The Shabad Guru

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Reprinted from Shabad Guru: Basis, Use and Impact of the Quantum Technology of the Shabad Guru, by Siri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D.  Compiled by Mukhia Singh Sahib Dr. Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, Ph.D., August 1995.

“Shabad” means sound, “Guru” means teacher or knowledge that transforms you. The simplest meaning of Shabad Guru is a special sound that is a teacher. But what is it that we learn from the Shabad Guru and how does the use of sound act as a teacher?

To answer this question look at a deeper definition of Shabad Guru from its root structure. “Shabad” comes from Sha- and -bd. Sha means the expression of the ego, the attachments we identify with. Bd means to cut out/off or to eradicate. The root meaning of Sha-bd is that which cuts the ego. It is not just any sound. It is not just a wise sound or a song of truth. It is a sound that cuts away the ego that occludes the truth from you.

Ego is formed by the mind’s constant automatic processing that attaches us to and identities us with objects, feelings and thoughts. The ego is not inherently bad. It is just limited.

ਹਊਮੈ ਦੀਰਘੁ ਰੋਗ ਹੈ ਦਾਰੂ ਭੀ ਇਸੁ ਮਾਹਿ (ਵਾਰ ਆਸਾ)

Ego is a chronic malady and in itself lies the cure (Siri Guru Granth Sahib, Page 466)

In itself it can be useful and even necessary to functioning. But when you act attached to the ego as if it is your real nature and as if it defines your reality and scope, then you create pain, unhappiness and problems. Your spiritual reality is that you are part of a vast creation. In experience, you are a creature that is not separate from the larger matrix of life and consciousness. When you act in your specific role toward a goal or project, you must focus and limit your attention and energies. You can do that and forget anything other than your current attachment. Or you can act with passion and commitment as you remember and intuitively connect to the larger Self that is you and to the larger world that you act within.

The ego creates a kind of forgetfulness. You forget the Creator.

ਕੂਡ਼ਿ ਕੂਡ਼ੈ ਨੇਹੁ ਲਗਾ ਵਿਸਰਿਆ ਕਰਤਾਰੁ ।। (ਆਸਾ ਦੀ ਵਾਰ)

Being attached to temporary created items
The Creator is forgotten.
(
Asa de Vaar, Page 468; Siri Guru Granth Sahib)

You forget vastness. The energy of the mind begins to act in narrow ways with petty feelings and limiting beliefs. You act according to the information patterns of a small part of your potential and experience.

What is the alternative? If we cannot base our identity in the known or on any limited position of ego what can we do? Act egolessly. Base an identity in the Infinite and the connection to your sense of the Infinite. That may seem a great or mystic accomplishment, but it is the natural state of the Self. We are part of the Infinite by nature. It is the mind that forms a limited sense of self. We do not need to create an Infinite self. It always exists. That existence is called SAT NAAM – SAT[1] is reality, truth or existence. NAAM is the identity of creative name. We are all in essence a reality that vibrates and creates. Most of the time we act as if we are not. That is the pain imposed on our life by ego. The Shabad removes that pain by removing barriers to perceiving and acting from the Real Self.

This is one of the miracles of grace embodied in the teachings of the ten Gurus of Sikh Dharma. Each of the ten Gurus carried the Guruship and the Infinite identity of the Shabad Guru with very different personalities, ages and situations. And yet each affirmed they were all one Light. The identity they embedded in the Shabad Guru did not depend on ego or any finite identity. They sang Shabads that merged the one who recites them into the Infinite and infinity of self, beyond the limits of time and space. It is exactly such a technology that is needed. It establishes a link with the sense of the Infinite no matter what mood or position you begin with. There is a raga and sutra to lift every possible position of the ego into egoless merger.

Ego will no longer work. The shift of Age has changed the conditions of the mind. The Piscean consciousness operated with less sensitivity. You could hide actions, thoughts and feelings with a high degree of short term success. Some ego positions were favored above others by the conditions in a family, society or environment. That has fundamentally changed in this new Age: all finite positions of ego are equally vulnerable.

We need to develop a new habit of awareness. We must learn an inner technology to base the identity of our Self in the Infinite. The Shabad Guru is the quantum technology that establishes that awareness. It is a compass point that directs us to the Infinite in each finite action.

The practice of Jappa (meditative repetition) of the Shabad Guru changes the frequency of our word. We go from the words of the manmukh [2] – one who speaks with attachment to the mind and intellect, to a gurmukh [3] one who speaks from the heart. When we speak from our ego, our words carry a hook, a calculation for what we believe we need or want. When we speak egolessly our words go to the heart of the other person and speak wisdom that is true regardless of advantage. Words spoken in ego are ruled by impulse and intellect. The words sharpened by the Shabad Guru are ruled by integrity, intelligence and intuition.

It is the function of the Shabad Guru to make our ego nothing so we can serve and be served by everything. In a cyclone you go to the eye of the storm to escape its turbulent power. In an Age swirling with chaotic change the path to the center of the storm is through the neutral mind, 4 established by quelling the conscious and subconscious reactions to the ego. A sense of identity based on the experience of the subtle and the Infinite within us is the only source of stability and power in the Aquarian Age.

The second word in the phrase Shabad Guru is Guru. If we break this word into its inner naad, or atoms of sound, it becomes Gu-Ru. Gu means darkness or ignorance. Ru is light and knowledge. Gur is a formula or instruction. A Guru then gives a Gur, a formula or technique, that transforms darkness into light, ignorance into knowledge, the gross into the refined.

A Guru then is an active knowledge. It is not the intellectual knowledge that simply classifies or analyzes. Guru changes you. Guru develops the capacity to see. It removes darkness, obfuscation. The Shabad Guru transforms the practitioner by removing the barriers erected by the needs of the ego. The encounter with the Guru is through action. It gives you Know How not just Know What. It gives you procedural knowledge that is in your cells and subconscious, not just representational knowledge in your ideas. Think of the difference between discussing death in general, and discussing your potential death from cancer with your doctor. “Death” takes on an urgency and relevance when it is yours. It forces a deep evaluation of it, along with everything else that is important to you. And

To encounter the Shabad Guru is to learn by doing, by experience. The Guru will give a practice. That key practice for Shabad Guru is the meditation and repetition of specific primal sounds and phrases.

That may seem easy. Simple is not necessarily easy or without challenge. The greatest challenge is the practitioner’s own subconscious. The mind is not trained to base itself in a relation to the Infinite. It is based in ego. It is filled with reactive thoughts that try to maintain the attachments of the ego and tries to avoid pain. [5] When you repeat the patterns of sound and thought in a Shabad, those thoughts counter the direction and intensity of the habitual thoughts. The Shabad provokes a dumping of the stored subconscious patterns of thinking and feeling. If, under the torrential flood of subconscious feelings and thoughts, you persist in repeating the pattern of the Shabad Guru, then the new pattern establishes itself. Your mind clears, and you awaken dormant inner capacities or enhance existing ones.

Where do the patterns of the Shabad Guru come from? They exist from the beginning of creation. They are the tides and rhythms of the movement of the creative pulse of Infinite consciousness. They vibrate in all things continually.

ਜੈਸੇ ਣੇਕ ਨਾਦ ਤੈ ਤਰਂਗ ਕੋਤ ਊਪਜਤ ਜੋਂ
ਪਾਨ ਕੈ ਤਰਂਗ ਸਭੈ ਪਾਨ ਹੀ ਕਹਾਂਗੇ (ਅਕਾਲ ਊਸਤਤ)

From One Sound countless waves are born, and These waves are inseparable from the One Sea. (Akal Ustat)

It is the ability to hear and feel them that is needed. That capacity comes to a mind that is fearless, neutral, open and awakened. The ten Gurus of the Sikh path heard it perfectly. They put that rhythm and pattern of energy into the poetic compositions of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib. That’s why it is called a Granth rather than just a collection. It is a “knot.” It binds the pattern of awareness into the words of the songs.

Each Shabad is a template for an aspect of awareness and a potential of consciousness. Each Shabad is a kind of spiritual DNA that restructures the mind and stimulates the brain. The Siri Guru Granth Sahib is a collection of such gems.

 

[1] Sat: truth; pure; paramatma

[2] Manmukh: one following his mind; ਸੇ ਮਨਮੁਖ ਜੋ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਨਾ ਪਛਾਣਹਿ: One who does not recognize the shabad.

[3] Gurmukh: one who follows the Guru; opposite of Manmukh; ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਮਿਲੀਐ ਮਨਮੁਖ ਵਿਛੁਰੈ ਮਾਝ ਅ ਮ:੫ Meeting the Gurmukh the Manmukh is dispelled.

[4] ਜੋ ਨਰ ਦੁਖ ਮੈ ਦੁਖ ਨਹੀ ਮਾਨੈ ਸੁਖ ਸਨੈਹ ਅਰ ਭੈ ਨਹੀ ਜਾਕੈ ਕਂਚਨ ਮਾਟੀ ਮਾਨੈ ਮ:੯ The man in such a neutral [amdarsi] state) is such who does not believe in sadness or happiness and finds gold to be the same as common mud.

[5] ਸਾਕਤ ਹਰਿ ਰਸ ਸਾਦ ਨ ਜਾਣਿਆ ਤਿਨ ਅਤਰਿ ਹਊਮੈ ਕੰ ਤਾ ਹੈ (ਸੋਹਿਲਾ) Without experiencing the Hari Ras (taste of the Creative Divine), the Ego is a thorn within. (Kirtan Sohila)

Reprinted from Shabad Guru: Basis, Use and Impact of the Quantum Technology of the Shabad Guru, by Siri Singh  Sahib, Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D.

Click Here to read “The Quantam Technology and Impact of the Shabad Guru” by Siri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D.

Copyright:  Teachings of Yogi Bhajan

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