Carrying Satsang into Our Daily Lives

In the “Mool Mantra,” a short precept that precedes the Jap Ji, Guru Nanak praises the Lord and describes His attributes. He says:

There is but one God; true is His Name. He is the Creator, without fear, without enmity and of timeless form. Unborn and self-existent, He is realized through the Guru’s grace.¹

Although it is impossible to adequately describe the true nature of God in any human language, Guru Nanak reveals that He can be realized through the grace of the Master. It is only through the Master’s grace that we learn about the melody of Shabd, which will enable us to leave the earthly plane and return to our true home.² The Great Master said that the Guru’s grace is needed on every step of the inner journey to our true home.³

One of the many ways in which the Master has graced us is through the creation of satsang properties around the world. These properties were acquired so that the sangat can perform seva and attend satsang. Satsang and seva offer us an abode where the atmosphere of the Master’s presence uplifts our spirits and bolsters our determination to travel the inner path of Shabd.⁴

Unfortunately, many satsang facilities around the world remain temporarily closed as a result of the Covid pandemic. Naturally, many will be disappointed with the temporary closure of our satsang centres. However, in our feeling of disappointment we can draw inspiration from the comforting words of Hazur Maharaj Ji, so that we may channel this disappointment towards our meditation and spiritual growth. Hazur Maharaj Ji, when explaining what the Dera is, said that the Dera is not a place made of bricks, mortar, and other material things. He said that:

Dera is just your love, your harmony, your affection, your understanding and cooperation with each other. That is Dera.⁵

Hazur’s loving message is that our real satsang centre is not a physical place of bricks and mortar. Rather, it is a spirit of love, harmony and care for each other. It is for us to carry this spirit into our everyday activities, even though our physical facilities may remain closed and inaccessible. Hazur emphasized the importance of our efforts to carry the atmosphere of the Dera with us. He said that:

You have to build your own Dera around you. You have to live in your own Dera. You have to carry your Dera with you wherever you are, and that is within you. You have to build up that atmosphere, that environment in which you have to live. Everybody has to carry one’s own fort with him – that is the Dera. That is all within you, not outside in brick and mortar.⁶

A practical way to build and carry the atmosphere of love required for our meditation is to try to live with ourselves and to love our own company. Hazur Maharaj Ji said:

You see, our problem is that we always love the company of others; we don’t love our own company at all. If you sit in a room for five minutes, you will either switch on the television, call somebody, or start reading a newspaper or some magazine, because you are not in the habit of living with yourself; and when you try to live with yourself, you think “I am bored.” We don’t try to live with ourselves at all. We must learn to live with ourselves, independent of anything in this world. When you get into that habit, then it becomes very easy to build that atmosphere in which we have to live.⁷

Our Master graciously provides us with the means to create the atmosphere referred to by Hazur Maharaj Ji. We have been given many inspirational spiritual books, magazines, satsangs, and questions and answers. In this time when satsang centres are closed, we have these inspirational spiritual materials at our disposal to assist us in turning our attention inwards and performing our most important seva – attending to our meditation.

In the final verse of the Jap Ji, Guru Nanak reveals the good fortune of those who, with the Master’s grace, make the resolute effort of building their inner satsang of love and harmony so that they can attend to meditation and realize God. It says that:

Those who have meditated on the Name with resolute devotion have departed, fulfilling the purpose of life. Their faces are radiant with bliss, O Nanak, and many are liberated with them.⁸