The Golden Age

Nothin' But The Truth

Satsang is when your heart sings and it comes out your mouth.

- Jacob, age 3

Australia is waking up. Premies all over the continent are beginning to understand that yes, we have been given the highest Knowledge which everyone else is still seeking. With that understanding, our desire to discover the depth and the constancy of that gift has blossomed. And so it's back to the giver, to Guru Maharaj Ji, to see how we can best grow in that experience inside. Service, satsang and meditation-so simple, but where there's so much to learn. Everything we need to know, everything we were born to know. Last month, the Golden Age looked at what Guru Maharaj Ji and some past Masters had to say about meditation. Here, we've gathered some quotes on satsang. Premies in Sydney and elsewhere too, no doubt, have been finding opportunities to give and listen to satsang opening up everywhere-at seminars, at five-minute-a-time specials, at satellite and daytime programs, wherever premies are living or serving or playing together. At the same time, we've been understanding a little of the responsibility we have to give clear satsang, and the power true satsang carries. So here's some satsang about satsang - what it is, why we need it, how to listen to and how to give satsang.

Satsang is the real, true communication between the person who has mastered it, and the person who is listening to the person who has mastered it satsang is that point where we have fully realised that yes, this is the Knowledge.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

That's really what satsang is - sharing something that each one of us has experienced with our brothers and sisters.

- Durga Ji

Satsang is the lifeblood of a community. It is the life-line that is thrown out to every human being in his time to bring him to an understanding of the purpose of his life. As each of us searches, we first hear satsang from a premie, which leads and directs us to Knowledge. Thus, when satsang is alive amongst the premies, it is only then that others can be thrown that lifeline as well. Satsang happening in our lives brings people to that deep experience of meditation as well.

- The Propagation Handbook

More and more satsang, more and more realisation. You have realisation through Knowledge, but realisation through satsang is just as important. So by getting satsang you are being fed, not by food, but by satsang, by what is really spiritual.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

A human being receives this Knowledge but he still needs satsang to keep him inspired, and the reason being for it is this mind, this crazy, crazy, crazy mind.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

We have all assembled here to listen satsang. And really, there are many people who come to satsang, but there are very few who can really, really take the privilege of satsang. We have to understand how beautiful satsang is. First of all we have to un stand whom it is coming from, the source of satsang, and then we have to be interested in Knowledge. Other it's a lecture, otherwise it's a phorwo talk, otherwise it doesn't even mean anything.

But if we really have love in our and we really, really want to realise this Knowledge, we really want to, then satsang means something to us. And not only something; as a matter of fact, it means a lot to us.

-Guru Maharaj Ji

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No. 27, March 1976

A crow that takes a bath in Satsang becomes a swan.

- Shri Hans Ji Maharaj

And when we listen to satsang, if this crazy mind is going on and on and on, I tell you, it won't do you any good. And you can be sitting here going to sleep and it won't do you any good. because your mind will be completely somewhere else, your whole concentration will be somewhere else. Here you are sitting, supposed to be listening to satsang, but how will you be able to listen to it? This is how our mind is. If we are talking to our mind all the time, if we are imagining our mind all the time, if we're trying to think of our mind all the time … because, see, if we are not going to ignore it, the mind will think, "Oh! So you care about me, so you're gonna get it! If you think I am there, I'd better be there. I'll at least show my face to you". And then it'll be there all the time. But what you can really do is completely ignore it, and instead really understand what satsang is, and really really try to do service.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

So premies, realise and understand. You have the power to do it. So, do it. Just go out, and tell people about this Knowledge.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

Go thou to the company of the good, where the Beloved One has His dwelling place. Take all thy thoughts and love and instruction from thence.

- Saint Kabir

You know, you really can't say to yourself that there is a fixed policy on satsang. Satsang is always infinite, because it's a description of something which is infinite which we all feel within our hearts.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people: that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

- Peter 2:9

I can give you satsang every day, and you can listen to satsang every day, but it might not do you any good at all. Because it's not just listening to satsang - of course, I think it's wonderful to listen to satsang - but it's not just that. It's a little more than that: it's what we understand from satsang that's important.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

When we have really experienced that bliss and the Truth within our heart is the only time we can really go out and give satsang about the Truth.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

Take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

- Matthew 11:19-20

People who have given satsang, they know how it is. They are just like amplifiers, and they can see this huge energy banging on their backs, making them speak. They understand that they are not capable of doing it. They're not capable of giving satsang. But when this energy flows through them, and they just tell the experience of it, it gets more blissful each time. It gets more beautiful each time.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

Satsang shouldn't be planned out beforehand, otherwise it is really not satsang. Of course we may have a certain topic of which we are to speak, and that is no problem, but we shouldn't put any limitations on it. When satsang starts to flow out of someone it's really very magical, it has a great power because it is coming from Guru Maharaj Ji, but if we go ahead and keep sticking our brain in there, it won't quite come out with the proper impact."

- Ira Woods

My tongue has left off impure words, it sings His glory day and night: Whether I rise or sit down, I can never forget Him; for the rhythm of His music beats in my ears.

- Saint Kabir

You can never say "I've had enough of this satsang" or "I've had enough of this meditation, because you never can! And, it's like you have to understand that you are proceeding on an infinite path, and you have to just keep on going, going, going, going.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

So, like everything that Guru Maharaj Ji gives, satsang leads back to Knowledge, and to surrender. To listen to satsang takes openness and attention-and what can open us up like Holy Name? To give satsang means to have something true to share, means living in that experience so that at any moment we're ready to communicate from the place that's real. To get up on a satsang chair means surrender of all the good ideas your mind has had of what to say. To be really clear, to serve properly, what else can you do as you climb into the seat but say "take it away, Maharaj Ji, you do it", and let Holy Name completely fill you up with love that's got to come out as satsang?

And the amazing thing is, it works. As premies, we're caught up in something so big, if we look at it from our little ego selves, the only thing to do is to say "I can't do it", or "I'm afraid". But if we just let ourselves relax into that vibration, let it work through us, then it becomes so easy. Guru Maharaj Ji has said that any premie who is experiencing Knowledge and following agya can give satsang. Because if we're doing those things, definitely we've got something to talk about. Satsang is an opportunity that Maharaj Ji's put there for us, so that we can get closer to where we want to be - talking about Knowledge is service, satsang and meditation all rolled into one. So test it out - the only way to discover what satsang really is, is to do it.

And so really meditate, try to understand this Knowledge, try to give satsang to other people, and blast off.

- Guru Maharaj Ji
Melbourne, 1974

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