Wahe Guru Ji ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji ki Fateh! There is a very beautiful word in English: "So and so has passed away." In our Punjabi we say, "Gujaraa jaanaa. Eh gujar gay-aa. Saray gujar jaanai, guzaraa, gujar jaanaa, gurzaraa, gozaar chaukaree." There are few words which are very methodical and technical for a human life but in English we say, "So and so has passed away." If you collect all the people whom you know and ask them, "Where somebody has passed away?", nobody knows. And neither they know where so and so has passed away, neither they are prepared to learn if he has passed away, we do not know where he has passed away, where they are going to pass away, where they are going to go. The concept of intuition is totally missing. Man is worse than an animal. He's worse than any bird, than any animal, any fish, anything. The highest species lives as the lowest and the meanest as far as the self- culture is concerned. Their ego is how many houses I have got, how many cars I have got, how beautifully dressed my wife is, how my children are, how much money I am making. If you talk to them, they talk to you exactly as a bazaar which has a shopping center... you go to a shopping mall or you go to an individual's house, you'll find the identical situation. Everything is on sale. Wife is on sale, children are on sale, he himself is on sale. And they bargain like a prostitute. "I am this, I am that, I, I, I, I." Hardly you will hear a word about God, or Thou. And ask this person, "Who designed your nose?" and he doesn't know. "Why the nose is fixed between the two eyes?" They are unable to solve that phenomena. That's how ridiculous a human consciousness has become! And especially in the modern world, they think they can buy everything. But, there comes a day when somebody passes away. Not all the day. It happens. And maybe for 72 hours and maybe 48 hours, maybe for a week or ten days, there may be a chance to think WHERE somebody has passed away? Where somebody has gone? Forget about what he has left, or what he is going to leave. That is the few who will just get to it. And that's the length of the relationship. "Oh, my father has left me this. My grandfather has left me this. Or, he has left this to charity... to the church." And that's it. But question in reality is, "Where one passes away TO?" And everybody sees everybody passing away. Nobody wonders. Nobody worries. Nobody has chance to consider, think, sit, discuss. Not at all. Not at all. And these humans are so lonely. I sit among them, I live among them, I talk among them. They have no relationship with their soul, their spirit. Somebody once asked me, "Where IS the soul?" I said, "Under your foot there's a sole." And don't crush anybody. Don't crush anybody's sentiment. Don't hurt anybody. Don't walk over anybody. Just learn a simple lesson: BE KIND... but measure it by the compass of a compassion that your kindness is real. You are not doing it because of commotions. You are not doing it because you cannot handle a situation. It is surprising that Guru Nanak has given a message to make you understand to reach you to the depths of reality. He never meant to start a religion, but just for convenience we call Sikh Dharma a religion. It is a way of life. It belongs to only those who are willing to understand that they are made in God. It doesn't belong to those who still think they are made in their father and mother. Sikh religion has a very cut-straight directive: If a person thinks he is made in God, he can enter. Then he can practice, he can live, he can argue within himself and come to conclude a simple conclusion that he, his environments, his tomorrow, his yesterday and his today belongs to God. It is shocking, those who call themselves Sikh, when they use word, "I." For expression, I can tolerate. But I don't understand. Not only by expression, in reality, enforcing by subconscious, they use the word, "I." And still they call themselves, "Sikh." I have never seen a mockery of religion in whole world as the Sikhs do! The concept of the Sikh is one who has learned to belong to the Will of God. And now, intellectually, question is asked, "Where is the Will of God?" Will of God is in the very simple fact that when you spread your consciousness, everything belongs to God... and if you just try to survive, you will always be where the Will of God is not. You will only become limited, you will become angry, you will become nasty, you will become commoner when you perceive to move with the concept of "I." "I want it." When "I" has a force in it, "Thou" has no place in it. And everybody passes away with "I,I,I," and never reaches the "Thou" and that loss is not mourned. That loss is not understood. The stupid person doesn't understand that all the most beautiful gift of time and space is given to him to realize his own soul... own relationship. Everybody wants to find Paramatma (the higest Soul)... God, without knowing anything with Atma (one's own soul). Everybody wants to go on an airplane without air ticket. Funny are these people. Funny is their attitude, and funny is their concept. You only pray to God because you are afraid. You pray to God become you want something. You pray to God because you think something can come through and you want unusual things. You are not realistic. There's no reality in your prayers. There's no reality in your relationship. There's nothing going on. It's a concept of a coward. It's not a concept of a brave, cultural human created in the very image of God. Not at all. I get introduced all the time to people. "Yogiji, meet this. This is a doctor." Okay. "This is an engineer." "This is a multi-millionaire." "This is a businessman." I am just still waiting from last 20 years if I meet anybody... "This is a beautiful human being." And if somebody really tells my secretary to introduce him or her that way, she wouldn't mind doing it. She will say so. It is the paraphernalia of a drug-addict. It is a paraphernalia of maya which a man puts out and wants to pretend to be divine. You know what our measurement is? If somebody is very rich, God is very healthy with him... God is very happy over him. Forget it! That's not true. Go and ask the rich man, "Did you have your breakfast?" He'll say, "No, doctor told me not to." "Do you want to have a lunch?" "No, I am dieting." "Do you want to have the dinner?" "I am sorry, I can't. I have a limited food." The sign of the richness is... any rich man... if you really meet a rich man, he cannot eat. If you really see a happy man, you go and tell him, ask him, "How happy you are?" You have to take a box of Kleenex to wash his tears. That's how happy he will be. And Guru Nanak says it again, and again, and again, and again, and again. And layed it out very clearly. Give ideological, analytical, biological, psychological, philosophical... all explanations to all facets of the human being, "Hey, kiddo, you are temporarily here. Have a good time." That's what he says. If you really want to understand Guru Nanak, that's all he said. "You have come for a resort. Have a good time. Be within the rules. Pay your bills. Quit and go. So everybody knows you have gone home." It's very funny. I visited many times in India and I lived there about 40 years. You know when the last time somebody dies in India, they put him on the shoulders. And at that time they teach him the biggest lesson, "Raam Naam, Sat Hei, Har Ka Naam, Sat Hei." But you should have told this funny guy when he was alive. They won't. Nobody goes ever and if you go to a living man's house and you say, "Raam Naam Sat Hei..." they consider that a bad omen. What they tell you while taking you from home to the pyre, they never talk to you about that during the whole lifetime. "Hi, how's your gold, how's your ornament, how's your this, how's your this, how is...." They talk everything but they never talk about something which is effectual: That it is God which is true, it is His Name and Identity which is True. And that is, that shall be, and that was. Simple thing Guru Nanak said, "Aad sach, jugaad sach, heibhee sach, naanak hosee bhee sach." And these little guys, these earthlings, they try to play a match with that identity. I mean, look at the concept of the ego. Look at the human ego and measure it in the simple conception that with a bucket you want to empty the ocean. And that is what is going on with our daily routine, our daily concept, our daily working. We are very, very worried about a lot of things. Mainly it boils down to, we DO know there is an ocean, and we have a bucket in our hand, and we want to empty it, without knowing where we can empty it. Sikh religion and it's concept is very realistic. It belives not in One God. It believes in the TOTALITY of One God. It does not have a guilt of good and bad: "Aval allah, noor upaayaa...." There is ONE light which created the whole universe and because everybody is created by One God, how can you say this one is good and this one is bad? Who are you to judge? If you cannot see God in bad, that means 50% of God is denied by you straight away. And it suits in America because woman is 50% of a man, man is 50% of a woman. That may be a good concept. But you are not starting with 100%. You should long for 200%!... and you may end up with 100%. That may be physically possible. That concept may be possible. But when you start, "This is bad and this is good", then fact is, bad is one polarity of God, just as good is. And so long the pair of opposites bothers a person, this yo-yo, good and bad, high and low, rich and poor, I and you, will continue. "Thou" will have no concept in conscious, subconscious, unconscious and projection. I understand there are eight major religions and I understand there are five billion people on this earth. And I also understand that everybody is a religion in their own right, but faking a drama should end some time and should come to a reality of making good of it. So that on the last day of your life you may not have to hear, "Raam Naam Sat Hei, Har Ka Nam Sat Hei." It's very insulting, really, that on that last day when you cannot hear, people chant to you. It's really a human insult. I think its much better when we are alive we chant to this fact that, "Raam Nam Sat Hei," God's Name Is the Only Truth. "Har Ka Nam, Sat Hei." The Creative God IS Truth. Or, if we are feeling very easy, we can say, "Aad sach, jugaad sach, heibhee sach, naanak hosee bhee sach." Because in Siri Guru Granth there are 1430 pages of literally analytical approach to human concept in a biological, psychological concept of interaction of human, its environments, its family, its soul, its sexual life, its personal life, its trade life, its business life, and everything else. All aspects have been cleared out, and chalked out, and detailed and discussed. Well, sometime we don't have any time, we don't want to know. But if we get to a basic concept, a practical situation that somebody has passed away, as today after a year even we can sit down and think: somebody has passed away a year ago, and where did he go? And where did he go and where do we have to go? It is not going which matters. It is growing to know where we are going. Calling this earth, this motel, a permanent home is the first mistake man has ever done. And claiming the ownership of something which is on lease is the second blunder we commit. And showing off our identity and denying One who gave us the identity is the third serious mistake we commit. These are the three aspects of every human being. First of all he is temporarily here. Secondly he does not have the ownership. Thirdly his identity is given. This body is given. The pranas are given. The breath of life is given. The wealth is given. "Jo kich paaiaa so ayk vaar, kar kar vekhe sir jan haar. Naanak sache kee sachee har." God is Truth. His actions are Truth. He has designed 'paile bane paralam te pache bono sareer.' The body was given to you later. What you have to have was already assigned to you. Sail pathar maih jant upaae, ta ka rijak agai kar dhariaa. --Guru Arjan Dev, from Rehiras One who He has created in the very stone, He has already provided the means for it. But we do not identify ourselves with the creativity and harmony of the God. We have been taught, "Go, hustle it, and get it." We are actually nothing but prostitutes. We hustle with our egos and we enjoy that momentary achievement. And we hurt each other's feelings, we step over each other. We create a lot of disarray... a lot of harrassment. Just, if somebody is wiped out, it is a game for us. Such a ridiculous thing! We are not constructive and creative within our own unit of our own identity. That is where Sikh religion has a concept... then there are all. There is no guilt in it. Bad and good, 'pale boray umtaare prabh jee pale boray umtaare.' Good and bad, we belong to Guru, belong to God. God, bad and good as we are, we belong to You. The concept is to belong, longing to belong... and in reality, not by action and by creativity. All these karams, all these methods, all these things, do not come through. Love does not come through by a drama. Love does not come... get very recognized... by a drama. These are the acts of the whore, the prostitute, the low, the mean, the 'kamzaat'. "Kasam visaare te kam jaat." The soul which does not recognize God is a prostitute, in the direct words of Guru Nanak. And a human is no different than that. And this hustling and this hassling and this abusing and this exploiting and this manipulating and dramatizing and traumatizing! All these Western concepts here... you go! and go! and make it! No, sir... it is already made! Go and just gracefully get it, receive it. "Bheta, dooniaa sat gur di bheta." Oh my son, the world is the offering of the God. I can't forget it and your children should learn it. I was a son to a man, too. He said so. "Bheta dooniaa sat gur di bheta." Oh son, the world is the offering of the True Guru. "Doonia, do neeaaee. Aja-ee naa gu-aaeh." The doonia is a double-polarity. Don't waste it for nothing. Simple values. Simple things. I do remember these words because when I used to walk with my grandfather I remember I had to catch his hand and he used to hold my index finger and say those words. These are the values you are given in a set life. Then you know and you grow where you are going. Today? No, no, no! Go, get educated, earn money, become wealthy. Then pay it all to the doctors! I don't understand what it means, being born lonely, growing up lonely, being adult lonely, married and having children and still being lonely, and then dying ALONE. Not recognizing that you are the creature of God, you are the creation of God, and you are the totality of God. You will pass away, I will pass away, we'll pass away. There is still time, if we have a breath of life, we should know WHERE to pass away. I am very grateful that if you can learn this. Otherwise who knows whether tomorrow the sun will shine or not. Tomorrow we'll have the breath of life or not. We presume things. We exume things. We consume things. We do three things. Our exumption is great. Our consumption is far out. And our presumption is far better. Everybody knows that he knows. And this is the one sign of the greatest idiot... that idiot always thinks he knows. I once went into a mad institution. There were a lot of lunatics locked up. And they especially told me, "Sir, you have come to visit. You must go to this cell." I said, "What is there?" "No, no, no, you'll just have to meet this special man." So I went there, and I said, "Can you open up the lock and I can go in and talk to him?" And he said, "No, he's violent. There's no reason why you can go in. But we'll put a chair here. You can sit down and talk to him." And I had the privilege. That was my personal experience. He asked me, "What is your name? Where do you work? What do you do?" I mean, everything was fantastic. I never saw after 15 minutes talking with him, that this man has anything wrong with his brain. Perfect, intelligent, he talked like a great man and inquired like one. And in the end he said, "You know, I am very glad you came to me. I'll recommend to my revenue minister to recommend your case, to look into your case so that you can be promoted out of turn. And I don't think he can disobey the prime minister's orders." Then I realized that he's really a lunatic. And then later on they told me, "He thinks he's a prime minister and he knows all." And I said, "Has he ever given any indication that he is not?" They said, "No. Even some prime minister can get tired. And sometime recognize that he is not a prime minister, but he is perfect. He is a very perfect, balanced, set case." And I said, "Why he becomes violent?" They said, "If you go in near him, then he'll ask you, 'Do you recognize me? Do you accept me?' And if you can't do that, then he becomes violent. And that's where he becomes violent." So I came here and I see that there are millions of prime ministers. They are perfect, they know God, they are very divine, they are holy. Any man who has nine holes is holy, and I think I have not seen yet until something is medically done, you have eight holes or 7. You are very holy. And everybody comes to me asking how to open the tenth gate. I am asking you how to shut that tenth gate with which you all the time day dream and night dream and imagine and think and presume and exume and consume. You know how much human energy you waste through your mental outlet? If you can just close that and get to know yourself... get inside... at least I can guarantee you one thing, you will always know where you are going. As we started from Espanola today, we definitely knew we may not reach Albuquerque, but we knew where we were going. And if you just call now the ranch, "Where is Yogiji?" they will say, "He has gone to Albuquerque." Everybody knows he has passed away, he has gone to Albuquerque. He is not in Espanola. And tomorrow you go away from Albuquerque, somewhere, and I can ask your best relative, "Do you know where he has gone?" He'll say, "I hope, he may have gone to heavens. I hope." You can't say with authority. You may not make it. But act in such a way that at least in your own consciousness, you are sure that you can make it all the way. That's why the gas was checked in the car, it was cleaned, mirror was placed under so no bomb has been placed. The sheets were checked. We do it in ordinary cars for a little journey of about 80 miles. Why can't we do when the journey is so long and it is totally lonely? Why cannot we equip ourselves so we may not have to just wander around when we pass away? And elevation is not difficult. In Parti Sanskriti, one thing is very wonderful. You take a piece of stone, you call it: Thakur, you elevate it to Godhood, you can do it. Hooray, are you worse than that stone? Can you not elevate yourself and become the Thakurs? You can elevate a stone to the Godhood. Can you not elevate your own human self and elevate to Godhood? You don't want to do it because it requires confrontation and then you have to act that way. Commitment to act right, effort to channelize to act right, and right for all, is all that God is. Rest is a waste of time. You must do your best and God shall do the rest. It is a win/win game. It is a no loss game. Idiots are only losing in poverty because they are self- centered, lunatic prime ministers of God-dom which they do not even understand. And that much insanity is intolerable among human species. You all are guarding your ego and you are not approaching your own inner intellect to see that your intelligence and your consciousness can come handy. It is a seeker's path. To seek what? There are two things in Sikh Dharma. Had those things not been there, I would have been a Catholic priest myself, I am not denying it. One is, "Ang Sang Wahe Guru." With each self of each cell of yours, God lives. And one is, "Naanak Naam cherdi kalaa, tere bane sarbat ka balaa." 1430 pages in the Siri Guru Granth directs you to chant the Naam of God, but it gives you the result of it. What will happen when you will chant the Naam of God? Suppose you chant the Name of God... First of all, all these similes, the philosophies, the hopes and all that which is given to you, its only purpose is to chant the Name of God. But what will happen if you chant the Name of God? You'll wish good to all. Sarbat. Sarbat includes all. "Is jeeo meh bhait naa jaano, saad chor sabh brahm pachhaano." Don't differentiate in the human between a thief and between a saint. And it is a simple law of yoga: When the pair of opposites does not affect you, atma becomes para-parbraham paramaatam. It is a simple thing you don't have to learn somewhere. Your capacity, your vicinity, your conception, your prosperity, your totality is based on one thing: are you good to all? If you are good to all, all shall be good to you. I'm telling you something today. Now listen to this: In 1972 I gave a lecture and I said, "Let us visit Golden Temple as much as we can. In 1984 (I was going into those things) I said, "this is the year you must visit. You will not be allowed to visit." Nobody believed me then. And I said, "From '84 to '88, you will not be in a position to visit Golden Temple, it doesn't matter what you do. You can't do it." You are all telling me, "We want to go. We want to go to Golden Temple." This is happening. Whatever is happening is happening. '84 to '88 is not the time. It is the time to pray, pray, and pray. And I tell you today something. In '89 and '90, everything will change. And in '91 they will beg you to come! Then you can decide if you'll go or not. Don't feel hurt, and don't feel amused. Said and done is in number nine. I, my motive, and my reality. I, my motive, and my reality. You, your motive and your reality. Thou, thou's motive, and thou's reality. These are the nine powers which must act to create the universe. No individual is independent. No individual is real. These are the nine forces which must always act in harmony to keep things going. And those forces are more powerful than I, you, and us. Because these forces are regulated by the Thou. "Kartaa karay so hoe." What God does that happens... "kar aasan ditho jaao." God sat in a posture and enjoyed the creativity of the whole world. It is His chess game. It is not our game. Could anybody say 1988 years ago that there would be a Christianity? 1500 to 1600 years ago did anybody know that there would be a one Muslim? 3000 years ago, did anybody know there was a Buddhist? 5000 to 6000 years ago, did anybody know there was an Aryan? And today you know there is hardly a Sikh to survive. I accept it. 125,000 innocent Sikhs will give their heads and that blood will create a nation. We shall spread the God's Word and bring peace to the earth. And sacrifice is inevitable! And let us bless those who are causing us to bleed, who are causing us to bleed, who are causing us to bleed. "Manu saadhee dhaataree asee manu de soeh. Ju nu manu vadadaa, asay doonay chunay hoay." We are the ones who are born out of the double-edged sword. I don't know why we should be so afraid of death. We know, we go. And we know where we go. We don't pass away our life, we don't pass away our time. We don't pass away anything. We are part of that whole universal ecology. We are born to be sacrificed so that the world can live in peace. We gave our head to get the identity. A Sikh who lives by the head is totally deniable. Sikh has to live by the heart. Head he gave to the Guru. All he has is a heart, heart of a lion, to live, to glow, to grow, and to go unto the God's heart Itself. It is the beat of the heart. It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen all the time. It doesn't happen to all of us. And Guru Gobind Singh laid it very clear, "Jab lag khalsa rahe niaaraa, tab lag tej dee-o mai saaraa. Jab eh gahai bipran kee reet. Mai naa karo in kee parteet." "I will give divine radiance to the Khalsa who will live as distinct. But if they adopt the common ways, I will not satisfy them." --Guru Gobind Singh, Sarab Loh Granth, in Praise of Khalsa "I shall not satisfy you," he said, "if you go the common way." Excellence and caliber, caliber of Infinity, excellence of Infinity. When the two merge together, that is the day the Sikh is born. It is not a ritual... it is a reality. It doesn't belong to a trade. It is not a technical submission. It is a self-created reality in the totality of one's self. It is not a religion which is based on rituals. If you call it is a religion, it is a way of life which is based on a basic reality. That's why a Sikh who doesn't get up early in the morning, ambrosial hours in the morning, does not praise the God, does not treat all equal, does not behave, is not always in high spirits, does not become the torch light to everything, he's not Sikh. He's a stupid! A drag! He's a number! And if you take 600 dead woods and number them "Sikh one, Sikh two, Sikh three," and ask the dead wood to move, you think it's going to move? It's a living organism! It's a body of Guru Gobind Singh! Like father, like son. It has no duality. It has none of its own reality. It has none of its own identity. It gave that all. Because it gave its head. It is a difficult path for a commoner, but it is a real joyful way for a saint and a soldier. Just understand that when you pass away, if you do not know where you are going, you have lost your trip of life. So please understand it. And understand it now. Fashion yourself, organize yourself, console yourself, reimburse yourself, redistribute yourself, reimagine yourself, self-hypnotize yourself -- do whatever you have to do. But just learn, when you go away, everybody should KNOW where you have gone! Wahe Guru Ji ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji ki Fateh! ------------------------------------------------ End of transcript 8/7/88 YOGI BHAJAN, 1988 Transcript by Tej Kaur Khalsa, Los Angeles, CA