GREATNESS OF SATSANGA

Namaste to everybody

Many of you wait for this anniversary day. There are people who are very regular. They say they are very
regular! Regularly attending our programmes! I asked them how regular they are. They come for every
anniversary! Simple. They have not missed any anniversary programme. I am missing the program. . Due
to my health reasons, I am not able to come there. Yet I want to speak to you all for a few minutes.
They asked me to talk on Satsang. It’s a fascinating topic. ‘satAm satpurushAnAm sangaH satsangaH.”

Satsanga is SatpurushAnAm SangaH. SatpurushAs are people who have achieved spiritual knowledge and
those who are pursuing spiritual knowledge. Both are SatpurushAs. tEsham sangaH, association with them.
Association is not hanging out. Association is to be in harmony with their thinking; with their ways of
living. That is the association. If one has to change, one has to be in harmony with the people who have
already changed. There is no other way of changing.

You can do this in two ways. One: directly coming and sitting, listening to them, understanding them. This
is Satsanga. And those who are teaching, whom we listen to, themselves should be in harmony with the
Rishis; their thoughts; their teachings. They are the SatpurushAs. And with those SatpurushAs, to be in
harmony, is to go all the way up. All the way up. .They become conduits for the message of the Upanishads
to reach you; Gita to reach you. They are the SatpurushAs. And this brings about a change.

This is a direct connection. You cannot sit in Saylorsburg all the time and enjoy the classes. The Direct
Satsang is not possible. For various reasons. But you can have indirect Satsang, in that case. These days
you can have an I-Pad…you can carry the Swamiji in your pocket! Somebody posted to me “ Swami ji, I
have you, in my hand: So this indirect listening also, HAVING KNOWN THE PESON, is Satsang.
Reading a book is a Satsang. Because your mind is with the mind of that person when you read. That’s how
you change. Nobody changes without the association of the Satpurusha.

Satsangatve Nissangatvam… Nissangatve Nirmohatvam

Nirmohatve Nischalatattam…Nischalatatve Jeevanmuktih
Bhaja Govindam Bhaja Govindam…….

Satsanga brings about that change. Every one of you, who comes to this place, has a story to tell, how he
changed.. a story to tell. Change takes place by association. Association of people either directly, indirectly,
reading, listening. It’s a verse in Bhaja Govindam. It’s a book of conversion. It’s a book of purushArtha
conversion. Bhaja govindam, Bhaja govindam. If you analyse all the verses, it’s all purushArthas. Artham,
kAmam, it’s all purushArtha. Arthamanartham bAvaya nithyam. It’s a purushArtha. PurushArtha means:
what is aspired by every purushA. Purushaihi arthyatE not purushEna arthyatE .. it is not singular but
collective plural.. sarvaiH puruShaihi arthyatE iti puruShArthaH.. what is aspired by every person, purushA
means not JUST male; every person. Purushaihi SarvaiH arthyatE iti puruShArthaH

So puruShArhta are commonly pursued ends like wealth… which is wealth seeking which itself is for
security, name, power, etc. Then kAma, pleasures. There is not one person, but EVERY ONE seeks
pleasures.. these are puruShArthas. People all go after them. The book bhaja govindam addresses them.
And tells the limitations of these pursuits. And says to seek the people who can teach you, Seek satsang.
Satsang brings about the change. Then Nissangatvam will come. Satsangatve Nissangatvam..

When you are interested in this, then you disassociate yourself from that, which you were avidly seeking.
Satsangatve Nissangatvam
Nissangatve Nirmohatvam

Previously there was some value, priorities for all of them.. artha pursuits and kAma pursuits.. And the
value is MohA or delusion which is due to your exaggerated perception, WRONG perception. And
therefore MohA goes away because of association with the SatpurushAs. False values, false priorities go
away.

When you are interested in one thing then THAT is your priority. Somebody calls you for Satsang, you will
say “I have no time” [hehe] because there is NO interest, there is NO priority. But if you GET interested in
Satsang, when somebody calls you for a show, you say, “I have NO time. I am about to go to satsang”.

You have time only for what you have interest in. This is how you change. To leave yourself to another
level of perception, another level of thinking, another way of living. Priorities change because interest
changes. Interest changes because understanding has changed. Understanding about the purushArthas..
What is it that I am looking for? I am looking for a way of life in which I see; I see a better happiness, more
security. And this more happiness and security IS BUT a sense, centered on yourself, centered on ‘I’. There
is security, there is joy.. to ALL by satsang, ..due to satsang.

And that is what the teaching is. There is a sense of incompleteness on the part of everybody. What one
seeks is this completeness in terms of security; in terms of fullness…. one seeks that security and
happiness. The perception of ourselves is I am insecure. I am incomplete. There is something missing in
me.

The teaching is .. YES…there is something missing and that is knowledge of yourself. Knowledge of
yourself that is what is missing. You are what you want to be, and every time you are happy you are
yourself. Every time you are at peace you are yourself. If for a few moments, I am not at peace with myself,
because of some situational changes, then you can be at peace with yourself FOR GOOD, with the world
FOR GOOD..

and similarly seeking happiness THE WAY YOU DID BEFORE becomes a silly thing. Happiness is not an
object to seek. You ARE happiness. You ARE Peace.

Thank you everyone. Have a good anniversary,

Pujya Dayananda Saraswati