The lesson of the Autumn Season

The Lesson of the Autumn Season

Message from Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj

Featured in Highlights Newsletter, September 28, 2011 

This is the first week of autumn. Autumn marks the end of summer, and for many it means an end to vacation, and a time in which we go back to school or work. Some associate this time of year as an ending, as leaves fall off the trees and there is a chill in the air. Yet, those who have a spiritual angle of vision look at autumn in a different way. There is a beautiful verse by the great poet-saint of the last century, Sant Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj, which says:

The season may be that of autumn,But with his coming, O Darshan, life has been infused with spring.

In this verse, Sant Darshan Singh Ji is pointing out a paradox. He says that even though it is autumn, spring has arrived. Autumn represents a time in which the leaves on the trees wither and die. The blooming spring has long passed and now the greenery is fading to the fall colors—the red, orange, and yellow colors that come before the bare winter. With the falling leaves, hopes also fall. The world is preparing for the bleak, dark, and cold winter ahead. Yet, there is a switch here. Even though it is autumn, spring has suddenly burst into bloom. How has this happened?

When we invert our attention within through meditation, we find that we have within us eternal springtime. We feel as joyous as if spring has arrived. Through meditation, our spirits are renewed and rejuvenated. All the bleakness, sorrow, and disappointments of life are washed away and vibrant life has returned.

We may be burdened by the sorrows of life. We may be suffering physical pain; financial difficulties with the economic crisis, falling stock prices, and a slowing economy; or problems at work or the loss of our jobs. Yet, when we meditate and tap into the spiritual realms within, suddenly for that time our attention is focused within, all the problems seem to disappear. We are so filled with the blissful radiation and effervescent joy from within that we forget our problems for a while.

Sant Darshan Singh Ji used to relate an incident from his own life. At one time, he had fallen ill and could hardly get up from the bed. Family members and friends were fearful of his condition. When Sant Kirpal Singh Ji came to his house to pay him a visit, Sant Darshan Singh Ji suddenly got up from the bed to greet him. Everyone was amazed at how someone who could hardly move a few moments before was infused with such energy and vibrancy. In the meantime, the doctor had been called. When the doctor arrived, he looked around the room and said, “Which one is the patient?” Sant Darshan Singh Ji had been so infused with life that he no longer appeared to be ill. This is typical of what happens to many people in the presence of a spiritual Master or saint who puts us in touch with the divine treasures within by giving a contact with the divine Light and Sound within us.

When we meditate on the inner Light and Sound, we become so uplifted and intoxicated that we do not notice the pains of the body or our problems. It may be cold, rainy, or bleak, but we find ourselves as joyous as if it were a sunny, spring day.

There are people who may be so ill that they can scarcely do much, but when they go to a satsang, where there is a group meditation in a spiritually-charged atmosphere and discourses on spirituality, they describe how they forget their pains and sorrows for awhile. This is the power of the spiritual radiation we get from meditation and being in a spiritually-charged arena. It has the power to pull our attention into the place of divinity and peace within us so that we forget our body and our problems. We are fed and nourished by the spiritual radiation from within that renews us.

We are all looking for panaceas or cures for all the ills of the world. If we truly want to escape the autumn of life, let us sit in meditation and turn our lives into perpetual spring. We can learn to meditate on the Light and Sound of God. Then, each time we meditate on the Light and Sound, we will be connecting with the renewing force that can turn the autumn of life into a springtime garden of blossoms.