Yogi Bhajan Lecture Archive
Lecture by :
Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji
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Lecture on: 03/06/1989
Category: Gurdwara
Location: Los Angeles, Ca
.
Public

Your Soul is Dormant

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh!

We come here to celebrate a day of prosperity. It is a royal lineage. It is a lineage that on this day, that the throne of spirituality, the authority where the king of kings sits and rules our hearts, was attacked and they tried to destroy it. If you understand this, then you understand basically life. Life is full of challenge. When you do not meet the challenge that is where you feel unhappy and unfulfilled. Where you do not win the challenge that's where you feel unhappy, unfulfilled.

Normally people do not understand what a challenge has for them. Challenge, whether it is in adversity or it is a prosperity, both states will cause challenge, because man has to learn to deal with them. And dealing with a situation in prosperity is more difficult than dealing in adversity.

Today we stay here while our hearts are remembering that on the 6th the Golden Temple was attacked. Now, understand something which I wanted to bring to your notice. You are all Americans. Many, many of you have visited Amritsar and many of you even have not visited Amritsar. Try to realize, there are five other gurdwaras, too, but they are not meeting today. They are not celebrating, they are not remembering. You are. Because you understand the essential self in you is also to meet the challenge and to win. Because you have understood the basic philosophy of the Sikh Dharma: Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh! Because you have understood that so long as man is towards God, man is victorious.

I am not saying right now that you are all very happy. I'm not saying that. You may be very unhappy. But, in your unhappiness there is a stupidity, a self caused conflict. Because when you look towards the sun you only see light. When you look towards God you only see happiness. You forget to see happiness. Therefore you can be unhappy in spite of the fact happiness is within you, around you, and for you.

Prosperity comes. It is a simple law of science that energy can be changed into matter and matter can be changed into energy. How it can happen? Through a powerful exchange of combustion. That's the law. What's a prayer? Prayer is nothing but a powerful combustion of mental projection into the infinity for reflection into the earth. Let's make it as a science. Let us be intellectual. Let us not follow the religion that Guru Nanak started. Let us apply even what physicists say. A million internal combustions can make an atom bomb. No big deal. What has been said and discovered then exists. A humble man comes in, a prayer, with his power.

On this special day we bring food. (Note: this is the day that people bring food and supplies to be used in the langar kitchens.) We do not bring the exchange, we bring the food, we bring exact commodities. We call it "dish and a wish." Why? Because we don't want to get into the exchange. Money represents exchange. Money is what money does. We don't want to represent only exchange. We also represent productivity. That's why this day is special. All of you who live in this world as human beings, Sikhs and non- Sikhs, you represent the power of exchange. But that's not enough. Exchange is not enough. Exchange means you give somebody a hundred dollars. That's the exchange money. Somebody steals it, he can't have it. He can't recognize it. But if you give a hundred dollars worth of rice, somebody will take time to pick it up. It's different.

Personality is the commodity of reality. Whatever God is, that is what you are. "Jo bar mande soe pinde." Whatever God is, that's what you are. That's what it means.

Now if it is a problem with the religion that we have been asked to find God, that is where we have learned doubt. Where we are trying to be good, there we have learned to be evil. Whenever you are trying to do something, you have already acknowledged and you have accepted you are minus. It is your minus which has to become plus. Basically you are plus when you are born, you are plus to die with, you are plus to live with. That plus will never go. "Eh jag sache kee hei kotaree, is meh sache kaahe vaas." This world is that house of the truth and only truth lives with you. But those who are out finding the truth, for them this world is just a mountain of smoke. They will never find reality. Those who are finding love, they'll end up with hatred, frustration and insanity. Those who are finding wealth, they'll end up totally neurotic, psychotic and totally crap. Because what you are trying to find, you have basically, intentionally, intuitively and individually have accepted that you are not that. Rest is an effort.

Yes, you believe in effort. You can make an effort. You can try your best. But 70% is the unknown. Are you, 20%, are you so powerful with the power of the surroundings you can move to surround and surrender the 70%? No, you are not. That's why we have a religious place. That's why we have an altar. That's why we have meditation. Why? You cannot be happy, you cannot be rich, you cannot be healthy, you cannot be holy, by you. Because moment you are you, you are very small, you are limited. Then the only way is to relate to totality. It is the totality which totally brings for us the reality. It is not even the identity.

How many of us are there who do not establish our identity. Establish means everybody in the community and totality knows that person will never shake, doesn't matter what. How many of us have a reputation that it doesn't matter, come what may, we shall always act on the dictate and command of the Guru? How many of us understand that it doesn't matter what storm or what tragedy can happen to us, we shall always be dedicated towards our God and we shall be just the honor of the Guru and we shall respect ourself into service. And minus that, do you think life is worth anything?

If I cannot tell somebody that you don't have to trust me... but what I am, I am, and in spite of the distrust, my trust will come through... what value is there to the life? Do you not see a policeman wearing a uniform? Why that man who is a servant of law and order, has been asked to wear a uniform and why not anybody else? Why in the engineering firm you go in a certain area, and they'll ask you, "Put clothes on. Special clothes on." Why you see everywhere it is a hard-hat area? Why things are being pre-classified? Why we are relating to them as humans? Why when you go on the freeway there is so much money spent on the huge green boards telling you where Sacramento is? Don't you know where Sacramento is?

You don't come to the gurdwara. You don't come for meditation. You do not pray. You don't have an altar. You do not understand totality. What you understand? Trauma, drama, neurosis, psychosis? No, that board is there to remind you where the Sacramento is. It clears your vision. It gives you the strength. It gives you the understanding. It makes you human. Without those boards, on that road you can still reach Sacramento, there's no problem, but you'll be ten times to a hundred times more tired. Those boards are exactly doing what Jappa you do. They repeat. They repeat all the time where Sacramento is. They always tell you how far away it is. What is the use? That's why a man in conscious prayer always knows God is within Itself, around Itself, and there's nothing to locate, there's nothing to be rowdy about, there's nothing to be neurotic about, there's nothing to yell and scream about, there's nothing to say anything to anybody. Because everybody knows and they also know that
they have to pretend not to know because only pretending not to know gives them the chance not to be committed, and that is the highest lie and corruption -- to be, and then not to be. They are not to be for commitment not, they are not to be because their commitment is their problem. That is their totality.

If I say I am a man of God, then I cannot be an individual. If I say I belong to Guru Ram Das, then I cannot belong to myself. If I say, "I love you," then I have to come through. I cannot betray my master, I cannot betray my mission. You are corrupt, you have been corrupt, you shall be corrupt, because corruption is the way of life. And if I want not to be corrupt, I do not want to be told I am corrupt, I do not want to associate myself with corrupt, then I have to give myself to somebody who cannot be corrupt. That's why man relates to the Guru and through that he finds God within himself. There's no other way.

If you want to hang a degree on the wall, you've got to go to a college, you've got to have the examination, you've got to pass it. People who feel that they don't want an altar, they don't want to pray -- it is very funny. I have met many many spiritual people, and many of you... they all say, "Do you do sadhana? Do you meditate? Do you do the prayer?" It is just like asking somebody, "Do you breathe? Do you sneeze?" What stupid questions.

Life is very simple and has to be simple, and it has to be kept simple the way it is Guru Nanak said. Life is a living experience. Life does not belong to you, or shall belong to you. Life is the gift of God. It belongs to God. Therefore it should be dedicated to God. If you steal life and say, "It is mine", which is not yours, then you are the biggest thief... whether you are Christian, American, this or that, you are stupid! There are 2 billion Americans, or 5 billion Americans or 2 billion Indians or 9 million this or total world has 5 billion or nobody has anything. Everybody lives a lie! They are all thieves! Personified, identified, idiotic thieves. Life comes from God. Life belongs to God. It is not yours! God gave you identity to identify with reality, and not to say, "Reality is mine."

Where you'll go? "Oh jaanai jetaa mukht hei." If somebody takes a shoe from the foot and hits you on the head, then you will learn how painful it is. That's where pain is in life. And if unfortunately somebody hits you with a shoe on the face, it hurts very much, and that is what Guru Nanak says. Very affectionately he said, in his own language:

Bahotaa karam likhiaa naa jaaeh. Vadaa daataa til na tamaaeh.
Kete mangeh jodh apaar. Ketiaa ganat nahee veechaar.
Kete khap tuteh vekaar. Kete lei lei mukar paaeh.
Kete moorakh khaahee khaa-eh. Ketiaa dookh bhookh sad maar.
Eh bhe daat teree daataar. Band khalaasee bhaanai hoeh.
Hor aakh na sakai koeh. Je ko khaa-ik akhan paaeh.
Oh jaanai jetiaa mu-eh khaa-eh. Aape jaanai aape de-eh.
Aakheh se bhe ke-ee ke-eh. Jisano bakhshe sifat saalaah.
Naanak paatishaaee paatishaaho.
--25th pauree of Japji Sahib

If you take the breath of life of God and you live by that virtue and then you say, "I have found God. I am finding God. I am on the path of God." You liar. You stupidly handicapped individual. Who are you to find God? The breath of life belongs to God. He gave it to you, and now you are jumping around like a monkey and telling everybody, "I am God." Or, "I am alone. I am lonely." Breath of life, the source of life, the essence of life is within you, around you. It keeps you alive, otherwise you are disconnected, because you have left the sense of feeling. You cannot feel the emotion of the breath. You are not sophisticated enough. A man needs a woman and a woman needs a man to feel and to deal? It cannot be just one breath? And one day this one breath will be gone and idiot will be dead. Nothing will be read. All wasted. Then they will read his will. He has left behind an estate of 30 houses, 3 million dollars, wife, four children, cars, this, that. Came, lived, left -- experience: zero! Just nothing.
If he is rich, in the paper a few lines will come. If he is a politician, for a few days people will talk about it. His estate will be sold and others will buy it. His memory will be gone.

But one who belonged to the One who is the owner of the earth, and there is no alternative for that altar of God, and one who has bowed to that once, that once is enough. Love which has a condition has a bargain, and is a business. Love IS God! Love is not business. Love is not corruption. Love is not dishonesty. Love has no alternative. Those who have an alternative have no altar. They shall be cursed. What a prostitute knows about what grace is, and what a pimp knows about what a saint is? And what a psychic knows about what truth is? Only the real student knows, a real, real, student knows what a master is. A real, real, humble graceful man only knows how big, huge , and infinite God is.

Vaariaa na jaavaa ek vaar.
Jo tudh bhaavai saa-ee bhalee kaar.
Too sadaa salaamat nirankaar.

--from 19th pauree of Japji Sahib

I can't even once be a sacrifice unto God.
Whatever pleases Him is the only good done.
God the formless exists without any fear.

Aades tisai aades.
Aad aneel anaad anaahat jug jug eko ves.

--last lines of paurees 28-31 of Japji Sahib

I wonder. Today I wonder. Do you understand Guru Nanak? Do you really? Do you really understand Guru Nanak, do you really understand Guru, do you really understand you? Problem is not with Guru Nanak. Problem is not with God. Problem is with you. You do not understand you. You are a dead rat. You are not right. Nothing can make you right, because you think you, the real you, within you does not exist. That's why your soul is dormant. That's why your mind is flaky. That's why your body is nothing.
I met somebody and he said, "Heh heh heh heh, just today I couldn't wear bana." I said, "No problem. You should not wear it ever. Don't wear it for me." And don't wear it for yourself, also. He said, "Why do we wear it then?" I said, "We wear it to tell people of our totality." Our reality in totality is represented by our bana. Anywhere we go, they say, "That is a Sikh." "Why you do not wear bana today? Because you do not want people to know that you are a Sikh. You are afraid. You do not have the courage, the capacity and the strength and the belief, and the knowledge and the intuition, to answer the call. You took off the uniform. Nothing bad." "I'll wear it tomorrow." "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you wear it tomorrow. It doesn't matter if you wear it today. The reality in you is whether you wear it or not, which what inside is not representing what you are talking about outside, that's why outside is weak and that's why today it is not there."

The flutterings of the flags will show the strength of the nation.

Great is the house of Guru. It gave us Akal Takhat, a throne wherever we may be. Wherever we may be, that throne shall rule us. We shall have a domain which shall never die. That's what Akal Takhat represents. Akal Takhat doesn't mean the bricks, the walls. They wanted to destroy it, in India, and made every Sikh in the world angry. But those who are religious, they never forget it. Not only that we'll continue remembering on the 6th that the Akal Takhat was attacked, and even when we'll have Akal Takhat we'll keep on celebrating this so that it may never be attacked again. We shall have it. Why not?

Jews were kicked out of Egypt. They took 40 years to travel a journey which they could have absolutely traveled in one year and nine months if they were even leaning straight. They could have taken up to 2 years or 3 years if they were doing all the zig zags. But it took them 40 years, because it took them 40 years to give up the slave tendencies to become the rulers.

Christians were put on the stakes and burned alive and eaten by the lions and they were part of the game about 1900 years ago. Not a big time. The symbol of fish only tells you to see which side the fish and eye is so that you can know exactly where they are meeting tonight, in which cave. History is a very small page. Man is a small life.

You have to decide what price you think life is for you. Is it real? Then become God. If it is a joke, then search for God. May I repeat again, those who are searching, they are never home. Those who are home, they are not searching. Those who are searching love do not know what love is. Those who are in love, they never search. Those who are rich, they never search for wealth. Those who are poor, they always talk directly, indirectly about wealth. "To be, to be" is the rule. "To be, not to be" is the destruction. That's why the entire philosophy of man... entire essence of religion of man... entire reality of man is based on one thing: God is. You are not. Then what are you for? Just to tell that God is. God is. You are not. Then why you are alive? Why I am alive if God is and I am not? Just to tell that God is, and I am not. That is the jappa... "Aad sach, jugaad sach, heibhee sach, naanak hosee bhee sach."

The seal of the Akal Takhat is Akal Sahai: The Infinite shall serve you, will protect you, will come through. Where a finite is encircled by infinity, which every finite is. Even the atom has its own orbit, its own impulse. Now, human has the aura, but basically where we are lonely? God is and it is. Our purpose is to repeat it. That's why Guru Nanak said, "Aad sach, jugaad sach, heibhee sach, naanak hosee bhee sach." Those who have found 'sach', their life shall be away from the 'kach', the falsehood shall not come near. "Mitanaa madh maya kaa dandaa. Bandagee kare so-ee-ai bhandaa." It is a simple thing. This churning and moving around to do this, and getting intoxicating to go after the illusion and sweat -- sweat belongs to those who are running after their lower self. They are seeing a river in the desert, and they go there and it is a burning sand. They again run. "That's the river, that's the river." No, no, no. Bhandaa, the being for the time being is only submerged in
the presence of God within Itself. There's nothing outside.

So those who have come for a wish and a dish, all of you are here, in whose heart their head sits. There's no union in this earth. Union is of the head and heart. If the head and heart are not united in a person, person is not able to be united with anything. Therefore please, those of you who have come here, if you have walked one foot, thousand feet God shall come to receive you. Coming to gurdwara is a physical act, but it is appreciated by the non-physical in Identity. All buildings are all buildings. Gurdwara is gurdwara. All days are all days; this is the Akal Takhat day. Our generations will follow this tradition. We are grateful to government of India that they attacked the Akal Takhat, and we are grateful to God showing us the way that it can only be attacked, it cannot be conquered.

Akal Takhat was in India and is in India and may not remain in India, but the sovereign people of United States of America, because of their love and attachment of God and Guru within them, are remembering exactly as their own. That is how you become of somebody. Distance and time and space does not matter if sentiments are real.

I have come in America 20 years ago. I have never heard anybody saying, "You have hurt my sentiments. My sentiments are guiding me." No, there's not a word here. "I have a feeling, I have my emotions, I have my thoughts, I have my faith. So and so is intellectual." Can you understand how wide and empty that society is where nobody knows what sentiments are? I hope tonight you will go home, if you have a dictionary, English dictionary, find it out what "sentiment" means.

We don't wear bana because it makes us look good, because it adds to our aura, because of this or that. No, it pleases the sentiments of purity in us and it gives the trust to others that we are pure in sentiments to serve. It is the trust in sentiments which gives you prosperity. And it is that reality which lives within your Infinity which you have to show to others.

This Sunday I went to the gurdwara and one man said, "I have Guru Nanak living in me." I said, "Then there should be no problem. You open your mouth, I'll put my hand right wherever you say... where he is... I'll pull him from the neck and I'll bring him out." He said, "Yogiji, your humor is dangerous." I said, "No, I am not. You said, 'Guru Nanak is living in me.' I want to see that Guru Nanak, and luckily you have a mouth and I have a hand. Let us deal the thing. I'll bring him out. Why you are keeping him in? Bring him out." "Lokaa raam kahdonaa jaanaa."

People think God is a toy, like a child you give a toy, it doesn't play with it, and after awhile he tears it apart. You think God is a toy, you have to tear it apart. That's why there are more books on religion than on any other subject. There are more religious people than any other class, because we are all searching. In the end the search will come to one end: God is, God is. And it is not searchable.

Thit vaar naa jogee jaanai, rut maaho naa ko-ee.
Jaa karataa siratee ka-o saaje, aape jaanai so-ee.

--from 21st pauree of Japji Sahib

God knows all what God is. How this child knows what father is?

Our love is based on supply and demand, comfort and discomfort, satisfaction of emotion and non-satisfaction of emotion. Has our love ever touched the domain of sentiments? We don't even touch that route.

My prayer is... tonight you have come, you have come with prayer within you... you have shown your power and Guru be with you forever.

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh!

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© YB Teachings, LLC 1989
Above Article Copyright © Yogi Bhajan 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.



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