Simran, the Practice of Remembering God in a World of Forgetfulness
"Santmat is not some new doctrine or religion. It is very ancient. Even the Upanishads teach bindu-nada meditation. It is not only saints of this age who have spoken about it; sages of olden times also taught this. One should understand this and continue to practice it regularly." (Maharshi Mehi, Experiential Knowledge)
Simran: "Repetition of names or thoughts; in Sant Mat, the simran of worldly thoughts is controlled through the Simran of the Five Charged Names, repeated by an initiate throughout the day and when sitting for meditation as a means of collecting the thought currents at the Third Eye Center; also used as a password of sorts to higher planes and protection from Negative Power influences." (Sant Mat Glossary)
How to do Simran
"When simran of the Lord is carried out incessantly and with every breath of one’s life, it awakens one’s consciousness in the Lord. Simran of the name or names given by someone whose consciousness is awakened in God is highly beneficial because, through the medium of thought transference between master and disciple, fast success is assured. In this way the soul’s passage through the spiritual regions is expedited so it can cross those regions without hindrance.
"After assuming an easy posture, simran should be done by concentrating one’s attention between the eyebrows (which is the seat of the soul) and repeating the names with the tongue of the soul with an all-consuming absorption. Simran done in this manner overcomes the restlessness of the mind and results in a high degree of concentration." (Hazur Baba Sawan Singh, My Submission)
"Please concentrate your attention in the eyes [third eye center] when repeating the Holy Names. As your concentration becomes stronger many mysteries will become solved for you. As your soul having collected in the eyes turns inwards you will get more flashes of light and knowledge. Solitude brings peace and helps in spiritual progress." (Hazur Baba Sawan Singh)
"The repetition of the Five Names should be performed with love and affection, fixing the attention in the eyes without putting any pressure on them, and sitting in one posture as far as possible so that you become unconscious of the body below the eyes and thought does not run outside the focus of the eyes. When you sit to listen to the Sound, try to get pleasure out of it." (Hazur Baba Sawan Singh)
"The change of focus is done by constant practice and effort to rise up and fix and hold the attention at the higher centers. This is the underlying idea of the repetition of the Names. Each Name gives you an idea of something within you and above the eyes. Every time you repeat a Name attentively you are trying to rise up, and sooner or later the eye-focus will become the headquarters of your attention." (Hazur Baba Sawan Singh)
"When you begin to hear the bell sound clearly in the right direction, you may give up Simran (repetition of the Holy Names) and then connect your soul with the Sound again." (Hazur Baba Sawan Singh)
"When God Almighty showers His Grace, He sends the Saints to awaken such souls who have forgotten about God Almighty and who have lost their way in this world. The Saints come, and then They awaken the souls. They tell us about the Reality. And They try to enlighten us about what is the truth. And They try to get us out of this ocean of life and death.
"Then They show us the Path. They show us the practice of doing our Bhajan Simran. And by doing so, when we go within, They again manifest that Light and Sound within. And once that Holy Sound and Light is manifested within, the darkness of ignorance, or the darkness of this veil of Maya is cast aside. And again, the soul experiences and understands all its previous births and automatically develops that love and affection for the Master and goes within.
"Therefore, Saints come into this world only to take us from this home to our True Home. They don't come here to get us entangled again in this life and death.
"So, therefore, it is incumbent on us to listen to what They have to say and follow Their instructions and do our meditations every day. We should not get swayed by the color of this world, because the color of this world is not permanent. It is only there for a few days.
"We should, therefore, focus our energies to do our meditations, to listen to Satsang every day, and to keep our aim of going back to God Almighty in front of us." (Baba Ram Singh, excerpted from an August 2024 Satsang Discourse)
IMAGE courtesy of Christopher McMahon
