AN ANCIENT SCIENCE Baba Jaimal Singh gave out his spiritual message not as something new,
but as an ancient science. Its traces were to be found in the scriptures of all
faiths, but it came into full blossom in known history with Kabir and Nanak. Their writings reveal unequivocally that they had realized the inner
science to its full potential. The great tradition that these Master-souls had
established was continued by Nanak's successors and then, as we have already
seen earlier in this study, passed on to Tulsi Sahib of Hathras and from him to
Swami Ji of Agra, before returning with Baba Jaimal Singh to the Punjab. The
Surat Shabd Yoga was not merely a faith, but a science. It had not been
confined to India alone, but was known to the greatest of the Sufis; and
historical records suggest that the two movements, in India and in the Middle
East, often met and intermingled. It was a path open to all men and most suited
to our times. Swami Ji in giving out his message was not teaching anything new.
He was doing what his great predecessors had done: revitalizing and
reinterpreting for his times the truths given out of old. Baba Ji strongly
resisted any suggestion that his Master had discovered a wholly new path, as
some people came later to suggest. Had he not himself declared in Sar Bachan
after stating his tenets: Jo mun maen pateet na dekhe To Kabir, Gur Bani Pekhe, Tulsi Sahib ka mat joi, Paltu, Jagjivan
kahen soi. In santan ka daeon parmana In ki Bani sakh bakhana. He who cannot realize this fact Let him refer to the teachings of Kabir and the Sikh Gurus. Tulsi Sahib also taught those truths, While Paltu and Jagjivan point to the same. I refer the skeptic to the testimony of such mystics, For their teachings are in accord with what I say. (*5) (*5 Sar Bachan (Beas, 1950), p. 350.)
And did he not often base his discourses on the writings of Kabir, Tulsi
Sahib, Bhikha, and especially of Guru Nanak? Any hypothesis that Swami Ji while beginning in the footsteps of his
predecessors suddenly, after 1858-61, transcended to some higher realms unknown
to any before him, could at best only misrepresent him. His poetical
compositions were the fruit of the last years of his life, and in them he had
said, while stating that the Satguru was identical with the Sat Purush: Sewa kar puja
kar un ki, Unhi ko Guru
Nanak jan. Vohi Kabir Vohi
Satnama Sab santan ko vohi pahchan. Tera kaj unhi se hoga, Mat bhatke tu taj abhiman. Serve and worship the Guru for he is Nanak; Kabir is also in him, and even so is Sat Naam. Truly, every Saint is the embodied form of the
Formless; Your emancipation will be wrought by Him and Him
alone. In the light of such recorded statements - to say nothing of what Swami
Ji directly told his disciples - how could one be so obtuse as to claim a new
invention for him? The Agra Saint, Baba Ji pointed out, in spite of what came
to be laimed later (about a decade after his death), had always initiated his
disciples into the Simran of the Panch Shabd. Indeed, this was the primary
ground of difference on account of which Baba Ji was unwilling to join the
Central Administrative Council at Soamibagh in 1902. The greatest Saints of the past had put their disciples on the Panch
Shabd, he said, as was clear from their writings: Kabir through the agency of the Five Words is now ever merged in the silence of the Formless.
KABIR Know him to be a true Master who can open in thee the way back to God, And guides thee in the spiritual path with the clarion call of the Five Sounds. (*6)
GURU NANAK Without the Satguru one finds not the secret of Naam, Sweet is the elixir of Shabd that flows through the Simran of the Five Words. (*7) GURU AMAR DAS (*6 War M.1.7 Maru M.3.)
Blessed indeed is one who through the grace of the
Master Unfolds the eternal melody of the Five Sounds. (*8)
GURU ARJAN (*8 Ramkali M.5.) Tulsi Sahib also referred to the same explicitly in his writings. Swami
Ji respected and revered them and pursued the same course as theirs. In Sar Bachan he clearly stated at one point: Panch Shabd ka
Simran karo Siam set main surat dharo. Keep repeating the five holy Words, and focus on the dark spot within. When Swami Ji began using the term Radhasoami brought into vogue by his
devoted and beloved disciple Rai Saligram, he did not, Baba Ji affirmed, begin
a new faith or creed. He simply accepted the word as yet another name for the
Unnameable Infinite; interpreting it on the outer plane to stand for the
disciple (Radha) and the Guru (Soami), and on the inner plane for the soul
current (Radha) and its source (Soami). When Baba Sawan Singh Ji objected to
the use of this new word at Murree in 1894, Baba Ji, as we have already seen,
picked up a copy of Sar Bachan and read out the verse: Radha aad surat
ka naam Soami aad Shabd
nij dham. Radha is the name of the primal soul current (surat); Soami is the name of the primal source of Shabd or the
Word. He explained that the Absolute in His ultimate form was formless and
indescribable, yet Saints in their zeal to point Him out to their disciples had
given Him countless names. Had not the authors of the Vishnu Sahasranama and
the Jap Sahib coined hundreds of names for the All-Merciful Creator? Then why object to "Radhasoami"? The Reality which Swami Ji attempted to point out by the term
"Radhasoami" had been referred to by his predecessors by other names,
like Khasam or Soami (Supreme Lord), Maha Dayal (All Grace), Nirala (the
Mysterious), Nirankar (Formless), and Anami (Nameless). Thus Kabir once said: Kal Akal Khasam
ka keena Eh parpanch
badhawan. Time and the Timeless both spring from a single source And are vital for His manifestation. And Nanak had declared: Kot Brahmand ka thakur Soami Sarabh jian ka data reh. Soami is the Lord of all creation and the Master of all the souls. Tulsi Sahib had spoken in a similar vein: Sab ki aad kahun main Soami. I address as "Soami" the Creator of all that
is. Swami Ji himself, like his Master, invoked the Supreme Reality as
"Soami" or more often still as "Sahib Soami" and
"Satguru Soami." He used those terms freely in his discourses and
letters rather than the word "Radhasoami." It is just likely that
these occurred in his original poetical compositions as well, but that the word
"Radhasoami" was substituted for them, for purposes of homogeneity,
when these poems were collected some six years after his death along with many
of Hazur Maharaj Rai Saligram's compositions, in the volume entitled Sar Bachan
(poetry), in which "Radhasoami" word stands either for the ultimate
goal - Soami or Anami - or for the Guru. Baba Ji was prepared to go thus far
and no farther. He respected the term "Radhasoami" as yet another
attempt at naming the Nameless, but could not accept the special mystic
significance that began to be given to it after Swami Ji's death. Had not the
Agra Saint himself said in Bachan 115, Part II of Sar Bachan prose: Naam is of two kinds: Varanatmak and Dhunatmak. Innumerable are the benefits of Dhunatmak Naam and hardly any of the Varanatmak Naam. (*9) (*9 In the light of Swami Ji's Bachan 115 quoted above, which Shri S. D.
Maheshwari himself cites (Correspondence with Certain Americans, Agra, 1960, p.
193), one fails to realize how the latter could commit himself to such patently
self-canceling statements as: "Radhasoami Naam is resounding in all
refulgence in higher spheres" (p. 192); "Like the word Om, Sat Naam
is resounding at the seat of Sat Purush (True Being). In the same way the Shabd
or Sound Radhasoami is resounding in the Radhasoami Dham" (p. 266). It is
indeed interesting to learn that Hindi is the lingua franca of the transcendent
worlds. One had thought that the inner Shabd was Dhunatmak (musical and
irreducible to speech) and not Varanatmak; and further that the Anami or
Radhasoami realm was beyond Naam and Form, the Parent and Creator of Shabd
(which came into full manifestation only at Sat Lok) and not its seat and
center. It is not irrelevant here to point out that mystics have attempted to
describe the music of Shabd only up to the fifth plane - speaking of the bell,
the conch, the drum, the kingri (one-stringed harp), the flute, etc. - but
beyond that have been forced to utter Herat! Herat! Herat! "Wonder! Wonder! Wonder!" Form and Shabd, as we have already stated, progressively disappear after
the fifth plane, and what finally remains is the Ocean af Blissful
Consciousness that defies all description.) All names that could be brought
into verbal expression were Varanatmak and were therefore outer, and subject to
variation from person to person and from people to people. The inner Shabd was the same in all ages and the same for all people. It
was wholly musical, defying verbal expression or description, and was the
source of all creation and therefore the sole object of the seeker's abhyasa. Any
word prepossessed in one's mind appears to be reverberating in that Sound
principle. Baba Ji, abiding by the spirit of his great Guru, unhesitatingly
declared, "Any word which may possitily be brought into utterance and
writing could not be an internal spiritual Sound which is the unspoken and
unwritten law and order of the whole creation. " How could the word "Radhasoami" be Dhunatmak when it
had been brought into outer expression, and how could it be said to be
"resounding" in the highest spiritual plane where form did not exist
and where the Shabd itself had not yet come into manifestation? His Master, Baba Ji explained, had always held his teachings to be those
of Kabir and Nanak and had never claimed to have entered realms unknown to any
man before him in human history. Had not the greatest mystics of the past left
definite testimony of their access to all the eight inner planes? And did not one read in Nanak:
Sat Lok ke oopar dhave Alakh, Agam ki tab gat pave Tis ke oopar
Santan dham Nanak das kio
bisram. He who transcends the Sat Lok Alone knows the essence of Agam and Alakh, The Saints have their abode above them And poor Nanak too is a resident there. Swami Ji's last words placed his adherence to the traditional path
beyond any shadow of a doubt. He had made it clear that he had nothing to do
with "Radhasoami" developed as a cult. His path was that of Sat Naam
and the Anami, and if he did accept the term "Radhasoami" it could
only be as another Varanatmak name for the Unnameable One. All names like Sat Naam, Onkar, etc., given for Simran were in like
manner Varanatmak. Their sole functions were (a) to help build up
Dhyan or one-pointed concentration, and (b) to serve as
passwords for crossing from one plane to another. The soul's task (and the Satguru's) was to reach the fifth plane, Sat
Lok, and for this five passwords, one for each realm, were needed. Once the
soul entered the regions of pure spirit, no further passwords were necessary. As
it beheld the Sat Purush, the deity of Sat Lok or Sach Khand, and the first
definite manifestation of Naam and Form of the Formless and the Nameless, it
realized that He (i.e., Sat Purush) and the Satguru were not distinct but one
and the same, and that it itself was also of their very essence. Its search for
the Absolute was at last over and it began to merge in Him. As it entered deeper and deeper, being absorbed from Form into the
Formless, it passed through Alakh (indescribable) and Agam (inconceivable)
until it finally lost itself in the Ocean of Bliss and Consciousness that is
the Ultimate Reality beyond any name and form, ineffable, immaculate,
indescribable, and immeasurable. It was what it was and nothing more could be
said of it. The only way left for describing it was through negatives. It was
neither light nor darkness, neither sound nor silence. No Shabd could be said
to be resounding there, as Shabd had not yet come into manifestation, and to
say that the strains of "Radhasoami" could be heard vibrating there
was a contradiction in terms. All past Adepts in the Surat Shabd Yoga had taught as such. Any
perceptive student of their writings could see that they all regarded the entry
into the fifth plane as the goal that both disciple and Guru must set before
themselves. For achieving this, the Simran of the five sacred names was
essential; and once the soul had entered Sat Lok it remained the Sat Purush's
task to merge it into Himself and permit it to recede further and still further
into the Formless and the Nameless. It was this very two-phase process that
Swami Ji underlined when he said, "My path was the path of Sat Naam and
the Anami Naam," and at the conclusion of Bachan 26 in Sar Bachan
(poetry), while describing the soul's entry into Sat Lok and its journey
beyond, he made the whole method very clear indeed and left not a shadow of
doubt: Pushap madh sae uthi avaza Kau tum hoe kaho
kaja Satgur milae bhed sub dina Tis ki kripa
daras hum lina Darshan kar ut
kar magnani Sat Purush tub
bolae bani Alakh lok ka
bhed sunaya Bal upna dae surat pathaya Alakh Purush ka roop anoopa Agam Purush nirkha kul bhoopa Dekh achraj kaha na jaye Kaya kaya. sobha varan paye From the lotus there arose a voice: "Speak! Who are you and what brings you
here?" "My Satguru gave me the key to this realm And through His grace I am blessed with thy
darshan." Beholding the Lord it was lost in ecstasy; Thereupon the Sat Purush spoke Giving forth the secrets of Alakh Lok And by His own power raised it further. The form of the Alakh Purush defies description. Agam Purush, the Lord of all creations, His wondrous sight cannot be described And His glory cannot be rendered in words. Baba Ji strictly adhered to his Master's original teachings and assured
his disciples that if they lived by his instructions they most certainly would
"reach Sach Khand, and, passing through Alakh, Agam, Anami Radhasoami, get
merged in the Wonder Region." Saints in the past had attained the highest
state through the agency of the Five Names, so why change them now? Why
travesty Swami Ji's message merely for starting a new cult? The Surat Shabd Yoga was an ancient science and it had not changed
overnight. Before his last day, Baba Ji called all his disciples then present
at Beas and declared: "It is the Will of Din Dayal Swami Ji Maharaj that I open the doors
of the spiritual treasure house even more widely than before. My Master wishes
that I give you in even greater detail than before an account of the inner
realms, the first five and the last three, so that you should not be put in
doubt and say that one who was favored of Swami Ji passed away in
silence." He then spoke at length on the wonders of the worlds within and
ended with the words we have already cited in the conclusion to the biography: "All my life I have only sought to serve my Master, and now whatever he had to accomplish through this
poor physical frame is over." It is impossible to reduce to bare statement the outer teachings of a
great man. The task becomes doubly difficult in the case of a Saint of the
eminence of Baba Jaimal Singh Ji. Such spirits speak from a wisdom that we
cannot understand and act not as limited human beings but as the agents of the
Lord: Jaisi maen aavae Khasam ki bani Taisra kari gian wey Lalo. What my Lord speaks within me, O Lalo, That alone I utter. (*10) GURU NANAK (*10 Tilang M.l, 722) Their message lives in every little word they speak and in every little
gesture. The abstract statement of their philosophy is but the skeleton of bone
and cartilage that misses altogether the flesh and biood of their direct impact
on their disciples. Who can now recall those words of wisdom, of peace, of consolation, of
reassurance, of encouragement, of loving reprimand that Baba Ji uttered as he moved
among his disciples? And who can now record those little acts of selfless
kindness and superhuman love that unconsciously brought home to those around
the unquestioning conviction of the truth of what the sage taught? If ever
there was a problem that could not be solved, he sat wrapt in meditation, and
when he returned from the inner planes the answer was with him. But all that
beyond a few brief recorded accounts - is lost forever, the meaning spoken and
the meaning left unspoken and expressed through the agency of the eyes, the
words of advice on every conceivable subject to the never- ending stream of
disciples and seekers; and it is gone beyond recall. We can only give the husk,
the skeleton, and leave the rest to the reader. And for his better remembrance
and convenience we summarize here some of the main features of his message -
the most ancient, and yet, in his hands as in those of every great Saint, the
most new and the most vital. |