Encountering Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and Maharaj Charan Singh.

Originally, I was interested in Eckankar, and "by chance" I came across a movement called Radha Soami Satsang Beas in 1980. A friend of mine happened upon a booklet he found on his parents table. It was called the Inner Voice by Colonel Sanders which gave a basic introduction to Sant Mat. It was fascinating....and I was determined to find out more. I noticed that the owner of the booklet had left his address inside so I went to him to enquire more. His name was Jit Johal, and I spent a few occassions visiting him.

He informed me that I should really go to Satsang in London which I duly did. It was there that I met a number of interesting people. I was also suprised to find how much had been printed on Sant Mat, and I studied this stuff avidly. Every Sunday I started to regularly attend Satsangs, and I felt at times imbued with a highly subtle version of bliss....I also acted as a sevadar too. This took the shape of myself being  a "doormen" at  the Satsang Hall (now demolished but used to be very close to Paddington station).

Anyway, near the end of 1980 I wrote a long letter to Maharaj Charan Singh Ji who was the Present Living Master of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. His reply was remarkably comprehensive considering his busy time schedule. He notably complimented me on being a genuine Truth Seeker who was not just interested in intellectual "gymnastics" (as he put in one, or more times in his printed letters in certain Satsang books). This was true even though I came across as something of an "intellectual" to some people.

Howeverr, I was suffering from an obssession. Apart from being a determined Seeker After Truith I had a morbid complex about a possible  early physical demise before getting initiated into surat shabd yoga by Maharaj Charan Singh Ji. At times, this obssession was driving me mad. I wrote to him about my concern.and he claimed that I should leave everything in Gods hands. Moreover, he made the claim that "....the Master (ie himself) was only responsible for particular souls assigned to him by God."

All this lead to a bizarre twist of events. For many years I was due to parental pressure not being able to go fully vegatarian, and hence, become an initiate, or Satsangi. Yet, nothing remains the same forever.

For a time I lost contact with the London Satsang, and in 1990 I was free to "do my own thing". In effect, I  had just left my parents home as they had moved onto Oxford. I rang up a Satsangi friend, and she informed me that Maharaj Charan Singh had just passed on...! I  was amazed. Charan was right. I was not meant to be initiated by him! It was to be his successor Maharaj Gurinder Singh Ji. 



PS. There is one thing I would like to add. When I was visting Jit Johal I saw a large photo of Maharaj Charan Singh laughing. Anyway, whilst I was doing some outdoor work at a golf club I was feeling very devotional, and had the sensation of doing everything for the Master as if he were physically present. This seva, or service can raise the conciousness to a high level which it did in my case. The upshot of this was an unexpected  "telepathic" flash of the photographic image of Maharaji which shot by me.

I rang Mrs."Chip"  Wood who was the extremely knowledgeable, and experienced British representative of the Radh Soami Satsang Beas, and appeared to confirm the genuineness of what happened to me. She described it as dhristi, or a "glance" of Grace from the Master.