What is Satsang?

Satsang is a Sanskrit word that means "gathering together for the truth" or, more simply, "being with the truth." 

Truth is what is real, what exists. So all there is, is Truth. 

Whenever something increases your experience of the Truth, it opens your Heart and quiets your mind. 

Conversely, whenever something, such as a thought, fear, or judgment, limits or narrows your experience of the Truth, the Heart contracts and the mind gets busier. 

We are all equally endowed with this capacity to discriminate the Truth. Thus, the true teacher, or satguru, is within you, and satsang, or being with the Truth, is endless. 

The first step to complete peace and liberation is listen to the Satsang carefully and ask inquiring questions of yourself with a guileless heart.

These discourses on the nature and Knowledge of God in the company of Saints vanishes sorrow and brings us joy.

Buddha and the Three Questions

As Gautam Buddha and his disciples visited a village, a man approached Buddha and asked, "Does God exist?"

Buddha replied, "No, Absolutely not." 

In the afternoon, another man came to him and asked, "Does God exist?"

Buddha replied, "Yes, of course." 

Later in the evening, yet another person asked him, "Does God exist?"

Buddha did not answer; he just kept silent and closed his eyes. 

On seeing this, the man did the same. 

Then something transpired in the silence: the man suddenly smiled and looked at Buddha with tears in his eyes, then touched Buddha's feet and said, "You are the first and only person who actually answered my question." The man left with a heart full of gratitude.  

One of Buddha's disciples was flabbergasted. "Master, I have been with you the whole day, and I heard you give completely different answers to those three people who asked the exact same question. It's left me very troubled!"

Buddha said, "Why are you troubled, those answers were not for you, they were for them! My answer had nothing to do with God, and everything to do with the questioner. 

"The first man who came was a theist, a believer, the second man who came was an atheist, and the third was an agnostic."

"To the person who believes in God and asks if God exists, I will say no because I want him to drop his idea of God, I want him to be free of his idea of God -- which is borrowed. He has not yet experienced God. If he had experienced he would not have asked me; there would have been no need.

"And if he was trying to find confirmation for his belief, I had to deny just to destroy his belief, because all beliefs are barriers to knowing the truth. Theist or atheist, all beliefs, Hindu or Christian or Mohammedan, all beliefs are barriers.

"As for the atheist? The person who does not believe in God also had a belief that needed to be broken. Else he would never start to search the truth, and will only accept his belief as truth. So I said yes in challenge to that, which gave him somewhere to go. 

"And the person with whom I remained silent was the right inquirer. He had no belief, hence there was no question of destroying anything. I kept silent, which was my message to him: Be silent and know. Don't ask, there is no need to ask. It is not a question which can be answered or that the intellect can address - intellectual answers are available very cheap. It is not an inquiry but a quest, a thirst. Be silent and know.

As you witnessed, he looked within and knew. He needed something existential -- he needed a taste. I gave him a taste."

How Spirituality Affected My Writing

As someone who has written numerous staged plays and other writing projects, I sometimes get asked why I no longer seem to do much writing.

Have I given up? Do I no longer enjoy expressing myself through writing?

It turns out I am just fine. Better than fine.

Here's what I discovered:

For one, I no longer identify myself as a writer. I am someone who writes.

Writers frequently write stories that mirror the issues they are working out in their lives.

Consciously or unconsciously, that "issue" is no less than the ultimate search for Self.

Sure, there's another goal involved, like the search for a lost Ark, or to win a boxing match, or even a lost princess (romantic comedies even pursue another to help "complete" them).

The hero pursues when she wants, but in the end she gets what he needs. 

And what is the ultimate need? To need nothing at all. To know that everything you need is already inside of you (which then prompts one to want to give, but that's another story). 

Now that I’ve found myself - or my Self - I no longer feel the desire to explore stories of seeking.

Being relieved of that desire is... a relief! And it's given me more control over my monkey mind, and I have more peace as a result. 

I don't have to DO anything. Just be.

I still enjoy being creative, and I even get to do it for good causes (fundraising brochures, blogging, and creating newsletters for the ashram, for instance). Seva.

Now this is my experience. I am glad there are many great writers who write what they do - I love to read! - and they have their reasons and purpose, and we all need them at many points on our journey. This is my road. 

And as evidenced by this post, I still love to write, so stay tuned.* You never know what a person might might write when they don't need to write about people who don't need anything. I still like to have some fun, after all...

*I'm currently working on a children's play for a family program at the ashram where a character is comically chased around by his ego, represented by another actor.

Let the Satsang Go Through You/Learning How to Think

From a recent Satsang by Gautum Baiji:

"How can we tell if a person is good or bad: when we see their actions, not doing things the right way.

The behavior is not good. Then we can see this person needs some change if they want to do good.

Sometimes we change through circumstances over time, but Satsang has the power to change us now. Only by Satsang and meditation can a person create change.

Because we don’t need to change the body. We don’t need to change the color, the caste, or the creed. 

The only thing we need to change is our thoughts. 

Because whatever thoughts we have inside… those thoughts will become our actions. And we will be good or bad people because of our actions.

How can we change the thoughts? 

Because when parents raise their kids, they tell them this is good, or this is bad, you should do this or that. They taught us everything. How we should eat, how we should talk. How we should work.

But nobody taught us how to think.

Thousands of thoughts come into our mind all the time. Each and every second the thoughts are coming and going. How do we control them?

One way is to keep good company. Then good thoughts come automatically.

That’s why we have a need, a necessity for saints.

Saints are like clouds. When the cloud comes in the heat, it brings rain and cools everything down.

The same thing happens when the saints come into our life. They teach us techniques, they give us knowledge. Then we practice meditation, and we change our thoughts. And when our thoughts get changed, our perspective changes, and we can see the positive changes in our life.

Sometimes we think merely reading scripture is enough. Some people say, “I’ve gone through the Gita, I’ve gone through Ramayana, I’ve gone through all the scriptures…”

But have the scriptures gone through us?

If we are only reading, we become like a parrot. If we ask the meaning of Ram, the parrot can repeat the word but it doesn't know the meaning of Ram.

We chant so many mantras, we sing so many bhajans, but as long as we don’t know who we are, as long as we don’t experience meditation, how can we change our self and our thoughts?

If we’re sitting in the satsang, and our mind is wandering everywhere, what happens? We didn’t get any benefit from the satsang. 

But if we let the satsang go through us, we can change our life..."

One Who Has Experienced God Will Say I Know God

At a recent satsang, Gautum Baiji said:

"We have been listening to bhajans about various “bhakto” (well-known devotees) and how deep their devotion and love was, and with what level of “dhyan” (a deeper awareness of oneness that is inclusive of perception of body, mind, senses, and surroundings, yet remaining unidentified with it) they did “bhakti” (spiritual service and devotion). 

Which is in contrast to everyday people who feel they need to have good amounts of material wealth and time before they can do bhakti. The committed devotee does not look for the accumulation of wealth and time before practicing spirituality.

One day, Lakshman asks God what he can do to please God, because he knows that pleasing God is the best way to do bhakti. 

But what is our understanding of bhakti? When Draupadi was shamed in the presence of many people, she did not have any prayer beads to pray with or any idols in front of her. She had nothing, yet God came to her aid. Bhakti requires dhyan (profound meditation) and sadhana (a disciplined way of life designed to realize one’s ultimate goal of oneness with God). We perform rituals only to gain focus on bhakti and strengthen our “shraddha” (belief or trust). 

Sometimes people say they would do service (seva) and they ask us, "Can you do meditation on behalf of me?" but that's not the proper way. There are two things that humans have to do for themselves: eat and do bhajans (meditation). To keep doing service without having “gyan” (spiritual knowledge) will not give us “mukti” (spiritual liberation) or freedom from tensions of life. 

Service should not be burdensome; it should become effortless if you have gyan. Gyan has two parts: one is to have knowledge, and the other is to make that knowledge part of our lives and practice it.

For instance, one can hear and obtain knowledge of milk and know that it is white in color and that it is a liquid. The next person may actually see milk, smell it and touch it, but without experiencing its taste and value. However, the person who has heard of milk, seen it, and made it a part of their nutritional daily diet has the real meaning of gyan.

Having meditation technique and belief in God is not enough. You need to experience it. You may know there is petrol under the surface of the earth, and you have a strong belief that petrol exists under the earth. But that knowledge alone will not allow you to operate your car. You have to make an effort to get the gasoline in your possession and use it (experience) to run your car. 

One may believe in God and one can say I believe in God, but one who has experienced God will say I know God. 

Sometimes man does not have faith in what he knows but has faith in something that he does not know about (God). We believe in God but do not spend time and effort to truly know Him. 

To know God is to make your soul strong. One needs to focus with high concentration to know God by meditation, and that is “Sadhana”. Our mind is going in a hundred different directions, but if it is focused during meditation, it will have an immense strength to experience God.

Sun rays are spread everywhere, but they do not burn anything. However, if you use a magnifying glass and focus the rays in one spot, you can light paper on fire.

Likewise, our minds are spread out in many directions. Even while we are in a place of worship our minds are busy making a list of things to do! We need to take control of our mind and focus it into one sharp point in meditation to “burn the paper” and to reveal God. 

To control your mind is like controlling your car. If you do not control the steering wheel, the car will go in any direction the road takes you. But if you take charge of the steering wheel, it will take you where you want to go. Take charge and ownership of your mind. Be mindful – aware – (to be in dhyan) of where your mind is going and control it. 

If you watch a tightrope walker in a circus, her focus is on keeping balance and keeping her full attention on her steps on the rope. She is not distracted by applause from the audience or anything else.

We need to take the opportunity to practice meditation regularly and not spend our time in endless questions of why: Why did that person do this, why is he mad, why is the earth round, why why, why why?! - That is being bothered. It’s like punishing yourself.

We all do better if we are like water that flows with ease. It’s smooth and keeps finding its way to keep flowing through rocks and mud. It does not stop itself and wonder why there are rocks in its way. It does not get disturbed if someone steps in it. It is going for the ultimate goal of uniting with the ocean.

Water is useful to quench thirst, but if it hardens into ice it will not quench anyone’s thirst. In its hard form of ice, it will not flow easily to its destination. We have to cultivate our nature to be “Saral.” Do not be mistaken that being easygoing like a river is a sign of weakness. Look at the river that flows with ease and cuts through hard rocks with its easy, smooth flow. Rocks disintegrate to sand, but the river keeps flowing. You will see the hard rock is swept away by the river in the form of sand by the ocean. That is the power of “Saral.” For us to become hard will only lead to no one being able to deal with me, and it will keep us wondering why no one understands me! But, if we have an easy nature, many will be able to understand us and work with us. In meditation, also stay “Saral”!  

Reference material:

Meditation is the art of silencing the mind. When the mind is silent, concentration is increased and we experience inner peace in the midst of worldly turmoil. This elusive inner peace is what attracts so many people to meditation and is a quality everyone can benefit from. One feels happiest when sitting in perfect silence. The experience is difficult to express in words. It is also true that every meditation is not the same. Sometimes meditation is a struggle to control the mind, while at other times it feels effortless.

These are some of the benefits of meditation:

1.     Improved concentration – A clear mind makes you more productive, especially in creative disciplines like writing

2.     Less bothered by little things – Do you sometimes allow yourself to get upset by little things? It is the nature of the mind to magnify small things into serious problems. Meditation helps us detach. We learn to live in the here and now, rather than worrying about the past or future. We do not worry about meaningless things, but see the bigger picture

3.     Better Health – There have been numerous studies pointing to the health benefits of meditation. The reason is that meditation reduces stress levels and alleviates anxiety. If we can reduce stress, many health benefits follow.

4.     Knowledge of Self – Meditation enables us to have a deeper understanding of our inner self. Through meditation we can gain a better understanding of our life’s purpose.

The great thing about meditation is that our personal philosophy/religious beliefs are not important. Meditation is about consciousness. The beliefs of the mind become trivial. We dive deep into the heart of the matter to gain access to our soul – our inner reality.

The Story of the Guru and the Campfire

I have learned the importance of having a guru, a spiritual guide. Having a guru is better than a whole library of spiritual books. Some people read hundreds of books for years and never get the peace and happiness they seek.

There is something about the human spark, the relationship with a guru that can help a person go further on their path (or even find a path in the first place).

Once a guru has passed all your tests, it's important to put your faith in them, knowing they will instruct you in ways that are only in your best interests.

But faith can be difficult.

Following this theme, my good friend Bhavna told me this story:

Once there was a man walking through the forest at night when he came upon his guru, who was sitting alone by a fire.

The guru had no coat or blanket and was barely keeping warm with the small fire.

The man saw this and immediately walked over and gave him the blanket off his own back.

The guru thanked him. 

Then as the man turned to leave, the guru threw the blanket on the fire!

The man was awestruck, and raced over to the guru's side.

"Why would you do that? You threw my only blanket into the fire, which could have warmed either of us, and now it's destroyed! Why?"

The guru calmly looked at him and gave a simple answer.

"To test your faith." 

When I first heard this story, the pragmatic (American) Westerner in me thought, 'That's a ridiculous waste.'

But my was second thought as a person of faith on a spiritual path: 'His faith was tested and failed.'

The guru wanted to show his devotee the measure of his faith. In this case, there was very little of it.

Now that man has a choice: he can let his ego run rampant and stomp away muttering about a crazy guru burning his blanket...

...or he learn from the experience and elevate his spirituality.

And now we can check our own.

Blind to the Mortal and Transient Nature of Life - Satsang

After devotees listened to several bhajans presented so beautifully by Rajbhai, Baiji said:

“We all have been absorbed for some time listening to bhajans. Rajbhai sang bhajans with such deep devotion, feelings, and with a soothing voice that we forgot our daily lives and duties for the time being. This is a God-given opportunity to experience such closeness to our inner beings that in spite of the tensions of daily life and worldly things that are still out there, we freed ourselves from all of it by listening to captivating bhajans.

When the listener and the bhajan singer are in harmony, like when the tabla (drum) and harmonium (piano) are in rhythm, there is true joy. If the harmonium and tabla are not in sync, then it doesn’t sound pleasant. When the bhajan singer sings from the heart with devotion and when the listeners attach their minds to the singer’s devotion, then the listeners are connected to God (Parmatma). As long as we stay joined to Parmatma, even though we may have tension and stress with us, we are not affected by it. This is why our saints have said that the more we stay connected to satsang, the more we will be free from tension and stress. “Satsang” is the thing that connects you to God.

When we meet people in society, they ask us things such as, “How you are, how is your work, and how your children are?” but they don’t ask you how much you love God. 

In our worldly lives, we don’t have many opportunities to hear about Parmatma. It’s missing from our daily lives. If you bring up a conversation about spirituality and “bhakti” (prayers, devotion), people ask, “Why should we bother about all that before we are elderly?” They say when we get old, we will be sitting on the couch, and that’s the time we will be doing prayers and bhajans. People say what’s the need for doing it now in our youth because this is the time for us to have fun. The reason people say that is because they don’t know the true meaning and nature of life (that it is transient and temporary).

Every person is alive. Every person is self-involved, especially in this country. There is no time. We don’t even have time to sit and have a meal in peace. We all know that. Sometimes we are late for work, sometimes there are so many phone calls that you have to attend to them while you’re eating, and you’re often working from dusk to dawn. We don’t even take the time to form deep relationships. By fulfilling our worldly affairs and worldly relationships, we forget the one true relationship that is with us through eternity – that is our relationship with Parmatma. You all know how long worldly relationships last.

As long as your arms and legs are working, you’re able to function, earn money, and take care of your family, your family loves you for it. But once your body gets weak with age and you’re not able to provide for the family anymore, observe what happens. While your kids are getting ready for work, they’ll tell you that you’re getting in their way, why don’t you go sit down quietly. In our own home, we start to feel that we have become an inconvenience. Your kids ask you to wait until they leave, reminding you that you have the whole day free from duties. Those people for whom you have done everything, they are now telling you to sit quietly somewhere. We still do not get it that there is no one truly here for us. (We must note that we are not talking about disregarding the value and joy of worldly relationships, but that it should be done with full awareness of the temporary nature of it, and realizing the eternity of our relationship is with Parmatam.)

The amazing thing is that even though our eyes are open and see what is going on, we are not “awake”. We stay absorbed with our worldly affairs and do not understand the essence of life. When a king once asked the Swami, “What is the most incredible thing in life?” the Swami replied, “Your Majesty, it seems to me the most incredible thing in life is that we see people going by in this world with their eyes wide open. We see that upon the passing of one’s father, the children start thinking about what was left for them. They start looking for wealth and bank accounts, sometimes even before the final rituals of death are over, in fear that someone else will grab the wealth. There is still no awakening to the true nature of life. We still stay involved with worldly matters.”

Saint Kabirgee once asked, “Who is truly blind? Not the one who has lost his sight and cannot see, but the one who can see with his eyes but is still ‘blind’ to the mortal and transient nature of life and things in this world. In spite of knowing, they still have not understood it.

With all of our Karma – doing in life – where is that taking us? In which direction are we going? Why are we so busy doing things? What is the value of what we are doing? What are we trying to accomplish, and what have we achieved?”

A man rowed his boat the whole night to get to his destination by morning. He worked hard and rowed his boat diligently to get there in time; however, in the morning he found himself in the same exact place where he started. Why? He forgot to untie the rope that tied his boat to the shore.

Likewise, in life we may find ourselves in a similar situation. We work hard day and night. We try to achieve peace and happiness. But our ropes are tied to Maya like the man’s boat was tied to the shore. (Maya literally means "illusion,” or “that which exists but is constantly changing and is thus spiritually unreal,” or "the power or the principle that conceals the true character of spiritual reality"). We are searching for happiness and peace, but we are tied to things that are constantly changing and have the illusion that material things and worldly relationships will bring us peace and happiness. We may try to achieve it by practicing meditation, praying in a temple in front of statues, attending Satsang, but we find our minds are not there but somewhere else, wandering around and reminding us of our work, home, and worries.

Our saints and philosophers talk about experiences that are in three stages that we cycle through daily. In the first stage we are fully awake and see and feel everything around us. We are conscious of our bodies and see real physical objects, and our five senses are fully experiencing our awake stage. In the second stage, we are sleeping and have dreams that may include us, people we know, and places we know; and sometimes totally unknown things come in our dreams. But the next day when we wake up, we may remember most of our experiences of our dreams. On days when we are very tired, we experience the third stage where we get deep sleep. We wake up and feel well-rested and cannot recall what happened the whole night. We do not know our bodies, our friends, work, or the presence of our minds, and do not know if we are male or female. The only thing we know when we wake up is the feeling that we are well rested. In this stage we do not know that we are in deep sleep. This stage is like Samadhi. (A state of intense concentration achieved through meditation.) Samadhi is actually the fourth stage, where we achieve a state like deep sleep but while fully awake and during meditation. In this stage you are aware of your awareness, you have this feeling, and become conscious of your awareness. Basically, you are conscious of your own consciousness. When you reach the Samadhi stage it’s like having a master key that will open all doors. It's to know yourself. We think about a lot of things, but we do not think about ourselves. Who am I, what is my purpose? We worry about everything but do not spend time knowing ourselves.

If you have nice shoes you can easily walk on pebbles. But if there is weakness in the shoes and a small pebble enters your shoe, you will not be able to walk without pain. We can face challenges of life, but if we do not have inner strength we cannot face the challenges easily and will suffer. Our Saints have said that we need to be connected to our higher power to stay strong. We can face lot of things in life if we are fully charged. We can do that by connecting ourselves with the higher power. Cell phones may have many features, but they are useless if the phone is not charged.

We are advised to take flu shots to protect us from the flu virus, as our immune systems cannot fight it. But people with strong immune systems, like people from India who have developed good immunity from their lifestyles and rugged living, do not need the flu shot. We need to develop solid inner strength so that we can face outside challenges. We have to learn the right technique to use meditation as a path to develop strong inner strength. 

Lest We Forget, Here is What Love Is:

See God in All Your Guests

Gautum Baiji said:

"No matter what your beliefs or religion is, stay connected to God, Higher Power, Life Source, Energy, or whatever you want to call it. That force will guide you.

The simple truths that come from that does not require a long explanation for a receptive person. A person with this quality will get the message and adopt it just by a subtle signal.

We celebrate the birth anniversary of Saint Jalaram Bapa. His message to us is to commit ourselves to devotion and find a reason (or excuse) to do Bhakti (devotion and love of God) in spite of our busy family lives.

Jalaram Bapa, a Hindu saint, was born in the Gujarat province of India on 4 November 1799. He married at 16, and at 18 had an inspiration and went to do Yatra, a pilgrimage to holy places in India.

Usually people think to do Yatra at a much later age in life. We think we need to enjoy our lives during youth. Human life is a crown jewel of creation and it is made to enjoy fully. But what is real joy? Pleasure and worldly  enjoyment are temporary. You do not have to wait till you are old to devote to Satsang, Bhajan, and Bhakti, our path to obtain real joy. It should be part of you at any age, to live a life where humanity admires your deeds and you are remembered in admiration for generations to come.

Bapa was a family man, yet he was able to devote himself to others; he did not use an excuse like, "I do not have the time" in spite of his busy life with a family.

The life we choose is our own doing. Our duty is to face the life we have chosen. A human who crawls on his or her knees may not fall, as that may be a safe way to move; but a human who takes the risk of falling and faces life is brave. 

If you are feeling heat in the sun and want relief, you should look for shelter under a tree. In the same way, when we have difficulties, confusion, conflicts, pain, and suffering in life, there is way out: to deal with it in Bhajans, Satsang, and Bhakti.

Jalaram Bapa was married at a very young age and had to assume the responsibilities of a married man. His father made him join the family business, but there were many complaints about his son, so Bapa was sent to join his uncle’s business, but there also Bapa “failed.” The reason was his compassion for poor and saintly people. He had so much love for them that he would freely give out products to poor people or any saintly people he encountered. Obviously the owners did not like this.

Then there is the story of a man who was walking with a box of plates on his head. He was followed by a businessman. Suddenly the man with the box of plates lost his balance and dropped the box, breaking all the plates. 

Everyone who was watching gathered around. 

The businessman said, “Oh this poor man, his boss is going to get very angry that he broke all the plates, so let’s help him out,” and he gave the man ten dollars. 

The businessman encouraged the others to help him out, so they all started chipping in and giving the man money. Someone told him, “Now your boss will be happy,” and the man answered, “Yes, he will be very happy because I collected even more money than the worth of the plates.” The people said, “Oh in that case, he will be very, very happy!” 

So the man points to the businessman and says, “Look, he is very happy, because he is my boss!” 

The story illustrates that if one really wants something, one will find a way to get it. This man was able to use the goodwill of others to remedy his situation of the broken plates.

Jalaram Bapa failed in both his father’s and uncle’s businesses. This misfortune changed his life completely. God always provides an opportunity when one door closes. Bapa and his wife, Virbai, decided to go into farming. With a lot of difficulties and hard work, they made a living off the farm, but Bapa’s basic compassion for poor and needy people did not change. 

He became known as someone to go to for anyone who needed food. Jalaram Bapa saw God in all his guests, so he treated them as God. Nobody ever left hungry. Bapa and his wife’s needs were only for necessities. Anything extra they had, he donated to the community. Bapa gave food constantly to the needy. By giving, he was not losing anything, but actually gaining more in life. He was never lacking for anything.

Yet people always feel like they need more no matter how much they already have. Baiji tells a story of a typical husband and wife. They have a wedding to attend, and the wife tells her husband that she has nothing to wear. The husband points out that she has a whole closet full of clothes – occupying “his” and “her” sections -  and she says but there is nothing to wear for a wedding. The husband asks, “Then what are all these saris right here?” And the wife answers, “Everyone in society has already seen me in those.” So the husband says, “Ok how about this? Instead of buying another sari, let’s move to another community with the same rent but where no one has seen any of your saris.” There was a fight between the couple at this point!

There was once a man selling “manjan” (tooth powder to clean teeth) on the street. A customer had 25 cents – two dimes and one nickel. He was hesitant about whether or not to buy the manjan and kept rubbing the coins in his fingers trying to make up his mind. Finally he decides and says, “Here is the money. Give me manjan.” The seller says, “I can’t give you manjan anymore because the nickel in between the dimes has been defaced from all the rubbing.” The moral of the story is that if one keeps hesitating and not taking action, you will lose opportunities and energy. 

Whenever you think of a great idea, even if it’s in the middle of the night, act on the thought. Because if you don’t act on good ideas in the moment, other thoughts, especially bad thoughts, often take over and you will lose the good ideas from your head. The accumulation of acting on good ideas will only increase your assets and value in life. Nobody is born great; people become great after performing good deeds in life.

Even after nearly 200 years from the first meal served at the Jalaram Papa’s “home” to any one hungry is still functioning 24 hrs. a day and no one goes hungry who shows up to the house! That is a remarkable legacy of a great saint.