Sant Mat is an extremely seductive teaching. It makes you say
to yourself, "This is great - I need
this - this is the best thing I have ever seen - how do I get this".
But, is it real - does it really work ?
A man I met early on as a member used to call me on the phone and say
"I can see you - sitting
in the chair talking on the phone to me". I would think,
"Wonderful, they can do remote viewing".
As the years went by I got to know him better and he confided that,
although he had been initiated
for many years and was initiated by Charan Singh himself during one
of his visits to America, he
had never had any inner experiences.
Newcomers are inclined to give RS the benefit of the doubt and assume
that, because the
books make such glorious promises, the members are highly spiritually
developed and can
do all the things claimed in the various books. However,
the reality of RS is far different.
Letters to Gurinder Singh
I had never written to Charan Singh because I was told by our local
secretary that he
had grown tired of answering letters and had delegated that job to
someone else. I saw
no reason to write if I was not going to get a reply written by Charan
Singh himself.
Later, I decided to try my luck writing to Gurinder Singh.
When my first reply came I thought, "What great morsels of esoteric
wisdom will I find
when I open this envelope?"
So I opened the envelope and read, essentially, "I am glad you are interested
in Sant Mat.
Please read some of our books before you decide to ask for initiation".
I did not think it necessary to tell Gurinder Singh I was a satsangi
because I had been
face to face with him at the Dera during my interview where he would
not talk to me.
But I felt at least he should know who he gave interviews to.
So I wrote back and this time made a point of saying in the letter that
I was a satsangi.
His reply did not contain an answer to my question but just a statement
that I should
be looking for the master inside and not thinking about questions.
My last letter to him was a request that he clarify material in the
RS books (which I
discuss elsewhere in Mission Statement) which state God only loves
10% of the souls
He created. His reply to that was, "I would advise you not to
activate the mind unnecessarily".
At this point I realized that it would probably be easier to get a straight
answer out
of Bill Clinton than to get one from Gurinder Singh and I gave up.
Interviews with Satsangis
RS and many other groups have a code of silence which states that satsangies
should
not talk to one another about any experiences. It now appears
that the purpose of this
is to cover up the fact that essentially no one is having any experiences.
Like the classic
story of "The Emperor's New Clothes" everyone is so afraid to talk
freely that they
assume things to be true which simply are not.
In talking to other satsangies I was able to find only one report of
a woman who had
consistent experiences as a result of joining RS - and she had left
the path.
Here I present her story:
The female reported that she had many trips to every corner of the Universe
and had
seen things that she was sure no one else could even imagine.
However, she found
eventually that the experiences were beyond her control and she could
not stop going
on these "trips". They became more and more intense. In
desperation, she tried to
think of some way to make the experiences stop. Finally she decided
upon a drastic
course of action which she hoped would stop the now unwanted experiences.
She
decided to deliberately break all the RS vows as much as she could
and leave the path
completely. This worked and the experiences stopped.
Now, what can we learn from this. First, the whole concept
of having a spiritual master
is so that you have an "inner guide" so that you are protected on inner
trips. The
reason to have a living guide is so that you can write him or
call him or whatever
should you have problems. So, why could not this woman just write to
the Dera and
ask for a "vacation" from out of body trips for a while? Why
was it necessary for her
to use such drastic measures. Is it just possible that you have
no protection or control
and that, in reality, you are on your own.
It appears that the vast majority of satsangies do not have this problem.
However,
the reason that they do not is simply that most satsangies never
have any experiences.
Julian Johnson
To conclude this discussion, I was told by our local secretary (it is
in the books or
perhaps on one of the many audio tapes of Charan Singh) that Charan
Singh gave
out the present location (Julian Johnson is dead, of course)
of Julian Johnson in
the inner worlds. He is reportedly comfortable in a pleasant
place but he is not
in Sach Khand but at a lower level below the Spiritual regions.
Now, as we know, Julian Johnson gave up everything, went head over heals
for
the Master, picked up and moved to the Dera in India and became very
good
personal friends with the Master. If such a person can't get
to Sach Khand, then
what chance does the average satsangi - who gets a "proxy" initiation
and never
even sees the Master - have of getting to Sach Khand.
My guess would be no chance at all.