Yogi Bhajan Lecture Archive
Lecture by :
Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji
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Lecture on: 08/14/1989
Category: Survival Camp
Location: Ram Das Puri, NM
.
Public

The Two Legs of Commitment and Character

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(Note: approximately the first 30 minutes of this lecture is missing
because Siri Ved Singh arrived late and it was not taped.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -

...you might be exploiting your parents, you might be exploiting the feelings and the attachment with you, but one thing is... I tell you... you can't exploit the time and the space. That will get you.

I am very shocked at certain people who I used to hug and love, and raise and play with. They came out very beautiful. They showed up with great character. But some of you are mean. You are liars. You are mean. You play games. You are not even aware to understand that tomorrow's challenge will break your teeth and wash it and put it in your hand. And that hurts the people who love you, the people who know you, and the people who are with you through thick and thin.

Psychologically we are not supposed to talk negative. Psychologically we are not supposed to say negative things. Psychologically we should appreciate you. Tell me honestly... if I appreciate you, and appreciate you, and appreciate you, and the time and space doesn't, what a lie I am telling? And what a lie you are living? Do you understand what I am saying? (Yes, sir.)

And moreover that, you are very honest. You are extremely honest. Your honesty is, whatever your hurts are, you say it. Whatever you have done, you say it. You do not honor any promise, any commitment, any mutual behavior, any relationship, any understanding. You are dishonest to the hilt and you call yourself 'honest.' You are sick! You speak truth to hurt each other. You are not honest. Truth doesn't hurt anybody. Truth uplifts you. Truth is a force... not to be used to hurt people. You tell on each other, play games with each other, do your number -- how long?

All right, today you are young. One day you will be grown up. Twenty five, twenty seven, thirty. Naturally somebody's going to tell you, "Good-bye."

You can develop offensive behavior by being clever. I tell you why. When you are clever you play the games. Two, three, four times, you enjoy the game because you are never caught. Finally you get caught... you become defensive. When you become defensive... (speaking to someone in the sangat)...oh, you came? This guy has been with me for 18 years. He doesn't know time, space, and me... and I put it on record, I'm getting to the point of getting tired. But anyway, he's out of this discussion. Let us talk what we are talking... the effectiveness of your life will lose strength. It is not that I don't have enemies, and it is not that I won't have enemies. It is not that I have been not abused and crossed with the most corrupt and bizarre and pornographic attitude. It's not that I've not been betrayed and tortured. Rather I tell you, I have it in my will that anybody who wants to make my picture or my painting or my statue, should make it with the shells, outer shells of the peanut, that looks like a scab. That
many knives by these loving creatures are in my body. And that many wounds I have got. The amount of insult, disrespect and abuse that I have enjoyed in this country in twenty years, no man could have survived it. But I am a missionary. I am true to my mission. I am not true to myself. So when my self is endangered, it doesn't hurt. Not that I don't have self-respect, not that I don't have muscles, not that you can abuse me and I can't kick the face of that person. Not that I don't have the authority to fire anybody. I can do anything I want. But I am setting an example: "No say 'no' when you have to say 'no.'" That is Nanak. I heard it, I remembered it, and I am practicing it.

You think religion is a joke. No! Religion is self-crowning yourself. Kaur is a princess, and a Singh is a lion who has conquered the beast in himself. Otherwise you are just a circus joker. You come here, you play games, you go away, you forget about it. We love you, but we don't trust you. You trust us, but you don't love us. That's the relationship. And we painfully know it. But we are not stupid. We are trying to save the harvest as much as we can. But some of you will be lost.

I know, once I had the experience when people just left... left and right... and one day in meditation I just got mad at God. I said, "Why so? Why people who have destiny cannot make it? What's wrong?" I never had an answer, then. But fate came before me and said, "You know me?" I said, "Who are you?" He said, "I am fate. I am the sister of destiny. Why you are so deadly against me? I need something, too. I take away those who do not aspire to be the friends of their souls and who are the slaves of their minds."

In three weeks -- this course was for what? Three weeks? This is your fourth week? (Third.) Third week? You have known each other now. That is not what I am worried about. In these three weeks... or in this week you are going to go through... you have also come to know who you are. You have also come to know what caliber each one has. You also can very well judge who is giving you a pudding in the name of shit, and who is giving you shit in the name of pudding. Try to know this. Don't try to be false and friendly and very (kiss, kiss, kiss) business. No, no, no. There are a lot of people who are human but they are snakes. There are people who are just nothing but mosquitoes. They will sting you and get you malaria, and you'll die your own death. Because you are blind. You have more emotions and feelings than reality and the principle.

So, don't get nervous here. Learn one thing: how to read between the lines. How to see behind the seen. How to read a face. You may not read the aura, but you can read a face. Eyes never lie. Look into the eyes of people and you'll find out where they're at.

When somebody tells you, " I Love you." Just say, "Raise your eyes and look in my eyes." And you know how they will look? They will stare at you. They are the worst enemies you have got. A person who has deadliness to look into your eyes and look straight, without any warmth, that person is your deadly enemy. That person will dump you where you will never come out of. Don't look at blond hairs and blue eyes.

I tell you something... romance, it never cooks the food. And love, it never pays the bills. It has not so far. And you in yourself, if you don't mind leaking, you will be abused. You will get empty soon.

Some of you will not like to wear bana. Maybe majority of you will not like to wear bana. And I know it in my heart that you don't want to. Because bana is an unfortunate thing. It takes away from you the chances of being corrupt, and chances of playing games. It takes it away, right away.

I once asked a person, "Why you don't tie turban?" She said, "I can't. I am afraid I won't have friends." I said, "Are you a fisherwoman, that you make your body like a net and you have to have a catch every day?" What a corrupt mind, corrupt personality, and what a lower, mean mental intelligence. Can you believe this? Somebody waits her whole life and may not have one friend. If you ever want to have a friend, a friend in need is a friend indeed. That's a Western saying.

And we ask you to do sadhana. You say, "Oh God. This old man is crazy. Why he is saying it?" Don't talk with me like that. Just listen to me. "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Did I write it? (No, Sir.) Your papa wrote it? (No, Sir.) His papa wrote it? (No, Sir.) It is from the time to time, this truth will stand. Guru Nanak said that, "Amrit vela sach nao vadeeaaee veechaar. Karamee aavai kaparaa nadaree moakh duaar." The exact translation of it is: "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." And whosoever is wise shall be worshipped --nadaree moakh duaar. Karamee aavai kaparaa -- healthy, wealthy, and wise. Naanak ayvay jaaneeai... Nanak has known that way. And you, you cannot get up.

You don't want to wear bana because it identifies you. You love to have shallow friends and a shallow life. You do not want to have excellent friends and an excellent life, because you think popularity is in quantity. No. Life in popularity is quantity, not quality. Quality has many followers. Quantity makes you a follower. That's the difference. Enjoy your way.

I have not come here to tell you something. I have come to tell you my own story. Whatever I taught and talked and taught, I have my own story. I am the most hurt man. I see the destiny. I see the goodness. I tell people. They tell me, "Shut up. You are from third world country. You do not know what you are talking about." Some people have abused me. I wish they should have been in India, and they should dare to do one tenth of it. I would have shredded them in a mincemeat machine. No, God has given me the guts, quality and capacity to stand the abuse so that I can keep going for the mission I came here for.

I'll tell you the quality of a teacher. Take your hand and put it like this. This is what my teacher taught. I'm not teaching you. I am just sharing with you. You understand? I'm not teaching you! I am not influencing you! Please! You can all go to hell and heaven, that's your decision. Your legs which are character and commitment shall walk you to where you want to go. Neither your money nor your parents, nor your education can take you there. I can bet with you. There are two legs on which you walk. Commitment and character. Beyond that everything else is a pure load.
He (Yogiji's teacher) said to me, "You are not a woman." Even you are a woman, just do it. "You are not a woman, you are not a man, you are not a person." Is it a truth or a lie? Does it look like truth? You understand that? Okay. "You are not a woman...." That is exactly how it happened. I was alone with him. He said, "You are not a woman, you are not a man, you are not a person." I was about half an inch up than he was. Then he said, "You are not great." Well, he is a teacher, he can say it. "And you are not nothing." And then he made the fist. He said, "Why don't you ask me who you are?" I said, "My master, you have told me I am not a woman, I am not a man, I am not a person, I am not great, I am nothing. So you will tell me what I am." He said, "Clever." I didn't move an inch. He said: "You are a teacher."

For one thing, being a teacher, you have to give up five things in your behavior. He told me, "You are personally to be impersonal. And impersonally to be personal." Personally and impersonally... so when you meet somebody be very personal, but when you decide something, be very impersonal.

Just understand, there's another third thing. If you put on the "i" the dot, you will spell idiot. Because whenever you say, "I, I, I," you forget about the "Thou." Thou is the totality. "I" is the only personal reality. Personal reality is very limited. It doesn't make any sense. Never it will. You will never grow, you will just go and go. God is G-O-D, God. And ego is E-G-O, ego. You understand? Drop the 'e', drop the 'd.' All that's left is go-go.

You can keep living, you can keep lying, and you can keep living. You can keep living, you can keep lying. You won't make sense. Neither to yourself... nor therefore you cannot make sense to anybody. There are only two legs you can walk on, and Americans are very rare who admit that they have two legs. They just jump up; hop, stop and jump. Commitment they know but character they don't. So they jump, hop, stop on one leg and they think, "Make it." But they always fall on their faces. They lick the ground and lick the dust. And that's why your life is not unhappy or happy, because you don't know what is unhappy and happy. Because you have never achieved... you are never fulfilled. Nobody told you. That's why we took the responsibility to come here and tell you everything nasty which life can offer. It's not that I don't love you. But I hate it when you hate yourself. And you really, really hate yourself.

Once a young girl who I loved and I raised and I sent her to India to educate, and I was very much in love with her... she took a little scissor and she cut her hair. Her mother called me... father called me. I told them, "She cannot be saved." They were very shocked. "Why?" I said, "She cut her hair." "You should talk to her." "Why you brought it to me? If you as parents have not made her understand, why I should make her understand?" "No, sir. No, sir. No, sir." I talked to her. She said, "I am willing to change." She was so happy to change. They called me, "Sir, what is your report?" I said, "Well, temporarily she is willing to change, but permanently we have lost her." And it is true. She is lost into the wilderness of fashion, life, and temperament. Because we couldn't temper her.

Once I asked a person, I said, "Why this girl doesn't wear a turban?" She said, "Sir, she hates you. She thinks if she wears a turban, then she represents Siri Singh Sahib. She hates Siri Singh Sahib, therefore she doesn't want to wear turban." I said, "No, no. She wants to show her hair to the people because the magnetic fields of hair is very sensual and sexual. She doesn't know where she is going. I don't want to say a thing."

Your body behavior can very well predict your future. You think all these people who are rich and multimillionaires and these Americans are happy? If they are happy, why there's a 50% divorce and 60% corruption? You know why there is so much problem? Because people are not personally impersonal and impersonally personal.

God bless you with your honesty, with your truth, with your deceit and with your corruption. It doesn't matter. They are sides of the same coin. You can make a choice. If you give distance to your destiny, you will fall in the lap of fate. And fate is nothing but self-hate.

Remember this: It is not the man that matters. It is the manners of the man. It is not the age that matters, it is the etiquettes. It is not the charisma of yours that matters, it is the character of yours. When wealth is gone, nothing is gone. When health is gone, something is gone. When character is gone, everything is gone. These are all Western teachings. I didn't make them up.

I hope and pray that you'll wake up. Awakening of the Kundalini is opening of the third eye. It means seeing the unseen. It means being practical and calculating, imaginative and realistic, and being truthful and self-loving.

You know, you are all teenagers. You love each other. You are the most corrupt of all. You are the biggest liars and you are absolutely fake. First learn to love yourself. An empty glass doesn't quench anybody's thirst. First love yourself, and show how much you love yourself, and then let people bask in the radiance and sunshine of yours. Then love somebody and you always will live in heavens while on earth. This commotional, free, unpaid prostitution which you do behind the windows and in the valleys, in the trees, in the cars, and all that -- and you think you can play smug and nobody cares? And you bother your parents and make them nervous. You kill their pride, you take away their facilities. You give them doubt and give them the shock. You call it a pride, you call it an honor? No, my dear, that's self-hatred. It will come back to you tenfold.

I hope I'll be with you for the week and we'll talk practical things. That's why I'm dedicating this week to it. I'm not trying to convince you. I'm not your leader, and I'm not your father, and I'm not yet your teacher. You have to ask for it. And some of you are so cheap, you hate me and then tell your papa and mama, also. And I get the phone calls. But just understand... these dramas you can play and the trauma you can create, but one day you have to stand on your own legs of commitment and character, and that day if those legs will be shaky, you will realize, why didn't you learn?

I have seen once a young man, beautiful and wonderful, he was lying down on the sofa and I asked the mother, I said, "Is he sleeping?" She said, "No, that's the way he is." "Does he do anything?" She said, "No." "Doesn't he eat?" She said, "Once a day." "When?" "I don't know," she said. "So what is there?" She said, "Food." "Why?" "Maybe he may eat." "What he does?" "He lies down on the sofa." "Does he do anything else?" "No. Once in a while when it is a good day, he watches TV." I said, "God bless you and for your patience."

If you do not take the courage in hand and you do not build your character, and you not come through your intelligence and consciousness, you can be that boy. Depression makes you commit self-vengeance. Inferiority complex makes you miserable, and self-deceit makes you a failure. Just remember those three things. The opposite of that is excellence, success and victory.

I hope it will be good for you to really listen to this half day, thanks to Siri Ved, because he only gets attention by doing something miserably wrong. But when I remember him or see him, I remember that story... somebody came to somebody's house, and he said, "I want to serve you." He said, "What you will charge?" He said, "Nothing." "What will you do?" He said, "I am excellent." " Well what job you do?" He said, "I can cook, I can serve, I can sew," and whole thing. "I can build." "Do you charge anything?" "No." "Is there any demand?" "Once a year I commit one mistake, and that should be forgiven. You'll have to say: 'It's okay. Nothing." They thought, "Well, he'll perhaps break a glass or something."

Six months, eight months went by, and one day he came and told the woman of the house, he said: "Lady, your husband has gone mad, insane, and a lunatic. He is coming home to eat you up. He tried to eat me up." And outside he told the husband, "Your wife is developing a saltiness in her skin and afterwards she is going to put a spell on you and you are going to become a chicken, if you go inside." The husband said, "I can't believe you." He said, "Go and bite her hand and you will feel it." So the husband rushed to the house where he had already set everything all up. When the husband came in, he wanted to catch the wife's hand, and wanted to bite it. And she cried, "My God, I should be saved!" He didn't understand why she was resisting. She didn't understand why he was biting her. Exactly so is my condition. I was supposed to be here at 5:00. I didn't ask why Siri Ved was not here up till 5:30, because whatever I said was very precious... not for you, but for the coming generations. I have never understood why he
missed it. And I also do not know how he is ever going to compensate for it.

God bless you... good-night. Sat Nam.

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END OF TRANSCRIPT
8/14/89
YOGI BHAJAN
Transcript by Tej Kaur Khalsa, Los Angeles, CA


Above Article Copyright © Yogi Bhajan 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.



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