Sant Mat, and Shabd Yoga?
Dear All,
I expect some of you have come across Sant Mat,and Surat Shabd Yoga of the Radhasoami Faith. It claims that through inner Sound, and Light one travels"upwards" through a series of higher planes, or Regions until the highest one is reache "where" "God-Realization" occurs. On the way, Sant Mat claims that there are five main Sounds corresponding to five main Regions. They have certain coloured "skies", and specific key sights usually described "symbolically".
Rightly,or wrongly, Sant Mat claims that other yogas, and meditation systems reach one of the lower sub-planes of the Spiritual Regions...and not the highest...where "true God-Realization" occurs...
As can be seen, Shabd Yoga appears to involve an advanced form of astral projection during meditation practice. Conciousness is withdrawn to the Third Eye, and the soul merges into the inner Light, and Sound which is used as type of "spiritual jet propulsion.". The inner Master (or the Self?) appears within as a guide, and protector in the Spiritual Regions. He also has an outer physical form, and is known as the Sant Satguru, or Perfect Master...
Many branches of the Radhasoami Faith exist................
Comments on the above welcomed!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leila Becquer on
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Hi, from the viewpoint of scholar research I recommend you THE RADHASOAMI TRADITION:
A CRITICAL HISTORY OF GURU SUCCESSORSHIP
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York, New York, 1992
Author: David Christopher Lane, Ph.D.
Perhaps you already know that, Mark Juergensmeyer books of course, are recommended.
From a Theosophical point of view I would like to point out some ideas:
There are many coincidences between Sant Mat and Theosophy: inner sound and colours were part of the practical work taught by H. P. Blavatsky, we can see 1st, 2th and 3rd meetings in the book Inner Group Teachings, and in The Voice of the Silence, in fact, Sant Kirpal Singh glosses twice that book. Also we can read the work with the Word in Suggestions and Aids by William Judge, in Echoes from the Orient. See also classical works as Nadabindupanishat.
Many others relating ethics, service, and so on.
There are many differences: First, they speak about third eye as focus of concentration, it may be argued that is not the Third Eye what they use but the centre correspondig with the pituitary body and hence corresponding with psychic experience.
Five is their key number and seven that of Theosophy.
All their experiences are with form (rupa), Theosophy (and many other ways) speaks about formless (arupa) experiences beyond form experiences.
The experience of ascending going out of the body and flying to the skies is too much literal, and perhaps a psychological interpretation of the cognitive apparatus of a practitioner, Theosophy teachs us not to take literally the driagrammatical classification of Cosmic Planes (of Conciousness).
Sant masters are God in flesh, there is only one master at once, and are omnisapientes, omnipotentes, etc. (they have several theological atributes of God). Reality shows a different panorama (many masters, not always all-knowing, etc.).
About that is interesting to read the comments written down by Mahatma M. himself in The Mahatma Letters, nº 30 chronologicla edition: "Suby Ram — a truly good man — yet a devotee of another error. Not his guru’s voice — his own. The voice of a pure, unselfish, earnest soul, absorbed in misguided, misdirected mysticism. "
Suby Ram is Salig Ram as Caldwell and Lane have pointed out, Salig Ram was a disciple of Soamiji (in fact the starter of Radhasoami Faith), and this paragraph is very clear about Masters' view on this type of mysticism.
There is another book:
Confessions of a God Seeker, John Ford
it is useful for knowing how some kind of mithology can be seen in this inner realms, despite its reality (initiates in Ekcankar see their masters but those masters are fictional creations of Paul Twitchel, but at the same time other experiences like inner temples or regions are similar with its indian parent teaching).
Well, that's all for the time being, I woul like to write a little more but I have no a good command of english.
Regards
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Thank you for your informed response. I do actually know the references you give. ..including Faqir Chand who you do not mention by name.
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Well, well. this is the beginning of a Mullah Nasruddin story:
Some years ago, when I came across Sant Mat for the first time, I have read a webpage, very interisting, its name is Kheper, with a section devoted to Sant Mat. I recommend specially an article: Some Futher Details on Sant Mat, and Surat Shabd Yoga, but you know that ;-)... here Nasruddin leave us...
Good site, some month ago I was reading again about Sant Mat and I found the books I mentioned. It would be interestin if you as satsangi and theosophist can share with us your thoughts about what you wrote in the head of this thread, this would be firts hand experience and not an outsider one (mine) and will be very interesting.
For me it is very enlightening, in the field of comparative visionary experiences, the studies that deal with eckankar, as Confessions of a God Seeker. And Faqir Chand's views.
Of course, from a mystical point of view, the Sant Mat literature and specially Sant Kirpal Singhji writings are very enlightening.
Another branch that seems interesting is that of tulsi sahibis, of Maharshi Mehi, they seem to recognize the validity of other lineages and their differences in meditative technique.
One question: in Kheper there are some diagrams in Sant Mat section about Cosmology (http://www.kheper.net/topics/Sant_Mat/Dynamic_Evolution.html), those diagrams are very similar to Leadbeater's diagrams about rounds, globes and planets, are those diagrams from any Sant Mat source?
That's all for the time being.
Regards
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I contributed the article on Sant Mat you refer to in the above communication. I have also have a few other writings on the kheper website such as Esoteric Secrecy, and Multi-Dimensional Science.
Yes, I have re-started a blog on google which does give people some idea of my experiences with "Shabd Yoga" Masters. However, it is not up, and ready quite yet...but soon will be. The blog is known as Thoughts, and Visions.
Yes, there is a similiarity between Theosophy, and Sant Mat as you point out. However, the former is not ofcourse the same as the latter. For more detailed data on Shabd Yoga comology the best source of info comes from the writings of Professor Puri notably The Mystic Path, and the Radhaswami Teachings (if I recall the titles correctly).
I should stress that Sant Mat takes a dim view of any kind of intellectual interest in its cosmology. Everything is geared to direct inner experience....
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I have a feeling that RSSB and Theosophy have a strong connection. That connection would be HPB.
If you go to this site: http://theosophywatch.com/2009/01/22/raja-yoga-dance/
You'll find a lot about this.
At the end of it, someone says:
"Radha Soami Faith is a branch of Religion of Saints like Kabir, Nanak, Paltu, and others. Soamiji Maharaj is the founder of this Faith. You may call It like New Wine in Old Bottle."
You might even say that if HPB were here today, she'd get initiated by an RSSB Guru.
Oh and yes, there are many branches of Sant Mat Gurus, but only one RSSB branch exists, currently headed by Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon. There were branches that broke off a single branch some time back, and so there is another branch today called Ruhani Satsang headed by Sant Rajinder Singh as well.
If you'd like you could look up someone named Netemara aka Heloise. She's apparently the reincarnation of HPB, as she claims, and was initiated by an RSSB Guru a while ago (Maharaj Charan Singh Ji (1916–1990), Gurinder Singh's Guru).
I think she's the real deal. Thanks for bringing up this topic!
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Thank your for response. As far as I am concerned the Radhasoami Faith which teaches shabd yoga is the real Theosophy in its purest form. I must say that there has been some interesting feedback on this subject here on the forum.
There are indeed many branches of the RS Faith. RSSB referred to is the most popular, and I was intiated into it quite a while ago.
As with any spiritual movement the the RS one has had its fair share of controversies but in spite of this it must have some greater, and higher purpose in the scheme of things.
What I would like to recommend the writings of Professor Puri on shabd yoga as these give some fascinating details about other worlds of conciousness. Sawan Singhs Discourses on
Sant Mat among other things compares some of the poetic writings of the Saints to see if their"symbolic imagery" tally with one another in connection with the "objective" nature of higher dimensions, or planes of existence..
RS. http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science
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