Excerpts from an address by SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi
Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh!
Sometime it’s very difficult for an individual to understand this, but it is the essential part of life. In the past five thousand years, all effort has been made to make a man understand “you are made in God.” Man has adopted different deities and worshipped different aspects of God. He even went to the point of controlling certain supernatural powers which belonged to God to prove to his fellow beings that he’s superior.
It is the faculty of the human to pretend to be exclusive and superior. Don’t misunderstand me - this is in you and this cannot go away. If you have a misunderstanding about this, you are starting off on the wrong foot.
When as Sikhs we do Ardas, "Kaam krodh lobh moh ahankaar to bichaao," we are doing a wrong Ardas. "Kaam krodh lobh moh ahankaar" are the offshoots of akasha, air, fire, water and earth. They are outcomes of these five tattvas. Five tattvas have five projections and there are three gunas. So we have a very ceremonial way of talking about things.
Everybody wants to get rid of everything. We always feel that we should get rid of all the negativity. It means we are not accepting one side of the coin, and we want to look to the other side of the coin. Either the whole gold coin has to disappear or we are going to be prejudiced. There’s no fault in us. Nobody on this earth can be unhappy. It is that prejudice that we only want one side. When we choose one side, we become judgmental. When we become judgmental, we start testing. When we are testing, then we are not trusting. We are unhappy.
Continue reading ‘The Miracle of Guru Ram Das’
It’s been a long while since I posted any Gurdwara lectures by SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa. I have a backlog saved on my computer but haven’t had a chance yet edit and post them yet.
Today there was something totally weird going on with the audio for the live broadcast of Gurdwara. There was some type of audio loop creating creating this interesting reverb. I still have no idea what caused it….particularly because it turned on and off at different points in the audio (after reviewing the recording). Here is an audio clip to know what I am talking about.
Anyways, I restarted the computer and was able to fix the issue, but missed the very first few seconds of the Gurdwara lecture so didn’t get the date for the lecture. The topic I think is "Spirituality and the Sikh Way of Life". This is another thought provoking lecture to listen to. Enjoy. This is just one of thousands of lectures, since he spoke to the Sangat just about every Sunday in Gurdwara. I’m sure he spoke about the same things often, but then again we all need lots of reminding to make changes in our life and see the bigger picture. Sometimes we loose sight of why we are on this earth and need little reminders from time to time.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Download
Many of us know certain individuals who serve, and serve, and serve selflessly behind the scenes. One such individual is Siri Ved Singh Khalsa, who I have known since I was born. For over 30 years he traveled with SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa yogiji and recorded over 5,000 audio/video lectures. These recordings have captured the many inspirational teachings of the 3HO lifestyle, Sikhi way of life, healthy living, spiritual living, healing techniques, etc. They have inspired countless people all over the world to be better people, live a more spiritual life and to start following the path of Guru Nanak as Sikhs. These are definitely treasures to keep, and because of Siri Ved Singh’s efforts we have many of these captured for future generations to benefit from as well.
Continue reading ‘Lifetime Achievement Award - Siri Ved Singh Khalsa’
Been "treading water" these days trying to keep up with everything going on, but after a few emails from people wanting some more audio and lectures I managed to sort through some of the raw recordings that have been piling up. Here are a few recent ones to listen to….
Continue reading ‘Latest Audio Picks’
It’s been a while since I posted a Gurdwara lecture by SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji. Here is the recording that we heard yesterday in Gurdwara from July 8th 1990 on the topic of God.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Download
The past few days I have been watching old videos of SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji in dialog and question and answer sessions with Sikh Youth in various places. Here is one that I really enjoyed and highly recommend that you watch or listen to! I’ve already watched it at least five times in the course of editing and reviewing the videos and it really hit home for me so wanted to share with you all.
In the video yogiji starts by talking about just "being" a Sikh verses experiencing and living as a Sikh (He related this in the terms he called "Concept" and "Conception"). He then talks about how Sikhs have been betrayed by the so called "Sikh Leadership" and how youth should not rely on them and BECOME the leaders themselves. He shares inspiring experiences from his youth before the partition of India when he was part of creating the All India Sikh Student Federation. He explains how the youth worked together and formed a powerful force with Sikhi as a base and through trust, honesty, equality. He shares the ingredients of what made this work and how youth of today can do this as well.
Continue reading ‘Awakening to Leadership - Are You Ready?’
In the past I have posted quite a few audio lectures from Gurdwara by SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji which I thought were very inspirational and educational (and have shaped who I am today). This weekend has been a very thoughtful and pensive weekend for me. I was not feeling so well so stayed home with daughter Charanjeet Kaur and watched quite a few old videos of lectures and questions and answer sessions with Sikh youth from England, Canada and USA.
In the videos he answers many common questions related to Sikhi, and more specifically questions related to Sikhs of western origin. Normally most of his lectures are one way to the sangat in Gurdwara, so the ones I watched are very different because people ask questions and he answers them. As I have time I’ll watch them again and edit them down to smaller chunks so you all can benefit.
Continue reading ‘Sikhi and Our Youth’
Here is a lecture by SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa, from Gurdwara on June 18th 1989, on the topic of God and Religion.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Download
Here is a quote that I typed up a week or so when I was watching the video that I posted earlier about the mind. I thought it was very relevant and worth sharing, since most of us don’t always relate to giving, and what the reasons are that we do this as Sikhs.
"You cannot give to anybody if you do not have it. You cannot give anybody satisfaction if you don’t have it. If there is a glass; Suppose this glass has nothing in it. It can’t give anything. All it can give me is it’s glasshood. But if this glass has water, then it can give itself to me with water, which I can take. You all want to take everything! Remember this law…You cannot take until you give. If you do not know how to give you will never be in a position to take. There is a place….right? If you do not make some space and do not empty some things, where are you going to put the other things? The problem is that you all get drowned because you take and take and take…and you have no place for things. You don’t have the capacity to take. First create the capacity to take, then take. And the law of capacity to take is: first give. Because the world is governed by the law of vacuum, which is that there can be no vacuum. When you create the vacuum, things will come in…." - SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa - June 25 1987, Summer Solstice
This quote also relates to giving in relation to our time and money. As Sikhs we are supposed to give Dasvandh (10% of our earnings) back to the community and those in need. By giving you create this "vacuum" and the capacity to receive even more.
This past week I have been thinking a lot about my recent blog posts which are on the topic of judgment and the mind. Then on Sunday I was looking through my videos at home and came across an old video tape of a class taught by SSS Harbhajan Singh Khalsa (Yogi Bhajan) during Summer Solstice of 1987 (almost 21 years ago!). For some reason I was compelled to watch it. It had been sitting in the cupboard for so many years and for some reason today I noticed it and felt like watching it.
As soon as I started watching the video I was surprised to find that the lecture covering many of the very topics that I was just blogging about, in relation controlling your mind, religion, self discipline, intuition, love, and spirituality. As Guru Nanak Dev ji wrote: "Man Jeetai Jagjeet"; By conquering the mind you conquer the world!
Continue reading ‘Man Jeetai Jagjeet - Conquer Your Mind & Conquer the World’
Recent Comments