Yogi Bhajan Lecture Archive
Lecture by :
Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji
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Lecture on: 12/06/1987
Category: Winter Solstice
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Public

Martyrdom of the Akal Takhat

Wahe Guru Ji ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji ki Fateh!

We are people, men, woman. Each one of us is made of five tattawas, ether, air, fire, water, earth. Each one of us has seven chakras within the subtle body, and each one has the arc line, or we call it aura, the eighth, projection, infinite, shield, light, prana. If there will be no ozone layer for the earth, living on the earth will not be possible. If there is no aura, living, in spite of the tattawas and the chakras, will be impossible for a human. These are the basic scientific recoveries which the man in the ancient worked it out. Then also man investigated and worked it out, we have ten bodies. Three mental bodies, physical body, arc line body, auric body, subtle body, radiant body, pranic body. With all this knowledge, man found out that one thing is very difficult. It is very difficult for a human being to be consistently courageous. We give up on lot of things, give in to lot of things, give away lot of things. We give for the sake of giving, give for the sake of returning,
give for the sake of public relations or better relationship. Giving is a nature with us, but conditional. Man has not learned to give unconditionally. Only one man can give unconditionally, one who feels everything that he has comes to him from God.

For that we do not have the mental capacity, we do not have the mental persuasion, the mental attitude. So, what you feel that you give, you give as your own. It is never possible for you to even realize that at that moment, what was given to you was given from the infinite God himself out of his grace. Whenever you give something from you, you expect something to come back to you. Sometimes we do say, well if you give charity, if you do something, God will give you ten times, or hundred times. Fact is, God gives you anyway, whether you do charity or don't do charity, whether you are nice or not nice. God does not interfere, what is to be given to you. God gives those who know, God gives those who don't know. Guru Gobind Singh is very clear on this factual fact of life. What was the necessity when there are so many religions, what was the necessity of having a Sikh Dharma? That's the subject I'm going to touch today.

It was agreed fundamentally that man is scared by nature. It is agreed. When you are born as a child, first thing you are told is to know the earth. Nobody tells you first day to know God. Your first lesson on the planet is wrong, and that lesson is augmented every day. Know the earth, know the tricks of the trade, know this, know that. Know sensuality, sexuality, know this, get this, get Ph.D in this, Ph.D in that. Success is not considered in divinity. Success is considered in personality. I go to the doctors these days. I am not well. All I see is how many degrees, how many rewards, they display it very openly in their room, it's not that they're afraid of it. They want to convince you that he's the best doctor you are with.

In your life also, in your behavior also, you present yourself as if you are the best friend or the best person as another person has met. That is the difference between a man of God and a man. Man of God will present that he's the best representative of God. Whereas, you represent you are the best yourself. That's the difference. The need for Sikh Dharma was only basic, that man has to live admitting that God is his maker. Akal Moort. In our first few lines of mul mantra, which is the root, we are told very clearly that you are akal moort, ajuni saibhang, gur prasad. Those lines are not off base, they are very fundamental lines. Somehow, the spirit, the soul, has to be fed. That's why emphasis was given, that if you do not have your spirit strong, mind will not work it out. Then the emphasis is given, if the mind will not be cleansed, and made ready to face the day, your body will not be in a position to face the day. For all of us, Sikh Dharma in its own original shape and form looks like a ritual. What is the difference between
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism? They all promise you God, all promise you heaven. Sikhism doesn't do that. I do not need kingdom, I do not need salvation. It's a very clear word. Then what do I need? I only need the love of the Lord's lotus feet, here, hereafter. It means a total dedication between God himself and man. It is a total merger. It cannot be Friday you are Sikh, Saturday, Sunday, you are Sikh, Monday you are not. It is not that. Nothing breaks your relationship with God. It is a constant, consistent, truthful identity. Sat Nam exactly means that. Satya means the energy, the power, Nam means the identity. Sat Satya, Sat Nam. Satya means the living energy. Your life is truly an identity of God. That's what exactly Sat Nam means. Therefore, we decorated ourself, we relate ourself, we do all the worldly things, but we do not nurture our fundamental basic thought. I'm not saying you should not have weaknesses, I think you should have weaknesses, but I'm
asking you a question. Will those weaknesses give you strength? Finally, the United States has drug problem, they have finally agreed to it. First they were not agreeing to it. That drug problem is in spite of all the police, FBI, drug administration, and all that. Do you understand how many agencies they've got? They have tremendous amount of man force, mechanical force, and high tech force. In spite of that, there is more drug problem today than before. Finally, admitting there is a drug problem, the wife of the president, Nancy Reagan, came the idea, Say No. That was and is a national slogan. It means Say No to offer, Say No to temptation, Say No to desire. There is only one way in the life to be spiritual, Say No. But when you say no, you have to equally say yes. When you say yes to the light, the spirit, the consciousness, the intelligence within you, it will automatically make you to say no to the commotions, emotions, neurosis, depression, and negativity. I have talked to you for eighteen years. I'm still surprised today, why don't
you understand that you are a basic energy and reality? That's what religion means. Religion doesn't mean what you think religion is. You think it is a boat going and you are just going with it. Religion is basic identity, basic reality, which has a goal, motive, technology, achievement and work. Then why you being so religious, fall apart once in a while? I tell you why.

You always expect others to help you. That's why. With your own hand, your own work must be completely done by you. That is not a desireable dictate of the Guru, that is the Guru. When you have to do what you have to do, and you have to do as you, then you have to have a clear consciousness and personality, that whatever you are doing you are doing gracefully and graciously. There are two problems you all have. I have seen as a holy man those problems with holy people also. I am very dissatisfied being a holy man myself. That's why, I am not joking when I say whosoever has nine holes is holy. I am not yet seen one person who doesn't have nine holes. So I believe everyone is holy. There are two worries. There's a worry for the fact that you as you, what you could be. There is a worry as a worry, what people will think about you. There are two worries you always have, what shall happen to you tomorrow. That's why you collect all this. Have you seen a lion, you are all Singhs, have you seen a lion going and making a kill, eating, and
then keeping it for tomorrow. No, that real lion believes tomorrow will take care of itself. But, today he does a good job. You are worried about tomorrow more than you are worried about today, and that is the main problem of your pain. You are worried about tomorrow. Yesterday somebody asked me a question. When you will die tomorrow, what will happen? I said when I was not born, what was happening? Forget about if I die tomorrow, it's a big long question. But when I was not born, nothing was happening? Something was happening. So, there is a worry. If I will not live, what will happen? I exactly tell you today. When I will not be alive, much more I can do, much more I will do than what I'm doing today. Today even I cannot handle the people who are very near me. They are commotionally attached, emotionally attached, insecure. Then there shall be no insecurity, there will be no boundary. I have not to knock any door. I can walk into any heart I want to. I'll do what I
have to do. I have done it for millions and zillions of years. It is not a new thing. I just came here to see the world has changed or not, it has not. It's the same old neurotic world. I thought with all the super intelligence, giving you all the mechanical things, that you can know what is happening in the world, you can see it in your own living room through a television, now there are television neurosis, television phobia, television has become a disease. It was given to you to know, you got into it so much that you do not know how to get out of it. Basically, world is as it was, as it is, and if that continues to be it shall be destroyed. Nothing can be tolerated beyond limit. If the perversion and depression of the human will extend itself beyond the boundaries of kindness and compassion, then the existence rule must break to start all over again. That's how the divorce and marriage breaks. One pushes beyond the capacity of the other. Why? Because they get married beyond the capacity of each other. All marriages are mostly
based on lies. Everybody wants to look good, which they are not. When they cannot carry that goodness, because there is no spirit behind it, they start looking back to each other. There are some cases they are tolerable, some cases they are not. Exactly with God is the same relationship. You came to Dharma to elevate yourself, now some of you do not even come to sadhana.

Some of you do not want to obey the fundamental rules. Some you do not wear the bana properly with respect. These hanky-panky which you do, you think you can get away with them. No, my dear, hanky panky has one rule, it will not let you get out of it. So shall you sow, so shall you reap. If you will not live straight, you will not be straight. Rule of mother nature is, God is merciful and kind, it will give you all the blessings, but mother nature spares none! You shall be spanked, because anything which you are doing every day, either you are getting rid of your mental strength which you need to recuperate, or your spiritual sense which you need to recuperate, or your physical strength which you need to recuperate. You have to exercise those three realms. There are very simple things and simple rules of life which you have to work it out.

Basically, we meet one Sunday for Gurudwara, and we meet on the Akal Takhat day, we want to meet in the evening and do kirtan, we want to chant Nam and all that. I heard with my own two ears. One lady said, "Siri Singh Sahib, don't you feel that we are putting spiritually too much on everybody?" I said, "this person is alive?", I looked from top to bottom, and I doubted very much that does this person make any sense? You know, you can do this in America and get away with it. God has given you so much in abundance, that you don't belong to that one-third of the world which doesn't eat at night. I was seeing a television interview, there was a lady being interviewed. She was from a country I will not mention, neither I will disclose her nationality. She was a prostitute, and she was saying, I want to go to America to be a prostitute, I am pretty, I have better features, I can work it very well. In this area, it doesn't make any sense. You were given by God, abundance. What you
did? You forgot God. You have become gods yourselves. You think you can spin the world with your dollar as much you want. You are crazy. It won't be for long. All big empires.... I used to say in the beginning, that the greatest civilization of India, took marijuana and went under the tomb. First defeat which King's soldiers lost to Alexander the Great. They came under attack, and they were smoking this weed, they never knew what was happening when the Greeks attacked and took them by surprise. That was the first defeat of that great empire and civilization. After that it never became what it is. China went the opium way. Egypt went by those wonderful mushrooms. The Western civilization, the great empire, the British empire... the sun never set, went by booze. America, the great country, has all of them together! How many days can you survive? I doubt it very much.

Majority of you are depressed. You have a nervous breakdown. Numbness to sensitivity, numbness to self-honor is there. It is always there. There is no self-honor. There is not the grit that it is my honor. I've got to make it, I've got to do it, I've got to put myself together, I've got to keep my grace going. There is total numbness to it. Let it fall, let it fall, let it slip, let it slip, let it go, let it go. That is why Sikh Dharma is about. It is about for the people, those who want slowly, constantly, consistently, to rebuild their honor. Self honor. " Jinee Nam dhiaaiaa, Gaye masakat ghaal, Nanak te mukh ujale, Ketee chhutee naal!" You do not understand the translation of those two lines. Those who meditate on God, who have done that hard labor, Nanak, those are people with bright face, honorable, nobility, gracefulness, that is brightness. Bright face is not the man who works in coal mine, puts lamp on his head, and he is very bright. Their life is very bright. They have bright faces. They can put their life into the
God's face, and say, "Hello! How are you?" They have the spirit of God in them. They can stand out and can be shattered.

Just imagine today the two sons of Guru Gobind Singh, five years and seven years. Being bricked alive. Inch by inch, and they kept smiling, and kept answering. How many of you here, will not flip out on your child? How many of you even have the guts? Rather, you are very cruel and corrupt. You use your children for your commotions. You use them as baits. A lot of people I have seen, "Oh my child is studying in India". I said, "Thank God he's not studying on moon!" I thought we Americans decided to have first school on moon, isn't it possible? You cannot treat your children independent. You cannot treat your children that they are also made in God. They have their own life to live, and you can only help them to live. You treat them as a piece of furniture. You think you know everything, and your child doesn't know everything? Actually, your child thinks you are the most stupid parents he got, and he's not supposed to offend you. That's what they think. A child came and told
me, he said, "Siri Singh Sahib, I am very mad at my papa and mama." I said, "alright, what is the problem?" "They are stupid, damn stupid, I can't tell them." I said, "you are doing a good thing, but bad thing is....there is good news and bad news. You know they are stupid, you realize, your realization is wonderful, but you can't tell them but worse thing is you are just angry." He said, "I am mad, I am angry, should I not be?" I said, "no". He said, "why not?" I said, "they are stupid, you are not. That's why not. They are stupid, okay. You recognize it, you don't want to tell them, because that will get you few spanks and all that, you don't want to get in the middle of their fight", I said, "then at that time you can do a great favor." He said, "what?" I said, "there is an altar in your house, immediately go sit cross legged and start meditating and utter 'Wahe Guru!' loud and loud and loud, so that that 'Wahe Guru' can penetrate through their abusive coerciveness on each other. They may just learn from you that
spitting at each other is affecting the child." I said, "be practical." He said, "thank you very much. I never get to see you very much." I said, "I do not get to see you very much either. Listen, your problem has been solved. You have come very recently. Your parents have paid for your coming back. They must be very happy to have you home. They have forgotten one thing, that they are stupid. Just don't worry about it. When you were not among them, they were stupid then too. So don't feel so upset, that within three days now you have taken a banner out that I have to get rid of this stupidity." I said, "it won't go away. There is a way to deal with that stupidity. Don't participate with it, don't react to it." He said, "Sat Nam." I saw his eyes becoming so big and so bright. He felt very lucky that he could find me while walking, he could talk. Luckily he was running around on a playground and all that.

I am explaining to you that we, not only do it to our children, we do it to ourselves. These days, we are all in middle age crisis, we think our romance is over with. When you reach my age, then question is, wife will tell you how much will you have left and how much you have left to her. She may die one day earlier or not. That's called the third age. There are three ages, childhood, adulthood, and old age. In childhood you want to know everything, how to know and be successful. In adulthood, you want to be successful, and old age you want to know which one of the two will die, and which one will take over the inheritance. That's all is life.

Have you ever thought you were born with the will of God, and you should have loved God as child. You should live in child grace, innocence, very very much in the innocence of divinity. And as adult you should have all strength and gratitude, compassion and kindness of the God. When you are old, you should have all faith, trust, and that most bountiful beauty of God, which is that you are going home. Have you learned that? You worry about tomorrow. Have you not to worry today that you have no peace with God today? Religion is just doing the service, to ask you to come to a synagogue, ask you to come to a temple, asking you to come to church, Gurudwara. That's not enough. You have to learn to make peace with God. You have to learn to trust God. You have to be very honest with you. You have to be God! Not big Gods, but little gods. You have to be little angels. All the energy you are wasting and putting through to build up your economic and social and earthly kingdoms, you should also work out to work
out your mental and your mental clarity is also a kingdom. Spiritual union is also a kingdom. You should build that up. That is the most beautiful aspect of God.

Day before yesterday somebody was trying to tell me, how can I tell Yogiji, who has stood with me through thick and thin, at the risk of his life, that I have found every seventeen years, that the matter is through. I said, "Through with what, what we are through about? You want to get rid of me, you don't want to discipline yourself. You don't want to grow? Don't! You want to tell me you have nothing to do with me, I say thank you." He said, "How come it is that easy?" I said, "It is very difficult to forget me. You can be my enemy, but you can't forget me. You always suffer, that I told you to be good. Being with me, it is also very difficult, you always suffer, and be afraid that I'll tell you to be good."


I represent absolutely no relationship with anybody. I have earned relationship! I see goodness in every man, and I want to see the best. I have no relationship. I have only one relationship, and I believe in it. I have proven that through my own trail. When I came to United States I never knew anybody of you. I didn't have any money, I had thirty-five dollars which I still have intact. I have built a kingdom for you, which I'm not going to take with me. Now that man is being told to write a will. That man is being told to do something for tomorrow. You know what you are telling me? You are telling me, that according to you, my God and my Guru hava abandoned me. You are dead wrong. I shall do what my God guides me to do and what my Guru tells me to do. You are stupid. You don't even have the courtesy to understand... I always do what I am told to do! I'll never do what YOU tell me to do. That's not my way of life. I have come here on a mission, I have come here on a
service. I am commissioned officer. I am not one among you. I have not come here to build this earth for my reasons. I have come here to build this earth for your reasons. I have sown the seed and God shall nurture it. Guru shall provide the strength to it.

I believe very honestly in certain things. That's why sometimes I wonder. Do you really know me? I have a very simple thing to let you know. I do not believe, and never will believe, that God will ever abandon anybody. But I do believe, and shall always believe, that God does give everybody a chance... a chance. That person can accept the word of the Guru, and get the Gurmantra. Without Guru, the world is dark. All your possessions, everything, doesn't make any sense. There may be hundred thousand moons, and hundred thousand million suns, there shall be no light in the life of the man who will not have the Guru. Now I'll tell you why. Let us put it in English what we have heard in Gurmukhi. Let us not make it spiritual, let us make a science out of it.

The person who has altar is lucky one. Person who has alternative to his altar, shall never be at peace. A woman who loves you for ten days, and goes away for fifteen days, you can't build up even a trust. A woman who can tell you on your face, you are no good, you will never trust her again. A man who tells you, you are no good, she will not trust him again. You do not understand, this planet is not what you want it to be. This planet is what you SAY! Akashic record is akashic record, you can't get rid of that. Whatever you utter. That's why when we give amrit to somebody, and baptize him into the Khalsa, we say, "utter Wahe Guru, utter Wahe Guru, utter Wahe Guru, utter Wahe Guru, utter Wahe Guru." Why we say that? We make him to understand. This amrit ceremony is nothing more than to make you understand: Whatever you utter is God! Wahe Guru, means whatever you utter is God. If you utter wrong things, you utter wrong things. That is akashic record. When you utter good things, you utter good things.
What do I have? Have you seen horn on my head? What you have seen in me? Nothing. Do you see me ever reading books? Never. Do you see me preparing lectures? Nothing. I don't care you see me or not.

One thing in me is very beautiful. Whenever I talk to you, I talk with my utmost honesty, to take you one step ahead. That's why you will love me or hate me. If you hate me, it is much better, because you will never forget me out of that anger. If you love me, you may do hanky panky once in a while, you know he's with me anyway. Intimacy brings contempt. What I have done in my life in eighteen years. Whenever you have touched me, I say that is not enough. You don't like me for that. Why not? I said, there is one step ahead, look at it. You take my any conversation, tape record it. There is one bottom line in it. Whether you are my wife, my child, my student, or my enemy. I was talking to one person who is a sore enemy of mine. He says, so long as he will live he'll destroy Siri Singh Sahib. I happened to talk to him, and I was saying, "I can tell you a better way to destroy me." He said, "there is no way. I've tried a lot of things, I've wasted a lot of money. You
always skip like a fish, you are too much." I said, "no, there is one way to destroy me, I'll tell you today." He said, "what?" I said, "you want to know it?" He said, "yes." I said, "be better than me." I said, "if you want to destroy me, there is only one thing, be better than me. Everyone will see you better than me, and everybody will start loving you and they will throw me out."

I'm sick anyway these days, I'm not very functional, I'm just kind of a burden to a lot of people. Especially, to Los Angeles. I used to travel a lot, I used to see you once or twice a day in a week. Now I see you everyday. I know all your stories, I hear it from the grapevine, the great divine, I put it together, and I say, "my God, what is going on?" A lot is going on, I never used to hear all that.

Anyway, you know when you are in a rush to work, you're always in the airplane, you keep going, you come back, everybody puts on a smiling face, you put on a smiling face. It looks so good. Go to california pizza kitchen, eat well, gossip around, you feel you are all in heavens. That's not going to work out that way. What is going to work it is whether you go into Golden Temple Conscious Cookery. People are not going to Golden Temple Conscious Cookery. I said, "they don't have the conscience. They go for taste, where the taste takes you." "Where do they go?" I said, "I have a place to tell you." He said, "where?" I said, "come on, put me in the car." We sat in the car, start rolling around. I exactly took him to places where everybody was. It was the shock of that person's life that I can get out from Preuss Road, and at a certain hour can let him know where our people are. I know wherever the ice cream is good enough, and I know where the chinese food is. I also
know wherever you can find italian pasta, and where good chocolate is available, in the form of a dessert. I know all that. I've not seen anybody going to Farmers Market buying apples. Maybe one person, once in a while.

Prosperity has gone to your head, you'll pay through the very dear cost of your health. Look, I am a yogi. Not that you have to call me yogi, or challenge or not challenge me. I am a yogi by profession, by completion, by experience. When I could not work out my karma, and I did not take time and rest together, it cost me very heavily. Nobody can be spared, when you do something wrong. What I'm trying to ask you again today, once and for all: Learn to live as a personified God! I am these days talking to you each Sunday, leaving a few messages, and letting you know. You think America will live forever, you are wrong. You think your position will continue, you are wrong. Things will change. Heavens will change, everything will change. One thing will never change. If you start learning to be a personal god, within your own realm of consciousness. You are intelligent enough not to be proud of it. Don't be stupid. Somebody had ten million dollars. He was proud to be having ten million
dollars. Then he did a charity of ten million dollars, he was proud that he has done charity of ten million dollars. The pride never left him. First he was having ten million, then he gave ten million. He never realized what came to him was from the God, and what he gave away was also of God.

That's why I'm trying to explain to you, in my own humble way. That if you love me, learn from me one thing. It isn't the life that matters, it's the courage you bring to it. Never feel defeated. Ever. Before you feel defeated, if you do not want to call on God, you are mad with it, call on Guru, and you shall not feel defeated. (Speaks Punjabi) These are the words of the tenth Guru. Know them by heart. Know them in your being. Know them to tell others that you know them. There is only one way to live. That you have God, and let it come out of you as God. Otherwise, you have not found God yet. If you still feel that you can hanky panky, diagnose, dialogue people into stupidly manipulating people, manipulate sections, actions, you are stupid. That's the most weird thing to do. What you should do is experience God and make others to feel so. That's the best way of life. Then almighty God shall come to you in all grace. Don't sleep counting sheep, count blessings. Then
sleep. Don't wake up with a worry what you have to do. Count blessings and gratitude that you got up. Whenever you deal with anybody, for the sake of prosperity, change your attitude. Talk about the infinity of God, and learn to help to communicate. Don't process and suffocate it to the only limited "I" of you. That won't work in the long run. Please learn by your own virtue. Time has come when you have to carry the banner, carry the respect, carry the honor. I have traded myself with you in all honesty, you have to trade yourself with the future with all honesty.

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

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



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