Exploring the Anurag Sagar's Cosmic Conspiracy of Kal, Plus the Origin of the Anurag Sagar (Ocean of Love)

 

Exploring the Anurag Sagar's Cosmic Conspiracy of Kal, And Further Below, the Origin of the Anurag Sagar (Ocean of Love), India's Most Gnostic Scripture

The Cosmic Conspiracy of Kal Niranjan, the Gnostic Demiurge, the Negative Power

The Kal said to Kabir:

I will do something there so that nobody will believe in Your

Shabda [Word].

There I will create such karmas and illusions that nobody will find

the way out.

In every single home I will create the ghost of illusion, and deceiving

the souls, I will make them forget.

All humans will eat flesh and drink wine, and all kinds of flesh will

be the favorites.

0 brother, Your Devotion is difficult — Nobody will believe it, I’m

telling You!

That is why I say: ‘Don’t go into the world now!’”

Kabir said:

At that time I told Kal, “I know your deceptions and tricks.

HYMN

Making the souls firm in the true Shabda, I will enable them to

remove your illusions.

I will make them recognize all your tricks, and by the strength of

Naam I will liberate the souls.

Those who remember me in thought, word and deed, focusing their

attention on the Elementless,

Such souls will go to the Immortal World, putting their feet on your

head.

COUPLET

Any brave and wise soul will finish your ego.

And very happily that soul will be convinced of the true Shabda.”

Hearing this Kal felt defeated and started to think of deceptions.

The Anurag Sagar Granth (Scripture) from the Closing Chapter

By speaking the Anurag Sagar Granth, I have explained to you the Secret of the Inaccessible. I have described the Drama of Sat Purush, and the deception of Kal. Only the connoisseurs will understand the ways of living and the Word of Discrimination. One who will accept the Word after testing it, will know the Path to the Inaccessible…

The Union of Surat and Shabda - when one gets Shabda, he reaches the realm of the Saints. It is the play of the drop and the ocean. What else can one say?

After meeting the Satguru, one understands the play of Shabda and Surat. It is the union of the drop and the ocean. What else can one say?

Giving up the qualities of mind, one should follow the Path of the Master. Such a soul goes to Sat Lok and derives Happiness from the Ocean of Happiness.

Understand the jiva as the drop, and the Naam of the Satguru as the ocean, Says Kabir with proof: Dharam Das, understand this!

— Book of Anurag Sagar, the Ocean of Love:

https://archive.org/details/AnuragSagarOfKabir

Center For Anurag Sagar Studies:

https://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com/anurag.sagar

ABOUT THE ANURAG SAGAR TRANSLATION - The Origin of the Anurag Sagar (Ocean of Love)

Sant Bani books published an English translation of the Anurag Sagar in 1982 based on the Swami Yugalananda edition. From the introduction to this translation Russell Perkins writes: "Our text is from the edition published in Bombay in 1914 by Swami Yugalananda, who says in his Hindi preface that he used forty-six different versions of Anurag Sagar, thirteen of them hand-written, in preparing his edition, and that he carefully and painstakingly collated all the versions and compared all variant readings in order to arrive at the present book. This edition was specially recommended by Sant Ajaib Singh as the basis for the English translation, as it is the only text available based on this kind of careful scholarship."

The Anurag Sagar is volume two in a vast granth or collection of scriptures known as the Kabir Sagar (Ocean of Kabir). All eleven volumes of the complete Kabir Sagar were compiled, translated and published back in 1914 by Swami Yugalananda.

Background Information on Swami Yugalananda, The Great Scholar of Dharam Das Kabir Writings

Yugalananda was also known as "Shri Yugalanand Bihari", "Kabir Panthi Yugalanand Bihari" or "Bharat Pathik".  Swami Yugalananda was born into a Kabir panth family, eventually became a collector of books, did much traveling around India and neighboring countries assiduously attempting to create critical editions of various Kabir publications by gathering together as many diverse copies of various Kabir related texts as he could, and was very much interested in reforming the Kabir panth. By Kabir panth (the Path of Kabir) here I'm specifically referring to the Dharamdasis (the Sant Dharam Das line of Masters), as only they recognize the Anurag Sagar and the other Kabir Sagar books as scripture. The other Kabir panth sects don't use those.

Yugalananda claimed that over time, unqualified leaders (“mahants”) had altered or distorted many original manuscripts. He aimed to revise and purify the scripture to restore authenticity, sourcing from the best available copies, especially one from Shri Ugranam Sahib. He worked to safeguard doctrinal integrity through textual criticism and editorial reform. His effort shaped how Kabir Sagar and related Sagar books are presented and studied within devotional contexts. He has become the authoritative, honest go-to-source for Kabir texts. His redaction approach influenced the Kabir Panthi community’s standardized edition of the Kabir Sagar volumes widely used today.

He is well-known for his translation and compilation of Kabir Sagar, Anurag Sagar, and other key Kabir Panthi texts. He was a prolific author who is credited with writing forty-two books, including Kabir ki Sakhi (1898) and Anurag Sagar (1914), published in Bombay by Shri Venkateshwar Press.

At the time of the publication of the Kabir Sagar volumes in 1914, Yugalananda, also known as Swami Yugalanand Bihari, for a time apparently served as the Acharya (spiritual head, guru) of a Kabir Ashram: Kabirdham (Kabir Dharma Nagar) located at Damakheda, a major center of the Kabir Panth in Chhattisgarh. In some of his other Kabir-related publications however, I've noticed that the signatures included in his introductions mention him being located at a Kabir Ashram in Bombay: "Kabir Ashram, Khagsiya Station, Yours sincerely, Bilaspur, C.P.Shri Yugalanand Bihari, Kuchar Bhawan, Rashtriyashala Road..., Vile Parle, Bombay... (Acharya Kabir Ashram)."

A list of all forty of the books included in the eleven volume set called, The Kabir Sagar, the Swami Yugalananda edition published in 1914:

Gyan Sagar

Anurag Sagar

Ambu Sagar

Vivek Sagar

Sarvagya Sagar

Gyan Prakash

Amar Singh Bodh

Bir Singh Bodh

Bhopal Bodh

Jagjeevan Bodh

Garud Bodh

Hanuman Bodh

Lakshman Bodh

Muhammad Bodh

Kafir Bodh

Sultan Bodh

Niranjan Bodh

Gyan Bodh

Bhavtaran Bodh

Mukti Bodh

Chauka Bodh

Kabir Bani

Karma Bodh

Amar Mool

Ugra Geeta

Gyan Sthiti Bodh

Santosh Bodh

Kaya Panji

Panch Mudra

Atma Bodh

Jain Dharm Bodh

Swasamved Bodh

Dharm Bodh

Kamal Bodh

Shwaans Gunjar

Agam Nigam Bodh

Sumiran Bodh

Kabir Charitra Bodh

Guru Mahatmya

Jeev Dharm Bodh

The Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar Dharamdasi Kabir Panth Connection, by James Bean

 

The Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar Dharamdasi Kabir Panth Connection, by James Bean

If one is acquainted with the writings of Sant Dariya Sahib one will soon notice that they are completely Dharamdasi oriented and permeated with the Anurag Sagar/Kabir/Dharam Das tradition. For instance, the Beas publication, Dariya Sahib - Saint of Bihar, is essentially a sequel to the Anurag Sagar. From what they taught, it's obvious that for Dariya Sahib and his guru, named in his writings as Sat Saheb, were heavily influenced by the Dharam Das Kabir Panth. They also believed "Sant Dharam Das was the true successor of Kabir", a uniquely Dharamdasi view of succession not shared by followers of other Kabir Panth sects. Scholars such as Daniel Gold have mentioned that the Dariya Sahib sect in Bihar resembles the Dharamdasi Kabir Panth in how it's organized. The Dariya Panth sees itself as the continuation of the Dharam Das Kabir Panth, even teaching that Dariya Sahib was the reincarnation of Kabir come again to reset Sant Mat during this Kali Yuga age, portraying the latter Dharamdasi line of gurus as having gone off course getting caught up in rituals and Hinduization or corruption with few people getting initiated into the path of the Sound Current having inner experiences. A familiar story about a sangat only lasting for a few generations and then dying out or morphing into something else like a new world religion or Hindu panth, in any case, becoming a shell or husk of its former self.

"...Dariya panthis, who, seeing Dariya as an incarnation of Kabir, can take their lineage as the real Kabir Panth." (The Sants - Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India,  page 326)

"Dariya Sahab is considered the second incarnation of Kabir Sahab." (Dariya Sagar):  

https://archive.org/details/DaryaSagarBiharWaleKeChuneHueShabda1931BelvederePressAllahabad/page/n3/mode/2up?q=%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%B0 

Sant Dariya Sahib website: 

https://theholysound.com/sant-dariya-saheb-bihar/teachings.html 

"Dr. Dharmendra Brahmachari Shastri who published a research paper on the Sant for his Doctor of Philosophy thesis called, Sant Dariya KABIR of Bihar. In one of the books Dariya claimed himself to be Saint Kabir in his previous birth. The list of books and the number of verses and total number of lines in each book are given below":

https://theholysound.com/sant-dariya-saheb-bihar/books.html 

"... During the later stages of Sant tradition, figures have arisen who have spoken out against the established panths as providing little access to the true Sant teaching, which is perceived as leading to inner experience. Soamiji was one. Tulsi Sahib, his predecessor, argues sharply with panthi characters in his Ghat Ramayana. 45 Earlier, in Bihar, Dariya Sahib was taken as an incarnation of Kabir, come again to spread the true teaching on seeing the degeneration of his panth."  46

Footnote 46: "46. P. Chaturvedi, Uttari Bharat ki sant parampara (Allahabad: Leader Press, 1972), p. 660 gives an account of the way in which Dariya took himself as 'non separate from Kabir.' Dariya-panthi publications speak of him simply as 'Kabir's other avatar'". See introductory page to Dariya vachanamst, a periodical published from the Dariya Ashram, Kashi."   (The Sants, page 325)

"Those souls who remain in obedience

to these successors,

Shall cross the Ocean of the world.

How long will this line of succession continue?

Kindly relate it to us in your own words, asks Fakkar Das.

Listen mindfully, O Fakkar Das,

I explain this to you, says Dariya:

As long as the discipline of the Sound Current

is preserved unadulterated,

The line of succession will truly continue.

But when it is mixed with outer rituals

and display of external garbs,

My Sound Current will part company.

My Divine essence will depart,

And the souls will go into the mouth of Kal.

I shall then come to this world,

And shall proclaim the teaching

of the Sound Current again."

(excerpted from a hymn of Dariya, page 183, Dariya Sahib - Saint of Bihar: https://scienceofthesoul.org/books-EN-023-0.html )

One won't find much Kabir Sound Current mysticism with the Kabir Chaura Panth but you sure will if you explore the writings of the Dharam Das Panth and writings of Dariya of Bihar.  As of late I've started exploring the Kabir Sagar volumes using AI interfaces such as Gemini and Grok. Volume One of the Kabir Sagar is the Anurag Sagar (Ocean of Love)!

https://archive.org/details/giTY_kabir-sagar-complete-11-volumes-khemraj/page/n127/mode/2up

"This connection between Dharamdasis and Radhasoamis, to which the Anurag Sagar has led us, is confirmed by another set of writings venerated by Radhasoami leaders but little known outside of Radhasoami and Dharamdasi circles: the poetry of Dariya Sahib. Dariya Sahib was an eighteenth-century poet who lived in a Dharamdasi region of Bihar and referred to both Kabir and Dharam Das as his predecessors. Like the author of the Anurag Sagar, he viewed Kabir as a divine and mystical force and enumerated aspects of the ascending realms of consciousness in a manner remarkably similar to what one sees in Swami Shiv Dayal’s Sar Bachan." (Mark Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality, first edition, 1991, pages 26-29)  

Antecedents of Radhasoami and Tulsi Sahib of Hathras

Below are some references from various sources to the Sant tradition most directly related to Radhasoami, modern-day Sant Mat. As Mark Juergensmeyer has said, "This esoteric teaching of Tulsi Sahib had its antecedents."

In decades gone by there have been some rather valuable discussions about the origins of Sant Mat, the most likely guru lineage of the path based upon the clues we can observe in the teachings of Swami Ji Maharaj, Tulsi Sahib of Hathras, and earlier Sant literature. As previous presentations have suggested, the evidence points to Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar as being the most likely guru of Tulsi Sahib. Dariya Sahib of Bihar is the one contemporary guru actually named by Tulsi Sahib in his writings and hymns.

"Among the saints whom Tulsi Sahib himself singles out in Ghat Ramayan as Satgurus (true masters) are Bu-Ali Qalandar, Jalaluddin Rumi, Kabir Sahib, Dadu Dayal, Rai Das Ji, Dariya Sahib (who may have been Tulsi Sahib's own Guru), Guru Nanak, Surdas Ji, Nabha Das Ji, Mansur, Mirabai, Sarmad and Shams-e Tabrizi." (Tulsi Sahib - Saint of Hathras, 2017 edition, Puri, Sethi, Dr. T.R. Shangari, page xiii)

Tulsi was born in 1763 and passed on in 1843. He would have been in his teens when Dariya Sahib of Bihar was still alive — old enough to have perhaps received initiation from Dariya Sahib of Bihar or one of his representatives, in other words. Dariya was a towering figure occupying some of that space in history between the time of Kabir and that of Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras. Dariya passed on when Tulsi was around seventeen years of age. Dariya Sahib appointed several Saints to be his spiritual successors: Fakkar Das, Basti Das, Sant Tika Das, and, Sant Guna Das, also contemporaries with Tulsi Sahib, who likely spent some time in Bihar. Bihar was, and remains, home-base of the Satsang of Sant Dariya Sahib.

“He [Tulsi Sahib] has freely used words of Braj, Avadhi, Rajasthani (Marwari), Gujrati, Punjabi and Maithili, which leads one to conclude that, like many other Saints, he must have traveled widely in V.P., Rajasthan, Gujrat, Punjab and Bihar.” (J.R. Puri, and V.K. Sethi, Tulsi Sahib, Saint of Hathras, 1981, page 19)

If Tulsi hadn’t received initiation directly from Dariya by the age of seventeen, the references to Dariya Sahib in Tulsi’s writings still make sense if he received initiation from one of Dariya’s immediate successors, which is another possibility. Anyone initiated by those successors would likely have much reverence for Dariya Sahib as being the “great master” of Sant Mat during those days.

Tulsi's own references to Dariya are the foundation for the Dariya Sahib connection, but there are other observations one can make. For instance the sangats that used the Five Names (Panch Naam) prior to Tulsi Sahib of Hathras are associated  with the Dariya/Dharam Das/Kabir line of gurus.

Below are excerpts from Daniel Gold and Mark Juergensmeyer. And at the bottom I conclude with a hymn of Dariya Sahib embedded in the Kabir/Phool Das chapter of Tulsi Sahib's book, the Ghat Ramayan.

"Far to the west of Ayodhya, at Hathras, near Agra, a sant named Tulsi Sahib recognized himself as the reincarnation of Tulsi Das, who sang the praises of Ram in the great Hindi version of the epic Ramayana. Though Tulsi Sahib’s commonly known Ramayana is highly conducive to the ceremonial worship of Lord Ram, Tulsi Sahib in his present incarnation took the heritage of the Hindi sants as an alternative to Hindu ritual worship. In a book called the Inner Ramayana he elaborates at length on the idea of sant tradition. Arguing one by one with the proponents of established Indian religions, Tulsi Sahib demonstrates the superiority of sant mat, “the teaching of the sants.” Through followers of the Radhasoami movement, who inherit a direct spiritual legacy from Tulsi Sahib, the idea of sant mat has become familiar to circles of devotees in the West today.

"It was Tulsi Sahib, living into the nineteenth century, who finally produced a learned exposition of sant mat; yet sants had long before seen themselves as constituting some sort of spiritual brotherhood. Just how far the early sants saw themselves within a distinct tradition and in what ways their perceptions,of commonality in fact reflected shared practice are by no means settled questions. Some sants appear as notoriously idiosyncratic individuals, and movements bearing sants’ names have developed in highly diverse ways. But the ideal of the sant is lauded in verse, later Hindi sants refer to earlier ones, and Kabir, the first great figure in the Hindi tradition, mentions earlier Marathi predecessors. By the seventeenth century, great sectarian compilations—which include verses in sant style from figures beyond the immediate lineage—testify to ideas of a larger tradition of sants, if imprecisely understood and realized from diverse perspectives. By the end of the nineteenth century Radhasoami groups were formulating ideas of sant tradition that fit nicely into their own theologies." (Daniel Gold, Comprehending the Guru, 1988, pages 15-16)

"The idea of sant mat, propagated by Tulsi Sahib at the end of the eighteenth century, was taken up by the nineteenth-century progenitor of Radhasoami lineage, known as Soamiji. At both Agra and Beas, sant mat is understood to represent a practical formulation of an older sant tradition." (Daniel Gold, Comprehending the Guru, page 78)

"This esoteric teaching of Tulsi Sahib had its antecedents. His best known work, Ghat Ramayana (which purports to be the essence, or ghat, of the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana), is a dialogue between Tulsi Sahib and Phul Das, a follower of Dharam Das, who was in turn one of the best known disciples of Kabir. In it references are made to an even earlier dialogue, one between Kabir and Dharam Das. This dialogue is contained in a document entitled Anurag Sagar (The Sea of Love), which the Ghat Ramayana resembles in style and content and which may be regarded as its precursor. Several Radhasoami masters have acknowledged its relevance for their teachings and have urged their followers to read it.40

Footnote 40: "Sawan Singh, for instance, refers to the Anurag Sagar in Philosophy of the Masters (Beas: Radhasoami Satsang, Beas, 1977), vol. 4, p. 67; and one of Sawan Singh’s disciples says that the master advocated that the book be studied diligently" (Rai Saheb Munshi Ram, With the Three Masters [Beas: Radhasoami Satsang, Beas, 1967], vol. 2, p. 187).

"The main ideas of the Anurag Sagar are those we have described as esoteric santism, but particular attention is paid to the remarkable power of a salvific sound that can be transmitted only to appropriate persons, and only through initiation. Behind the Anurag Sagar lies an elaborate mythology about a cosmic conflict between the forces of darkness and the forces of good. As in Tulsi Sahib’s writing, the former is Kal, and Kabir himself embodies the latter. A particularly dramatic scene has Kabir meeting Kal in combat at the top of the causal plane. According to the Anurag Sagar, the public, historical Kabir was only a momentary revelation, a brief glimpse of a much more important reality: a cosmic Kabir-force that originated before creation, entered into human history briefly as Kabir, and is still accessible in the form of a pure sound that resonates through the cosmos and provides liberation from the evil grip of time and mortality.

"Although few of these mythological details survive as such within Radhasoami teachings, the grand role that Kabir plays within Radhasoami thought and its view of history is indisputable; one of the Radhasoami masters, for instance, claimed to have recognized Benares on seeing it for the first time because he had been there as Kabir in a previous birth. The general framework of the myth is to be found in Radhasoami notions of the evilness of time (Kal), the creation of religion by Kal as part of a sinister plot, and the saving power of a cosmic guru—incarnate in a living spiritual master—that penetrates Kal’s kingdom by a force of light and sound, rescues souls, and guides them toward ascending vistas of reality.

"The Anurag Sagar would seem to point to Kabir as the source of esoteric santism. The problem with this conclusion, however, is that although the Anurag Sagar is said to have been written by Kabir, its style and content suggest an authorship sometime in the eighteenth or even nineteenth century—several centuries after Kabir’s death. Moreover, the ideas of esoteric santism contained in the Anurag Sagar are rejected by many of the people who today consider themselves the direct followers of Kabir, the Kabirpanthis.

"There is one present-day branch of Kabirpanthis, however, for which these ideas are not at all extreme: the Dharamdasis. The Anurag Sagar is indeed one of their principal texts..."

"Dharamdasi teachings about the cosmic realms are quite similar to Radhasoami’s; like the Beas branch it gives the panch nam (five names) as one of its mantras at the time of initiation..."

"This connection between Dharamdasis and Radhasoamis, to which the Anurag Sagar has led us, is confirmed by another set of writings venerated by Radhasoami leaders but little known outside of Radhasoami and Dharamdasi circles: the poetry of Dariya Sahib. Dariya Sahib was an eighteenth-century poet who lived in a Dharamdasi region of Bihar and referred to both Kabir and Dharam Das as his predecessors. Like the author of the Anurag Sagar, he viewed Kabir as a divine and mystical force and enumerated aspects of the ascending realms of consciousness in a manner remarkably similar to what one sees in Swami Shiv Dayal’s Sar Bachan." (Mark Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality, first edition, 1991, pages 26-29)

Shabd of Dariya Saheb quoted in the Ghat Ramayan by Sant Tulsi Sahib, in the section devoted to the Anurag Sagar and his Dialogue with Phool Das of the Kabir sect:

Gateway to the August Darbar of the Lord has opened to me.

Lightning flashes and darts forth like a fast current, illuminating like a shooting star.

The veil of clouds over the moon is removed and the dense darkness vanishes.

When love and yearning are engendered in Surat, it beholds the moon-lit courtyard.

Surat moves about happily in the firmament and opens the gate to Bank-nal.

Like a spider moving along the thread drawn out of itself,

Surat, ascending on the bow, rises up like a current.

On meeting the Beloved, Surat merges in Him the way a stream merges in river.

I have seen the Form which, indeed, is formless and beyond all description.

It is boundless, having neither beginning nor end.

Dariya Shaeb says that when his mind became humble and meek,

he was able to cross the ocean of existence. 

(Param Sant Tulsi Sahib, S.D. Maheshwari, page 125)

Also see: The Case for Sant Tulsi Sahib’s Guru Being Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar — Sant Mat History Revisited, By James Bean: 

https://medium.com/sant-mat-meditation-and-spirituality/the-case-for-sant-tulsi-sahibs-guru-being-sant-dariya-sahib-of-bihar-sant-mat-history-revisited-08fc892e737e

And: Sant Tulsi Sahib’s Spiritual Master Was Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar, by James Bean:  

https://santmatradhasoami.blogspot.com/2024/05/sant-tulsi-sahibs-spiritual-master-was.html

Origins of the Sant Tradition and Saints of the South, by James Bean

Origins of the Sant Tradition and Saints of the South, by James Bean

Referring to Sant Tulsi Sahib's origins: "He came from the south, and was popularly known as Dakhani Baba, which means 'Sage from the South'". (Tulsi Sahib, Saint of Hathras, J. R. Puri and V. K. Sethi, page 3, second edition, 1981)

With the Sant tradition of India the most famous Sants by far are the northern ones like Kabir, Nanak, Goswami Tulsi Das, Mirabai, etc... Lesser-known is the Sant tradition of Maharashtra as represented by Eknath, Namdev, Tukarama, Jnanadeva, and Samartha Ramadasa. There is however an even more obscure history of Sants in south India. The book, Saints of South India, Part One: Karnataka, by Dr. N. Subrahmanyam, P. Aravinda Rao, and K. G. Ramaprakash, published by the Beas satsang, features three prominent Sants of the south: Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa, and Shishunala Sharif Sahib. These were part of the Haridasas, the Haridasa branch of the Bhakti movement. More about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haridasa 

 

I've always been curious about when the Path of the Sants emerged in Indian history. Often people assume the Sants or Sant Mat began with poet-mystics such as Kabir or Nanak but clearly they were not the first Sants. Kabir is believed to have been born in 1440, Nanak 1469. Previous to the 15th century Sants and much earlier in the Sant tradition was Sant Jayadeva, born in east India during 1170, author of the Gita Govinda. Some of his compositions were also eventually included in the Sikh scriptures, the Adi Granth compiled in 1604. In Maharashtra were significant Bhakti Sants such as Jnaneshwar (1275-1296). A disciple and spiritual successor of Jnaneshwar was Visoba Khechar (unknown - 1309 CE), and Sant Namdev (1270-1350) was a famous disciple of Visoba Khechar.

Tracing the Sant tradition much further back in time I am rather intrigued by this statement in this book about the Saints of south India: "The Bhakti movement is thought to have originated in Tamil Nadu during the seventh century and eventually spread through Karnataka, Maharashtra, and then across India during the sixteenth-century." (Saints of South India, page 2) Tamil Nadu is the southernmost state of India.

This Wikipedia entry for the Bhakti movement pushes the date back to the 6th century: "The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism[1] that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation.[2] Originating in Tamilakam during 6th century CE,[3][4] it gained prominence through the poems and teachings of the Vaishnava Alvars and Shaiva Nayanars in early medieval South India, before spreading northwards.[1] It swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti_movement 

The above paragraph at Wikipedia cites some credible sources that one may consult for further exploration of the history of Nirguna Bhakti Sants (devotees of the Formless Supreme Being) including: A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement, John Hawley, Harvard University Press, 2015; Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action, David Lorenzen, State University of New York Press, 1995; and, The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, Karine Schomer, W.H. McLeod, Motilal Banarsidass, 1987)

I will have to research possible poet-Saints of the Tamil Nadu Sant tradition and explore what might be published in English from this earlier period.

Can we date the Sant tradition even earlier in the history of India? It's certainly the case that some ancient Upanishads taught about a Formless Purusha (Supreme Being), and have references to inner Light and Sound (Nada Yoga) meditation practices. In the Wiki entry cited above on the Bhakti movement is this paragraph: "Klaus Witz, in contrast, traces the history and nature of the Bhakti movement to the Upanishadic and the Vedanta foundations of Hinduism. He writes that in virtually every Bhakti movement poet, 'the Upanishadic teachings form an all-pervasive substratum, if not a basis.'"

As I wrote in my paper, The Origins Of Sant Mat, there are a few rare tantalizing references to Sants of antiquity:  

 

Seeing references in Krishna/Vaishnava Hindu scriptures, Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras was of the opinion that the Sant movement dates back to the time of Krishna thousands of years ago, that Krishna knew of Sants during his day.

An Example of Sants Mentioned in a Hindu Scripture Called the Bhagavad Purana

"Such individuals who have achieved the unity of atman (soul) and Param-atman (Supreme Soul, God) are known as Sants. According to the Bhagavad Purana there is no one greater than a Sant in the eyes of the Divine. Lord Krishna says to his disciple Uddhava Ji: 'All devotees like you are very dear to me. They are dearer to me than Lord Brahma, Lord Shankara, my brother Bal Ram, Goddess Lakshmi and even my own soul. Therefore, I walk behind these Sants hoping that the dust arising from their holy feet would touch my body and purify me.'" (Hindu scripture quoted by Swami Vyasanand of the Tulsi Sahib/Maharshi Mehi Sant Mat lineage in his book, The Inward Journey of the Soul, Amazon Kindle e-book)

Some poetry from a biography of Dadu Dayal: "There is no end to the number of Sants who appeared in the Yugas [Epochs] of Sat, Treta, Dvapar, and Kali [Yuga]. I sing of the celebrated one I have heard of, and bow my head to all the others." (Jan Gopal, disciple of Sant Dadu Dayal of Rajasthan in, The Life Story of Dadu Dayal -- The Book of Janma Lila, translated into English by the scholar Winand M. Callewaert, in, The Hindi Biography of Dadu Dayal, Motilal Banarsidass)

For more see, The Origins of Sant Mat:   

https://archive.org/details/the-origins-of-sant-mat/page/n1/mode/2up 

Back to the recently published book on Sants of south India: "Purandara Dasa and Kanaka Dasa, lived in the sixteenth century, and are quite well known all over South India... Shishunala Sharif [19th century Sant], is not as well-known as the other two, but his teachings are nevertheless very profound. His background and poetry reminds one of Kabir." (Saints of South India - Part 1- Karnataka, 2024:  https://scienceofthesoul.org/books-EN-279-1.html  )

And, as the title implies, there likely will be a Part 2 volume exploring more southern Sants.

Baba Somanath of South India

A recent Sant based in south India was Baba Somanath (1885-1976) of the Radhasoami Satsang. "Baba Sawan Singhji was very pleased with Somanathji’s seva and behaviour and initiated him into the path of Surat Shabd Yoga in January 1928. He stayed at Beas for three and a half years, practicing Surat Shabd Yoga and achieved his cherished goal. In 1932, He sought the gracious permission of his Satguru to return to Mumbai. Sawan Singhji blessed him and commanded him to propagate the principles of Santmat in South India, where it was almost unknown." (from the Gurus section of the Sawan Durbar Ashram website: http://sdakengeri.org/Gurus.htm  )

For the details of this see, The Life of Baba Somanath - Saint and Sage of South India, by Christopher McMahon, 2023:  https://babasomanathji.org/biography/baba-jis-life-story 

PDF: 

https://babasomanathji.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Life-Story-of-Baba-Somanath-Ji.pdf 

And this biography is also available as a 323 page hardcover book by Christopher McMahon:

https://babasomanathji.org/for-further-information-contact

 

Baba Somanath was also one of the greatest bhajan singers of the 20th Century. You can hear recordings of many of his rather moving hymns here: 

https://babasomanathji.org/bhajans

The Case for Sant Tulsi Sahib's Guru Being Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar Revisited, By James Bean - Sant Mat History Revisited

 

The Case for Sant Tulsi Sahib's Guru Being Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar - Sant Mat History Revisited, By James Bean

I believe the strongest case by far that can be made is that Tulsi Sahib's guru was Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar. Still further back in time, Dariya Sahib connected back to the Sant Dharam Das line of masters associated with the Kabir tradition. The Dariya connection also explains the closeness between Radhasoami and Dharamdasi teachings, writings and practices: the use of the Five Names, the centrality of the Anurag Sagar and similar Kabir spiritual classics, the more openly esoteric approach to the inner regions, also the inherited view that Dharam Das "was the successor of Kabir". Those are all very Dharamdasi views not shared by other Sant groups (or Sikh sects).

"...Most of the other early sant poets rarely refer to their human gurus by name..." (David Lorenzen, Kabir Legends and Ananta-das's Kabir Parachai)

We of course would prefer Tulsi Sahib to place some sort of legal document into his poetry saying something to the effect, 'I, Tulsi Sahib of sound mind wish to go on record declaring that [..............] was my Satguru'. Would be nice, but as Lorenzen observed, sometimes the Kabir's, Nanak's and Tulsi Sahib's of the tradition don't always spell this out clearly in their banis and bhajans, at least in the writings that have survived.

But there can be serious clues offered sometimes, one of those being, when a Sant mentions previous Sants, most of those being fairly famous, such as a Kabir, Nanak, Ravidas, Paltu, etc... and there's one contemporary, obscure name on their list. THAT'S worth paying attention to, as they may very well be telling us who their guru was! For instance, here's a hymn of Maharshi Mehi naming many past saints and mystics, and on his list happens to be one obscure contemporary mystery figure by the name of Satguru Devi:   

“Great praise to all the Saints!

In which manner will one pray to them?

My mind is so very dirty and inexperienced,

Saints being destroyers of sorrows do away with the worldly traps,

They are the treasure-troves of knowledge and meditation,

Highly proficient in the techniques of single-minded concentration

and the Yoga of Sound,

They propagate the same in plain language all over the world;

Great are the Sages and Saints like Buddha, Shankar and Ramanand

for eliminating sins,

Sacrifice to the magnificent Saints like Kabir, Nanak,

Goswami Tulsidas and Tulsi Sahib,

Dadu, Sundar Das, Sur Das, Swapach, Ravi Das, Jagjivan, Paltu, etc…,

They are all great benefactors, delivering human beings

from the fears of the world,

Satguru Devi and other Saints are also highly adorable,

Maharshi Mehi sings their magnificence and lies prostrate

at their sacred feet with faith and love.”

(Maharshi Mehi Paramhans, Book of Padavali, Hymn #2: Hail to the Sants)

Satguru Devi was indeed the guru of Maharshi Mehi: Baba Devi Sahab of Moradabad.

"Swami Shiv Dayal lists his predecessors as ‘‘Kabir Sahab, Tulsi Sahab, Jagjiwan Sahab, Garib Das ji, Paltu Sahab, Guru Nanak, Daduji, Tulsi Das ji, Nabha ji, Swami Hari Das ji, Sur Das ji, and Raidas ji; and among Mohammedans, Shams-i-Tabrez, Maulana Rumi, Hafiz, Sarmad and Mujaddid Alifsani”’ (Sar Bachan: Prose [Dayalbagh version], verse 39, pp. 29-30)." (Mark Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality)

"The family originally emigrated from the Punjab, where Shiv Dayal’s grandfather, Seth Malik Chand, was an official in the court of a princely state.’ His father, Seth Dilwali, settled in Agra and became a moneylender, a common occupation for a member of his caste. The family had been followers of Guru Nanak; this might suggest that they were Sikhs or Nanakpanthis, a term that refers to people who venerate the first Sikh master, Guru Nanak, to the exclusion of the other nine. Whatever was the case, the family turned in a different direction during Swami Shiv Dayal’s childhood—towards the spiritual tutelage of a local holy man named Tulsi Sahib." (Mark Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality)

In the Radhasoami literature Sant Tulsi Sahib is named, a contemporary master not famous all over India such as Dadu, Surdas Ravidas, etc..., and he turned out to be the guru of Swami Ji, the family guru of Swami Ji's family and the family guru of Radhaji.

Honoring Tulsi Sahib's Own Words

Tulsi Sahib mentioned dozens of times Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar in his various books: "I have seen the Form which, indeed, is formless and beyond all description. It is boundless, having neither beginning nor end. Dariya Saheb says that when his mind became humble and meek, he was able to cross the ocean of existence." (Param Sant Tulsi Sahib, S.D. Maheshwari, page 125)

“Listen, O Phool Das, I have given out the same true secrets which Sants like Kabir Saheb, Dadu Saheb, Rai Das Ji, Dariya Sahib, Guru Nanak, Soor Das Ji, Nabha Ji and Mira Bai have spoken of. They, too, have composed similar hymns describing the bliss of the highest spiritual region, whose glory I also have sung, blessed by the grace and the dust of the holy feet of Sants.” (Ghat Ramayan section, Param Sant Tulsi Sahib, translated by Sant Das Maheshwari, page 148)

Again, the same situation there with Tulsi Sahib naming many famous past Sants along with one obscure contemporary master, as T.R. Shangari Ji also observes:

"Among the saints whom Tulsi Sahib himself singles out in Ghat Ramayan as Satgurus (true masters) are Bu-Ali Qalandar, Jalaluddin Rumi, Kabir Sahib, Dadu Dayal, Rai Das Ji, Dariya Sahib (who may have been Tulsi Sahib's own Guru), Guru Nanak, Surdas Ji, Nabha Das Ji, Mansur, Mirabai, Sarmad and Shams-e Tabrizi." (Tulsi Sahib - Saint of Hathras, new expanded 2017 edition, Puri, Sethi, along with a new editor by the name of Dr. T.R. Shangari, page xiii:  https://scienceofthesoul.org/books-EN-031-0.html   )

Nice to see this reference to Dariya from the Beas satsang. Many of those in India can read all of the writings of Tulsi Sahib in the original Hindi. Those having access to the total number of references to Sant Dariya by Tulsi in all his writings just might find the mentions and quotations from Sant Dariya of Bihar to be convincing.

From my paper on the origins of Sant Mat, The Sant Mat We Know Can Be Traced Back to Sant Dariya Sahib

Tulsi was born in 1763 and passed on in 1843. He would have been in his teens when Dariya Sahib of Bihar was still alive — old enough to have perhaps received initiation from Dariya Sahib of Bihar or one of his representatives, in other words. Dariya was a towering figure occupying some of that space in history between the time of Kabir and that of Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras. Dariya passed on when Tulsi was around seventeen years of age. Dariya Sahib appointed several Saints to be his spiritual successors: Fakkar Das, Basti Das, Sant Tika Das, and, Sant Guna Das, also contemporaries with Tulsi Sahib, who likely spent some time in Bihar. Bihar was, and remains, home-base of the Satsang of Sant Dariya Sahib.

“He [Tulsi Sahib] has freely used words of Braj, Avadhi, Rajasthani (Marwari), Gujrati, Punjabi and Maithili, which leads one to conclude that, like many other Saints, he must have traveled widely in V.P., Rajasthan, Gujrat, Punjab and Bihar.” (J.R. Puri, and V.K. Sethi, “Tulsi Sahib, Saint of Hathras”, 1981, RSSBeas Books, page 19)

If Tulsi hadn’t received initiation directly from Dariya by the age of seventeen, the references to Dariya Sahib in Tulsi’s writings still make sense if he received initiation from one of Dariya’s successors, which is another possibility. Anyone initiated by those successors would likely have much reverence for Dariya Sahib, the “great master” of Sant Mat during those days. The Origins of Sant Mat: 

https://archive.org/details/TheOriginsOfSantMatSachKhandPDF#:~:text=The%20Path%20of%20the%20Masters,precise%20history%20of%20the%20Path. 

While it's rather clear that Sant Dharam Das and his successors have had a demonstrable influence on the Sant Mat/Radhasoami lineage of recent history, it's a bit more difficult to document the historic connection from Dharam Das back to Kabir, and Kabir to Ramananda. There are differing schools of thought regarding their actual associations. The other day I noticed that David Lorenzen named another guru, an intermediate guru between Kabir and Kabir Panth gurus. I did find out some information about that person and will post it soon.

Long ago Mark Juergensmeyer mentioned the resemblance of the teachings of the Dharam Das Kabir gurus to those of Radhasoami:   

"I am grateful to the translator of the Beas book, K. N. Upadhyaya, a professor of philosophy at the University of Hawaii, for bringing the Dariya connection to my attention." (Mark Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality)

"Dariya Sahib adds another link to the chain that connects the Radhasoami and Dharamdasi traditions..." (Mark Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality)

"This connection between Dharamdasis and Radhasoamis, to which the Anurag Sagar has led us, is confirmed by another set of writings venerated by Radhasoami leaders but little known outside of Radhasoami and Dharamdasi circles: the poetry of Dariya Sahib. Dariya Sahib was an eighteenth-century poet who lived in a Dharamdasi region of Bihar and referred to both Kabir and Dharam Das as his predecessors." (Mark Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality)