Charandas: Teaching in a City Being Sacked

The synthesis

And this is his actual doctrinal contribution, and it is unusual.

Most sants are on one side of a line.

The nirguna sants, Kabir, Nanak, Dadu, Ravidas, hold that the ultimate is formless, that images are a distraction, and that the practice is the name and the inner work.

The saguna bhaktas, Surdas, Tulsidas, the Braj poets, hold that God has a form, that the form is where the love goes, and that Krishna at Braj is the object.

Charandas is both, deliberately.

He teaches the nirguna apparatus: the guru, the name, the inner sound, the withdrawal of the attention inward, the whole vocabulary of the sant tradition.

And he is a Krishna devotee. Braj, the Bhagavata, the leela, the form.

And he does not treat this as a compromise. His position is that the formless is reached through the form and that the two are stages rather than alternatives, and the whole body of his writing is an argument for that.

Which made the Charandasi panth unusually portable, because a household that wanted an image and a practitioner who wanted an interior discipline could both be inside it.

The inner sound

Surat shabd, the joining of the attention to the sound.

The claim, which recurs across the northern sant traditions, is that there is an inner sound, that a person can learn to attend to it, and that attending to it draws the attention inward and upward through levels.

Charandas teaches it, and his line is one of the channels by which this material reaches the nineteenth century, which the third section takes up.

What is worth saying to a reader now

That the practice is not dangerous at ordinary intensity and does not require anybody to pay for it.

And that the modern market around it is substantial: initiation into inner sound practice is sold, at prices, by a large number of organisations, and the Bhaskararaya entry in an earlier batch sets out the diagnostic questions at length.

The code

He gave rules, and they are ordinary and worth having.

• Do not lie
• Do not steal
• Do not commit adultery
• Do not use violence
• Do not eat meat
• Do not take intoxicants
• Do not slander
• Serve the guru and the sangat
• Keep the name going

And the emphasis in the Charandasi order on ahimsa and vegetarianism is strong and is one of its identifying features.

What he wrote

• Bhakti Sagar, the largest and most read
• Brahma Gyan Sagar
• Gyan Swarodaya
• Ashtang Yog Varnan
• Dharma Jahaj
• Sandeh Sagar
• Nasiket Puran
• And a large body of pads and shabads in Braj Hindi

The Bhakti Sagar is the one to start with and is available in print, and it is a compendium rather than a single argument.

His principal disciples were Sahjo Bai and Daya Bai.

Both women. Both poets. Both with substantial surviving bodies of work. Both known by name across north India.

Which does not happen.

Why it does not happen

Because a sampradaya's succession is an institutional matter and institutions in eighteenth century north India did not hand authority to women.

There are women in this series everywhere. Mirabai, Anandamayi Ma, Sarada Devi, Gangasati, Toral, Krishnabai, Sahjo, Daya. And the pattern in almost every case is that the woman is remembered because of a relationship to a man, or in spite of an institution, or outside one entirely.

Charandas taught two women and the tradition remembers them as his chief disciples.

The next two entries take them one at a time, because both of them are substantial figures rather than examples.

And the honest limit

We know very little about either of them.

Sahjo Bai is generally described as his niece. Daya Bai's relationship to the household is variously reported. Neither has a documented biography of any density, both are dated only approximately, and everything we have is their verses plus the sampradaya's account.

Which is the outcome this series keeps recording, and the useful response is to read what they wrote rather than to speculate about what they were.

The lineage question

And this needs setting out once, here, because the rest of this batch depends on it.

There is a family of northern traditions that share a vocabulary: surat shabd, the inner sound; the living satguru; the name; the levels of the inner ascent; strict vegetarianism; and no image worship.

They are collectively called Sant Mat, and the lineage charts drawn for them run something like: Kabir, then a succession through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries including Jagjivan Sahib, Bulla Sahib, Paltu Sahib and Tulsi Sahib of Hathras, and then Shiv Dayal Singh at Agra in 1861, from whom the Radhasoami traditions and their many branches descend.

And Charandas appears in some versions of these charts and not others.

Four things to know about such charts

One. They are drawn backwards.

A lineage chart is almost always constructed by a later organisation that needs to establish continuity, and the direction of the work is from the present into the past, which is the opposite of how the events happened.

Two. They are contested between branches.

Different Radhasoami and Sant Mat organisations produce different charts, disagree about who initiated whom, and each version happens to authorise the organisation that produced it.

Three. The documentary basis thins fast.

For the nineteenth century figures there is real evidence. For the seventeenth and eighteenth century links there is much less, and for the connection back to Kabir there is essentially none that a historian would accept.

Four. And none of that damages the material.

Malukdas, Bulla Sahib, Paltu Sahib, Tulsi Sahib and Charandas wrote what they wrote. The verses are real, the teaching is coherent, and whether any particular one of them initiated any particular other one is a separate question from whether the poetry is worth reading.

So this batch will cover them individually, report the claimed connections as claims, and not draw a chart.

Where to go

• Charandas ki Bagichi, Delhi, the principal seat of the panth
• Dehra, in the Mewat country, his birthplace
• Braj, Mathura and Vrindavan, for the saguna half of him
• Charandasi centres in Rajasthan and around Delhi

A daily practice from this entry

• Radhe Radhe, or Ram, or whatever name your household already uses, kept going underneath the day
• The nine rules, of which the first four cover most of what goes wrong in a week
• And the Charandas observation, which is what eighty years in that city produced: when everything outside is temporary, that is information rather than a tragedy

Who: Charandas, born Ranjit Singh in 1703 at Dehra in the Mewat country into a Dhusar merchant family, his father Muralidhar and mother Kunjo. The family moved to Delhi while he was a child and he stayed for the rest of his life, dying there in 1782.

What he lived through: Aurangzeb died in 1707 when Charandas was four, and everything after is decline and then collapse. In 1739 the Persian army under Nadir Shah took Delhi, a disturbance in which Persian soldiers were killed produced an order for a general massacre, the qatl e am, and on a single day in March the city was killed in, with the commonly cited figure twenty to thirty thousand dead in one day, the city systematically plundered, and the Peacock Throne and the Koh i Noor leaving with the Persians. Charandas was thirty six and he was there. Ahmad Shah Abdali then invaded repeatedly from 1748, sacked Delhi in 1757 and went on to Mathura and Vrindavan where the killing in the Braj towns was extensive, and Panipat in 1761 removed any authority capable of holding the region. By his death the Mughal emperor was a pensioner and Delhi had been sacked twice within his adult life.

Why that belongs at the top: because devotional biographies almost never mention it, describing an eighteenth century Delhi sant as though he were teaching in a stable town. And it changes how the teaching reads. Charandas taught interiority, the inner sound, the name, the guru, the withdrawal of attention from outside to inside, which sounds like a comfortable doctrine until you notice where it was formulated: a man telling people in Delhi in the 1740s that the durable thing is inside them was not being abstract, since everything outside had just been demonstrated to be temporary in the most literal way available.

His guru: the tradition holds it was Shukadeva, the son of Vyasa and narrator of the Bhagavata, who appeared to him, which is a claim of initiation from a figure who on any ordinary reading had been dead a very long time. Lineages claim a non human or immortal guru most often in exactly the situation where there is no human teacher to name, which is a pattern rather than an accusation, since the Naths do it with the immortal siddhas and several sant lines do it with Kabir appearing after his death. It is the standard solution to a real problem, that a tradition needs a lineage and a man who worked something out by himself does not have one. The alternative reading does not damage him: a person who worked it out without a teacher is a more interesting figure than a person who was handed it.

What he taught: a deliberate synthesis, which is his real contribution. Most sants are on one side of a line, with the nirguna sants holding that the ultimate is formless and images are a distraction, and the saguna bhaktas holding that God has a form and Krishna at Braj is the object. Charandas is both: he teaches the whole nirguna apparatus, the guru, the name, the inner sound and the withdrawal inward, and he is a Krishna devotee of Braj and the Bhagavata, and he treats the two as stages rather than alternatives. That made the panth unusually portable, since a household that wanted an image and a practitioner who wanted an interior discipline could both be inside it. He also gave nine rules: do not lie, steal, commit adultery, use violence, eat meat, take intoxicants or slander, serve the guru and the sangat, and keep the name going, with a strong emphasis on ahimsa and vegetarianism. His works include the Bhakti Sagar, which is the one to start with, the Brahma Gyan Sagar, Gyan Swarodaya, Ashtang Yog Varnan, Dharma Jahaj, Sandeh Sagar and Nasiket Puran.

The two women: his principal disciples were Sahjo Bai and Daya Bai, both women, both poets with substantial surviving work and both known by name across north India, which does not happen, since a sampradaya's succession is an institutional matter and eighteenth century north Indian institutions did not hand authority to women. The honest limit is that we know very little about either: Sahjo Bai is generally described as his niece, Daya Bai's relationship to the household is variously reported, neither has a documented biography of any density, and everything we have is their verses plus the sampradaya's account.

The lineage question: there is a family of northern traditions sharing a vocabulary of surat shabd, the living satguru, the name, the levels of inner ascent, strict vegetarianism and no image worship, collectively called Sant Mat, and the charts drawn for them run from Kabir through Jagjivan Sahib, Bulla Sahib, Paltu Sahib and Tulsi Sahib of Hathras to Shiv Dayal Singh at Agra in 1861, from whom the Radhasoami traditions descend, with Charandas appearing in some versions and not others. Four things about such charts: they are drawn backwards by later organisations needing to establish continuity; they are contested between branches, each version authorising the organisation that produced it; the documentary basis thins fast, with real evidence for the nineteenth century figures, much less for the earlier links and essentially none a historian would accept for the connection back to Kabir; and none of that damages the material, since the verses are real and whether one of them initiated another is separate from whether the poetry is worth reading.