Does the Sant Tulsi Sahib Lineage Teach the Same Five Names (Guru Mantra)? By James Bean
The main branches of the Sant Tulsi Sahib Sangat in Hathras, Lucknow and elsewhere (based in several cities in India) do use the same secret Five Names as some related branches of Sant Mat and Radhasoami.
The Maharshi Mehi Satsang uses a different name, also a name not revealed but is intended for initiates only. Not sure if the practice of using this other name began with Baba Devi Sahib or more recently with Maharshi Mehi.
The Agra-based Radhasoami’s (associated with Huzur Maharaj Rai Saligram Bahadur) use a different sacred name, a public domain name in this case (not secret mantra): “Radhasoami”, meaning “The Lord of the Soul”, a term for the Most High God at the level of Ultimate Reality, or Radhasoami Reality, transcending all the realms of creation (The Eighth Plane, Anami Desh or Radhasoami Desh).
Sant Garib Das of Delhi was one of the three successors of Soami Ji Maharaj (along with Huzur Maharaj of Agra and Baba Jaimal Singh of Beas) and taught that repeating Radhasoami is the same thing as repeating the Five Names. In the Sant Garib Das Radhasoami Satsang they use both forms of simran, viewing the Five Names and Radhasoami as interchangeable (the 5 Names = Radhasoami, Radhasoami = the 5 Names), essentially the six Names, you might say.
Soamiji Maharaj in his Sar Bachan Poetry volumes taught that Radhasoami, The Lord of the Soul, IS [..…fill in the blank…., secret name number one], assumes the form of the power of the astral realm, assumes the form of the power of the causal plane [name number two], and so on in all the heavenly regions. In other words, he characterized this as the One God operating in or at all the different levels or domains of creation, and not five separate, independent lords of the inner planes. So not several gods of the cosmos but rather, more accurately this is understood in traditional Sant Mat as “Ek Ong Kaar Saat Naam”, meaning, “There is One God, Truth is His Name.” (opening verse of Guru Nanak’s Morning Prayer) The One God may have many manifestations (a hypostasis multiplicity) and radiant forms operating in different realms, but these are all reflections of the One God. Thus, this is in line with monotheism, the belief and experience of One God. This is the way of Sant Mat.
