Reflection 9: The Karmic Web

If you could encapsulate the central theme of Sant Mat then it would be to incapacitate a follower with a belief structure that renders them to be completely reliant on their Guru. The core of this belief would be the concept of karma.

As defined by Sant Mat a soul has been living for millions of years and lifetimes trapped in an endless cycle of birth and death through countless species. Rising through good actions to high spiritual regions only to eventually fall once again into the karmic wheel of cause and effect and the humiliation of lower species.

Sant Mat offers the ultimate get out of jail card, breaking this cycle forever. The Master will take the disciple beyond the reach of karma and Kal ( the devil) to a region of pure bliss never to return again to the cycle of cause and effect.

The deal is the disciple carries the small load of karmas completing their meditation, living a pure moral life, eating a lacto-vegetation diet and not drinking alcohol. In return, the Master carries the lion's share of the disciple's huge karmic store and promises to take the disciple to the highest spiritual karmaless region in as little as four lifetimes. The guarantee is the disciple will never have to return to a non-human species ever again once they get initiated into Sant Mat.

Does this all sound complicated? Well, it is and I've only touched on a very simplified version of this dogma. The central goal of a teaching like this is to create apathy in a follower. A feeling of complete hopelessness of your current situation. It's a very clever trap. The more you read about this path and there are a lot of books, the more your mind gets enmeshed in a huge sticky web of belief.  Until eventually you can't move. Once you are completely entangled, your free will, individuality and the ability to make sound logical decisions is eliminated. Like a struggling fly, you have to inevitably succumb to the spider.

Who or what this spider is, is an interesting question to ask yourself.

Jesus had a name for him. The Deceiver.

Have you been hoodwinked?

The easiest test is to assess your life right now and look at its fruits.

Jesus brings life, freedom, joy, happiness, compassion and love.

The Deceiver brings pain, loss, isolation, loneliness, despair and selfishness.

Where do you sit right now?

Forget about the end goal and take a ruthless look at your situation at this present moment of time.

This is what I did. I know it's painful to do this as you consider the amount of time and sacrifice you have given to following Sant Mat but without honest self-assessment nothing can be gained.

A mindless follower trapped in a cult is not the destiny of any human being created by one loving God.

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Reflection 8. It's Either One or the Other

The belief that the only real way to love God is through a current living master is not only incorrect but also blasphemy if you are a Christian. 

As a Christian, you believe there has only ever been One God. He revealed Himself through Jesus Christ to break the bonds of sin through crucifixion as a one-off act of love, resurrecting and conquering death for all time. Opening the gates of eternity for everyone who believes ( Luke 14:13-23 ).

This is the deal breaker. You cannot be a Christian and be a follower of Rhada Soami Satsang Beas at the same time. Period. No matter what Sant Mat tells you.

It's simply impossible if you read and accept the Bible and believe what Jesus taught us ( John 14:6 ).

 Rhadha Soami Satsang Beas directly attacks Jesus Christ replacing Him with Gurinder Singh.

It's either one or the other.

Don't believe these wishy-washy statements that you can still follow your own religion and follow Sant Mat. Lies and deceptions.

Don't believe Jesus Christ is part of a long line of Masters including John the Baptist. This is another attempt to mainstream the only Son of Man.

Have you ever heard Jesus mention anything about His disciples meditating or listening to the Shabd?

Was Jesus a vegetarian? No, he ate fish. He was a Jew ( Luke 2:21-24)

Why do you think He performed so many miracles, walked on water, cast out demons?

Because He was the only begotten Son of God and He had the power of the Holy Spirit. ( John 3:16-18)

No one has ever come close to matching Jesus Christ or ever will but there are plenty of forces that desire your worship over Him.

Reflect on the five names of Simran. Who are they? Have you ever met them? Have you read any books about them specifically? What sort of spirits are they really? Are they rulers, angels, demons?Do you really know?

Just remember that you are repeating names. Five specific names. Not Gurinder Singh's name. He's your guide.

When I was a satsangi this aspect of the path of Sant Mat always made me feel uncomfortable if I thought too much about it.

How comfortable are you with this?

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Reflection 7. A Lukewarm Love Affair

If you're not fired up with love for God and keen to share this with others then you might have missed the boat somewhere along the way or been conned out of the real deal.

I was in a lukewarm love affair for 12 years. Yes, I guess I started off with high expectations and passion but this only lasted for a short time. The daily struggle of meditation and lack of response from this habit soon extinguished my burning desire to know God.

I put God in a box and figured He didn't want to know and love me yet. I would just have to try harder or so I thought. Eventually, through failure, I settled for mediocrity and a semi-warm on the way to cold heart.

Sant Mat meditation for me was the path to despair. The worst kind of hopelessness in which I believed God just wasn't interested in knowing me for whatever reason. According to all the Sant Mat books, I read he was very interested in other satsangis but not me.

Oh how wrong I was.

How God reached me, in the end, was standing on top of a sup board looking at a sunset after endless perfect rides at a surfing spot called Omaha. His love erupted in my heart as spontaneous praise for his wondrous beauty as I held my hands up high in worship. Right then and there I knew something had shifted inside me and my passion for Him and His love for me was ignited once more.

I achieved God realisation yes I realised God loved me! Very simple really. No bells or whistles, astral travelling, third eye revelations or Shabd adventures. Just a knowing that my Father cares for and loves me passionately.

Heard this song today on Radio Rhema on the way home from work by a New Zealand folk psalmist called Strahan.

The title is Call Me. Hope you enjoy.

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Reflection 6. An Actor in a Bizarre Role

As a westerner, you are privileged to the opportunity of a sit-down question and answer session during the 3 weeks of your stay at Dera( Beas, Punjab). This lasts for around 30 minutes after the evening satsang. I remember when I asked my first question how nervous I was to be addressing Gurinder Singh. My mind had literally given Gurinder a God like status. That's why it's so surprising that Gurinder answers your questions as a very normal person which is all he really is. Just another human being like you or me that has found himself in an extraordinary hereditary position. Through time and many sessions of giving satsangs and answering questions, Gurinder Singh has become very good at what he does. I guess it helped that he was trained as a lawyer earlier on in his life. But this is his job and like any job it has its perks and down side. I think anyone famous would empathise with Gurinder with his total loss of anonymity but on the other hand, his every need is taken care of and the wealth of the world is available to him and his family. His position of power guarantees most doors are open to him.

So the irony is that satsangis tend to worship Gurinder Singh as a god and yet he is just a normal guy like you or me. An actor in a bizarre role who over time has become his part. 

Unlike Jesus Christ,  God's only Son,  infinitely powerful and the real source of love in the universe. 

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Reflection 5. Stopping Simran

Over a fair amount of years, I developed the daily moment by moment practice of repeating simran which was ironically very hard to stop. It was as if simran was stalking me from within and repeating itself at every available opportunity, even in my dreams. 

So I started repeating a form of the Jesus Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner

This worked in combating simran although it took quite awhile for it to completely stop.

My Jesus Prayer actually went:

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Son of God, have mercy on me

The best thing though that I ever did was getting baptised and giving my heart to Jesus Christ alongside marrying a committed Christian who had done this.

This for me was a game changer bringing me the most peace. Although it did take me over 2 years to do this after leaving Radha Soami Satsang Beas

If I could advise you one thing then I would say don't leave this step for too long as the transition out of Sant Mat leaves a void. A vacuum that needs to be filled with the real power of the Holy Spirit.

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Reflection 4. Sitting Targets

I remember when I went to daily mass in a Catholic church in those first few months after leaving the Radha Soami Satsang Beas path, my mind was sometimes attacked by the most repulsive thoughts. This cleansing process lasted for about 4 months with some days at church being far worse than others. If I had given my heart to Jesus and got baptised a bit earlier on I might have been spared this stage but it is interesting that such ugly thoughts were in my mind during church. The same thoughts were in my mind on and off during my years of Sant Mat meditations which raises quite a few questions about the source of these projections. They can't have been coming from God. I know in Sant Mat teachings these sorts of images are described as sanskaras but that's a bit too broad, convenient and unscientific for me. I just wonder how many other satsangis are currently meditating and being attacked with these sorts of filthy, disgusting and disturbing images. Unfortunately for satsangis there is nowhere for them to turn as their suffering is completely isolated and alone in the quiet hours of the morning or night. As I now have the real protection of Jesus Christ I think satsangis are a very vulnerable group of people. The very nature of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas path isolates people from each other which makes them sitting targets.

I remember I was once attending satsang here in Auckland among a couple of hundred other followers and a person went into an unconscious state and started shaking quite violently around on the floor. So someone held his head while he shook for about 20 minutes which seemed endless. This disturbed me greatly at the time as he could have been having an epileptic fit but it was just assumed he was in some form of spiritual trance. Again I think this man was vulnerable and due to Sant Mat belief, at risk.

So the real hurdle of a satsangi is breaking the silence and reaching out to someone. If you have no one to talk to and things are not exactly as you would have imagined, then feel free to email me on christsthunder@gmail.com . Your own experiences might not be like mine but I bet there are some common themes that we can share. I hope and pray you make the first step as I did.

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Reflection 3. The Power of Belief

When I decided to leave the Radha Soami Satsang Beas path I was afraid at first about the repercussions of stopping my meditation practice and what the inner master ( Gurinder Singh ) might do to me. So much power is given to the master in Sant Mat that it is written that if he can't burn your kama's off by you meditating and living a pure life style, then he can end your life early and start again with you in a new incarnation. So you can imagine the grip sant mat dogma has on its disciples. Gurinder Singh's role is to get you to Sach Khand whatever way possible. He rules supreme.

Now with that thought in mind try closing your eyes and going to sleep when you know that you are disobeying the master.

The only way I found to change such a strong belief is to develop a stronger one with the real power of the Holy Spirit behind it ( Rom 15:13 ).

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Reflection 2. Eating the Forbidden Egg

Funny as it sounds eating an egg was a major step for me in recovery and breaking free from the Radha Soami Satsang Beas belief system.

My family and I regularly travel to a place in New Zealand called New Plymouth to visit my parents which is about 5 hours south of Auckland on the West Coast of the North Island. There are a couple of cafes that we stop at to break the journey. Now if you have ever had the unfortunate opportunity of eating out with a satsangi you will appreciate how tiring it gets when a meal is ordered. The poor cafe attendant is first questioned about the ingredients of every single vegetarian item, revealing that egg is in just about everything. Eventually, something is found that is egg free and cheese free (as most cheese has animal rennet) but just to be sure the chef is now called in to confirm that the vegetarian food you are about to eat is completely pure and not cooked in the same pan as meat. By this stage, your wife and kids are totally embarrassed as everyone in the queue thinks you're completely bonkers. My poor wife and family had to endure this experience countless times both here in NZ and overseas when we traveled. I feel totally embarrassed and ashamed of myself now when I think how selfish I was ( Matt 15:11 ).

It gets worse. While we were just starting out dating it happened to be Summer's birthday. So we went out to a fancy place called the Auckland Sky Tower which is 220 meters high with a revolving restaurant. Summer looked at the menu and asked would I mind if she ordered the smoked salmon entree? To which I replied, "go ahead but I won't be kissing you tonight".  She said years later it felt like I had just slapped her across the face and she realized then and there that if we were to stay together she would have to be a vegetarian.  I can't believe we are still married after so many trying years.

So you can imagine when I announced to my wife during our journey to New Plymouth, that I'm leaving Sant Mat, she thought I was joking. That was until reality hit home as she watched me eat my first mouthful of eggs hollandaise. Then her jaw dropped, eyes widened and tears started flowing.

From there on I had to force myself at first to eat more eggs and eventually fish but I felt freer with each forbidden mouthful from the invisible chains that had bound me for 12 years of spiritual imprisonment. I actually went a bit crazy on cakes for about 6 months eating everything I desired and there was a list I had in mind. Eventually though once the pendulum had swung back I reached my equilibrium again. The same thing happened with alcohol starting with red wine and then white but now I have the occasional beer and that's about it.

The whole  Radha Soami Satsang Beas vegetarian teetotaller life style seems completely strange to me now. I mean if the meditation practice actually yielded results then I guess these sacrifices might be justifiable but I spent years scratching a stone wall. That's just plain mean and very hard on other non-satsangi family members.

Praise to Jesus Christ who found His lost sheep - Luke 15:1-7

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Reflection 1. Worshipping a Man

As you progress on the Radha Soami Satsang Beas path the idea that the master is watching your every move starts to take hold. Gradually for me, the fear of God was replaced by the fear of Gurinder Singh. I began to think that the inner master was watching my every move and I started talking to this so-called entity believing that he was also protecting me and guiding me through life. The master became God for me and meditation was my attempt at worshipping him.

Over the course of 12 years of following Sant Mat, I visited Dera, the headquarters for Radha Soami Satsang Beas, five times. It's at this place that you really witness worship of a human being on mass in the thousands. At Dera Gurinder Singh reigns supreme as a god in living form. Everything at Dera is reflected as worship for Him. I think most satsangi's would agree one of the highlights of your trip is getting chapatis after satsang and watching Gurinder Singh walking around the huge kitchens and seeing hundreds of ladies sitting cross-legged with worshipful hands singing shabads, gazing at Him. Even then something made me feel uneasy about this whole spectacle.

Now though looking back, I think this is totally misdirected love towards Gurinder Singh which is meant for God alone, breaking the first and second commandment of the Bible( Exodus 20 ).

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Making Contact

Please email me at christsthunder@gmail.com if you need to make contact.

If you disagree with this blog that's fine and I apologise if you find it offensive. I've tried to be as polite as possible and just share my views and experiences in order to break the silence of the radha soami satsang beas path and the power of its beliefs.

My hope is that you experience what I have in the last 3 years which is freedom, happiness and Jesus Christs boundless love.

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Transcript of Testimony

Read below transcript of testimony at water baptism on the 18.12.2016:

Although raised a Catholic I've never felt like I was a Christian. Somehow I've always had a resistance to Jesus Christ. I've prayed to God a lot but not really His Son. I guess only in times of real stress and life and death situations have I called out to Christ.

When I was sixteen I had a serious cycling accident where I collided with the back of a caravan and knocked myself out, as well as cutting my throat 2mm shy of my jugular vein. My brother Nick rode in the ambulance with the paramedics and he said I broke out into continuous streams of praise to Christ throughout the journey to the hospital, in my semi conscious state.

Another time I was swimming in Byron Bay in Australia with my best friend Hamish when we both got caught in a rip over a large hole. So instead of being dragged out to sea this rip pulled you under, as the waves broke over the top. I escaped and was going to get my flippers when I looked behind me and saw Hamish go under and then resurface with his hands held high and his eyes wide. I knew that he was about to disappear for good so I swam back out to him and tried to coax him to keep swimming. The situation became really desperate and I remember I looked up to heaven and swore at Jesus to save him.I then watched in amazement as an ocean current transported Hamish around me, in a wide half circle, and then dumped him on the beach. Exhausted I asked Jesus what about me and realised I shouldn't have sworn at Him, so I began the slow process of getting myself out of the hole which took every ounce of my remaining strength.

I've also had a few unusual spiritual experiences. I fell into a half sleep on the floor of my brother's flat in Palm Beach Australia. And I heard something come into the flat and start laughing which made the hairs on my body stand on end. I tried desperately to wake myself up but I was frozen to the ground and my eyelids were like lead. The entity then grabbed my ribs and began applying a strong downward pressure while cackling. I cried out to Christ for His protection and immediately the presence left and my eyes opened. I ran to the bathroom and lifted up my top which revealed five red marks on my ribs in the mirror, these turned into bruises two days later. I couldn't sleep properly at night for months after that episode.

Another time in an old villa in Sydney, would you believe opposite a graveyard. I used to watch my bedroom door slightly open each night and wondered why on earth would the husband and wife living there be checking up on me. I was 18 years old at the time and boarding.So one night I asked them to come in and again all the hairs on my body stood on end and I was pinned frozen to my bed as I watched the door fully open and felt a dark presence enter the room. I was so terrified that I couldn't produce any words until finally with all my determination I whispered - save me Christ, save me Christ, save me Christ and the entity left.

These experiences combined with a childhood inferiority complex and an independent curious nature prompted me to start a journey of esoteric exploration. In brief, I found importance and answers in studying numerology and astrology, as well as reading tarot cards as a daily guidance tool. I've been through past life regressions, attended meetings where people channelled so called wise entities and even once walked over a mountain carrying a large green stone, with 12 others, to honour the ancestors.  I've also worked as a spiritual healer and for a time became clairvoyant. Interestingly through all these experiences I felt God's protection and believed in my heart I was working for Him. Finally, in 2002 I entered in on a spiritual path of God realisation under a living master called Gurinder Singh. For 12 years I mediated between 2.5 and sometimes 4 hours daily rising as early as 3:30am to repeat my daily simran.I visited India five times travelling to a place called Beas in the Punjab. I've attended satsangs which are gatherings with as many as 500,000 devotees to listen to Gurinder Singh.

Six years into the path I met Summer and that's when Jesus began to reel me in, as I knew from our first encounter Summer was a bonafide Christian with a very active faith. For another 6 years, including 4 years of marriage, we had a very bumpy relationship as our love was tested in the fire on all fronts including our first child. Summer knew I was searching for God but that I was horribly lost.

Thanks to a lot of prayers from family and friends I came to a realisation that the path was not working and I felt closer to God while surfing than I ever did while meditating. This bothered me greatly and started a snowball effect over the course of a year, culminating in me leaving the path and saving our marriage.

For 2 years now I have been attending Catholic church and it's been a slow process of recovery - well that is until 3 months ago when Summer's mother Sandy gave us a copy of  "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. Literally, as Summer and I worked through the book for 40 days a firecracker has exploded in me resulting in a deep and sincere desire for Jesus Christ. I've realised where the real power lies and that He never gives up on His lost sheep.

I've done a lot of searching for God in all the wrong places when all I had to do was surrender to His most beautiful Son - my all time saviour Jesus Christ.

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Steps to Recovering a Normal Life Again

I think it's very important to seek support when you leave the Radha Soami Satsang Beas path.

I had many different people praying for me including a group of Carmelite nuns, thanks to my mother. I would strongly recommend getting prayed for right now if you are wanting to leave Sant Mat.

I would also suggest joining a Christian church. As I've been off the path for 3 years I initially went back to a Catholic church for a couple of years which helped me for awhile.

I  then read a book that accelerated my recovery called " Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren and listened to his 40 days of purpose series while driving to work. This inspired me to give my heart to Jesus Christ and get baptised.

Then about 9 months ago after a bit of further looking my wife and I found a local family church and from here we have started our own weekly home group.

I wouldn't have created this blog if it wasn't for Rick Warren and his strong emphasis on finding your mission. Life has been fairly good since I've jumped off the Sant Mat ship and I'm tempted to forget about my fellow brothers and sisters following Shabd Yog and just get on with my life. But that's not what Jesus Christ would have wanted. I know He wouldn't be happy about a bunch of lost souls following a blind leader into an unknown world. I know Christ wants you to have a full happy life and He offers His protection here and in the life here after, for all eternity.

Another great avenue to explore is the Alpha Course  I completed this through my local church and it provides a fantastic introduction into knowing Jesus Christ from a contemporary modern perspective.

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Breaking Out of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Mindset

I think with this path you have to take stock of your situation and assess where you sit right now.

For me I was heading towards losing my wife and kids as the rigours of following this path were really taking their toll on our marriage. I was literally separating myself from the world and starting to withdraw from society.

I had achieved no progress whatsoever.

My health was very average and I struggled with getting the right food on a daily basis.

I was feeling closer to God while surfing than I ever did while meditating.

My fellow satsangis were truly not the happiest individuals you'd ever come across actually quite the reverse. I've only been contacted by two satsangis from my local sangat since I left the path almost three years ago. How sad is that? I do think about my old satsangi friends and hope and pray for their happiness in finding God's real and liberating love: Jesus Christ His only Son.

I personally didn't want to spend another 10 years of my life flogging this dead spiritual horse and came to the resounding conclusion there was no power in the Radha Soami Satsang Beas or Gurinder Singh for that matter. The science of the soul was a dead end spiritual path.

On reflection, I thought I could realize God with my own efforts when in actual fact Jesus has already made this possible through his great sacrifice. Dying for our sins as a one-off payment, not requiring me to daily meditate for my sins or be a vegetarian or give up alcohol or withdraw from society.

In short, I gave up on wanting God realisation and just accepted that Jesus loves me and I love Him.

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Deception 7: Radha Soami Satsang Beas is a Scientific Path of God Realisation

Radha Soami Satsang Beas states that if you repeat a series of steps given to you at the time of initiation then you will scientifically reproduce specific circumstances proving the validity of this path towards God-realization. The path is also termed "The Science of the Soul".

Ok, for real science to prosper you need to be able to share your results with your fellow colleagues so that you can prove their existence. You form a hypothesis, experiment, record results and share the findings.

As sharing your personal meditation experiences is forbidden how can this path ever be scientific?

I never went within, visited spiritual regions or met the Master in his astral form. For 12 years I followed this path to the letter meditating longer than 2.5 hours a day sometimes I'd sit for as long as 4 hours without a single ounce of evidence that anything was real on this path.

Explanations from Sant Mat books for my lack of progress were based on a huge store of karma's currently blocking my spiritual evolution which with time maybe 2-3 lifetimes would be cleared resulting in my immediate progress.

Another explanation was that some souls would have no progress during their life but upon death would immediately be taken by the master to higher spiritual regions. Now that's very scientific!

This was one of the great lies for me about this whole path, that it was scientific. There is nothing even remotely scientific about Sant Mat just a whole lot of stories mainly from past masters and disciples which you read, again and again, to keep your hopes up.

The great silence between fellow satsangis sadly stops you asking them if this path is actually working.

This leads me to the conclusion that Radha Soami Satsang Beas is a type of cult where its followers are trapped by silence in a prison of incorrect beliefs.

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Deception 6: The Lacto-Vegetarian Diet Decreases Your Carnal Desires

Firstly the lacto-vegetarian diet especially suits Indians as a Westerner I can't digest pulses and I'm lactose intolerant. I also struggle with tofu as a food. So as you can imagine on this diet I lost a lot of weight and struggled with ill health. What I ended up doing was eating loads of sweets which is a real  Indian dilemma and leads to diabetes.

As far as diary is concerned the whole process is very damaging to the environment especially rivers and lakes in New Zealand with runoff pollution and the actual process of milking is very cruel on cows not to mention the cows' young.

I did end up being a vegan for quite a few years but now thanks to God and leaving Sant Mat I can eat more types of animal protein. Jesus is more concerned about what comes out of your mouth than what goes into it ( Matt 15:11 ). I prefer fish that I've caught and eggs. I do eat other animals but mainly free range or when our family can afford it organic chicken. My weight has normalised and I'm strong again.

What I found interesting is the explanation given that eating eggs and animals increases your carnal desires and hence hinders your meditation. I have found the direct opposite to be the case. As soon as I started eating eggs and fish and stopped putting myself through the ordeal of daily meditation my carnal desires began to diminish. Literally, my lust levels decreased as a result of stopping the Sant Mat path. That's when I began to seriously appreciate the lack of power in this path.

I have always struggled with my carnal desires and following Sant Mat didn't even impact on this, as a matter of fact, it increased my lust levels. I was at war with myself and lust represented an escape, sometimes freedom.

Getting baptised as a Christian, on the other hand, brought me the peace I have always been searching for.

I do feel sorry for other men following Sant Mat, as if they are anything like I was, then they are living in delusion, lonely and trapped in some form of addiction to deal with this loveless path.

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Deception 5: You Have to Have a Living Master to Achieve God Realisation

In order to begin your spiritual journey, you have to be able to recognise Gurinder Singh within otherwise you could be deceived by Kal(devil). He even assumes the form of the master but his eyes are red which is a giveaway,

Having never met or seen Jesus Christ sant mat states it will be impossible to recognise Him within hence the absolute necessity for getting to know the look of your living master. Unfortunately, blind people are then not initiated into sant mat. According to the radha soami satsang beas path they will have to wait till the next lifetime for that opportunity.

As far as Christianity goes we look on Jesus as the good shepherd ( Jn 10: 11 - 18 ) who knows and recognises His own flock. I would rather have faith in Jesus than my own spiritual eyesight considering the amount of bearded Sikhs there are. Also, whats say for argument sack Gurinder Singh didn't have a beard in his astral form? The reliance on the disciple's spiritual vision seems a fragile connection at best and a bit weak.

When you really start to think about the ramifications of getting this wrong and putting your faith in a mortal human being ( Gurinder Singh) instead of the only Son of God - Jesus Christ , seems like a huge spiritual gamble of epic proportions and eternal consequences.

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Deception 4: The Master Takes Over Your Karmic Load from Countless Lifetimes

As soon as you're initiated you sign a contract with the master that he will get you to Sachkhand ( highest region) by taking on the majority of your karmic load accumulated over millions of life times through countless species. In return, you have to reduce your own karmic load as much as possible by meditating, not drinking, being a vego and living a moral life. Seems like a great deal at the time and one you could never fully ever repay.

Gurinder Singh agrees to get you to your destination within four lifetimes either willingly or by dragging you by your hair. A term which means he will get you to your destination even if it is against your own will.

Now compare this to Jesus Christ and you begin to realise how wonderful and simple Christianity really is.

All Jesus wants you to do is accept him as your saviour and love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbour as yourself. That's it. The rest including your place in eternity you entrust into Jesus Christ's care.

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Deception 3: Sant Mat Supports Marriage and a Family Life

The view of children and of your spouse is incredibly negative in the Radha Soami Satsang Beas literature especially the books by the Great Master, Sawan Singh. His view on a normal sexual relationship with your wife is to not waste your valuable spiritual energy on this animal instinct! Keep your focus on your third eye at all times. Talk about a marriage breaker!

The whole underlying goal of this path is to isolate disciples away from family and friends. Sant Mat is a family destroyer. Yes you can complete seva on a Saturday at your local sangat but children are discouraged plus there is heavy competition for seva if there is not enough work to do which creates its own 'too many chiefs' issues.

Having tried to work the meditation with a non-satsangi wife and having children means the person not mediating never sees their husband in the mornings, period. The toll on this person is unfair. Not to mention the destruction of all social gatherings as who wants to try and cater to a non-drinking lacto-vegetarian who needs to be in bed by 8:30pm.

At the local sanghat this works incredibly well for Indians as the men attend all the satsangs while the women look after the children in the creche. I imagine the same happens in the mornings. The men meditate and the women try to meditate while looking after the children when they wake up. As far as Westerners were concerned mostly everyone was either divorced or single at the sanghat.

The inner teaching of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas path strongly emphasises that everyone and everything is a distraction to merging with the master. Sooner or later you have to come to grips with this cultish belief otherwise you won't progress. So naturally, your mind starts seeing everyone in a very negative light.

This leads to a major superiority aloof complex where you start to look down from a withdrawn position on others not following the path. Your ego in order to compensate for the lack of love and compassion in your life becomes critical and calculating. I saw this develop in myself over the years and it was not easy on my poor wife. You justify your selfish meditation practice and anti-social behaviour with thoughts concerning the good you are doing humanity by following a perfect living master and how you will help everyone once you also become a God realised soul.

But at what price?

Your wife. Your children. Your friends?

Does the end really justify the means?

Does God really expect you to be so self-absorbed in your meditation practice? 

Is Shivdayāl the founder of  RSSB a role model for humanity?

Ironically I remember a story from a satsang concerning a king who was the only one in his kingdom not to swallow some contaminated water which made everyone mad. The king was the only sane person left but everyone in his kingdom accused him of being crazy.

I feel like this king now I have left RSSB. The Sant Mat beliefs really poisoned and contaminated my mind with some really warped perceptions of reality.

Reading the Bible and accepting Jesus Christ into your life will definitely put you back on track.

It worked for me. It will do the same for you.

Jesus Christ is so powerful you can commit your heart to Him right now and He will start working on your escape route from Sant Mat.

Jesus Christ is HOPE.

Just repeat this prayer instead of simran: Jesus Christ  I surrender myself to your love, care and protection or simply repeat the name: Jesus Christ.

You can trust me on this."Things will begin to happen" as they did for me. The battle for your soul will begin and Jesus Christ won't forsake you.

Just repeat  Jesus Christ.

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Deception 2: Sharing Your Personal Meditation Experiences is Forbidden

This rule means that you can never discuss your meditation with any other person bar the Master via  a letter or a one off chance every year if you travel to Beas ( 5 stations from Amritsar in Punjab)  and request a personal sitting.

I did have an interview with Gurinder Singh and told him about my shaking experiences and he told me to visualise resting on the beach and gradually being taken away with the simran. This did me no good whatsoever and seriously thinking back I don't think Gurinder had any idea on what to do. He inherited the position of Master against his own will and has simply given up and gone with the flow of his inheritance. It even mentions in some of the books that he didn't even meditate prior to being a master. How can Gurinder ever be compared with Jesus Christ?

So getting back to this deception there is no one to discuss your soul-numbing meditation with so the suffering is very personal. I feel this cultish rule keeps you trapped in a sant mat created prison and I feel very sorry for satsangis going through this process right now.

Largely I think satsangis give up and live with the daily guilt of failure. Many do seva (service) as a means of compensation and others give money. The daily grind of mediation means Radha Soami Satsang Beas prospers in many ways as you soon find out you will do just about do anything to avoid meditating and feeling an absolute worthless failure. So acts of service and donations can be considerable in order to win the masters protection and approval and silence your conscience.

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Deception 1: You Can Follow Your Own Religion While Following Sant Mat

As you are finding out about Radha Soami Satsang Beas you are told in books and satsangs that you can still follow your own religion as Sant Mat is not a religion but a path of meditation following a living guru.

The truth I can tell you is that I was told in a letter from Gurinder Singh ( current master ) that I was to stop talking to Jesus Christ within during my preparation year. The path directly attacks a Christianity at its very core which is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The Bible is often used in satsangs but Sant Mat recognises a continuous line of son's and daughters of God ( sants). While Christianity only recognises one Triune God consisting of three equal persons: The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit who reign supreme and have always existed.

Mention in Sant Mat is given to Jesus as having broken a fundamental law of a satguru which is not to perform miracles. Different RSSB books clearly state that when you go within through meditation you can see Jesus for yourself and progress beyond Him with the current Master's guidance to higher spiritual regions.

As you progress on the path more and more credence is given to the current master even to the point that the master is in reality greater than God as you can only find God if you have a living Master, otherwise God realisation is unachievable. 

Charan Singh the past master of Gurinder Singh even went so far as to re-write the gospels according to Sant Mat teachings as Charan maintained that the original message had been lost or confused.

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The Reality of Radha Soami Satsang Beas Meditation

Having practised this path for 12 years I feel I'm somewhat warranted to discuss the impact of this form of meditation on one's everyday life.

For starters, I did the actual 2.5 hours of meditation nearly every day and sometimes longer. Initially, when I first started I went at it very hard and put my mind and body through hell. Then for a while, I split the meditation into 2 halves to enable me to sit still for longer.

The Radha Soami Satsang Beas Path teachers that you have to achieve perfect concentration while repeating simran by not moving your body at all. This is incredibly difficult to achieve. Try not moving for 5 minutes and see how fidgety you get.

Eventually, I progressed to one sitting which started at around 4:30am.

Typically I'd start the simran(internal) and all would be good for about 5 minutes then I would start nodding off so I'd repeat the simran out loud and my neck and head would go into a strong shaking motion. Sometimes my head would shake so much I'd feel like I'd been in a car accident the next day and had whiplash. 

If by chance I did achieve a steady simran my mind would then be bombarded with all a manner of thoughts ranging from past experiences, sexual fantasies, crazy exploits, intensive planning so I'd repeat the simran louder and my whole body would start shaking. This routine repeated itself for years either sleeping during meditation or shaking.

The end the result is that I finished most meditations more exhausted than when I started or with a very sore neck from falling asleep in a sitting position. This lead to hopelessness and despair, then apathy.

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The Basics of Sant Mat Meditation

Essentially there's a routine that you try to develop while following this path which is a huge daily sacrifice: 2.5 hours of meditation per day. You are told in books and satsangs(discourses) that this is a lifelong journey to master the mind through meditation until your every moment is one long meditation.

The meditation consists of a number of complicated concepts which initially sound very simple :

1. Simran: repeating five names that you are given at initiation continuously for 2 hours which supposedly quietens the mind.
2. Bhajan: listening for the audible life stream ( shabd) for 30 minutes

The names you are given turn out to be the names of inner rulers of 5 different spiritual regions. What these names really represent is a mystery.

The ultimate goal is to pierce the third eye a point on your forehead and enter within crossing different spiritual regions with the aid of the Master until you have reached the highest possible place of God. This is termed dying while living. Each region has a number of specific characteristics that only a Master can guide you through.

As you can start to appreciate the whole journey is designed to overpower your logic and make you feel very small and insignificant. Everything centres around the greatness of the living Master.

To develop your meditation every moment that you are free you can repeat simran so that you train your mind to repeat it automatically. Also, you practice seeing the masters face/form within until you have merged with it completely.

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How I Got Caught up in the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Path

Curiosity is definitely to blame and an intense fascination with the occult specifically numerology. Back in 2001, I'd been studying a number of books on this topic and one particular author caught my interest as he had a made a book on numerology with a number of flaws. I contacted him to question his findings and he started mentioning the shabd and that it all comes down to the audible life stream. I should have followed my instincts then and there as he came across as a real crackpot. He also was a professional puppeteer which looking back is what I became on this path. A puppet. But instead, I contacted a couple of friendly Indian South African santsangi's living in Sydney and attended a satsang(gathering) to listen to my first discourse on Radha Soami Satsang Beas.

So after attending a number of discourses and reading some Sant Mat books, I became convinced that this was the path I had always been looking for. It probably helped that I was in a very unhappy relationship and incredibly sick in my body. What's more, I had never accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour having been brought up a struggling, guilt-ridden Catholic from birth. Up till that time, I had always battled with the concept that you can only reach the Father through Jesus Christ (  John 14:6-7 ) so a physically living Son of God made a lot of sense to me.

A year and a half later after giving up alcohol, becoming a lacto-vegetarian, getting married to someone who I'd been living with for 10 years and reading a ton of Sant Mat books, I was initiated into the path of Radha Soami Satsang Beas meditation.

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Introduction to Christian Thunder

I chose this title for this blog as I respect Gods beauty, power and majesty reflected in nature ( Ps 93 ).

 I wanted a powerful name as it will be tackling a difficult subject which is the lies and deceptions of other spiritual paths, in particular, one that I followed for 12 years called Radha Soami Satsang Beas or Sant Mat. Sant Mat has quite a few different other names: Surat Shabd Yog, Path of the Audible Lifestream and Science of the Soul. 

The intention of this site is for satsangis (followers of Sant Mat) to read these blogs and to start questioning Sant Mat teachings in respect to where they are right now in their relationship with God and if this path is making them more loving and compassionate human beings ( John 13:35 )

If I wanted to be very specific my target audience would be disillusioned Roman Catholics that have become followers of Sant Mat: the path I followed. I hope Christian Thunder provides a light at the end of a dark tunnel for this group of people.

For anyone else who reads Christian Thunder, it might prove useful if you have found yourself caught up in the labyrinth of a complicated spiritual path of God-realization or you might be interested in finding a path of eastern meditation or even a living guru. Hopefully, Christian Thunder can save you from making the wrong choice and years of personal frustration.

 My inspiration for this blog is Jesus Christ God's only Son and the simple spiritual truths of the Bible.

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