The Purpose of Life is to be Grateful

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Excerpt from a lecture by Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan October 3, 1996

“In the Age of Aquarius, the Dharma of a person shall be to reach out. Reach out to help. Reach out to share smiles. Reach out to hear each other. Reach out to every person without judgment. It should be a quantum leap in the consciousness where a person will honor himself. It is my personal honor that I am a saint. It is my personal grace that I am a sage. It is my personal victory that I am a human. It is my personal joy that I am grateful and fulfilled. Everything is personal. Everything is shared and every person will try one’s best. You who are born in this time and in this moment, at this desh (space), and at this kaal (time) have a purpose in life. If you have a purpose in life and you don’t have a projection in life, you are losing something big. It is your dharma that you, through karma yoga, will serve anybody and everybody without discrimination. Thus you will cleanse yourself of your karma and you will be enlightened in the grace and happiness of your accomplishments. You are here now. None of us has features like each other. We are different in size, weight, shape and in caliber. Even in consciousness, even in development, we have come from different backgrounds. We have different experiences. We have different ideas. With all that, we are one because we are here. We are now. And this is the moment. If you want to honor yourself, you shall honor the teachings.

One day I was sleeping on an ordinary cot and my teacher came by my side. I just jumped up to greet him. He laughed and asked me to follow, so I followed him to his room. He said, “Is that a good yogi act to just jump to spring up like that?” I said, “No my sir. It is not right. I know. But, I was caught in such a situation between a rock and a hard place when I saw you. I wanted to be respectful and I just got up.”

“Is there any other reason?”

“No. I just wanted to greet you.”

“You woke up.”

“That’s true.”

“You felt it?”

“That’s true.”

“And you jumped up?”

“That’s true.”

He said, “You have earned self-control. Now you can go.”

I came back and one friend of mine asked me, “What did he say?”

“He told me I have earned self-control.”

“What? Jumping up is self-control? Then, let’s all jump.”

And we said, “Okay, let’s all jump.”

Then some other students came and we started jumping. Just like kids do crazy things. We were in that kind of a mood. So we were jumping and our teacher came up and said, “Well, jumping does not give people self-control, monkeys.” And they said, “No, no, sir. He went and he jumped and you said, ‘You have got self-control.’ Well, sir, we started jumping, too.” He said, “No. His was a conscious jump. You are jumping just to jump. That is the difference between the two jumps. Now you can jump if you want—it’s good exercise. Keep on jumping. But know that it has a purpose.”

A life that does not have purpose and projection is a useless life. It is fortunate that everybody knows the purpose of life. The purpose of life is to be beautiful, to be bountiful, to be blissful, to be graceful and grateful. What a wonderful English word—grateful. If one is great and full, one is God. And whenever smallness faces you, you should be great. And full. Full of that greatness.

Some of you might be thinking, “What should we do? Why do we have to do it? Why are we here? Why are we not somewhere else?” Judge not my friends, or you shall be judged. Do not isolate yourself or you will be desolate. Don’t go away or you will be gone. Self-discipline is to honor oneself, to honor the ideal of oneself. It is very difficult for western civilization to understand the word, “surrender.” When you surrender, you do not become weak or a slave. You exalt yourself. The touch of the master is not a fantasy. The touch of the Master is God’s will. That man may be weaker, uglier and judgmental in your eyes, but if in the ecstasy of his consciousness if he blesses thee, thou shall always dwell in Thee. These are the ways of life. Dormant spirituality can be awakened by the touch of such a one.

Who are you in the progression of life? The future. And that’s a fact. A teacher doesn’t have anything. A teacher has no relatives. A teacher has no wealth, no riches. A teacher has a very simple touch—a very wishful touch. Because a teacher has to live with the student forever. Nanak was a teacher. He lives even today through his students. Not good. Not bad. Not great. Not small. It’s a cosmology of the heavens in which those stars shine and they carry the words of Nanak, they carry the words of Jesus, they carry the words of Moses. Whether Moses was great or small, Jesus was right or wrong, Nanak was fat or thin—forget all that. It is not the person, it is the person’s words that have been infused, have been told and have brought faith and courage.

Copyright:  Teachings of Yogi Bhajan

IMG_0053This lecture excerpt can be found in the book, Success and the Spirit, an Aquarian Path to Abundance. With over 40 prosperity meditations and 15 lectures from the Siri Singh Sahib, Success and the Spirit is the most comprehensive guide created for prosperity and successful, joyous living. Click here to learn more and purchase this one of a kind manual for abundance.

 


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