By Dr. Ramdesh 

Nobody likes to be trapped in a corner, but sometimes the situations in our lives cause us to feel powerless.  Childhood bullies, grownup bosses, and real and imagined aggressors surround us and can cause us to feel like we can only do certain things in a certain way.  It doesn’t feel good to be trapped and pushed into a way of living or acting that doesn’t feel right.  And it isn’t necessary.

Yogi Bhajan, in spreading the teachings of Kundalini yoga, sought to spread the feeling of our own power to us.  Banish thoughts of smallness and meanness! We are all the expression of Divinity unfolding and have the limitless power of Grace within us!  Yogi Bhajan taught that the sixth pauree of Japji Sahib dispels limitation.  “Recite it when you feel limited, cornered, trapped, or coerced,” 11 times a day for 40 days and take back your power.

For me, much of the joy of this pauree comes in the line “Mat vich ratan javaahar maanik je ik gur ki sikh suni”, which can be translated to say that within you are piles of rubies and gems and jewels, gifts from the Divine, which you access by listening.  Still yourself in meditation.  Focus upon your breath and follow it like a yellow brick road into your heart.  Within the silence of your own mind, experience your own vastness.  What earthly bully or imagined limitation can touch you?  You are a limitless, profound being.  You are beyond touching.  You are loved to your very core by Love itself.  Block dissolve.  Limits evaporate.  And ways through the muck and mire appear.

The next time you meditate, mine for jewels.  You never know what rubies the Divine has planted within you, waiting for just the right opportunity, to bless you with a present.

The Sixth Pauree of Japji Sahib

Teerath naavaa jay tis bhaavaa vinn bhaannay ki naa-ei karee.

Jaytee sirath upaa-ee vaykhaa vinn karmaa ki milai la-ee.

Mat vich ratan javaahar mannik jay eik gur kee sikh sunnee.

Guraa eik dayeh bujhaa-ee.

Sabhanaa jee-aa kaa eik daataa so mai visar na jaa-ee.