Satsang

 

Satsang means the company of reality, being in touch with the truth. It is not just singing some complicated songs which you don’t understand. Music is one part of it. The second part is understanding the logic. The third part is reposing in deep meditation and being with yourself. 

So, which is the right company? That which makes you feel light, which makes you feel the problem is very trivial as compared to what you thought. If company makes you perceive the problem as being bigger than it is, that is not satsang. Satsang is where you can drop what people think about you and be authentic.

Usually, people who are in celebration don’t go into the depth, while people who experience silence, don’t usually celebrate. However, satsang is when we value both silence and celebration. The purpose of music is to create silence deep within you and the purpose of silence is to create dynamism in life.

Music is laya yoga; laya is dissolving. This is the highest form of samadhi (unity with the divine). Sound is a form of energy. Your whole body is made up of atoms. When you sing bhajans, the sound vibrations get absorbed into every particle of your body. Just like a microphone absorbs sound and converts it into electricity, the body absorbs the vibrations and transforms it into consciousness.

If you are sitting and listening to gossip or loud jarring music, then that gets absorbed by your body and does not give a nice feeling. When you hear knowledge, or chant with all your heart, that elevates your consciousness. Being with this truth kindles the energy in you and awakens the consciousness because the sound energy very easily penetrates into the mind.

The body is made up of five elements – earth, water, air, fire and ether. The ether element is associated with sound. And sound unites. Sound reverberates in your body. Our mind and consciousness are ancient. When you dive into different layers of consciousness, there are different languages that are present there. The most ancient layer of our consciousness can understand the most ancient language of the world – sanskrit.

When we are sitting, thinking or talking then every mind thinks differently, no one thinks alike. But when we sing or chant sanskrit bhajans, then the mind which is so ancient identifies the impressions of all these old bhajans, our consciousness begins to unite and somewhere deep inside sharing happens. And the bhajans or mantras make deep impressions in the mind where they remain for a long period. It is like a brush. Each bristle joined together can clear all the knots in mind.

That is why even though we don’t know the meaning of some of the words, we simply chant them because just chanting them has a positive effect. It is not the meaning that is important. So when we sing, we don’t have to see how well we sing, and where we are singing. Just close your eyes and be one with the music, the sound. You dissolve into the space that is, through bhajan.

We usually think bhajan is just singing songs. Bhajan means sharing. Divine is love and when you blossom in that love, you share the love. Divine is compassion, and when you are compassionate, you are in bhajan. When the mind is split into one hundred parts, there is misery. And the same minds when they all get together, becomes one unit, then there is joy.

Navigating storms in life with knowledge

 

All around the world, countries have stormy seasons. The tropical countries have their monsoons, and non-tropical countries have their yearly winter storms. The layout of the planet, along with its various climates and weather systems, make it such that there is always a storm happening somewhere on Earth. 

The same phenomenon holds true for people. Life is found to be caught up in storms very often, either in some part of the mind or body. You are not yourself when you are in even a small storm. By their very nature, storms take you away from your centre, and you don’t know what to do. All your practices, concepts, ideas, and ideals fall apart during storms.

Your devotion, your love, all the beautiful things you cherish in your life simply seem to be missing, or meaningless. These things happen when you are under the influence of a big storm. And even when the storm has subsided, the very memory of it disturbs you even more. 

So what do you do when a storm appears overhead? Nothing appears to be helpful. When you sit and close your eyes to meditate, you see that the mind is all over the place. You feel as though you are in a burning furnace and you don’t know how to put out the flame. It’s like an oil well is burning inside you. The more effort you make to cool it down, put the fire out, the more the fire comes alive, and brings more restlessness and agitation.

Know that storms are minuscule when compared to the ocean of the Self. In the Ashtavakra Gita, King Janaka says, “Mayya anantha mahaambhodau - In the ocean of my Self, many such lives are arising and dissolving.” Janaka knows that all those whom he sees are part of him and that all the lives he sees are just his own form. I have taken so many forms, and in my own consciousness is acting this way in that mind, that way in that mind; in all these different minds different roles are being played, but it’s all me.” One wave arises, and another wave comes back and recedes into the ocean of the Self.

By the nature of life, different minds continually springs up into this “person”. You temporarily become all these persons and personalities and life and lifestyles and dramas and soap operas. Imagine watching wrestling on television. Can you feel that both of the wrestlers are inside yourself? If you have ever acted in a drama or in theatre, you may have consciously experienced this. You may perform a monologue in two different acts, and act in completely opposite forms. In the first half you act as one person, and in the second, you act as another person who pushes all the buttons of the first person.

Like waves, these two people clash with each other. It’s in you, in your own nature, in your own form. Different waves arise, different beings arise, different souls arise. They rise, they clash with each other, they play and they dissolve to go back into you. These storms come into your life whether you like it or not. It lashes on you and pulls you out of your likes and dislikes. Every storm that has come into your life has widened your horizon, making you deep and more powerful. Every storm has destroyed some smallness or obstacle in you. The storms that rise in you never stay in you forever.

Every storm is a blessing. It cuts you, it destroys you, and it finishes you off while you cry. If you are knowledgeable, you don’t cry—you will laugh. Even though the event is the same in either case, you now laugh at it because you know that it is insignificant in the face of your true infinite nature. This is the role of knowledge. In knowledge, you smile and laugh at all events, including the most difficult ones. You grow out of the event with the power of knowledge. Even a drowning person can hold onto a straw. It’s like holding onto a life jacket, the knowledge in the storms.

Even the smallest life jacket can save you from drowning. Everybody in the world faces these crises. They manifest as personality clashes, relationship problems, worries about the future and whatnot. People feel insecure, and as the days pass by, they wonder what they’re doing with their life. They wonder whether they’re in the right place or not, or if they have the right people around them. These thoughts bring about all sorts of confusions, jealousies, anger, and hatred. But the person with the life jacket is saved and rises above this storm. He should put on the life jacket, blow it up, and keep it well prepared.

Love, truth and strength

 

In love, one often feels weak, but truth brings strength. Then why would someone tell a lie to their close ones or to their beloved? Lovers often ask this question. Love cannot stand untruth, and relationships tend to break up when untruths exist. Understanding the paradox of love and truth; allows one to discover the answer to this question.

People often tell lies just to save and maintain their love. The fear that truth might damage love, lends to lies told between a husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, parents and children and in other family situations.

In love, one often feels weak, but truth brings strength. So, the question that may arise is - why do people prefer love over truth, weakness over strength?

Love is that which generally does not want to be sacrificed and so people are ready to give up the truth for love even though love takes the luster out of truth. Also, there are times when truth can make love bitter while in love, even lies appear sweet.

For example, when Krishna lies to his mother, Yashoda! With truth there are judgements, but true love is beyond judgements. Thus, true love can make one weak and yet it is the greatest strength.

Ultimately, the truth that does not nourish love makes no sense, and the love that cannot withstand the truth is not true love. If one is assured that their love is so strong that truth can neither break it nor cause bitterness, then truth prevails and love continues to shine.

Nourishing your emotions

 

A person without emotions is like wood without any juice. You need to make yourself interesting to inspire people to be with you. This will happen when you nurture yourself with music, prayer and service. The way to expand from individual to universal consciousness is to share others’ sorrow and joy. As you grow, your consciousness should also grow.

When you expand in knowledge with time, then depression is not possible. The way to overcome personal misery is to share universal misery. The way to expand personal joy is to share universal joy. Instead of thinking, “what about me?” and “what can I gain from this world?” think, “what can I do for the world?” Service leads to the dynamic experience of heart. It creates a sense of belongingness.

Lack of service can lead a person to depression. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Pain is physical. Suffering is mental. If you are not sensitive to others’ pain, then you are not a human being. That is why you need to serve. Service alone can bring contentment in life, but service without silence tires you.

Service without spirituality will be shallow and cannot be sustained for a long period. The deeper the silence, the more dynamic will be the outer activity. Both are essential in life. When you bring some relief or freedom to someone through seva, good vibrations and blessings come to you.

Seva brings merit; merit allows you to go deep in meditation; meditation brings back your smile. When you sing and pray from your heart, your emotions are nourished and you become lively.

Changing two tendencies of the mind

 

Have you noticed what keeps happening in the mind every moment? The mind keeps wondering what is going to happen next. Knowledge is being aware of this phenomenon of the mind; of what is happening right now in the mind.

All other information and education can be acquired by reading books. You can open a book on any subject, be it birth, death or dietary habits; there are volumes of books available on countless topics. But awareness of our own mind cannot be learnt by reading a book.

What does our mind do? It vacillates between the past and the future. Every moment, it is either angry about the past or anxious about the future. There is another tendency of the mind – clinging to the negative. If 10 positive instances or events are followed by one negative event, we cling to that one negative thing. We simply forget all the 10 positives.

To bring about a change in these two tendencies of the mind is the greatest help you can render yourself. Becoming aware of these two tendencies in the mind will make you very natural, very simple. These are very precious values and will enable you to blossom from within.

We are actually born with this innocence in us; but as we become more and more mature and intelligent, we tend to lose this innocence and end up becoming stiff. Drop the stiffness, and then see how much more rewarding, more enjoyable, more interesting life becomes. This is knowledge. And this is also worship.

Overcome the four reins pulling you backwards

 

Sukha (pleasure), dukha (sorrow), logic and feverishness — these four reins pull you backwards. You dream of pleasure; this is so amazing! Even after experiencing different pleasures, you think there is pleasure somewhere else. You are pulled by the rein of pleasure. Every pleasure has been so momentary, has left your hands empty, depleted, drained. Yet one hopes for more pleasure, some unknown, unseen pleasure.

Sukha is pleasure and dukha, sorrow or the fear of sorrow. What is the sorrow that you are afraid of? What is going to happen to you? You have gone through many problems. As a child, you cried so many times when a toy broke. But what happened? You passed through that. You have passed through many stumbling blocks in life, which you thought were impossible. Yet you remained untouched by any of them. Nothing could ever shake you. It appeared to have shaken you at that moment, but later on you found that you are as complete as were before.

And then there is desire for more, wanting more and more. We burn with desire; and this burning in desire does not allow you to relax into the peace of your being. Unless you let go of the desires, you can never find peace, you can never rest in the divine love. Love is the process of dissolving, of giving, of offering, of serving. If you do service to gain some merit, it is not service.

Let go of these desires. When you are able to let go, then you blossom. Wait for the blossoming. Wait for the time; don’t be in a hurry. Every bud takes its own time to bloom; don’t force a bud to become a flower. You will have to follow a certain code of conduct. This is the manure by which the rose of love will blossom. Be non-violent, not just in your action, but also in your heart, in your speech, in your thoughts. You may be non-violent in action due to fear of the law. But in the mind when you said, “I am going to kill them! I am going to choke them!” you have already choked them.

Follow the truth. Be with the truth. Be with the existence. It means live in the moment. Existence is truth. Often we mistake ‘being truthful’ to mean just speaking the truth. It’s not just speaking truth; but expressing truth your whole life. Keep the purity of your mind, speech, and body. Purity is not mixing up things. So when you become witness to the body, mind, intellect, memory and all your different faculties, and don’t get mixed up with them, that is purity. Observing the observer, being very pure; this is a deeper meaning of purity.

The greatest joy is in compassion or daya. Just stand in a corner and see the whole world. If you can just feel compassion for the whole world, a shift has already happened in your consciousness. Look at all the people who are indulging in all that you don’t like. Just for a moment, have compassion for them all, for the way they are. Then a shift happens; you become big; your Self expands.

Faith of astikya transcends logic and reasoning. You live in a very logical world. Every step in your life is measured. You reason for everything that you do and for all your experiences. You try to capture your experiences through logic, through reasoning. When the reasoning or logic breaks down, you tremble. Sooner or later you again find some logic, some reason, and feel comfortable with it. But reality is beyond logic; truth is beyond logic; you cannot capture truth by logic. If you could reason out all your life and all its experiences, then you have not lived life fully, you have not known life fully.