August 21, 2026
When someone leads the singing in satsang, I follow in chorus and think I am an expert - I know everything, but that is an illusion. When you ask me to lead, what happens? I fumble - then I realize that I was suffering from a false assumption - which is true of our whole life. We assume, "I can do that, I can do everything!" Try to do it! That was Swami Sivananda's message.
Satsang had to go on, whether you were a novice or an oldster, a visitor or a non-visitor, a millionaire or a pauper - each man, woman or child had to lead in the chanting and, because of this, it is better that the satsanga is not too overcrowded so that everybody has a participating chance, not merely in chorus, but everyone has to do something.
And so this thing goes on, like an assembly line. Now let us say it is her turn to lead the chant, and if she is quiet for 10 seconds, another would not be allowed to take over. When there was an ominous silence for a few seconds it was only then that Swami Sivananda would interfere. He had a flashlight and he would take that and press it. It came right on your face: "Go on, go on," He would say. "My voice is not good." "God knows your voice is not good. It is no news to Him! Go on, sing!" Even in this little bit of dialogue he would not waste one word so that the atmosphere would not be disturbed. Everybody had to do it, and when the last person had finished his chanting Swamiji would conclude the satsang. He used to suggest that those who participated in the satsang quietly walked back to their rooms in the same mood, without disturbing that mood by chit-chatting and gossiping.
That was the style of Swami Sivananda's satsang. Though it changed later on, I have the feeling that that was what he liked, because firstly, it creates a mood in us and secondly, it brings home to us the realization that the talking that is being done now is a waste of time.