Becoming a Satsangi
Once we have been initiated, whether it is for a few months or many years, we are likely to think of ourselves as a satsangi. We deem being a satsangi an essential part of our identity, influencing how we live our lives. But are we really a satsangi? What does that actually mean? A loose definition of the term is one who follows a spiritual path or a guru, but the real definition is so much more. Maharaj Jagat Singh expanded on this when he told us:
One does not become a Satsangi simply by being initiated. One must mould his life in accordance with the principles of Satsang. Every thought, speech and action must conform to them. Actions speak louder than words. Thoughts are even more potent. A Satsangi’s daily conduct must bear the hallmark of excellence and must reveal that he is the follower of a True Master.
The Science of the Soul
Until we have gone within and become associated with the truth, with God, with the Master within, we are not satsangis, we are still seekers. This may create a bit of an identity crisis for us, but for most of us, it likely rings true. We know the limits of our experience; at best we could be called satsangi wannabes. That is not a bad thing. Masters have told us that even if we spend our whole life seeking, it is not time wasted. Just seeking the truth is a life worth living. Seeking moves us forward, moves us toward something. A seeker attempts to find something that has been lost or has been out of reach. In our case, we seek to find the ultimate truth. We seek to gain true awareness of the Shabd, God’s voice within. We seek God-realization.
The opposite of a seeker is a finder. A finder is someone who comes upon something after searching. Again, the emphasis is on our work. We must seek to find, and if we do this work, the finding is guaranteed. The Master assures us we will find the ultimate something we are looking for, because, in fact, we already have it. All we need to do is turn within to experience and become aware of what is already ours.
Part of seeking is admitting that we are lost and ready to be found. Then we must seek the help of someone who has already found the truth. Masters have found their way home to God, and their job is to now help and guide us on this same journey. The Great Master, Maharaj Sawan Singh, spoke of this need for a master.
The Master takes on this form for man’s guidance – to talk to him, to sympathize with him, to make friends with him, to develop confidence and faith in him, to induce him to seek peace and happiness within himself, to show him the way to it, to teach him by becoming an example, to develop in him godlike attributes, and to pull him up out of his physical form to his astral form.
Spiritual Gems
The master takes on the human form so that we can relate to him. He talks about having the same kind of experiences we’ve had, including childhood, schooling, being married, parenting, going through illness. As he sympathizes and empathizes with our plight of being trapped in this world, we begin to consider him as a friend. As the master-disciple relationship grows, we find ourselves seeking him. We seek to know who he really is, to follow him and to experience his presence and his love.
Yet, because we are limited beings, our mind and body keep us confounded and confused. We need help and we need a true living master to support us as we learn to become disciples. Being guided by a true living master is the greatest gift bestowed upon a disciple. By the Master’s grace, circumstances are created in our life that lead us to him. At the right time in our life, a door opens, and he is there. We are destined both to seek him and to find him. We are marked souls, waiting for the Master to reveal himself. Once lost, we are now found. Our Master initiates us and puts us on the path with the guarantee that we will return home to God.
The Master constantly urges and encourages us to do our spiritual practice. He doesn’t want us to take his word for it, he wants us to experience the truth for ourselves. He wants us to have true and lasting happiness, which can only be found within. As Maharaj Charan Singh explains in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I, “It is always with the grace of the Father that a disciple is drawn to the master, and the master initiates him, and he works his way back to the Lord.”
That is our spiritual task now: to work our way back to the Lord. This is not a free ride. Sant Mat is a path of action requiring discipline and obedience. Living a spiritual life is essential preparation for the lifelong journey of meditation. This means changing the direction of our attention from outward toward the world to inward toward God. We are taught a meditation practice consisting of simran, or the repetition of five names that are empowered by our Master’s grace, and bhajan, which is listening for the sound of God – the Shabd – at the eye centre. Simran gives us spiritual strength by concentrating our attention at the eye centre as we attempt to experience truth. That truth is the Shabd, God’s divine melody that vibrates throughout the universe.
The Shabd is the soundtrack for our journey home. Although it is always playing in the background, we fail to hear it. We are too distracted by the noise of the world, and even worse, the noise of our own mental chatter. Our only hope for tuning in to this beautiful sound is concentration on our spiritual practice.
We do simran to calm and focus the mind, then we listen for even the faintest sound that will help us find the way home to God. The saints tell us the sound is always with us. But we have become so accustomed to hearing the gross outer sounds that we do not recognize this sweet subtle sound that is all around us and within us. If we practice stillness and listen, we will in time hear it, and it will pull us home.
We have a choice. We can either take up this journey to become a true disciple, or we can continue to be tied down to the world by the mind. As satsangis, we are given the opportunity to become disciples of truth rather than victims of our mind’s delusions. Longing is an important part of our journey; it fuels our efforts while the desire to be a satsangi and to know the truth propels us forward.
Notably, the Master is not the least bit concerned about our shortcomings. What we may view as our failures, the Master sees as effort. Masters see us for who we truly are, a spiritual being having a human experience, trying to become a true disciple. As Great Master wrote in Spiritual Gems, “Saints look at the devotee’s soul, and not at his mind or body, and that is the reason why saints are never disappointed.” The Master simply wants us to put in the effort and keep trying.
While this is a slow process and may seem impossible, the Master encourages each and every disciple during all stages of this journey. He has the faith and the patience to see us through our journey home. Through meditation, and with patience and perseverance, we slowly begin to tame the mind and smooth out the deep grooves caused by lifetimes of worldly habits, thus changing the direction of our attention. The Master’s light radiates from within us, and all it takes to experience that light is our love and labour. We don’t often think of love and labour together, but when someone does something truly selfless, we often say, “That was a real labour of love.”
Great Master used to say there were two paths: the path of surrender and the path of meditation. He said that meditation was the easier of these two paths. Since meditation leads to surrender, we must take the steep, steady road of meditation. Though it is difficult, we can enjoy this gift of meditation by just relaxing and letting go. In time, our effort will bear the fruit of surrender. The saints implore us to just continue, to always do our best, doing a little more until we can completely surrender. Once we surrender, he will give us the treasure he has been holding for us.
Then we will experience the true love of God within. Our work is to seek him, to follow him, to do our best, to simply love him and be his devoted disciple. The Master has promised that we will go within. Once we experience that inner love, we will have truly become a satsangi.