The Purpose of Satsang: Part 1

Why do we choose to sing to God? Not just us, but in gatherings of every religion, why do people sing to God? What is the power in singing? Singing is how we want to woo God. When you are in love, what do you want to do? You want to sing!

Humans always want to call out to their beloved. Singing is a beautiful expression of this calling that has existed throughout the history of time and around the world. Even in the animal kingdom, birds and animals use the vocal chord system in mating rituals to call their beloved to them; the act of singing extends to all of existence.

We find that the first choice for wooing the Beloved is through melody and tune. Instead of saying, “Come here,” we want to sing, “Mana Mohana Madhusudhana Brindavana Nandalal.” The chosen way to woo the Beloved is by singing. We have experienced the peace and serenity of song ourselves: we want to give this feeling to the one we love and attract him or her to us.

We compose beautiful verses and styles of singing all to call the Beloved to us. We have to remember the true purpose of singing: to call to our Beloved Lord. Many people forget this, and they sing for themselves. Or they sing to show others how well they sing. But the intention of singing is to call the divine so that we can bask in his presence of peace and bliss. The more we sing and the more our heart awakens, the more that energy of love calls out to him. The voice is just the vehicle by which the movement of the heart can express itself. This movement of the heart is the true calling, but it is very difficult to evoke that feeling without supporting actions; to just sit down and command, “Okay heart, awaken. Speak out to God,” is very difficult. We begin by singing with devotion to awaken the heart. Then, the heart soon becomes awakened and grows in depth. There are many awakened hearts, but their depth is very shallow. To increase the depth, we have to sing and sing and sing with love and devotion.

The second part of satsang is the coming together. Jesus declared, “Where two or three of you gather together to speak of me, I will be there.” (Matthew 18:20). When a group of devotees gather to celebrate and worship God, his presence manifests there, and his presence is all-purifying and all-loving. This is why we must always speak about nothing else but God. Every chance we get, we must speak only about God. This becomes sadhana. When you are only speaking about God or to God, then his presence is always with you--always purifying and protecting you.

The third aspect of satsang is the wisdom in the discussion. You must take that wisdom and apply it to your daily life; then, satsang really bears fruit. Listen to the words in satsang and put them into action so that you can uplift yourself. From every satsang, you should be taking away a very valuable lesson. At any spiritual or religious gathering, you can always learn a new lesson that evolves your life understanding. So if you come to satsang once a week, therein lies fifty-two different ways to change yourself for the year. The lessons learned at satsang allow you to delve within yourself, adding depth to your spiritual practices and transforming yourself little by little.

These three aspects form the foundation for the purpose of satsang. Why did God create satsangs? It was in the hope that people would come together and sing and speak of his glory to purify themselves.