David Christopher Lane is a professor of philosophy and sociology at Mt. San Antonio College, in Walnut, California. He is notable for his book The Making of a Spiritual Movement: The Untold Story of Paul Twitchell and Eckankar which exposed the origins of Eckankar and demonstrated the plagiarism of its founder, Paul Twitchell. He is also notable for introducing to a wider audience the teachings of Baba Faqir Chand, the Indian exponent of Surat Shabd Yoga from Hoshiapur in the book, The Unknowing Sage: The Life and Work of Baba Faqir Chand. Lane founded the journal, Understanding Cults and Spiritual Movements in the 1980s which featured critical studies of John-Roger Hinkins and Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, Adi Da, and Sathya Sai Baba. His most recent book, The Sound Current Tradition (2022) was on Nada Yoga and Surat Shabd Yoga in new religions and was published by Cambridge University Press. He also co-authored an annotated bibliography on the Radhasoami Tradition with Mark Juergensmeyer for Oxford University Press (2018).
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.
Sir Anand Swarup, also known as Param Guru Huzur Sahabji Maharaj, was the founder of Dayalbagh. He was the fifth revered leader, or Sant Satguru, of the Dayalbagh branch of the Radha Soami sect, who succeeded Sarkar Sahab in 1913. He also laid the foundation of Radha Soami Educational Institute, a co-educational middle school which opened in 1917 and later expanded and developed as Dayalbagh Educational Institute. He wrote many holy books on the Radha Soami sect, explaining the concepts of Surat Shabd Yoga and objectives of Radha Soami in general.
Sant Mat was a spiritual movement on the Indian subcontinent during the 13th–17th centuries CE. The name literally means "teachings of sants", i.e. mystic Hindu saints. Through association and seeking truth by following sants and their teachings, a movement was formed. Theologically, the teachings are distinguished by inward, loving devotion by the individual soul (atma) to the Divine Principal God (Parmatma). Socially, its egalitarianism distinguishes it from the caste system, and from Hindus and Muslims. Sant Mat is not to be confused with the 19th-century Radha Soami, also known as contemporary "Sant Mat movement".
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are the premier autonomous public technical and research universities located across India, founded under the leadership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
Dayalbagh or Dayal Bagh means 'Garden' (bagh) of 'Merciful' (dayal), inferring "Garden of the Merciful", is a locality in metropolitan Agra in western Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the headquarters of the Dayalbagh subsect of the Radha Soami sect where the 8th revered leader lives and presides over the satsang.
Salig Ram, popularly known by the honorific "Huzur Maharaj" and by the government-conferred title "Rai Bahadur," was born in Peepal Mandi, Agra, on 14 March 1829. He served as chief inspector of post offices in British India, and, in 1881, was Postmaster-General of the North-Western Provinces, based in Allahabad. He was the first Indian to hold the position.
Munshi Ram, Indian spiritual guru and follower of Faqir Chand.
Anand Mohan is registrar of Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra (India) and former professor at Department of Geology, Banaras Hindu University. He is a scientist in the field of geology, petrology and mineralogy. He is a member of XII Five Year Plan (2012–2017) of Planning Commission sub-committee on "Strengthening Community Engagement in Higher Education Institutions". He is also expert reviewer for earth sciences at Union Public Service Commission, India. He is Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, India (FASc) and National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc).
The Faculty of Engineering is one of six faculties at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It has 8,698 undergraduate students, 2176 graduate students, 334 faculty and 52,750 alumni making it the largest engineering school in Canada with external research funding from 195 Canadian and international partners exceeding $86.8 million. Ranked among the top 50 engineering schools in the world, the faculty of engineering houses eight academic units and offers 15 bachelor's degree programs in a variety of disciplines.
Vaidyeswaran Rajaraman is an Indian engineer, academic and writer, known for his pioneering efforts in the field of Computer Science Education in India. He is credited with the establishment of the first academic program in computer science in India, which he helped initiate at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1965. An elected fellow of all the Indian science academies, he is a recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the highest Indian award in Science and Technology category for young scientists and several other honors including Om Prakash Bhasin Award and Homi Bhabha Prize. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honor of the Padma Bhushan, in 1998, for his contributions to science.
Radhasoami Satsang Sabha is the Chief Working Committee of Radhasoami Satsang Dayalbagh. The teachings of Radha Soami sect are based on the spiritual teachings of Shiv Dayal Singh. The Present spiritual leader of Radha Soami Satsang Dayalbagh is Prof Prem Saran Satsangi who is a retired academic Dean Of IIT Delhi and a System Scientist and Physicist.
Gurcharan Das Mehta, also known as Param Guru Mehta Ji Maharaj, was the sixth Revered Satguru of the Radha Soami Satsang Dayalbagh. He was born on 20 December 1885 in Batala, to a respectable Punjabi family. His father was Shri Atma Ram Sahab Mehta. He studied from Thomason College of Civil Engineering, Roorkee and served in Punjab Government.
Makund Bihari Lal was a zoologist and the Seventh Revered Leader of the Radha Soami sect, living at and presiding over Dayalbagh in Agra. He served as a professor in the Department of Zoology and subsequently as the Vice-Chancellor of University of Lucknow from 1968 to 1971. He was also the founding director of Dayalbagh Educational Institute and the master architect of its education policy.
Thirumalayaperumal Karunakaran was an Indian engineer, academic, social organizer and reformer who worked on rural development problems in India and other countries. He proposed a model of decentralized development called the Rural Economic Zone as an alternative to the Special Economic Zone model of development. He served as Vice-Chancellor of two Gandhian Rural Universities, and served as the director of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Rural Industrialization (MGIRI) and founded the Agrindus Institute in Wardha.
