BABA SOMANTHJI MAHARAJ ~Part Two~ The Satsang Tour

If any ads appear on videos this is due to a virus. This channel is not monethised out of respect to Maharaji. This film was made from reel two of two fading old archive footage reels perhaps once envisigned as the basis for an internationaly available documentary but not pursued by Baba Somanth Ji as He had no wish for fame abroad but simply wished to fulfill the wishes of His Satguru to serve the people of South India. Those foreign disciples who found their way to His Feet did not do so as a result of any promotion but by His Mauj and their personal searching. Param Sant Satguru Baba Somanthji Maharaj was born on the 7th of September 1885 in Firozabad, a village close to Gulbarga in Karnataka. His parents Shri Siddaramappa and Shrimathi Sangamma named Him Saibanna. His mother passed away when He was about three months old and He became totally orphaned when He lost his father when He was less than a year old. His father’s brother, Revanasiddappa, and grandmother Basamma looked after Him. Under their care He had his elementary education in Marathi in the village. When He was ten years old His grandmother passed away. He and His uncle then moved to Solapur, where His uncle worked as a gardener while Saibanna worked in a cloth shop. Saibanna was deeply religious and God-minded, and a yearning for spirital truth was gradually developing in Him and He began attending temples everyday. While at Solapur an unsuccessful cotton yarn speculation business left Him dejected and He decided to move to Bombay. There He studied the Scriptures and Vedanta in depth and started giving public discourses while eking out a living in the food grain business. However, realizing that the mere reading of books without a Guru was useless, He started wandering around the country in search of a Master. In a village called Jogipur near Agra, He met Shivadayalnath, a sadhu who was an adept in Nath-Panth. Saibanna surrendered at his feet and begged him to initiate him into Nath-Panth. His guru initiated Him into Shadakshri-Mantra, Pranayama, and other Yogic practices. (He was not instructed correctly in the method of Pranayama, developing complications resulting in severe abdominal pain throughout His life as well as deforming the angle of His feet from long periods of sitting in a demanding yoga posture). Saibanna, renamed ‘Somanath’ by His guru, embraced asceticism. He wandered throughout India, visiting places of pilgrimage like, Girnar, Pandarpur, Dwaraka, Nasik, Kurukshetra, Badrinath and Himalayas upto Manasarovar. His ability to sit for Bhajan for several days at a time, together with his wanderings and discussions with the sadhus He met, gave Him a great deal of knowledge and insight but He was unconvinced by Nath-Panth. In 1927 He met a school teacher at Beas railway station who directed Him to Sawan Singhji Maharaj. 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 abyhas and achieving God Realization. In 1932 He sought permission of His Satguru to return to Mumbai. Thus, He initially came to Bombay and started a retail cloth shop at Worli for a living, holding Satsangs (spiritual discourses) in the evenings. Due to His earlier association with Sri. Mahadevappa in Enumaladoddi, Andhra Pradesh, He started visiting this village for the benefit of seekers in that area. Baba Somanathji began ‘initiating’ His disciples in 1951’Initiation’ meant establishing contact between the individual Soul and the Supreme Soul or God, i.e putting an aspirant in touch with the Divine Sound Current (or Surat Shabd Yoga, in Santmat).
Baba Sawan Singhji commanded Him to propagate the principles of Surat Shabd Yoga in South India, where it was almost unknown. Around 1955-56, He began regularly conducting Satsang programmes in Bangalore at the Oni Anjaneyaswamy temple, Palace Road. Many devotees were initiated into Radhaswamy faith and He was persuaded by some of His disciples to establish an Ashram in Bangalore. Hence, He along with some satsangis selected a suitable place to establish an Ashram. In 1958 He founded the Radhaswamy Satsang Sawan Durbar Ashram in Kengeri on an extent of 110 acres of agricultural land and transformed it into what is now a fully blossomed spiritual centre radiating an atmosphere of divinity, and a shrine for spiritual aspirants/seekers. Over the decades He established several Radhaswamy Satsang Centres in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Sawan Durbar Ashram at Kengeri together with all the Radhaswamy Satsang Centres established by Baba Somanthji Maharaj are exclusive and independent, wholly self-reliant; unaffiliated to other institutions likewise professing and promoting Radhaswamy faith in the country. After clearly appointing a successor, Param Sant Satguru Baba Somanathji Maharaj passed away on 28th Nov 1976.