Baba Faqir Chand

An honest being, a true Man.

Baba Faqir Chand was a renowned spiritual teacher and mystic from India. Born on November 18, 1886, in the village of Banga, Punjab. His quest for truth led him to explore various spiritual traditions and teachings. He believed in the universality of spiritual experiences and emphasized the importance of direct personal realization rather than relying solely on scripture or external practices.

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He spent over seventy-five years practicing an ancient meditation technique, known today as surat shabd yoga, which attempts to induce a consciously controlled near-death experience.

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Mastery of this experience, according to adepts of the tradition, enables one to experience regions of light and sound beyond the normal waking state, providing glimpses into higher realms of consciousness. 

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After the end of World War One, Faqir Chand was recognized by his own guru Shiv Brat Lal and others in the movement to be an advanced shabd yoga mystic. According to Faqir's own account, he could almost daily leave his body at will and experience exalted states of awareness. 

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Nevertheless, Faqir Chand was not satisfied with these attainments and sought something higher and more permanent. 

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Eventually Faqir realized that no matter how subtle or blissful a meditation experience may be, it did not in and of itself constitute the ultimate in spiritual realization. Rather, the ultimate truth was that no experience could capture or contain the transcendental mystery of Being.

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In the highest stages of development man does not develop a keep sense of omniscience, but a radical and irrevocable understanding of unknowingness. 

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In sum, one realizes that he or she is nothing but a mere bubble in a sea of existence that is infinite in all directions. As such, the bubble simply surrenders its entire being to that Power which is, in truth, living it.

Thus Faqir Chand became quite outspoken about how gurus, masters, prophets, and mystics, posing as all-knowing beings, have deceived millions of followers by duping them into believing that they have omniscience and omnipotence when in fact they have neither.

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What enlightened sages possess, rather, is access experientially to a higher spectrum of awareness, which, in turn, reveals not final or absolute truth, but a growing awareness of how truly mysterious life really is. As Shiv Dayal Singh, the founder of Radhasoami, poetically put it: "Wonder, Wonder, Wonder: Wonder hath assumed a form."

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Coupled with Faqir's tacit realization of unknowingness, he also exposed for the first time in the Sant tradition how visions of religious personages are the products of one's own inner development. 

For instance, when one undergoes a near-death experience and beholds a Jesus or a Nanak or an Angel in the middle of the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, it is not the esteemed figure who is himself orchestrating the encounter. Rather it is the neophyte who is projecting the sacred personage on to the light from his/her own biological and cultural history.

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The light may indeed be a transcultural phenomenon, part and parcel of a higher order of awareness or merely a neurological event, but the interpretation of who resides in that light (Is it Jesus? Is it Nanak?) is entirely a personal affair, shaded by the nuances of  an individual's sojourn for tens of years on a planet we call Earth.

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Faqir is perhaps best known for his frank admissions of ignorance surrounding his miraculous appearances to disciples during times of need. He unilaterally confessed that he was never aware of appearing to his devotees.

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Nor did Faqir Chand claim that he had understood the secret of Reality.  As he said on many occasions, echoing the words of such greats as Lao Tzu, Socrates, and Nicholas of Cusa: "How can I make any claims about attaining the Ultimate. The truth is that I know nothing."

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Hence, Faqir Chand raised the slogan of "Be-Man," arguing that to become a human being, endowed with discrimination and compassion, is a great thing in itself. To be spiritual, Faqir would assert, necessitates that one become a true man (or woman) first.

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His approach to spirituality emphasized simplicity, inner realization, and the importance of personal experience over dogma or rituals.