The Path Of The Masters~Surat Shabda Yoga~ Hardcover~ Julian Johnson For Sale

Johnson\'s magnum opus, now published asThe Path of the Masters: The Science of Surat Shabd Yoga: The Yoga of the Audible Life Stream[5](but originally titledThe Path of the Masters: The Science of Surat Shabda Yoga: Santon ki Shiksha) is a comprehensive, explicit, systematically organised, meticulous, and polished work on the Path of the Soundstream and Lightstream. Published in France (1939), the USA (1957) and India (slightly revised by the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Publications Committee in 1972 and 1985 to delete provocative language, and extensively revised in 1993,[note 5]) it remains popular among Western adherents of Sant Mat. However, its author\'s blunt style and now outmoded opinions – influenced by Northern Europeanracistnotions then in vogue but now considered politically incorrect — have turned off some modern readers. The text\'s sheer eloquence, however, has made the work the object of plagiarism by other writers, especially in the United States, where it used to be almost totally unknown to the general reading public. The work appears to have heavily influenced the AmericanEckankar(ECK) religion, and its various offshoots and spin-offs, through ECK founderPaul discussed at length and in depth in Prof.David C. Lane\'s exposéThe Making of a Spiritual Movement.[note 6]

Among Western adherents at least,The Path of the Mastershas enjoyed long-time popularity among foreign-language works on Sant Mat.[10]A sampling of Johnson\'s polished prose (1985 pagination) shows the logic that has proven compelling to Western readers, even outside of Sant Mat circles:[note 7]

• \"... if you live rightly among men, and then devote yourself to the practice of the Surat Shabd Yoga, you will enter the kingdom of heaven while you are still living in the body. And that constitutes a world of difference between the spiritual science of the Masters and all religions.\" —page 57[11]

• \"In the realm of religion, the Master is a paradox. He has no theology, teaches none, yet he is the most religious man on earth. His system is not a religion, yet it leads to the most complete religious experience, and the most happy. He is absolutely universal in all his teachings. He has no creed, yet he never antagonizes any creed, sect or institution. He never condemns any man or any system. He finds no fault with anybody or anything, yet draws the sharpest lines between the good and the bad.\" —page 162

• \"Each and every man, when properly trained, is able to detach himself from the physical body while still living in that body in perfect health, and then travel to all parts of the outlying universe. Everyone has this ability whether he is conscious of it or not.\" —page 343[12]

• \"Vairagyais the next important step in mental preparation for the Path,... This means the mental detachment of oneself from the external world. This is real vairagya. It does not in any way teach or imply that one should physically detach himself from the world. He need not leave his family or society, his public or private duties. The Masters never teach that sort of vairagya.... Detachment, as taught by the Masters, does not imply austerities.\" —pages 357–358

• \"There is but one thing known to human experience which will destroy all lower desires. That is the Audible Life Stream. It is the supreme instrument of deliverance from bondage. It is the one means of detaching us from worldly objects that perish, and of lifting us up to liberty and light.... We shall attain perfectvairagyaonly when we enter into that divine Stream consciously.\" —page 364

• \"No man ever gained spiritual freedom, power and happiness by a process of logic, bya prioriratiocination, bymetaphysics, by reading books or by listening to lectures. Yet these are the methods employed by the majority of mankind. The Masters solve all their problems by a scientific method as exact and exacting as mathematics. They get their information not by analysis and synthesis but by sight and hearing. Even after they have proved a proposition, they establish no authority except that of truth itself. Authority hampers truth, it throttles free investigation. Authority is an enemy to progress.... This science makes personal experience the final and only court of appeal. Its processes are simple and direct. They can be understood by the most ordinary intelligence, and for that reason the intelligentsia need not become offended at them.\" —page 404

• \"The Masters and many of their students pass daily through \"the gates of death\" and hence they know all of the problems connected with the matter. They have explored worlds upon worlds beyond the gates of death. All of this they do in full consciousness as a direct result of their practice of Surat Shabd Yoga.\" —page 419

• \"In the literature of the Saints, God is expressed by many words, such asSwami,Ekankar,Nirankar, Radhaswami, Akal, Nirala, Anami, Agam, Alakh, SatPurush,Prabhu, Prabhswami,HariRay, Akshar,Parameshwar, Akshar Purush, etc. All of these words have been coined in an effort to convey to human intelligence some idea of what the Saints think of God, or Lord God, the highest power.Ekankarmeans the “One oneness,” the body of oneness.Nirankarmeans without body or form. Soami or Swami means the all-pervading Lord. Radha Swami ‒ Radha (soul) and Swami (Lord) ‒ the Lord of the soul ‒ Radha, when reversed, becomes dhara or current. As soul has to revert to its source, so its dhara, when reversed, when its current is turned toward God, becomes Radha. ... The whole universe is considered as one, the trueEkankar.\" —pages 221–222