The Great Saint called Soami Ji
Soami Ji was a great saint, or a Param saint, as defined by Kabir and Guru Nanak. He was also the first saint to use the expression Radha Soami (Lord/Creator of the Soul) to define the active, formless, and silent consciousness at the core of the cosmos.
Like Guang Chengzi (an ancient Taoist Mystic), Kabir, Guru Nanak, Rumi and Hafiz, Soami Ji described this active consciousness as both the creator of the cosmos as well as the immortal creator and the eternal, loving protector, and sustainer of every soul.
Soami Ji, like these other saints, also taught that by paying attention to the source of our inner consciousness we could eventually discover that (1) the very source our awareness at the core of our soul is this celestial awareness and (2) by learning how to abide in each new region of inner consciousness we could eventually merge into the highest states of celestial awareness.
Shiv Dayal Singh, called "Soami Ji Maharaj" by his devotees, was born on August 25, 1818, in Agra India, and died on June 15,1878 in the same city.
He used to consider the terms Radha Soami, Sat Nām, Sār Nām, Sār Shabad, A-Shabd, Sat Purush as the same thing, which he called the formless and soundless consciousness - which is the creator and sustainer of the cosmos and all souls in the cosmos.
Soami Ji practiced the path of direct consciousness for 17 years in almost total seclusion in a small room within his house in Agra. After achieving the highest levels of Celestial Awareness, he began to teach this consciousness path to other spiritual seekers.
Like Soami Ji, I’ve spent several decades in deep meditative practices on celestial awareness. It’s a subject that I understand very well. Over the past 30 years I’ve also given over 300 presentations on Soami Ji’s teachings and poems.
In the following paragraphs, I’m going to examine a few different sentences from two different poems that were published in a book entitled “Sar Bachan Poetry” by Radha Soami Satsang Beas.
The Essence of the Soami Ji’s teaching
In the first poem Soami Ji says, “No one but the soul can fathom the sublime, matchless splendor of that place (in Celestial Awareness) where Radha Soami assumes a formless form.” In many other poems he also refers to the Radha Soami as the “soundless sound of celestial consciousness.”
In this same poem, he also says, “Anyone (soul) who sings (the meditative practice of silent, enlightened consciousness) Radha Soami’s True Name (the soundless sound and formless form of celestial consciousness) will swim across the ocean of existence.” The term “ocean of existence” or “sea of existence” is a metaphor for the vast region of empty celestial consciousness that the soul experiences after having gone beyond the region of the crown chakra consciousness. Kabir, Guru Nanak, Mirabai, and Hafiz also used the same term to describe this same experience.
Soami Ji then goes on to say that final state of consciousness is (1) the Supreme Lord’s true Name and it’s (2) “boundless,” or beyond all descriptions of size or cause.
Soami Ji is claiming that any person who can meditate for most of their life on the clear awareness of their soul can potentially learn to abide in the non-cognitive source of both divine Celestial Awareness and human awareness.
From personal experience, this is absolutely true. After reaching the crown chakra our next internal experience is a resonant, luminant bubble of clear awareness that (1) stretches outward for millions of miles in 360 degrees of awareness and (2) keeps expanding outwards as we experience it.
This is an experience that is totally beyond all human imagination. This is also why Soami Ji explains that only the soul can potentially fathom it.
The Second Poem
In another poem, Soami Ji says, “Why flounder on this (mind-body awareness) side of the inner eye center? Peep into the opening of the third eye and cross over.”
He’s reminding us that during our meditation practice we need to (1) stop watching what we see or sense within our mind, and instead (2) pay attention, in our clear soul-awareness, to the center of the awakening process in our third-eye chakra.
When we learn how to abide at the very center of any region of celestial consciousness (beyond mind-body awareness) we quickly learn that our soul’s awareness is always expanding from the center of our awareness and then flowing outward to the extremities of our awareness. During this same experience, the enlightened clarity and sharpness of our awareness is also constantly expanding, or “opening up.”
In this same poem Soami Ji says that the center of our awareness happens “in a place where the stream of nectar (divine awareness) constantly flows.”
There are twenty-two distinct levels of enlightened celestial awareness beyond mind-body and space-time awareness. Unfortunately, most meditators are so astonished at the bliss and sense of divine awareness that experienced at the eye center, that they assume that they’ve reached the final level of “heavenly awareness.” But it takes many, many years of intensive meditation beyond the eye-center experience to achieve celestial (Radha Soami) awareness. It took Soami Ji 17 years to reach divine awareness and it took me more than 20 years to achieve it as well.
The River of Divine Awareness
The ability to go beyond the first region of divine consciousness (the eye center region of enlightenment) to the next region of Celestial Awareness is fully dependent on the ability to abide in the very center of your expanding field of awareness - as the stream of divine awareness flows from cosmic awareness through the very center of your soul awareness.
Most modern consciousness teachers talk about the necessity of becoming aware of your awareness. But you must go beyond the beginning stage of “awareness of awareness” to discover the river of divine awareness that is always flowing through the very center of both your soul awareness and thus through the very awakening process of your soul.
Float, float, float. Let your inner awareness melt into this river of divine awareness that is always flowing through you. Let it be. Let this awakening process continue instinctively and naturally. This stream of divine nectar will awaken you far, far, far beyond your normal mind-body awareness. Eventually, this precious river of divine awareness will take you to the very source of your Celestial Awareness.
Eventually, it will enable you to achieve the very purpose of your life.
Thank you Greg for relaying your experience of being a spiritual person. Trust me, I have seen what these man-made religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and their variants, do to people mostly. And I have no reason to doubt that any other man-made religion is any different if I were to study it more. I have a few questions for this post I want to ask and say ahead of time please do not take the directness of the questions as insulting in any way.
"Soami Ji practiced the path of direct consciousness for 17 years in almost total seclusion in a small room within his house in Agra. After achieving the highest levels of Celestial Awareness, he began to teach this consciousness path to other spiritual seekers."
1.) "for 17 years in almost total seclusion in a small room within his house"? How are all, or even most, human beings supposed to be able to do this? Is this in like short meditations each day, either before or after we do life's other essential things like work, tend a garden or a farm maybe, prepare ourselves physically, tend to our wives if we have or want one, and raise young?
"There are twenty-two distinct levels of enlightened celestial awareness beyond mind-body and space-time awareness."
2.) Twenty-two? Says who? Why put a number on it? The stark reality is that all human beings are not the same in body and mind, as we are more or less constantly told in America anyway. We all do have some ability to reason and to teach and to be kind to all others as we possibly can as human beings. This is already most humbly and naturally done through using our God-given reason. God is simply and very clearly the mysterious creator force of the universe, which is nature, to anyone who isn't kidding themselves anyway.
Note: And I hate to admit it, and damn sure don't like it, but mental and physical problems of various degrees at birth seem to be unavoidable for all life here at times. I was excited years go when I realized the notion that mankind maybe could genetically improve ourselves from these things with science. Think of strong people, with technology, and taking care of and respecting each other and the planet best we can, while teaching this to all our young everywhere That is, when we can educate people out of these man-made religions that make possible ALL of us being easily manipulated and scammed because people keep passing this bs on and on. Mankind was before any of that bs and today we do not have to be brutal for lack of knowledge. The last 21 years of my research, and the sheer audacity and criminality of some of the people on this planet, which you can see some of in my substack, has dashed this hope somewhat for now.
Sincerely,
Michael