Yogi Bhajan Lecture Archive
Lecture by :
Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji
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Lecture on: 12/25/1988
Category: Winter Solstice
Location: Lake Wales, FL
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Public

Santa Claus- A Perfect Sikh

Christmas Day, December 25, 1988

WAHE GURU JI KA KHALSA, WAHE GURU JI KI FATEH.

Today you sit here in just hundreds, wearing white banas, somewhat understanding, somewhat not understanding, just keeping your mood and keeping yourself with a lot of doubts and with a lot of strength, realizing, not realizing. But in this whole mad world as it is, the very fact that sometimes you can stand before the mirror and look into it and just ask yourself a question, "What am I doing?" You may not get the answer to it, and you may not realize that there is an answer to it, but one thing when you look in the mirror, you will look special. Why? You do not know. I wish you should know. But why you don't know and why it happened even, you do not know. That's the tragic part of it.

And then you will ask question, those who were there, why they left, and those who are coming, why they are coming. You will ask a question again and again and you will not find any answer because in reality there is no answer. The very fact the answer is the, in a very small way, the planet earth is changing. There is a saying in the old scripture that the prostitute shall become the goddess and the pimp shall become a saint and sun will be cooled for people and the moon will give them the heat, and that can happen. And if you look at that, it means in a simple statement, what I understand all that is, nothing is impossible.

The greatest beauty is that it is not that the Sikhs were not in America. Sikhs were all over in California. One third of California belonged to Sikh farmers and we were so much in number that we sent our congressman from Riverside County, elected, back into the Washington. It's not that Sikhs were not there. It is not that India is independent today because of Indian struggle. That's not true. The Berber Khalsa started from Canada, Vancouver, and they made the whole universe to know what India is about and at the grounds of Calcutta both they were slaughtered by the British army and that's also a known history. Another movement, the revolutionary movement of Indian's independence started from San Francisco, not from New Delhi.

So there's a lot of history, connected and disconnected with the greatest virtue of the House of Guru Nanak. But it never happened like it happened like a religion. Yes, people came from India, they got centered here, they got land, they started working hard, and they started living. Now it is not living. LIving is guaranteed. But not it is an association between the man and the God and the Guru. Real trinity is being established. And there was a doubt whether the Messiah is real, or Messiah is not. And yesterday I was looking at the television show and the atheist had a prime time program. I mean, can you believe they collected so much money to just say, "There's no such thing as God. It's just a hallucination and Christ was nothing more than a carpenter and some bunch of Jews raised him to just do the politics." That's all they were saying. And they were saying it in such a classical manner that even I cracked up. I said, "Look at these guys. They just want to show the money. They want to say certain things, it doesn't matter what."

So let us understand life. It is now going to be almost 20 years that we have been practicing to be Sikhs and we have got not only 20 challenges, we have greatest challenge and one of the greatest challenges is that we cannot go back to Golden Temple to bow our heads. We are not politicians, we are not antique government, we are not terrorists. We were so innocent as innocence could mean, and we cannot get a permit from Delhi. From Delhi we fly to Kashmire, we can go to Katmandu, we can go to Calcutta, but we cannot go to Harimandir to even bow our head. And it's a very painful situation but it does say something. India has nothing but a strength in it, and that was it's religious strength. India never had survived because of its economy, because of its gold, because of its diamonds, because of its wealth. India survived because of its spirituality. And when the same India has closed its doors to spiritual people, it does say something. Maybe at the moment the government of India does not understand. They have their own domestic
problems, and perhaps they will never understand. But history will never forgive that the gates of Harimandir have been closed to people who love it more than their life and for no fault of theirs. We are not at any fault.

But it is a learning lesson. It is a learning lesson that man can change even the natural flow of events and circumstances and above that man has always tried to control God's flow of energy. So ridiculous is this man, a human. Getting its scene together, to-gather, gather what? All its senses. To make a common sense, man started gathering power, man started controlling environments, man started becoming tribes and their tribes had wars and then it became termination. In the name of patriotic nature man killed each other. And also in the name of religion more people have been killed than you can even guess.

Religion has played very abused role in the world at large. It's not that there is something wrong with religion. Religion means only the science of reality that a person should understand. But you must understand, to run a religion you need money. For money you've got to go to the grass roots people. And how you can squeeze money out of people? That's the one question. And there are two tactics. One is to show them the greatness of God, which very rarely people can do. Then the other part is to scare them. Tell them, "You will not go to heaven, you will burn in the hell. You will have a terrible time. Even a mosquito bites you, you get a malaria. Malaria is the God's anger on you." And all that stuff. So the idea is to give your money straight and let the church be happy. So church became a body of God and man became again the stupid exploited.

And watch today. It is 1988. There are more churches, synagogues, mandirs, temples and priests and yogis and swamis and padres, but the man is still unhappy. Why? I have realized something very simple: the religious man is the most coward of all men created by God. He uses pleasing tactics. "Hey, remember God. Hey." Why the hell is in the morning a padre doesn't pick up the stick and go to beat the head of every Christian to wake them up and kick them around like sheeps and take them to the church? They call him a shepherd anyway, so why doesn't he do the job? But no, his sticks have become sophisticated, his life has become different and he's no more a shepherd. He stands on the pulpit and talks about the Christ and talks about God and inspires people and it has become like a good music.

I have also seen the Sikhs in general, they call a saint of their village and they do Akhand path and have langar and do the whole thing and get a kind of certificate that they are very religious. One day I was so mad, I told one religious man, I said, "Who's house you are visiting tonight?" He said, "Such and such house." I said, "He is so drunk all the time. What are you doing there this evening?" He said, "I have gone to purify him." I said, "Either you are going to purify him or you are going to collect a couple of hundred dollars. Which one is true?" He said, "I don't understand you, Yogi ji." I said, "I can tell you. You go to his house tonight. Go in his refrigerator. Take all the dead chickens, throw them out. And behind that big white sheet there is a big bar hidden. Clean all those drunken bottles out, and establish some purity. Well, then I can understand that your visit then means something." He said, "Well, that you can do. I can't." I said, "Well, then don't visit.
Don't pretend to be religious." Pretending to be religious and play to the people is so ridiculous insult to God that you can never understand. It's not worth understanding, either.

Going to a man's house in the name of God and listening to how rich he is and how good he is, rather it is just like a bad job, a surgeon who can put a person on the surgery table and give him five kisses and send him back to his room. You understand that? It doesn't mean more than that. Absolutely nothing more than that. A surgeon who is supposed to cut down the gangrene and take care of the person in the name fo the duty, here the same surgeon takes the person and kisses his feet and kisses his forehead, blesses him and sends him back. And you think that person will live? Never. Religion has become a monotonous non-reality. It has become un- interesting, living lie, ever man could create.

Because you must understand there are three hungers. One is the hunger of the body. Second is the hunger of the mind. Third is the hunger of the soul. And hunger of the soul is very, very silent, little, but it is the stronest of all. That hunger of the soul comes through the Guru's shabad, through the harmony. It is the same thing a girl can understand and a man can understand when they are in love, they are in romance, they love to hear about something you love. I remember once a messenger came to a young prince and he said, "Did you see the princess?" He said, "Yes, my lord, I met her." "How was she?" He said, "She looked beautiful." He said, "I don't mean that! How beautiful?" He said, "Well, I don't know. I mean to say, I didn't look at her face." He said, "Idiot, stupid. Why didn't you look at her face?" He said, "How can I? I'm just..." The prince said, "Shut up. Go back again. Take another present and look at her face and come and tell me how she looks." He said, "You, sir, never told me the purpose
of my visit was to do inspection." The prince said, "It's not a matter of inspection. I thought you were the best person I ever got and I sent you there to take another present." So anyway the poor guy took another present and went and said, "Princess, please for give me. Actually I was to bring a better present and I had forgotten and I am bringing it now and would you please stand up. There are certain rituals about this present and would you please turn it around and would you please put your left hand out and right hand out and would you look back and look front?" So he gave her all the parade and everything and then he took up a big paper and drew up everything and wrote every detail and everything, and then gave her the most beautiful diamond necklace and asked her to wear it and show and get into 10-15 poses. So afterwards, in the evening, he was all done. So he came back and he said, "Now I have got all the information." Then he said, "Tell me, how'd she look?" He explained how was it. In the end he said, "Idiot, you were
looking at my princess all the way? What the hell you were doing there?" He said, "Now which way I should live? One way you wanted me to know everything. The other way you are not jealous of the fact that I was with her for a longer hour and you are sitting here."

So exactly that is this relationship with God and soul. We don't accept it, we can't deny it, we don't live with it, we can't accept it, we don't want to relate to it that we have a soul. I think between God and a man is just one imaginative relationship. Man has never accepted God. Man just wants to make his own thing. Man is a social animal and religion has been always really used for social purposes to put people together.

But basically in the deep sense and consciousness of the heart, man understood the visit to the earth is temporary and it is for goodness. I do not believe without being good there is any God. You can't even spell 'good' without 'God' in it. You cannot spell 'she' without 'he' in it. You cannot 'female' without a 'male' in it. You cannot spell 'woman' without a 'man' in it. So you cannot spell 'good' without 'God' in it. And everybody likes butter but if life is not better, butter doesn't mean anything except a bunch of cholesterol. And if there's no rest in life, there is no best in life. And there are polarities. Life has polarities. There is no such thing as duty without beauty. And there's no beauty if one doesn't do his duty.

Sikh Dharma crossed the river Sutlej first time, came to the West, spread from here. It is very amazing that Sikh missionaries are outgoing in the United States, or in Europe. Just think of the two ones, Tarn Taran Singh & Kaur. Just imagine. They are part of us. Somewhere in northern Germany, there is a little town, they went there not for their sake, not that they could not survive in United States. Not that there was something wrong here. But they were to carry the flag of the Guru to as farther as you can imagine. And they did touch many people. Just think of Guru Hans Kaur, left alone by herself in the big city of Paris. Her husband has dropped her. Her children may not come through or may come through. Nothing may go right. But there is one woman standing high above the tide and keeping circumstances and teaching classes and spreading the word of the Guru. Is there something more religious, righteous, saintly and solemn more than that? Just imagine those in the city of Rome today
where the bells ring and at the St. Peter's square message is being given, there are some beautiful people who are still saying, "I am happy, I am good." Little saints watching. And just imagine those little children who do not know anything but just to say, "Bana, bana, I love you. Bana, bana Wahe Guru." Imagine them. And understand what is happening.

What is happening is the Will of God. What is happening is the era is changing. What is happening is that tranquility and peace is coming to the heart of the man. What is happening is the man is rising above his own turmoil. What is happening is the security of the insecure man is now going to be vested in God through the grace of the Guru. I mean, you cannot deal with money without a bank. You cannot deal with God without a Guru.

Gur bin ghor andhaar, guru bin samajh na aavai.

Without Guru there is absolute darkness.
You do not get any consciousness.

--Sawaee-e in praise of Guru Ram Das, pg.1399, SGGS

Without Guru there is a darkness, you can never acknowledge the realism of life. Guru is not me and you. Guru is a word, is a language in which you can understand, can feel a satisfaction. You must understand, today is a computer age. Permutation, combination makes the total life of the billions of squares, known facts and ideas, thoughts, into little machine to give you at the press of your button. And that is what is the simple thing in life. The greatest virtue is to getting your scene together.

So long the religion was tribal, the man collected wealth, collected men, collected arms, collected armies, conquered each other, prevailed. But nobody could conquer the heart. I know the story of the religion, I have seen it, and I see it today. A reality of love which is a matter of heart, is being decided by some stone heads. They want to impose on each other their will. But it's not going to be true.

Sikh Dharma has one beauty: it's original, it's real. It accepts man and woman as God made it. It allows the basic fundamental understanding between man and a God. You must understand, you are Sikhs, right? Christian needs you more than you need themselves, and since they couldn't have like you, wearing white and with a white beard and a white hair and all that, they created a Santa Claus, perfect Sikh. Even the president of United States at White House in 1988 created one humorist to come and be in his place as a Santa Claus. Now do you understand Santa Claus was created in New York in one of the little garment factories and do all we know that reindeer do not fly, and don't we all know in North Pole it is too cold to live and then to have a factory? And don't you understand, you will never try to give anybody present filling your socks? Why this is all true? This is all true and it is all love and it is all known because it is a basic matter of heart. Do you know only a few people can touch the socks of another person
and those who are only those who are very intimate? Do you know the fact? You can touch the purse of a person, you can kiss the cheeks which are very common, we can exchange the bacteria through the lips very ordinarily, and pooch, pooch, pooch, but you cannot touch the socks of another person. Nobody will let you. Do you understand that? And Santa Claus gives you the presents in the socks. Another funny part is he throws it through the chimney and it never gets black. The socks are there, comes through chimney, and he doesn't accept anything except your cookies. He's not after your money or blood. He just gets one cookie and takes the taste and runs away. We created an imaginary Gursikh in the shape of Nanak, even here, and everywhere in the entire Christianity, Santa Claus is more loved by the Pope John Paul the II. Why? We needed grace, we needed a man in orginality, reality and grace. That's why we gave him North Pole, the frozen home, so that he can be totally pure, not
emotional, dirty. We didn't create Santa Claus in Los Angeles or in Atlanta, Georgia, or in Washington, DC. We knew that entire Christian world needs a saint, unquestionable, original saint. And those who shave their beards everyday and every morning when they put that long beautiful hairs, you can well see that they are just trying to copy you. They can't. And that is for that.

Look at Islam. There is a status in Islam called motfee. Look at those people. Look what they say. And Islam spread very fast because for them there were two things that the rest of the world either you have to accept Allah by this or accept their sword. They were very quick and very fast and their spread was great and they promised a lot of things. One thing they promised was, "Don't drink," because in heavens there are rivers of flowing wine. You can accept only four wives but when you go in heavens you will have young girls, very virgin, and young boys.

I studied 22 religions very authentically to find out what religion is. I tell you what religion is. Religion is promises, promises, promises. And I got sick of it. And when some people call me, you become a saint, I say, "What is a saint?" Don't become a saint.

Bhaag hoaa gur sant milaaiaa, prabh abinaasee ghar meh paaiaa.
--from Shabad Harzare

That is a saint. You don't become anything. God made you a man, be a man! That's the highest sainthood of everything. That is what the Guru's have taught us: to live as calm, quiet, normal as in the Will of God, not in our own will. Not in our own ego. Let us do the duty and look to God for his reciprocation.

First of all, I tell you today, today is a Sunday. It is 25th of December, is that true? 1988. Let me make a time capsule observation. Today there are 8 major religions in the world, there are 22 religions which are practiced by man and they all teach love of God. They all are right, but they are just a bundle of practical nuisance because man has never trusted God. Loving a God doesn't make sense if you do not trust God. Loving a woman you love doesn't make sense if you do not trust that woman. Loving a man doesn't make any damn absolute rotten sense if you don't trust that man. Who we are fooling? We have fooled each other. We fool God, we fool each other, we fool everybody, we lie to our children, we lie to our parents, we lie to our neighbors, we lie to our dog. "Come on baby, come on puppy, sit down, I am just going, I am coming in half an hour." You never come until eleven o'clock that night. Dog knows it. He says, "Ooooooohhhhhh." And you say, "No, no, no, have a biscuit, have a
biscuit. I am just going out. I am coming." You lie to your pet dog in the house and you call yourself righteous. I have never seen the problem. I saw somebody talking to a cat and she was lying to cat left and right. Now I was thinking, sitting there, "My God, now does she know that in this conversation she has put a bundle of lies to the cat and the cat is always there to know what the lies are?"

That is, folks, what our life is. Our life is saying things we do not believe because we want to look good. That's all we want to do. We want to look good, but we'll never like to look real. What you can do? So long you are a slave to good looks, you are never free. The day you want to look real and saint and you want to look to belong to God, that day you will do exactly what Guru Gobind Singh did. He asked for the head of the five beloved ones, five gave it, and he gave them nothing but bana. He dressed them himself. And what he said? "Today you shall live pure in the image of God." You think we cannot buy a razor and a blade and we cannot do those kind of things? No, it's not true. We can do all the things. We didn't put a turban on our heads because we have a boutique shop or we have a cloth factory and our cloth doesn't sell. No. We in the morning crown ourself by our own right. And we stand aloof as son and daughter of Guru Gobind Singh to face the day in his grace, not in
our grace, and that's the fundamental of Sikh Dharma. Sikh Dharma is not me, I, we, us. Sikh Dharma is I represent God in the image of Guru. Because I cannot bring the ever- prevelent, everywhere to the form. I do not want the formless in the form, but I know the formless has a form. Who's form is that? Me. If ego has any purpose, that's it.

"Homai vadaa rog hai daaroo bhee is maahe."

If the ego is the biggest disease, cure is in it, and what is the cure? I have an ego, I am, I am. It is my ego for who's sake? For Guru's sake. So I keep the formless as the formless; I keep the form of the formless. I walk, I talk.

I ask you one thing today: Hail Guru Ram Das and Heal the World of people's sickness! You never asked me the question of how to do it. I tell you how. It's very simple. It's so simple. Just profile in your own mind a profile of a saint. Just profile. I'm not asking you to become a saint. I'm asking you to have a profile of a saint and then whatever you do, imagine and develop and practice to decide in 9 seconds what a profile of that saint will do. Not what you will do. Not what you do. There is no other way to happiness except one way, and my way is the only way, said so the son of God. Become the son of God and decide everything as son of the God, son of the Guru, as daughter of the Guru -- and not as you. Your trouble starts when you decide things as you. What you produce is pee-pee-la-poop and everybody knows in every restroom when the stink goes off. And that's what you are. You stink. And you want to take the stink out of your life, you want to be happy, you want to be gracious,
then do one thing. Give yourself a chance. Ever lasting chance for ever life. Make a profile, your own profile, don't ask me, because I have learned everything.

I sit on a chair and I know I am 3 people. I am Harbhajan Singh, I know that, too. I am Yogi Bhajan, I know that, too. But I am also Siri Singh Sahib of Sikh Dharma, I know that, too. But when things come to confrontation, it is the Siri Singh Sahib who is to serve, and it is the Yogi Bhajan and Harbhajan Singh who is sacrificed. And it happens every day. A million times a day. You think I don't have feelings, you think I don't have emotions, you think I have no means, you think I cannot con my situation through anything? It's all not true. I am very intelligent, extremely shrewd, very knowledgable, extremely penetrating. I know all the good qualities and bad qualities of mine. But you know what I have done like a Santa Claus as he bundles up his tie on his back? I have good and bad qualities bundled up in a tie and I have left them at the North Pole. What I have taken is the Guru's toys, and through your black chimneys I am throwing them in the socks so you can pick the up, word by word, here, there,
somewhere for some purpose. Have you understood that?

It isn't the life that matters, it is the courage you bring to it. Great knowledge. If you put 200, 500, 2,000 bibles on a donkey and load a caravan, you think they all will become priests? And if put four vedas on the head of the Brahmin, you think he will become a saint? You are wrong. YOU can become saint!
Bhaag hoaa gur sant milaaiiaa.
Prabh abinaasee ghar meh paaiaa.

--from Shabad Hazare

The undying God I have found in my own home. The undying Guru I have found in my own heart. What my love has done to me, you can do the same. Just live, live, and live, and live in the very grace of the Guru.

About God you can dispute. But about Guru you can't. Guru has explained every aspect of life. Some people have asked, "Why Siri Guru Granth is that big?" I said, "Because our facets are many and he covers every facet. He tells us step by step so that we may not have any misunderstanding." It tells about when the spring comes, how the life is like that. I was coming in the car, I was listening to the tape and it was giving us the Basant Ki Vaar and Basant ki root, springtime. It was telling all about the facitivity, the creativity, the beauty, the joy, the carnivalness of that wonderful time, but it was also side by side rubbing the shoulder, saying it was all because of God. And I was enjoying the fun of it. I said, "Here you go. It tells you all about everything but it reminds you that it is because of God, not because of me, you and us."

Today a decisive thing has to happen. A future shall lie in the hands of those who are willing to give themselves up to Guru's grace. We shall take in a meditative attitude to decide everything, as today Guru Gobind Singh should have decided. Isn't that pick up a poot nasal peh koraa bhoataanee peh toraa toraa? Son goes on the trait of the father and horse goes on the trait of the male horse. Is not that true? Is not that the time has come when we should cut it out?

You know, my problem is I am sitting in the presence of Siri Guru Granth and I am considered to be a holy man so I cannot talk in the language which you understand, you know what I mean? So I must be forgiven. Otherwise, cut it out. You know what I'm saying? Cut out your that, that, that. It's not going to work it out. You are wasting time, wasting preciousness of the life, and you are falling into the same pit. It's not for you. It's not good to do it. You cannot write even the word 'good' with 'God' in it. So don't go waste time searching God. In this Sikh Dharma nobody wants your money anyway, and you are not ugly, and dirty and cruel and criminal and we are not manufacturing a factory guild and spreading it to all of you so that you can squeeze to death and in horror and pain you should come, "Save me, save me, save me." Save me from what? First we create a religious insanity and then we ask people to be saved. What a ...(dash, dash, dash.) What I can say? First we create fear, first we create insanity, first we create
all that trauma and then we say, "Come on, pray, 600 Hail Mary's and you will be fine." No, no, no. It doesn't work that way. You are all fine. You are the creation of God, good and bad. If God could have created better than you He should have and would have. The guy didn't know better. Believe me. I know you don't believe me, either. That's okay. God created bad and good in His own grace, and life is nothing but a comparative study. But just understand, let us virtuous ourselves in one way. Let us do what Guru Ram Das would have done today. Let us do what Guru Gobind Singh would have done today. If that's not possible, let us do what Siri Guru Granth says today.

I was telling Sampuran, I said, "Last year I came and you put up a beautiful flag with an eagle on it and it looks good. But when you are going to put a cannon by it's side?" He said, "What? God's cannon?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Why?" I said, "It looks good. It looks as something. It looks, it is niaaraa. Niaaraa pun." That's what Guru Gobind Singh said. Guru Gobind Singh said one simple thing. He said,

Jab lag khaalsaa rahe niaaraa, tab lag tej dee-o maai 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

So long you will be in excellence, uniquity, naktee, this maya which makes us, it is without nose, it is naktee, it takes us to the pit. I'm not telling you what pit is. You know what pit is. Garbage pit. It takes us there. It is its stunt. How to get rid of this naktee? Uniquity. Uniform, because the one word where Sikh Dharma starts is Ik Ong Kar. We are the creation of One. And the mantra of, the Siri Guru Granth has its own mantra, too: Ik Ong Kar Sat Gur Prasad. Through the grace of Guru we become the living force of the One God. Then what will happen? Good and bad will just diminish. It will go away. And we will have a sequence of life for the consequences which will be nothing but pure happiness. Let us do today what Guru would have done today. Not what we do today what we want to do.

This fundamental difference between the religions is very unique, it is very accelerating, and it is very fascinating. But in the reality of our circumstances in which we are and in the reality of the circumstances in which we live, we have not understood Sikh Dharma. And if you do not understand Sikh Dharma, Sikh Dharma is a very, very beautiful thing. It is a precious thing. It doesn't live in the homes and families of those who are stupid. Sikh Dharma is not a religion for idiots. They cannot even practice it. Sikh Dharma doesn't belong to people who do not understand one thing: that man has come to the earth to live what Guru says. And what Guru says can never go wrong. And that is where righteousness is established.

You know... look, let us cut it out. I am internationally known, qualified. Is that satisfactory? No. I am head of the religion. Is that satisfactory? No. I am a man of God. Is that satisfactory? No. I am the most slandered, abused man. Is that satisfactory? No. There are more to kill me than people want me to live. Is that satisfactory? No. Then what IS satisfactory? Is there anything in human life which is satisfactory, is good or bad? Yes. The only thing which is satisfactory is that satisfaction when you get up in the morning and you have the image of Guru in your heart and you, with your sincerity and your feeling, you say, "Wahe Guru." It is that satisfaction of your own strength when you say, "Sat Nam." You identify with the truth and you identify truthfully with the truth. That's satisfaction.

Those who feel that Sikh Dharma is just a couple hundred this and couple hundred that are wrong. They are dead wrong. And those who feel that Sikh Dharma belongs to them because they have got a deed written by the corporate company for them, they are dead wrong, too. Their children will not remain Sikh. And do you know what it is if a man makes all the wealth and has the marble house and everything and his son sits before him absolutely abusing the Guru? It will happen. Why? There's a simple rule. Sikh Dharma is giving yourself to the dictate of the Guru. Sikh Dharma is not what you think. Guru has cleared it very well. Jab lag khaalsaa rahe niaaraa, tab lag tej dee-o maai saaraa. I shall give all the power, strength and light to those who shall stand in their excellence. And what is the law of excellence? Obey, serve, love, and excel. It didn't say, "Excel, love, serve and obey."

Mane kee gat kahee na jaaeh. Je ko kahai pichhai pachhutaaeh.

--from Japji Sahib, Guru Nanak Dev

Even you cannot say about those who obey. Obedience to the western mind is just like a slavery. No, my dear, that's wrong. Obedience comes to those who have the intelligence, consciousness and courage. You need three things to obey. Obedience is not everybody's trait. Only you can obey when you have the courage, you have the intelligence and you have the intelligence, and you need it. Otherwise things become hard and harsh with us.

Today we have an obligation. We have an obligation to live in peace as householders. House-holders. Those who hold their homes. Holding of home is just a temple of God. And we hold them in the name of the Guru. We believe they are Guru's houses so we welcome people in His Name. We receive people in His Name. We serve people in His Name. We feel people in His Name. We see in the devil the image of God. That is where Sikh Dharma starts. When you see in the face of the devil the spirit of the Guru and the grace of God and you are kind and compassionate. "Daya ka dharam kaa poot hei." The kindness is the son of Dharma.

I asked these people who are fanatic Sikhs, stupidly fanatic. There are two people who destroy the religion: lazy and the fanatics. Fanatics totally anger everybody, and lazy doesn't do a thing. They both are dangerous parts of it. And that religion where fanatics and lazy become majority always die. It's not that religions have not died. They have. I am asking these fanatics, "What you are trying to achieve?" Sikh Dharma is very clear about fanaticism. Nanak naam cherdi kalaa. If you chant the name of Guru and God and you become one with it, it will give you what? Elevated consciousness. What that means is it gives you excellence. What that is for? Is that for your own show-off? No. Is that for your own comfort? No. Is it for your own bragging? No. That is where you start seeing good for all. That is where you start doing good for all. Sarbat ta balaa. Good for all. Because God is for all. And when you write "God" and put another "o" extra in it, it becomes "good." If you serve people in the goodness of God and serve them all.
Not that if some rich person comes you say, "Ha ha, I am very happy, I am pleased, thank God." No, that's not a Sikh. To a house of a Sikh, if the ugliest, the dirtiest, the most stinking person comes, and if Sikh does not see the light of God in it, he has not yet become a Sikh. It doesn't matter if he has taken Amrit every morning 6:00 and every afternoon, and he cries, "Bole sonihaal," longer than anyone else, and he has all the rituals, "I don't eat this, I don't take this, I don't do this, I don't do this." I don't think these people even know what Sikhism is. I think they are just copy styles. They just came out like a manufacturing machine. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. It is just like going to a university and being a student in a university for 28 years and graduating with nothing. It doesn't make sense. "When you joined the university?" "In 1929." "What are you doing now?" "I'm still graduating." Can you meet a person who is 58 years in a university
doing nothing? No.

Sikh has a very simple qualifying factor. Sikh has a very qualifying situation. And it is decided everyday by the minute to the minute whether you are a Sikh or you are not. When life challenges you, do you deal with it as you or do you deal with the strength of the Guru within you? That's the deciding factor. When something challenges you, are you kind and compassionate and delightfully enlightened to deal with it with a smile which Guru Gobind Singh gave to you, or you want to deal as you are? It's a very deciding factor. I have practiced it 20 years in the western world and I know that it works and I know it will work.

The character of Sikh Dharma is different than every other religion. The style of Sikh Dharma is different than every other religion. The life of a Sikh is different than any other human being. The strength of a Sikh is different than any other creation on this planet, because the law of trinity which Christinity, Judiasm, Islam, Priest has killed themselves doing it, is so easy with Sikh Dharma. He in the name of God, he in the virtue of the Guru, he lives to serve.

That's why Sikh Dharma is based on four things: bana, bani, seva, simran. We gave five heads to Guru Gobind Singh, and he gave us nothing, but he gave us bana. 72 hours later, 72 hours LATER he gave us bani. Amrit. And 72 hours later he became himself Guru Gobind SIngh in the hand of those who he decorated. Gobind Rai became Guru Gobind Singh, begging it, and within two 72 hour periods, men of God became God, they become beloved, and he kneeled down before them and said, "I can create you, but now create me to merge in you." That's why we became deathless. We are born on the double-edged sword. We are not born of the kisses. We are not born of the mantras. We are not invoked from the God direct. We are born out of death. That's why the seal of the Akal Takhat, the throne which rules us, says, "Akal Sahai." The deathlessness prevails. That's our religion. Our religion is not what we are being asked to do. That's the greatest, stupid, old rituals being polished and shoved through our
throats. That's not Sikh religion. Sikh religion is moment to moment, thought to thought, taking God on your side and presenting Guru by you.

Somebody told me, "Sikh Dharma doesn't believe in drama." I said, "We play the biggest drama! Name any." He said, "They become Christians once in a while, they become Ram once in a while, they become this once in a while. You have a scene in a nativity once in a while at Christmas and all that." I said, "For a Sikh, every day is a drama. Khalsa mere jaan kee jaan. Khalsa mere praan kee praan." I said, "Do you understand what the Guru says? Man, we are acting all the time on a certain dictate and on a certain queue. You said there is no drama?" Yes, there is no drama. There IS a drama, and if we do it well we will have no trauma.

Sikh Dharma is a very practical religion of saints. In a simple two lines let me sum it up. Live like a saint, act like a soldier. Hail Guru Ram Das and heal the world of its physical, mental and spiritual ailment. God shall be with you. Let me tell you something. If the prediction never comes true or ever comes true, if I am a man of God or a man of devil, it doesn't matter. Let me tell you something. You shall rule this world for 5,000 years. Your sun will start in 2038. By that time you will flourish by leaps and bounds. Among you there are souls which shall be totally created as saints and they will spread the Guru's words all over the world. You will never use force to convert people. You will always the very sight of you will convert people to bring them home. And that's how it is predicted and that's how it shall be and that is how it is going to be. Those who do not understand you, forgive them. Those who love you, serve them, and those who hate you, pray for them.
Purpose of prayer is only for that. Keep on going and stop at nothing. In the last mile of my life, I can share with you one thing: man is never weak when he knows Ang Sang Wahe Guru. He is never strong when he forgets it.

WAHE GURU JI KA KHALSA, WAHE GURU JI KI FATEH!

(The following came after the hukam had been given...)

...Unfortunately this is the thankless job which I never wanted to put myself inbetween but as a religious responsibility I have to share with you. The dirt has touched the soils of America & touched our borders & secretly papers are being circulated to create a confusion among the Sikhs in general & you in particular.

Siri Guru Granth has embodied Guru for us. After all, what a man speaks, that is his consciousness & Guru, the word, is our consciousness. And if we can gracefully enjoy 1430 pages of Guru's dictates, one page less or more doesn't make any difference, but some people are just creating a controversy whether Rag Mala is a part of the Siri Guru Granth or not. Sikh history stands vouched to it that always & always will be a part of the Siri Guru Granth. I'm just going to shut down that controversy with one line. Guru wears mala; whether it is big beads or small beads, who is there to discuss it? And those who are creating doubt are splitting the Sikh Dharma & the integrity of the Sikh Dharma & creating a doubt indirectly on the Siri Guru Granth, are not doing a good job.
My request is that they should stop this & my request is if they won't, we'll stop them, &I have no 2 opinions. We have never raised our voice against anybody. We are calm, we are quiet, & we are saintly, & we have tolerated a lot of nonsense because we are not there to create any rupture. But when the Guru shall be attacked, we shall attack back with a full force, & we are not going to make ANY reservation on that. Absolutely no reservation. We shall kiss the gas chambers & we'll kiss the death with a laughter on our face. If this thing is not stopped forthwith, I am giving them a very humble message: I'm just not willing to tolerate those kind of controversies & I do not want to understand that this spread of this kind of poison will go unnoticed.


So my request is to those people are that they should put their controversy & their use in some different directions; we are not open for it. Siri Guru Granth to us is a Partakh Guran ke de & we accept it as it is. We have no reservation, we never had any reservation when we accepted it, & we want to continue that way. So those who think themselves a better Sikh, they can go & burn in the hell. We have nothing to do with them, & they better get out of our jurisdictions & our areas forever, & we have absolutely no sympathy with this kind of nonsense which they have brought because they are frustrated, they have no common sense & they don't make sense to the whole world. We bow to the Guru & now we are discussing whether one page is right or wrong. I mean, this is something so stupid I have never seen in my whole life & never understood it, never will, & neither Sikh Dharma Western Hemisphere has anything to do with it.
By the way, just to make the matter clear, there is a hukam from the Akal Takhat putting down this stuff & just admiring to the fact, the strength that that is there. That's number 3. You have to understand that somewhere along the line it is being questioned why we don't read the Anand Sahib only 5 paurees & we do not make the 40th to read with it. Let me tell you very honestly, we do not want to do Gurbani Sanday Chet, doesn't matter what. So we shall read 5, or we read 6, or we read 7, or we read 1; it's our problem. But we are not going to create our own Chota Anand & Vadaa Anand. We are not that stupid. I agree that we started in Sikh Dharma 20 years ago & we are pretty late; but we are sharp. If you misunderstand that we do not understand religion - we do, & we are not going to get into that neurotic nonsense, & Amrit will always be served with full 40 pauris of the Anand, & there's no controversy about that. And we are not going to give up what we have. Guru has given us & we got it, & we're going to live with it. And those who call themselves great Sikhs, the best way is to do what Guru Gobind Singh do: fry them in the oil & that's where they belong. If not, avoid them.
There's a one very beautiful thing in the medical history. It's called "bypass." These clogged up people like arteries, needs bypass. So don't sit with them & waste your time. I was very shocked when somebody thought I am so stupid, passed on to me one very beautiful hand written note, & started asking me question. I just replied in a very humble way, I said, "Do you feel the Guru is a book?" He said, "Isn't it our holy book?" I said, "I am sorry. You are not worth talking to. You are worth avoiding." And it is also very religious "Sakat sanga na kee jee ay." Sakat is not a right person. Sakat comes to test our religion, our reality & our faith. They are not a good news. But receive them, feed them, serve them, & give them the ticket for the next station, & also make a phone call to let others know that he is on his way.So this way Sakat will understand he has been received in spite of the way, because we have to show our strength that we are Gursikh, not that we have to deal with somebody who
is just neurotically very sick, mentally gone & absolutely wants to just satisfy because he has some ego- maniac logic.
I tell you something very funny: an audience was granted with me by my secretary of the state & this man came to discuss with me the present circumstances of the Sikh Dharma & all that. I have never seen a more illiterate, neurotic, idiotic person, but I was very calm, quiet, & very smiling. In the end he said, "God, I am at the wrong place for the wrong man." I said, "You are right. It is absolutely true. As far as I am concerned you said what you said & I have said what I say." He said, "If Guru guides us in every step of the way, then why there is a place for logic & reason?" I said, "You are stupid, & let me confirm it on you that you are a master-stupid." First word Guru Nanak spoke is, "Sochai soch na hova-ee je sochee lakh vaar. Chupai chup na hova-ee je laa-eh rahaa liv taar. Bhukhiaa bhukh na utaree je banaa pureeaa bhaar. Sehes siaanapaa lakh hoeh ta ik na chalai naal." I said, "Don't you read it?" He said, "God, I have read it for last 40 years. I have understood it today." So
sometimes you have to do this thankless job, not to create the controversy with the idiots, but just bring them home the reality that we love our Guru and Guru is priority in our life than our own life. So do NOT allow these mosquitoes to spread malaria, & they have no other more value. They are frustrated. They have no better home life. Their wife is going to do certain other things, pulling her eyebrows even, & doing all that kind of stuff, & he wears pant & shirt & he thinks he is the son of the great British empire. He doesn't know what he is talking about. He is the by-product of mis-use of time & circumstances. So please do not create any controversy whatsoever & the best attitude is to serve them to the next station. That's the American expression? And that's what we should do. Listen, without bhagatee, there's no shakti. Without shakti you cannot do bhakti. They are interlocked. So we'll discuss that very openly at the Khalsa Council this year & we'll make a definite proclamation & set the rules straight
so that there may be no chance of any controversy. Those who have to doubt Siri Guru Granth are not Sikhs for us to begin with, period. That's a qualifying statement which will never change. That person will never be a part of the Khalsa Commonwealth & shall never be part of the Sikh congregation. Because fundamentally he is doubting the Guru. Just take it or leave it. It's simple. To us Siri Guru Granth is a living Guru & it is not pages we bow to, it is not ink we bow to, it is not the written statement we bow to. It is the word which rules our heart, & it is the word of the Guru which we worship, & we are not different than, "In the beginning there was the word, word was with God, & word WAS God." And so our word is our God. What's the big deal? Christian can say it; we simply practice it. There's no doubt about it.

So please avoid any misunderstanding & any spread... and don't be a partial or part of that kind of controversy. It is my humble request that you'll agree, and it'll be my proclamation which you shall obey. Therefore just understand, request is for purposes of awaring you of something. Order is to take action if it needs to be.

WAHE GURU JI KA KHALSA, WAHE GURU JI KI FATEH!

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- END OF TRANSCRIPT -
12/25/88
YOGI BHAJAN

Transcript by Tej Kaur Khalsa, Los Angeles, CA

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



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