Spiritual Awakening Radio James Bean

Kirpal Singh: "Simran is the first step of the spiritual ladder." "By Simran of Holy Names, we get rid of the thoughts of the world. One feels the presence of God." "Simran bestows happiness, peace and bliss, and leads us to a state of super-consciousness." "Simran is a weapon against all dangers. It acts as a password to all spiritual planes. It gives strength and sustenance to the body and mind during trouble and affliction, and brings the soul near the Master." "Remembrance of God is the main thing before us to find the way to Him." "Simran gives pleasure and removes pain. By doing the Simran of the Lord, one merges in Him."  
 
Baba Ram Singh: "It is Simran only which helps us to focus our attention from this world outside and come to the Tenth Door and go within. So, we should do as much of Simran as possible. When we are eating, or when we are walking, or doing other mundane activities, we should continuously keep our mind focused on Simran. And that will help us to more expeditiously move on this Path."
 
"Simran" is a term which means "Remembrance", the spiritual practice of remembering or being mindful of God by repeating his Name or Names. Devotees sing or chant various names for God. Higher spiritually, and more "within" is the practice of "manas jap", the mental repetition of God’s name or names "with the tongue of thought" -- in other words, chanting names of God within one’s mind. The Sants have always placed much greater emphasis upon mental Simran over vocal chant, as it takes one further within via the Third Eye Center.
 
Definitions of Simran: "Repetition of names or thoughts; in Sant Mat, the simran [or remembrance] of worldly thoughts is controlled through the Simran [remembrance] of the Five Charged Names, repeated by an initiate throughout the day and when sitting for meditation as a means of collecting the thought currents at the Third Eye Center; Simran is also used as a password of sorts to higher planes and protection from Negative Power influences." (Glossary, Satsang Discourses of Baba Ram Singh)
 
These sacred names that are to be repeated are revealed to the spiritual seeker by a living master (Sant Satguru) at the time of their initiation into Surat Shabd Yoga, the Path of Meditating Upon the Inner Light and Sound of God.
 
What is the practice of the Name (Simran)? It is a form of interior prayer by which a person learns to keep his or her attention always in God, in every circumstance and situation, at all moments, through day and night. It is a form of inner remembrance that leads to a heightened awareness beyond the limitations of the physical world and the portals of death. Through meditation on the Name (Naam Bhakti) one learns to draw one’s attention away from the outer world.
 
There is however, more to Simran than the repeating of sacred names. Simran must be approached with the right attitude, the right spirit, for one’s intent determines how successful the practice will be, and what effect it will have upon one’s consciousness. Simran has never been intended to be a dry or lifeless mantra practice. The path of the Sants is a Bhakti path, a path of love and devotion for the Supreme Being. Thus, the true Masters have always instructed their students to repeat God’s Name with love and devotion, as a lover calling out to one’s Beloved, the Lord of Love.
 
In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters, Radhaswami,
James Bean
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Also, Being A Spiritual Warrior In A World Of Illusion, Studies in the Anurag Sagar (India's Most Gnostic Scripture)
 
In a sacred text from India known as Kabir's Ocean of Love (Anurag Sagar) Kal Niranjan, the Gnostic Demiurge, the Negative Power or God of Illusion once said to Guru Kabir: 
 
"I will do something there so that nobody will believe in Your Shabda [Word]. There I will create such karmas and illusions that nobody will find the way out. In every single home I will create the ghost of illusion, and deceiving the souls, I will make them forget. All humans will eat flesh and drink wine, and all kinds of flesh will be their favorites. 0 brother, Your Devotion is difficult -- Nobody will believe it, I'm telling You! That is why I say: 'Don't go into the world now!'"
 
Says Kabir: "At that time I told Kal, 'I know your deceptions and tricks. Making the souls firm in the true Shabda, I will enable them to remove your illusions. I will make them recognize all your tricks, and by the strength of Naam I will liberate the souls. Those who remember me in thought, word and deed, focusing their attention on the Elementless, such souls will go to the Immortal World, putting their feet on your head. Any brave and wise soul will finish your ego. And very happily that soul will be convinced of the true Shabda [True Word].'
 
"Hearing this Kal felt defeated and started to think of deceptions." (Anurag Sagar)
 
On today's Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcast, The Cosmic Conspiracy according to the Anurag Sagar, and the way to spiritual freedom and liberation according to The Path of the Masters, The Way of the Saints.
 
In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters, Radhaswami,
James Bean
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https://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com
 
 

THE THREE LEVELS OF SATSANG (Association with the Eternal Truth or God):
 
* The Third Level of Satsang (Association with the Writings of Sages and Saints);
 
* The Second Level of Satsang (Association with the Saints/Masters);
 
* The First Level of Satsang (Association with God);
 
"Without a Master all scriptures are like the whispering of ghosts." (Sant Tukarama)
 
Guru Nanak says the True Master (Satguru) unites us with God, gives us a Godward Focus: “That preceptor is worthy who unites the aspirant with God.”
 
"'Satsang' comprises two words, 'Sat' and 'Sang.' What is 'Sat'? 'Sat' is that which can never be destroyed, and it is the essential element that is indestructible and beyond the limitations of time. And it is the Truth. 'Sang' means association or contact, and this association or coming in contact with Sat or Truth is Satsang. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says: 'Whatever is Truth always exists and is never non-existent. That which is non-Truth has no existence whatsoever.' By association with a pure soul the mind becomes pure and the darkness of attachment is dispelled. In attending to these quotes from different saints it becomes clear that satsang is vital and very necessary for any serious spiritual seeker." (Swami SantSevi Ji Maharaj)
 
Jai Guru,
James Bean
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On the Origins of Modern-day Sant Mat: In the beginning there was one Sant Mat Path founded by Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras with Satsang centers in Hathras, Agra, and Lucknow. Sant Tulsi Sahib sent Girdhari Sahib to the city of Lucknow a few years prior to his passing in 1843.  During the period of time between the passing of Sant Tulsi Sahib in 1843 and the passing of Maharaj Girdhari Sahib of Lucknow in August of 1860 -- that seventeen year period -- in addition to doing much meditation, Soamiji Maharaj also was affiliated with, attended and supported the Satsang of Sant Girdhari Sahib in the city of Lucknow. 
 
Girdhari earlier had spent some time in Agra and gave Satsang talks at Soamiji's home. According to Seth Pratap's Biography of Soamiji Maharaj, after the passing of Tulsi Sahib, Soamiji Maharaj had Girdhari move into his (Swamiji's) other house, located in the city of Lucknow. This became a new base of operations, a headquarters for the Lucknow Satsang, very much like the family home at Panni Gali, Agra had served as the place of Satsang for the Tulsi Sahib Sangat there since Soamiji was a small child and even earlier. Another reason for Swami Ji to have a house in Lucknow was that sometimes Swami Ji traveled to Lucknow to attend the Satsangs of Girdhari Sahib.
 
Soamiji Maharaj, Sar Bachan Radhasoami Poetry, Hidayat Namah section: "For a long time the spirit of this faqir (i.e. Soamiji Maharaj Himself) sauntered and stayed there [Maha-Sunn, Great Dark Void] and then under instructions from the Teachers and Guides, moved ahead."
 
Sant Garib Das commenting on the above verse: "Soamiji in his Discourses has said that his surat descended into the dark regions of Maha-Sunn but could neither locate the bottom or the end of it nor did it feel it worthwhile to go down any further. Thereafter, his surat adhering to the signs as revealed to him by his Gurus ascended upwards. Here Soamiji says that it was the inner Mercy of his Satguru Tulsi Saheb and that of Maharaj Girdhari Das Ji whose Satsang he attended for a very long period of time." (Anmol Vachan)
 
Soamiji viewed Girdhari Sahib as Tulsi Sahib's successor, supported him, and attended his Satsang. Soami Ji Maharaj treated Girdhari Das as his Guru, as well as donated and "gave substantial material support" to his spiritual mission for "a number of years" according to, The Biography of Soamiji Maharaj, and according to Daniel Gold in, The Lord As Guru: Hindi Sants in the North Indian Tradition.
 
Professor Mark Juergensmeyer in, Radhasoami Reality observed: "Girdhari Das is described as being the 'chief disciple' of Tulsi Sahib, a term that would usually imply he was understood as his designated successor (Pratap Singh Seth, Biography of Soami Ji Maharaj, p. 108). After Tulsi Sahib’s death, Swami Shiv Dayal brought Girdhari Das into his house, treated him with love, and accorded him respect due to a pious Mahatma.'" (Pratap Singh Seth, Biography of Soami Ji Maharaj, p. 37).
 
RUMI's Ode to the Unknown Mursheeds, Sages and Guides
 
"In every age, God’s mercy and pleasure graces their (Saints') pure spirit and breath. The names of lakhs of (cloistered, secluded, hidden) majestic spiritual personages (Saints) whose heads are adorned and distinguished by His grace have remained unknown and unsung because they were the cynosure of God who (must have) felt envious of their spiritual grandeur (and chose to keep them obscure and unhonoured as obscure heroes are unsung)." (Jalaluddin Rumi, The Mathnawi)
 
Radhasoami,
James Bean
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Like Galileo discovering new worlds through the lens of his telescope, mystics of the East and West (Jewish mystics, Christian Gnostics, Sufis, and in modern times, the Sants and Radhaswamis of India: Path of Sant Mat) have been trying to tell humanity for eons of something quite similar... about another kind of space... Inner Space. The reason why the contemplative state of being is still hidden from most of us is that, unlike Galileo’s telescope, in order to look through this particular lens, we mustn’t focus on the outward sensory impressions, but go in the opposite direction: into Inner Space. Look through the lens of the third eye to access the world of within. But one has to be willing to take the cap off the lens and have a look, to actually do the meditation. If we do follow the methods of meditation practice revealed by the Masters, with the third eye we will behold the Inner Light, Inner Visions, hear the Sound of Silence, the Holy Stream of Sound -- Music of the Spheres, traverse the heavens for ourselves, and return home to the Beloved Lord of Love, the Lord of the Soul.
 
Today during this Satsang Without Walls some rare passages from the world of esoteric Santism translated from Hindi, the writings of Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras, India and a few of his spiritual successors on this Path of the Masters, Inner Light and Sound Meditation, the Way of the Soul Merging into the Heart of the Beloved, the Ocean of Love in the Nameless Plane (the Anurag Sagar of Sat Purush Anami Radhasoami). 
 
"Only by breaking the bonds of mind, illusion and time is one free from the cycle of transmigration." (Sant Prakash Das)
 
"Complete Mahatmas, Genuine Saints came to the world in their respective times and kept on emancipating the living beings who were connected with them.  On completion of their time, they left the body as per the will of the Lord and went to the Lord and left their work [their spiritual mission] to the other saints when departing." (Sant Prakash Das)
 
"The true master practices the spiritual Sound and Light that comes from beyond. By these methods of meditation, the soul becomes introverted through regular practice and hears the melodious Sound within, and the soul reaches where the Sound is emanating from. This is the goal of the practice of Surat-Shabd-Yoga." (Sant Prakash Das)
 
Within This Body - Mystic Poem of Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras
 
"Within this body breathes the secret essence.
Within this body beats the heart of the Vedas.
Within this body shines the entire Universe, so the saints reveal.
Hermits, ascetics, celibates all are lost, seeking Him in endless guises.
Seers and sages perfectly parrot the scriptures and holy books, blinded by knowledge.
Their pilgrimage, and fasting, and striving but delude. 
Despite their perfect practice, they discover no Destination.
Only the Saints who know the body's heart have attained the Ultimate, O Tulsi.
Realize this, and you've found your freedom
(while teachers trapped in tradition know only the mirage in the mirror)." 
 
In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters, Radhaswami,
James Bean
Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcasts
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A Satsang Without Walls
Sant Mat Radhasoami
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For many years some scholars and others curious about Sant Mat history have been puzzled by references in Radhasoami literature to a living master that Soami Ji Maharaj associated with and apparently was very devoted to. His name was Girdhari Sahib. However, little was known about this particular Guru, or his actual status in either Tulsi Sahib or the earliest Radhasoami communities... UNTIL NOW. During Part One of this two-part series we'll explore the evidence about Maharaj Girdhari Sahib of the Sant Tulsi Sahib Satsang and his association with Soamiji Maharaj (Seth Shiv Dayal Singh, Sant Radhasoami Saheb).
 
In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters, Radhaswami,
James Bean
Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcasts
Sant Mat Satsang Podcasts
A Satsang Without Walls
Sant Mat Radhasoami
https://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com