First, a bit of background on how I found RS-Beas in the first place.  I checked various groups
and one day saw an article in the newspaper about a local cult investigator at  the Baptist Seminary,
a Mr. Thomas Starkes.  I asked him about the various groups operating around the city, and in
our conversations he referred me to David Lane as an expert in the field of cults, gurus and the like.

I contacted David Lane and had quite a few telephone conversations with him in which he stated
that many gurus were false but that he had gone to India and interrogated a man named
Charan Singh and that he had concluded that this man was a for real guru.

Based solely on the recommendations and information provided by David Lane, (if it was not
for him I would have never heard of Sant Mat or Beas, India or had any idea that it existed)
I decided to check out RS and bought some of their books - specifically books by
Professor Puri because they were specific and technical.

Now just to preface a bit more, there are all sorts of "lead ups" to initiation in the RS books.
Things like, "This will all become clear at the initiation" or "Once initiated, you will..." or
"All this is explained at the initiation".  So, of course, they have you waiting with baited breath
for the initiation where everything will become perfectly clear.

To be initiated I had to fly to Austin, Texas which was the closest place where someone
was who did initiations.  So I did all that and the big day came.

I had a chance to talk to some of the other five or six people who were also to be initiated
and they felt that the initiation was long (about two hours) because someone was going to
work with you so that you would have your first "inner experience" and understand.
This sounded great but proved to be untrue.

We went to a room in a hotel - the room was next to a kitchen area to which it was connected
by the standard "push" type kitchen doors.  People in the kitchen were cleaning pots and pans -
banging and dropping them - and this went on throughout the whole "initiation".

The man who was going to do the initiation came in and opened his briefcase to get his
papers together and then he got started.

He began, "Now first I want to say that this is not me talking - these are the words of
the Master - I am not responsible for any of this - It is just my duty to read this to you."

Then he opened the book which is commonly called "The Initiation Notes" and read the
book from cover to cover.  As usual, when someone is just reading stuff with no input
of their own - dry reading - it is pretty boring and I don't remember a word of it.

In a little over an hour he finished reading and said,  "These are the five words you
need to memorize".   (This is the meditation mantra - you must promise not to give it
out.  However, it is far from secret because other groups also use the same mantra.
 
The RS-BEAS  secret mantra (five holy names) is posted on  RADHASOAMISTUDIES
in post number 2790.  You can enter this number in the "Msg # " box at the top of the
list after selecting the "view all" option.
 
From what I now understand, for people who are able to work with a guru one on one,
a mantra is given to a student based on the student's level as sensed by the guru.
That is, the mantra is "individually tuned for the student".  As the student progresses,
the mantra is changed accordingly.  This is supposed to be the legitimate purpose and
use of the mantra.  However, in RS, everyone gets the same generic mantra which
they keep for life.)

Next he said, "Now I want to show you the meditation positions.  Er, I can't
get myself  into any of these positions, er, is anyone here (people previously initiated
commonly "sit in" on initiations) who can show the new people what they look like ?"
Someone came forward and he said, "Ok, show them the first position" (and he did)-
"and now the second position" (and he did).

"Now I want to pass out these pictures of the Master - you each get to keep one.

Congratulations, you are now initiated."

Well, that is it.  That is what all the mystery is about.  Now you know.

NOTE: This type of initiation is called a "proxy initiation" as to be distinguished
from a for real initiation performed by the guru in person - face to face.  The
validity of proxy initiations is questionable.
 
 

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