The Divine Light and Sound Stream is the central structure of all creation. It is the structure itself, and it is the Divine Path. One might say that the Spiritual Master and the Divine Light and Sound Stream are one instrument of God and the means to return to God.
This great truth or fact is significantly spoken of in the first chapter of the Gospel of John:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him, nothing was made."
Here, it is definitely stated that something called "Word" is identical to God, the Creator. Although not at all understood by the Christian church, this statement is an important announcement of the stupendous fact of the Divine Light and Sound Stream.
The Indian name is simple, Shabd, meaning sound. But that needs to be clarified. There are many sounds. Logos was the Greek term used by the Neoplatonic school, whose masters were familiar with portions of Eastern Wisdom. Logos means the divine Word.
This divine current, wave, or stream flows from God himself and throughout all the universes. It is not only an emanation from God but also God himself.
When any man speaks in this world, he simply sets in motion atmospheric vibrations. But when God speaks, he sets etheric vibrations in motion and moves in and through those vibrations. In truth, it is God himself that vibrates all through infinite space. God is not static, latent: He is superlatively dynamic. When he speaks, everything in existence vibrates, and that is the Sound, the Shabd, and it can be heard by the inner ear, which has been trained to hear it.
It is the divine energy in the process of manifestation, which is the holy Shabd. It is, in fact, the only way in which the Supreme One can be seen and heard—this mighty, luminous, and musical wave, creating and enchanting.
It is the key to their success in unfolding their spiritual powers and controlling their minds. It is the one sign by which a real Master may be known and recognized from all others. No one is or can be a genuine Master unless he teaches and practices the Divine Light and Sound Stream. No one can become a spiritual Master of the highest order unless he consciously utilizes the Life Stream to gain his development.
Names of the Supreme Logos
It is commonly called Sound Current in India among those who speak English. But the best translation we have discovered is Divine Light and Sound Stream. This carries its deeper meaning and is more comprehensive and inclusive. It is, in fact, a life-giving, creative stream, and it can be heard and seen. This current or wave contains the sum of all teachings emanating from God.
It is his own Word. It includes everything that God has ever said or done. It is God himself in expression. It is God's method of making himself known. It is his language. It is his Word.
This Sound is sometimes called Name; in Sanskrit or Hindi, NAM. But in English, we are not accustomed to putting so much meaning in the word 'name.' It is only correct if we understand that 'name' or Nam stands for all that the Supreme Being is. It is just another way of saying Word, and Word is what God says. It is equally what he does. It is the whole of the divine being in action.
To distinguish God in action from God as divine Essence, we call him Shabd or living Word. The name of anything or anybody is the sound symbol of reality itself. The name conveys to thought everything that belongs to the reality for which it stands. When the Master is said to give "NAM," he gives the Current the Reality for which Nam stands. He literally gives the Divine Light and Sound Stream itself.
This divine NAM, or Sound, or Word, stands for all God has ever said or done. It includes all of his qualities. As stated before, it is the only way the universal Spirit can manifest itself to human consciousness. So when the Supreme Being manifests himself as Sat Nam in Sach Khand, he becomes fully personified and embodied. As Sat Nam, he becomes a personal Creator, Lord, God, and Father. He becomes the Fountain from which the Divine Light and Sound Stream proceeds.
This stream may be perceived and heard by all who participate in it throughout all worlds. It may be seen and heard by attaining an awakened consciousness under the training of a Master. When a man hears it, he hears God. When he feels it, he feels the power of God. This Shabd is, therefore, the Divine Being expressing himself in something that is both audible and visible. This current must not be understood as a river running in one course. It is more like a radio wave flowing from the grand central broadcasting station in every direction. It comes from the Supreme Creative center of the universe of universes.
This wave has two aspects: a centrifugal flow and a centripetal flow. It moves outward from the central dynamo of all creation and flows back toward that dynamo. Moving upon that current, all power and all life appear to flow outward to the uttermost bounds of creation, and again upon it, all life appears to be returning toward its source. It is the latter aspect with which we have to deal mostly.
Upon that wave, we depend on it for our return to our original home. When the Master makes the connection, or as we say in radio, "tunes us in," it is then that we begin our homeward journey, leaving all perishable worlds behind us.
The Nada Brahma
This Word is called Nada (pronounced Nad) in the Vedas. In Vedanta, sound is always considered creative. Sound or anything that sounds is the creative energy. It is referred to as the Nada Brahma, which means the primal word of Brahm. By this Nada Brahma, all creation was brought into existence. The whole of the visible and invisible universe is the manifestation of this primal Nada.
The Nada is the Grand symphony out of which all other symphonies flow. It is the primal music of the universe. Every musical cord of this world is an echo of that primal cord. It is the Vadan of the Sufis and the Shabd of the Hindus. But all Sufis do not distinguish between the primal Word and the manifest word, between the original music and its echo.
They cannot point out the difference between the dhunyatmak sound and the many varnatmak sounds. While we may truly say that all music in the world is a manifestation of the original symphony of the primal Vadan, yet there is a difference between them, a very important difference. The all-creative Nada is the sound out of which all other sounds arise, while at the same time, its heavenly strains linger in all material worlds as echoes of the original melody. It is only these echoes that we hear when we listen to a great orchestra produced by man. Those who love music should remember that they are listening to the distant echoes of the infinite chorus of the universe every time they hear a musical sound upon this plane.
However, we should always distinguish between the echo and the original. The original cannot, however, be heard by the physical organ of hearing. A finer sense must be developed for that.
This Nada is Shabd in Hindi. It is spoken of as the Shabd Dhun, the melodious sound. Again, it is called Akash Bani (Heavenly utterance). Kabir describes it so beautifully as "pure white music."
All Muslim Saints generally refer to it as Sultan-ul-Azkar—King of the ways—or Ism-i-Azam, and Kalma or Kalam-i-Ilahi. It is also called Surat Shabd Yoga, Anand Yoga Anahad Shabd, and Anahad Yoga.
So, it has been called by many names in many languages. It is "The still small voice" and the "Voice of the Silence." It is the same divine sound wave no matter by what name it may be known. Let no one say it is not a sound because it cannot be heard by the physical ear. The physical ear cannot hear the radio electromagnetic waves until they are converted into atmospheric vibrations by the receiving instrument. Yet, when traveling through space, they are just as truly sounds. The Shabd is, in any case, a Divine Light and Sound Stream because it can be heard by a finer ear and seen by the finer eye attuned to its higher vibrations.
What Is the Divine Light and Sound Stream?
It is difficult to explain exactly what the Divine Light and Sound Stream is. It cannot be defined or explained in words. This is so because it is beyond the capacity of any language. We have never known anyone to put it into words because language is limited. If we could summon all the languages ever spoken by man and extract from them their utmost powers of expression, it was a vain effort even then to undertake to describe and explain this primary fact of Nature.
It is a story that is never told because it cannot be told. It is a language which has never been spoken or written. It is an ever-living melody that cannot be recorded on bars and spaces. Its notes are beyond the strings of any earthly instruments. Its inspiring chorus rings through every chamber of the soul, but there is no way to convey the idea to others who have yet to hear it.
Could you describe a Beethoven symphony to a primitive tribe in Papua New Guinea? Its glorious light cannot be pictured on canvas. One sees its feeble reflections in the morning sky, the setting sun, or the silvery moon. But its colors are quite beyond the comprehension of any mortal artist. At the same time, in its pure state, above the regions of matter, it blends into one infinite perfection that no man can describe except to say, "It is all love."
Stated in the simplest words we can employ, the Divine Light and Sound Stream is the Supreme Creator himself vibrating through space. It is the wave of spiritual life from the Creator to every living thing in the universe. By that Current, he has created all things, and by it, he sustains them. In it, they'll live and move and have their being, and by that same Current, they will ultimately return to their source of being.
Try now to get a picture of that Luminous Reality, the Grand Orchestra of the universe. Its heavenly strains not only fill all interstellar space, but they are ringing with far more enchanting music through all the higher worlds beyond the utmost bounds of the physical. The higher we go, the more enchanting the music. Music is less mixed with matter in those higher worlds, so it is not dulled. After passing the lower regions of the cosmos, this sublime chorus becomes so overwhelmingly attractive that the soul grows impatient to go on up. The soul is absorbed in it and lives in it day and night. It is life, joy, and spiritual food for the soul.
There is not a cubic millimeter of space in existence that is not filled with this music. Sweeter and sweeter, its heavenly strains vibrate through every living being, great or small, from world to world and from universe to universe. Its life-giving melodies may not be consciously heard by all who are not trained to catch them, but there is no living being in all creation that does not derive its life from this Current. All joy ever thrilled a living soul has come out of this Divine Harmonic. How great is this Luminous Reality!
If you still think much of the word religion, then you may say that this Current is the only real religion. Or better, it is the giver of all genuine religion. It is the one and only thing in the world that actually binds men back to God. That is the meaning of our word religion—something which binds the soul back to God.
The Three Attributes
Without this Stream, nothing could live for a single moment or even exist. All life and all power come from it. From the crawling ant to the thunderbolt, from the tidal wave to the solar cycle, every manifestation of dynamic energy comes from this Stream. From the burning orbs of the "Milky Way" to the flicker of a candle, all take their light and energy from this grand central power. The pull of gravity, the flash of lightning, the building of thought forms, and the love of the individual soul all come from this Current primordial.
That which physical science calls energy, which the Orientals call Prana, is only a manifestation of this Life Stream "stepped down" to meet material conditions. Like electricity in the air, it is omnipresent. It is also omnipotent. In it lies all energy, either latent or dynamic. It only awaits the proper conditions to express itself as a dynamic force in one form or another.
The tremendous heat, energy, and light of our sun, and all suns, are all derived from this Stream. Every ray of light in the universe is a phenomenon of this infinite stream of light. Upon its power hangs every star in its orbit. Not a single rose may bring forth its buds without this power, and no little child smiles without manifesting this power. If we speak of attributes, let us speak cautiously. Who can comprehend it or assign qualities? Who can analyze it? But we know from its manifestations that it has at least three very wonderful attributes:
Love — Wisdom — Power
And the greatest of these is love. It is believed by some to be quite true if we say that this Self-Luminous Reality has but one attribute—LOVE. This coincides perfectly with Jesus's teaching, "God is love." What more can be said? God is love, and love is God. They are the same, and they are identical to this Life Stream.
The Divine Light and Sound Stream Can Be Seen and Heard
It is a fact of Nature well known to Masters during the most remote ages. The loss of this important knowledge has left most of the world in spiritual darkness. From age to age, the great Masters revive this knowledge after materialism obscures it.
God may be both seen and heard on the inner and higher planes of seeing and hearing. To accomplish this marvelous achievement, we must first seek a living Master and place ourselves under his instructions.
This creative Current, filling all space, may be likened to the electromagnetic waves of the radio. The receiving set is the human body, more accurately, the astral body within the physical. Standing on your table, the receiving set has to be "tuned in" to get the music. Each individual man or woman is a receiving set. As soon as he is tuned in by the Master, he is ready to receive the "pure white music" spoken of by Kabir. It remains only to keep the instrument properly to enjoy this melodious Bani.
It takes a little time to develop the inner hearing. The entire body, particularly the mind and astral body, must be cleaned, purified, and attuned to the higher vibrations.
It takes possession of the hearer's soul; it re-creates him, and then he finds himself a citizen of a new world. The attractions of sense disappear. He is exalted. His heart is purified, and his mind is renewed. He lives anew. He has become immortal. How can the shadow of death ever cross his path? He has entered the Stream of Everlasting Life!
When it is time for him to leave the body, he goes as one who throws off an old garment. Upon the divine Wave, he ascends to the bosom of God. No sorrow of earth can ever again submerge him. He rises above all turbulent waves of passion as a man mounts the sky in an airplane while the floods of muddy water roll beneath him. He rises triumphantly above every evil. One can never again be unhappy after participating in this life-giving music. Long after the melody is shut out by attention to things of this world, its joy continues ringing through one's entire being.
The Only Means of Spiritual Liberation
The Masters all teach that there is no other means of spiritual liberation except the Shabd. Without conscious participation in the Divine Light and Sound Stream, no one can ever escape the net of karma and reincarnation or become free and happy. If anyone feels inclined to deny this statement, ask him if he is free and happy. Or if he knows anyone else who is. Ask him if he knows any other way a man can free himself. Ask him if he is master of his own body or has conquered the last enemy, death.
If he is honest, he must say no. But all this and much more is accomplished through the Divine Wave of spiritual power, which we call the Shabd. Hence, all the Saints place the strongest emphasis on this great Reality. In fact, without this Life Stream, no Saint could ever manifest upon this earth, and hence, the whole world would continue to sit in darkness through endless ages. No soul can escape from this dark material world without conscious participation and a personal relationship with the Current. He should knowingly merge himself in that Life Stream, and he will rise to liberty upon it. It cannot be done in any other way.
By this Stream alone, one can transcend all lower regions and rise to the highest heavens. The Saints have proved this stupendous fact and have demonstrated it times without number—they offer that Path, that Fountain of life, as the only means of spiritual liberation. Saints know that there is no other way. By other means, men may advance some distance toward the light. Without a perfect Guru, and through him attaining conscious union with the Divine Light and Sound Stream, no one may hope to go further than the first region of light, commonly spoken of as the Astral plane, possibly a little beyond that in a few rare instances. Then, they are confronted with such insuperable difficulties, such gigantic obstacles, that they cannot go further. The Guru is then the absolute sine qua non of further advancement.
This Path is known as the Royal Highway of the Saints, the El Camino Real. It is the only Path that leads to spiritual Light and complete emancipation. This is the gospel of the Life Stream. He who drinks of this Stream can never thirst again, but in him is a well of water springing up into life everlasting. Jesus offered this water of life to the woman at the well of Sychar, and he said if she would drink, she would never thirst again.
New Birth Through the Shabd
It may be of interest to the student who was brought up in the Christian faith to know that Jesus himself very definitely mentions the Sound Stream and teaches that the new birth is to be attained using it. This is exactly what all great Masters insist upon.
Jesus says it can be heard, yet the church has entirely lost its meaning. The first chapter of the Gospel of John is called the Word, through which all creation came into existence. If only the Christian disciples had grasped this fundamental fact and held on to it, it would have meant a very different history for the church. But unhappily, the real meaning that Jesus had in mind was wholly lost.
In the third verse of Chapter III, Jesus speaks of contacting the Current and actually hearing it. Then, he distinctly says the new birth is attained through it. All of this is exactly in line with the teachings of the Masters. However, it is a pity that the churches have never understood this reference of Jesus as the most important experience that can possibly come within the range of human life.
Then, in the 8th verse, Jesus clearly mentions actually hearing the sound of the Spirit, which gives the new birth. He says:
"The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof; but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." (St. John 3:8)
In this manner, Jesus makes it very definite that just as the body of a man is born from a woman, body from the body, so the spirit of man is born, brought to light out of the dark womb of matter and its foul corruptions through the action of the Divine Spirit in the form of the Divine Light and Sound Stream. We know he referred to this Life Stream because it says it can be heard. When that birth takes place, the soul actually hears the Sound just as definitely and distinctly as he can hear the rustle of the wind in the tall pines. But as no one can tell exactly where the wind comes from, so no one can tell where that inner sound comes from, nor where it is going. It would be difficult to make a more definite confirmative statement in support of the Divine Light and Sound Stream than this one of Jesus.
Science of the Masters in Six Words
We believe that the entire essence of this science may be summed up in six words. Each word is a gigantic pillar of light. These six words express three great truths, which are subjoined to give expression to the greatest system of truth ever revealed to the consciousness of man. They are like the three great mountains in Trikuti, which grouped together to form one gigantic mountain of light. These three Truths are so vital and so central that if we should forget all else, remembering them only, we would still possess the essence of Santon ki Shiksha.
These three great facts stand out in letters of light at the very entrance to the Royal Highway of the Saints. They constitute the triple beacon of light to guide every soul on his way to freedom. They offer the basic concepts of the teaching of the Masters. They give the vital substance of this book in six words. They should be on the walls of every student's home in blazing letters. They are:
SAT GURU — SHABD DHUN — JIVAN MUKT
I. Sat Guru, the Master, the Saint.
II. Shabd Dhun, the Divine Light and Sound Stream.
III. Jivan Mukti, Spiritual freedom here and now, meaning perfect liberation during this lifetime.
Let us now take careful note of the relationship existing between these three. The three are absolutely inseparable. This is one of the most important points to be kept in mind. You simply cannot have any one of them without the other two. This is a sacred mystery. All of them or none. And there is no possible exception to this rule.
The Sat Guru must come first. The Shabd Dhun comes second and then comes Jivan Mukti. This is the order established by Nature or God. No man can alter it. All men wish for liberation or what theologians call salvation. The salvation of the Masters is liberation from the Wheel of transmigration, from the ills of this life or of any life. And last of all, freedom to live forever in some heaven of unalloyed bliss.
It remains a stern fact of Nature that no man ever has gained or can gain freedom from the ills of this life and escape the uncertainties of the next life until he has the good fortune to meet a living Master. If he does not have that good fortune, he simply must return again and again to this life until he does meet a Master. That is the sum of it, and that is final. Without the help of a Master, no one can ever gain permanent release from this wheel of birth and death.
On the other hand, if you do get a Sat Guru, you cannot fail to get Jivan Mukti or redemption. And this is because the Sat Guru never fails to connect his disciple with the Shabd Dhun.
And so, having both Sat Guru and Shabd Dhun, one cannot fail to get Spiritual freedom, which is here called Jivan Mukti. Let us repeat the fact here—that these three can never be separated—never under any circumstances. And we must not forget that the Sat Guru comes first. It is a natural and logical conclusion, therefore, that the first duty and most important concern of any mortal in this world is to find a true Sat Guru. If you fail in that one regard, your life is a failure no matter what else you may gain.
Here, then, is the formula: First, find a real Sat Guru who can tune you into the Life Current, the melodious Dhun. Then, take hold of that Current and merge yourself into it. Listen to its enchanting melodies, feel its gracious uplift, experience its cleansing powers, and float upon it upward and onward to the city of Freedom. After you have once passed the outermost frontiers of the material and the impure worlds, when you have actually entered the regions of pure spirit, have grown godlike and fit for the highest regions, you will never again return to these low lands of birth and death. You have attained Jivan Mukti, life everlasting. Therefore, let these three great truths be engraved upon your waking consciousness and upon your subconsciousness—think always about these three:
Sat Guru, Shabd Dhun and Jivan Mukti
