Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj makes an impressive entrance into the large Chicago-area banquet hall. The former engineer, born in India but educated in the United States, presses his hands together, thumbs pointing up to God, as he greets many of those in the audience with a smile. The assembled people, most of them well-dressed, range in age from 20s to 70s, and represent ethnicities from South America and South Asia to Germany, and many places in between.
A thorough hush falls over them all as he walks down the aisle to the stage, wearing a white turban and white clothes. He removes his white shoes on the stage before ascending the white platform. If it weren’t for his black beard rolled tight in the Sikh manner, he would present an Eastern take on the papal color scheme.
Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj is the leader of Science of Spirituality, a non-profit worldwide organization that teaches the meditation method of Sant Mat through its many centers and through a group of schools for children in India. As the leader of this organization, he has participated in numerous religious and peace conferences, and has been in the company of the Dalai Lama, among others. He has written numerous books on meditation and travels frequently, visiting the various centers and giving talks. Tonight’s meeting at this banquet hall in Aurora is sponsored by the center in Naperville, which happens to be the national center.
Sant Rajinder Singh proceeds to tell two stories, one about a man who is disappointed even when he gets his wish for material wealth and about a poor woman who learns to appreciate what she already has. This second one is an old tale in which a wise man tells the woman to crowd her house with the farm animals so that, once they are taken out again, she feels tremendous gratitude for the space she formerly didn’t appreciate.
After the stories, the Sant leads the audience in a brief experience of meditation — about five minutes of withdrawal from the senses, with eyes closed and repetition of whatever word you use for God as steadily as possible. They are told to focus about 8 to 10 inches in front of their individual noses. The point of the meditation is to get to a sense of God, possibly experiencing a spirit of love and joy and beauty many times greater than that of the usual non-meditative experience. After the five minutes and a few more words, Sant Rajinder Singh leaves the room in the same silent way he came in, again greeting many people with the pressed hands.
After this appearance, he stopped to answer questions in a converted cloakroom while chairs are rearranged in the main hall before he re-enters to mingle with the audience.
CC: How do you personally describe Sant Mat meditation to someone who knows nothing about it?
SRS: It is about the connection of humans to God. Sant Mat is about trying to go within to experience God in this lifetime, not waiting until death. It is open to everyone, whatever other tradition they might practice.
CC: How would you explain the difference between the Sant Mat style of meditation and transcendental meditation?
SRS: There are many kinds of meditation. Sant Mat recommends no single physical posture. One should be totally relaxed. We pay no attention to breathing. We have breaths coming one after the other. The chakras function normally. We focus on the third eye. We ignore the physical body, meditating by repeating God’s name. Those are the basic things that Sant Mat focuses on.
CC: How old is the Sant Mat tradition and how do you explain its relation to Sikhism?
SRS: It is at least 700 years old; it embraces all religions. Its saints come from both the Sikh tradition and the Hindu religion.
CC: Is there any difference between the way women relate to Sant Mat meditation and the way men do, generally speaking?
SRS: There is no difference — the soul is the same, whether in a male or female body. Each has an equal right to know God.
CC: Is any part of your mission specifically directed at overcoming resistance to meditation deriving from its association with the hippie movement of the 1960s?
SRS: In all generations we are questioning. Our people are of all ages. Sant Mat is not associated with one movement or another. People come from many different previous experiences.
CC: What is your next major goal in development of your program worldwide?
SRS: We are trying to spread the message of peace all around the globe. Peace needs to begin within ourselves. The effect of them being peaceful — that will spread, with time. These will mushroom so there will be peace around the globe.
CC: How do you make sure in such a large worldwide organization as yours that there is the strictest adherence to ethical practices at all levels?
SRS: You talk about ethical practices. You focus on them. We are all human beings and to err is human. Our intention is to be as ethical as possible. It is har to gauge how true people are being to those goals. We are always emphasizing this. We use an introspection diary, a form that most people fill out every day to encourage non-violence and humility. We encourage everyone to keep the diaries so as to track ethical success and difficulties.
CC: What is the connection between your engineering training and your work today?
SRS: The path back to God is spiritual awareness. Science and spirituality have similar goals. This is not blind faith. Like science, we use hypothesis and experiment to see what is right or wrong. Our hypothesis is that there is a God and the experiment to prove that there is God is meditation. We can then prove to ourselves that God is there. My background in science has been useful in this way.
CC: What is your personal visual image of God? How do you visualize God?
SRS: God is not limited in a vision, not a face: God is a force, all-prevailing.
CC: What do you say to those who want to believe in God but have difficulty doing so, who feel they cannot love God because they cannot believe in the existence of God.
SRS: The key for them to love God is for them to have an experience. If they sit in meditation for a while, they will have an experience.
CC: How does meditation possibly lead to world peace?
SRS: As you meditate, the first thing you realize is that there is something beyond the physical body. People talk about out-of-body experience; we go beyond that. Meditation makes us realize we are part of God. We also realize that God is in others. St. Francis had this love for the bird and the fish. Peace and love goes from us to others.
CC: Is there anything you especially want to say to Conscious Choice readers?
SRS: Being in nature is very good. Being organic is really good. The cleaner the food, the better the body is going to be. I pray that they are healthy mentally, spiritually, and they keep a balanced life and don’t forget the spiritual. The Lord will manifest.
The Science of Spirituality center in Naperville is sponsoring a range of workshops in a variety of locations throughout the summer. Phone 630-955-1200 or visit sos.org.
Jonn Salovaara is a Chicago-area writer.