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Sunday, December 22, 2013

A story about sadhu-sanga, by Bhakta Tom

Since you are reading this, you have probably met a saintly person who made you feel warm inside, and you are looking for more of this contagious warmth. The truth is, we live in a very cold place, so it is essential for us to seek warmth.
 
A freezing person cannot warm himself in this place even by rolling into a ball. So we seek friends and family and squeeze really tight together to create a space of warmth between us. But since everyone is cold, we have little warmth to contribute, yet most people consider this the best that can be had.

In this land is a mountain called Bhakti, which is very difficult to climb, but at its peak burns an eternal fire of love, and the few who have reached it never have to freeze again. Having had all their needs satisfied, they take pity on us and wander down the mountain, offering hugs to all they meet. These climbers are called sadhus in the land, and hugging is called sanga.

Just as a stone taken out of fire is hot, and can heat cold stones in its vicinity, this warmth is spreading through contact, so that after receiving a hug, you can pass on a piece of the heat to others, thus making also them satisfied.

As rumor is spreading about this sacred fire, more and more people begin to climb the mountain of Bhakti. Yet you see noone climbing up all the way by themselves. In fact, this is impossible, since a cold body is too stiff for the difficult climbing exercise. The beauty of sadhu-sanga is that the sadhus climb up and down all the time - up a bit to meet someone to hug, and down a bit to hug others - thus we all cooperate in climbing.

The mystery of sadhu-sanga is that very few have seen the fire of love, yet we can know the fire by the warmth that the sadhus bring down to us, who have set up camp at the foot of mountain Bhakti.

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