Sant Nirankari Mission
The Sant Nirankari Mission is a spiritual organisation based out of Delhi, India. The Sant Nirankari Mission identifies itself as "neither a new religion nor a sect of any existing religion, but an all-embracing spiritual movement dedicated to human welfare by helping seekers realize God through the grace of a living true master ", inspiring them to live as dutiful global citizens.
The Mission was founded in 1929 in Rawalpindi by Baba Buta Singh Ji, who started to show the path of knowing and becoming aware of One Formless Almighty God and this is how Sant Nirankari Mission and Satguru tradition began.
The Mission has more than 3000 centers and millions of followers across the world. Satguru Mata Sudiksha Ji is the sixth spiritual head of the Mission since 17 July 2018.
History
The Nirankari Mission formally began when Baba Avtar Singh Ji met Baba Buta Singh Ji to receive God-knowledge and joined him in taking the light of spiritual awareness to the masses. The master and his disciple travelled far and wide to disseminate the truth and purpose of life rendering gradual momentum to the movement.In 1943, Baba Buta Singh passed on the holy baton and responsibilities of the mission to Baba Avtar Singh Ji. Baba Avtar Singh Ji left no stone unturned in uplifting of mankind through dissemination of the divine word. He faced opposition from different fronts in carrying out his missionary obligations, but he remained moulded and welded to the Truth. During his life time itself he took a decision to revert from the Satguru to an ordinary devotee and passed on the leadership of the mission to Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji and became an example to others as a true devotee. Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji had a multi-dimensional vision. With widespread expansion of mission, he not only introduced many organizational reforms but also proposed a code of conduct for all the missionaries. Quite predictably, this voice of truth was resisted by a few and Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji fell to their bullets in 1980. Naturally, everyone lamented and condemned this act and their patience and tolerance was under severe stress.
It was only for the successor of Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji, His son Baba Hardev Singh Ji who came to their rescue. He put aside his own worldly sentiments and consoled every follower of the Mission to face the tragedy boldly with faith on God’s will, without any feeling of vengeance. Baba Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj convinced the world that with its spiritual base the Sant Nirankari Mission’s message finds relevance to the needs of the people of every walk of life. He carried forward the expansion of the mission in India and abroad while propelling the social welfare activities of the mission with full enthusiasm.
In 2016, Satguru Mata Savinder Hardev Ji, succeeded Baba Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj as the Spiritual Head of the Mission. Her Holiness maintained the tempo that Mission had attained under the guidance of Baba Hardev Singh Ji Maharaj, showering her affection on one and all. In 2018, she declared Mata Sudiksha Savinder Hardev Ji as the spiritual leader, days before she succumbed to her deteriorating health.
Ideology
The Sant Nirankari Mission aims at self-realization through God-realization. Human being has been described as superior to all other species created by God. It is the human being alone who has been bestowed with intellect that enables him to distinguish between the eternal Truth and the transient existence, reality and non-reality, desirable and the undesirable. For this, however, one must be familiar with what is true, real and desirable.Ordinarily we find everything surrounding us, occurring in day-to-day life and everything we do as true, real and a matter of fact. But looking at all this carefully, we shall find that these realities are not ever-lasting or eternally constant. They change with the change of time, place and person. What we need, therefore, is the Ultimate Truth, the Ultimate Reality, infinite and eternal, beyond time, beyond birth and death, beyond places – the same everywhere, and beyond all identities – the same for everyone, irrespective of one’s caste, colour, race, religion or nationality etc.
And this Ultimate Truth, Ultimate Reality; this supreme, eternal and infinite entity is God. In His formless existence, it is He who was there when nothing existed, He is there when everything exists and He shall be there when there will be nothing – animate or inanimate. Hence the principal aim of human life is to know this formless, attribute-less omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent God. This is what we are living for. Once it is accomplished and God gets associated with our thoughts, words and actions, we know what is true, real and desirable.
Therefore, one must link the mind with God all the time at all places and in all circumstances. This makes life meaningful, joyous, and content. This leads to a state of complete harmony and makes life happy here and earns the bliss that is eternal, hereafter. The devotees of the Mission practice spirituality through regular congregations held at various centres of the Mission. An annual congregation called Sant Nirankari Samagam is also held at Sant Nirankari Spiritual Complex, Samalkha where lakhs of devotees gather to share their thoughts on spirituality.
Avtar Bani
The Avtar Bani outlines the key philosophy of the Sant Nirankari Mission. Named after its author, Nirankari Baba Avtar Singh Ji, it was first published under the title of 'Avtar Bani' in 1957. Its complete version was, however, published in 1965 as 'Sampuran Avtar Bani'. Originally written in 376 Punjabi verses, with some stanzas were in Urdu and Sindhi, Sampuran Avtar Bani explains the message of the Mission in all its aspects. Even though not worshipped as a holy religious book, every devotee values it for its practical and easy-to-understand messages. Sampuran Avtar Bani has already been published in Gurumukhi, Devnagari, Urdu and Roman scripts. It has also been translated and published in and published in English and, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali, Marathi, Garhwali, Haryanavi, Sindhi and Telugu.The Sampuran Hardev Bani, authored by Baba Hardev Singh Ji, was published in 2017. Written in Hindi, the Sampuran Hardev Bani contains 301 verses.
Nirankari Museum
The Nirankari Museum was inaugurated by fourth satguru of the Mission, Baba Hardev Singh Ji, on 22 February 2005. The museum is located within the Sant Nirankari Sarovar Complex in New Delhi. It depicts the history and key teachings of the Mission through audio-visuals and pictures.Nirankari Sant Samagam
The Nirankari Sant Samagam, which is a term used to describe a large scale spiritual gathering, is held on over 1400 acres of Sant Nirankari Spiritual Complex land at Samalkha, Haryana, India. It is one of the highlights in the annual diary of every member of the Mission where they congregate once a year in perfect harmony and with great enthusiasm. The Samagam is truly and unique occasion where people from various cultures, faiths, backgrounds and walks of life get together and join in prayer and remembrance of one Formless God who is known as Nirankar.There are 1,000’s of Sevadal units from all over the world who engage in selfless service at this occasion and work tirelessly throughout the course of the year in order to manage the noble work of the Mission.
This further promotes the feeling of community contribution and service by engaging youth and the elders alike.
Community Contributions
The mission has been contributing to social welfare and community development through its social welfare department, as also through Sant Nirankari Charitable Foundation. The underlying principle here is to heal, enrich and empower the world, by serving with humility.The Mission operates many schools, colleges and other educational institutions in various cities of India. Along with this, vocational institutes for youth have been set-up for up-skilling. Youth empowerment and women empowerment programs are also organized regularly.
In the realm of health, the mission has organized various health check-up camps, eye check-up camps and has rendered medical assistance to disabled and elderly. Blood Donation camps have been organized for almost about 3 decades now and this journey is on-going. Even during the extremely trying times of COVID19 pandemic; the mission organized a many safe and well-controlled blood donation camps in various parts of India.
The devotees of the Mission are also involved in tree plantation drives and cleanliness drives along with providing relief and rehabilitation to natural calamity affected brothers and sisters. All these efforts of selfless service are done by the volunteers of the Mission, who form a disciplined group in the form of Sant Nirankari Sewadal, established in 1956.
The Mission is also coming up with Sant Nirankari Health City, a huge super specialty hospital in North Delhi, India to cater to the comprehensive wellness and health of the community.
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