Ajaib Bani

His search for truth began when he was five years old. He met Baba Bishan Das, a sadhu who was to become his first guru and who, as Sant Ji has often said, "made my life." References to Bishan Das abound in Streams in the Desert ; it was the job of this enigmatic figure, a spiritual descendant of Baba Sri Chand, Guru Nanak's son, with his partial knowledge of Surat Shabd Yoga, to prepare his one disciple for his tremendous destiny. In this he was eminently successful: when Ajaib Singh met his ultimate guru, Sant Kirpal Singh of Delhi, he was, thanks to Bishan Das, in a position to take full advantage of the opportunity offered to him. It was Bishan Das who changed his name from "Sardara Singh," an inauspicious, almost meaningless name, to "Ajaib Singh" or "wonderful lion"- "Ajaib" means "strangely wonderful" in Punjabi. Bishan Das accepted, in his own way.

While on duty in the Army His regiment was stationed near Beas in the Punjab for a long time, and here the young seeker made the acquaintance of one of the greatest Saints of our time Baba Sawan Singh Ji, the guru of Sant Kirpal Singh, Ajaib Singh recognized Sawan Singh's stature at once, and begged him for initiation; the Master replied, saying that the One who would initiate him would come to him later by Himself.The Great Master introduced Ajaib Singh to Baba Somanath, a disciple of his who had been working in South India introducing Sant Mat there, telling him that Somanath's background was similar to his, having involved him in a long search and many difficult austerities. This was an important meeting: although the two men had little outer contact after this, both of them were in due course to carry on the spiritual work; and after Baba Somanath left his body in 1976, many of his disciples were to find peace at the feet of Ajaib Singh.

Sant Ji's meeting with Kirpal Singh was unquestionably the turning point and focus of his life: everything before that meeting had led up to it, and everything after derived from it. His association with Baba Sawan Singh and his initiation from Baba Bishan Das were both preliminary, as they themselves explicitly stated: their promise was fulfilled when Kirpal came. The impact that this magnificent Saint had on Ajaib Singh can be judged from the number of - and the quality of - references to him found throughout his discourses, informal talks, and poetry: as he says at many different places in many different ways, "God came in the form of a man."

As we have said, Sant Ji spent the next two years in meditation in the underground room in the ashram at Village 16PS, sitting on a wooden slab and devoting his whole time to Surat Shabd Yoga. He came out of Samadhi a few days before Kirpal Singh left his body, in August 1974, and visited Village 77RB, a few miles away, on the loving invitation of some devotees there; it was there that he learned of his Master's physical departure and, weeping bitterly, went to Sawan Ashram in Delhi to pay his respects.