https://archive.org/details/20140630CharanQuest5Names
306. “I quite appreciate your objection as a Muslim and as one trained in the Sufi teachings, to think of the five Gods whose names have been given to you at the time of Initiation for repetition. I always advise the seekers upon the Sant Mat Path to understand and study the teachings thoroughly before asking for Initiation. If you had done this, this difficulty would not have arisen today.
The Path of the Saints, the Radha Soami Teachings, or the Surat Shabd Yoga as we call this science, does not believe that there are more than one Supreme Lord. The Bible says: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.’ It is the Word, the Divine Melody, the Audible Life Stream, the Anahad Shabd, Kalam-i-Ilahi, Nade-i-Asmani, Ism-i-Azam, the Kun, Logos, Tao of the Chinese, or whatever name you may give it that has created the entire creation and the form in which the Supreme Lord manifested Himself for the first time when the creation came into being. He is permeating His entire creation. He is in every particle of dust in this form of the Divine Sound and this very Sound rings within every human being, above the eye-center, at the ‘third eye’ or the Nuqta-i-Saweda as it is called by the Persian Mystics.
The Lord, the Supreme Father, God, whatever name you give that Power is the One here, there and everywhere. IT is absolute and transcendent, in Himself and by Himself, all Himself, without a second. There is no other; there is room for none else. IT transcends all comparison and relativity; IT goes beyond all difference of unity and manyness. IT transcends all description and all qualities. ‘He has no name; you call Him by any name and he answers’, says Maulana Rumi. IT is beyond everything we can think of, and yet IT is in everything and in all things, and with everything. IT is everything in ITSelf. Nothing exists except that ‘IT’. This is the Lord, the Supreme Power that the Saints talk of and worship. They do not believe in many Gods as you think. Sant Mat is monotheistic.
The five names given to you for repetition are not the names of any gods. Try to understand it this way. You have a vast country which is divided into various provinces or states. The entire country is ruled over by an Emperor who has appointed his governors or viceroys in the different states to look after those territories. All these governors derive their power and authority from that one Emperor who rules over the entire country and who is the final and sole authority. He is all in all and the governors just carry out his orders in the territories allotted to them. Inside, on our spiritual journey, we have to pass through many stages, each ruled over by one such governor working under the authority of the Supreme Lord. This material creation also is managed by Kal, or the Negative Power, as it is called, and he too is working under the order of the supreme Father. The Bible also states, ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions’. ‘Inside you’, says a Mystic, ‘are such vast oceans and plains that imagination staggers thinking about them. This world therein is just like a hair in a vast ocean. Each region has its own sky and there are ladders to climb from one region to another.
The idea of repeating the name of these governors or rulers of the territories we have to pass through is that we should familiarize ourselves with them and they should know us when we come across them during our spiritual journey within. When we repeat their names they help us in passing through their territory with great comfort and ease. These five names are not the names of five Gods in which the Saints believe, as you think, but of the so-called governors or powers of the regions that lie on our way. The Supreme Lord is one and only One, as already explained above. He has no equal and no second.
Four things are essential in following the Surat Shabd Yoga practice; the Shabd, the Sultan-ul-azkar (the King of all repetitions):
1. The Master (Murshid-i-kamil);
2. Simran (repetition or Zikr);
3. Dhyan (contemplation or Tusawwar); and
4. Bhajan (listening to the Divine Melody within).
The first stage is repetition, by means of which the entire life-consciousness is withdrawn from the body below the eyes and is taken to the eye-centre. Then comes attachment to the Sound within, which pulls up the mind and soul to the higher regions within and finally leaves the mind at the second stage, Muquam-i-Allah-Hu, and takes the soul to the fifth stage, Muqum-i-Haq (aka Sat Lok or the Soul Plane – mt).”
(Charan Singh. “Quest For Light”. RSSB 1972/1993. Pp. 52-155)
In the LightSong of Eternal Love,
Baraka Bashad! (May the Blessings Be!)
Michael
http://spiritualfreedomsatsang.org - Michael's Blog
https://archive.org/details/20140630CharanQuest5Names