SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion

ROOTED IN MYSTERY
Reflections on the Spiritual Journey

‘Our duty as men and women is to proceed as if the limits to our ability did not
exist. We are collaborators in Creation’
Teilhard de Chardin (Mystic & Scientist 1881 -1955)

PART ONE: - OUR PRESENT CRISIS

These reflections are based on a series of Pravachans (Conference Talks) given by
Sister Ishpriya the spiritual teacher of the International Satsang Association (ISA).
These talks were delivered at a recent meeting of the Board of Trustees at Die Quelle
the ISA Sadhana Ashram in Austria. The notes also contain many personal viewpoints
and reflections over a number of years. Before focusing on the main theme of
Ishpriya’s input, I would like to outline some details about the ISA and its Member’s
Triple Commitment.

The ISA is a companionship of spiritual seekers who are open to the truth about the
Mystery at the heart of creation. They seek to discern and read the ‘signs of the
times’ in a world that, at times, is confusing, misleading and is seemingly drifting
towards an abyss of destruction. Further details on the ISA can be found on its
website (www.international-satsang.org )

The Satsang Triple Commitment lies at the heart of the ethos and values of the ISA. A
more considered outline of this Triple Commitment can be downloaded from the
Resources Page of the following website www.satsang-companion.org.uk a brief
outline is as follows:

The Satsang Association is a companionship of Seekers after Truth, who seriously

commits themselves to:

1. Their personal growth in spiritual awareness and practice.

2. Helping remove the barriers of prejudice and ignorance, which divide persons
from each other.

3. Building up relationships of compassion and appreciation across

frontiers of race, language, culture, gender, economic status and religion.

And is so doing each seeks to play their part in

Creating a Planetary Vision and Universal Compassion.

These notes will now outline three important elements of the crisis currently facing our
human family.

SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion
SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion

Our human family has evolved as part of the on-going enfolding of the Cosmos and
Creation. Teilhard de Chardin reminds us of our duty and responsibility to play our part
in this process. Ishpriya reminded us that we, in the ISA along with many others, had
for over 20 years been aware of the growing and impending crisis facing our world and
humanity. Many experts, in a wide diversity of disciplines, agree that this crisis is so
profound and immediate , that it could mean the end of the Human Era on this our
beautiful and wonderful Blue Planet.

Our Cosmos has been evolving for almost 14 Billion years, our Solar System is almost
5 billion years and humanity has become part of this steady evolution in the relatively
recent past, that is only in time measured in tens of hundreds of thousands years.
During this time, humanity has made several crucial choices on its path to the present
day. One such choice was the decision of our ancestors to move from the African Rift
Valley towards the Middle East and then to move East and West. This choice resulted
in the rich diversity of our human family. But , as the Hindu Vedas reminds us, we are
all inter-connected. This is beautifully expressed in these words from the Katha
Upanishad

There are not many but only one.

Who seeks variety and not the unity,
Wanders on from death to death.

In her talks Ishpriya focused on the crucial facing us all in these times. Many consider
that humanity has taken a ‘wrong turn’ on its evolutionary path. It has branched off
from the natural path of evolution and seems headed for a destructive and very
negative dead end or cul-de-sac. This could lead to the total destruction of our human
family. There are many indicators that highlight this destructive path, but she chose
three obvious and stark examples. These are:

• The Crisis of our Environment

• The Crisis of Violence and Destruction.

• The Crisis of our lack of compassion.

These reflections will now begin to explore each of these areas of crisis in turn. My
comments are informed both by Ishpriya’s Pravachans and some personal
reflections.

SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion
SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion

The Crisis of our Environment For many years most of the World’s leading
Scientists , from many disciplines, have warned of the impending danger of humanity’s
continued abuse of the Earth and the consequent effects on our environment. They
warn that, unless we make drastic changes and cease abusing Nature and the
environment, reduce our use of resources and change our profligate way of life, the
Earth’s environment will evolve and change so as to cause the destruction of much of
humanity. That the environment is in crisis is evident to all. Some argue about its root
causes . What is inescapable is our individual responsibility to respond in some
positive way.

The Crisis of Violence and Destruction We have known for millennia of our
human ‘drive to violence’. It is part of the paradox of humanity. On the one hand we
are capable of great love, care and compassion and yet on the other hand, on our,
‘darker side’, we are capable of extreme violence and great cruelty. Much of the latter
is rooted in our fear and ignorance.

We cannot but fail to acknowledge and be aware of the increase in violence, terrorism
and human abuse that is currently occurring. The incidence of war, terrorism, rape,
torture and general violence seems to be on the increase. In the past century, wars
have destroyed more lives and killed more people than in all previous recorded
history. We currently face a wave of violence and terrorism such as never before. We
have also developed the technical and manufacturing capability for nuclear, biological
and chemical warfare. Each of these is capable of destroying our species and
poisoning our environment.

The Crisis caused by our Lack of Compassion There is increasing evidence of

humanity’s failure to understand our inter-connectedness. We seem to find it difficult to
see the inherent wisdom and truth in discovering and recovering our sense of a
common unity amongst peoples. The consequences of this failure were so aptly
outlined in the earlier quote from the Katha Upanishad. This failure and lack of wisdom
and discernment, dulls our sense of compassion. Thus we seemed doomed to
‘wander on from death to death’ There are many signs of our failure to see our
underlying unity and our seeming difficulty to act more consistently with compassion.
Ishpriya highlighted several areas where there was a disconnection between our
intellectual knowledge and understanding of crucial issues and our heart of
compassion. She focused on one extremely stark set of statistics regarding the plight
of children in our world today

Caritas is an International Charity with its roots and values in Christianity. It is involved
in a wide range of projects in the Third World one of its many projects is its work with
under-privileged children. In one of its many Reports it focused on the effects of
malnutrition and disease of children. It reported that, due to entirely preventable
malnutrition and disease’ one child dies every three seconds in our world today’
In addition, it stated that the situation is getting worse. Five years ago one child died
every five seconds.

Yet we live in a world of great medical, scientific and technological achievements. . It

is a world rich in talent, imagination, intuition and human resourcefulness. It is a world
quite capable of feeding and nurturing all, particularly children. Yet, it is a world in
which a child needlessly dies every three seconds.

SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion
SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion

I would like to return to the opening quotation from De Chardin. It seems that we not
only ‘have a duty’, we have to make a choice. Each one of us has the responsibility to
seek an alternative and better path. We can argue about the roots of each of these
three indicators of evolutionary crisis, what we cannot , and must not do, is to avoid
responsibility. Our primary task is to take personal responsibility, as co-creators, for
our choices and their consequences. Individual choice, according to Ishpriya, is the
only basis for a collective responsibility and a possible positive and life giving change
by humanity on its current evolutionary journey.

Paradoxically, in my work as a counselling therapist, I meet so many people who

honestly consider that ‘Sitting on the fence’ is seemingly not a choice and therefore
has no consequences! So often they seem puzzled and surprised when reminded
that doing nothing has consequences. One danger is to adopt the ‘ostrich syndrome’
and to bury our heads in the sand. To continue to act ‘as if’ there were no problems,
no crisis and no personal responsibility. In fact , many people find it much easier to
decline taking responsibility and to begin to apportion blame. This failure to take
responsibility and to apportion blame could lead to humanity sleep walking into its
own destruction.

Now Ishpriya returned several times to the importance of ‘staying awake and learning
how to read (and discern) the signs of the times. I was reminded of the example of the
eminent Austrian Psychologist Viktor Frankl. Frankl was the father of both logo
therapy and existential therapy. He was also a survivor of the Holocaust and of 4
Concentration Camp. He regularly insisted that many of the problems facing our world
were caused by our individual failure to seek meaning in, and to take responsibility for,
our lives.

Unfortunately, as I reflected on above, instead of taking responsibility, many decide to

apportion blame. They play the ‘blame game and either blame themselves or, more
often, others. Thus in all relationships, personal and in society a negative cycle of
blame occurs and this leads to anger, anxiety, resentment and violence. Each
negative cycle leads to a further a deeper cycle down and down. We each can see
evidence for this ‘blaming’ in our personal and professional life. We can see it at the
level of the wider society, our Media, Institutions and countries. Whenever there is
either a problem or a crisis, we can so readily and instinctively begin to blame others
and other things.

Now Frankl predicted in 1945, that this failure to take responsibility and to choose to
blame, would lead to a neurotic triad of depression, aggression and addiction in our
world. This prophesy has unfortunately become a reality. Frankl asserts that ‘in the
end Man (male of female) is challenged by life itself’. Now, we may or may not be
as wise, aware and discerning as people like Ishpriya and Frankl. Both are prophets
and they have this ability to read and discern the signs of the times. This ability to stay
awake, to be rooted in a deep sense of awareness of self and of our inter-
connectedness with all creation, is the hallmark of the ordinary every day prophet or
mystic. They are awake, aware and ready to face the challenge of the present.

SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion
SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion

For each of us the challenge is here and the challenge is now. Individuals have a
responsibility to face the choice and challenge of life and of our current crisis. We are
challenged to seek and to find a better way. I was reminded of those famous words of
Jesus the Master, who came to show us a way to live; ‘Knock and the door will be
opened, seek and you will find’ . His message, along with those of the Buddha and
Mohammed is a message of hope and a message that there is a better way.

This better and more life giving way already exist. It is a path of faith and a path of
mystery. It has been known for many millennia and it is a way that will take us deep
into the self. Of course when we are challenged to go on a journey into unfamiliar
territory, it is natural to be apprehensive and perhaps fearful. I find this quotation
helpful whenever I am facing difficulties and challenges:

‘Faith is taking the first step

even when you don’t see the whole staircase’
Martin Luther King Jnr (1929-1968)

Part 2 of this series will begin to explore this alternative path. However, to end these
reflections, I would like to return to a ceremony that regularly occurs at Die Quelle.
This is the twice daily Aarati. All cultures and traditions use light in their ceremonies.
The Aarati is a particularly Indian ceremony. Its origins go way back into pre-history,
perhaps into what Aboriginal Australians call ‘ the time before time began’ It is a
deeply symbolic ceremony of light and takes place in all Ashrams and Temples at
least twice a day, at dawn and dusk. These times mark the changes between
darkness and light. The Aarati flame is lit and then three marks or signs of creation are
reverenced by its light. This light is passed in a circling motion before them. These
marks or signs of the Absolute, the Divinity are, the Icon or symbol of the Divine or of
the Sacred Scriptures, the outside world, which is a reminder of the magnificence of
the Cosmos and finally to those present, who are all symbols and reflections of
creation and the Creator.

Each day at Die Quelle we began and ended with this simple but powerful ancient
ceremony. These occasions are twice daily reminders of the cycle of life and of our
presence to the present. They remind us that each day is ‘gift’ and that we need to
pray that each night will provide us with safety and rest. At Die Quelle, in the
Meditation Cave, the Aarati lamp lights up the darkness. For me it is a powerful
symbol and reminder of our constant need for physical, psychological and spiritual
light in our darkness. For it is only in the light that we can see with clarity our
surroundings, our situation and a possible better and safer way to walk. It is this light
that we all need if we are to responsibly respond to the challenge of our choices.

SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion
SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion

We will reflect on this in Part Two Each area of crisis will be addressed .
. However, I would like to end Part One of these reflections with the following prayer
from Ishpriya’s reflections in Kalkaladini – The Singing of the Stream’

AARATI
A tongue of flame paints circles in the air.
The bells and symbols resound.
People clap and sing.
A shiver of excitement runs through my heart, O Lord.
At some peak moment You have bent low over my life
And the power of Your Presence has struck sparks of
fire within me.
In such brief moments have I become the camphor
Which willingly burns and dies without a trace.
And so each time, O Lord of my life.
I watch the circling flames of the Aarati
I remember those moments,
when the intensity of Your love
has demanded that I become a little flame
to burn out, in praise

To be continued in Part Two

Peter Creagh (Nov 2010)

SATSANG – Seeking Together – Helping to Create – A Planetary Vision – And Universal Compassion