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Pravin Kumar
Age: 64 Zodiac: 
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 Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:07 am |
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The following are Questions posed to Maharaj Charan Singhji of Radhasoami and answers given by him:
Q Can you tell me something of your philosophy?
A I represent in India, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and we have centers here in many big cities of the United States. It is very difficult to explain in a few words the philosophy of Radha Soami faith. We are not any particular religion, nor do we believe in conversion. To me, religion means something which unites one with the Lord. I believe that after a certain period we forget the real teachings of our religions and give more importance to rituals, ceremonies and dogmas of which we become a slave in course of time. Then, all we are left with in the name of religion is just converting people or collecting funds. To me spirituality at the base of every religion is the same. If with an unbiased mind we try to make a research --- we may make a research in the teachings of any saint, from anywhere in the world --- definitely we would find the same Truth preached by all of them. So, we are concerned with that spiritual Truth which is the common heritage of every religion, or rather of every human being. I try to explain these simple truths to the seekers.
Q If always, the Truth itself, is simple and is universal, why then are there so many different religious sects?
A Saints may belong to any religion, any country, they may come at any time. They always preach the same simple Truth; but unfortunately their followers, after they, the saints, have left, interpret their teachings in their own way and try to bind them in some sort of organisation. As a result they are left with just rituals and ceremonies and forget the real teachings of the saint. Then, again, a saint appears somewhere else and revives the same old teachings. The difficulty is that people generally do not try to make a thorough research in spirituality.
Q I see in some of the literature about you, Sir, that you say that you are teaching God-realisation. What do you mean by this?
A God-realization means the merging of the soul back into the Lord, and we can do that only when we get the release of our soul from our mind. Our soul and mind are knotted together. Unless ----
Q (Interrupting) They are 'not' together?
A They are knotted together. Unless the soul gets release from th emind, it is never pure; it can never merge back into the Lord. To unknot this knotted -- together soul and mind, means self-realization.
Q How do you accomplish this --- releasing your soul from the mind?
A Well, it is by meditation. You see, this body is the temple of the Living God, and in this body --- this point which is known as the third eye or single eye --- this place is the seat of the soul and mind. From here all our thoughts are scattered into the world through the nine apertures of the body. We have to concentrate our consciousness back at the eye center. Unless we come to the eye center, collect our whole attention there, we cannot realize the Lord. Our spiritual journey begins from this point upward.
Q Is this --- I have seen many Indian women, particularly, who have a spot on their forehead. Does this have anything to do with that?
A Perhaps in the beginning that is what it was meant to indicate, but now it is just a symbol or a ritual or a custom, or may be a mere fashion.
Q I see, I see. Sir, besides meditation, does diet have anything to do with your philosophy?
A Yes. All devotees of this faith are vegetarian.
Q You eat no meat?
A Absolutely no meat. We just live on the vegetables and fruits.
Q What about eggs and ---- ?
A We do not eat even eggs.
Q Milk products or anything like that?
A Yes, we take dairy products.
Q Well, why is this?
A. This is due to the karma theory.
Q To what?
A Karma theory. If we kill somebody, we will be killed by him.
Q I see.
A So, in order to escape all that, we restrict ourselves to vegetarian diet.
Q Ah huh --- (pause). This is not really a new philosophy, is it?
A No. This is not a new philosophy. It is as old as the creation of the world.
Q Ah huh?
A And every teacher will tell you the same thing, but after some time we generally forget these teachings.
Q I am much impressed, Sir, with the aura of peace that seems to surround you, and complete -- --- what would I say --- almost satisfaction, contentment or something that is a mysterious quality about you. Is this true of most people who practice your philosophy?
A Thank you. You see, unless we have peace within ourselves, we can never have peace outside. Everybody wants peace, but our search for peace is generally in worldly achievements or in worldly possessions. The more we run after these things, the more frustrated and unhappy we are becoming every day. If we try to search for that peace within ourselves, we get that peace. Then we will also find peace even around us.
Q Mr.Singh, was the late Prime Minister Nehru a practiser of your philosophy?
A No. I do not think so. He was a politician and of a very high quality, indeed. I do not know what he practiced in his private life.
Q Master I do not have the heart to send so many questions by letter. I have been informed that you are so busy that you do not have time to answer so many letters.
A I can say one thing, when Spiritual Gems was written, Professor Lal was working with me as a Personal Secretary and he used to take care of all the foreign letters which I used to dictate to him. One day he told me that since most of the human problems seem to be the same everywhere, why not publish the gist of our letters in book form, so that people may find answers to their problems and doubts. They will know the answers to their questions and they will be spared the trouble of writing letters. I thought and pondered over it and came to the conclusion that is was a good idea, so I decided to collect all of Maharaj Ji's available letters in answer to the letters sent to him from America and Europe as well as a few from India. We searched our records and found those letters. Suddenly I felt that I should also publish Baba Ji Maharaj's letters in my possession --- a treasure given to me by my Beloved Great Master. That was why I was keeping them personally. I got them translated into English and put them in a book also, just with one idea that I would be saved from numerous letters that must be answered. But the result was that I got more letters, because those letters were so beautiful that more people became interested, and more satsangis had more questions.
Then it occured to Miss Hilger that my letters also should should be published, that Light on Sant Mat and whatever discourses. I gave, should also be translated into English and a gist of them should be given in book form, so that people would know my teachings and also my views on their problems. That increased my correspondence still more. And then I published Sardar Bahadur Maharaj Ji's book, Science of the soul, also for the same purpose, thinking that perhaps his disciples would like to know as to what his views were on those particular subjects. That means still more enquiries to be attended to and we are working day and night writing these books, just in the hope that some day perhaps American satsangis shall have no more questions to ask. Till yet we are quite unsuccessful. I do not mean that I do not want you to write to me. IPlease do not misunderstand me. You are most welcome to write any number of letters to me. I shall always be happy to attend to them, but naturally there will be a delay. People calculate that they have posted a letter on the first, it must have reached me on the sixth, on the seventh the reply will leave and by the thirteenth it will be received. And when they do no find that letter in the mail box on the thirteenth, they follow it with another one.
Sometimes I am on tour for twenty or thirty days and I have no long stop-overs. I do not even have time to look at these letters. I cannot even open the letters that are meant personally for me, I do not let anybody else open them, but sometimes it is twenty days before the letters catch up with me or I can open them, and I find among them three or four letters from the same person. After the tour I return to the Dera and we have to attend to the Bhandara. There are besides so many people and so many things to be attended to, that I do not know when to reply to those letters. But when they become so numerous, a hundred, a hundred and fifty, sometimes, two hundred or so on the desk, I slip off early in the morning with my staff member in a car and go thirty or forty miles away to some spot on the roadside where I dictate replies the whole day. When I read the letters on opening them, I mark with a red pencil the main questions to be answered, as I shall have no time to read the whole lettter again. I just ask the one to whom I am dictating, "What are the main questions?" and I dictate the answers. He finds out for himslef whether the writer is a brother or a sister, causing a mess of it at times in making in that hurriedness some sisters brothers and some brothers sisters.
It is clear from all this why my letters are quite delayed. I feel guilty always, but, on the other hand, my people in the Dera always accuse me of being more in America, even while in India, because every day it takes about three hours easily to take care of the letters. Those who have been to the Dera know it. I try to find time -- morning, evening, night. It is always on my mind when there are more than forty or fifty letters. But I acknowledge almost every letter personally, but I have certain limitations. So it will be better if you refer to the books, and if you do not find the answer, you are most welcome to write. In the first edition of Spiritual Gems and Light on Sant Mat there were no indexes, but they were added in the second edition, so you can easily find the relevent answers, but I am afraid nobody has tried to make use of that index.
Q The average person is not capable of grasping all the ideas that you brought forward. It is not their fault. God made them that way -- if he would be able to -- God would push him, would give him the idea of how to talk, what to say, and to grasp the idea. Lots of people sitting here would like to ask you a question but they do not know how, they do not understand it so well.
A Brothers, what I gather from their questions is not that they do not know the answers, nor that they do not read these books. Our books contain all the answers, but they just want me to say something, so they ask questions --- nothing else. I know there are many questions about which they know much more than I do, but they just want me to speak, that is all.
Q (Audience laughter) That is right, Maharaj Ji, we just want to hear your voice.
A We have so many books written in detail that if you read these books and try to digest what is written in them, I wonder if there will be any questions left at all. The books are beautifully written from the Western point of view, from an intellectual point of view, from a creative mind's point of view, and we can know the answers to most of the questions just by reading and studying them. In fact, we always know the answers, and only that answer appeals to us which we already know. Otherwise, the answer that we do not know will never appeal to us. I tell you, we always know the answer when we ask a questions. It is in our subconscious. The answer is always there, but we want a corroboration of that which we think is right, and we are happy when we find that it is right. That is all; otherwise all our books are full of answers.
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