Excerpt from a lecture given by Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji
October 5, 1973: Part 1
You always know how and why you blow it. You always question yourself because there is nobody else. Guru Nanak said a very simple thing:
Beej mantar sarab ko giaan.
(Guru Arjan Dev Ji, Siri Guru Granth Sahib, page 274, line 16.)
The very seed of every one of us knows the truth, knows the gian. Nobody can teach anybody. Nobody can learn from anybody. Nobody can tell anybody the reality. Nobody wants to know reality. Reality is reality. The totality is the reality. We are a part of the totality, therefore we are part of reality. But where did the fuse go out? After examining our growth, our existence, and the effect on us in relation to our possibility, the question is: where do we falter? And do we falter?
I want to tell you one thing. There is nobody who can commit a fault. You only miss a chance. This is how the vibration goes. When out of all the cycles of life and birth, a person realizes that his instinct can come under his control, then that is the human body. It is possible to train this human body to any extent. You have only got one unit of energy. You can forgive or you can punish. You can tell a lie, or you can speak a truth. You can be positive or you can be negative. You can be up or you can be down. All of that requires an equal amount of energy. The question is – how do you look at it? How do you put yourself into it? How much do you want to commit to the flesh? And how much do you want to commit to the soul? That’s all you have to decide. One must die so the other can live. The other must die so the one can live. This is known as the law of survival.
You think only nature plays that hunting business in the jungles? That only the little animals get killed by the bigger animals? Nature wages the greatest war in the human being. The flesh says, “This food is tasty.” You know this tongue? This tongue is where God sits. God sits on the tip of the tongue of the holy man. That is where God is and that is where the taste is, too.
The tongue says, “A little more food, a little more food.” The stomach is crying. You go on pushing yourself. The result is sickness. There is no way out. Now ask the man who has overeaten, “Don’t you know not to overeat?”
He’ll say, “Yes I know.”
“You should not overeat.”
“I thought I could digest it. I will walk. I will have Seven-Up, or something like that.”
Where do you blow it? When you refuse to listen. You refuse to listen to one factor only: that you are innocent. Don’t let your innocence be lost. When you refuse to listen to this innocent call in you, then you blow it. Man is innocent. Man is divine. I agree. All the adjectives you want to put with a man, I say, “No problem.” But at what cost do you want to practice your ego?
It’s a simple balance. You have to understand that. If you have to balance one side, then you have to put your ego to one side and put the entire universe on the other side. If you are innocent, this whole universe will work for you. This is a cosmic law. Otherwise, you have to work for yourself. You have to choose between the two.
There is no holy. No unholy. No up. No down. No big. No small. Nothing. The whole thing is just maya. If you are innocent, then you vibrate. Everybody among you vibrates. You are nothing but a bunch of vibrations. You emit an impulse and you attract an impulse. That is intercourse. This physical intercourse is a gross training. It has got nothing to do with that intercourse which, Guru Naanak says, now I drink the nectar and all that stuff. That does not mean physical intercourse. Everybody sends out an impulse and everybody receives an impulse and it is an equal balance. Alpha over theta is equal to alpha over theta. Americans are going to discover it, but it will take about another hundred years. When they know about the vibration frequency of theta and the vibration interrelationship of alpha, that day man will know what man is. The very inner concept of the impulse of the theta, and the very outside concept of the alpha has some relationship.
If you are innocent, then your impulse is innocent. I am telling you the advantages and the disadvantages. I am very selfish. That’s why I am innocent. It is the only way you can channel your selfishness and have a higher consciousness. If you are innocent, then your impulse is innocent and it can get into any impulse. The easiest way to get to the heart is be innocent. But if you are crooked, crooked things go in a crooked way and it won’t work. There will be a tremendous amount of trouble. That is why, whenever a person loses his or her innocence, that person has to do the entire landscaping. There will be errors and mistakes. Then you have to pay for it.
Life is very simple. But what made us crooked? That is the question. Are we crooked or are we innocent? We are innocent. What made us crooked? We don’t trust the Universe. The Universe trusts us. We don’t trust the Universe. The problem is going to be there anyway. Any human being who can develop his or her consciousness to trust the Universe is going to be absolutely all right because you are a part of the Universe and the Universe is part of you.
When you don’t trust something, what do you do? You put up a block, don’t you? “Oh this friend is no good. Don’t let him come in my house. Keep him away.” Don’t you do that? When you think the Universe is not trustworthy, you don’t create any friendship with it. You don’t let it come in. What can a single little creature like you do? What is your value? Who are you? What is your beauty? What is your charm? What can you do? What can you conquer? What can you lose? What are you? A bunch of flesh, some mucus, a little blood, a few bones? Two hundred pounds compared to the whole weight of planet earth, much less the whole Universe? Have you ever thought of it?
In the Ardas, when Guru Gobind Singh wanted to create a prayer, there is one word which I am unable to forget. It is the most graceful word ever uttered by a human being on this earth. After Guru Nanak, if any man of consciousness has uttered the most beautiful word, that was Guru Gobind Singh. When the Ardas, the prayer, is made, in the end you always say,
Naanak naam chardee kalaa.
Tayray bhaanay sarbat daa bhalaa.Tayray bhaanay sarbat daa bhalaa.
For the sake of Naam, for your vibration of Infinity, may my soul be high. Chardee Kalaa means may I be in higher spirits. For Thy sake, for that sake, all should be blessed. He never made a distinction that black should be blessed or white should be blessed or brown should be blessed. Tall or fat. He never made any distinction. He said, “All.” All means the animals, also. All means all. All means totality. All does not mean this or that. It is a very innocent statement.
Tayray bhaanay sarbat daa bhalaa.
Bhalaa means goodness to all, blessings to all, beingness to all.Bhalaa has a lot of meanings, but in the Ardas there is one very beautiful line.
Jinna daykh kay anadith keetaa
Those who have seen and have taken as unseen. We’ll pray for them too.
It’s very difficult to know that I am guilty – even if I am guilty and I am perfectly guilty. You know it, you understand it, you feel it, and you can punish me. But instead, you totally forget it. It is such a therapy. It is equal to God. It is absolutely nothing but God. It is the highest of all meditations because I, out of my innocence and my consciousness, also know that I am guilty. Forgiveness is the greatest medicine.
I can only forgive myself of that guilt if I am forgiven by the holy one. It is the holiest of the holy who can forgive. Jinna daykh kay anadith keetaa. One is you don’t know that I am guilty. You don’t know I am bad. You don’t know I am treacherous. You don’t know. The other is you do know. You are aware, but you are aware of forgiveness, also. Jinna daykh kay anadith keetaa. Seeing it, they unsaw it. They heard but unheard it. They felt but unfelt it. They knew but it was not known to them. That is what a higher personality can be.
There is a story in one of the scriptures that goes like this.
A man had a dagger in his hand and he saw another person. The man called out, “Hey- brother – let me meet you.”
The other person said, “Sure, come on.”
Now this man had a policy to meet a man and hug him. Then stab him with the dagger, kill him and take away his possessions. That was his procedure. So the man with the dagger was thinking, “If I can go faster than him and meet him from the opposite side and hug him, then I will have him.” The other person would be right in his clutches.
So the man with the dagger went fast, fast, fast. But the other man just stood there. He just stood. When he came closer, he saw the man was standing in one place with his arms open. It was a clear invitation: come hug me. The man with the dagger looked and he said, “He is not moving.” And he saw his hands were open and inviting.
The man thought, “Well, he knows. He knows what I am.” And the man started walking forward. He was coming. He couldn’t change. He came closer and closer and closer until finally he hugged him and he hugged him. The man forgot to puncture his stomach with the dagger. He loved him. He said, “Brother, oh man of God, God bless you.”
The other person said, “Oh man of God, bless you.” That was the general greeting in those days.
“Thank you.”
Then the man with the dagger turned and said, “Wait a minute. I want to give you a present.”
The other person said, “For what?”
He said, “Well, I love you and I want to give you a present.”
The other person said, “Okay.”
The man gave his dagger to him. You know how many lives got saved?
There is always one pivot. You know how many spokes there are that run on it and what a huge circle they carry? On one good man rests a huge emotional, unsaturated, immature consciousness. On just one. There is one little thing which has a standard impulse. Let us talk very physically. That one brain which has an impulse of positivity and radiance; that one face which can shine and smile; that one heart which has compassion and forgiveness; that one being who can be selfless and serviceful; that one human existence which is committed to righteousness; that one life which prefers death to falling; on those few counted ones, this earth can take a round.
Copyright The Teachings of Yogi Bhajan
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