E C K A N K A R, Religion of the Light and Sound of God

A Meeting with Rebazar Tarzs

Rebazar Tarzs is a Tibetan ECK Master who has been the spiritual teacher of many Living ECK Masters, including Paul Twitchell, to whom he passed the Rod of ECK Power in 1965. Said to be over five hundred years old, Rebazar Tarzs lives in a hut in the Hindu Kush Mountains and appears to many people as he helps the present Living ECK Master, Sri Harold Klemp, in the works of Eckankar.

Suddenly, the Tibetan ECK Master Rebazar Tarzs was standing before me in the dim alley where I walked. His gaze was intense.

"Do you understand what the Living ECK Master was trying to show you with your last experience?" he said abruptly. "I don't think you do!"

The sudden appearance of this maroon-robed Adept sparked a deep emotion in me, for he had been in my thoughts constantly all day. For some reason, the sound of his voice and image of his face had been just beneath the surface of my thinking, as if about to emerge. Now here he was, his black hair and beard fading into the dark shadows of the twilight, a peaceful glint in his eyes.

"Do you mean the Soul Travel experience last night?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I thought Harold was letting me have a chance to see that Soul survives as the individual. That the individual is the true state of Soul."

Rebazar Tarzs turned to see the curious face of a black-and-white cat peering through an opening in the fence. The cat seemed caught between some inner desire to approach this ECK Master and its natural instincts for survival through safety. Rebazar Tarzs took a few steps and knelt down to scratch its furry ears, and the cat purred.

As I felt the power of the ECK Master's presence move with his attention to the cat, I began to wonder if indeed I had missed something very important from my experience.

Finally, he turned to me and said, "Now look, this Living ECK Master we have is a very subtle Master, and not many understand him. But I am going to be a bit more blunt when I say that he was trying to move you to that state where you could see the whole of Eckankar. You are close to catching it, and when you do, nothing will be able to shake it from you.

"One might think that after all these years of study you would have caught the secret, but remember, not many will reach that point in this lifetime. Look at all the masses of people on this planet. Look at movement after movement that continues to abuse and take advantage of the individual because they have not understood the secret.

"The one thing you should always remember is that all these movements, all these groups, are battling for the individual. They have found the secret that only Soul, the individual, is the central operating unit in the worlds of God. Nothing can happen except through Soul. Nothing can exist without It. The ECK, or reality, will only respond to Soul and nothing else. This means that whoever can capture Soul, as you might net the fish of the sea—as the Christians put it—will have the greatest power known.

"So why does man continually throw himself into groups and movements? He sees himself as a Christian, a Democrat, a Communist, or a thousand other designations, but never as Soul, the individual. He feels the need to belong, so he searches out a group consciousness. He dearly loves to live by rules and regulations, so he joins an organization. Alone, he feels helpless, so he takes part in some action team with high aspirations to change the world. This is Soul's way of looking for survival.

"But one day Soul outgrows these outer movements, which lose their fascination for It. Soul begins to ask questions such as: Who am I? Where am I going? But no one can answer them except the individual. Then Soul begins the long, hard road to extricate Itself from the group consciousness and regain Its individuality. This is when the ECK Masters step in to offer their assistance, and thus the path of ECK appears when the time is ripe. Now do you see how this all ties together?"

"I think so," I answered. "But then, how can there be an organization carrying the name of Eckankar? Isn't this a contradiction?"

"There is not much in this world that isn't," he said. "When the ECK, the Life Force, flows into this world It takes every form. It might be a flower, a river, or a solar system. It might even be a mirage in the desert or a vision of God. The ECK flows into this world but never finds completion or perfection, so It is always changing: always dying in Its old forms to be born into the new. It might come together to produce a spiritual era, or It might hide for ages behind the traditional teachings. The ECK is all of life, so don't try to fit It into some little box.

"The Living ECK Master might use an organization if his mission dictates it, or he might work with a few close ones as a team. He is free to use whatever means he can. But the minute his followers begin to feel they are above others, the minute they begin to talk in "shoulds" or "should nots"—or limit in any way a person's individual path of truth—then they can become more of a hindrance than a help. He might try to lift them beyond these areas, but he cannot force them; and if the situation grows bad enough, he might just leave everything behind and walk the lonely hills by himself, searching for those who truly seek the Light of God.

"Now don't shake your head, because this has happened in the past and will happen again. This is indeed what makes for a contradiction. Thus, unless the seeker looks beneath the surface of what he sees, he may never glimpse the true teachings of ECK. He might miss what the Master is trying to tell him.

"OK. Now I want to go back to this subject of the ways that Soul searches for survival. If It cannot find survival through individuality, then Soul might find it in fame or infamy. In other words, if Soul can preserve Its image or name in the memories of others, then It might feel It has survival. Or It may find survival vicariously through fleshly offspring, such as the father or mother whose whole interest is the lives of their children.

"Soul might take up some job that It feels is important in the running of an organization. This can be Its mission, you see? Or It might choose survival in the feeling that It is one of the few who knows some secret, ages old. This is how the mystery schools have preserved themselves. They claim to be a brotherhood that has endured from the ancient days of civilization by passing down certain secrets. These secrets may not bring immortality, but the individual finds survival by feeling a part of this brotherhood.

"The point is that when Soul has a purpose or a goal, then It has survival. But when Soul accepts the dreams of others, It loses something vital. Once the individual begins to act out someone else's goal, or some purpose established for It by others, then the interest and affection It has for what It is doing becomes weakened. Do too much of this and Soul can lose the very source of inspiration and ideas that will lead It out of Its troubles and into the higher spiritual worlds.

"So you see, the true freedom of Soul to act upon Its wishes is the very origin of your power to succeed. The greater your goal, the greater your power to reach it. And out of this freedom and power comes the deepest love for every act you perform. These are the three aspects, as I have said before: freedom, power, and love.

"Now those who have said that harmony should come first and freedom second are wrong. Without freedom, harmony is an act or a show; but with freedom, harmony is the greatest expression of the divine law. This is what the movements of today have overlooked. They have hidden the secret that Soul is the central operating unit of life. This is why the individual is such a trampled-on unit in our modern world.

"So, if you wish to have freedom within the worlds of God, to become the spiritual traveler yourself, then you must first learn to control your own will. An undisciplined will is your worst enemy. Next, you must control your imagination; let nothing limit it, nor conform it. Last, you must begin to make contact with the spiritual power Itself. You must learn to live in the ECK and through It. The ECK Masters are always near those who are bold and adventuresome.

"This is some of what you should have gotten from the experience the Living ECK Master gave you!"

"I had no idea," I said.

The Tibetan nodded his head and pointed his finger at me. "There is always more to ECK than meets the eye," he said, and let out a hearty laugh that was infectious; it was so full of life.