Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Someone asks about my failure to reach heaven

Today I got an email from someone who has a theory about why I've been occasionally critical of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) and the guru of this India-based organization, Gurinder Singh Dhillon. I could have responded to him privately, but I figured that I might as well make a blog post out of his message and my reply. (My responses are in plain type below; my correspondent's words are indented and italicized.) Sach Khand, which is mentioned in the message, is the Sikh religion's "heaven." As described here, Sach Khand is considered to be both a state of consciousness…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Amazing changes in Radha Soami Satsang Beas teachings

Imagine the Pope saying, "Jesus wasn't really the Son of God. There isn't any heaven. God is just a state of consciousness. No one divine will meet you when you die." It'd be more than a little shocking, to put it mildly. The head of a religion almost always defends the faith, preserving the core of traditional dogma while merely making small changes in other aspects of the teachings. But reports keep coming in that the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), an India-based mystical/spiritual organization with millions of initiates in many countries around the world, has been undermining…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Has Gurinder Singh revised Sant Mat to v. 3.0?

Sant Mat is an Indian mystical philosophy that can be translated as "path of truth." I was an active member of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), one of the various Sant Mat branches, for about thirty-five years. Back in the old days, the RSSB guru taught that spiritual truth was unchanging. But with a new guru, we've got new truths. To me, that's refreshing. It's probably disconcerting to those who held a rigid fundamentalist view of Sant Mat, though. Five years ago I wrote a post about "Sant Mat, version 2.0." This is how I summarized the changes that Gurinder…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Comments on Gurinder Singh’s “earthquake” letter to Japan

Since Gurinder Singh Dhillon is the guru of India's Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and is considered to be "God in human form" by devotees, perhaps it's presumptuous of me to comment on a letter he wrote to disciples in Japan following the disastrous earthquake and tsunami there. But what the heck! I'll gamble that if God exists, and if Gurinder Singh is God's representative here on Earth (two big "if's"), the Supreme Being enjoys commentary on his missives to humanity. The letter can be read in PDF form: Download Gurinder Singh message to Japan Copying and pasting the text into…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Religious obedience: pros and (mostly) cons

When it comes to the subject of obedience, South Park's Eric Cartman pops naturally into my mind. I'm a big fan of his classic Respect my authoritah! (authority, pronounced au-thor-i-TAH) For quite a while I used that line a lot with my wife and dog, until I realized that it wasn't having any effect. Still, it worked for Cartman in the scene below. And religions are able to get people to believe it. (Click on the video to start it playing.) ChickenloverTags: SOUTHPARKmore...   In a synchronistic moment this morning, shortly after I finished reading the Just Following Orders chapter…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Religions

Religions (and RSSB) should come with a guarantee

If a product lets buyers down, consumer advocates -- along with plain consumers -- jump into aggrieved action. Sometimes excessively. I'm amazed that Consumer Reports, a magazine I love and have subscribed to for as long I can remember, still isn't recommending purchase of the iPhone 4 because of a minor antenna reception problem that really wasn't that big of a deal. However, it was a defect that Consumer Reports felt should have been fixed by Apple before the iPhone 4 was released. This makes me wonder: Wouldn't it be great if religions came with a guarantee that salvation, enlightenment,…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

I’m churchless. And as “spiritual” as ever.

Today a friend asked me to explain my current attitude toward spirituality. We haven't talked as much about godly, mystical, and meditational matters as we did back when I was an active member of an India-based religious organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). It's always interesting for me to hear what I have to say in response to such a query. I didn't have to think much, if at all, before answering him. After all, writing posts for this blog keeps me attuned to how I feel about spirituality now, as opposed to my previous true-believing past. But talking face…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

If a God-man is just like us, what’s the point?

So what if God was one of us? That's a question Joan Osborne asked in the lyrics of her song, "One of us." That thought came to mind after I wrote about an Indian guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, bringing in over $250 million for himself and his family through insider transactions of Religare stock. Since the shares essentially were gifted to the guru and his sons (the 2006 purchase price was very low, about 1% of the current market value) by businessman relatives who also are disciples of Gurinder Singh, it can be argued that this is nothing unusual. It's…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru makes $254 million

Wow, it really pays to be an Indian guru with the right connections. Check out this story, "SEBI nod for Radha Soami Satsang Beas." (SEBI is the Securities and Exchange Board of India.) The capital market regulator has granted exemption to Logos Holding Company from making an open offer to the shareholders of Religare Enterprises for its acquisition of 19.53% stake in the company. Logos Holding is an investment arm of the Gurinder Singh Dhillon family.Gurinder Singh is the current head of one of India's largest religious sect – Radha Soami Satsang Beas. At Thursday's closing price of Rs 460.95,…
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Posted inBooks Morality Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Sam Harris says morality can be scientific

I love Sam Harris' books. His "The End of Faith" came out about a year after I started this churchless blog in the fall of 2004. It provided me with a surge of faithless energy, validating my decision to do what I could to help rid the world of destructive religious dogma. "Letter to a Christian Nation" (2008) also was a winner, but didn't appeal to me quite as much. Never having been a Christian (aside from pretending to be one in my early elementary school years), I guess his focus on the ridiculousness of Christianity seemed self-evident to me.…
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Posted inPersonal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Religion doesn’t add anything to human experience

Here's a big misunderstanding that most religious people make: when they feel good, they attribute those positive feelings to their religiosity -- not realizing that if they didn't have faith in God, Guru, Brahman, Allah, or whatever, they'd feel just about the same. I say this because I used to be such a person. For the thirty-five or so years I was an active member of an India-based religious organization I was almost always in a positive frame of mind. I was energetic, confident, productive, and happy. But this also describes how I was before and after my immersion in…
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Posted inBuddhism Radha Soami Satsang Beas Taoism/Tai Chi

Are Buddhism and Taoism akin to Sant Mat?

People here in the West often speak of "Eastern religions" as if they were all alike. This shows how little understanding citizens of predominantly Christian nations have of other cultures. Actually, some Eastern faiths have as much, or even more, in common with the Big Monotheistic Three (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) as they do with monistic/atheistic teachings such as Buddhism and Taoism. Case in point: Sant Mat, which means the "path of saints." For about thirty-five years I was an active member of an India-based Sant Mat organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, so I know whereof I speak. That's why I…
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Posted inBuddhism Radha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Vastness might be us, not a separate self

Somebody in my house picked up Suzanne Segal's book, "Collision With the Infinite, " this morning. Outwardly, it seemed to be me. But inwardly, it didn't feel that way. Even though I've got a bunch of books in my meditation area that were ripe for reading, I was drawn to move into an adjoining bedroom and look over the contents of a couple of bookcases. My right hand followed my eyes after I spotted the book. Holding it, I didn't have a sense either that I'd made a decision, or that a decision had made me. Something simply had happened.…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

How to hold on when religious belief lets go

Today I got an email from someone who reminds me of me, just a lot younger. He speaks of losing confidence that the religious organization I was a member of for over thirty years, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, is what he once considered it to be. But this loss of a belief hasn't yet been balanced by a gain of...what? I've come to the conclusion that the RSSB movement in general doesn't have what it takes to be called a 'Science' (as they call it.) It does not stand up to rigorous questioning, and is not wiling to share experiences,…
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Posted inBuddhism Personal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

“Jaded old men,” identify yourselves!

OK, I'm demanding that you guys out yourself. No more hiding in the closet. Paul, who left this comment today on a previous post about Radha Soami Satsang Beas, has discovered that this blog is full of "jaded old men" who have forgotten the wonder of life. All I have to say is that I read Brian's writings as I have always found his thinking to be well thought out. I have read his books and his thinking inspired me. Well my opinion of this blog has changed. It has become a pathetic playground for people to bash other peoples…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Is Radha Soami Satsang Beas a scam?

If I believed in God, which I don't, I'd call what happened to me today a message from God. Instead, let's just call it a message and leave it at that. During my morning reading/meditation period I had some ideas for the post I planned to write later on. Right now I'm looking at what I jotted down on some note paper: "Buyer beware" Penguin WindowsReligion as false advertisingKnowledge of falsenessChristianity? NoRSSB? Yes A few hours later I got an email notification that another comment had been submitted to this blog. It was from regular Church of the Churchless visitor…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Free food is a Sikh thing, not a RSSB thing

For those interested in Sikhism and a related Northern India religious faith -- that of Radha Soami Satsang Beas -- take a look at a short New York Times video about the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar (thanks to my friend Randy for letting me know about it). I wasn't aware that the practice of giving out free food via a "langar" is a traditional Sikh custom. This is done on a large scale at the Radha Soami Satsang Beas headquarters in Beas, Punjab. But apparently the Golden Temple is an even bigger langar purveyor. This just goes to show…
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Posted inBuddhism Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Almost all spiritual paths lead up Mount Ego

For about thirty-five years, from age 20 to 55 (I'm now sixty-one), I meditated assiduously in accordance with the tenets of Radha Soami Satsang Beas -- an India-based guru-centered organization whose teachings claim to be able to unite the soul with God. However, what I learned from my immersion in the deep waters of organized religosity is applicable to almost every sort of spiritual path (to mix watery and earthy metaphors). True believers generally feel that they're becoming less selfish, egotistical, and me-centered through their devotion to...whatever or whoever. God, guru, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna, cosmic consciousness, Great Spirit, etc.…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Some thoughts on divine dying

I've been enjoying the spirited commenting on a recent post, "Attempt to kill the RSSB guru, Gurinder SIngh, fails." One interesting discussion topic is whether, if the guru indeed is GIHF (God in human form) as the Radha Soami Satsang Beas teachings proclaim, anyone could succeed in killing a divine being. Someone pointed out the obvious: that Jesus is viewed as the Son of God by Christians, yet his central reason for living was to die. Michael Parenti talks about this in his book, "God and His Demons" -- which takes a strongly skeptical look at religiosity. Nothing less than…
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