What Exactly Is Satsang?

What exactly is a satsang?
Does it only mean going for a pravachan, or being in the company of pious, devout people?
Being with a Guru, a mahatma?

Of course, these are all satsangs.
But in today’s world, the scope of satsang is much more.

Till about 40 or 50 years back, if you wanted to watch a drama, then you had to necessarily go to a theatre.
If you wanted to listen to music, then you had to go for a concert.
If you wanted to watch a dance, then you had to go to a dance program.
If you wanted to listen to a pravachan or obtain spiritual knowledge, then you had to go to a pravachan pandal or an ashrama.

Now, technology has changed everything.
All these are now coming to you — on your device, on your PC, on your TV.
With the social distancing norms coming back to the society, everything including education, regular education, is going online.

We need to redefine satsang.
What is satsang — the meaning?
To be with sat.

What is sat — truth, goodness.
This is because only truth can give you good.

You get a news on your WhatsApp that there is going to be heavy rains today — it is a genuine red alert warning issued by IMD.
It is useful to you. You can avoid going out if it is avoidable and save yourself from unwanted trouble.

Now suppose this is fake news.
It will only bring fear and apprehension in your mind and may spoil a productive day.

Genuine news is sat — in that it is true and also meant for your welfare.
The fake news is untrue — somebody’s mischief — and it will spoil your day.
This is asat.
This is the difference between sat and asat — genuine and fake.

Our scriptures say that God is the only truth.
What you see around you as nature, friends, relatives, house, comforts, discomforts, pleasure, pain, gain, loss — they are all asat.
Asat here means they are not permanent.

A disease comes, then it goes.
But if you get paranoid about it, over-attached to it, then even after it is gone, it will leave a scar behind — a wound which you will keep on poking and keep fresh.
You will live in fear — fear of relapse — what if it comes back, what if the virus mutates and comes back again?

Like this, everything — money, status, position, relationships.
When you give over-importance to these, then you are living in a world that is asat.
Unreal.
This kind of living will not be peaceful. Cannot be peaceful.

When only such worldly thoughts are occupying your mind, then you are constantly living in fear, anxieties, disappointments — interspersed with a little bit of joy and pleasure once in a while.
Even when you are enjoying a good ice cream, the question that comes to the mind is — will I be able to get it again tomorrow?
The insecurity.

The divine thoughts — you know this very well.
You listen to Mahishasura Mardini Stotram or Shiva Tandava Stotram with your headphones on YouTube.
You know that for those five minutes or seven minutes, those worldly thoughts are not there in your mind.
You feel peace, you feel energy.

This is the lakshana of thought that is sat — real, divine.
This is everybody’s experience.

The question — out of fifteen or eighteen hours that you are awake — how much time do you want to live in fear, anxieties, insecurity, looking for who will give you a little bit of joy, a little bit of pleasure, a little bit of comfort, standing in line to get, getting disappointed when you don’t get it, feeling proud only to get hurt when someone doesn’t recognize your achievement?

The question is — how much of your day do you want to live this pitiful, miserable life, complaining, looking for sympathy, begging —
And how much do you want to live in peace?

This is a choice.
Ultimately, it is the mind.
This is what satsang means.

Anything that can replace the untruth called fears, worries, anxieties, unwanted desires, unwanted dreams, expectations — from your mind.
It can be a song, it can be a mantra, it can be a discourse.

This is satsanga, in the present context —
To be with truth, to be with goodness.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi