Assignment No.I introduction

Assignment No.I

Task:

  • Summary of the book
  • What I learnt form the book
  • How I integrate what I learnt from the book into my ministership

Radha Soamin Satsang Beas – Light on Saint John, 1967,
and
Gospel according to Saint John, the Holy Bible, New Testament, King James version

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This assignment is the summary my personal view on and my personal experiences of Radha Soamin Satsang Beas book called Light on Saint John, published in 1967, and the Gospel according to Saint John, the Holy Bible, New Testament (King James version).

My main intention with reading this book was to see how Jesus’s teaching is still relevant regarding spiritual unfoldment today. When I started my own spiritual journey it was Jesus whom I could relate to the most in the mist of numerous teachers.

He ‘appeared’ to me one day and started a conversation with me that is still going on today. I consider him one of my teachers and my inner guide.

In some ways, I am also interested in his life in light of his teachings and how he was perceived by his contemporaries, disciples, and followers according to the scriptures.

I always wanted to read the teachings contained in the Bible. I started and read various chapters but I could not make sense most of the writing neither was I interested in the interpretations of various religious organisations. After getting involved with ILM, I learnt about various organisations that taught about teachings such as Jesus’. One of them is called San Mat. I look into them and found Radha Beas book on St. John. Radha Beas was one of the teachers of San Mat.

Reading Radha Beas’s interpretation of the Gospel according to Saint John is a completely different experience to reading the Bible on its own. As I am reading both texts, I find that I can now relate to the teaching, I can even find personal experiences that correlate with what I am reading at the time. As I am reading the Chapters, I have made comments on them and have also made some notes about my own personal journey that I share below along with some quoted text.

To my understanding teaching is actually sharing one’s experiences as a source for guidance. A good teacher like Jesus presents his/her experiences and knowledge in a way that it is comprehensible to the people s/he is guiding at the time. Therefore, some of the text I needed to further interpret for myself since I am not living in the around 30 AC neither in the 1960’s of India when Radha Beas wrote his book. Cultural differences are definitely apparent!

My other interest in reading these texts lies in comparing how different teachers of the path presented the same teachings differently depending on their personal experiences of God, their own nature as a human being, the level of consciousness humanity was at, as well as the cultural environment and the age they lived in.

The book, Light on St. John, presents Radha Beas’s interpretation of the Gospel according to St. John. As his main source he used the King James Version of the Bible. I did the same. Before reading each chapter, I read the original text to see if I can make sense of what I am reading at all. Below is a summary of my experiences and thoughts while working with these readings.

Regarding the books, it seemed to me that each Chapter and its verses are all about the teachings of Jesus as presented through his encounters with various people. It also seems that most of the teachings are repeated throughout the text using different wording. I also noticed that the Chapters present a chronological order of events of Jesus’ life from the moment he started his ministry and so they build on each other as well.

Each chapter is set up in a way that it correlates with the verses of the Bible. In this case the verses of the Gospel by John (King James Version). The Beas’ book follows the Bible chapter by chapter and so did I.

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