"Don’t be proud that you have money; there are millions and millions of millionaires. Don’t be proud that you have a beautiful woman or man; each woman or man is more beautiful than the next. Don’t be proud that you have children; there are people who have dozens of them. And don’t be proud of what you have; in the spur of the moment what you have can be washed away.
You can be only proud of one thing – if you have found your soul within yourself. You can be only proud that you have found the selflessness within yourself, and you become grace of God. Then there is nothing which can bother you, there is nothing which can take away from you anything, because you have been created by God. God shall then create all the circumstances to create happiness for you and when he creates the happiness it is everlasting.
Therefore, dear ones, as nearer we are coming to the summer solstice the highest day of light, the highest day of grace, the highest day when the sun energy, the life force prevails on this planet, I’d like you to sit down and assess in yourself what you have gained, how much you have gained. Let this day be a day with you that you should leave something behind, some elementary pushing habit, some ego habit, something that keeps you away from your soul and being victorious.
May God bless you, may He prevail through you, may His grace be your grace, may you become the true teacher of the coming Aquarian Age, may you move forward to spread the truth and the light to the humanity. May each one in you practice the grace of God and become grace of God." - SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa - June 19, 1971 (Summer Solstice Camp)
"You do good to somebody, it remains good if you do it in the name of your own God. That is a seva. If you do it in the name of your own spirit, your own soul, that is seva. If you do something expecting something tommorow, you better not do it. It’s not worth it. It’s not seva. Seva is a conscious and deliberate service to benefit another person, even at your cost. Remember, whosoever does seva it is one to a hundred, God comes through."
"Seva and Simran go together, you must serve people. You can only serve people if you are mentally very steady; You can take pressure. Somebody is in trouble and you want to uplift that person. How can you uplift that person if you cannot uplift yourself." - SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa
"If you want to learn a thing, read that; if you want to know a thing, write that; if you want to master a thing, teach that."
"If you really want respect in this life, never advise anybody without being asked; and secondly, when somebody really asks for your advice, just wait until he is ready to listen; and when you find the person is really ready to listen, then always give him polarity, the two sides of the subject as you know it." - SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji
"The mind is like a mirror through which you can see infinity. But if you put the blackness of hatred over it, you will see nothing" - SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa
"The strength of the man does not lie in what he has. The strength of man lies only in what he can give. Only those can give who have the capacity to tap into the universe. If the universe is not in your mind, your heart cannot give."
"There is much wisdom around us but there is no heart to feel it, there is no brain to compute it, and there is no compassion to understand it." - SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji
This story makes me think of how we all strive for more and more worldly things, and how they can just complicate our life. Sometimes it is the simple things in life which can make one more happy than boat loads of money and material things.
"The American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The America complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor." The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise." The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?" To which the American replied, "15-20 years." "But what then, senor?" The American laughed and said that’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions. "Millions, senor? Then what?" The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."
"We must learn to live together as brothers, or we are going to perish together as fools." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"… And all the energy you put in the past you take away from tomorrow. That’s where lies your sorrow. That’s why you don’t have energy to make everything possible"
"…Every day you are newborn. Every seventy-two hours your cells change. You are a new person. What yesterday? "… What do you want to do with your yesterday? If you have anything to do with yesterday, you will never be prepared for tomorrow. And you will always be poor, handicapped, miserable, exploited, useless idiots."
Q: Then why does the mind produce it when we meditate?
A: Meditation is to clean yesterday. All the garbage left of yesterday, you clean by meditation. There is no other way to clean it.
Q: So we shouldn’t dwell on it?
A: Once you clean it, why dwell on it? Then the garbage man takes it. That’s called GOD. Mental garbage is taken by the garbage man. That’s called God. That’s why we meditate. We don’t meditate to ask for something. We meditate to be pure. Our purity and piety is done by simran. Simran is: meditate, and cut the negativity with the positive sound - the Word of God. If you can clean your subconscious and do not let those thoughts pour into your unconscious, you can never have a problem in life. You’ll be super-successful. You’ll be able to be one-pointed, and that’s what it takes for success. You have to be very one pointed. You can be in duality over this and duality over that. Here, there, everywhere. It’s too scattered. It’s like you are driving a car with a shattered front glass. It’s very difficult to drive. It’s just like a blind thing. …A broken glass cannot hold water. A split personality cannot have the juice of life. You are so unfortunate…"
Excerpts from lectures by Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji
