Life
His grandmother's home was in Shikli garh Dharahara, Banmankhi, in the Purnia district. His father was called Babujan Lal Das.The family astrologer named him Ramanugrah Lal Das based on his astrological charts, a name that is also found in Mehi's school records. His adopted name Mehi means lean and thin and also sharp or subtle. About two decades later when Ramanugrah La Das came into contact with his guru, Baba Devi Sahab, the latter, impressed by his sharp intellect, also started calling him "Mehi". [2]
Mehi's mother, Janakwati Devi, died when he was four years old. His elder sister was kind to him and she and his father took good care of him. He was admitted to the village school when he turned eight. At this school, learning was imparted in the local Kaithi script. At home he saw his father reciting regularly from the epic the Ramcharitmanas composed by the poet Sant Goswami Tulsidas Ji. His father turned emotional while reciting and at times burst into tears. This made Mehi curious to know the contents of the epic. As the epic was printed in the Devanagari script he could not read it at first. However, he labored to correlate the alphabets of Devanagri from those of Kaithi and soon he could learn Devanagri script as well. The Ramcharitmanas left an impact on his mind and several of its quartets and couplets became known to him by heart. He also learned English, Urdu, and Persian languages at secondary school.
In his childhood days, Maharshi Mehi Paramhans was a worshipper of Shiva, but his method of worshipping was unique: he would drive a nail into the ground, make it an offering of water and then sit in its front in meditation. As a teenager, he was a good soccer player. Impressed with his skills at dabbling the ball, his friends made him the team captain. However, soon he began to lose interest in playing as well as formal studies even as he developed a fondness for the study of religious scriptures like the Sukhsagar and the Mahabharat apart from the Ramcharitmanas. He would often retire into solitude while his friends were busy playing to study these books. His disinterest in schooling and formal studies kept waxing and reached its climax on 4 July 1904. [3] Half-yearly exams of Class X were on and it was the second paper – English. The first question read: "Quote from memory the poem ‘Builders’ and explain it in your own English." Answering the question, he quoted the first four lines, as reproduced below, and began to explain these. The lines of the poem were:
"For the structure that we raise,
time is with material's field,
our todays and yesterdays,
are the blocks with which we build." - Maharshi Mehi [4]
While explaining the central message of the above lines he got overwhelmed with such a surge of the emotion of renunciation that he stood up and asked the invigilator, "May I go out, Sir?" Thinking that he wanted to go to the toilet, the invigilator granted the permission but little did he know that this young lad was not merely going out of the examination hall briefly but had decided to bid adieu to the very household life for good. In fact, Mehi had made already three unsuccessful attempts to flee home, but this time he was determined and he was never to look back again.
Gurus
Baba Devi Sahab was the main spiritual Guru of Mehi. However, before he met Baba Devi Sahab, his yearning for emancipation led him to three other gurus (spiritual teachers).
Per family tradition, Mehi was initiated by Mr. Ram Jha, a Brahmin priest from Darbhanga district of the state of Bihar, in 1902. Mr. Jha was a worshipper of Lord Shiva and Mother Goddess Kali and was very fond of hunting. He, in his later years, lost his eyesight and just had a feeling that this (loss of vision) was the consequence of his previous acts of killing birds & animals. He, therefore, preached Mehi never to commit violence.
Ramanand Swami, a sadhu of Dariyapanth (a sect named after Sant Dariya Sahab of Bihar), was Mehi's second guru. Ramanand Swami taught Mehi to practice 'Manas Jap' (internally chanting or repeatedly reciting a sacred mantra), 'Manas Dhyan' (trying to concentrate internally on the form of a sacred deity or Guru) and 'Bahya Drishti Sadahan' (stilling gaze at a target in the outside, not within ). However, through a study of saintly literature and relevant spiritual Scriptures Mehi had come to realize that the knowledge of Sound/Word Meditation (Surat Shabda Yoga) was a must for total liberation – a domain Ramanand Swami was not conversant with. Curious questioning about the 'sara shabda' (Quintessential Unstruck Sound) by Mehi often irritated or even infuriated his guru Ramanand Swami Ji which left Mehi dissatisfied and fully convinced that he would have to find another suitable guru. He, thus, remained restless and on the lookout for a complete Guru. He would rush to several places wherever he heard of the possibility of seeing a person who could guide him in Sound Meditation.
It was his search, that was far and wide, that led Mehi to a disciple of Baba Devi Sahab named Mr. Dhiraj Lal from Jotramrai, the same village where Mehi had been staying in attendance upon Ramanand Swami. Mehi was deeply satisfied with the clarifications offered by Mr. Dhiraj Lal on many topics that had been puzzling Mehi for a long time. It was difficult to find free time during the day for he had to attend to various duties instructed by his erstwhile guru. So, after getting free from his duties towards Ramanand Swami Ji in the night he would approach Mr. Dhiraj Lal and the two had absorbing discussions from midnight to about 3 AM and this went on for about three months (May – July 1909) till Mehi became finally convinced that he had landed in the right spot and that Baba Devi Sahab was indeed the true Guru he had been looking for.
However, since Baba Devi Sahab lived at Moradabad of U.P., Mr. Dhiraj Lal advised Mehi to approach, in the meanwhile, and have initiation from Mr. Rajendra Nath Singh of Bhagalpur, a place that was relatively nearer. Mr. Rajendra Nath, an initiate of Baba Devi Sahab, was an advocate by profession. He had some preliminary discussions with Mehi and saw in him a genuine seeker thirsting for freedom from the bondage of BMI (Body-Mind-Intellect-Ego Complex). He gladly gave initiation to Mehi, teaching him the art of 'drishti sadhan'(the Yoga of Inner Light – a technique to still one's gaze in the inner sky in front of the center of the two eyes, called variously as the Sushumna, Sukhamana, the Ajna Chakra, the Third Eye, the Tenth Door, the Shiva Netra etc.) aimed at transcending the Gross Sphere, the Realm of Darkness and, thus, moving into the Realm of Light, the Astral Plane. As the grateful Mehi tried to touch Mr. Rajendra Nath's feet in reverence, the latter forcibly stopped him and told, "Look, I am not your Guru. I have only explained you the method as authorised by Sadguru Baba Devi Sahab. Baba Devi Sahab, not I, is your Guru." Mehi replied, "Yes, of course, he is my Guru and your Guru also, but since you have taught me this (drishti Sadahn), you are also like my Guru." Thus, Mr. Rajendra Nath Singh may be treated to be his third Guru.
After having been initiated into Santmat and becoming satisfied, Mehi, as advised by his friends, returned to where his father (who became ecstatic to see his son back home) lived and waited to see Baba Devi Sahab. The momentous occasion finally came during the festival of Dashahara (celebrated generally in October) when Baba Devi Sahab arrived at Bhagalpur. When Mr. Dhiraj Lal informed Mehi of the programme of Baba Devi Sahab's visit to Bhagalpur, Mehi got excited like a child and rushed to see his Guru. It was on the auspicious day of Vijayadashami of 1909 that he got to have his first glimpse of his Guru – a true Guru had got a true disciple and successor who was to take Santmat to the dizzier pinnacles of glory.
Satguru, or sadguru, means the 'true guru' in Sanskrit. The term is distinguished from other forms of gurus, such as musical instructors, scriptural teachers, parents, and so on. A satguru has some special characteristics that are not found in any other types of spiritual guru. Satguru is a title given specifically only to an enlightened rishi or sant whose life's purpose is to guide the initiated shishya on the spiritual path, the summation of which is the realization of the Self through realization of God.
Kirpal Singh was a spiritual master (satguru) in the tradition of Radha Soami.
Contemporary Sant Mat Movements, mostly among the Radha Soami tradition, are esoteric philosophy movements active in the United States, Europe, Australia, Latin America, and especially India. These movements assert that Sant Mat shares a lineage with Sikhism and contains elements of thought found in Hinduism, such as karma and reincarnation. They further assert that Sant Mat also contains elements found in Sufism and has inspired and influenced a number of religious groups and organizations. They refer to this spiritual path as the "Science of the Soul" or 'Sant Mat', meaning 'teachings of the saints'. More recently it has been described as "The Way of Life" or "Living the Life of Soul". It incorporates a practical yoga system known as Surat Shabd Yoga.
Surat Shabd Simran is a type of spiritual meditation in the Sant Mat tradition.
Radha Soami is a spiritual tradition or faith founded by Shiv Dayal Singh in 1861 on Basant Panchami Day in Agra, India.
Shiv Dayal Singh, known by the honorific "Param Purush Puran Dhani Huzur Soami Ji Maharaj" by his disciples and devotees, was an Indian spiritual guru and founder of Radha Soami, a 19th-century spiritual sect.
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Jaimal Singh (1839–1903) was an Indian spiritual leader. He became an initiate of Shiv Dayal Singh. After his initiation, Jaimal Singh served in the British Indian Army as a sepoy (private) from the age of seventeen and attained the rank of havildar (sergeant). After retirement, he settled in a desolate and isolated spot outside the town of Beas and began to spread the teaching of his guru Shiv Dayal Singh. The place grew into a colony which came to be called the "Dera Baba Jaimal Singh", and which is now the world centre of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas organisation.
Jagat Singh (1884–1951) was an Indian spiritual leader and the head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. He served as the guru for Beas Dera for three years, until his death in 1951 at the age of 67. He worked as a college chemistry professor at an Agricultural College and was honoured for his service by the British as Sardar Bahadur. After retirement he was chosen by his spiritual master to be his successor, becoming the third spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. Jagat Singh assigned the duties of his successor and guru to his initiate Charan Singh.
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Swami Maheshwarananda, born Mangilal Garg, known as Swamiji, is a yogi, guru.
Baba Faqir Chand, was an Indian master of Surat Shabd Yoga, or consciously controlled near death experience. He was one of the first saints or gurus of Sant Mat tradition to openly speak and write against the deceptive and harmful practices of modern guruism and religious intolerance. As a highly pragmatic individual, Faqir also strove to explain the various practices and principles of Sant Mat based on his own experiences and in the context of modern science and psychology. He was also the first Sant Mat guru to talk about the phenomena consisting of a believer experiencing a subjective projection of a sacred or holy form of a guru or idol without the conscious knowledge of the person at the center of the experience, i.e., the guru. This was termed the 'Chandian Effect', and described by researcher David C. Lane. Faqir Chand claimed that he had no knowledge of his form manifesting before a person and helping them with their worldly or spiritual problems. He fervently expressed that in his experience, the real helper is one's own true self and faith. Mark Juergensmeyer, another researcher on new religious movements, intrigued by the uniqueness of Faqir Chand's experiences, also interviewed him. This insightful interview was included in Faqir's autobiography.
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Sri M, also known as Sri Madhukar Nath, is an Indian yogi, spiritual guide, orator, and educationist. He is an initiate of the Nath tradition of Hinduism and is the disciple of Sri Maheshwarnath Babaji, who was a disciple of Sri Guru Babaji. Sri M lives in Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, India. He received the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, in 2020.
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