True Sant Mat - The Real Teachings behind Sant Mat

The REAL purpose of Satsang

I have been to satsang at many sant mat organisations. What happens? Well basically NOTHING. You attend for years and years and at the end - you get nothing.

How can this be, when the scriptures speak so highly of satsang?

Maybe, just maybe, this is not true satsang. Satsang is meant to transform your whole life and take you to realization. Yet in practise nothing happens. It can even get incredibly boring listening to the same old stories week after week and being told to attend to your meditation.

Well I have news for you. The reason there are no results from attending such satsangs is because that is not satsang at all! How can there be results when all you have attended is a cheap imitation of the real thing?

When people are conducting satsang who have NO FIRSTHAND experience of the truth - what you get is a theoretical talk about truth. This will not help the seeker - rather it will hinder progress because you are listening to someone who has NOT attained.

Par Par pandit aura Samjai - anpi ghar jal ki khabar na pai
The Pandit explains truth to others by reading scriptures
But he is unaware that his own house is burning down

This scripture is clearly saying that anyone who gives satsang from scriptures without realising for himself is misleading others. The scriptures do not call this satsang for a very good reason. You cannot benefit from it because the realized person is essential for satsang to happen.

THE REAL MEANING OF SATSANG

What does satsang really mean? SAT means TRUTH and SANG means COMPANY. So SATSANG is the company of truth. Being in the presence of truth. Satsang is the company of the SATGURU. The Satguru is one who has REALIZED the truth and not someone who gives out theory. If the Satguru is not realized then there is no satsang - it is a mere gathering of people to listen to an intellectual talk.

Everyone has THEORIES. Siri Ramakrishna was sitting when a disciple passed by carrying a book. Ramakrishna called him over. "What is this book you are carrying?" he asked. "It is a book about water, it is a complete study of water." replied the disciple. "Then squeeze the pages of the book and let us see how many drops of water ooze out." Said Ramakrishna. If you squeeze the pages of the book there will not be a single drop of water because the book is about theory. It is not the water itself. In the same way talking ABOUT God is not the same as REALIZING God. You can know lots of theory but it will not help you. You need to drop all your so-called knowledge and be in the company of a realized being. That is satsang.

The MIND is a barrier to truth. Why? Because it is full of concepts and concepts are not the truth. All concepts are barriers to truth. The mind wants to know - it is hungry for knowledge - it wants to gather all the theories and understand God or Truth. This cannot happen because there is nothing to understand. God, Truth or Enlightenment is not a theory that you can understand. It requires you to drop all your thinking and stop trying to be "right."

You have to be OPEN and RECEPTIVE if you want to experience Truth. Your mind must stop struggling to be right. You simply let go and surrender in the company of an Enlightened Master. That is the way. It does not matter what the Master does - it is all satsang. He can be silent or he can speak - He can sing, dance, shout, pull faces at you or anything else. You simply accept what is happening. This can only happen if you are in love. If you are not - then it will not happen for you because you will be too busy judging and you will not be open. Why is love essential? Because only in love will you surrender automatically.

The real meaning of Satsang is the company of the Satguru. Anything else is not satsang - but just a theoretical talk. In order to realise truth you need to drop all your knowledge and in a theoretical satsang you will go on collecting more knowledge. You will become a scholar of sant mat. You will be able to give great talks and guide others. However, you yourself will remain in darkness and your guidance will actually be mis-guidance because unless you realize the truth for yourself - you will only mis-lead others.

KABIR says: mein Kaita hu ankei dekhei tu kaitha hu kagaz ki likeh
I speak what I have seen with my own eyes - you speak what is written in scriptures.

ONENESS - DUALITY - FORMLESS - WHAT IT REALLY ALL MEANS

We hear the words, but we do not understand. Why? because we are confused with all the concepts and ideas we have gathered all our life.

Let's examine this all closely.

What does ONENESS mean? it means there is only ONE. Nothing else exists. The ONE is all there is.

What is DUALITY? Duality means what we perceive. The world of OBJECTS. There are MANY - this is duality. Everything has an opposite. Everything is within TIME and SPACE. Everything has a beginning and an END. Everything is BORN and DIES. Everything has a SHAPE and a FORM and attributes like COLOUR, WEIGHT etc.

FORMLESS - what does that mean? It mean NO FORM - NO BOUNDARY. NO SHAPE.

How many FORMLESS 'things' can there be? Only ONE - because it has no boundary - no limits - it never ends - it extends to infinity. If it ends - then it has a form and is not formless.

We say that GOD is FORMLESS and INFINITE. GOD is therefore the ONENESS. Nothing except the ONENESS exists. The ONE is all there is. Because it is infinite - it encompasses all time and all space.

GOD is therefore outside of the realm of TIME and SPACE.

Now let's go into this a little deeper.

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 can have a 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; rue - 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.

Introduction

BACKGROUND INFO

Sant Mat means the teachings of the Masters. All masters have taught the way to realise God or the ONENESS. Sant mat is also known as Radha Soami Mat. Radha Swami originated in Agra 1818 with the birth of Swami Ji Maharaj (real name Shiv Dayal). He was initiated by Tulsi Sahib of Hatharas. After Swami Ji, there were at least 4 successors: Rai Saligram, Baba Gharib Das, Seth Pratap Singh, Baba Jaimal Singh. Jaimal Singh came to the Punjab and settled in Beas (the current headquarters of Radha Soami Satsang Beas - RSSB). Jaimal is not mentioned in the final words of Swami Ji as an official successor. After Jaimal Singh the successorship passed on to Sawan Singh who expanded the Dera. After Sawan Singh - the successorship officially passed to Jagat Singh and then to Charan Singh. However, Kirpal Singh also claimed that he was the real successor and started his own mission in Delhi in 1949. 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 to 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). There are many gurus in the sant mat line although the Beas line is the most famous.

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 souls 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 KEY here is to understand that much of what is given in the original text (Sar Bachan) has been taken literally when in fact it is a METAPHOR. When you take a metaphor literally you will mis-understand the whole point of the metaphor.

I will go into many aspects of the sant mat teachings and show you how it makes total sense once you realise that so much is a metaphor but has been taken as literal by the followers and many of the gurus of the sant mat tradition. When you take a metaphor literally, the result is a false teaching.

The main points to understand are as follows:-

(1) The Regions of sant mat are METAPHORS. They are not literal. They are not PLACES that actually exist - nor are there any RULERS of each region. Sach Khand is NOT a literal place. You cannot go there and have a personal audience with Sat Purush. There is no such person as Sat Purush.

This whole thing was a STORY to describe how the world was created. It is just a story. It did not really happen. Kabir has done the same thing in Anurag Sagar. He has gone into great details - but again - it is just a metaphor and not literal.

(2) SATGURU means one who has realized the TRUTH (ie. the ONENESS). Metaphorically speaking we say he lives in Sach Khand. This simply means that he lives in TRUTH (ONENESS). He is not ALL-KNOWING and he has not traversed any inner regions, since there are none. 

(3) SATSANG is the MEANS by which the Satguru communicates truth to the disciples. Satsang means the company of TRUTH. It can only be true satsang if it is conducted by a realized person. Truth is CAUGHT not TAUGHT. If in any organisation the disciples conduct satsang - it is not true satsang. Why? Because the first ESSENTIAL for satsang is the SATGURU or a realized person. If there is no such person - all you have is a philosophical discussion of a subject that will have no benefit. SATSANG is not a FORMALITY. There are no rules and it cannot be limited. The Satguru or realized person is free to do or say anything because it is his presence that will affect the receptive disciples. Once you have a set of rules and a satsang conducted by the disciples - then it is the blind following the blind. It is no longer satsang.

(4) NAAM, WORD or SHABD.
This is greatly mis-understood. What exactly IS Naam, or Shabd? They say it is a sound that is heard internally. It has been called in inaudible life stream. It has been called Tao, Logos, WORD, Anhad Shabd. So what does it really mean?

Naam is of two types:- Varanatmik and Dhunatmik.

(1) Varnatmik means it is SPOKEN, WRITTEN, and is in language. It hints at the real Naam which is the Dhunatmik one.

(2) Dhunatmik Naam means that it is not a word. It is not in language. It is the TRUE NAAM.

When you are initiated you are given Varnatmik Naam, and your purpose is to get to the Dhunatmik one.
When you get Dhunatmik Naam - you become Enlightened. So what does all this really mean?

The REAL meaning is Varanatmik Naam is the SPOKEN WORD of the GURU. Whatever the Guru SAYS, it is all Varnatmik Naam. When the Guru talks about God, Enlightenment, he is using varnatmik Naam. He is hinting at the truth. This is the real meaning of Varanatmik Naam. It is not five holy words.  

When you REALISE the truth for yourself - that is called Dhunatmik Naam

Naam means REALISATION of truth. When you HEAR the truth - that is Varnatmik - it is outer - it will not have any effect - it is just a concept.

When it becomes REAL for you - you REALISE it - now it has an effect. This is Dhunatmik Naam.

That is why it says - that the Dhunatmik Naam liberates you - it is the REAL Naam - meaning that you REALIZE the truth for yourself - instead of just listening to the Guru. Listening is OUTER. Realization is INNER.

The Varnatmik Naam is the MEANS - you do SIMRAN of it. What does SIMRAN mean? It means to go into DEEPLY - to CONTEMPLATE - to think deeply about. DHYAN is meant to be not OF THE MASTER but of what he is REALLY SAYING. If the Master is Enlightened - then his words will show you the way to truth. DHYAN means to think about deeply. It is similar to SIMRAN - but it means to focus on something to the exclusuon of all else.

So when you listen carefully to the words of an Enlightened Master and if you are OPEN and receptive - and you allow his words in - something will begin to SHIFT for you. This is why the GURU is of paramount importance. His words will affect you. That is why they say spirituality is caught not taught. There are no teachings as such - because there is no method - nothing to learn. There is something to UNLEARN. You have to DROP all your existing so-called knowledge - which are all concepts that you have gathered. You have to become empty - only then will the truth enter in.

Something happens to you in the presence of the Master - you become infected by his presence. The truth he speaks about cannot be expressed in words - you will find many apparent contraditions because what he speaks about is beyond the mind - and you are trying to grasp it with the mind. So your efforts are doomed to fail. However, in the process of failing to grasp - if you are receptive - you will have an EUREKA moment when it will suddenly make sense. It will be as if you have just come out of a dream or out of a lifelong trance. Suddenly it will become clear that you had trapped yourself by your own concepts - by the mind.

When you REALIZE the truth - it means that the Dhunatmik Naam is manifest within you - the shabd is manifest within you and you no longer need do to simran

Like Kabir Says: Mera Pritam Mujh ko Bhaji, Mein Karun Bisraam.
My Lord now recites my name and I just enjoy my life.