Soami Shiv Dyal Singh Ji mostly Known to Followers with name
of Soami Ji Maharaj, His actual name was Seth Shiv Dayal Singh ji, He was born on
August 25, 1818 in a Khatri family residing in Panni Gali,Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India,He
is Considered to be the founder of Radha Soami faith,He was a follower of Sant Tulsi
Das ji .Sant Tulsi Das initiated him at the age of 6 years,Soami ji was a teacher
but he left his job for religious pursuits.
His father, Dilwali Singh, a banker by profession was a highly religious person.
Deep religiosity became evident in Shiv Dayalji from early childhood and he started
regular spiritual practice at the age of six. He spent most of his time in spiritual
pursuits, often shutting himself up in a small room for days. At the age of five,
he was sent to school where he learnt Hindi, Urdu, Persian and Gurumukhi. Later
he acquired proficiency in Persian and wrote a book in that language.
He also acquired a working knowledge of Arabic and Sanskrit. As a student he was
generous and affectionate towards his fellow students and respectful to his teachers.
He was married at an early age to Naraini Devi, daughter of Izzat Rai of Faridabad.
She was of generous disposition and was very devoted to her husband. He Practised
Surat Shabad Yog for 15 years,he started doing Satsang on the spring festival.
The Satsang grew rapidly and the number of devotees in his life-time rose to three thousand, which included men and women from all the major communities of India. For full seventeen years he presided over the Satsang meetings at his residence, Panni Gali, Agra Then He departed from this world on June 15, 1878 in Agra, India.His successor was Baba Jaimal Singh, who taken the Radha Soami movement to Dera,Beas(Amritsar).