The Inner Secret: Faqir Chand on Visions

There is no doubt in my mind that Faqir Chand is one of the most important shabd yoga masters in history and that his frank confessions of "unknowingness" are of vital importance for those interested in religion and spiritual masters. Faqir reveals what other gurus will not. Here in the MSAC Philosophy Group at Mt. San Antonio College it is our wish to republish almost all of Faqir Chand's books and pamphlets in English and give them a wider audience. This book, The Secret of Inner Visions, contains judicious selections from Faqir's small book, The Essence of Truth. Since the latter book contains more or less verbatim transcriptions from several of Faqir Chand's satsangs, readers should be aware of its more vernacular and informal tone. Nevertheless, a close reading of Faqir Chand's radical thinking will undoubtedly have a liberating impact on the reader since he doesn't mince words. One of the most refreshing aspects of Faqir's philosophy is that he readily admits that he doesn't ultimately know anything (similar to his Greek counterpart, Socrates, and the Chinese poet, Lao Tzu) and that he is most open to being wrong. In all my many travels to India and my interviews with scores of shabd yoga teachers, I have never met a more honest and forthcoming spiritual teacher than Faqir Chand. He is perhaps the most straightforward guru in history. In the early 1980s I coined the term the Chandian Effect which describes in a nutshell what Faqir realized about inner visions and other miraculous incidents. Whenever a person has a spiritual vision of a holy man or woman they invariably believe that such an apparition is real and manifests of its own accord. But according to Faqir Chand's realization, none of these visions are objectively real since they arise (even if unconsciously) from one's own mind and that the personage one beholds is ignorant about such a manifestation. In essence, the disciple is merely projecting what he or she desires but mistakenly attributes such mystical happenings as being apart from one's own self, "O, man your real helper is your own self and your own faith, but you are badly mistaken and believe that somebody from without comes to help you. No Hazrat Mohammad, No Lord Rama, Lord Krishna or any God or goddess or guru comes from without. This entire game is that of your impressions and suggestion which are in grained upon your mind, through your eyes and ears and of your faith and belief. This is the change that I am ordained to bring about."