Salig Ram
Rai Salig Ram (b. March 14, 1829 - d. December 6, 1898) popularly known by the honorific "Huzur Maharaj" and by the government-conferred title "Rai Bahadur," was born in Peepal Mandi, Agra. 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. He is mentioned
Salig Ram came in contact with his guru, Seth Shiv Dayal Singh Ji, in 1858 in Agra. He recognised his guru as the first physical incarnation of the Supreme Being, whom Salig Ram called by the name "Radhasoami." Salig Ram served Seth Shiv Dayal Singh Ji for many years and was instrumental in the establishment and spread of the Radhasoami Faith. After his guru's death, Salig Ram retired from his job, established the Radha Swami Faith in Agra, and took up the role of guru.
His home at Huzuri Bhavan (Huzur's Center, also known as Huzuri Samadh), in Peepal Mandi, Agra city (now in Uttar Pradesh) is believed by his followers to be a holy place and still used by his direct descendants to conduct Satsang every day.
Mention by the Mahatmas
Salig Ram Salig Ram became a subscriber of The Theosophist as early as 1882.[1] He was mentioned in Mahatma Letter No. 31, received on Nov. 1881. His name has been incorrectly transcribed in all printed editions as Suby Ram. In this letter, Mahatma M. says of him:
Salig Ram — a truly good man — yet a devotee of another error. Not his guru's voice — his own. The voice of a pure, unselfish, earnest soul, absorbed in misguided, misdirected mysticism. Add to it a chronic disorder in that portion of the brain which responds to clear vision and the secret is soon told: that disorder was developed by forced visions; by hatha yog and prolonged asceticism. S. Ram is the chief medium and at same time the principal magnetic factor, who spreads his disease by infection — unconsciously to himself; who inoculates with his vision all the other disciples. There is one general law of vision (physical and mental or spiritual) but there is a qualifying special law proving that all vision must be determined by the quality or grade of man's spirit and soul, and also by the ability to translate divers qualities of waves of astral light into consciousness.[2]
Radhasoami faith
It seems that Sinnett was interested in knowing more about this faith and asked Mahatma M. what he thought about learning from it. His response was as follows:
No harm and much instruction may come to you by joining his Society. Go on until he demands what you will be obliged to refuse. Learn and study. You are right: they say and affirm that the one and only God of the Universe was incarnated in their guru, and were such an individual to exist he would certainly be higher than any "planetary." But they are idolators, my friend. . . . Join them and learn—but remember your sacred promise to K.H.[3]
Shiv Dayal Singh
Shiv Dayal Singh (August 25, 1818 - June 15, 1878) is considered the founder of Radhasoami movement. He was an Indian spiritual leader known among his disciples and devotees by the honorific "Param Purush Puran Dhani Huzur Soami Ji Maharaj." It seems that the Masters were interested in him, but they didn't foind him suitable to be a disciple because of his sectarian views. In Mahatma Letter No. 31, received on Nov. 1881, Mahatma M. said of him:
Their guru was no initiate only a man of extraordinary purity of life and powers of endurance. He had never consented to give up his notions of a personal god and even gods though offered more than once. He was born an orthodox Hindu and died a self-reformed Hindu, something like Kechub-Ch-Sen but higher purer and with no ambition to taint his bright soul. Many of us have regretted his self-delusion but he was too good to be forcibly interfered with.[4]
Notes
- ↑ Kurt Leland, Rainbow Body (Lake Worth FL: Ibis Press, 2016), 110.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 31 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 98.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 31 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 98.
- ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 31 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 98.