Save the Last Dance

“Save the Last Dance for Me” is a song first recorded by The Drifters, a 1960s American R&B vocal group. The track conveys the feelings of a man who takes his girlfriend to a dance, watches her having fun, and reminds her:

But don’t forget who’s taking you home
And in whose arms you’re gonna be
So darlin’
Save the last dance for me

It’s a bit like us with the Master, isn’t it? Here we are, having fun in the world – well, at least some of the time – but do we remember who’s taking us home and who our real relationship is with, or are we like the teenager of the song? In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II, Maharaj Charan Singh tells us that not only does the Lord love us far more than we can ever love him, but our love is nothing more than a response to his call:

We are all children playing in this world with the material or worldly faces.… We are so attached to them and absorbed in playing with them that we do not even think about the Lord. We think we love him, but actually he loves us. It is he who creates that love in us. We are just responding to his love … he is more anxious to pull us than we are anxious to go back to him.

We may compare initiation to a marriage engagement. We are engaged to be united with the Lord much like a bride-to-be is engaged to be married to her fiancé. Before accepting the marriage offer, the girl presumably weighed up her future and then took this life-changing decision. Similarly, nobody carelessly asks for initiation on a whim. Only after reading the Sant Mat literature, attending satsang, asking ourselves if the philosophy makes sense and if we are willing to fulfil the vows – only then do we commit ourselves.

After initiation, we may experience a ‘honeymoon period’ – perhaps when we are in the presence of the physical Master. How easy it seems then to practise meditation with vigour and enthusiasm and to repeat simran throughout the day. He is such an inspiring presence that the atmosphere is charged with otherworldly energy. We are told not to look for results in our meditation but, in his presence, we do feel as if we have been rewarded and the uplift and joy we experience inspires us to meditate every day with love and devotion.

Then the physical presence of the Master is withdrawn and we return to our jobs, our families, and our worldly responsibilities. In the words of the song, we’re expected to “dance and sing” and throw ourselves into our various roles with much energy and aplomb. How hard we find it to keep a balance! Before we know it, we are going to the other extreme; our early morning meditation gets cut, the calm face with which we were able to meet problems gets ruffled. We are on the dance floor of life with no thought at all of whom we arrived with, where we belong, and who is taking us home.

And are we having such a good time anyway? It’s easy to get lured into the so-called delights of the world, but the backlash can be terrible. Why is it that even in our pain and misery, we try to justify it all? The deeper we fall in the mire, the more we turn our back on the one who loves us most, accusing him of being overstrict, a killjoy, expecting an impossible level of discipline from us. But the Master wants us to wake up to reality. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I, Maharaj Charan Singh answers the following question:

Q: Why do saints and mystics always seem to emphasize the darkness and ugliness of the world, rather than the beauty?
A: What is the one thing that belongs to you? The Father. Why don’t you try to make him your own? When you get peace within, you’ll get peace outside. That is their approach. They know the reality. It’s not that they don’t see beauty in this world or that they only try to explain the back side of the picture. But they also have to show us the back side of the picture. These faces are so beautiful, but from the back, those pictures are nails and cardboard.

The Master couldn’t make it clearer than this. The scenes we love are nothing more than “nails and cardboard” – that is, a stage backdrop that will be dismantled if not today, then tomorrow. Our Master would like us to face reality so that we can go where we can see the brilliance of our spiritual home rather than giving our hearts to the world’s tinsel. How do we keep the idea of our real home in our hearts whilst at the same time making a good show on the dance floor? Meditation, of course, but it’s important to remember the scope of what the Master means by meditation. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II, Maharaj Charan Singh tells us:

After initiation, whatever efforts we are making – doing simran, reading Sant Mat books, attending meetings, having good discussions, becoming a source of strength to each other, filling each other with love and devotion for the Father – these are all strong efforts towards our spiritual development…. Meditation is a way of life. Meditation is not closing yourself in a room for a couple of hours and then forgetting about it. It is a way of life. Your whole pattern of life is changed; your attitude of life is changed. That is meditation.

Baba Ji advises us to be good human beings. We could add: being a caring parent, a loving spouse or solicitous son or daughter, irrespective of whether our family follows the same spiritual path as us. It would be arrogant to expect all our associates to think as we do; they are on their journey in life just as we are on ours. “Judge not that ye be not judged” was one of the axioms of Jesus Christ. So being a good human being includes giving non-judgmental support to those around us. As we face our karmas and the impact of the karmic burden of those dear to us, it is only the stabilizing effect of daily meditation that enables us to go through life as a good human being. If we try, daily, to sit for our allotted time in simran, dhyan and bhajan, this will spread its effect during the rest of the day. We’ll be able to play our part in life, have fun whilst all the time cherishing our true goal.

Sant Mat enjoins upon us a strict discipline. Attending to meditation is something we must do whether we feel like it or not. Some days we certainly don’t feel like it. But we have to put in the time nevertheless. Making an effort, despite everything, has its own strengthening effect and, before we know it, our heart is in it, and we really are carrying that love with us throughout the day, remembering our true companion and looking forward to the time when, arm in arm with him, we will return home.

But why leave it until the last dance? Instead of squandering our attention on companions who will never be ours, why not enjoy the dance floor with our faithful companion? If we show him we care, he will whisper, “Save every dance for me”.