Assignment, Celibacy and Altruism

I have explained that there is a general ‘assignment’ in yoga directed to all followers in the sense of ‘Follow me’. Kirpal Singh accompanied gaze and voice (‘gaze-image’ and voice-rhetoric) of his master, Sawan Singh, for twenty-four years, and there was no difference between inside and out.¹

The longing between the ‘master’ and his follower was so strong, that Sawan Singh sometimes awaited him at the train station, and Kirpal Singh stated this to be based on his sad fervent meditation in which he constantly pleaded for a meeting.

In the books of ‘Philosophy of the Masters’, which Kirpal Singh published in the name of Sawan Singh, a love between follower and teacher that splits the heart and mind is constantly found. Relentless sacrifice up to the point of total self-denial is persistently lauded in words of rapture. While Kirpal Singh was confident enjoying the master’s ‘attention’ during meditation, he was also already deeply committed to the ‘assignment’ of the work.

Besides Sadachar (vegetarianism, sexual celibacy, non-violence (ahimsa), righteousness, altruism and more) – as stated above – that would include Sadhan, Sadhan encompasses meditative exercises with ‘light’ together with ‘loaded names’ and ‘sound’ including bhakti, devotion to internal experiences, to the teacher’s totality, or expansion into his attention / ‘assignment’.

Subsequently, this leads to the ultimately ‘last assignment’ which consists of continuing the work and awarding the 'Naam Initiation'. However, difficulties arose at the end of Sawan Singh’s life. They serve us as proof that it is important to increase the value of and to understand the life and teachings of Kirpal Singh, because we would then simultaneously better understand Surat Shabd Yoga as well as psychoanalysis. Moreover, it would not only be practiced in a mystical sense, since Kal goes left and the ‘master’ goes right, but psychologically, too.