Satsang is Where We Express It

The Times of India reported an article on Sunday that quoted a young man saying, “If I were to diagram my spiritual life, it would look something like this: A continual series of ups and downs, through all of my life, moving in a slow upward direction, although some of the lows would seem lower than before and some of the highs would seem higher than before.”

The article continued in the vain, ”When I picture this graph, it is not encouraging at first, because the longer I live, the further away the end of the graph appears. It is very much like the elusive end of the rainbow - the closer I get, the further away it seems.”

The article then turned it up a notch and began, “And yet there is something you cannot see on a one-dimensional diagram, something you cannot express with lines and words. There is a hidden excitement that begins to surface, a tingling of the soul that quickens my consciousness as i gaze at this trail of God in my life. I suddenly realise a great truth-the up-and-down syndrome of my life is the fingerprint of God on my soul! It is the remains of my struggle of faith, the ups and downs of my ongoing dialogue with the God. It is the way growth looks.”

Thoughts like these are difficult at times to express, but in Satsang it is the natural way.

Satsang in India - Sometimes

The following three paragraphs were taken off the Internet and are shared as a way of showing that the word Satsang has many meanings and that sometimes people get it right and other times they fall short.

In the middle they wrote, "Some people are now using the satsang style of worship and trying to contextualize more so that they can maintain their culture while forsaking the false beliefs," Wayne said. "Satsang style uses music similar to the Sikh singing. The leader would likely sit rather than stand, and some people are using contextualized terms like 'Sat Guru' (True Teacher) for Jesus."

Satsang, which literally means "true company," is a congregationally led worship. Often one teacher will sit and read a passage from the Bible, and the congregation will meditate on it and discuss it.

In this way, Sikh-background Christians can match their style of worship to the culture to which they are accustomed, while remaining devoted to following and sharing Christ.

Vedic Science

The Washington Post writes that in Hinduism, science and religion go hand in hand. The relationship between Hinduism and science goes back to the Indus Valley civilization, as old as 2500 BCE. The Washington Post writes that Vedic science appears to have included components of astronomy, biology, mathematics, chemistry, medicine, metallurgy, etc. The notion of atomic/molecular world was integrated into Vaiseshika school (between around 250 BCE to 100 CE) of Hindu philosophy.

The Washington Post writes that Yoga included some remarkable methods of breath/respiration control. Ancient sages were said to be acquainted with radar, microbiology, radioactivity, television, etc according to the Vedic reports. Epic heroes of Hinduism flew first aircrafts, as hard as this is to believe. In Hinduism, there is theory of Seven Worlds, Doctrine of the Ages of the World, religious categories of Space in Veda, reference to quantum mechanics in scriptures, as well as mysteries of Vedic/Puranic aeronautics and Tantrik biochemistry, etc, according to the all wise teachers.

There is too much to talk about in one column; come to Satsang and let us discuss it all.

Satsang and Festival

In India there was a major occasion with speakers and ceromonies and such, but before it all began, there was Satsang.

Hundreds of people participated in 'Stand up, speak out,' a pledge taking ceremony organised by the Art of Living Community in Mangalore in association with United Nations Millennium Campaign against poverty and for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The Millennium campaign that kicked off at the UN's Millennium Summit in September, 2000 aims at a prosperous, safer and equitable world by year 2015.

The 'Stand up, Speak Out' campaign adopted by Art of Living attempts to impart the sense of responsibility to all citizens towards this goal. As part of this campaign, the pledge taking ceremony was organised in more than 194 countries across the globe on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In Mangalore, the members of AoL community assembled at Canara Girls High School grounds in Dongerkery on Wednesday evening to make their pledge for a better world. They held their hands together, leaving out none and repeated the pledge dictated by Mr B N R Rao. Former district-in-charge minister B Nagaraj Shetty made his presence during the ceremony. The ceremony was preceded by a satsang which took a peppy turn after the pledge.

Toltec Warriors

There is a discussion going on about the mounds where visitors to Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park would be able to view the ancient American Indian complex from one of its highest points under a proposal being considered by the park superintendent.

“When you stand up on top of Mound B, you sort of get it,” Superintendent James Wilborn said, referring to the mound that rises 39 feet from the ground. “This is pretty impressive. You gain a new appreciation for the construction of the mound. If we can protect the site and give visitors the opportunity to do that, why not pursue it ?”

Imagine if you and I could get into the Warrior way of thinking that created such a wonderful thing? Satsang is where we can discuss and learn the Way of the Warrior.

Hesse & Gibran

This year 2007 marks the 125th anniversary of Gibran Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese-American poet and visual artist who many associate with enlightenment, and the 130th anniversary of Hermann Hesse, a German and Swiss novelist and thinker who became a great favorite of colleage students in the 1960's. The universal appeal of both Gibran and Hesse is very clear in their work, and more particularly in Hesse's novel "Siddhartha" and in Gibran's "The Prophet" which has great appeal to young people looking for the answers to questions.

Remember, Satsang is always a place of exploration and truth!

Spiritual Enlightenment Journey to Drugs

It was reported today by a drug researcher that DRUG users will move from ecstasy towards hallucinogenic drugs in search of "spiritual enlightenment", Adelaide drug researcher David Caldicott says.
Dr Caldicott said people use drugs for specific "self-medicating" reasons and those reasons are changing, as in the search for enlightenment.

He said while more research into shifting drug trends needed to be done, Australian users tended to follow European trends, as in the search for enlightenment.
In Europe, they are turning off "pills" and tuning in to more "mystical" highs, he said.

People use such "hug drugs" as ecstasy – known as entactogenic drugs – to get a feeling of love and intimacy with others, he said, “as in the search for enlightenment.”

Now, more people are looking for a spiritual enlightenment and/or religious experiences and are turning to such hallucinogenic drugs as LSD or others derived from plants – cacti and mushrooms – which are known as entheogenic drugs.
Many are legal and available in the wild, in gardens and online.
Some, when they are ready, come to Satsang.