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The Muslim Mystics
The Muslim mystics attached more importance to the activities
of the inner self than to the observant of outward religious practices
and rituals. To them, God is pure Being and absolute Beauty. Purification,
devotion and deification are the three main stages for realization. Repentance,
abstinence, renunciation, voluntary poverty and trust in God are the methods
of purification. Meditation, nearness to God, love, fear, hope, tranquility,
contemplation and resignation are the means of devotion. Certainty, illumination
and realization are the other names for deification. The path is divided
into seven stages : observance of the law of service; service to God; love
of God; renunciation of worldly desires;knowledge or contemplation of the
nature, attributes and works of God; ecstasy in contemplation of God; union
or seeing God face to face; and finally absorption in the essence of eternal
Being.
The Muslim mystics based their thought upon two essentials:
the teacher - pir or murshid - and love or ishq. The
teacher is considered no less than God. perfect devotion to the teacher
ensures speedy realization of Truth. As to love, a devotee is expected
to possess an abundant store of it, and all beings who come in contact
with him must of necessity be charged with his love. Many practices in Radhasoami
faith appear similar to the practices of the Muslim mystics - total surrender
to the worship of the perfect adept, the idea of the beloved (Supreme Being)
and the lover (devotee), the intensity of pure love, the ideal of ever-absorption
in the thought of the highest reality and the singing of emotional hymns.
Tulsi Saheb and His Teachings
In the early nineteenth century, Tulsi Saheb, a great
saint of Hathras, introduced a spirit of rational religious reform. His
sole purpose was to preach the gospel of love. He attempted a simplification
of the Indian religion on the lines of medieval saints in order to make
it accessible to the common man. He launched a campaign against reactionary
practices such as tantrik sadhnas, prevalent in the Sant sects
and deplored them as unbecoming and contradictory to their original teachings.
He referred to various extant observances as followed by Kabir Panthis
and asserted that they had developed a narrow vision, traditionalism and
static sectarianism. He also found many anomalies in the teachings of the
Sikh gurus as followed by their disciples and claimed that Sikhism had
degenerated into ritualism and distortions against the gurus' basic tenets.
Thus Tulsi Saheb not only tried to remove evil tendencies that had crept
into the teachings of Kabir and Nanak but also reminded their followers
that the medieval Sant sects were reformative ideologies whose original
teachings had been ignored and twisted. He called for inner search, in
accordance with Sant mat, and to stick to its anti-ritualistic form
of spiritual socialism. He did not believe in caste distinctions and his
followers included persons from all castes and creeds. He propounded a
philosophy of inner spiritual realization under the aegis of Satguru.
It is said that he did not adopt any guru for himself, but recognised
the necessity of a guru to lead the individual on the path of spiritual
enlightenment. He also revealed the inner spiritual secrets of Pind, Brahmand
and beyond Brahmand and called his Supreme Being as Piya, Satpurush,
Parmatam, Hans and Nirakar. He propagated vairagya, yoga,
gyana and bhakti and attached much importance to the unity of
Sant-mat. Bringing about a harmonious blending of terse metaphysical
concepts and the spirit of scientific reasoning, he brought about a unique
synthesis hitherto unknown to the Sant-tradition.
The founders of the Radhasoami faith caught the spirit
of synthesis as sponsored by Tulsi Saheb and went a step forward in harmonizing
philosophical concepts of inner truth with rational derivation. Like Tulsi
Saheb they emphasized the necessity of a guru, the importance of shabd
and yoga. In keeping with the Tulsian traditions, they vehemently
criticised such followers of Sant-mat as has deviated from the original
teachings.
The Theory of Shri Kripal Singh
Tracing the background of the formative influences on
the Radhasoami faith, Shri Kripal Singh links up the history of spiritual
heritage with last Sikh guru Gobind Singh. He holds that guru Gobind Singh
traveled far and wide and went to Poona in Maharashtra and brought in
his fold many a member of the Peshwa family. He presumes, but without any
historical basis, that Sham Rao, the elder brother of Baji Rao Peshwa must
have come into contact with Ratnagar Rao, a disciple of guru Gobind Singh
and ultimately Sham Rao settled at Hathras and came to be known as Tulsi
Saheb. But this statement is not historically true. Guru Gobind Singh died
in 1708. The same year Sahu, son of Shivaji, became king of Maharashtra
and appointed Balaji Vishwanath as the first Peshwa in 1713. Baji Rao I
became Peshwa in 1720 and he was the eldest son of his father (Balaji Vishwanath).
Further Shri Kripal Singh's contention that Soamiji became
a disciple of Tulsi Saheb and that he derived spiritual light from him,
does not seem to correct, for , if Soamiji was born 'Almighty" as
Shri Kripal Singh himself admits, there was hardly any need for him to
have accepted the discipleship of anyone. Shri Kripal Singh does not seem
to have realised the contradictions involved in his two statements. As
such his view that the saint of Hathras bequeathed his spirula heritage
to Soamiji is devoid of historical evidence.
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