Spiritual Reflections on the Journey

WHO IS GOD – for you – NOW?

From Joy all beings have come., by Joy the all live and unto Joy they all
return

As a Member of the International Satsang Association, I am called to seriously

undertake responsibility personal growth in spiritual awareness and living and
dealing with others in a spirit of tolerance, respect and compassion, But what is a
Satsang and what do I commit to?

Satsang The word Sat-Sang is derived from Sanskrit, the sacred language
of the Hindu Veda. Sat, is a word meaning Truth and is used to represent the
Truth that is Ultimate Reality. Sikhs use this in their sacred word of greeting ,
Sat – Sri – Akal. Sang comes from the root word Sanga, often used to describe
a meeting or union of two or more sources. E.g. a meeting point of two rivers.
Thus Satsang has come to mean a meeting or gathering of those seeking Truth,
All the main Faith Traditions of India use this word. Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs
regularly meet in Satsang and certainly the first two of these normally meet under
the guidance of a Teacher, Master or Guru.

Thus when Members of the International Satsang Association ( ISA) gather in

Satsang with Sister Ishpriya, they do so in a spirit of seeking truth. This requires
them to take time for meditation, reflection and companionship. A major input
towards reflection and shared companionship, is a daily Pravachan, or
Conference Talk, . This takes place each morning, after meditation, breakfast and
daily Seva. Members meet and listen to some spiritual input from Sister Ishpriya.
Each daily Pravachan is part of a theme for the Satsang Retreat and the themes
string together like rosary or mala beads. The input is meant to provide food for
the journey and also contains some advice, guidance and questions for the day.
and then spend time individually and in Groups reflecting on the topic and any
questions posed.

The question in the title was posed by Ishpriya at her 7th Pravachan of a recent 8-
day Summer Satsang. Her emphasis on the ‘ for you – Now’ struck a chord in
me. I found this both intriguing and challenging because it ‘cut through’ my
tendency to place God out there somewhere and then just talk around the issue. I
feel that many other people share this tendency and this often prevents us all from
exploring and sharing the reality of the ‘Mystery’ that is God.

This also reminds me of the many study and discussions groups I had belonged
to over the years. In many of these, I found that we very often just talked and
talked. This often merely regurgitated the same words but failed to reach any
genuine, experiential conclusions. Therefore, I thought that I would share some
reflections on this question, for me, at this moment in time.

Peter Creagh 2010 email; petercreagh43@virginmedia.com www.satsang-

companionship.org.uk
 Spiritual Reflections on the Journey

I also recognise that, like many others, I can sometimes fall into the habit of
creating , what Ishpriya refers to as, The Household God’ this is a God made in
my image and it can block me from seeking out the God of Mystery, the God who
is ultimately unknowable, the God of the Vedas and of the Mystics.

It was an inspirational and fortunate coincidence that during her talk, Ishpriya
quoted the following verse from the Taittiriya Upanishad, a jewel of the Hindu
Scriptures.

‘ From Joy all beings have come,

By Joy they live
And unto Joy they all return’

This verse suggests that God is ultimately Joy and that the whole of Creation, the
Cosmos was and still being created out of Joy.

I was struck by the remarkable coincidence of this verse. This was because,
recently when I sat down with my sister to reflect on the death, at Easter, of our
mother – and to plan her funeral- this great quotation sprang to my mind. We used
it at her funeral and it will be on the memorial card that all Irish families produce
after the death of a loved one. My sister and I were talking about our Mother, her
life and its meaning for us and the meaning of life in general and the word Joy
emerged. Because one of the many gifts that my mother brought into others lives
was joy.

In any relationship of love, trust, respect and mutuality there are many factors and
many experiences. These involve moments of ‘highs’ and ‘lows’, good times and
bad times, sickness and health. Throughout all these, there exists an underlying
sense of gratitude for, and joy with, the other. So, for me, this is a true sign of
what Martin Buber, the famous Jewish Philosopher, referred to as the I: Thou ( Ich
: Du) Relationship. He used these very ancient and personal pronouns to
emphasise the ‘special nature ’ of this type of relationship.

In this I: Thou relationship there exists a sense of a ‘special’ bond, a mutuality and
a concern and compassion, one for the other. Now, if this is true for the
relationship I had with my mother and others such as my children and my wife
Angela, then it holds for me elements of my relationship with the Mystery, the
Presence that we refer to as ‘God’.

This I: Thou relationship that I have with God has its highs and lows. It also has its
frustrations – many self inflicted. It has its moments when I am extremely puzzled
and feel that I don’t understand anything. (For those of us who have or are living
in intimate relationships, this probably sounds very familiar!). But underlying it all
is a sense of a shared and mutual joy. In addition in all our deep personal
relationships we have those precious shared moments when words are not
necessary, when we experience a sense of closeness and oneness.

Peter Creagh 2010 email; petercreagh43@virginmedia.com www.satsang-

companionship.org.uk
 Spiritual Reflections on the Journey

These are precious moments and very often cannot be explained either to myself
or others in mere words. In fact we all have moments when words are superfluous
and redundant. These moments can also be experienced in my relationship with
God. Thus my ability to , and ways of, relating with others can give me clues to
the quality of my relationship with the God who is ultimately Mystery.

Now, of course, I cannot see, or touch, or even prove my experience of God. But
then, I cannot always explain many of my experiences with others who are close
to me. For example, strong experiences and emotions such as love, or hate, or
closeness or a sense of security etc are often difficult to put into words. Much less
can I put into words my experiences of my relationship with God? This reminds
me of Meister Eckhart, a medieval Christian Mystic.

Now Eckhart was a very wise man, He was a visionary and way ahead of his time,
as are all visionaries. Many of his writings and sermons challenged the traditional
view of God and many of the then current tenets of Christianity. Incidentally, his
teachings still challenge many of the current fundamentalist view of God. But l
return to Eckhart and his challenging teachings. Many of his teachings have since
been accepted as wise words for those who journey on the mystical path, the path
of contemplative prayer. But in his time he certainly was not popular with the
Church Hierarchy. His visionary and challenging theology probably explains why
he fell foul of the Church and was excommunicated but later reprieved.

Eckhart warns of the dangers of just comparing our relationship with God in the
terms we use for those with others. Now, although this can be a good starting
point, it can lead us down false paths. I referred to this earlier but feel I want to
expand on it in the light of Eckhart’s advice. I feel that we all need to be constantly
aware of our human tendency to make ‘God’ in our own image. This has proved to
be the main fault of most religions and particularly fundamental followers of the
main Religions. However, it can make some sense to start at this point, where we
relate ‘ God’ to our human experiences of relationship. But it is unwise and
childish to persist with this, adult relationships require adult awareness, insight
and responsibility. Because, the ‘God’ who we refer to as God is ultimately
Mystery and this God cannot be ‘tied down’ to a mere human form.

As a Celtic Christian , I have found it helpful and beneficial to reflect on the words
of the Resurrected Jesus to Mary Magdalene in the Garden. In John 20:17 Jesus
said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead
to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my
God and your God.' And later He told his disciples that He had to go so that the
Spirit could come.

Anyway, Eckhart stated the following in one of his sermons ‘ If I were to say
God is good, I would be wrong, it is more correct to say that – I am good
and God is not good’ This for many Church Leaders of the day (and probably
today) may seem, to say the least, very startling and challenging and for most
fundamentalists it would be considered sheer blasphemy.

Peter Creagh 2010 email; petercreagh43@virginmedia.com www.satsang-

companionship.org.uk
 Spiritual Reflections on the Journey

When I first read it many years ago, contaminated by my cultural and religious
upbringing, I too found it quite startling. This was because it challenged many of
the views I had been brought up on. Thankfully, my interest in Inter- Faith , the
Satsang and Ishpriya’s teaching, had , even at the early stages, broadened my
horizons sufficiently to encourage me to ‘stay’ with Meister Eckhart and give his
words some reflection.

So careful reading and reflection clearly shows me, that what I feel and intuit
concurs with what I think Eckhart really meant. By the way, intuition is a gift of
the Spirit because it can lead us to truths which our conscious awareness and
emotions can often fail to see. This intuitive ‘gift’ is what Psychology refers to as
‘the felt sense’. But let us to return to Eckhart and his statement.

The term ‘ good’ lies on a spectrum of dreadful – bad – good – better – best.
Clearly, if God is GOD, then GOD IS and thus cannot be merely ‘good’ because
this would imply that God could be better or worse ! This is the startling simplicity
and wisdom of Eckhart’s statement. Humans need to beware of their tendency to
tie God down to their level of understanding.

The same is true (as Eckhart contended) of most statements we make about God.
For example – God is wise – therefore can God be wiser?. The answer to this is,
obviously not, because a God that could be wiser would not be God. No, God is
above all images, words, symbols and our intellectual concepts. God merely IS !
What that IS , will always be a Mystery to us humans.

This is the mystical journey we are all on. When I face the question ‘Who is God
for you now? I realise that ultimately God is Mystery and that all these
reflections concur with the wisdom of Taoism. A statement by Lao Tzu, an
unknown Taoist Master ( whether male or female is unknown) goes like this,

‘Whatever can be called the Tao ( the way) cannot be the Tao’

Consequently, when I reflect on all this and my inability to find words to describe
what God is for me; I am drawn by a further quotation from Eckhart. This concerns
our tendency to be ‘wordy’ about God. ‘ If you want to be without sin and
perfect, then, do not flap your gums about God’ ( my emphasis). I find this,
not only amusing but very erudite, wise and true. God is above all knowledge and
it is often our constant attempts to ‘intellectualise God. I am tempted to say mea
culpa – (my fault) and thus betray my Irish Catholic angst ridden upbringing.

This tendency to talk a lot about and around God, but to avoid the experience of
God can be a major block on the spiritual journey. Remember the quotation from
Scripture? ‘ It is terrible to fall into the hands of the Living God’ After all is
said and done, I might as well try to convey to a person born blind the beauty of a
sunset. Thus, I am comforted by the wise words of Eckhart concerning any
attempt to describe what I feel, intuit or experience about God.

Peter Creagh 2010 email; petercreagh43@virginmedia.com www.satsang-

companionship.org.uk
 Spiritual Reflections on the Journey

To return to my relationships with others; how true it is that very often I can ‘flap
my gums’ about these as well. But as an ancient Irish saying puts it ‘Talking does
not get the turf home’. This is a bit older than the popular American saying ‘Don’t
talk the talk, walk the walk’ But all these quotes try to make the simple point, that
mere talking often gets us nowhere. It can be at best an interesting intellectual or
emotional diversion and at worst just plain avoidance. Therefore, in addressing
the question ‘Who is God for me now? , I need to remain open and awake to, and
aware of, the ‘Presence’ of the Mystery within and around me.

In this way, I will hopefully make better choices. Thus my actions will begin to live
out of this deepened awareness and therefore God will BE for me NOW. This
brings me back to the Taittriya Upanishad, because ever since I was a small boy,
I have been blessed with a sense of ‘Presence’ within and around me. This
Presence, even in dark times, brings with it an abiding sense of gratitude and JOY
and this Joy cannot be put easily into words. So , at the moment, my response to
Ishpriya’s question is simply

‘ God will be who God Is but for me, God is both a sense of ‘Presence’ and
inner ‘Joy’

Peter Creagh

Peter Creagh 2010 email; petercreagh43@virginmedia.com www.satsang-

companionship.org.uk