Escaping from the Cold

There is a great feeling of comfort and warmth sitting at the feet of the Master, listening to his soothing voice expounding upon the teachings of the path. This is the one unifying moment where seekers and disciples from different races and backgrounds congregate in the search for truth.

Satsang or ‘association with the truth’ is a common aspect of almost every religion or spiritual path. It is the supreme method by which the Masters gather their flock of disciples so that they can personally teach them to understand the truth and show them the way back to their true home.

Satsang is a unique boon which the Master distributes free to both the learned and the ignorant. His overpowering grandeur, his refulgence and magnetic force attract each person according to his merit, with the result that he becomes oblivious of the world.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh, Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. I}

The Master’s words carry the weight of authority and compassion, for he speaks from his own experience and lovingly awakens our sleepy souls out of their slumber. Like a protective father teaching his child, he explains the path in a manner that is simple enough for us to understand. He brings the teachings down to our level, using metaphors and analogies that we can relate to in our everyday lives. He knows us and he understands our weaknesses.

But because he loves us, he sees only what is best in us. Like a diamond cutter who can see the sparkling diamond in the rough, he sees the ultimate potential of our souls.

In the book In Search of the Way, Flora Wood recalls a satsang by Maharaj Sawan Singh:

When you look at a tree, you realize it has sprung from a tiny seed (and here the Master gestured with his beautiful and expressive hands to show its smallness) and the little plant has grown slowly, slowly into a shady and spreading giant of a tree, which if you consider it, was all wrapped up in that small seed-case waiting to be developed; but if you had been told beforehand that this little seed would develop into such a gigantic tree, you would never have believed it possible. In a like manner, the soul and the Word are wrapped up within the body and mind of man, waiting to be developed by a true Guru….

Literally our only hope is when in human form, we find a guide who knows the way out of this maze and learn the technique from him of withdrawing our attention to the third eye (and here the Master gestured again with his gentle hand to a spot between the eyes) where we will contact the music of the audible life stream, the source of life itself. We will slowly, by ardent and assiduous practice, learn to discriminate and begin to see, in some small measure, the path our Satguru is trying to show us. At first, due to the jangle of our worldly life, we cannot discern the full glory of the harmony within us; but it is there, just as surely as fire is latent in wood, which, on being rubbed in the correct manner, springs to life.

The whole secret lies in devoting ourselves so wholeheartedly to our Master’s instructions that we not only resemble him whom we love, but literally become him!

Maharaj Sawan Singh explains that there is the ‘outer’ satsang, which acts as a fence around the crop of meditation and helps the disciple to follow a spiritual mode of life. But the ultimate aim is to attend the ‘inner’ satsang, which is when the soul unites with the Lord by means of meditation.

Outer satsang is an effort to kindle a fire, while the other (inner satsang) is like sitting near a fire and escaping from the cold.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh, Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. I}

The child means everything to the Father, and because of this supreme love, the Master takes every measure to reach out to his sangat, his children. He gives us the benefit of that outer satsang, so that we can have the strength and fortitude to strive for the inner.

He lifts up our spirits as he assures us of the ultimate reunion with the Supreme Lord, when the outer culminates in with the inner - its ultimate purpose.

In one side of the scale, my friend,
Put all the joys of heaven and the happiness of liberation;
But all of them combined together will be outweighed
By a moment’s bliss of satsang.
_{The Teachings of Goswami Tulsidas}