The topic for the English Satsang on Sunday, 14th April, 2013 was ‘Saints of India.’
Following is the transcript of the speech made by Smt. Hansaji Yogendra on the topic.
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Listen to the Audio:
“Well, I felt that the whole atmosphere was charged with all these thoughts (presented during the Satsang skits). Devotion, total surrender to higher reality, complete faith in higher reality. Now when these words come how do we behave or function in our life is the question.
When such a feeling is cultivated that God is everywhere, then one never feels lonely. One never feels like something wrong is happening. Everything is happening for a reason, even though we don’t know the reason. The world has been functioning before us and will function after us. So there is some power, something that is making all this happen. Faith in this power is very important. And when a person has such faith, he will always remain positive and blissful in any situation he is put in. There is no place for fear. If we are not blissful in every moment, it is not called devotion. Then it is just a show – going to temples, performing rituals, etc.
None of the saints of India could be shaken through even torture. Goodness can never be curbed. The Dandi March till today is celebrated with a very strong feeling in Maharashtra where people march while taking the name of ‘Vitthal’ (God). Now, it is up to us to bring it into our practical lives, otherwise it becomes just an event.
Saints and great men have been in existence over hundreds of years and their guidance is with us, but how many of us are able to apply it to our lives? Something somewhere is going wrong. We are externalizing instead of internalizing. Now this is the era where we use our intellect and reasoning, where we want to understand before we do anything. Just belief is difficult for us. Some of us might even be doing some rituals like fasting because we are told to do so, but there is something lacking in our efforts. Faith should be part of every moment of our life. It is not something to be done at a certain time, like performing rituals and later forgetting all about God, speaking lies, becoming anxious and tense. It is the same as doing Asanas for half an hour and claiming that we did yoga.
Simple people who don’t think much easily get onto this path and because intelligence is not used, something goes wrong. As intelligent people, we should derive the essence from the Bhakti Marg (path of devotion), Bhakti Yoga.
The second chapter of the Yoga Sutras tells us of the Niyama Isvarapranidhana which talks of total surrender to the will of the Absolute. So, what must we do? Make the restless mind steady, avoid questioning too much, do not worry or become sad or anxious. Train the mind to become steady. So when will we apply this into our lives?
It is very easy and fun to watch all this. Saints were born as saints. Guru Nanak, Meerabai, Narsiha Mehta, etc. are all examples of total faith which we are not capable of having. If someone gives us poison to drink, we logically know that we will die. But a saint like Meerabai was at a different level. When given poison, she believed it to be God’s gift and drank it. The poison did not affect her because she was above logic and the body. These are very strong events which we cannot do. For a person with highly developed brain, this kind of total dedication and faith is most difficult.
But at least we can learn something from it. Can we decide that from now on we will not worry and fear anything or be sad? So let us work on ourselves and let us bring some little part of this faith in our personality. Work hard.”