In Sanskrit, sat means the truth, and sangh means, to be together with. So satsangh means to be associated with the truth. (He is the truth, God is the truth) So whenever we meditate, even alone, it is satsangh. And when five hundred people sit or ten thousand people sit, it can be satsangh only when each one of us is in touch with the truth, the reality of the Ultimate.

So in a satsangh the contact with the Ultimate must be maintained if it is to be a satsangh, and if you are to benefit by that satsangh. Because each time we sit in satsangh and establish that contact by His grace, we achieve several abilities, capacities. We are able to establish the contact sooner and sooner, and the contact also becomes stronger and stronger, until one day it becomes a permanent contact of the strongest type.

This is why we have to meditate every day, until that act of meditation becomes so perfect that, as Master once told me, "If a man sits and becomes able to plunge into that perfect meditation, he cannot come out of it." So that is meditation, real meditation. Because it is like, you know, you walk through a door, and you are inside the house.

REASONS FOR SATSANGH

1. To promote brotherhood; when we come together, when we meet often, some mutual regard grows. It has to! When we meet a person again and again, some friendship develops. Here, we are not only friends, we are supposed to be brothers and sisters. Why? Because we recognize one person. We are going to one goal. We are following the same marg, and we are all heading for what we think is one destiny for us. So, that is the first important thing for promoting brotherhood.
2. That when we sit and meditate, hundred or two hundred people, it has much more capacity to draw the Divine towards us, or the Grace of the Divine towards us, than when one person meditates. Combined effort is much more than the multiplication of the individual effort.
3. As Babuji used to smile and say, "Because I say so!" - Obedience to the Master. Now, I consider this one to be much more important. If a man is obedient, his goal is already in sight.
4. The opportunity to be together should not be misused. Because sometimes it seems to me that if we are alone, we have less chance of going amiss, astray. And so, to be together means an opportunity and a test. So we have to rise to that too, and while being together, preserve our independent integrity.

This was one great aspect of his practice, you see, that he could bring people together under one common roof, forgetting all our differences of race, language, nationalistic ideas, proving what he always maintained, that where religions divide human beings, spirituality unites. That was his highest truth, and again proves his first statement, the credo of Sahaj Marg, that where religion ends, spirituality begins.

When we have a group, the change is easy, because now we have a small society and all are doing the same thing, thinking alike, so their dependence on the other society is reducing. Whereas if you are one abhyasi in a place it is very difficult. So that is the value of satsangh. Satsangh means, similar people coming together.

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT SATSANGH:

Group sittings should be held, the minimum requirement being once a week. If you can have two, all the better. Generally we follow the pattern of having one sitting on Wednesday evenings and the main sittings on Sunday mornings.

It is our bounden duty to attend the weekly satsangh. It should be made a regular habit that if we do not attend, we cannot sleep, we cannot eat and we cannot digest the food.

I would like to say that those who are not present in the weekly satsangh, do not remain under the Master's vision but go out of it. Hence, whoever wants to be under the Master's vision has to necessarily attend the weekly satsangh.

1. New entrants should be allowed to sit in the group satsanghs only after taking three initial sittings.
2. Abhyasis should come to satsangh for their individual spiritual development and not for meeting their friends, clients etc.
3. Abhyasis must not make noise, must not have political discussions or any other gossip when they come for satsangh.
4. Abhyasis must maintain discipline when they come for satsangh. There are men, women, you have to sit line by line. You cannot have pillars or you cannot sit under the fan. You sit where there is space when you come. If you have any medical problem, go and sit first, otherwise you must sit line by line. Do not wait for volunteers to tell you how to sit in a satsangh.
5. Abhyasis must come for satsangh at least 10 minutes before the sitting begins. They should sit in a meditative mood and prepare themselves for receiving what the Master gives.
6. After the Satsangh is over, abhyasis should contemplate for about five minutes as to their condition and what they have experienced during meditation. They should note it down in their diaries immediately.
7. Book reading after group meditation is part of Satsangh. Hence abhyasis should continue to sit in the place of meditation and listen carefully to whatever is being read.
8. Abhyasis must develop affection with satsanghi brethren, and sweetness and elegance in day-to-day talk and behaviour.
9. Behaviour towards brethren of the satsangh should be pleasing and conducive to their progress. Direct opposition is very bad.

INDIVIDUAL SITTINGS:

Abhyasis should receive at least two individual sittings per month face to face with the Preceptor for the purpose of thorough cleaning.

Where there are no preceptors in a centre, and if they are unable to go to the preceptor for individual sittings, then they are advised to sit in meditation on Fridays at 9:00 p.m.