Book Review

Spiritual Perspectives: Maharaj Charan Singh Answers Questions, 1960-1990
  By Maharaj Charan Singh
  Publisher: Beas, India, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 2010.
  ISBN: 978-81-8256-931-7

“Any questions, please?” With these words Maharaj Charan Singh Ji opened countless question-and-answer sessions during the nearly thirty-nine years he served as master. These words were his open invitation to his disciples and seekers to interact with him and voice their concerns, confusion and doubts. With infinite patience, Maharaj Ji attended to each person, offering spiritual perspectives on whatever issues troubled them.

From 1960 onwards, many hundreds of Maharaj Charan Singh’s question-and-answer sessions in English, for audiences mostly from the West, were tape-recorded in various ways, formal and informal. The sessions took place all over the world – at Dera, Delhi, Mumbai and on foreign tours. Collecting, digitally restoring, transcribing and verifying all these tapes and then selecting and topically organizing material from them for the book was the work of hundreds of sevadars over more than two decades. The published collection also incorporates most of the questions and answers previously included in the books The Master Answers and Thus Saith the Master. The resulting three-volume work, Spiritual Perspectives, is without a doubt a monumental addition to the world’s mystical literature. With it we gain a lifetime of the teachings of a great contemporary mystic, and in near-verbatim form as they emerged during his everyday, informal and personal exchanges with disciples.

The first volume of the work, titled Understanding the Basics, covers such topics as the mystery of creation, karma, the role of the master and the relationship of the soul with God. The second volume, Walking the Path, includes topics like personal commitment, the practice of meditation, effort and grace, and the constant struggle with the mind. The third volume, Living the Life, presents the master’s answers on subjects such as satsang, seva, living a balanced life and the relationship of disciple and master.

Maharaj Ji’s answers address the most profound truths of Sant Mat, with sublime eloquence, but always in simple, easy-to-understand language. For example, when describing Sant Mat as “the teachings of the saints,” he explains who saints or masters are with an analogy:

You have seen the waves in the ocean. They all arise from the ocean. They merge back into the ocean. Every wave is different from one another, and yet they have roots in the same ocean, they are part of the same ocean, so they are all one. Anything you throw into any wave, the wave will take it to the bottom of the sea. The sea is the same; no matter which wave carries that article, it will carry it to the bottom of the sea. So all masters are just waves of that ocean. We submit ourselves to the masters, and they carry us to that ocean.

As another example, when once a questioner suggested that “no matter how much effort we put into it or how hard we try, if the time is not right, we will never get home,” Maharaj Ji responded:

Brother, it is just like this: A beggar comes to your door to ask you for alms, but first he wants to be assured that he is going to get something from the house before knocking at the door. Otherwise, he is not going to beg. This is a wrong attitude. We are all beggars at the Lord’s door. We have to beg.… And I assure you, if we really beg from our heart, he is always ready to give. If we come one step, he comes ten steps to receive us.

His answers were very practical, such as in discussing how we are to live our everyday lives. His fundamental message was to live at peace within ourselves:

Everybody is miserable in separation – though some may be comfortable in their misery – so they want to find peace within themselves. When we are able to achieve that peace within ourselves, wherever we go, we will radiate peace. If you go to a happy person, he will make you happy in no time; if you go to a miserable person, he will make you miserable in no time. So first we must obtain that peace within ourselves; we must live with ourselves.

Spiritual Perspectives conveys the substance of Maharaj Charan Singh’s teachings on many subjects, but much else as well. Those who were privileged to hear Maharaj Ji speak will be reminded here, even from the printed answers, of his charming manner of expression. A turn of phrase, an image, a story frequently employed will stir the memory of his voice. Even perusing the Table of Contents one recalls his vivid use of language from section headings: “Give him any name,” “Arresting the teachings,” “Digest it within” or “Swim along with the waves.”

No matter how familiar one is with Maharaj Ji’s books and audiotapes, Spiritual Perspectives will offer many surprises. For example, once when the master was asked about the idea that every initiate would complete the spiritual journey in no more than four lives, he said:

You see, Soami Ji explains it. One life is for devotion and love of the master. The second life is just for attending to meditation and merging into the shabd and nam, just to live in the nam, always intoxicated with that nectar, with that shabd and nam. The third life is for going across Trikuti, to the second and third stage, from where you don’t have to take birth again at all. And the fourth birth is for going back, straight up. That is what the Lord devised, but he does not mean that we have to take four lifetimes. It means if you take it very slow, even then you’ll be able to cover the journey within four lifetimes. If one can run, if one can go at jet speed, so much the better.

Many readers will simply read the volumes from start to finish, cover to cover. But also, for anyone seeking answers on particular subjects, the volumes offer comprehensive indexes. Since in an answer addressing one theme Maharaj Ji would often touch on other themes as well, the index is essential for a reader investigating a single topic. The index also includes references to phrases, metaphors or stories that Maharaj Ji commonly used, an unusual feature giving the reader another way to locate an answer, perhaps one vaguely remembered from a tape or from hearing it in person. For example, under “withdrawal” is listed “analogy of cloth and thorny bush,” under “separation” appears the “story of Mira Bai and her love for her guru” and under “relationship to God” is “analogy of child at fair.”

As much as it reveals the teachings, Spiritual Perspectives reveals the intimate and loving connection Maharaj Charan Singh formed with his sangat from abroad. As he himself said, these question-and-answer sessions were just an excuse for master and disciples to spend time together:

I am quite conscious that many people don’t have a question, even when they come to ask a question. And even if they do have questions, they are not interested in the answer, and they don’t want any answer. And whatever answer I may give them makes no difference to them. They only want to talk; they only want to keep me here; they only want to hear me. I am quite conscious of it.… So this game is going on. And I know every day it will be the same. It’s not one session or two sessions, or one meeting or two meetings. For the past thirty-five years, this question-and-answer is going on. No dearth of books have been printed, no dearth of tapes recorded; same questions, same answers.… I don’t know what is the reason, but it is going on. They want to be here and I want to be with them; they want to be with me, and we are here. You can explain it in any way.

_{Book reviews express the opinions of the reviewers and not of the publisher.}