23.S.

Raghbir Singh `Bir' on Healing through Simran Bhai Saheb Raghbir Singh `Bir' were a poet of a high order, a scholar and spiritually enlightened. This is an extract from his book Bandaginama , - Communion with the Divine . To escape disease, or to fight it, our forefathers used a spiritual device that is now in vogue in the West. This efficacious remedy, in the words of Guru Arjan, is: Naam is the panacea for all ills. Sarab rog ka aukhad naam Guru Arjan- Gauri Sukhmani If and when drugs bring relief, we become dependent on them. But if the spiritual device cures a patient, he sheds his fear of disease and is cured permanently. Through his spiritual progress, he helps to cure others. Spiritual seekers are well aware of the fact that the body as such is devoid of life, it is inanimate, cannot move of itself, nor feel

anything. Just as a chair or a table cannot catch fever, similarly the body, which is like a chair or a table in its want of life, should be incapable of catching fever. Another fact, which the spiritual seeker is well aware of, is that the soul remains unaffected and is not subject to disease or death. This means that the mind alone can be affected by disease. Anything created by thought exists in thought or fancy. To the spiritual researcher, therefore, disease has no meaning. God abides in us, in every atom and molecule of our body, as such disease should impossible. There must be no fear of disease. Spiritually enlightened people know how to attune themselves to the Infinite, and being in touch with the inexhaustible, treasure-house of force, they draw strength according to their needs, and do not stand in need of any external agency for the sustenance of their life and health. Even some of those who are not spiritually enlightened, but are endowed with some knowledge about God, through their study of religious books, have been found to cure diseases through God's grace.

The devotee should help to cure patients through prayer and Simran. This will strengthen his faith and enable him to serve humanity in the best way. I believe that the very touch of a man of Simran could drive away disease. The perfect devotee is like the proverbial philosophers stone, and those who are within the orbit and aura of his potent influence are healthy and happy. It is not un-Sikh-like to cure disease through prayer and Simran. In the Guru Granth there are many hymns of the Fifth Guru wherein the great Guru chanted his prayers for the recovery of his son, Hargobind, and when he was cured there were thanksgiving hymns.. - Extracts from the Book Bandginama, by S. Raghbir Singh `Bir