What is Sant Mat Really all about?

What is Sant Mat REALLY all about?

BACKGROUND INFO

Sant mat is also known as Radha Soami Mat, Ruhani Satsang (kirpal Singh's offshoot), and Radha Swami Mat as well as various other names. Origin was Agra 1818 with the birth of Swami Ji Maharaj (real name Shiv Dayal). He was apparently initiated by Tulsi Sahib of Hatharas. After Swami Ji, there were at least 4 successors, one of whom was Jaimal Singh who came to the Punjab and settled in Beas (the current headquasters of Radha Soami Satsang Beas - RSSB). Jaimal is not mentioned in the final words of Swami Ji as an official successor. Kirpal started his own mission in Delhi in 1949 and claimed to be the true successor of Sawan Singh. He changed the sant mat teachings by stating that the master must give Light and Sound at the time of initiation - otherwise he is not a true master. Kirpal and his subsequent 5+ successors all claimed o give an experience of light and sound at the time of initiation. Among the successors of Kirpal were Thakar Singh, Darshan Singh, Swami Divyanand, Ajaib Singh, and Dr Harbhajan Singh. There is also the Taran Taran sucessorship line. Also one in Saidpur headed by Sant Ralisa Ram (whose predecessor was Baba Teja).

TEACHINGS

The traditional teachings of sant mat are as follows:

We are all souls that have come from our true home in Sach Khand, where Sat Purush resides. Sat Purush sent the souls because Kal (the negative power) performed meditation standing on one leg for many ages. Sat purush now comes himself in the guise of SATGURU to take those ouls back to Sach Khand. The method is SATSANG and MEDITATION on the HOLY words which are given at the time of initiation. The disciple agrees to meditate for 2.5 hours a day although it is general knowledge that very few initiates actually do this. He also agrees to abstain from consuming eggs, animal fats, meats, fish, alcohol. The disciple eventually catches hold of the SHABD which is the connection to the creator. This shabd takes the soul out of the body and the soul reaches the RADIANT FORM of the Master (the Astral Form). The Master then takes the soul through each of the five spiritual regions and finally the soul arrives in Sach Khand. End of spiritual journey. Here the soul lives happily ever after.

Very few if any disciples manage to get to Sach Khand. I will explain why a little later. So the backup plan is as follows. If you can't manage to meditate and leave the body then there is a backup plan. Perform SEVA (service) with BODY and MIND and WEALTH. The Guru in his grace may come at the time of your death and take the soul with him to the inner regions.

Disciples generally believe that their master will come at the time of death and take care of them. Some disciples claim to have seen the master just before death and tell their loved ones that the master has come and will take care of them. This gives consolation to the family members that the master will take care of the dying person.

THE REAL TRUTH

So what it the truth about sant mat?

The truth is that it is all fiction. There is no Sach Khand, or a Sat Purush who resides in Sach Khand. This is all very obvious. The whole of the teachings are a METAPHOR which have mistakenly been taken literally. God has NO FORM so cannot live in a particular place.

Why?

Because only if you have a FORM do you exist in TIME and SPACE. God does not exist within
TIME or SPACE. Therefore He does not LIVE ANYWHERE. He also does not MOVE, THINK,
ACT, JUDGE, GIVE COMMANDMENTS, LOVE or HATE anyone, or HEAR YOUR PRAYERS.

GOD does not have a MIND, otherwise he would be within time and space. Therefore he is not like anything you can think of. In fact you cannot say anything about God because all you have is a concept of God and God is not encompassed in a concept.

In the hindu shastras it describes God as NETI NETI - meaning neither THIS nor THAT.

Okay - so we have established that God has NO FORM.

Next question - does your SOUL have a form? It is said that the soul is a particle of God and shares the same attributes. This means the soul also has no form.

Again remember that all this is a METAPHOR and not literal. There are no literal particles of God.

You have a soul that occupies your body and is the REAL YOU. This soul also have NO FORM.

Hmmm.... interesting.

God has NO FORM. The soul also has NO FORM.

So what does that mean? can there be two formless entities that co-exist?

FORMLESS means that there is no BOUNDARY - no SHAPE - no FORM. It means that the
formless thing is INFINITE - it occupies ALL SPACE - it is EVERYWHERE.

Can there be TWO infinities? Of course not - because then neither is INFINITE.

If there were TWO or more - then they are all FINITE. They have a boundary.

So there cannot be TWO. There can only be ONE.

It is impossible for TWO or MORE to exist. There is only space enough for GOD.

The soul cannot co-exist with God. So there is NO SOUL. There cannot be. If you
believe there is a SOUL then you have mis-understood the nature of NO FORM.

The ONLY WAY you have have the soul is to say that it DOES have a form. In which case
it is FINITE and LIMITED. It cannot then be of the same essence as God.

In which case the soul is FINITE, LIMITED and DIES. All things that are IN FORM
are FINITE, LIMITED and they will all DIE.

However, everyone who believes in a SOUL also says the soul is ETERNAL and never dies.

DUALITY

Duality means more than one. You live in duality. Everything in duality has an opposite.
Duality exists in TIME and SPACE. Everything here is dual.

Hot - Cold; Up - Down; Big - Small; Here - There; Good - Bad; Right - Wrong;
True - False; High - Low; Success - Failure; God - Devil; Sat Purush - Kal;
Life - Death;

As long as you live in duality - you are in illusion. You are living in MAYA. Now here is
the interesting thing. Sant Mat teachings are DUALITY TEACHINGS. What that means is
that they encourage you to think in duality.

What do I mean? Well - first of all - you are MEDITATING and TRYING to GET to Sach Khand. Well that is duality. In your mind you create a CONCEPT of Sach Khand. You believe Sach Khand is a PLACE somewhere. Maybe you're not sure where - but if it is a place then of course it must be somewhere!

Sat Purush LIVES in that place and is the ruler of Sach Khand. The goal of every sant mat disciple is to get a personal audience with Sat Purush. And once you get there - you live there forever. The method is MEDITATION.

Now the truth is YOU WILL NEVER GET THERE. Why? because it is impossible. There is no such place - except in your mind. Of course you CAN get there IN YOUR MIND - just as you create dreams every night. The dreams APPEAR to be REAL. So Sach Khand or the inner flight of the soul will APPEAR to be real.

Sant mat gives you a CODE OF ETHICS - which is trying to make you into a GOOD PERSON. Well - that too is duality. GOOD is a duality concept. In reality there is no GOOD and no BAD. Good and bad only exist within DUALITY.

Good it that which BENEFITS you or others. BAD is that which HARMS you or others.

Krishna in the Gita appears to be BAD because he encouraged Arjuna to fight and kill. However, you need to understand duality before you will understand krishna.

If your car is stolen is that GOOD or BAD?

If a certain person (call him FRED) DIES - is that GOOD or BAD?

If you get MARRIED is that GOOD or BAD?

If you get DIVORCED is that GOOD or BAD?

Now let's answer:

If you car is stolen - it could be either. Perhaps it was insured and you got paid out more than it was really worth and you wanted a new car anyway.

Maybe FRED was a BAD person and had killed many people - so him dying would be good.

Maybe you are marrying someone who is going to make your whole life a misery.

Maybe getting divorced is the best thing because you were so miserable in the marriage.

My point is this:

GOOD and BAD requires a PERSONAL VIEWPOINT. If there is no personal viewpoint then there is no good and bad. Then life is simply life and what happens is simply what happens.

If something BENEFITS you - you consider it GOOD. If it HARMS you - you consider it BAD.

If there is no personal perspective - there GOOD and BAD disappears.

GOD has no personal perspective - so there is no GOOD or BAD for him.

So when you PRAY - you are talking nonsense because you are asking for something GOOD
to happen - or to avoid something BAD. Both of which are meaningless in NON-DUALITY.

To God they are meaningless - because in GOD's WORLD - there IS NO MEANING.

MEANING only exists in DUALITY. No Duality = No Meaning.

Meaning is created by the MIND. God has NO MIND.

Sant Mat is a DUALITY teaching. You are putting in EFFORT to get salvation (get to Sach Khand). You are assuming that it will happen ONE DAY in the future.

You are trying to be a GOOD person.

You believe that Master is Sat Purush In human form and if you obey his commandments - you will get to Sach Khand.

This is all ILLUSION. Let me explain why.

ONENESS

There is a state one ONENESS. It is the opposite of duality.

Everything that duality has - does not exist in ONENESS.

Good, Bad, Right, Wrong, Up, Down, High, Low, Hot, Cold, Big, Small, Here, There, past, future,
present, God, Devil, Enlightenment, Ignorance etc etc etc.

All this is within DUALITY. In ONENESS it does not exist.

In ONENESS - only ONE thing EXISTS :- NO-THING or NOTHING - or the ABSENCE of ALL THINGS. ONESS is a VOID in which only the VOID exists. That VOID is YOU - it is also GOD. The two are ONE and the SAME. YOU and GOD are not TWO. Why? because there is ONLY ONE.

The ONE is ALL THERE IS. You can also call it the NOTHINGNESS. Because there is nothing there. It is not even a place - it does not exist within TIME and SPACE. It is the ABSOLUTE NOTHINGNESS - there is not even any EMPTY SPACE there. There is also NO TIME there.

You cannot ARRIVE there because (1) it is not a PLACE and (2) there is NO TIME and (3) there is NO YOU to arrive.

As long as you think in terms of YOU and GOD - you are in DUALITY.

I will go further into Sant mat and the real teachings behind it in my next post.