Radha Soami Satsang Beas

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Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) was founded by Baba Jaimal Singh Ji Maharaj in 1891 at a site called Dera Baba Jaimal Singh on the West bank of the River Beas in the Punjab of Northern India. ^[1]

Jaimal Singh was one of six people who over a period of about nine years came to be regarded as spiritual successors of Shiv Dayal Singh, the first Satguru of Radhasoami Faith, often referred to as Sant Mat, a movement of Surat Shabd Yoga, which includes esoteric teaching about the Shabd.

A chart of this RSSB lineage and the five other successor lineages help show the connections among many of the Sant Mat guru lines and branches. ^[2] The RSSB lineage of spiritual leaders with the dates of their births, deaths, and tenures is as follows:

Baba Jaimal Singh (1839 - 1903): 1891 - 1903
Baba Sawan Singh (1858 - 1948): 1903 - 1948
Sardar Bahadur Jagat Singh (1884 - 1951): 1948 - 1951
Maharaj Ji Charan Singh Grewal(1912 - 1990): 1951 - 1990
Baba Gurinder Singh (1954 - ): 1990 - Present

Adherents worldwide number in the neighborhood of 2,000,000 people. ^[3]

The RSSB group can be distinguished from later branches which diverged at the point of Baba Sawan Singh. Almost all contemporary Sant Mat groups consider him as a member of their lineage. Sant Kirpal Singh, the founder of Ruhani Satsang, was a prominent discple of Baba Sawan Singh who left Beas upon the passing of Baba Sawan Singh and after a period of time in retreat, founded his own mission in Delhi. He asserted that he had been commissioned as successor by Baba Sawan Singh, six months before his passing, and had been ordered by him to leave Dera (See: Singh, Kirpal, Brief Life Sketch of Hazur Baba Sawan Singh - 1949).

The term Radha Soami comes from two words. 'Radha' means 'The Soul' and 'Soami' means 'Lord'. Therefore 'Radha Soami' means 'Lord of the Soul', The God, The Supreme Power governing and controlling the entire universe.

The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of World Religions, defines Radha Soami as "the union of the soul with God, the name of God, and the sound heard internally that emanates from God".