Satsang is association with good people; It is also about the inner quality of ‘sattva’ or purity  

IIt was a desolate sight to see my nonagenarian grandmother. A deeply religious person whose life was dedicated to the Almighty, she lay afflicted by Alzheimer’s, in an incapacitated condition in a small nursing home in Bangalore. There was just a nurse to attend to her needs. Misty-eyed, I entered the room along with two gentlemen.

Grandma was quite unexpectedly injected with vital prana as she stared at us. “Moorty garu!” she exclaimed, much to the astonishment of the nurse who was involved in an animated conversation with Moorty garu. As we left, my grandmother looked forlorn and her benefactor blessed her. A somnolent 94-year-old woman abruptly awakening upon seeing Shri VSR Moorty, obviously meant that the satsangs he rendered were exemplary. There was one rendition of the Narada Bhakti sutras at our house in Hyderabad which is etched in my memory bank.   

 The year was 2014 and it was a crisp and cool morning in early November. I was posted in Secunderabad on South Central Railway. As I was poring over files, I walked Shri VSR Moorty. Moorty Garu focused his attention on my computer screen. Pictures of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar were flipping across the monitor. He looked at Gurudev’s photograph quite intently and uttered, “Ravi, I would like to have an interaction with Guruji.” This interaction or satsang would be recorded by Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel (SVBC).

My jaws fell in astonishment. Millions of devotees of Gurudev wait to have a glimpse of the Master and I had this onerous task of organising an interaction with the Master himself. But that is a challenge for any seeker and I promptly sent a mail to the Master and his secretariat seeking an appointment.

He then shared, “Ravi, the Sankalpa needs to be pure, rest Almighty God will take ensure that things fall in place, Sai Ram.” I was stunned that evening when the Secretariat agreed to fix the appointment at such short notice. We made the peregrination to the Bangalore Ashram of the Art of Living along with the staff from SVBC. For three days and three nights, we were witness to something transcendental. The interaction ranged on a variety of subjects from ancient Hindu practices, and various schools of Hindu philosophy to the present day. It is well-nigh impossible to decode the divine and pen the interaction.

A senior teacher of the Art of Living, Shri Vinod Menon was to tell Moorty Garu, “This is the closest one could unravel divinity, you are indeed blessed, coming so close to the Divine.”

In the amphitheatre on my mind the graphic scene of BR Chopra’s Mahabharata, the television serial played out, where Lord Krishna tells Bhishma, “Arjun woh nar hai jo Narayan ke darshan karwayega.” (That is, Arjuna is the person who will be the medium to reveal the resplendence of Narayana himself). So, this was satsang … What does one mean by Satsang?

(I quote Yogapedia to describe Satsang) Satsang is a Sanskrit term derived from two roots: sat meaning true and sangha meaning community, company, or association.

It can be translated as “associating with good people” or simply “being in the company of truth.” It refers to the act of gathering like-minded, uplifting people, especially those on a spiritual path. Satsang is associated with the inner quality of sattva (goodness or purity), which is one of the three gunas (natural attributes) alongside rajas (passion) and tamas (inactivity). A sattvic person makes a natural Satsangi, or “seeker of truth.”

So let us all be satsangis in quest of the quintessential truth.

(The writer is an author and a spiritual teacher)