Can other religions get salvation?

QN:

 

 

 

Sat Shri Akal ji,
                       thanks harjit bhaji for answering all those questions. as you are answering my questions my doubts are getting clear. Another thing that came in my mind is does everyone needs to be sikh or hindu to get salvation.and if it is in the 189th life that you will get salvation no matter how good deeds you do in the past life you will only get salvation in 189th life, I could not understand that please.

how far it is in the hands of human to get salvation .

REPLY:

 

Sat Naam Ji - Dandauth bandhna ji

 

you are doing great veer ji, get all of your questions answered and clear all of your doubts - we did the same with Dassan Dass ji and it took us two years!!!!   So you are doing much better than me!

 

Clearing our doubts and wrong beliefs is the first hurdle.  Then once we are over that we need to develop our love, faith and devotion - Sachee preet, Sachee Shardha and Shach Vishwaas as Dassan Dass Ji writes in the Sukhmani Katha.

Love , faith and devotion for the lotus feet of God in the heart of the enlgihtened soul.

 

Have so much love , faith and devotion in the one who blesses you with the diamond of Naam - the GurParsaadi Naam, that nothing can ever shake you again.  Once again it took us a good few years of developing that level of love, devotion and faith.  Dassan Dass Ji just taught us to override any doubtful thoughts in our mind by just reciting "Satguru mera poora" five times.

 

So now it has gone deeper inside us.  Also whereas before people could shake our belief, because we still had doubts and confusion, now we just smile at them and wash their feet.  They whole world can die but may my love for the lotus feet of my Satguru live forever.  Even recently we were blessed with Samadhi and had the vision of Dassan Dass ji infront of us, we felt so much love for them, we stepped forward and touched their holy feet, the feelings of love and devotion we had just multiplied a hundred times and our whole chest area expanded in love and light.   So Love , devotion and Faith are they keys - doubts, confusion and religious illusions are the obstacles.

 

God is formless -- Nirankaar, so it is hard for people to love something they cannot comprehend.  That is why the SatGuru is here.  He is the personal form of God.  Cherishing the Guru's word - gurbani  and the Sat Naam mantra in our heart, we wash the Guru's feet in our naam simran.  Then this love takes us deeper and deeper into God.  Eventually the SatGuru steps out of the way and leaves a direct link between your soul and God.  That is what happened with Dassan Dass ji - Baba ji has stepped aside as the SatGuru's job is done.

 

Coming back to your question, Baba ji told us that "my" soul already been reincarnated 188 times as a human and this is my 189th time to be reborn just as a human being.  Plus there must have been thousands of lifetimes spent in the animal realms.

We think that Dassan Dass ji also mentioned that this is his 220th (?) lifetime just as a human, the last 12 lifetimes He spent as a Sikh.  So he knows that He has done alot of gurbani and sikh rituals and so on in past lives.  But finally we have accumulated enough good deeds to meet the Sant-Guru who has given us the GurParsaadi Naam.

 

It doesn not mean you have been in 189 lifetimes,  just an example to show you that your soul has probably been reincarnated many many times to get you this far - so close to the GurParsaadi Naam and salvation.    It also means that we have all probably been male and female, back and white, muslim sikh christain and so on.  So there is no point being prejudiced against anyone.

 

It means it doesnt matter what a person is right now, doesnt matter if they regard themself as hindu, sikh and islander or whatever, the only thing that matters is how many good deeds they are accumulating and how truthfully they are living.  Only our deeds go with our soul.   Our deeds determine the body we get next time.

 

Also within every religion and path there are blessed souls capable fo giving the Naam, they may call it something else eg holy Spirit, but it is God's Grace. So God is taking care of al creatures and people as per their Karni - deeds.   

 

Gurbani says that Naam is the highest religion.  Meaning Naam is higher than religion, because Naam is part and parcel of God.

And God has no religion.  There is no religion in Sach Khand - only the humble reside there ..agay jaat na jor ha agay jio nivay.

Religion and divisions of humanity only exist on Earth, so a true Sant is also beyond religion.  They may have started off as a Hindu or Muslim or Sikh, but they ended up absorbed in the Naam by God's Grace.

 

The Sant only sees ONENESS - simple!

 

The non-Sants see DIVISIONS as their mind is still under the influence of MAYA.

 

Baba Ji said that God is simplicity whereas MAYA is complexity.

 

So whenever you find yourself getting confused or seeing divisions and differences in humanity, then step back and realise you are being attacked by Maya.  Let it go and just see your SatGuru in every heart - then it all becomes ONE again.

 

As to how much is in our hands to gain salvation, then the answer is that the Guru opens the inner door for us to the temple of our heart where God the Husband resides.  So Grace is in the Guru-god's hands.  But we have to step through that door, we have to live truthfully, do good deeds, surrender completely, defeat our five thieves of which EGO is the worst and give up desires for anything in the world , replacing with TRUST that our God-Guru is taking care of everything.

 

So Grace is in the Guru's hands, but making the effort is in our hands.

 

 

Dust of your feet

 

Harjit