Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Satsanga


OM Namah Sivaya
Blessed Self
At the morning satsang at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm, we talked about the meaning of satsanga. Satsanga means "company of the wise," or "company with truth." Satsanga means tuning into a higher wavelength of thought. Continuous Satsanga means keeping yourself in such a place that the thought becomes real and making this thought your own. I opened at that moment, the book Bliss Divine, by Master Sivananda, to the line, "Do not be afraid of death." We are afraid of death all the time. Swami Sivananda said, "Do not be afraid of death, do not identify with this perishable body and mind." Because when you do so, you would function out of your separated self, and therefore will be afraid of death. When we are in the company of . Swami Sivananda's thoughts, this idea of being something more than our own body and mind reality seems to be real. This is the power of satsanga. Some one else's thought becomes your own. You can not create that thought from your own experience and you do not believe in a reality other than the one that your thoughts have collapsed onto. But by keeping yourself open to be influenced by a person of wisdom, you might be able to raise your self to a higher thought level that seems far fetched and eventually this thought starts to become reinforced in your mind and you open yourself to the new reality.

A thought is real when it is repeated. A thought opens us up to a reality either limited or unlimited. Being in constant satsanga, makes this expanded thought becomes reality and saves us from the limitations of our own minds that keep closing in, repeating patterns.

Satsanga means also sitting together. In the Ashrams or Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers, we sit together constantly tuning into each others and to the Guru's wavelengths through daily meditation together, chanting together, working together and studying together. Satsanga is the underlying idea behind the workings of the ashram, that everyone tunes in to the same wavelength, the highest wavelength, that of the wise person. When one is open to this tuning, one will benefit from this collective thought alignement process and one's consciousness will be uplifted - almost literally, to the wavelengths of the Guru's thoughts. This is termed "paradigm shift," when one's thoughts change a level and the thoughts and emotions of the people connected to us change as well.

Thoughts are connected, realities are connected and seem real when many people share the same reality. This makes the thought seems strong and real and at the same time prevents us from changing our thinking. If we can be free from this influence, i.e. if our thought is strong enough to change wavelengths and not be manipulated or influenced by the environmental thought and by our own limited memories and patterns, the thought has a chance to lift up to another level of consciousness. That is why along with satsanga , one has to practice nisanga as well (no company). It is better to practice Satsanga than Kusanga (evil company, bad influences). Nisanga can only be practiced when one is strong , otherwise satsanga is the way.

The methods of Yoga, by helping us to strenghten the mind and the emotions, to become very focused and very detached, allow the highest reality to come in - a place of all possibilities. The mind needs to be strong. All Yoga methods help to make the mind strong and not distracted.

Quantum physics have found that things can exist simultaneously or even that one's conscious intention can change the past. This is the experience of "sidhis" of Yogis of lore, the psychic powers. The yogis can do this by going deep into themselves and be completely detached from outcomes, the "collapsing" of this story line or this mode of functioning, thus remaining in the infinite space of all possibilities.

Knowing that all possibilites are there at our beck and call doesn't mean that we would use it to create realities corresponding to our desires. Knowing this gives us tremendous peace and saves us from the heartaches of trying to mend realities in infinite unending possible scenarios, which we call "the ocean of samsara." Because we do not have this experience of self awareness, we are still in the illusion that something is there, outside of ourselves, for us to do and to experience. This creates our restlessness and constant involvements in the dramas of our lives.
Knowing the Truth will lead us to Freedom.

Being in constant satsanga and practicing Yoga is the tool to liberation i.e. being at the place where this and that possibility can or cannot happen but you are not worrying about it.

Satsanga thus is not a process of brainwash or slavery but a process of recollection of our true nature, it implies two things: One, that you are willing to align your thoughts with higher thought wavelength, and two, you are practicing yogic self discipline and change your consciousness from darkness to light i.e. from tamas to rajas to sattwa. It is not a process imposed from outside but a conscious choice from the individual wanting to be aware of him/herself. The Guru or liberated person doesn't need us, it is us that need to be on the same wavelength as the Guru.

During this Thanksgiving Holiday Program on "Changing Consciousness," we talked a lot about the merging of Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga, two processes apparently very different and yet are one.

One is to love God and love God alone, and one is to discard the unreal for the real, and going deeper and deeper in the depths of our consciousness to find the underlying truth. The result is the same, the disappearance of separateness and illusions. The week end was so beautiful with music, concerts, food, beautiful company, beautiful weather. We are looking forward to have satsanga with you again, and invite you to partake in this common thought wavelength, this feast of the spirits during the upcoming Holiday Retreat Dec.19-Jan.2, 2008!

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