Sawan’s tenure as Great Master of Beas appears to have been divided into two parts. From 1911 until the early 1930’s, he primarily stayed in the local area, overseeing vast construction projects. From the 1930’s until his passing in 1948, Sawan made periodic journeys from the Dera to give Satsang and Initiation around the Punjab. The Satsang hall that he had built for Baba Jaimal Singh was soon flooded with people and became too small to even give initiation in, much less give general Satsangs. So Sawan built another, and then another. And still devotees kept on coming. In addition, to accommodate the incredible influx of people flooding into the area, Sawan built guesthouses for them to stay in and large kitchens (or “langars”) to feed them. All of these accommodations and services he provided devotees free of charge. The enormity of this project can only be appreciated when you see a video of Dera Baba Jaimal Singh today.
There’s a wonderful video they made of a Bhandara (religious festival honoring Sawan’s birthday in July) during Charan Singh’s tenure as the Living Saint of Beas. At least a quarter-million people attended this gathering. Huge awnings were erected to shield the sea of Satsangis from the blazing summer sun, as well as the possibility of torrential rains. And a phenomenal amount of food was prepared to feed the attendees for free the whole weekend. The seva (service) which people did in just preparing enough chapatis (kind of like an Indian tortilla) to feed a 250,000 people qualified the gathering as the 8th Wonder of the World.
Once Sawan Singh had enough housing and meditation halls constructed to take care of foreseeable needs, he turned his attention to touring, and giving Satsang and initiation, throughout a greater area of India. The stories one could tell about Great Master Sawan’s tours around the Punjab, and then India in general, would fill several volumes – and in fact have. One of the earliest classics on these spiritual missions was Dr. Julian Johnson’s outstanding work, “With a Great Master in India”. In it, Dr. Johnson (one of the first Americans to visit Sawan Singh in India) recounts his stay at the Dera in the early 1930’s, and accompanying Great Master on tour.
One thing that struck me in reading this book was Dr. Johnson’s account of a visit Sawan paid at a Radhasoami ashram in Allahabad presided over by Shiv Dayal Singh’s nephew, Sudarshan Singh. Readers who are or were members of Eckankar will note Sudarshan’s name similarity with the Master who Sri Paul Twitchell says was his first guru, Sudar Singh, who also lived in Allahabad. Other excellent accounts of Sawan’s tours are contained in aforementioned “Call of the Great Master” and “Heaven on Earth”, both by Daryai Lal Kapur, “Spiritual Heritage” by Charan Singh, and “With the Three Masters” (a three-volume set) by Rai Sahib Munshi Ram.
Regarding Sawan’s spiritual mission, Kirpal Singh commented,
“He revived the teachings of holy Saints and brought them into the limelight. Like His predecessors – Guru Nanak, Kabir Sahib, Tulsi Sahib, Paltu Sahib, Soami Shiv Dayal Singh Ji, Maulana Rumi, Shams Tabrez and others, He pulled up the aspirants from their deep slumber and put them on the Path of Surat Shabd Yoga or ‘Sultan-ul-Azkar’, which is the most ancient and eternal Path leading to Reality and which, being natural, is unchangeable from times immemorial and will ever remain as such without any modification whatever. His teachings are esoteric and not exoteric. He taught:
‘God is in every heart. Spirituality is the common heritage of the entire world and humanity, and is not reserved for any particular country or nationality. The be-all and end-all of spirituality are the Union of the soul with the Omnipotent Over-Soul. Man is the room and crown of all creation and nothing else is greater than He. He is the direct manifestation of God and is the marvel of God's greatness. In the twinkling of an eye, he can rise to Heaven and come back. The sun and the moon, Paradise and Hell, the earth and the sky are his playgrounds. As is correctly said: ‘In short, thou art next to God’.”
Kirpal went on to say,
“...Hazur unfolded the Divine mysteries with such an easy and facile grace that His words went home and penetrated deep down into the hearts and made an everlasting impression. This is possible only when a really competent personage, with practical personal esoteric experiences within, expounds the truth of the actual spiritual experiments and has the competency to infuse into the innermost recesses of the brain – not only mere words – but the results of His own vast spiritual experiments, along with the pith of the essential principles of them.”
In the LightSong of Eternal Love,
Have a Beautiful Day!
Michael Turner
http://spiritualfreedomsatsang.org