Beads of Truth, #36
by Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji
Director of Spiritual Education for the 3HO Foundation

We are the by-products of yoga. There's no untruth about it. We are not going to justify ourselves to any­body. This is the way it is. We have adopted this dharma because we raised our consciousness, not because it was thrust upon us. The problem is that there is no man to be worshipped...it is the Infinite God whom we worship. It is the most difficult thing on this planet to have an ego and then to wor­ship the Unknown.

You should try to understand how political power works. Somebody is a minister today and tomorrow he will be in jail. Who knows? This is the earth trip. It is so today but tomorrow it may change. But, dharma is one thing which never changes.

Somebody once asked this very ques­tion: "How does one change karma? How can one be free from karma?" Guru Gobind Singh gave the answer: "By living Dharma there is no karma." It is very simple yet very, very difficult. What power do you want? You may become very succesful on this earth but of what use is it? Guru Nanak says: "Your life may become as long as four yugas; it may be a billion or a trillion years long, and it may be multiplied ten time. Then, man, you are the fool because that is not what reality is." If you have not felt your relationship with God, the whole thing is useless. Karmas are karmas, and karmas are going to be karmas and those who want to live karma will live them. This is a very distinct difference which you have to understand.

Jesus came and left; Moses came and left; Abraham came and left; Guru Nanak came and left; Muhammad came and left. Everybody left-but nobody left. They all said the same thing, and they continue saying the same thing. They goaded people, they guided people, they climbed mountains, gave this ser­mon and that sermon, and gave this counsel and that counsel. It is all cat­alogued and nothing has changed.

Neither they have stopped trying nor have you stopped listening. It is a tug of war. Everybody has said the same thing from time immemorial to now; and you have two ears yet neither have you listened nor are you willing to listen.

God told Guru Gobind Singh, "Go and establish a religion of righteous­ness. Let the human worship the Un­dying Being, the Akal Purkh, not the dying being." Jesus said not to worship idols yet I have never seen a single church where he is not hanging on the cross outside. Is that not an idol? Moses said to love all and worship one God, yet Jews feel they are the special chosen beings and everybody else is out. The Hindus were told to see God in every­thing. Their God is in their temple, sleeps at a certain time and gets up at a certain time. Otherwise everything goes beserk. That is the hypocrisy of religion.

Now if somebody wants to try to make the religion of Guru Gobind Singh a hypocrisy, one thing for certain is that the person can't stand. You cannot be a Khalsa and a hypocrite; the two don't go together. Some people ask me why there are the "five K's" and why there is a "rehet" for this religion. The answer is very simple and was given by Guru Gobind Singh in his lifetime. A goldsmith asked Guru Gobind Singh the same questions and Guru Gobind Singh told him to come back the follow­ing morning for the answer. The next day when the goldsmith came, Guru Gobind Singh gave him a piece of gold and told him to check it out. "It looks genuine but I need my touchstone." So he brought his touchstone, rubbed the gold, looked at it and said, "This is 24 karat gold; it is pure." Guru Gobind Singh asked him, "You have been a goldsmith all your life; why couldn't you test the piece? What went wrong?" "Sir, to be one-hundred per cent sure I need a touchstone." Guru Gobind Singh said, "To be one-hundred per cent sure we have to have a "rehet' for the Khalsa. It is as simple as that."

We are almost ten million Sikhs in the world, and barring a few handfuls of idiots who cannot escape their guilt consciousness and are making a mockery one way or the other, everyone loves you American Sikhs, regards you and respects you. I was given this mes­sage by the President of the S.G.P.C. to communicate to the entire sangat, that whosoever is a Sikh and a Khalsa is with you forever and ever and they are grateful. His words were, "Politics or no politics, government or no government, we look to you as our own and we are your own." So please don't misunder­stand. The handful of boozers who eat beef at night, who drink wine, trim their beards and live a non-righteous life, if they somehow manage to get to you and mock certain things you do, they count nowhere. They are nobody. Khalsa is not measured by the measure­ment of wealth and influence; Khalsa is not answerable that way. Khalsa is answerable to its own Guru and to its own rehet. Live rehet, live righteously, but there is no need to be fanatic. Sometimes people are ignorant; you should use your judgement whether the person knows anything or not. If he doesn't know, tell him what to do. There is no need to be uptight. We are merci­ful, compassionate, commissioned people; we are commissioned repre­sentatives of the rehet maryada and we are judged by our daily consciousness. That is why we avoid judgement day. Who wants to hang on to be judged one day? We want to be judged right now. When I got up this morning I judged myself.