If you keep doing what you have been doing, you’ll keep getting what you have been getting. All animals only seek food. Common man also spends his whole life seeking food for his senses. When one finally asks oneself, “Is this all I wanted?” One comes to the question “ what do I really want?” An honest questioning will ultimately throw up the answer, ‘Permanent happiness.’
A total transformation of the personality and a complete shift in thought flow is essential for this goal, possible only through right association . Since thought depends on objects seen,heard and consumed by the senses Satsang alone can achieve this miracle. Take care of your associations and your thoughts will take care of you. Noble company, elevating talks and books, proximity to saints and evolved human beings help hugely in changing thought texture. An extrovert mind generates restless thoughts that soon multiply to create an avalanche that sweeps the seeker towards devolution. If peace and joy be the goal of life , then thoughts need to be quietened, divinised and channelised. A deep researcher, an artist or musician in the grip of creative inspiration is blissfully in tune with the divine source.
A qualitative change in thought brings about a qualitative change in life. So sat+ sang means ‘tuning up to’ not ‘closeness to’ the Truth. The evolution of a seeker after Truth depends on how well he tunes himself to the wise. Shankara’s Rudraksha Mala remained a mala, but his tuned in disciples attained great wisdom.
Plato’s example of the cave man expounds the psychological truth that the mind can dwell only in the field of the known. So, the wise selection of that field is true Satsang . One can never soar high with the Eagles if one keeps the company of earth bound Turkeys.
Prarthna Saran, President Chinmaya Mission Delhi can be contacted at prarthnasaran@ gmail.com