The Concept of Soldier Saint

Guru Hargobind Singh

Excerpts from July 14, 1975 Lecture at KWTC (Khalsa Women’s Training Camp) in Espanola NM, USA by Siri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan

The concept of a Solider and Saint is a very unique concept. Mostly people don’t understand when we say Soldier-Saint. Fighting is the aggressiveness, and we all have a Divine nature and an animal nature. If somebody tells you, ‘get rid of animal nature’ be very cautious of that person. Because Divine nature is very universal nature. You do need animal nature. Don’t get rid of it. But you have to channel it. Use your animal nature to support your angel nature. If a person can work for a house of God for two hours and get tired, if your animal nature comes and supports your will you can work for sixteen hours and still not get tired….

Life is a moment to moment. One moment can give you the grace of the Universe, one moment. Casablanca of France. I always give this example. Casablanca of France. That moment he decided, he will burn himself with the flag, but not leave the flag in flames. Stood with it; sunk with it; he is a hero of France.

They (2 youngest sons of Guru Gobind Singh) stood by the faith of their spirit, their soul. They got bricked alive; they didn’t care. Seven and nine years old; look at the training the mother gave. Don’t you look to those two kids? Seven and nine-year-old kids; you all have them. Look the training, the mother, the Shakti; father is an image; mother is a Shakti. Whatever you will train the child, that child shall be. Gurdev Mata.  You are the first teacher.

That is the grace in a woman, which can make a person elevated to the height that even death becomes a joke. Twenty years, forty years, fifty-year-old man you can understand. Guru Arjan was Guru. Guru Teg Bahadur was Guru. Jesus was prophet. But there are two children seven and nine; mother told them, trained them, loved them, inspired them, filled them with spirit; they faced death better than anybody can think of. Isn’t the life that matters, it’s the courage you bring to it.

In silence, in our prayer, in our offering, somebody gave a tree, somebody planted that tree. Nature will nurse that tree. The tree one day will have fruit. It will go as a legend. So and so in his and her love of Guru gave this tree to the house of Guru.

Whosoever will ever eat the fruit or will look at it or see the natural beauty of it, will always vibrate and the entire nature will vibrate to create harmony for that person. Do you understand what one little gift can stir? When in our life and that moment of our life, which we belong to Guru, not to our emotions, not to our ego, mind you, my apology, they two are different. But that moment where you belong to the Guru, that moment God belongs to you and that is how the life progresses. Shakti is not in your emotions; Shakti is in your devotion. When you consolidate all the emotions and one pointedly put your spirit on the path of righteousness, it is what devotion is.

Simran is the law of life.  Simran is the spirit of God. Simran what? Truth. Sat Simran! Sat Seva, Sat Simran, will do what? Bring before you Sat Kartar. These are your fundamental gifts. Everybody has seen saints and soldiers. When a householder becomes soldier he forgets house; when a householder becomes Saint, he forgets house. But it was the gift of house of Nanak; he created a saint and soldier and also a householder. Combined all the three.

These earthly things can belong to you or they can belong to your Guru or they can belong to your God. If they belong to your God they are yours; if they belong to your Guru, they are yours; if they belong to you, they are yours. But when they belong to the Guru, everybody will know; when they belong to God, then the whole world will know. That is the difference. Because when the king dies, he dies; when a Saint dies, he starts living from that moment. Saint lives after death, a king lives before death. Because the life of a Saint is the life of a legend; it’s a life of a God; it’s a life of hope; it’s a life of levitated spirit; it’s a life of sacrifice; it’s a life of lessons. Life of a Saint is the life of lessons and life of a man is the moment lived.

Therefore, we say when we ask you to marry and we ask you to take a pledge, first God shall be, next to it the word of the Guru, and third will be the guidance of your life. We want you to be saints and soldiers. Soldiers to protect the meek and the righteousness, so that you can sacrifice. We want you to be Saint, so that we can serve the humanity. It is only the privilege of a Saint to serve the humanity in God consciousness.

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Copyright:  Lecture ©1975 – The Yogi Bhajan Library of Teachings®

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