Today the morning Hukam Nama from Guru Granth Sahib is a famous hymn by Guru Arjun Dev, the Fifth Sikh Guru:
Wherever I look, there I see Him present
He, my Master, is never far from any place.
O, my soul, ever remember Him,
Who is contained in everything . . . .
He alone is considered a companion who is never separate—
Not here or hereafter.
[GGS p. 677]
Last night we watched the Doordarshan (national TV) special programme on Baba Siri Chand, much of it filmed at Gobind Sadan. I was briefly interviewed in it. I said in all honesty that I have found in Baba Virsa Singh the answer to all the world’s problems, and Baba Siri Chand is his teacher, so how great he must be.
Afterward Gurdev Singh criticized me for talking too much about Maharaj and not enough about Baba Siri Chand. “It seemed like an advertisement,” he said. But Maharaj always tells me to speak only about what I know from first-hand experience, and Maharaj is all I know. He is my only subject. Maharaj is always sitting in my heart, showing me touching things, telling me what to do. I don’t spend much time in his physical presence, for we cannot converse directly that way. Inside the heart, there are no language barriers, no problems in translation.
Although Maharaj is mostly in physical seclusion these days, he is very present in his invisible form these days in the “Green Room,” an open area under a deep veranda opposite the langar. Maharaj has sometimes sat there to speak with the sangat. It is at the end of the hall where I live. A large mural of mountain scenery with fir trees and an alpine lake in the foreground has been applied to the wall there, and Maharaj’s chaise lounge has been set just in front so that He can sit enjoying there, whether in His visible or invisible presence.
Since Maharaj’s chair has been placed there, I have been cleaning that area at every opportunity and placing flowers on the glass table next to his chair. I know how he appreciates and insists on cleanliness if any spiritual figure is to frequent a place in etheric form. And I do so want Him to sit happily there by the mountain lake. He seems especially present there now, and the Green Room is the one place where the sangat can now bow and really sense His presence. We all do so, quite spontaneously and reverently.
People also find their way to my little room at the end of the hall, although it is off the beaten track. It has a large window looking out into Maharaj’s enclosed garden, with Sukhasan (comfortable resting place) of Guru Granth Sahib to the left and Maharaj’s private havan to the right. Sangat visit my room like a sacred museum, for special photos that Maharaj has allowed me to take of him are everywhere. Today a quiet older man, Churchill’s uncle, came to stay in a guest room across the hall. When he saw a new picture of Maharaj in my window, he came to stand before it in reverence. “It is a secret picture,” I had to tell him. “We are not allowed to give people copies.” The reason is that Maharaj has his hair open in the picture. In it one can clearly see Maharaj as God in visible form. Michelangelo could well have used him as the model for his Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco of the Creation of Adam, where God is reaching out His hand to bring Adam to life. In my photograph, Maharaj has washed his hair and is leaving it open to dry, long and silver and flowing. He is reclining on some pillows with outstretched arm propped on one bent knee. In his eyes there is a vision of another world we cannot see. When the visitor held this extremely powerful photo in his hands, he started weeping, pressing it to his forehead. He had no words. All he could “say” was to point to the heavens, indicating that this is God Whom we are seeing.
