Annie Besant narrates a case of Master Nanak, which is well worth transcribing.
“It was a Friday that day, and when the hour of prayer arrived, master and servant headed towards the mosque. When the Quazi (Muslim priest) started the prayers, the Nabob [Governor] and his retinue prostrated themselves, as is prescribed by the Mohammedan rite; Nanak remained standing, still and silent. Once the prayer had ended, the Nabob confronted the young man and, indignant, he asked him, ‘Why have you not fulfilled the ceremonies of the law? You are a liar and a fake. You should not have come here to stand like a post.’
“Nanak replied, ‘You prostrated yourself with your face on the floor, while your thoughts wandered through the clouds, for you were thinking of bringing horses from Candar and not in the recitation of the prayer. As to the priest, he was automatically practicing the ceremonies of prostration, while at the same time his thoughts were in saving the she-donkey that gave birth days ago. How was I going to pray with people who kneel out of routine and repeat words like a parrot?’
“The Nabob confessed that in effect, he had been thinking during the entire ceremony on the planned purchase of horses. As far as the Quazi was concerned, he openly manifested his disgust and pressed the young man with many questions.”
Really, it is necessary to learn how to pray scientifically; the one who learns to intelligently combine prayer with meditation will obtain marvelous objective results.
But it is urgent to comprehend that there are different prayers and that their results are different.
There are prayers which are accompanied by petitions, but not all prayers are accompanied by petitions.
There are very ancient prayers which are authentic recapitulations of cosmic events and we can experience their entire content if we meditate on each word, on each phrase, with true cognizant devotion.
The Pater Noster is a magical formula of immense sacerdotal power, but it is urgent to comprehend in depth and in a total manner the profound meaning of each word, of each phrase, of each supplication.
The Lord’s Prayer, the Pater Noster, is a prayer or petition, a prayer to converse with our Father who is in secrecy. The Pater Noster combined with deep meditation produces marvelous objective results.
The Gnostic rituals, religious ceremonies, are authentic treatises of occult wisdom for the person who knows how to meditate, for those who comprehend with the heart.
The one who wishes to tread the path of the tranquil heart must place the prana, life, and the sexual energy in the brain, and the mind in the heart.
It is urgent to learn to think with the heart, to deposit the mind within the heart temple. The cross of initiation is always received in the marvelous temple of the heart.
Nanak, the founding Master of the Sikh religion in the sacred land of the Vedas, taught the path of the heart.
Nanak taught fraternity among all religions, schools, sects, etc.
When we attack all religions or any religion in particular, we commit the crime of violating the law of the heart.
In the heart temple, there is a place for all religions, sects, orders, etc.
All religions are precious pearls strung on the golden thread of the divinity.
Our Gnostic Movement is made up by people of all religions, schools, sects, spiritual societies, etc.
In the heart temple there is place for all religions, for all forms of worship. Jesus said,
In loving one another thou shalt prove that thou art my disciples.
The Sikh scriptures, like those of every religion, are truly ineffable.
Among the Sikhs, Omkara is the primary divine being who created heaven, the Earth, the waters, and all that exists.
Omkara: is the Unmanifested, Endless, Primary Spirit, without a beginning, without an end, whose Light illuminates the Fourteen Dwellings, instantaneous knower, internal regulator of every heart.
Space is its power. The Sun and the Moon are its lamps. The army of the stars, its pearls, Oh Father! The odoriferous breeze of the Himalayas is your incense. The wind refreshes you. The plant kingdom pays you tributes of flowers, Oh Light! For you are the hymns of praise, oh, destroyer of fear! The Anatal Shabda (Virgin Sound) resounds as your drums.
You have no eyes and you have them by the thousands. You have no feet and you have them by the thousands. You have no nose and you have them by the thousands. This, your marvelous work, enraptures us. Your Light, oh, Glory, is in all things! The Light of your Light radiates from all beings. This Light radiates from the teachings of the Master. It is an Arati.
Nanak, the great Master, in accordance with the Upanishads, comprehends that Brahma (the Father) is One and that the ineffable Gods are merely his partial manifestations, reflections of his absolute beauty.
The Guru-Deva is the one who is already one with the Father (Brahma). Fortunate is the one who has a Guru-Deva as a guide and director. Blessed be the one who has found the Master of Perfection.
The path is narrow, strait, and frighteningly difficult. One needs the Guru-Deva, the director, the guide.
In the heart temple we will find Hari, the Being. In the heart temple we will find the Guru-Deva.
Now we will transcribe a few Sikh stanzas about devotion to the Guru-Deva.
Oh, Nanak! Recognize him as the true Guru, the beloved one who unites you to the all…
A hundred times a day I would like to sacrifice myself for my Guru who has converted me into a God in a short time.
Even if one hundred moons and a thousand suns shone, profound darkness would reign without the Guru.
Blessed be my Venerable Guru who knows Hari (the Being) and who has taught us to treat friends and enemies alike.
Oh, Lord! Favor us with the company of Guru-Deva, so that together with Him, we, lost sinners, may make a journey by swimming.
Guru-Deva, the true Guru, is Para-Brahma, the Supreme Lord. Nanak prostrates himself before Guru-Deva Hari.
In India, a Samnyasin of the mind is one who serves the true Guru-Deva, who has found him in the heart, who works in the dissolution of the lunar ego.
Whosoever wants to put an end to the ego, to the “I,” must annihilate anger, covetousness, lust, envy, pride, laziness, and gluttony. It is only by putting an end to all those defects in all the levels of the mind that the “I” dies in a radical, total, and definite manner.
Meditation on the name Hari (the Being) permits us to experience what is Real, authentic.
It is necessary to learn how to pray the Pater Noster, to learn to converse with Brahma (the Father) who is in secret.
A single Pater Noster, well-prayed and wisely combined with meditation, is an entire work of High Magic.
A single Pater Noster properly prayed is done in a period of one hour or in a little more than one hour.
After the prayer, we must know how to await the reply of the Father and this means to know how to meditate, to have the mind still and in silence, empty of all thoughts, awaiting the reply of the Father.
When the mind is still within and without, when the mind is in silence within and without, when the mind has freed itself from dualism, then the new comes to us.
It is necessary to empty the mind of all types of thoughts, desires, passions, appetites, fears, etc. in order for the experience of reality to come to us.
The eruption of the Void, the experience in the Illuminating Void, is only possible when the Essence, the Soul, the Buddhata, liberates itself from the intellectual bottle.
The Essence is bottled up within the tremendous battle of the opposites: heat and cold, like and dislike, yes and no, good and evil, pleasant and unpleasant.
When the mind is still, when the mind is in silence, then the Essence remains free and the experience of that which is the reality within the Illuminating Void comes.
Pray, therefore, good disciple, and then with the mind very still and in silence, empty of all kinds of thoughts, await the reply from the Father…
Ask and it shall be given, knock and it shall be opened.
To pray is to converse with God, and certainly one has to learn to converse with the Father, with Brahma.
The heart temple is a house of prayer. In the heart temple are found the energies which come from above; when combined with the energies which come from below, these form the Seal of Solomon.
It is necessary to pray and meditate profoundly. It is urgent to know how to relax the physical body in order for meditation to be correct.
Before beginning the exercises of prayer and meditation combined, relax the physical body properly.
The Gnostic disciple must lie down in a face-up position, in other words, lying on his back on the floor or in bed, legs and arms open to the sides, in the form of a five-pointed star.
The pentagonal star position is formidable due to its deep meaning, but people who for any circumstance are unable to meditate in this position must then meditate by placing their body in the corpse posture: heels together, tips of the feet spread out in the form of a fan, arms unbent along the sides, placed alongside the trunk.
The eyes must be closed in order for the things of the physical world not to distract us.
Drowsiness properly combined with meditation is very indispensable for the good success of meditation.
It is necessary to try to totally relax all the muscles of the body and then concentrate the attention on the tip of the nose, until we fully feel the heart pulsing within that organ of smell. Then, we will continue with the right ear until we feel the heart pulsing within it. Then we will continue likewise with the right hand, right foot, left foot, left hand, left ear, and nose once again, fully feeling the heart pulsing separately in each of these organs where we have focused our attention.
Control over the physical body begins with control over the pulse. The pulse of the tranquil heart is felt all at once, entirely, in its totality, within the organism, but Gnostics can feel it at will in any part of the body, whether it is on the tip of the nose, an ear, an arm, a foot, etc.
It has been demonstrated in practice that by acquiring the possibility of regulating, hastening or slowing down the pulse, the heartbeat can be hastened or slowed down.
Control over the palpitations of the heart can never come from the heart muscles, but rather it depends totally on the control of the pulse. This is, beyond all doubt, the second heartbeat or the great heart.
The control of the pulse or control of the second heart is achieved totally through the absolute relaxation of all the muscles.
Through attention we can accelerate or slow down the pulsations of the second heart and the beats of the first heart.
Samadhi, Ecstasy, Satori, always occurs with very slow pulsations, and in Maha-Samadhi, pulsations end.
During Samadhi, the Essence, the Buddhata, escapes the personality; it then becomes fused with the Being and the experience of what is real in the Illuminating Void comes.
It is only in the absence of the “I” that we can converse with the Father, Brahma.
Pray and meditate in order for you to be able to listen to the voice of the silence.
Leo is the throne of the Sun, the heart of the Zodiac. Leo governs the human heart.
The Sun of the organism is the heart. In the heart, the forces from above mix with those from below in order for those from below to become liberated.
The metal of Leo is pure gold. The stone of Leo is the diamond. The color of Leo is golden. We have been able to verify that the natives of Leo are like the lion: brave, irate, noble, worthy, constant. But there are many people and it is clear that, among the natives of Leo, we also find those who are arrogant, proud, unfaithful, tyrants, etc.
The natives of Leo also have organizational aptitudes; they develop the sentiment and bravery of the lion. The developed persons of this sign become great paladins.
The mediocre type of Leo is very sentimental and irate. The mediocre type of Leo overestimates his own capacities too much.
In every native of Leo, mysticism already developed in an incipient stage always exists; it all depends on the type of person.
The natives of Leo are always predisposed to suffer accidents to the arms and hands.
