Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj spoke to about 300 people about meditation techniques and initiated new members into his Science of Spirituality organization Saturday evening at Lake Street Church, 607 Lake St. Singh described meditation as “a doorway between peace and life.”

Singh is the head of Science of Spirituality, a Naperville, Ill.,-based nonprofit organization that promotes Jyoti meditation, a practice that originated several centuries ago in the Punjab region of India.

Jyoti mediators sit quietly — alone or in a group — and mentally repeat the name of God, which Singh said prevents the mind from getting distracted from the spiritual experience.

Only members of the organization can be taught the technique. Saturday night’s initiations were closed to non-initiates.

“As we start to think about unity, we learn about people, about life,” Singh said. “Divinity is having unity within all of us, of different faiths, different cultures.”

To achieve unity, Science of Spirituality preaches “not conversion, but inversion.” Initiates are taught to incorporate meditation into the religions they already practice.

Talks like Singh’s are getting more popular. Science of Spirituality’s monthly Internet radio broadcasts reach more than 90 countries, said spokesman Jonathan Kruger.

“We might have 25,000 to 50,000 people at a Sunday talk in India,” Singh said.

Singh said his role is to break down boundaries that divide people across the world, so they can experience the “divine light.”

“We are seeing evidence showing more awareness of spiritual diversity,” said Rev. Robert Thompson of Lake Street Church, who was initiated into Science of Spirituality 11 years ago. “Those who say their tradition is the only way, they would not be interested.”

Thompson said Singh was his “master” when Thompson was initiated. Saturday’s talk was also translated over headsets into Spanish.

Singh was born in Delhi, India, into the Sikh religion, but he became more interested in meditation. He is still a practicing Sikh.

“Meditation techniques are very scientific –not haphazard,” Singh said. “In science, you propose a theory and do an experiment. In Science of Spirituality, the theory is there is a God. The need to have an experience is the experiment and the lab becomes the human body.”

After doing his undergraduate work in India, Singh earned a master’s degree in engineering at the University of Chicago. In 1968, he was initiated in Science of Spirituality and now travels the world promoting the organization’s teachings.

“Spirituality is the mother of all sciences, not an illusion,” Singh said. “Today we have gone away from its teachings.”

Harold Berjohn of Peoria, Ill., an initiated member of the Science of Spirituality, described Singh as a “soul who has the ability to share.”

“He is a person who has united and a fully realized soul with God,” Berjohn said.

Singh’s message Saturday focused on unity, which Thompson said believers of all religions can embrace.

“We all drink from the same well — we just package our water in different ways,” Thompson said.

Reach Laura Olson at [email protected].