The Radha Soami Satsang Beas was established in 1891 on the bank of the Beas by Baba Jaimal Singh, a Sikh soldier who had taken initiation from Shiv Dayal Singh, the founder of the Radha Soami faith at Agra.
Its practice is surat shabd yoga, meditation on inner sound and light, transmitted by a living master. Initiates commit to vegetarianism, abstinence from alcohol and drugs, and a moral discipline.
The colony at Dera Baba Jaimal Singh houses a very large permanent population and hosts satsangs attended by hundreds of thousands. It takes no collections at satsang and no fee for initiation, which is unusual and is central to its reputation.
It runs a large charitable hospital at Beas. Its following is international, with centres in dozens of countries, and it is substantially non-Punjabi in the aggregate.
Its relationship with orthodox Sikh institutions is complicated by the living-master principle, and it is generally left alone in a way other deras have not been.
The Beas line was founded in 1891 and the colony on the river has grown into a settlement with its own hospital, schools and infrastructure.
Its gatherings run into the hundreds of thousands and its following is across India and abroad. The organisation does not take offerings at the satsang.
It is one of several movements in Punjab that draw across religious lines, and that is the basis of the criticism it receives from some Sikh institutions.