Yogi Bhajan Lecture Archive
Lecture by :
Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji
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Lecture on: 07/23/1996
Category: Master's Touch Course
Location: Espanola, NM
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Public

The Purity and Power of a Teacher

I would like to explain something to you. It is not a good thing to become a teacher of Kundalini Yoga and mix other things. When you practice Kundalini Yoga, you stay with it only. Remember that. For example, there’s not a palmist in the world who’s as qualified as I am. There’s not an astrologer in the world who can read the way I can read a chart. There’s not a person who can read the Tarot cards the way I can. By profession I am a yogi, but for some years I had experienced and foolishly practiced occult powers.
I know you want to be many things, and I fully understand that. But when you become many things, you become nothing. When you become one thing, you become everything. There’s a word among us: Ek Ong Kar: "There is One Creative Creation." Creation needs a base, a nucleus. A person with Kundalini experience provides such a nucleus. It should be understood very simply. It’s not window shopping, it is not dogma. I’m a master of numerology. But will I practice it? No. The greatest astrologers in the world sometimes bring their puzzles and ask me to solve them. I solve them in two minutes. Am I an astrologer? No. I can touch a person and heal. Am I healer? No. I used to just raise a hand, lift a person four feet and let him drop on his butt. Will I do it now? No. Because the first rule of Kundalini Yoga is that you do not show obnoxiously or politely, humbly or powerfully, any power of your own.
So the first principle of a teacher is, “I am not.” If you cannot practice shuniaa, you cannot be a teacher of Kundalini Yoga. Shuniaa means zero. The moment you become zero, then all powers will prevail through you. The power of a teacher of Kundalini Yoga is in his zero, in his shunnyaa. In shuniaa you become zero, you reduce everything to nothing: “I am nothing. Everything is nothing. There’s nothing to be nothing.” The moment you become that, then everything radiates from you.
Second, you are a servant. The moment you become a servant, you automatically become a master. You can never become a master if you want to be a master. Therefore you shall serve in a “Uni-form,” “Uno-Form”, “One-Form.”


Aasa isht upaasanaa, khaan paan peheraan, khat lakhat pargatay jah tah mitrotaa jaan
-Tulsee, a Hindu poet, in the Ramayana
Longing, purpose, worship, food, drink, clothing. If these six things are in sync, then that person is a true friend.

Aashaa—what you long for. Isht—your ultimate purpose. Upaasanaa—how you worship. Khaan—what you eat. Paan—what you drink. Peheraan—what you wear. These things of yours should serve you uniquely to represent the power which comes through you. You cannot one day be a clown, the next day be very decorated, the third day a good-for-nothing, the fourth day hopeless, the fifth day beautiful. You shall not be in the presence of any person if you are not ready. And you shall be perfectly ready to serve the great teachings. That is the entitlement.
Please don’t misunderstand that we want you to be this, we want you to be that. It’s not true. Actually, Sikhism is not a religion, believe me or not. If you really understand it, it’s not a religion. It became a religion, we make it a religion, because we want to escape persecution. That I can understand. What is a Sikh? A Sikh is a living sage who helps another person to become a sage in every age. “Sikh” means “student.” A student is one who studies to be a student, and whosoever becomes a perfect student, becomes a perfect master. And what is a sage? The one through whom wisdom flows. A sage is not wise. A sage is one through whom wisdom flows.
I understand that we read and study a lot of things; we do many things to heal. I understand all the sciences. For God’s sake, if you want to learn, learn from me. Sometimes I can teach you, sometimes I can’t. But it is not that I have not learned. If I had not studied all that, I would not have found out that everything is stupid.
As a head of a religion, I have only one advantage—I have met all the heads of the religions. When I met His Holiness Pope John Paul the Second, we were supposed to meet for three, four minutes; we ended up meeting for forty-five minutes. I told him, “I’ll pray for you.” You know why I said that? He lives under such cruel environments. The guy gets up at six a.m., and up to nine p.m. he has only three minutes of his own time. You know what I’m saying? Three minutes. His schedule is completely made; he’s a Mr. Robot Machine. I have never seen a person with that much get up and go. He meets one person for one minute, the next person for one minute, shakes hands—one minute, blesses— one minute. They write his speech, give it to him to read, which he reads in seven languages. If they made me Pope today, and gave me one million dollars a minute, I would refuse—I’m not kidding. And if my secretary tried to tell me, “You have to read this,” that person would not have teeth on that side.
There are certain things you will never find me doing: I’ll never write notes and read from them. I’ll never prepare a lecture. Never. Another thing is if I say something and you don’t like it, I’ll let you do what you want—I shall not object. What I cannot cross, I’ll by-pass. I have nothing to lose; you have everything to lose. Why should I enforce myself? Tell me. What is mine to be enforced? You want to learn, learn. You don’t learn, don’t learn. If you learn, you become learned. If you don’t learn, you are not learned. Period. By intuition you can learn. Kundalini Yoga gives you knowledge, awareness. That’s why we call it the Yoga of Awareness.
What is there to healing? If you tell somebody to eat a cucumber, just tell him to heal, and tell the cucumber to heal—the cucumber shall heal. The cucumber will not be a cucumber, the cucumber becomes a healer. Do you understand what I’m saying?
Class: No.
YB: No. Okay. It’s very difficult to explain a lot of things to you guys.
Let us say somebody comes to you affectionately, and he says, “Master, please help me.” He will come and bow and touch your feet. He will bring some food or anything—it doesn’t matter—a present, a flower or something. It’s true what I’m saying, absolutely true. I have seen it myself. A person had his entire body cracked. The disease was so horrible, and it had gone to such an advanced stage—it was unbearable. He said, “Master, it’s painful, it’s unbearable. I have done nothing wrong. I might have done wrong in any life, I don’t know one damn thing. But for God’s sake, please have mercy.”
He brought a long-stemmed rose. You know, in India, nobody removes the thorns—it’s not auspicious to do so. So, there was one big stem with a lot of thorns. He took it and he just spanked the guy. And he said, “You are healed.” The only thing which was not healed was the part bleeding from those thorns. The rest of the body was as new as it should be. Spontaneously, on the spot, he was healed.
Suppose there is a cucumber here and a person comes and he says, “I’m dying, I’m very miserable.” Pick up the cucumber and say, “Eat it.” The touch, the cucumber, the psyche, and the frequency will totally heal. You do not give anybody anything. As a Teacher of Kundalini Yoga, it is your subtle body which has the power to reach everything and anything and can change the molecular structure in 0.0003 trillionths of a second. That is your power. Your power is in your sight, in your touch, in your word. Sight, touch, and word. These are three things you have. You spoke, “Eat this, you will be healed.” You are healed. You look at it and you say, “You are healed.” There’s no power in Almighty God to change it. Do you know what I’m saying?
Class: Yes, Sir.
YB: Because you are a channel of God, you are a channel of divinity. Therefore you can’t have duality. When you have duality, you have no divinity. They won’t come together. If you have duality you have no divinity. If you have divinity, you have no duality. It’s a rule which you can’t change.
You shall refuse none, therefore you shall accept none. That’s the most difficult thing in the life of a teacher. Therefore, in Kundalini Yoga we don’t initiate. We are not swamis. We are yogis, and the pair of opposites do not affect a yogi—neither praise nor insult.
One thing I will tell you as a matter of advice: If you do not know corruption, you will never know honesty. Not that you have to play with honesty, or play with corruption. You can watch. That is the most difficult hurdle in a human mind, that you can eat, not eat.
I'll tell you a story and you’ll understand. There were eighteen thousand gopis who were the consorts of Lord Krishna. He had a wife: Rukhmani. His beloved was Radha. She was the beloved. She won the Infinity. That's why they chant "Radha Krishna." Then he had the eighteen thousand gopis, who were his consorts—his lovers.
One day they asked the Lord, “We want to go and see your teacher.”
He looked at them and he said, “What is the matter? What is the hurry?”
“My Lord, give us permission to see your teacher. Darbasha Rishi has opened up his meditation, and we want to go see. He’s your teacher. Please bless us to go to see your teacher.
Lord Krishna said, “Go.”
So they took milk, butter, yogurt, and sweets, all offerings for this great rishi. But before going, they had to ask permission of the River Jumna,1 because the River was in over-bank, overflowing, and they wanted a way through.
Now you must understand that Lord Krishna was their lover, their physical lover. It is called, "in-sexing," not "sexing." It is in your mind, and in your self, and in your being—every cell of you intercourses every cell. So technically, these were his “sexy” lovers. All eighteen thousand. So they went and stood by the bank of the Jumna, and they said, “River Jumna, Lord Krishna has permitted us to go to our teacher. If he’s celibate....” (Watch this word. Remember, they all had sex with him.) “If he’s celibate, let us pass.”
Jumna came up only to the ankles, and they crossed. They gave the food to Darbasha Rishi and he ate it all. They said, “Lord, now we want to go. Jumna is overflowing. What should we do?”
He said, “If it is true that I only live on air, then the Jumna will let you pass.”
So they came to the bank and said, “If Darbasha Rishi, the Lord of Lord Krishna, lives on air, let us pass.” The Jumna let them pass. They reached the other side, and said, “Hey you damn Jumna, you liar, what are you doing? He sleeps with us every time he wants to, and you are telling us that he is celibate? And that guy ate tons of food, and you agree that he lives on air? That’s not fair.” So they found Krishna and they started beating the hell out of him.
He said, “But you are my lovers.”
They said, “We’ll talk later. First let us get even.”
So when they had gotten even, he said, “Well, you have beaten me enough. Now could you tell me what happened?”
They said, “This is what happened. You are our lover, and this is what he said. Jumna cannot lie. Water cannot lie. Water’s the only truth God has. Water is circulatory; it’s a giver of life. It can’t lie.”
Lord Krishna said, “Yes, it can’t lie. I know it can’t lie. Jumna didn’t lie.”
They said, “You lied. You made Jumna lie.”
He said, “Jumna didn’t lie. I didn’t make Jumna lie.”
“You’re not celibate.”
He said, “All right, tonight we’ll experiment.” So that night, all eighteen thousand had the experience of sensual, sexual, and all social experience, physical, mental and personal with him. Next morning he said, “What was that last night?”
They said, “You had sex with us.”
He said, “Yeah? Really?”
They said, “Yeah.”
He called Arjan, “Arjan? Where were we last night?”
He said, “Lord, you were on my chariot, and we drove to such-and-such king, and we were there the whole night. We meditated. In the morning the king came, and he is just sleeping. We came back.”
They said, “Arjan, you are lying, too.”
He said, “No. Go to that palace and see for yourself who’s there.”
They went and asked the king. He said, “True, Lord Krishna came last night.”
Then they said, “My Lord, explain it to us.”
Then Lord Krishna showed his bharat roop, multiple self. Then he became so many Krishnas, they couldn’t even count. And when all that appeared, he stood on the side and with his flute he said, “Look, look. That’s Krishna.”
They said, “No, which one is you?"
He said, “Any one."
That is bharat roop.
Then time and space and the elements cannot stop your will as a Teacher of Kundalini Yoga. Time and space and elements cannot stop your will. That’s the status you are asking for. But if you are thinking of too much dirt and Earth, then it’ll be dirt to dirt. It’ll never be dirt to Heavens. A Teacher of Kundalini Yoga is the Lord of Heavens. Always is, shall be, and is meant to be. Earth is a place of play. So let us play, so I can leave you in good taste and go.



Stretch your spine. It’s a guided meditation.
Spread your two fingers apart. Press your two fingers hard. Stretch your spine, and put your chin in, and your chest out, totally. Go back until your shoulders start painfully hurting. Close your eyes, breathe as long and slow as you can. The pressure on the back shoulders should be so much it should hurt. Cause it to hurt. The shoulder blades must hurt. They’ll become numb. They will release the tension of the muscular pressure; and the shushmanaa, the central nerve, will flare up. It is a simple formula. It’s not something which is not scientifically true. Put humongous pressure on your shoulder blades. If your shoulder blade doesn’t hurt, it won’t happen. In absolute silence, the world will talk to you. In absolute pain, you can take away the pain of the whole universe. You are experiencing mastery, and you are experiencing the first relationship with your self.
You have to win today. The victory is yours. Pull as hard as possible. Look, all that Infinite power is in you. It’s not going to come out of the sky. You simply have to challenge yourself. Don't look like a baboon; you have to look like a human. A human is an angel. You are going to be the saviors and servants of the Earth. This is your designation. A teacher of Kundalini Yoga is a Lord of the Heavens; he is a savior, sage, and a servant of the Earth. Period. There’s no other definition. He is a master of longitude, latitude, altitude, and attitude.
Please let your love win today. It’s not going to hurt. It’s not that bad as you may think. For a few minutes it's you conquering you. Conquering pain is not a bad idea. With Tylenol you can do it, but without Tylenol you can do it too. The brain releases a lot of Tylenol—those endorphins.2 That’s what the brain releases when pain is extensive.
(YB reading from a paper.): A - Always fearless. B - Beautiful in public. C - Concentrated in their action. D - Do as they are told. E - Earth's friend. F - Friend, you are friend to all. G - Gives all happiness. H - Happy when tested. I - Is a student of God. J - Jumps ahead when behind. K - Keeps up. L - Learns from the best teacher. M - Meditates on God. N - Never negative. O - On the top. P - Prevails through the hardest challenges. Q - Never questions. R - Ready for anything. S - Soul is pure. T - Teacher teaches others. U - Uses the finest there is. V - Vision, sees God in all. W - Writes from the heart. X - X-rays the aura of the person in need. Y - Yells only at what needs to be awakened. Z - Zaps, then defends. (Find this Alphabet of a Teacher and other “Alphabets” in the Resources section.)
Self is challenging the self. Conquer it. We used to do this exercise for eight hours. I am expecting eleven minutes. I think five have passed; then you start relaxing? This is not fair. I thought you were very good.
Say to yourself: “I am the Lord today. I shall bless all. I shall bless myself. I shall command. I am, I Am.”
Put the Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo tape on for the last few minutes. Help them. Come on. Try it! You have two blades and one great will. Keep your head high. Keep your power flowing. Four more minutes to go, and that is a decisive action; it is your right. It’s not a machoism and ego. It’s just following the path.
Now you can sing aloud, but don’t let the pressure go. Keep up.
Inhale deep, inhale deep, inhale deep, inhale deep, inhale deep. Relax.


Those of you who have done it, know it. There’s nothing I can add or say. With honesty, honor, and intensity you have done it; that’s your experience. It doesn’t take much to bring God down into us. Actually, God is in us. Simply sometimes we can just concentrate and become that. It’s called a turning point. People have lied to you for three thousand years, and they have kept God away from you. God always is, was, and shall be in you. Without that you can’t live. That’s your love. Instead of that love you create duality and love everything else. You have never loved your soul, you have never talked to it, you have never been with it.
The universe is asking you to confirm with yourself whether you would like to serve the Earth, to save the Earth, be the sage of the Earth. Earth—the Sustainer, the Mother of you, which nurtures you—can you nurture it back? That which serves you, can you serve it back?
Class: Yes, Sir.
YB: This is the day. Some people really feel I have gone mad since I joined the Earth movement. I switch off all lights. Preserving the energy is not a bad idea. Saving the water is not a bad idea. Not polluting the environment is not a bad idea. Putting garbage everywhere is not a good idea, and polluting your mind and putting garbage in it is not a good idea. Pushing your soul to a corner where it cannot even breathe is not a good idea.
What do you do? You create a storm of commotions and emotions and neuroses and feelings. God, the soul cannot even look at itself. The soul runs and hides in corners—here, there, nowhere. It becomes deep, dormant. Sometimes you create such a hurricane, that even your Third Eye cannot see it. Such a commotion! Emotions, feelings, desire, commotion, ego—put it all together, and you lose your identity. The moment you lose your identity, you lose your impact. When there is no impact in your identity, you have no fact, you have no leg to stand on. Then you pretend and wear the garbs of a Teacher but act as a human. You wear armor. You are called "earthlings."
You are the fountain of love, blessing, grace, bounty, beauty, and bliss, but you seek from your student public relations, admiration, appreciation. And then you proudly say that such-and-such model and such-and-such actor, and such-and-such this and such-and-such comes to your classes. What do you teach, acting or reality? If you are not a jewel yourself, how can you make jewels? And if other people are your decoration, what strength do you have? Have you ever thought of it?
You know, when I came through immigration, the immigration officer said, “I have a great problem with you, Yogiji.”
I said, “What is your problem?”
He said, “Well, in Canada you are a Yogi." The Canadian government had to issue a special category of immigration for a "Yogi".
I said, “Yes. I’m not a religious man, I’m not a school teacher, and I’m not a sports teacher. I’m a Yogi. They had only two categories. So they created Category C: Yogi.”
So he said, “That’s very well. It is in your passport. It’s a government stamp, I understand. But the United States wants you to be certified as a Yogi.”
I said, “That’s it?”
He said, “Yeah. Can you get something done like that? Somebody writes from India, or something?”
I said, “No, I’ll give it to you in twenty minutes.”
I went to the Bank of America, and I asked somebody to type out: “I, Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji, hereby certify that I am a perfect Yogi. I swear it under da da da da." And I signed it, got it notarized, paid one dollar—matter ended. I brought four copies and I gave him one. I said, “Kindly receive it.” He received it.
He said, “This is your certificate?”
I said, “Well, who else can certify? Are you going to certify me?”
“Somebody from India.”
I said, “Who? Only a Yogi can certify the self and self can certify a Yogi. Let me teach you lesson one: I must certify myself, and myself must certify me. If I do not know this, I’m not a yogi.”
He said, “Okay, okay, okay, I understand. It’s okay. This will work.”
I said, “It will.”
If you cannot certify yourself, nobody can certify you, and no certificate will work. If you don’t have your character, your characterlessness will make you fail. If you have character, you shall not lose.
Does anybody know how to bow? Hey you, little, come here. (A young girl comes up and sits on the teacher’s platform.) Sit crossed legged, and when I utter the word "Bow," go on your heels and bow, and jump up as fast as you can. Okay, ready? Look meditative and look normal. Bow! (Girl is sitting on her heels, and then bows her forehead to the ground.) Correct.
If you do not know how to bow, you do not know how to excel. Do you understand?
Class: Yes, Sir.
YB: One who does not know how to bow shall never excel. It’s a law which you cannot change. Those who bow become the Masters, because it’s their privilege. Those who excel, excellently bow, because that’s their mastery. Think about it. Good night.


END

© YB Teachings, LLC 1996
Above Article Copyright © Yogi Bhajan 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.



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