Where does a philosophy end and a religion begin?

'You can imagine how annoyed we were,' says Pradeep Raniga, of the day earlier this year when his religion was deemed not a religion.

'A close friend said to me, 'I dare anyone to find a group more religious than yours'.

'What we do is beautiful.'

Mr Raniga, an accountant, and his wife Pratibha are members of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, or RSSB, a vegetarian spiritual group formed in India in 1891. It has operated in Melbourne for 35 years and has 800 devotees.

Devotees meditate for more than two hours a day, grow food to give away, volunteer, and follow a 62-year-old Punjabi guru called Baba Gurinder Singh.

But in February the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal – in what must be regarded now as an awkward legal blunder – deemed RSSB was not a religion but a mere 'philosophical organisation'.

RSSB was in the courts trying to get approval to build a new chapel on Green Wedge land in Carrum Downs. Frankston City Council didn't see a problem, but Green Wedge activists appealed the council's decision, and VCAT knocked it back.

So RSSB went to the Supreme Court to get VCAT's decision overturned and this week, they won. It wasn't hard.

Lawyer Stuart Morris, QC, in part used a landmark 1983 court decision deeming Scientology a religion. He also argued that VCAT's decision was skewed because rather than ask whether the proposed chapel was a place of worship, it asked whether the organisation itself was a religion. And in doing so, Supreme Court justice Karin Emerton found, it used only a narrow definition.

She said VCAT did not think RSSB had the three main criteria of a religion defined in the Scientology decision: having beliefs providing answers to ultimate questions; having ideas related to formal ceremonies and services; and a quest to persuade worshippers that those ideas represent 'true faith' or 'true answers'.

Instead, the tribunal concluded that RSSB only cobbled together their beliefs from mainstream religions and that their weekly Sunday service lacked depth.

RSSB's head in Australia is Michael Cooke, a retired corporate lawyer from Perth. 'Having our status as a religion challenged was not something we expected,' he says. 'But we are delighted with the final result.'

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Cooke grew up Anglican but was a seeker, looking into, in his words, 'gurus and swamis.'

'I kept shopping until I found one that fitted my criteria.'

RSSB is one of the largest spiritual organisations in India and wields considerable political power there; Baba Singh is a household name in the Punjab. Devotees meditate and do yoga and welcome those from other religions, promising they can make them better Christians, Muslims or Buddhists.

Members don't eat meat, drink, smoke or use drugs. 'We don't have any loud parties or bacchanalian events of any description,' says Cooke. Mangal font marathi typing. Part of their proposal for the 26-hectare site in Carrum Downs is a farm to grow fruit and vegetables to give to charity. An RSSB farm in Canada gave away $3900,000 worth of food to eight charities in 2013.

The group has charitable status under Australian law and thus pays no tax or stamp duty. 'We didn't want a ruling to stand that categorically said we were not a religion,' says Cooke.

'That would have been very unfortunate. As it stands what we have seen is the courts in Australia use probably the most liberal definition of religion in the western world, for which we are grateful.'

Chris Johnston is a senior writer at The Age writing on anything and everything including sport, music, Australian culture and people, urban and suburban affairs, art and crime. He writes 'The Crate' column in EG every Friday about lost and found music, is a judge on The Australian Music Prize (AMP) and contributes to Good Weekend magazine and The Melbourne Magazine.

Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) is an organization dedicated to a process of inner development under the guidance of a spiritual teacher. The present teacher is Gurinder Singh, who lives with his family at the main centre in northern India. The main centre of RSSB is at Dera Baba Jaimal Singh Ji, located on the banks of the Beas River, in the northern India state of Punjab. Although RSSB is not defined as a religion, the organization's fundamental teachings are in direct conflict with those of other world faiths. Primary conflicts focus on RSSB's belief that the master, currently Gurinder Singh is a living manifestation of God.

RSSB was founded in India in 1891 and steadily began spreading to other countries. Today, RSSB holds satsangs or teachings in more than 90 countries worldwide.^[1] It is a non-profit organisation with no affiliation to any political or commercial organizations. It owns a number of properties worldwide called Science of the Soul Study Centres, where meetings are held. The centres are constructed and maintained primarily by volunteers.^[2]

The group teaches a personal path of spiritual development which includes a vegetarian diet, abstinence from intoxicants, a moral way of life and the practice of daily meditation. There are no rituals, ceremonies, hierarchies or mandatory contributions, nor are there compulsory gatherings. Members do not need to give up their cultural identity or religious preference to follow this path.^[3]

Name[edit]

Radha Soami is a Hindi expression meaning 'Lord of the Soul' in English. Satsang means 'association with Truth' and describes a group that seeks truth.^[4]

Beliefs[edit]

At the core of the RSSB beliefs is that there is a spiritual purpose to human life, to experience the divinity of God who resides within all of us. It is through this experience that we will realize the truth that there is only one God and we are all expressions of his love.^[5]

Central to the RSSB philosophy is a spiritual teacher who explains the purpose of life and guides and instructs members in a method of spirituality based on a daily meditation practice. By performing the meditation practice according to the teacher's instructions, individuals can realize the presence of God within themselves. It is a solitary practice that is done in the quiet of one's own home. Members commit themselves to a way of life that supports spiritual growth while carrying out their responsibilities to family, friends and society.^[6]

To build on the primary spiritual practice of meditation, members are lacto-vegetarian, abstain from alcohol and recreational drugs, and are expected to lead a life of high moral values. The lacto-vegetarian diet encourages respect and empathy for all life and acknowledges that there is a debt to be paid for taking any life both necessarily and unnecessarily. Abstaining from intoxicants improves one's ability to concentrate and calms the mind during meditation. Members are encouraged to be self-supporting and not be a burden on society. They are free to make their own choices in life and maintain any cultural or religious affiliations they choose. RSSB does not involve itself in the personal lives of its members.^[7] None of the Radha Soami teaching suggests the change of one's religion.^[8]

Lineage[edit]

The Beas lineage is:

• Shiv Dayal Singh - master, till 1878
• Jaimal Singh - Master, 1884-1903
• Sawan Singh - Master, 1903-1948
• Jagat Singh - Master, 1948-1951
• Charan Singh (guru) - Master, 1951-1990.
• Gurinder Singh - Master, 1990 – present

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Radha Soami Satsang Beas'. www.rssb.org. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
2. ^'Science of the Soul'. www.rssb.org. RSSB. 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
3. ^'RSSB'. www.rssb.org. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
4. ^'RSSB'. www.rssb.org. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
5. ^'RSSB'. www.rssb.org. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
6. ^'RSSB'. www.rssb.org. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
7. ^'RSSB'. www.rssb.org. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
8. ^'RSSB'. www.rssb.org. Retrieved 26 September 2018.

• Charan Singh, Spiritual Heritage, Beās: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1983, 1998. ISBN978-81-8466-107-1
• Jaimal Singh, Spiritual Letters, Beās: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1998. ISBN81-8256-129-9
• Johnson, Julian, Call of the East, Beās: Sawan Service League, 1936. (out-of-print)
• Johnson, Julian, With a Great Master in India, Beās: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1934, 1982, 1988, 1994.
• Kapur, Daryai Lal, Call of the Great Master, Beās: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1972, 1975, 1986, 2005. ISBN978-81-8256-089-5
• Kapur, Daryai Lal, Heaven on Earth, Beās: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1986, 1996. ISBN978-81-8256-122-9
• Labour of Love, 1995, Beās: Maharaj Jagat Singh Medical Relief Society.
• Love in Action, 1990, USA: Radha Soami Society Beas-America.
• Munshi Rām, With the Three Masters, Beās: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1967.
• Sāwan Singh, Dawn of Light, Beās: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1985, 1989. ISBN81-8256-028-4

External links[edit]