The Voice of the Saints September 1981 Sant Ji
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The Voice of the Saints September 1981 Sant Ji: An Introduction PHOTO CREDITS: Front and back covers, p. 16, Charlie Boyn- ton; pp. 23, 45 (bottom), Jack Dokus; pp. 40, 45 (top), 48, Steve Arky; p. 47, Jonas Gerard; others unknown. SANTBANI volume six number three I The Voice of the Saints September 1981 I FROM THE MASTERS The Well of No Return 17 Sant Ajaib Singh Ji comments on the Sukhmani Selections from the Anurag Sugar 24 Kabir Sahib The Prologue To Keep the Sweetness 41 Sanl Ajaib Singh Ji April 6, 1981 OTHER FEATURES A Brief Life Sketch of 3 Russell Perkins Sant Ajaib Singh Ji SANT BANVThe Voice of the Saints is published periodically by Sant Bani Ashram, hc., Sanbornton, New Hampshire, U.S.A., for the purpose of disseminating the teachings of the living Master, Sant Ajaib Singh Ji, of his Master, Param Sant Baba Kirpal Singh Ji, and of the Masters who preceded them. Editor: Russell Perkins. Annual subscription rates 518.00. Individual issues 52.00. Back issues $2.50. Foreign and special mailing rates available on request. All checks and money orders should be made payable to Sant Bani Ashram, and all payments from outside the US. should be on an Interna- tional Money Order or a check drawn on a New York bank. All correspondence should be ad- dressed to Sant Bani Ashram, Franklin, N.H. 03235, U.S.A. Manuscripts, including poems and artides on the theory and practice of Sant Mat, are most welcome. Views expressed in in- dividual articles are not necessarily the views af the journal. Sanl Ajaib Singh, approximalely 1963 A Brief Life Sketch of Sant Ajaib Singh Ji RUSSELL PERKINS EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article is the Introduction to the forthcoming book, Streams in the Desert: Discourses and Conversations of Ajaib Singh, 1976-1980. It is based on "An Introduction to Sant Ajaib Singh Ji" (SANTBANI, July 1976) but it is corrected, amplified, and brought up to date: it is almost two-thirds new material. ANT AJAIB SINGHJ1 MAHARAJ,the eryone told him that the Guru Granth S author of Streams in the Desert, was Sahib (the holy scripture of the Sikh born in a Sikh family September 11, 1926, religion) was the Guru. His great-uncle in Maina, District Bhatinda, Punjab, In- said, "When you see this holy book, you dia; his mother died giving him birth and are seeing God; when you read it, you are his father died a few days later. He was talking with God." The little boy took brought up by his great-uncle and his these statements very seriously, kept the wife, who named him Sardara Singh, and book with him as much as possible, and who loved him as their own child; it is read it as carefully and devotedly as he they whom Sant Ji means when he refers could. He dwelt on it so much that he used to his "parents." to see the book in his dreams; neverthe- Sant Ji has told many tales from his less, as he says, "There was no real peace own life experience in the discourses and in my mind. For in that book also, it was conversations included in this book; my written that there should be a true human purpose here is to provide a framework in Guru for real peace and salvation.'' So his which those references can be under- search for a Guru continued through his stood, and to introduce additional infor- childhood and adolescence. mation. But to acquire a real understand- At one point he met a sadhu who told ing of the inner meaning of this very him, "Believe me, I am your Guru, and I remarkable life story, it is essential to read will take you to God." Then he started to his own comments scattered throughout teach him how to change forms-from his his talks, in the context in which he has own form to various animal forms, etc.- placed them. "But I told him that I wanted to rise His search for truth began when he was above the man body. I didn't want to con- five years old; he used to get up early in vert myself to any other form." And the the mornings and read the writings of sadhu also gave him a book in which some Guru ~anak,' and an overwhelming of the signs of a true Master were longing to meet a true Guru-a "dispeller given-"and when I read that book, I of darkness" or genuine spiritual Master didn't find any signs of the true Guru in with the compassion and competenoe to that sadhu, and so I left him." guide him-would come into his heart. In Lahore he met another sadhu who But whenever he asked anyone about a was also working miracles, "but I was Guru-"Where can I find a Guru?"-ev- longing for the knowledge of Naam, as Guru Nanak had written, and I was not 1. A towering spiritual figure of the past interested in miracles." This sadhu took (1469-1539), he is honored as the founder of the Sikh religion and is in the direct line of Masters of whom an interest in the young seeker, then in his Ajaib Singh is the living representative. early teens, and gave him the mantra, Hey September I981 Ram, Hey Gobind, which he repeated for because I didn't get anything from Bishan many years. This sadhu also taught him to Das. Still 1 went to Bishan Das and he was do the well-known "austerity of the five a hard nut to crack. I used to go to other fires" in which the aspirant sits in a circle sadhus also but I didn't find any like of four burning fires with the sun over- Bishan Das, so I came back to Bishan Das head; this rite is done during the hot and tried again and again to get season (when the temperature may reach something. But Bishan Das was very hard 130 degrees) for about forty days each and he didn't give anybody anything. But year. When asked if he had derived any still I tried-I tried for ten years to get the benefit whatever from doing this, Ajaib knowledge . and when I went to Bishan Singh replied emphatically, "No! " Das, he slapped me. And he never allowed This sadhu also gave him a rosary to me to wear any fine clothes. And all my repeat the mantra with, and encouraged relatives and other people who saw this, him to eat meat and drink wine; which they abused me and made fun of me: 'He however he did not do. (His family, being has gone mad! He is going to a madman. non-vegetarians, had also urged him to When he goes, he gets slapped and told to eat meat; but he never did, and has been a go away!' " But Ajaib Singh says that vegetarian from birth.) Bishan Das's slaps were sweeter to him Although he was happy to repeat the than the smiles of the other sadhus, mantra, Hey Ram, Hey Gobind, he did because he saw that he had something not otherwise derive benefit from that real. sadhu; and a short while later, about Not too long after meeting Bishan Das, 1940, he met Baba Bishan Das, a sadhu in the early 1940's when he was still in his who was to become his first guru and teens, Ajaib Singh was drafted into the who, as Sant Ji has often said, "made my Army, where he served approximately life." References to Bishan Das abound in seven years and at one time saw duty in Streams in the Desert; it was the job of Germany. He continued to visit Bishan this enigmatic figure, a spiritual descen- Das whenever he could, and he continued dant of Baba Sri Chand, Guru Nanak's to be treated roughly by him. Once, when son, with his partial knowledge of Surat under the influence of some fashionable Shabd Yoga, to prepare his one disciple colleagues he was tying his beard in for his tremendous destiny. In this he was modern Sikh style, Bishan Das grabbed eminently successful: when Ajaib Singh his beard and forcefully untied it, saying, met his ultimate guru, Sant Kirpal Singh "Who do you think you are-a fine of Delhi, he was, thanks to Bishan Das, in gentleman? Who taught you to do this?" a position to take full advantage of the and pulled it down to full length. He also opportunity offered to him. demanded of Ajaib Singh his entire It was Bishan Das who changed his salary, with the exception of five rupees a name from "Sardara Singh," an in- month which he allowed him for his own auspicious, almost meaningless name, to expenses; with that money he built an "Ajaib Singh" or "wonderfu1 lion"- ashram-which, however, he refused to "Ajaib" means "strangeIy wonderful" in allow Ajaib Singh to visit, on the grounds Punjabi. Bishan Das accepted, in his own that he might think it was his (since his way, Ajaib Singh's devotion, but refused money had paid for it). adamantIy to initiate him or to give him During this time he was still repeating anything for many years. In Ajaib Singh's the mantra, Hey Ram, Hey Gobind, so words: "I used to go to many sadhus, much so that the repetition had become SANT BANI automatic. While on parade duty in the troducing Sant Mat there, telling him that Army he was supposed to be saying, Somanath's background was similar to "Left, right; left, right," but the mantra his, having involved him in a long search had become so much a part of him that he and many difficult austerities.