Satsang Satsang 1) True company. The practice of associating with Bhagvãn’s sant, other satsangis, the ãtmã, and the sacred shãstras, and also observing vartmãns and niyams. 2) Also refers to the sampradãy, which is the presence of good company. Tap to open in glossary → Sadguru Sadguru A great sant. Tap to open in glossary → Swaminarayan Hare Swaminarayan Hare. Swami said, "And one who is respected by 10, 20, 50, or 100 people gets 'gandva' (delusion of grandeur). And those who live with him, if they do not recognize that disease, they also get it." Yes, it is a contagious disease. What is 'gandva'? What is it called? No one keeps madness. If madness is in us, if it comes in a Sadhu, then he has to be admitted to the hospital. Not everyone can be admitted to the hospital. False pride. That is called 'gandva'. We believe we have a quality when we don't. When does it come? It comes when people start believing. They start believing that Saral Swami is very great, Saral Swami is very great. Oh, look at his work. Look at his work, can anyone do that? See if anyone can do what our Saral Swami does. If we believe so, what happens to Saral Swami? False pride comes. That is called 'gandva'. Falsely believing that we are much better than everyone else. It is not there, but people start believing, as one gets older, they believe that he is older than us, so they have to respect him. We may not have those qualities, but due to age or because a high position has come into our hands, or because some such key point has come into our hands, people start praising us. When praise starts, what happens? 'Gandva' happens. Then 'gandva' happens. False pride comes to him. That is the meaning of 'gandva'. Swami used a slightly different word, but it means false pride. False pride comes that we are like this and we are like this, and then titles start coming, then other people give titles. Then its promotion starts happening, all that happens, so it is called 'gandva'. It is a disease. It is a mental disease. In the Ramayana, they are called mental diseases. What is it called when it happens in the mind? It is called a mental disease. It is called a mental illness. And what happens in the body is called a physical disease. So, physical disease and mental disease. Mental diseases are highly contagious. Even more than Corona. Corona at least requires contact, right? This can happen through the phone. All these titles can cause mental illness even through the phone. So it is called a contagious disease. Pride is called 'damruva'. In the Ramayana, 'damruva' means gout. When a person gets joint pain, if he treats the knee, the elbow starts hurting, and if he treats the elbow, the shoulder starts hurting, if he treats the shoulder, the neck vertebra slips. So it doesn't come into anyone's hands. It is called 'damruva'. And Tulsidasji called this 'gandva' as 'damruva'. In this, Swami directly called it 'gandva' and he called it 'damruva'. So it is a mental disease and it is very contagious. In this, if it is a physical disease, just because the father has it doesn't mean the son will get it. Not all diseases are passed on. Just because he has a fever doesn't mean the son will get a fever. But if the Guru Guru A teacher. He will guide you on the path of kalyãn. Tap to open in glossary → That is also true. If the Guru Guru A teacher. He will guide you on the path of kalyãn. Tap to open in glossary → In that, those who are false get it more, those who are true get it less, but there is no certainty that those who are true won't get it. And then, where does joint pain show? Where does it show? When it is time to do seva. Only when it is time to do seva. It is not like that. When does joint pain show? When one gets old. When one gets old, the knees hurt, right? And when do all the joints get stiff? Young people don't get stiff, they can still handle it even if it comes. So it catches when one gets old. So such pain works then. No one lets the young ones get away with it. If a young person gets 'gandva' and thinks he is very great, everyone straightens him out. And who goes to operate on the big one? Who operates on the doctor? The doctor operates on everyone, but what if the doctor gets Corona? He is gone. No one operates on him. So this is called 'gandva'. False pride can be of many types. Are they all called 'gandva'? Believing 'I am God' is not the only 'gandva', right? That is also 'gandva', that is big 'gandva'. And the other is small. Yesterday we had that 'little ekantik', right? Little ekantik, big ekantik. In that, there is little 'gandva' and big 'gandva'. There is always little and big in it. So believing oneself to be God is the ultimate peak of 'gandva'. But 'I am very good' is its beginning. 'I am much better than others, I have this quality, I have this quality, no one else has it,' it comes when praised. What is this called? Diet control. And bad diet. Bad diet. But what is bad diet? What is the bad diet for 'gandva'? Praise. Praise. Just as if someone has a cold and eats yogurt or drinks buttermilk, he is said to have taken a bad diet. If one has a fever and eats heavily, that is called a bad diet. At that time, he should eat less. If one takes a bad diet, what happens to the disease? It worsens. It worsens. In that, what is the bad diet for 'gandva'? Praise. Praise. If we listen to true or false praise of ourselves, that pain worsens. Does his false pride decrease or increase? It increases. And whose praise is sung? Is it of good people or weak people? Whose praise is sung? Is it your praise or whose? So if one consumes too much of a bad diet, the disease worsens. This is a mental disease. 'Gandva' is a mental disease. False pride. Ego is called 'damruva'. Joint pain or gout, so to speak. No one can treat it quickly. Ravana was not dying by any means. If his hand was cut off, another hand would grow; if his head was cut off, another head would grow. So treating it is very difficult. Lord Ram was perplexed on the battlefield, 'He is not dying, what to do with him?' If he cut off ten heads, before they even hit the ground, others would grow. And if he cut off his arms, before they fell to the ground, others would grow. It was like that. Then the Lord asked Vibhishana about his treatment, 'What about this?' So Vibhishana knew about it, that there is a pool of nectar in his navel, which he obtained through penance. 'So you do this, shoot thirty-one arrows at once. Ten for the heads, twenty for the arms, and one arrow there. If you dry that up, then they won't grow.' So the Lord treated him like that. So to bring down 'damruva' in every way, we have to let out all the air, only then does 'damruva' settle down. Otherwise, even if there is a little air in one wheel, it drags the other wheels along. Even if there is air in one wheel. All the air must be let out. Then if 'damruva' wants to settle down a bit, it will, otherwise it won't settle easily. If we are doing seva in the organization, there everyone is saying 'Ji Swami', 'Ji Swami', so how do we know if there is 'gandva' or not? Others will know. In mental illness, it is like that, you have to ask others. Mental illness, if you take a mad mad Arrogance. Tap to open in glossary → mad mad Arrogance. Tap to open in glossary → AI translation of the Gujarati transcript above, produced in the same pass that transcribed the audio, one English segment per Gujarati segment. Devotional and technical terms with no precise English equivalent (kirtan, satsang, vasana, samskara, and similar) are kept as their plain transliteration rather than force-translated. Not human-proofread., AI-translated, unverified · Source details