Glossary
Adi Granth - Primal scripture. The Sacred scripture compiled chiefly by Guru Arjan, the fifth Guru in the line of succession to Guru Nanak, about the year 1604. The Granth Sahib consists of hymns of devotion to God. It includes devotional verses composed by Kabir, Namdev, Bhikhan, Trilochan, Sain, Ramanand, Farid and some other saints in addition to the hymns by Guru Nanak and Gurus of his line.
Asana - Yogic posture.
Baba Jaimal Singh - The founder of the Radha Soami Colony at Beas. He was born in July, 1839, in the Punjab village Ghoman, and left this world on December 29, 1903. He was a disciple of Soami Ji Maharaj, and appointed Maharaj Sawan Singh as his successor.
Baba Ji - See Baba Jaimal Singh.
Bahadur - Brave; hero; champion; see also Sardar Bahadur Ji.
Bhajan - Worship; prayer; listening for or to the Sound; meditation according to the instructions of the Master, including repetition (simran), contemplation (dhyan) and listening to the Sound (dhun).
Brahm - Lord of the second spiritual region; the power that creates and dissolves the phenomenal world.
Bulleh Shah (1680-1758) – A Muslim Saint of the Punjab, disciple of Shah Inayat; lived and taught mainly at Lahore.
Bunk Nal - The passage between Sahansdal Kanwal and Trikuti, the first and second spiritual regions.
Chakra - Center, ganglion or plexus in the body.
Chaurasi - Eighty-four; the eighty-four lakh (84 hundred thousand) species into which the soul may incarnate; the wheel of transmigration of the soul.
Dadu (1544-1603) – A saint of Rajputana well known for his boldness in defying the orthodox priests and in teaching Nam, the Word of God. He was born at Ahmedabad, north of Bombay, and taught chiefly at Jaipur and other centres in Rajputana. He was generally known as Dadu Dayal. It is said that the Mughal Emperor Akbar invited him to Fatehpur Sikri in 1584 and listened to his discourses.
Darshan - To gaze lovingly upon something, usually a holy person.
Dera - Camp or colony; here, Dera refers to Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, the Radha Soami Colony, which is situated near Beas, on the west bank of the River Beas, in District Amritsar, Punjab.
Dhyan - Contemplation; to visualize the form of the Master during meditation; to behold the Light or the Radiant Form of the Master inside.
Eye Center - The seat or source of attention in the body during the waking state; the disciple collects his attention in the eye center during meditation, and from here he goes to the higher regions of consciousness. Also see Third Eye.
First Stage - See Sahansdal Kanwal.
Five Holy Names - The names of the rulers of the five spiritual regions. These names are given to the disciple by the Master at the time of initiation, and are used in the practice of simran (repetition).
Great Master - See Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj.
Gunas - The three attributes or qualities:
satogun: harmony, purity;
rajogun: activity, action;
tamogun: inertia, darkness.
Guru Nanak (1469-1539) – He was born at Talwandi near Lahore (now in Pakistan). His parents were Kalu, the village accountant, and Tripta. Guru Nanak condemned the orthodox creed of the people with great vigour, and laid emphasis on the spiritual aspect of religion, and on love of God and man. He undertook four major tours to propagate his teachings. The following were his successors to the Mastership:
Guru Angad (1504-1552) – Second in the line of succession.
Guru Amardas (1479-1574) – Third
Guru Ram Das (1534-1581) – Fourth
Guru Arjan Dev (1563-1606) – Fifth
Guru Har Govind (1595-1644) – Sixth
Guru Har Rai (1630-1661) – Seventh
Guru Harkishan (1656-1664) – Eighth
Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621-1675) – Ninth
Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) – Tenth
Gurumukh - Literally, one whose face is turned towards the Guru or Master; a perfect disciple.
Hafiz (1325-1390) – One of the greatest of Persian poets and also an enlightened saint. He was born at Shiraz and spent his life there as a court poet. Hafiz is a pen name that means “one who can recite the Koran by heart.” His real name was Shams-ud-Din Mohammed.
Hatha Yoga - A system of yoga consisting chiefly of physical postures (asanas and mudras) which are intended to keep the body fit and to influence mental currents.
Huzur - August presence; a term of respect used to address kings, holy men and high personages.
Huzur Maharaj Ji - See Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj.
Jagat Singh Ji Maharaj - See Sardar Bahadur Ji.
Ji - Honorific showing respect or endearment.
Jot or Jyoti - Light or flame; light of the first spiritual region.
Kabir Sahib (1398-1518) – A renowned Saint who lived in Benares, where he preached and practiced Surat Shabd Yoga. He condemned the external rituals and observances of Hindus and Muslims alike.
Kal - Time or death; the Negative Power; the name given to the power that controls the physical, astral and causal worlds, which are all perishable. Kal will not let any soul leave his domain until that soul has accounted for the karmic debts incurred in the present as well as in numerous past lives.
Karma - Action; the law of cause and effect; this is the universal law
of justice under which we must pay for our misdeeds and receive the
rewards for our good deeds; it is the law of merciless justice. There
are three types of karmas:
pralabdh or prarabdh – that portion of our karma
from past lives that determines the destiny of our present life;
kriyaman – new karma, which we are creating in our present
life; part of this becomes pralabdh karma for future births, and the
balance becomes sinchit karma;
sinchit or sanchit – our storehouse of karma, made
up of kriyaman karma from many past lives; in each life, the balance of
the kriyaman karma is placed in our storehouse, to be undergone in
future births.
Koran - Sacred scripture of the Muslims; contains the teachings of Prophet Mohammed.
Kriyaman - See Karma.
Kundalini - The coiled energy at the base of the spine; when aroused, it gives the practitioner miraculous powers. This practice is detrimental to spiritual progress and is shunned by satsangis.
Light - When concentration is achieved in meditation, the disciple sees Light and hears Sound. By following the Light and Sound, he is eventually taken back to his Source, which is God. The inner Master takes his form from the Light and Sound. See also Shabd.
M. - Abbreviation for mahala (palace, mansion), used in the Adi Granth to identify which of the Gurus composed the poem in question. M. 1 is Guru Nanak; M. 2 is Guru Angad (the second Guru in the “house” of Nanak); M. 3 is Guru Amar Das; M. 4 is Guru Ram Das; M. 5 is Guru Arjan.
Maharaj Ji - A term of great respect used to address Saints and holy men. Maharaj literally means “great king”.
Mat - Creed, teachings.
Maya - Illusion; deception; unreality; phenomenal universe; all that which is not eternal; it appears but is not. The veil of illusion conceals the vision of God from our sight.
Mira Bai - Sixteenth-century woman Saint of Rajasthan, well known for her songs of love and devotion.
Muin Ud Din Chishti (1141-1236) – A renowned saint of medieval times who was born in Seistan, now in South Western Afghanistan. He was the disciple of Khwaja Usman Harwani of Nishapur who appointed him as his Caliph. He moved at an early age to Ajmer in Rajasthan where, it is said, he remained in meditation for seventeen years and then began to teach the practice of the Word. He had a very large following. Sheikh Farid, Nizamuddin Aulia and Amir Khusro belonged to his line.
Muni - A holy man; a sage who has taken vows of asceticism.
Nam - Name, the same as Shabd, Word or Logos; the Energy and creative power of the Supreme Creator. Nam, or the Word, is not actually a word but the Infinite Power that emanates continuously from the Supreme Being. By it the universe is sustained. At the same time, this power resides in every human being. Also see Shabd.
Namdev (1270-1350) – Indian saint who was born in Maharashtra. He was a tailor and calico printer by profession. His songs known as Abhangas or “Songs Eternal” were collected in a book known as Gatha. He spent the later part of his life in the Punjab and died there in the village Ghuman (District Gurdaspur). His Guru’s name was Visoba Khechar.
Nanak - See Guru Nanak.
Negative Power - See Kal.
Nirat. The faculty of the soul which sees the inner Light; the nirat is opened when one begins to see the inner worlds of Light and beauty.
Paltu (1710-1780) – A famous Indian saint who lived at Ayodhya, U.P. most of his life. Born at Nanga at Nanga Jalalpur, District Faizabad U.P., he was a disciple of Govind Sahib. Noted for his bold and fearless exposition of the path to God-realization, he was burnt alive by the priests and orthodox people who resented his bold teachings.
Parshad - Something which is blessed, usually food.
Pralabdh or Prarabdh - See Karma.
Prana - Vital force; essence; vital air, the control and regulation of which is the basis of the system known as pranayam.
Pranayam - The yogic practice consisting of breathing in, holding the breath, then breathing out, and ultimately holding the breath at centers in the body for a long time.
Prasad or Prashad - See Parshad.
Radha Soami or Radha Swami - Lord of the soul.
Radiant Form - The inner form of the Master which is manifested from the Shabd and seen by the disciple in the inner regions beyond the eye center.
Rag - Musical scale. Almost every composition in the Adi Granth is assigned a particular rag, and is always sung to that tune.
Rishi - Sage or seer of ancient times.
Rumi or Maulana Rum - (1207-1273) – A well-known Muslim Saint, born at Balkh, Persia (now Afghanistan); he was a disciple of Shams-i-Tabriz, and the author of the Masnavi.
Sach Khand - The fifth spiritual region; the true or imperishable region.
Sahansdal Kanwal - The thousand-petalled lotus; a name of the first spiritual region.
Sahab or Sahib - Lord; honorable sir; a term of respect.
Sangat - Congregation.
Sanskaras - Impressions on the mind from karmas of past births; tendencies from past lives.
Sant Mat - Teachings of the Saints.
Sardar Bahadur Ji Maharaj Jagat Singh (July 27, 1884–October 23, 1951) was a devoted disciple of Maharaj Sawan Singh, who appointed him his successor in 1948. Sardar Bahadur Ji was Satguru of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas from 1948 to 1951.
Saroop or Swaroop - Real form.
Satguru - True Master, perfect Master; a Master who has access to the fifth spiritual region, Sach Khand.
Sat Purush - God.
Satsang - Literally, true association; spiritual discourse; congregational meeting for the purpose of seeing the Master or hearing him speak; thinking about the Master and his teachings. Association with a Saint is external satsang, and association of the soul with Shabd is internal satsang; the highest form of satsang is to merge with Shabd.
Satsangi - One who has been initiated by a true Master; a disciple or associate of Truth. However, real satsangis are only those who faithfully perform the spiritual practice, follow the instructions of the Master and conduct themselves accordingly in their daily lives.
Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj - Usually referred to as the Great Master, he was the successor of Baba Jaimal Singh, and was born in village Jatana, near Mehmansinghwalla, District Ludhiana, Punjab, on July 20, 1858. He departed from this world on April 2, 1948.
Second Stage - See Trikuti.
Seva - Service.
Shabd - This is the Power that forms the very core of the teachings of the Masters. It is the spiritual Sound which the disciple, at the time of initiation, is taught to hear. This spiritual Sound, which also manifests as Light, is the Power that guides the disciple back to his Original Home. The inner Master is a manifestation of the Shabd. The Shabd has been called by many names – Nam, Dhun, Anahad Shabd, Bani, Nad, Kalam-i-Ilahi, Word, Logos, Holy Ghost, Audible Life Stream, Sound Current, and Music of the Spheres, to mention a few.
Shams-i-Tabriz or Shamas-i-Tabriz (1206-1248) – Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Tabrizi, better known as Shams-i-Tabriz, a famous Muslim saint of Persia, was born in Tabriz, Iran. He was the Master of Maulana Rum who named his composition after the name of his master – ‘Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz.’ He was assassinated by religious fanatics.
Simran - Repetition of the Names according to the technique given by the Master at the time of initiation. See also Five Holy Names.
Sinchit or Sanchit - See Karma.
Soami Ji or Swami Ji - Seth Shiv Dayal Singh, the founder of the Radha Soami Faith. He was born at Agra, in August 1818; after seventeen years of deep meditation, he began to teach publicly and initiate, in 1861; he died in 1878.
Sound - See Shabd, also Light.
Surat - The hearing faculty of the soul; the word is also used to mean soul, consciousness, inner attention.
Surat Shabd Yoga - The union of the soul with the Shabd.
Tamasik - Pertaining to darkness; ignorance; inertia; see also Gunas.
Third Eye - Situated between the two eyebrows, the third eye is the seat or the headquarters of the mind and the soul in the human body. Esoterically, it is a microscopic aperture through which the soul enters the higher Spiritual Regions during deep meditation. Since the nine doors of the body (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and the two lower apertures) lead outward and downward, while the Third Eye leads inward and upward to the higher worlds, it is also called the Tenth Door or Tenth Gate, and is referred to as the “single eye” in the Bible. (Matt. 6:22). Also see Eye Center.
Trikuti - Three prominences; a name for the second spiritual region; the source of the three gunas.
Tulsi Das (1532-1623) – A famous North Indian saint who was contemporary of Akbar the great Mughal. He was born at Kasia in U.P. in a very poor family. He was a disciple of Narhari Dass. His epic, Ram Charit Manas is even today, the most popular Hindi classic and he is regarded as one of the greatest medieval devotional poets of North India.
Tulsi Sahib (1764-1845) – Well-known saint from Maharashtra, connected with the ruling family of Peshwas; left home at an early age, came to Uttar Pradesh and settled at Hathras, near Agra. Ghat Ramayan and Ratan Sagar are two of his main compositions, besides many other smaller poems. The members of Soami Ji Maharaj’s family were his disciples.
Universal Mind - The source of the mind, which is the second spiritual region.
Yoga - To unite; union.