Yogi Bhajan Lecture Archive
Lecture by :
Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji
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Lecture on: 07/02/1978
Category: Class Lectures
Location: Unknown
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Virtue of Virtues

We are very fortunate that we are progressing in enhancement of our spiritual strength. But, what is that virtue which a human can attain to or do which can give much happiness from God? If one becomes a saint by the process of elevated consciousness, it is a virtue. If one becomes a beloved of God, it is a virtue. If one gives away all one’s worldly wealth for a good cause, it is a virtue. If one sacrifices one’s given human body in the Name of God, it is a virtue. If one defends the weak and the poor, it is a virtue, but it is not the virtue of virtues. If you read the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, and have mastery of the scriptures, it is a virtue. If one lives in the Rehit Maryada (Sikh code of conduct), it is a virtue.

I can count, time and again all the virtues, but what is the virtue of virtues? There has to be something because when there is a virtue, then there has to be the virtue of virtues. When somebody is falling apart or freaking out, if someone can hold that person up in the flow of the spirit, it is the virtue of virtues. There is no other virtue.

Until a person is mentally prepared to put all actions in the Name of God with the trust of God, all that person’s efforts will fail. Trust of God is when somebody is not what he or she should be, and someone else makes him or her what he or she should be. That is the virtue. A sin is when one gives up on somebody who can be rescued, who could be saved, who could be brought to the House of the Guru. For all those who have come to the House of the Guru, it is a virtue; but those who brought others who were not willing to come, have attained a state of consciousness which is the virtue of virtues.

Practically speaking, we are entering an era of a new time and space. Whatever I speak or I have said so far, people will understand very little. People won’t understand because their caliber is of the era which is an era of change; it is a cusp period. We are at the time of change now. The time of Guru Nanak doesn’t even start at this time. The year 2011 is when we will enter into the era of Guru Nanak. Before that it’s just a hodge-podge. A lot of people will get up and falsely proclaim that they will interpret the wisdom of Guru Nanak, but they won’t. That is why a seeding has started, to rebuild the environment of the Khalsa. Khalsa means pure ones. It does not belong to a religion. That is why today there are Catholics, there are Methodists, there are Seventh Day Adventists, all denominations of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Muslim, and even Sikhs. Khalsa is the combination of the totality of the Universe. There may be one person, just one person, but that one person does represent the flow, the inflow, the spirit, the tributary to that main stream which shall be the Khalsa of tomorrow. I’m not saying all those present today as Khalsa will continue. No, they won’t. Without having one determination, they will not reach the highest state of Khalsa, and that is to be willing to change, and willing to change others into the light and the spirit of the caliber of the Khalsa.

There is no other way of spiritual progress. There are forms of demagogy people will teach you. People will process you, people will reach you. Some will take away a person’s money, some will take away youth, some will take away beauty and some will take away a person’s talents. Some will take away this, some will take away that, but nobody will give one the experience of God consciousness. There is only one way. A person has to have the spirit, and does not allow another person to fall from the spirit. That is the secret of one phrase which you worship and say all the time: Chardee Kalaa, the constant rising of the spirit of Godhood. Chardee Kalaa is a derivative of the word Kundalini. Indian Sikhs will freak out when these things are mentioned to them. Kalaa does not mean that there is a spiral going up clockwise. Kalaa means the flow of that intense spirit. And, it is constant. What is constant? How does one know it is constant? How can one test one’s own constant spirit? A constant spirit is shown by a specific behavior. When one sees that somewhere the spirit is not constant, one chips in. “To be or not to be” is the question before every human life. One cannot waste time in side directions; one cannot afford it if somebody is negative, somebody is depressed.

What is this depression, this negativity, this freaking out? Do you know what it is? It is a curse, a human curse. It is rusting of the steel. Human life is like beautiful stainless steel. When stainless steel gets stained, that is a curse. One will say, “Oh my God. It is terrible!” From where has this terrible situation come? When the spirit does not flow, when it stops flowing, it stinks. When it stinks, it rusts, it creates problems. Continuity of the flow of the spirit should happen wherever a person is, whatever one is.

Whenever it is possible, a person must get into the very moment of the time, knowingly and consciously. One should be conscious to one’s consciousness, consciously conscious. One must chip in to uplift the spirit of the one who’s falling. Somebody once said, “Where is the proof there’s a God?” The other replied, “Once an old man was walking with a stick; he could not walk straight or see the ground well and he fell. There was a young man nearby who came and removed the dust from the old man, massaged his leg, raised him up, gave him his stick, and then put his arm around his back and supported him as they walked.” The wise man said, “That is God carrying the God.” God is caring for the God, God is carrying the God.

The main problem with most people is they don’t do anything. They are dual and obnoxious. They are not one-pointed. They are egocentric. Furthermore, they are a pain in the neck because these people think they do it. In their misfortune, their id, their ego, convinces them again and again that they do it, “I do it.” They are very limited, limited to the extent that they are even unwanted on the planet Earth. They talk of God, they talk of merging with God, and they talk of the spirit of God, but they can’t achieve the spirit of God. How can they achieve the spirit of God when they do not know what God is? God is everywhere. God is unison. God is all pervading, omnipotent, omniscient. Some people know that, and even knowing that they limit themselves and carve themselves a territory. Their territory is the earth and that is their grave. The only territory these sick beings have is their grave. They will be territorized, and will be put to hell by being put in a grave. A stone will be put over them: “Here so and so egocentric idiot had his body dumped on this earth.” They will be made earthbound for the rest of the time.

That is why in the early Aryan times, bodies were always disposed of by fire. Let the tattwas (elements) of which the whole Creation is composed merge into the tattwas of the body so that the ego may not have a chance to hang around. Poor person, his whole life he might have done everything to confine himself: “It’s my house, it’s my child, it’s my tent, it’s my door, it’s my pen, it’s my ink.” He must have been a very virtueless person who came from the Infinite God, the Creator of the entire creation, but he confined himself. “My shoes, my boots, my socks, my pants.” He never learned to wear the shoes which please the Guru, to wear the pants which please the Guru, or the shirts. He never dressed himself once in his life to please his Guru. He calls himself a man of the Guru but if one cannot please his Guru, how can he please God? Gur bin ghor andhaar guroo bin samaij na aavai. How can a person ever reach God without the blessing, the praise, and the pleasure of the Guru? He never spent a minute, never stood before a mirror and imagined, “This is how my Guru looks.”

That is why Guru Gobind Singh gave us the bana (white clothes that give an appearance that stands out). One who wears the bana, also knows what bhana is, the will of God. Bana is not a small matter psychologically, mentally, inwardly, socially, politically, or reasonably or humanly small in essence. Bana is the keynote to consciousness. A very strong keynote. When we dress, we look at ourselves and say: Sat Nam, Wahe Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, dhan, dhan. Because we dressed according to our imaginative potential to be just like the Sikhs of the Guru. That’s all a human being can do. Guru Gobind Singh had a standard. Guru Gobind Singh had a Rehit, he lived it, and he inspired others to live it. His sons, aged seven, nine, fourteen, and sixteen years old, lived it and died for it. They died for it. There’s no option, there’s no leeway, there’s no hanky-panky. Perhaps Guru Gobind Singh knew Americans would have to adopt this way of life so he left no margin. He totally defined it. On the mark, get ready, set, go! Otherwise, you’re a “go-go.” If a person is not on the mark, he or she is a nobody.

Somebody once asked me, “How many Sikhs are there in India?” I said, “I don’t know.” He said, “But when I go to Harimander Sahib I count, and all those who are on the Parkarma are the only Sikhs there at that time.” “Nowhere else?” I said, “Those who wear the bana of the Guru are the other set.” “Anybody else?” I said, “I have a doubt.” Because when we gave five heads to the Guru, he gave us only bana. Bana will give a person the entire technology of bhana. It’s a meditation when a person dresses up. It’s a virtue. It is the greatest virtue. What can woman do? She can dress herself.

Kar sheengaar savaree subhaagan milan peeaa ke chaa.
“She dressed herself, she was virtuous, and what was the virtue?
She will meet her husband, she will meet her master, she will meet her Beloved.”

It is the ecstasy, the highest spirit of love, the confirmation of the quality of the quantity of the interior of the being. Similarly, the same law will apply to a Sikh.

Some people feel hesitant to dress in bana. We understand. When a sick man is in the hospital, one does not expect him to dress perfectly. That’s why in the hospital people are given loose clothing. When one goes for running on a track, one wears what is most appropriate. Why? Because place, time and activity demand a definite way of dress. One does not find a person with a three piece suit competing in the javelin throw. It would feel awkward and weird to do that. How does one feel, as a Sikh of the Guru, when not dressed properly? Doesn’t it look weird? Is not he or she weird?

What is there to meditate about? It is a meditation that I dress myself to please my Master, please my Lord, that I dress myself for the Beloved of my great love. What is there that makes a person the great love of the Great Love? One’s decoration. Bana. Bana reminds one to understand “bhana” the Will of God. When an individual knows to whom he or she belongs, then that individual belongs to all the virtues of the one to whom he or she belongs. When there is virtue, there is no vice. If a person knows they belong to Harimander, Hari is with that one, you. Then Harimander is not in Amritsar. Then Harimander is where one is. If one knows one belongs to Guru Ram Das, then wherever one is, Guru Ram Das belongs to that one. But one has to look like one belongs to Guru Ram Das. Does anyone think Guru Ram Das is not here today? He’s very much here, otherwise Gurbani would not hold true the sentence: Ang Sang Wahe Guru. The Guru merged in that person, that body, that temple and it was charged with the spirit of the very Guru. This happens in each limb of the Sikh, in each limb of the Khalsa who dresses himself or herself in the morning and looks in the mirror and says, “I am the Sikh of the Guru.”

Some people are trying to pollute us. They are very intelligent, but dangerous. They want us to change our dress. They have sick minds. They do not understand the virtue of the beloved to meet the Lover. The beloved meets the Lover by dressing up. Why does someone prepare oneself when somebody respected and gracious comes to visit them? Why does a person dress up when going to some good place? Why? If that law is true, isn’t it also true when one comes to the court of the House of the Guru that one should be neatly, perfectly and totally dressed up as the Sikh of the Guru? When one gets dressed up by the virtue of the life given and granted to them by God and Guru, the dress should be as a Sikh of the Guru, to go to the Word! Then such a one can say:
Teraa Keetaa jaato naahee, maino job keetoee.
Mai nirguniaare ko gun naahee, aape taras paeoee.
Taras paeaamehraamat hoee,
satigur sajan milai taa jeevaa,
tan man theevaie haiaa.

“I have not acknowledged what you have done for me, Oh Lord.
Thou hast made me worthy of Yourself. I am a meritless one,
there is no virtue in me, but Thou Thyself hast taken pity on me.
Thou hast shown mercy and I have been blessed to now meet with
the True Guru. Says Nanak, if I am blessed with the Lord’s Name,
then only am I alive and my body and mind blossom forth.”

Otherwise that person is a hypocrite, a liar who betrays the Guru, and his or her death is the death of the curse. Even the curse won’t hold that one because there is no consciousness within. With political achievement, priestliness, knowing some words of Gurbani, and with undiscerning behavior, flopping about here and there, does anyone think that he or she will make the Guru happy? Eating cookies doesn’t constitute eating a dinner.

The greatest virtue of all virtues is that a person develops a meditative mind. Neither does this person fall, nor lets anybody else fall, nor can he be depressed nor lets any other be depressed. This is the virtue of virtues. A person goes to Gurdwara, but first calls ten other people, “Let us go.” One does kirtan and asks ten others, “Let us do kirtan;” praises the Lord and inspires ten others to praise the Lord. Oh, egocentric human beings, oh creatures, listen to me, “The worms of the earth will not be hesitant to kill you and eat you, because your body will be virtueless. Though you may make a good grave and put a good stone on it, you may be earthbound for the rest of the time and space that this Earth planet will move. The Earth planet will move, but you won’t. You will be very virtuous if a few pieces of wood and some fuel are used to cremate your body so that at least your id has to find a place to answer for your karma.” That is why I say, “Where there is Dharma, there is no karma.”

What is the Dharma? Guru Gobind Singh didn’t make any excuses for anybody. He didn’t make excuses for his four sons so that a Sikh could never say, “Well, my child is only seven years old.” Not at all. Guru Harkrishan, the eighth Sikh Guru, was five years old. He was Guru! In the House of Guru Nanak, there’s no place for excuses. The House of Guru Nanak continues over two hundred and some years and lived in ten banas. Guru Arjun is an example of perfection of bhana and was partakh har, which means ‘a living God.’ People talk of the son of God, the daughter of God, the messenger of God. I am talking of the living God. Guru Arjun sat on the hot plate and said, “Sat Nam, Sat Nam, Sat Nam,” because there was Shakti to understand the bhana. Why? Not the outer bana, the inner bhana was of the Guru, too. Guru Ram Das gave the spirit to Guru Arjun. There dwells God in one being. Don’t we read that for five days Guru Arjun stood the torture? Night and day. He could have given in any time. He didn’t. Why? Because God doesn’t give in. God is Infinity.

So, these are the virtues. When one cheats on bana, one denies the bhana. And what is the end result? Pachtaanaa, then one is miserable. Because when one is in bana, sahej saroop, taa kaa thakur sang, when you dress very simply, God is with you. It is not an ordinary situation. It is a glory. It is a confirmation, it is a confrontation to the whole world that God and Guru are with me. I am the Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh. I am the daughter and son of Guru Gobind Singh. It is a declaration. It is a meditation, it is a preparation towards that goal. And can it be that the spirit of Guru Gobind Singh won’t encircle that person? No. It cannot happen. God guarantees this fact:
Jaa kai roop meh roop samaavai.
Taa kee koee kiaa gat paavai.

One who is emerged in the love of the Lord,
his greatness no one can describe.

Oh foolish people, Sikh Dharma is not a hodge-podge of this and that. It is Shaastra and it is Shastra (scripture and weapon).
Vedaa meh naam utam so sunai
naahee, phireh, jio betaaliaa.

The Glory of the Nam is known
to the Vedas, but men don’t hear,
and they wander about like madmen.

From the time of the Vedas to this day, if one does not understand what is written in all the entire scriptural language of all religions, one does not understand a thing, because one has to become the essence of the essence of the essence. It is a virtue. That virtue can take one to a state of ecstasy like Guru Arjun. It was in the month of June when the weather and hot; hot was the karma burning mother earth. It was a time when mother earth was being burned and tortured and there was so much trouble and pain that the divine Partakh Har, the son of Guru Ram Das, true and real, sat on a burning hot plate to cool the mind and the earth, to cool the angels and the divine with the essence of his physical bana through the essence of bani. Those are the virtues which can come to us, can uplift us, and can make us great virtuous people when we bring people to the door of the Guru. That is what it is called Gurdwara. The job is to bring the person up to the gate. Once he enters, then it’s between him and Guru. There’s no in-between, and then you can say,
Teraa keetaa jaato naahee, maino jog keetoee.
Mai nirguniaare ko gun naahee, aape taras paeoee.
Taras paeaa nihraamat hoee, Satigur sajan miliaa.
Naanak naam milai taa jeevaa, tan man theevai hariaa.

Remember one law: There is no divine virtue which shall be secret.
Divine is sacred. It is secret only to fools. Where there is mystery,
there is no mastery, and where there is no mastery, there is nothing
but mystery. Where there is no clean air, there is smog and fog;
when the air is clean, there is nothing.

Let us today sit in the presence of the Siri Guru Granth and chant Haree Mantra:
Satinaam, hareenaam, hareenaam, haree;
hareenaam, satinaam, satinaam, haree.

At the time of the Vedas thousands of years ago, this was the main mantra which gave man the glory and oneness with God. So let us all do it. Everyone should participate through the prana so that the prana may be shared in the vibratory effect. Are we willing to participate? God gives the prana and we want to donate some prana toward the Giver. Chant with the breath.

As a special concession, I’m not asking that all those songs be sung now. But remember, the only way one can be cursed is when one cannot sing the songs. If a person wants to kill a nation, take away its songs and don’t let its people sing. They will die without anything to kill them. Women must remember all their sacred songs so that they can be an instrument to let the song flow from the soul so it can prevail with the Universe as God’s will.

I have one further message to give: one has to carve out of the young Sikhs the lion, otherwise one will end up with a donkey. This should be a very self-centered, imaginative and meditative sight of a person. Whenever a woman has to deal with anybody, she must understand that she has to create a lion, otherwise she’ll end up with a donkey.

Now I am going to discuss a very practical new era, one which is most powerful and very essential for every woman, and very much forgotten. This is how it was forgotten: The French Revolution in a sense affected every noble person. Nobility was a kind of status where everybody who was a noble, usually with blue eyes and blond hair, was guillotined. The Russian Revolution also had an effect. Nobility was considered as richness. Actually, nobility does not have anything to do with richness, though nobility is very, very rich in every aspect of life.

Admiring nobility in relationship to money was a very wrong trend. What happened was that rich people were in a position to receive and give training in noble traditions to their children. In spite of all the traditions and training, the children of these rich parents lived a very vagabond, immoral and unethical life. When the partisans of the poor people in the revolution took over, being associated to any kind of nobility or title became a kind of curse, and open slaughter took place. If you look at the map of Europe, and look at Russia and France, then you can really understand how great an area was affected by these two revolutions.

To be very honest with you, a woman who is not a noble woman and who does not talk through her radiance, is not a woman. The greatest decoration a woman can have is nobility. She should not only look noble, she should live noble. Nobility is a virtue and it is a living virtue. Some people think if they know manners, can talk mannerly, and act and pretend to be noble, they are noble. No, nobility is character in a woman. A noble woman will give birth to noble environments. A noble woman will give birth to nobility in all areas of life. A noble woman does not require a psychiatrist or psychologist.

The sign of nobility is that it has a deep effect in relationship with any person one comes across. They say nobility is a virtue which affects every soul. It is a virtue which affects every soul just as innocence affects every heart. Woman has only one virtue: she is noble in the beginning and noble until her death. People do hanky-panky along the way, thus they pollute their virtue of nobility. If nobility is ever precious to a person, that person will never, ever put himself or herself down the tube for any reason, for any argument, concept, thought or feeling whatsoever. Because nobility is like a mirror; once a crack is in it, the entire image is distorted. Noble habits, noble language, noble behavior, noble posture and a noble way of communication are so powerfully impressive that even an enemy’s heart can be melted.

The soul is always noble. When the mind relates to the soul, the mind becomes noble. When the body relates to such a mind, the body becomes noble. Nobility is the outcome of divinity in equilibrium. The divinity is physical, mental and spiritual selves.

Question: Is a noble woman different from a graceful woman?

Reply: Nobility is the foundation of every grace. Somebody once asked, “Define a noble person.” The definition came and the answer was: “Noble is noble in the beginning, in the end and remains noble through time and space, beyond and within. There is no era which is left. Nobility is a virtue; it is a fountain from which grace springs.”

Question: How does one cultivate nobility?

Reply: Nobility is cultivated only when one consciously relates to one’s spirit and flow of the soul and one feels the total divinity within. It is a manifestation of divinity. Nobility takes one away from temptation, anger, lust, greed, unvirtuous and unrighteous living. It gives one a qualifying factor to impress everybody without impressing. That is the beauty of nobility. The way one talks, walks, sees, deals, serves, gets served, is a total sum of one’s living behavior. There is a tremendous flow of spirit in a noble person. A noble person is a very powerful individual.

The grandeur which goes with nobility and richness of character were transmuted into the measurement of money and wealth and possessions. So, on the physical form, it created a kind of hatred; but actually, nobility has nothing to do with wealth. It is a wealth of wealths. Is that understood? It is a wealth of wealths. Richness was not the basic idea, it was not required; but it happened.

What I have explained is that a huge part of human knowledge was lost because of these wars and revolutions. A tremendous, beautiful tradition was lost because of war. War destroys, war is not a joke. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. Look at us, in the Vietnam War neither we won nor we lost, but our dollar has never gotten back into shape. War is not a good thing for any country. Insanity and political crisis make us go to war. War only happens when we cannot negotiate with logic and reason, when we leave noble ideas. But on the other hand, nobility also creates war because when one’s soul cannot accept the torture of negativity, then one fights. So although war is no good, and fighting is no good, if you just understand every war, it was a noble soul which organized the whole community away from the downward trend of human repercussions and raised them to fight. They call it, “the call of the dharma.” Call of the dharma is the call of the soul which wants to spring forth out of every human being. When this happens, it is a privilege that people go through it.

Everyone must remember that there are certain characteristics of a noble person, a noble woman. A noble person is noble through all time and space. A noble person is constant and consistent whatever the time and space. Some people behave differently with rich relatives as compared to poor relatives. That is not nobility. Nobility teaches one equality before God. So under any circumstances, one can find a noble person through their constant behavior which is absolute in equilibrium through all pressures and all shortcomings. That is one great sign. Constant continuity of equilibrium of any kind of behavior is the first sign of a noble person. A noble person is one who will not barter, who is not even tempted to barter, the values of character for benefit. Noble people are those who will not forget the presence of God within a person. And most importantly a noble person is a dedicated person, like the Infinity of God. God is Infinity. There is no shortcut, and people who try to shortcut will always end up adopting unnoble ways and means. It requires an infinite endurance to live within the range and the circumstances of one’s nobility.

Question: The European nobility was very corrupt from what I understand.

Reply: You have been made to understand this. Nobility was not corrupt, but it became misused as a social and political power block. When politics comes into anything, it takes away everything. So, whenever reality becomes a ritual, such as in any religion, then it becomes a curse. Similarly, the same thing happened in Europe. Nobility became a class thing. To Americans the word noble is as cat is to rat; do you know what I mean? Your idea is correct that nobility and corruption go together, according to the image which has been produced here. But that is not true. I’ll say Jesus Christ was a noble person, and now you want to say what?

Question: What can a woman do to protect her nobility during social and political changes?

Reply: In social and political changes, a woman must understand that whenever a woman becomes power hungry she becomes a monster. The Chinese dragon is a monster. It is a very beautiful view of such women who instead of flowing with the flow of noble tradition, become possessive monsters. I have seen in practical life, a noble mother becoming a possessive monster and ruining the future of her children because of her social, psychological and personal handicaps. There is nothing more noble than the relationship of the mother, but in that same relationship of the mother, she becomes a destructive monster when she becomes possessive. A mother becomes possessive because of her social, economical, and personal handicaps.

We are starting this chapter on the form of nobility not only in the ritualistic sense of royalty, but nobility in the practical sense of divinity. That is what I am referring to by nobility. A poor person can be a noble person. In his teenage years, Jesus was a noble boy. While talking to the yogis who were in the jungle, Guru Nanak did a very, very noble deed. By taking care of the sick people, Lord Buddha demonstrated noble acts on a practical level. By patiently hearing the neuroses of students, Yogiji acts very nobly, I can tell you that!

Nobility has many, many facets and many, many virtues. It can be done in many, many ways. When one is noble, one is nothing. But nobility need not be ordained by the king touching a two-edged sword to your shoulder. All those rituals and things were ceremonial. Basically, nobility is the living character of dignity and divinity in a person. Nobility walks in one as dignity and divinity. We have to be noble because the time is going to test us. Times are going to be very negative. Therefore, it is my humble request and prayer that we must not let go of our devotional nobility of character, behavior and personality and revert to our basic personality.

As far as women participating in Women’s Camp, it is not noble on my part to allow anybody to get away with negativity. Actually, to be very honest, this ladies’ camp should be a way of life where a woman can express her nobility. Her dignity and divinity should be expressed with absolute nobility, right here. Is that understandable? When a woman leaves this camp, whether she stayed here two, four or eight weeks, she should go with her very inner fiber totally filled with absolute nobility. That is what is intended.

Question: Is the best way to teach our children to be noble by being noble ourselves?

Reply: There is no better way to teach than to demonstrate nobility against their tantrums. Every child is a Swami Trauma. To make him a Yogi Rama, it still takes a lot of noble behavior on the part of the parents. Children have the right to deal with the traumas. That gives them the aggressiveness to know and to investigate. To expect children to totally get rid of traumas is totally wrong. It means people want their children to be vegetables. Children have the right to create a trauma. Parents have the right to cut the “t” and leave the “r” as a capital letter. Rama. Rama means the giver of sun and moon, whereas trauma is the act of ego which a child picks up very perfectly. The children of trauma can be very perfect. No actors can act like them. They are very good. Children can make a father go berserk; children can make a mother and father fight like fighting cocks. They do create environments that adults cannot even understand, because adults lose their innocence. Adults feel that children do not know anything. Actually, children know that adults do not know anything.

Question: If being noble threatens one’s parents…?

Reply: That parent is most unfortunate. If being noble threatens God, even then it is O.K. One should have that spirit. Fearlessness is the criterion of nobility. Noble men are not afraid. When children behave very saintly it sometimes threatens the parents because there is a possibility the parents may be very earthy and worldly people. Guru Nanak’s father, Mehta Kalian Chand slapped Guru Nanak and said, “You don’t do any business, you are no good.” He never understood that Guru Nanak was the very practical aspect of God coming upon the earth to teach the dharma. So, it should not bother us.

Question: You said that nobility is like a mirror, when it is cracked it distorts the image. If one appears unnoble in front of a person, will one’s nobility be distorted forever in the eyes of that person?

Reply: It may get healed but there shall be a scar. Nobility is like a trust, once it is broken, one has to rebuild it. It is like a credit report, therefore it is not very fair to discredit yourself.

Let me relate something. When I came to the United States of America, there was one person who said, “Please initiate me, I want to be your student.” I said, “Alright, if you want to be my student, what do you want to offer me?” He said, “No, no, no… what offer?” I said, “What student?” I learned my lesson that very day, I never initiated anybody, because a student who cannot offer himself totally and completely as a gift before the teacher should not be initiated under any circumstance. That’s a law. Initiation was practiced by Guru Gobind Singh. Five gave their heads and he initiated them into the dharma. That is called initiation.

Credit. Your credit is your virtue and nobility is your greatest virtue. Today I talked about one idea: nobility is the greatest virtue which can be experienced on the planet Earth. That is the theme which I would like to pursue throughout these days. Walk nobly, talk nobly, live nobly and experience divinity. That is the theme of this camp which we are starting today onward.

Question: If a child is going through his traumas, what is the noble way to act?

Reply: First noble way is to make him recognize that he is going through the trauma and that you understand. The moment the child will understand that the parents understand that the trauma is being played as a trauma, then it just becomes a drama. The child will immediately change the drama act and start doing something different. If that does not work, the parents have to exert their authority in a legitimate way to make the child think that they cannot be conquered by that injection of trauma. They will be successful.

When a child reaches the age of eleven, one should never ever play any drama with that child, but should be straight and firm. Now they are entering the stage of ego trauma. You can win them by frank, straight talk. You will win it. When parents try to hide their own weaknesses from their children and lie to them, it spoils the children. That destroys the image of the parents’ nobility. They won’t be able to believe their parents or act upon their advice.

Question: In the case of a child doing a trauma, you said to make the child recognize the trauma or to apply legitimate authority. When a child is three years old, what is the noble way to apply this authority?

Reply: Once a child was raising his hands up and crying, “Aaaaaaaa.” The mother was trying to hit him. I said, “Don’t hit him.” I went there and looked at the child and I said, “Aaaaaaaa.” He started laughing. That is all it took. “Aaaaaaaa,” with his hands in one direction and I did, “Aaaaaaaa,” with my hands in the opposite direction. That diagonal energy checked by square energy became neutral. So I just applied a simple geometrical theorem.

Question: What if our parents are not noble?

Reply: Forgive them.

Question: Our forgiving is our way to be noble?

Reply: Yes. If one won’t forgive the parents, one is not going to act nobly, because then one acts in vengeance.

Question: What is an example of how to react in a noble way when people ridicule you?

Reply: For people who slander you?

Question: Yes.

Reply: Have you not been me acting? I am the most slandered person in the United States of America. The noble way to act towards a slanderer is to ignore him. It is the greatest punishment one can award to anybody.

Question: If someone is walking down the street and someone yells out a name, does that mean one shouldn’t react at all?

Reply: Do you know how bad you feel if someone doesn’t even look at you? You should not lose your merits in contrast to someone’s demerits.

Question: How should a woman act nobly in an unrighteous situation?

Reply: There are three ways. If one can give a slip to the unrighteous situation, it should be given a slip to show one’s dislike and then it can be discussed later. Second is to use one’s influence. The best way, though, is for a woman not to enter the environment at all, and not give herself a chance. In this country, the main problem is people do not act preventatively. A woman should take precautions that she does not walk into unrighteous environments.

Question: How do we handle it when our personal friends resent it when we act nobly?

Reply: When a dog is on a chain, and the master walks with him in the street, all the stray dogs start barking. The only lesson we can learn from that is to keep going. Unnoble people will act very aggressively toward noble people, because they want to test whether they are really noble or are phony. The insecure person will always try to make a secure person insecure to test his security. That is the law.

Question: Is there a difference between being noble and being true?

Reply: Truthfulness has three virtues. Individual truth, circumstantial truth, and Infinite Truth. Nobility has only one virtue; it is true now, it is true ever, and ever it shall be true.

I learned one thing which is very noble when I started studying with one of my teachers, Sant Ranjeet Singh. He was a very noble person, a very decent person and a very practical person. I asked him, “I am starting to study with you today, what should I remember to guide me through the whole thing?” His reply was very smilingly great. He said, “Remember whose student who are before you act or accept anything in your life.”
© 1978 YB Teachings, LLC
Above Article Copyright © Yogi Bhajan 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.



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