I have traveled quite a bit in India. India is a place where there are so many spiritual people that you can hardly count. My visiting with them and talking with them gave me one impression that everybody has reached a level, beyond this he is not going to prosper, he is stuck there. Why? After reaching a certain stage the person feels, ‘yeah, that’s it.’ And it reminds me the greatest story in Panchtantra which has been illustrated like that.

Kabir went out in jungle to meditate on the holy name of God. Shabad given to Kabir was Ram. He chanted Ram, Ram, Ram. And according to the Laya Yoga Kriya, he got lost into Ram. He became one with Ram and he had all bliss inside him. He thought ,‘my mission is complete, now let me go and meet my mother.’ When coming on the way he was sitting under a tree and he looked at the tree, he saw so many sparrows playing on that tree, they looked pretty and beautiful and he said, “If I have got the power why not I use it?”

Now look, Kabir, after twelve years doing that penance is going to be befooled because God has a way to test whether the man with power has an ego or not. Kabir said, ‘let me test whether these sparrows are in my power or not.’ He said, “You sparrows die,” and moment he uttered these words, like a big rock all those sparrows who were chattering on that tree fell on the ground as they were already dead. He looked at them. He said, “Lord, I am grateful to you. Sparrows, start chanting again, be great.” All the sparrows from the earth flew up, sat on the branch of the tree and started doing their chit-chat again. He had a confidence. I can perform this, that is my power.

After traveling a little while when sun was very high, he was feeling awfully thirsty. He saw a woman pulling water all the time, pulling water all the time and just throwing it. Pulling, throwing. He was thirsty. He watched. Because as a man he was not supposed to ask her. He kept silent and waited and waited and waited and she was not taking care of. Kabir had killed those sparrows and had given them a life. It was sufficient for him. He said, “O great lady, don’t you understand I am very thirsty?”

He said, “O great lady, O;”

And she said, “Kabir, I am not a bunch of sparrows whom you can kill and again can fly. Before you dare to talk to me be careful and be warned. It will, it can be a very hard thing for you to digest.”

Moment Kabir heard that he lied low and thought for two minutes what has happened. After a little while the lady gave him water and Kabir said with folded hands, “O God’s being, could you just give me the clarification about this, how you knew that I have done this.”

She said, Kabir, I am Patibrata Stree, my penance is so great, I have achieved through with that penance this power. You know where I was throwing the water? I was throwing this water because the kitchen of my house got set on fire and I was throwing that water on that kitchen to extinguish the fire. And it is eleven miles from here and you only performed this mystical four miles from this place. When I can reach this water at eleven miles, can’t I see you doing something at four miles?”

He said, “How you got this power?”

She said, “There is no power without one-pointedness of mind. Power only comes with one-pointedness of mind.”

But he said, “I have been twelve years in jungle and I got this and how while sitting in a house and living in a house you got one pointedness of mind when you say you are married, you have got a husband, you have got a house and you have got a kitchen and you, you are…”

She said, “I loved my man and I loved him and he loves me also. My job was to take care of him and his job was to protect me and provide me. He was fine at his job, I was fine at my job. One day nature took a test, he was sleeping and he said ‘water.’ I went, took a glass of water and stood by his side and by that time only saying water he slept. I kept standing whole night, he will get up now and have a sip of water. But he went in such a deep sleep that he got at a late early morning. Moment he opened his eyes and he saw me standing with a glass of water he said, ‘what is the matter.’ I said, ‘My love, at night at about eleven o’clock you shouted for water. And I ran and brought the glass of water and then you had gone again in sleep, I couldn’t disturb you but I thought perhaps you may need it, so I am just doing my job.’ And filled with love and joy and with the divine (?) he said is it so essential you can do any job anywhere. He said with such a divine love, now I can do anything anywhere, since that day this power has come in me. So I do anywhere any job when I feel like doing it. That is why when you came I saw you very thirsty and I wanted to give you water but I was doing my job first that I wanted the kitchen fire to be out and then I thought another chance will come to me so that I may see how much patience Kabir has got. So brother you came out of the bag like a bad cat quick. And you started telling me this is this, that is that.”

Kabir said, “Water or no water, but the answer has come to me.”

‘Kabir Apna Siyo Mariye, Tah Pahchaniye Ram, Mileya Harje Aayike, Sabb Le Savare Kaam’.

That is one doha Kabir said at that stage. This means, ‘Kabir, when I have sacrificed myself, when I have sacrificed myself and I have mingled myself with the divine power, then the love of the divine prevails through me in such a way that every job is being taken care of me so quickly that I even now cannot imagine why everything happened but first sentence has to be remembered. Kabir, Apna Mann Mariye – you have to understand one thing, the one who has created you is a superior power and one who can create me can create any circumstances. I don’t want you to have a blind faith. I just want your mental attitude on one thought only that you are the creation of a Creator and if that Creator you just remember, everything about you can be taken care of. But the greatest difficulty in our today’s life is the tension.

~ Excerpt from “Emotional Control” lecture given by Siri Singh Sahib on July 6th, 1969. Read the full lecture here.

~ Source: The Yogi Bhajan Library of Teachings.