Lalaji, His Family & Their Followers

Taken and translated from and article by Alexis on Elodie's blog in Europe: Pour Que Vive Le Sahaj Marg

Comments and Insertions by 4d-don are in "Red Italics"

Friday, September 25, 2009

Lalaji, His Family & Their Followers

Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh Lalaji (4/02/1873- (14/08/1931) met his Master Hujur in 1891 and spent 16 years in his company. Hujur gave him full powers on October 11, 1896 but Lalaji didn't start teaching until 1911, his grandson tells us. His works are compiled in two volumes called: "The Complete Works of Ram Chandra Maharaj Lalaji. The second volume, published in July 2001 and printed in 7,000 copies, concerns his Sufi and Santmat experiences. Fascinating but virtually untraceable, would the subject be taboo at the SRCM? (SRCM (Shahjahanpur) and SRCM (California-1997)

The list of movements formed around his teaching is fairly long. His grandson (Dinaysh) lists five: NaqshMuMra, Ramashram Satsang, Akhil Bhartiya Santmat Satsang, Golden Sufi Center and of course the Sahaj Marg. To this list we can also add the group of Saral Hari Marg Harnarayan of Dr Saxena (1908-2003) or Dr. Chandra Gupta, who also claims the legacy of Lalaji. Their relationship with the Sahaj Marg is indirect, only because Babuji said that it was Lalaji who gave the order to create this movement.

Lalaji had one hundred to two hundred followers. Among those who have reached the central region or have approached the closest, from the spiritual point of view, some of them have circulated his teaching in the current of Ramashram Satsang, mainly in northern India, Sikandrabad, Gazhiabad, Shyam Nagar, Jaipur or even in Mathura. Deriving from Lalaji their power is rooted in the Naqshbandiya Sufi order, but he later re-integrated the Santmat (or bhaktimat) current.

Thus, the disciple of Lalaji, Ranajit Saheb, operated from Shyam Nagar and Thakur Ram Singhji (1898-1971), who also frequented the nephew of Lalaji (Radha Mohan), operated from Jaipur. Dr Chaturbhuj (3/11/1883-24/09/1957), the most famous of them was initially charged by Lalaji to help spread his teaching in 1919, from Etah in 1923 and then to Mathura in 1951. Dr Krishna Lalji (15/10/1894-18/05/1970) from Sikandrabad, according to him, was in turn appointed by Lalaji as his successor in 1921. We note in passing that Babuji had attended the Ramashram Satsangh of Mathura and of Sikandrabad between 1931 and 1944, where he probably created competitors and enemies.

Today, the Ramashram Satsang of Jaipur is headed by the son of Thakur Ram Singhji, Narayan Singh, who has chosen to use the method of the great Yogi Aurobindo. The Ramashram Satsang of Mathura is headed by the son of Dr. Chaturbhuj, Hemendra Kumar. It is then this site that has been on the Web for a long time. (http://www.ramashramsatsang.org/), as is the Ramashram Satsang of Sikandrabad is on the Web only since February 2008. (http://www.spiritual-meditation.org/).

The father of Lalaji, Harbaksh Rai Chaudhary, had a second son who was equally famous. Raghubal Dayal Chachaji (7/10/1875-7/06/1947) has also followed the teaching of Sufi Master Hujur. His family is located in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) where he had three son: Brij Mohanlal Dadaji (1898-1955), Radha Mohanlal Guruji (? - 1966) and Jyotendra Mohanlal. Brij Mohan was the favorite of Hujur, who saw him as Lalaji's successor as the head of the Sufi Brotherhood of Mazhariya, even if eventually, Lalaji preferred his own son.

A disciple of Brij Mohan, Yashpal (5/12/1918-3/04/2000), created the movement Akhil Bhartiya Santmat Satsang in 1969 at Anangpur (ABSS on www.abssatsang.org). For his part, Radha Mohan is at the creation of the Golden Sufi Center in California with Irina Tweedie and Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (http://www.goldensufi.org/). Radha Mohan is the 35th in the lineage of this Sufi Order. With his wife Sushila Devi, they had three son, Virendra, Satendra and "Baboo" Narendra Nath Saxena. She named her 2nd son Satendra to succeed his father.

As for Lalaji, he had two sons and eight daughters. His eldest son, Harish Chandra, died at two or three months. Only the second, Jagmohan Narain (2/11/01-28/08/44) is known to us, Lalaji having preferred his nephew Brij Mohan for his successor to head the new order of Mazhariya Ramchandriya (NaqshMuMRa). Too young to succeed him immediately, it was his uncle Chachaji who took the reins of NaqshMuMRa before him. Jagmohan himself had two son, Akilesh (28/06/41-15/05/74) and Dinaysh or Dinesh Kumar Saxena (born 28/10/44), who in turn succeeded one another in the order of NaqshMuMRa. Akilesh Kumar was not three years old at the death of his father and died before 33 years of age, but this did not prevent him from creating a periodical entitled "adhyaatma dhaara.

Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, a railway employee, retired since 2002 and who is soon to be 65 years old, is the present Master of NaqshMuMRa and is still residing at Fatehgarh. With his son, Himanshu Vikram, he created "NaqshMuMRa Nexus", a website where he mentions the movements that he believes are related to the teaching of his grandfather (http://www.laalaajinilayam.googlepages. com /). Included in this list is Sahaj Marg, the same way as Dinaysh is listed as preceptor of Sahaj Marg. And a blog created by Himanshu Vikram shows us pictures of Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari and Dinaysh gathered together in 2006 (http://www.laalaajinilayam.blogspot.com/).

On a website created last February 26, 2009 (http://www.adhyaatmadhaaraa.org/) Dinaysh tells us that he has created a charitable organization, the Laalaaji Nilayam Charitable Trust (LNCT). Its goal is to raise funds to rehabilitate the "holy places" that have marked the life of Lalaji and organize tourism pilgrimages. It is therefore planned to renovate the house of Lalaji (laalaaji Nilayam) and to increase its receiving capacity, to erect a life-size statue of Lalaji and to acquire many other places of worship.

As much as the previous movements seem to have no direct link to Sahaj Marg, as much the collusion between the grandson of Lalaji and Rajagopalachari is great. And Dinaysh makes it clear that this is the Shri Ram Chandra Mission Manapakkam (Chennai) and not that of Shahjahanpur (Babuji's family). The link is established between Dinaysh and Rajagopalachari, and in no case with the descendants of Babuji, Umesh Kumar and Navneet Saxena, who he ignores.

Yet in 2009, Dinaysh publishes a letter by Babuji dated February 14, 1963 where it clearly expresses his feeling that the Indian Sufism is completely obsolete and replaced by the Sahaj Marg. This is one way to highlight the division imposed by Babuji between the movements from Lalaji and his Sahaj Marg. So what is the connection between Rajagopalachari and Dinaysh? For what purpose did he deliberately chose to publish this letter? (see Dinaysh's "Epitome for Sahaj Marg" next on this blog)

And who will tomorrow be at the head of NaqshMuMRa and Laalaaji Nilayam Charitable Trust (LNCT)? Apparently, the descendants of the brother of Lalaji are "a priori" excluded. Then, on the basis of blood ties established by Lalaji, will it be the son of Akilesh, Vinay (born 17/07/65) or Samir Kumar (born 30/07/70)? Or will it resort to the son of Dinaysh, Himanshu Vikram (born 30/06/80), or one of his two sisters, although are women excluded "a priori"?

According Shashwat Pandey, who has interviewed him in 2009, Dinaysh would be in fear. His son, Himanshu Vikram, is working in Chennai for HTC Global Services, headed by a close associate of Rajagopalachari. (HTC Global Services is the management company for SRCM (California-1997) The Shri Ram Chandra Mission SRCM (California-1997) has probably invested funds in the LNCT for shares in the house and Lalaji Ashram at Fatehgarh. Has Dinaysh become a puppet in the hands of Rajagopalachari? However, in 2008, he asserted his independence before some old disciples of Babuji ... (see the next article on this blog ... a statement by Dinaysh Kumar Saxena, Dean of NaqshMuMRa Sufi Order. See also: Interview with Dinaysh Kumar Saxena on Freedom From Sahaj Marg (discussion board) and the Transcript to part 4 of that interview (on this blog) )

Finally, it is perhaps Rajagopalachari who wants possession of the official inheritance of Lalaji so that Sahaj Marg takes the lead at NaqshMuMRa.