Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh! It is 1988 and it is only the few days which are left before the year will change. The year will change... the entire constitution of the world will change. Individuals will change. Realities will change. The goals and objectives will change, and objections and doubts will change. It is the most crucial year. Sikhs as a nation and Sikhs as a people from 1984 to 1988 have gone through a very crushing time. In one good news we can celebrate. We are out of that time. The bad news is that we have to prepare ourselves for our expansion. Tomorrow we will decide something very unique, and that will be our fears and our future. There are two forces in this world which govern an individual, his destiny and his fate. Fear and love are the two forces which make us keep going. And future represents one thing, it represents fear. Tomorrow is always symbolic of fear: fear of tomorrow, fear of unknown, doubt about self, doubt about strength, doubt about everything. There are three words very important in these spiritual scriptures: param, karam, dharam. Param means doubt. Karam means action and reaction. And dharam means excellence of reality. Dharam is that "This is the Age of the True Guru," that song you were singing. I'm not saying that everybody's going to be a Sikh. I'm not claiming that. But I definitely know there are some people sitting in this room who are Sikhs. The question is, what is a Sikh? Sikh is a person who has learned. Sikhia means learning. Sikh means wisdom. An advice towards the path of wisdom means Sikhly. Sikh is a counsel of wisdom. And, we started with Guru Nanak as Sikhs, we are not doubting that. But we end up with a Guru Gobind Singh as a Khalsa. Khalsa means pure. Pure means pure. And when you look at the world around you... if you buy gold, you ask for purity. When you buy gems and jewels and pearls, emeralds and rubies, you ask for purity. You buy food, and you ask for purity. Now you are all health freaks. And there's not a one person I have not seen who reads the label. "What is in it? What it contains?" Content of purity is very well respected, very well understood. And sometimes though things may look tasty... they may look good to look at... sense of pollution and sense of damage, and sense of reality in them to destroy inside your body, your being, your mind and your reality is so heavy that you can't afford them. So what Guru Gobind Singh did? He created Khalsa, the sense of purity, how much pure a man can be. He did not have to change himself from the rule being Guru Gobind Rai. He had no need, but there was a need, and that is why Guru Gobind Rai, to become Khalsa, took the Amrit from the five beloved ones and became Guru Gobind Singh. Word "Singh" is very important, and word "Kaur" is very important. Just imagine... we have our fears in the future. I'm not asking you to follow me or listen to me or agree to me. I am giving you a simple formula of happiness... simple thing for simple people. Because in my last mile of life, I want to share with you something: Things which are not simple, things which are not straight, and things which do not shine like a sun are no good. So if you like to create complications and you don't want to straightforwardly understand life, it doesn't matter how rich you become, how strong you become, how manipulatively powerful you become, you'll not be happy. Happiness is a very simple thing. And the simple formula for happiness is in two words: in the morning you get up and you call on yourself 'Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh!' and whole day you just consider yourself to be a Singh. I'm asking this of you. I experimented one day. I'm not asking of you something which I didn't do myself. I'm asking you for a simple thing. Consider whole day as a Singh. Do everything. I'm not asking you to be right. I'm not asking you to be wrong. I'm not asking you to be honest. I'm not asking you to be corrupt. I'm not asking you to lie. I'm not asking you not to lie and just be truthful. I'm not asking anything. I'm just asking one simple thing: for the whole day just be alert before you flirt with anything, that you are a Singh and you are a Kaur. I'm not asking you not to flirt, I'm not asking you not to be corrupt. I'm not begging of you any rules. I'm not giving you any commandment. I'm not expecting anything. I 'm asking you for a self- imposed, hypnotic state of alertness of mind. I'm not asking you to rise in the air 30 feet and grow wings from your armpits and start flying. I'm not asking you to create miracles. I'm only asking for one simple miracle. Because your name is a spiritual name, it is a destiny name; and if you look just opposite of that name, there is your fate. So you KNOW your destiny and fate. It takes people incarnation after incarnation not to even figure out destiny. But you know it already. Therefore when you know the destiny, the opposite word of that is fate. My destiny is: Hari-bhajan. My name is "Har-Bhajan." Bhajan is not a song. Bhajan is a Divine Song. "Geet", "Sangeet", is a song. Bhajan is not. Bhajan means Divine Song. Harbhajan means: God's Divine Song. That is my destiny. And my fate is ungodly, un- divine song. That's my fate. There's no two opinions about it. There's no two doubts about it. Neither is there in my mind nor it should be in your mind. So you are fortunate in one way where people go centuries of incarnation, million years of incarnation, 9 million some years of incarnation. I don't want to be an eel again! I don't want to be a fish again! You know what I mean? I don't want to be a lion again. I don't want anything again! I want to get it together. Get it together. To-gether... to gather something. I want to get it together. I want to get my senses together and make one sense of who am I. There are three questions which in every religion you will be asked to answer: 1.Who are you? 2. Where do you come from?, and 3. Where you have to go? That finishes the entire religious study of all religions on the planet. "Who are you?" I am destiny. Destiny has an identity, destiny has path and destiny has a speed. Time is measured by the speed of the space... by the creativity of the environments and circumstances. You are sitting here before the presence of the Guru. Create not a future -- create a legend! A legend lives. Future can die or future can live. Create identity, not personality. Personality can be good and it can be wrong. Identity is always a seal of 99.9% purity. I saw that day a gold biscuit, bullion they call it, a slab of five ounces or something. It was stamped. There was a seal of purity on it. "999..." something. It means certified that it is pure. That is what is certifying, and in the religious world that is what Khalsa is. A purity, purity of mind, purity of self, and purity of being. Now question is, how to achieve this? Am I going to achieve it by burning myself in the fire or swimming over the water? Walking on the water; flying in the air? What am I going to achieve like that? Simple householder with children crying, with food cooking, the milk boiling, electricity going off, air conditioner fuse blowing off, car circuiting off and going off the road, police going after you, you going after police. You know, whole thing... everything that goes on in the life... that is not going to stop. Freeways are not going to be greenways. Freeways are going to be free metal roads. And there will be toll roads and there will be tax roads, and there will be roads, no roads and all the roads. I'm not asking you to change anything, I'm not asking you to become saints over night. I'm asking you for one day, practice! Just be a Singh! One day! You can tell me, "We practice everyday. What we are doing? Are we bogus?" No! You are not bogus. You are stupid. Be Alert! Be Aware! Be Conscious! That's third eye. What is a third eye? A consciousness, alertness of and about one's own self. It's no big secret. You don't have to wake up and get up and in the morning and find God talking to you. I tell you very honestly between you and me, if God talks to me every morning, I don't care much. It's a waste of time. One day I had a direct fight with God. I said, "Why did you send me here? What was something I did so wrong to you that you sent me? And what was so foolish to send me to the United States? What was the big deal in it? Tell me, explain to me. I am no saint, I am no good, I am not healthy. I speak a language which they don't understand and I'm sick and tired that you gave me from the birth the strength to see everything through the aura, and then you made me to tolerate to go through the torture. People sit in my presence, slap on my face, insult me everyday. They lie in my very presence and I sit there, 'yes, yes, yes, understood, yeah, correct, you are right. Wahe Guru blesses you and through you God, under you God, over you God.'" I said, "What is this God, God business? If you want that business, why didn't you create the earth transparent, like you? You are everywhere, you are nowhere. What we are doing?" You know what God said to me? He said, "It is very good to talk to you. You are talking very straight. That's all I wanted to know. In your sickness, lying on your bed, in the ambrosial hour, you did not care that I am a God. Therefore you were a good Sikh of the Guru." When you become carefree, straight and honest, elevated and self-aware, then you become a Sikh. I just wanted to share with you some very early morning thought. Just be aware, alert and live one day, just one day! Before you close your eyes and before you open your eyes, measure one day. You know where idea came to me? One day Saram sent me to my heart doctor. So we went there at eleven o'clock, as per medical instruction. And it was very funny. They put a thing around my shoulders, a bag, which measured whole day my heartbeat. It only freaked out when I taught. Every time it was very good. And it started missing beat and going this jumbo number within those hours. Tension was... yes, tension was. I was going, when I was teaching, I was going through the labor pains of creating something which has got to be tomorrow. And when the mother is in labor, many of you are in that labor, you must have had the experience. There's a lot of fear whether I can make it or not, though they love the children. They look very pretty when they are born. But God, you remember those ten, fifteen, twenty seconds when the water is broken, until the time it comes out, the head? Realize... it is a dreadful, painful moment. And all these macho fathers who are sitting out, they walk, left, right. I mean to say, it is perfect. They become marines over night. Left, right. "What? What is the news? What is happening?" It's that curiosity of creativity. Creativity has a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety and a lot of nervous breakdowns can happen. But, if you just live one day through the creativity... Guru Gobind Singh was very nice. I like him. I like him so much I can't explain to you. And God took millions of years to create one personality like Guru Gobind Singh. And Guru Gobind Singh explained himself, "I was Rishi Dushdaman. I was one with God and then the God told me to go and get the rebirth." It was ridiculous. God is pretty selfish. He pulls.... it is good to be good, but it is awful to be good with God. He sends you on another mission, another mission. There is non-stop going on! So Guru Gobind Singh came for a particular mission to create a self of purity. Not humans, not angels, not super people, not rich people not poor people... just people who are pure. I was talking to a Gursikh, he's a Gursikh to look at, and beautiful man. He was talking to me, "Amrit chakkalo, take the amrit, everything is fine. Punj bani par bolo. Fine." He was putting the fine seal like it is just some people can get a certificate for paying $20.00. No, no, no, no! Seal which does not have status and status which does not have seal means nothing. Two things in life are very important. A status and a seal. When you have a seal and a status and you don't fly the flag, you are no sovereign. These three things will come together: Seal, Status, and the Flag. You cannot change it. Therefore Sikh has a status being Khalsa. He has a seal of "Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh!" Akal Sahai. And he flies the flag of Guru's word. And that's what I'm trying to explain to you, that if you are in any complication or state of mid-age crisis or, call it anything... I'm not asking you what your status is.... but I'm telling you something: If for that one day you practice to be a Singh... now what is a Singh? "Singh-a". What is a Singh? The king of the beasts. Lion is a symbol. Singh is a symbol. Singh is a symbol representing to master your beast. Because you are a beast, you are an angel, and you are a human. You are three things. Leave everything else. Master your beast for one day and make yourself a princess for one day. Identify which you are. Talk like a princess, look like a princess, be like a princess, and deal and wheel like a princess, and be a real princess for one day. I'm not asking too much. By the end of the day, write your own profile. Find it out your own self. They say, "How I can find my self?" I have studied 22 religions, I have gone through it. I tell you, the libraries are filled. Churches and the temples and synagogues and the yogis, the swamis, the methods. How to find God, how to forget God, there are so many books, you all will go crazy. There's no need to be stupid, there's no need to be crazy, it's a simple thing. Guru Gobind Singh gave you two words: be a Princess and be a Singh for one day. And then be each day. And you will go and pull through your fears of the future. If you have fear of the future, you have terrible today. And you can remember, look back, you had miserable yesterday. Miserable, terrible and doubtful, they go in line. You can't change them. You think you can change them. You think if you have 500 million dollar lottery come tomorrow you'll be fine. No, no, no, that's ridiculous! It doesn't work. Some people think they can put a pill inside and pass out. Some people take drugs. Some people get married twenty times, sixty times they divorce. Some go on creating children like a machine, like a chocolate machine, "Come on, come on." You do everything to get rid of two things: You don't want to be miserable... you don't want to be terrible, and you don't want to be afraid. And you are starting with a religion which says, "Nirbhao, Nirvair, Akal Moorat, Ajoonee, Saibhang, Gurprasad!" Now what should I tell you? I'm not going to give you the philosophy. I'm not asking you to not have marriage, not have relationships. I'm not asking you not to wear clothes. I'm not asking you to do nothing. For God's sake, don't be the enemy of your own children! You only know how to produce children because they are automatic. You don't know what to do with them. And when you do not know what to do with them, they do not know what to do with you. The hostility which you create with your own born is so painful to me these days. I can't even understand it. You have absolutely no tolerance. You don't have a language of the children. You speak your own fanatic language. You talk to them and they feel you are calling them names. You support them, create them, everything. They think you are their enemies. You kiss them and hug them and love them, and they say you hate them. Nirinjan has a list. That day they talked and one boy said, "Could you, Siri Singh Sahib, do one favor for me?" He wanted a private minute. I said, "All right, you have a private minute. Come on. What do you want to say?" "Could you, Siri Singh Sahib, tell my mother, she bosses my father and me around like we are ping-pong balls." I said, "How she did that?" "Well, I do not know how she does that. Neither my dad says, 'shut up'... Pita ji doesn't say anything... nor I feel like saying something. Could you make some sense to her?" And I looked at him. He didn't even come up to my waistline. Then I laughed and I was very happy and it pleased me that we have created children who can stand on their own guts, stand on their own feet, and they think they have a place of appeal. They think they can go to somebody. And I said, "Wow! Yogiji, you have created a Santa Claus among whole thing." I said, "All right, you don't have to give me a complaint. All of you must have some complaint, so let Nirinjan write down the list and we'll definitely call for the explanation and we'll ask them why they are doing it." And I said, "Wow! Look at this. What we are creating through a generation." It means whatever we are doing, right and wrong, something good is happening. Something is fantastic! We want to keep it that way. We want to create a generation which must have a seal, not of approval. We don't want to create a personality. We want to keep an identity going, living, and growing. We want to work for it. And we want to give them the seal of approval of love, we want to give them the seal of approval of purity, we want to create a gem quality. Not quantity, but quality. And we want to work towards that. I was very sad when I was told that some children are not coming to be with me this winter. Normally it is very cold and I go there to be with them. But some people want to save money. Aren't we penny wise and pound foolish? We want to invest and become rich and grow up and we don't want to invest in our children? We don't want to do anything right? A lot of people this time have a very imposition and they are caught with the thought and I am going to ask the Khalsa Council to open up the children for questions. I am going to be one of the participants because I am a parent, too. And I am going to blow up the top of those who do not know how to be parents. I want you to all come and learn from me how to talk like parents, how to think like parents, and how to be parents. It is a science, it is an art. It has to be learned. You think by imposing an authority that you are parents and you can get away with something? Wrong! Whenever you will impose the authority and try to imprison the sentiments, you will find an answer of rebellion, hatred and anger. And over and above you will be considered dead wrong. You know what an insult that is? I tell you my own story. When my children came from India after three years, they could not relate to me. And one time when they came from India and we opened their luggage, we found two kilo bags of salt in it. And I asked, "What is it?" "Well, our parents are yogis. They don't take salt. Perhaps they will never give it to us." And they brought salt from India as if in America no salt is available. And I looked at my wife and I said, "Dear, let us be very clear. We are in trouble forever." And she said, "What?" I said, "If your children have loved you, fine. But they have lost you forever. When your children bring two kilos of salt in the luggage from India to America, it shows that they have no trust that we can provide them a basic thing such as salt." And second thing I said, "My dear, we have to do a drama." She said, "What?" I said, "I am going to fight with you and you are going to fight with me." She said, "I have never fought with you. Why we are going to fight?" I said, "Today we are going to have a death battle." She said, "You are acting crazy." I said, "That is true. I am going to act absolutely crazy and insane. And so are you. So I am warning you." Before she could do anything, she was on the sofa and I pulled her down on the ground. And we were hustling and fighting and... see, in a normal sense of decency she started saying, "Please stop it. What are you doing? It is no good." And I had not to stop it. And meanwhile these three kids came in and they saw us hassling and fighting like a fight which they have never seen, so they started separating us and sympathizing with us and everything was calm and under control after awhile. And she said, "Why you have done it?" I said, "They realized that we are human. To give them the sense that we are human and we can fault. We can be wrong. It will give them their confidence back to relate to us." It is not good all the time to pretend to be righteous, pretend to be super, pretend to be absolutely faultless and you know everything and nobody knows nothing. I mean, you are blind. Children know through something called 'sensitive intuition.' Children have been given this right and every child for eleven years has a sensitive intuition by automatic reasons which you have to build later as an adult. Eleven years cycle of intelligence is not a joke. Their automatic intelligence gives them the intuition and can tell them. I tell you what. One day I took somebody's son to Santa Fe in my car. While we were coming home, you know what the child told me? "I don't want to go home. I sense something wrong." It totally freaked me out. You know, my ego couldn't accept it. I closed my eyes and I said to my man driving, I said, "Son, let's go to the ranch first. Let's deal with it." It took me 45 minutes on the phone to deal with it. I couldn't send the child home. Between Santa Fe and the ranch it is 24 1/2 miles distance. The child knew it in Santa Fe that home in Espanola is upside down. You are dealing with a very precious cargo and with a very sensitive material. And you deal with it absolutely grossly! I gave a message to all the Indian Sikhs. I said, "You don't like me or you love me, I'm not into that discussion. But there's a technology which you must understand, otherwise your children will not remain Sikhs. Your attitude," I said, "is: this is an African Sikh, this is an American Sikh, this is a British Sikh, this is an Indian Sikh. This is a Punjabi Sikh, this is a papa, this is a Jat." I said, "This will ruin your children in the Western world because Western world does not recognize your Eastern nonsense." I said, "There are certain things you have to learn and you have to practice." They sometime impose on us, "Do you all speak Punjabi?" I say, "No, we speak San Franciscan. We speak Los Angelian." What it matters what we speak, what we do? What matters is, do we know consciously that we are a Singh? And once we know we are a Singh, do we honestly know we are the Khalsa? Rate of purity is proportionate to rate of future achievement. Because purity penetrates in every heart and values every value. And I am going to discuss with the children tomorrow, girls and boys... the teenagers are my teachers here. I have found my teacher again. They are very good. They sit down and talk with me, they tell me where wrong is. And then I have to figure it out how can it be done right. I am asking you also one thing. You have come here in solitude with an attitude to prosecute your fears, so don't waste away the time. Participate fully well and find out your fears and your future yourself. Because two powers always work hand in hand: Bhagatee and Shakti. Single of it is no good. Only Bhagatee can give you Shakti, and Shakti can give you strength for Bhagatee. So one way is half way. So Guru Gobind Singh put it together: Miri and Piri, Bhagatee and Shakti, and qualified you with victory and Akal. Therefore your ruling throne is Akal Takhat and your seal is Akal Sahai and your gurmantra is Akal Moorat. And there are the three things from which you can learn, not from me anymore. I have to teach you nothing. You have taught me something... I am repeating to you. And these are your songs. The Song of the Khalsa is your song, it is your philosophy, it is your direction. It shall make you to reach your destiny. Your children have taught you one thing... There are two things you can learn from your children. I learned from my own grandson, and I have got so many of them. They all teach me one thing: "Bana, Bana I love you. Bana Bana Wahe Guru." They have defined "Wahe Guru" for all purpose. Neither the Indian Sikh could decide it, not the American Sikh could decide, nor French or German nor the world. Nothing could decide what is "Wahe Guru." Somebody said it is Akal Purkh. Somebody says it is the Gurmantra. Somebody says everything. They decided in one second. "Bana Bana I love you. Bana Bana Wahe Guru." That means, if you have the identity, you are Akal Purkh. You are Akal Sahai. You are Akal Moorat. That is what Guru Nanak said. That is what Guru Gobind Singh ordered, and that is what your children are telling you. And there is another thing. "We are the Khalsa, Mighty Mighty Khalsa. Wherever we go...." they do not lie to you! They tell you what comes after it. "We are the Khalsa!" That is the explanation, that is a claim. That's a proclamation. "We are the Khalsa. Mighty Mighty Khalsa. Everywhere we go, people want to know, who we are, so we tell them. We are the Khalsa, Mighty Mighty Khalsa." After these three songs, if any Sikh says he doesn't know how to be a Sikh, either he is stupid or he is lying, or he doesn't want to be a Sikh. He is making an excuse. He is worthless as a man and a person and all he'll leave of his own is a one grave on which a one stone or stick should be stuck and told him, "This worm, born on such and such date, made no contribution to the planet earth. Nothing! He was not a man, he was a ghost who couldn't host God in his house." You know what is a ghost? Which cannot host the good will of Godliness in his own house, in his own being. In this jail, in this rib cage... if God cannot live, man is no man. It is a waste! I personally feel Guru Ram Das brought you to the feeling of the fulfillment of your soul. Guru Gobind Singh took you as a family. And the world tomorrow is yours. I honestly believe I am satisfied, I am happy. I many times pretend not to be happy. Most of the time I don't feel happy, not that I have something wrong with me. There is something seriously wrong with you. And my caring nature forces me to go into it that to change the wrong into right, because they are interrelated. Wrong is nothing. There is nothing wrong. Wrong is simply a challenge. If not taken care of, there is a punishment. If taken care of, it is right, it is a fruit. There is nothing right and there is nothing wrong, thinking makes it so. And Guru Nanak said, "Think... think not. Oh stupid! thinking won't make any sense!" So what should we do? We must live! Live a life that you have never to live again. Love life that you can live right. Living right is nothing more or less. The princess, the Kaur should live as a Kaur, and the Khalsa should live as a Singh. Song of life will start from THAT day! Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - end of transcript - Yogi Bhajan 1988 Transcript by Tej Kaur Khalsa, Los Angeles CA