When blind belief and faith are elevated over direct experience and questioning, I call that a religion. There is a lot of religiosity in RSSB even though this path supposedly isn’t a religion. The rest seems to be in the realm of religion, not mysticism or what I like to call spiritual science. My quest these days is to discern the essential in spirituality. I’ve become a bit of a Sant Mat “heretic,” just as you seem to be. Sometimes a satsangi will phone us my wife answers and hears the greeting, “Radha soami.” She then says, “Hello.” The caller again says, “Radha soami.” She refuses to go further with the conversation until the person communicates like a normal human being rather than a cult member. I now am inclined to shy away from labels such as “satsangi.” My wife is a non-initiate and I have found that this satsangi/non-satsangi distinction is unproductive, just as the Christian/non-Christian distinction is. I am indeed a Sant Mat (RSSB) initiate, dating way back from the class of 1971. Here’s my mildly edited response to the questions I was asked: Keep what works for you discard what doesn’t. If it appears that you can drop some inessential ritualistic practice, almost certainly you should. When something seems wrong about the spiritual path you’re following, likely it is. So I encourage people to trust their direct experience over abstract concepts. Truth always finds a way to express itself. Religions try to put bounds around boundlessness, but this is a futile exercise. The ultimate reality we call “God” can’t be confined within any manmade system. The more knowledgeable you become about a church, faith, philosophy, or theology, the more flaws you’ll find. My basic point is universal: after you’ve belonged to a religious or spiritual organization for more than a few years, it’s natural to be more critical of it. But substitute, for example, “Pope” for “Master” and “Catholic Church” for “Radha Soami Satsang Beas” if my message seems too distant from your own experience. I realize my language will seem foreign to many people. Though personal, I didn’t mind making a stab at answering them and have shared my response below. I was asked good questions, some obviously much easier to answer than others. “Satsang” is a meeting of satsangis, a service if you will. Satsangi is a generic word that literally means “one who associates with truth (sat).” Since many spiritual groups in India and elsewhere consider that they are on the path to knowing truth, you can be a “satsangi” of various denominations-to use a rather ill-fitting Christian term. I do not know whether you will feel the following questions too personal to answer, but if you do not mind, will you mind answering them?: Are you or were you ever a satsangi? What is your spiritual philosophy these days? Can you comment at all on the Sant Mat Gurus, especially Maharaj Gurinder Singh? How do you recommend one seeks the Ultimate Truth?īy “satsangi” he meant specifically an initiate of the mystical path known variously as Sant Mat, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Science of the Soul, Surat Shabd Yoga, or Radha Soami. This is how my correspondent ended his email: Recently I got a message from another member of the spiritual group, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), that I’ve been involved with for thirty-five years. Making connections with like-minded (or unlike-minded) people from anywhere in the world is a wonderful reward for the time and effort that goes into a weblog. Like most bloggers, I love getting email.
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