Julian Johnson

For the seventeenth century writer nicknamed "Julian" Johnson, see Samuel Johnson (pamphleteer).

Julian Philip Matthew Johnson (1873–1939) was an American surgeon and author of several books on Eastern spirituality. He spent much of the 1930s in India, was associated with the Radha Soami Satsang Beas movement and Surat Shabd Yoga, and wrote five books (one unpublished) as a result of his experiences.

The writings of Paul Twitchell, the founder of Eckankar,[1] show many close similarities to Johnson's, and Twitchell has in fact been accused of extensively plagiarizing from Johnson's works, particularly Johnson's The Path of the Masters.

Life and career

Early days and education

Johnson grew up in a staunch Christian family in the southern United States, became a Baptist minister at age 17, graduated Bachelor of Divinity in Bolivar, Missouri, and received an appointment as a missionary to India at age 22. Johnson claimed that experiences during his three-year stay in India, however, rendered him surprised by the deep understanding possessed by Indians he had sought to convert, and urged him towards further study.

Back in the United States, he earned two master's degrees (M.A. theology) at the University of Chicago, resigned his 17-year Baptist ministership, and earned an M.D. from the State University of Iowa. He served as an assistant surgeon in the United States Navy during World War I, and later went into private practice. He also owned and flew his own airplanes.

Religious studies

Over the years, he took to studies of various religious and philosophical teachings, including Christian Science, Freemasonry, New Thought, Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism, Blavatskyan Theosophy, and world religions. His spiritual explorations culminated when he visited an old friend (Julia McQuilkin in Oregon)[2] who was a disciple of Bābā Sāwan Singh of Beās, Pañjāb, India. Convinced that he had found his path, Johnson requested initiation, which was arranged for by Dr. Harold Brock[3] and performed on 21 March 1931. After a year, Johnson left once more for India on 24 March 1932.[4] (At the two-week stopover in Hawaii, he had discussions on religion with the English Jōdo Shinshū priest Ernest "Shinkaku" Hunt [1876–1967] of the Hongwanji.[4])

Move to India

Dr. Johnson was the first American to live at Derā Bābā Jaimal Singh, in Beās, where he became busy with study, writing, medical work, meditation, and traveling with Sāwan Singh. He edited Sardār Sevā Singh's English translation of Soāmī Shivdayāl Singh's Sār Bacan,[5] and coined the term "Audible Life Stream". He authored With a Great Master in India (1934), the first book on Surat Shabd Yoga by a Westerner, and his masterwork The Path of the Masters.

Paul Petzoldt

In Kashmir, Johnson met Paul Petzoldt (who later became the famous mountaineer, Outward Bound instructor, and founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School), and invited him to the Derā where Petzoldt served as Johnson's assistant, even helping in surgical operations. Petzoldt was interested in adventure and exploration, but not in spirituality. His choleric personality led to friction with Beās residents, with tragic consequence.[6] Petzoldt's side is told in Molly Absolon, "Paul Tells His Story" in The Leader, Fall 1995, NOLS

Elizabeth Rose Bruce

Johnson's wife Elizabeth Rose (died 1941) was an American socialite, traveler, adventurer, herbalist, and spiritual seeker. She was a faithful worker of the Rādhāsoāmī Satsang, Dayāl Bāgh, Āgrā, India, and the favorite Western disciple of Sir Ānand Sarūp, Kt,[7] but eventually became disillusioned and left Ānand Sarūp. Johnson married her and they lived out life in Beās. Johnson wrote her "autobiography" The Unquenchable Flame (Beās: Five Rivers Manufacturing Company, 1935).[8]

Having written his wife's "autobiography" in the first person, the story of Elizabeth Rose Bruce and her leaving Anand Sarup and Dayal Bagh has been, deliberately or mistakenly, quickly conflated with Julian Johnson's, creating the confusion and error that "Johnson Changed Gurus and Found the Right Sant Mat Master For Him." The paragraphs referred to described Elizabeth Rose Bruce's work at Dayāl Bāgh, her dejection with Ānand Sarūp the guru of Rādhāsoāmī Satsang Dayāl Bāgh Sabha, her leaving Āgrā, and her coming to Sāwan Singh.

Legacy

Johnson remains the most well-known among many Western adherents of and authors on Sant Mat / Surat Shabd Yoga (IAST: Sūrat-Śabd Yoga). Possibly, no other single author in Sant Mat has more influenced North American "Shabdism" (—David C. Lane's term) than Johnson.

The Path of the Masters

Johnson's magnum opus, now published as The Path of the Masters: The Science of Surat Shabd Yoga: The Yoga of the Audible Life Stream (but originally titled The Path of the Masters: The Science of Sūrat Shabda Yoga: Santon kī Shikshā) is the most comprehensive, explicit, systematically organised, meticulous, and polished work on the Path of the Soundstream and Lightstream in any language, incomparable in its lucidity, and its near perfection marred only by racist undertones. Published in France (1939), the USA (1957) and India (slightly revised by the Radha Soami Satsang Beas Publications Committee in 1972 and 1985 to delete provocative language, and extensively revised in 1993,[9]) it remains popular among Western adherents of Sant Mat. However, its author's blunt style and now outmoded opinions – influenced by Northern European racist notions then in vogue but now considered politically incorrect—have turned off some modern readers. The text's sheer eloquence, however, has made the work the object of plagiarism by other writers, especially in the United States, where it used to be almost totally unknown to the general reading public. The work heavily influenced the American ECK religion, and its various offshoots and spin-offs, through ECK founder Paul Twitchell's[10][11][12][13] extensive copying – discussed at length and in depth in Prof. David C. Lane's exposé The Making of a Spiritual Movement.[14]

Among Western adherents at least, The Path of the Masters has enjoyed long-time popularity among foreign-language works on Sant Mat.[15] A sampling of Johnson's polished prose (1985 pagination) shows the logic that has proven compelling to Western readers, even outside of Sant Mat circles:[16]

  • "... if you live rightly among men, and then devote yourself to the practice of the Surat Shabd Yoga, you will enter the kingdom of heaven while you are still living in the body. And that constitutes a world of difference between the spiritual science of the Masters and all religions."—page 57
  • "In the realm of religion, the Master is a paradox. He has no theology, teaches none, yet he is the most religious man on earth. His system is not a religion, yet it leads to the most complete religious experience, and the most happy. He is absolutely universal in all his teachings. He has no creed, yet he never antagonizes any creed, sect or institution. He never condemns any man or any system. He finds no fault with anybody or anything, yet draws the sharpest lines between the good and the bad."—page 162
  • "Each and every man, when properly trained, is able to detach himself from the physical body while still living in that body in perfect health, and then travel to all parts of the outlying universe. Everyone has this ability whether he is conscious of it or not."—page 343
  • "Vairagya is the next important step in mental preparation for the Path,... This means the mental detachment of oneself from the external world. This is real vairagya. It does not in any way teach or imply that one should physically detach himself from the world. He need not leave his family or society, his public or private duties. The Masters never teach that sort of vairagya.... Detachment, as taught by the Masters, does not imply austerities."—pages 357–358
  • "There is but one thing known to human experience which will destroy all lower desires. That is the Audible Life Stream. It is the supreme instrument of deliverance from bondage. It is the one means of detaching us from worldly objects that perish, and of lifting us up to liberty and light.... We shall attain perfect vairagya only when we enter into that divine Stream consciously."—page 364
  • "No man ever gained spiritual freedom, power and happiness by a process of logic, by a priori ratiocination, by metaphysics, by reading books or by listening to lectures. Yet these are the methods employed by the majority of mankind. The Masters solve all their problems by a scientific method as exact and exacting as mathematics. They get their information not by analysis and synthesis but by sight and hearing. Even after they have proved a proposition, they establish no authority except that of truth itself. Authority hampers truth, it throttles free investigation. Authority is an enemy to progress.... This science makes personal experience the final and only court of appeal. Its processes are simple and direct. They can be understood by the most ordinary intelligence, and for that reason the intelligentsia need not become offended at them."—page 404
  • "The Masters and many of their students pass daily through "the gates of death" and hence they know all of the problems connected with the matter. They have explored worlds upon worlds beyond the gates of death. All of this they do in full consciousness as a direct result of their practice of Surat Shabd Yoga."—page 419
  • "In the literature of the Saints, God is expressed by many words, such as Swami, Ekankar, Nirankar, Radhaswami, Akal, Nirala, Anami, Agam, Alakh, Sat Purush, Prabhu, Prabhswami, Hari Ray, Akshar, Parameshwar, Akshar Purush, etc. All of these words have been coined in an effort to convey to human intelligence some idea of what the Saints think of God, or Lord God, the highest power. Ekankar means the “One oneness,” the body of oneness. Nirankar means without body or form. Soami or Swami means the all-pervading Lord. Radha Swami ‒ Radha (soul) and Swami (Lord) ‒ the Lord of the soul ‒ Radha, when reversed, becomes dhara or current. As soul has to revert to its source, so its dhara, when reversed, when its current is turned toward God, becomes Radha."

Photos

Published photographs of Julian and Elizabeth Rose Johnson include:

Notes

  1. ↑ Twitchell usually capitalised all the letters in the name he used for his religion. "ECKANKAR" derives from Ekankār or Ik Oankār, the very first word in the Sri Guru Granth Sahibji and one of the Sikh Names of God.
  2. ↑ Johnson, With a Great Master in India, 1988 p. 12; 1994 p. 11.
  3. ↑ Harold Brock, a dentist from Port Angeles, Washington State, and his wife Genevieve were the first Western disciples of Sāwan Singh, initiated into Surat Shabd Yoga in 1910 or 1911 through Sardār Kehr Singh Sasmas. Harold Brock later became a follower of Sant Kirpal Singh.
  4. 1 2 Johnson, With a Great Master in India, 1988/1994, p. 13.
  5. ↑ The book, which American ECKANKAR religion founder Paul Twitchell described as "my bible" in a list of recommended books in a letter to his wife Gail. See old editions of Twitchell's Letters to Gail.
  6. ↑ Cf: "The Mystery of Dr. Julian Johnson's Death" in Sach Khand, The Journal of Radhasoami Studies, Issue 9, Walnut, California: MSAC Philosophy Group.
  7. ↑ Given a whole chapter in Paul Brunton's A Search in Secret India (1934).
  8. ↑ In summation, the following were all initiated disciples of "The Great Master" Bābā Sāwan Singh (1858–1948): Julian Johnson, Julia McQuilkin, Sardār Kehar Singh Sasmas, Genevieve and Harold Brock, Sardār Sevā Singh, Sant Kirpāl Singh, Sardār Charan Singh, Sant Darshan Singh, and Elizabeth Rose Bruce Johnson. American religion founder Paul Twitchell was initiated by Kirpāl Singh. American religious studies scholar David Christopher Lane is an initiate of Charan Singh's, and a deep admirer of Faqīr Chand who had made a "radical revision of the teaching on the guru" (—Gold, 1987, page 166).
  9. ↑ The chapters of editions of 1993 and after have been radically rearranged.
  10. ↑ "... Paul Twitchell, was also an initiate of Kirpal Singh." —Juergensmeyer in Schomer & McLeod, 1987, page 335.
  11. ↑ "... Paul Twitchell, was an initiate of Kirpal Singh." —Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality, page 206.
  12. ↑ "... Paul, a former chela ..." of Kirpal Singh—Klemp, The Secret Teachings, page 155.
  13. ↑ "His [Paul Twitchell] spiritual beliefs were further influenced by his exposure to ... Ruhani Satsang ..."—Guiley, 1991, p. 172.
  14. ↑ American religious studies professor David Christopher Lane, a pupil of Prof. Mark Juergensmeyer, is known for two achievements: his M.A. thesis Radhasoami Mat: Parampara in Definition and Classification (A Genealogical History of the Gaddi Nasheen Lineages Connected with Shiv Dayal Singh) at the Graduate Theological Union, tracing the lineages that descended from Shivdayāl Singh (1818–1878) and from Salig Rām (1829–1898), and his documented exposé on Paul Twitchell and his ECK religion. Lane interviewed Sant Darshan Singh (1921–1989) who showed him Twitchell's papers as an initiated disciple of Sant Kirpal Singh (1894–1974), founder of Ruhani Satsang.
  15. ↑ "best-seller"—Juergensmeyer, Radhasoami Reality, page 208.
  16. ↑ Prof. Lane in The Making of a Spiritual Movement cites several instances. These include the section "Guarding One's Own Mental Processes" from Path of the Masters, chapter 2 (1974–1990 p. 189; 1985 p. 149; 1993 p. 169), which was published verbatim as an article by U.S. occultist Audrey Kargere in Orion Magazine, v. 10, issue 94, Mar–Apr 1965.

Bibliography

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