Seek No Path

‘O' Seeker, seek no path, because all paths lead somewhere, truth is right here.’

          "Lao Tzu"

There is an interesting story about Raman Maharshi, a highly respected saint of recent times. While visiting southern India, a famous Christian priest heard of his fame and went to meet him. During the conversation, the priest asked “How do you know that your path is right. Have you found God? Have you reached ‘There’?”

Raman Maharshi asked in return “Reached where? Where do I need to go to find Him? God is everywhere. There is nowhere to go, you are already there. A path is needed if you are going somewhere. If you are already there then the path is not needed at all. Now, the very word ‘path’ is meaningless. You just need to be aware, that's all”.

Guru Ramanad ji, Sant Kabeer ji’s guru also says:

 ऊआं तउ जाइये जउ इहाँ ना होइ 

“Uaan tau jaaiye, jau ihaan na hoye”

“I would go there, only if the Lord were not here”

                                                        (SGGS page 1195)

Baba Avtar Singh ji also used to say the same: 

“Path is required for something that is somewhere else, somewhere far away. For example, there could be a few different paths to reach, to touch this microphone in front of me. But what path do I need to reach myself? There are no paths.

God is everywhere, and right here, then what paths do we need? And similarly, Mukti (Salvation) can also be achieved ‘right now and right here’.

You just need awareness. You need to be aware, that's all”.

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Sometimes he would hold his scarf in front of his face and say: “Do you think I am not here anymore?

No, I have not gone anywhere. You don’t see me because of this veil. And if I remove the veil, you can see me again.

God is also right here. We don’t see Him because there is a veil of ignorance, the ego. We don’t need to go anywhere to find Him. All we need to do is, to remove the veil of ignorance. And he would add a quote:

“Ghar mahin ghar dikhlaye de, So Satguru purkh sujaan"

Satguru simply removes that veil; gives awareness, the Gyana to see the Almighty all around and within.”

He also used to tell a story of a lion's cub whose mother died after giving birth. The cub was raised by a sheep. While living and growing among the herd of sheep, this lion's cub also thought of himself as a sheep. One day, seeing a big lion, out of fear, he also started running along with all other sheep. The big Lion was surprised and instead of chasing the sheep, he grabbed this cub and asked why he was scared and running away. The cub said “Because I am a sheep and you are a lion"
The lion said “No. You are not a sheep. You are one of us."

He took him to a river and asked him to look into the water and see if he resembled him or the sheep? Looking at his image and comparing with that of the lion, he immediately realized who he was. 

Nothing was changed, only his ignorance was removed. No path or effort was required, just the awareness.

After realizing God, one can immediately realize the 'self ' as well.

                                                        ‘Rajan Sachdeva’