a dumb state beyond expression. The thought of people in general does not go beyond the point of liberation, which they take to be the final limit of human approach. But this is a wrong idea. Liberation is really one of the lowest attainments on the Divine path, very much like a toy in the hands of a child to play with. The state of realization lies far ahead. It is a limitless expanse and one must keep his eyes fixed on That and That alone and go on and on to trace it out. That state is a changeless one. It is not a state of Anandam or Bliss as held in popular imagination, the destination being beyond Bliss. The place is a dreary wasteland having no charm for the traveler. The experience is like that of tasting salt which has lost its saltishness ‘sang-e-benamak’. It is the state of Tam or Complete Ignorance or the Base from which the Stir has emerged and which supports it and through it the entire creation. It can be experienced through neither the physical organs nor the senses but only in the inner core of one’s heart. Again it is virtually impossible to attain this supreme state without the help of Pranahuti from a capable Master who is Himself established firmly in that state. The Master quotes Swami Vivekananda who holds firmly that the highest approach, i.e., achieving oneness with the Absolute is possible only in the path of Rajayoga and the active support of a master endowed with the power of Pranahuti. A master is fit to be called such only when he is capable of applying his inner powers through Pranahuti for awakening the soul and guiding it safely through all obstacles in the path. Obviously the master himself should have traveled the