August 18, 2023
Since this satsang is conducted in the name of Swami Sivananda, it is appropriate to mention that this was the pattern, the method, that the Master himself instituted.
In summer the satsang used to be conducted on the veranda outside Swami Sivananda's room. It was not very large. It could accommodate about twenty people and, in those days, there were not even twenty in the ashram, and there were just a few visitors.
By that I hope I have indicated that satsang is not something which will ever become overcrowded and, perhaps it should not be overcrowded. It will not be overcrowded because it will not appeal to everybody in this world, not even to all the people who profess to practice yoga.
There was no electricity so we had one of those hurricane lanterns on a small coffee table. Precisely on the dot of satsang hour Swami Sivananda would open His door and walk in like a shot, and sit on His appointed seat in the middle of the two rows. He wouldn't talk to anybody, wouldn't look at them, nothing at all. Then immediately the person at the head of the left row started the 'Jaya Ganesha'. As soon as that was over the person sitting next would read from The Bhagavad Gita. Even the hurricane lantern was so veiled with paper that the light shone only on the book, otherwise it was darkened. He would read one chapter of the Gita, with or without translation, and on the conclusion of that he would sing a chant (kirtan). All of us would follow in chorus. Then the little table with the lamp would be passed on to the next one who had the Upanishads. He read a few words from the Upanishads and chanted. All of us followed him in chorus. The table is pushed on.
Like this, three or four scriptures were chosen, and each person reading it followed it with a chant, which we followed in chorus. And as soon as the last person had finished he would nearly put out that paraffin lamp and put it to one side. Then everybody would sit in meditative mood and one after the other everybody had to lead the chorus.
If you have a whole bookshelf of cookery books, it will not appease your hunger until you apply the recipes and cook something!