Punjab, India, November 12:
I am feeling grateful to be in the city of Saints. The ten Gurus of Sikh tradition have made so many important contributions and sacrificed their lives for mankind. The grace of the Masters, from Sri Guru Nanak Dev to Sri Guru Gobind Singh is showering on this holy city. Doing Kirtan, (Satsang) we adore the old tradition. It is important today to solidify the voice of love. The one with a clean heart and enthusiasm can do this. The land of Punjab is the face of the whole of India. Yet the holy land is suffering because of evils like drug addiction and female foeticide. Seeing this, there arose a sankalpa in the mind to have a drug-free Punjab – Let the kids, elderly and everybody be free from addictions, and let the mind find peace and true intoxication in the Divine.
One more important issue that needs to be brought into light is to preserve the Indian seeds. How many of you suffer from body aches? (An astounding number of people raised their hands). This is because of consuming food with pesticides. So, preserving local seeds and adopting organic farming is the remedy.
Youngsters need to be awakened to the actual essence of the religion. We somewhere fail to present the actual relaxing and soothing aspect of spirituality or religion.
If the very root is spoilt, the tree withers. We need to respect our tradition, our roots. Sikh means one who learns and we can all learn something from everybody. We need to learn hospitality from the Japanese, precision from Germans, etiquette from the English and marketing from America and from India, human values.
Love is beyond language. When the heart finds a way, language is no longer a barrier. Yet to realize love we need to remove the label of being unhappy from our hearts. ‘I am unhappy’ – We put and encourage this label on us. And why do we do that? Because of stress and conflicts that arise due to it. We have to work to make each home free from stress. But before that, we have to free ourselves of the conflicts that are happening inside our mind. This is self-knowledge. When stress is there, we become angry, making ourselves and others, sad. To get rid of stress from the very roots, we need to meditate regularly for some time. When you sit to listen toKirtan, just be immersed in that. But if your mind keeps running and disturbing you even when you sit to cherish Kirtan, then Pranayama, yoga and meditation all come to aid.
Violence-free society, disease-free body, quiver-free breath, confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, sorrow-free soul, and an ego that encompasses all are the birthrights of everybody on the planet. We have been bestowed with knowledge since ages, but the tragedy is that we don’t know our own tradition. In Tamil Nadu, nobody knows about the sacrifice of the ten Gurus. The kids have studied a little about Sri Guru Nanak Dev and Sri Guru Gobind Singh in their school curriculum. Similarly, nobody here knows that there were 63 great saints in Tamil Nadu. There have been so many sages in so many countries. Five years ago, we held an exhibition about ten Gurus and that brought awareness. What is our heritage? What are our roots? Self-knowledge is the very base of our ancient tradition. The very basis of science is spirituality, the ancient knowledge of our Scriptures.
Corruption has reached all fields. This is a burning issue that requires to be given attention. What society do we want to leave for the coming generation? If we do not give them a society better than ours, we will miss to fulfill our responsibility.
Sat sriakal, honoring the truth that is beyond time and honoring the treasure that is within each one of us, is one of the best greetings in the world. When you identify the treasure within, worldly prosperity automatically follows. The inner richness is anyway there, but that treasure is to be identified. There is a science behind the sound of Omkar. Scientists have found that the frequency of the Earth rotating around its axis is the same as that of Om. The graph plotted for the two frequencies is the same. So, whenever we chant Om, our vibes match with that of the Earth’s natural frequency, the natural law.
The same is said by our ancient Rishis as well. Maharishi Patanjali has said, “If you want to get rid of sorrow, contemplate on that one Divine principle/God. Think of that ultimate bliss called the Divine. Japji Sahib starts with that – Ek Omkar, The one Omkar. All sorrow diminishes, doubts shatter and you gain health cherishing that one principle. That is why in Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism and in Hinduism, ‘Om’ has got a special place. The same is true for Taoism and Shintoism. Even in Islam and Christianity, we see a glimpse of ‘Om’ in Ameen and Amen.
So, now we chant ‘Om’ for three times and we will enjoy the divine kirtan, immersing ourselves in the ocean of Divine music.
We will talk more, but let us do some meditation first.
(After meditation)
How are you feeling now? How many of you got rid of any body aches?
(Many in the audience raised their hands.)
When you are content and not bombarded with your own needs, you gain the ability to bless, and we need to learn that skill of being content. This can only happen through meditation. We have this beautiful tradition where we go to seek blessings of our elderly in all functions or occasions. This is very scientific. Ideally, elder ones are expected to be content, and hence they should have the ability to bless. Yet today that is missing somewhere. And contentment does not mean being lethargic or not working, and also one is not to wait till getting old to feel contented. There should spring a wave of contentment in the mind. Keep on doing your work but have a sense of satisfaction in mind. Sometime in life, one should reach this stage of feeling, “I am contented.” Without contentment, that power does not wake up within you. Many people who have done the Blessing course have this experience that whatever good they wish for others, it gets accomplished. How many of you have this experience? (Again many hands in the air.) Spend your life celebrating and enjoying doing Sadhana, Seva and Satsang. Be happy and make others happy!
© The Art of Living Foundation
I am feeling grateful to be in the city of Saints. The ten Gurus of Sikh tradition have made so many important contributions and sacrificed their lives for mankind. The grace of the Masters, from Sri Guru Nanak Dev to Sri Guru Gobind Singh is showering on this holy city. Doing Kirtan, (Satsang) we adore the old tradition. It is important today to solidify the voice of love. The one with a clean heart and enthusiasm can do this. The land of Punjab is the face of the whole of India. Yet the holy land is suffering because of evils like drug addiction and female foeticide. Seeing this, there arose a sankalpa in the mind to have a drug-free Punjab – Let the kids, elderly and everybody be free from addictions, and let the mind find peace and true intoxication in the Divine.
One more important issue that needs to be brought into light is to preserve the Indian seeds. How many of you suffer from body aches? (An astounding number of people raised their hands). This is because of consuming food with pesticides. So, preserving local seeds and adopting organic farming is the remedy.
Youngsters need to be awakened to the actual essence of the religion. We somewhere fail to present the actual relaxing and soothing aspect of spirituality or religion.
If the very root is spoilt, the tree withers. We need to respect our tradition, our roots. Sikh means one who learns and we can all learn something from everybody. We need to learn hospitality from the Japanese, precision from Germans, etiquette from the English and marketing from America and from India, human values.
Love is beyond language. When the heart finds a way, language is no longer a barrier. Yet to realize love we need to remove the label of being unhappy from our hearts. ‘I am unhappy’ – We put and encourage this label on us. And why do we do that? Because of stress and conflicts that arise due to it. We have to work to make each home free from stress. But before that, we have to free ourselves of the conflicts that are happening inside our mind. This is self-knowledge. When stress is there, we become angry, making ourselves and others, sad. To get rid of stress from the very roots, we need to meditate regularly for some time. When you sit to listen toKirtan, just be immersed in that. But if your mind keeps running and disturbing you even when you sit to cherish Kirtan, then Pranayama, yoga and meditation all come to aid.
Violence-free society, disease-free body, quiver-free breath, confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, sorrow-free soul, and an ego that encompasses all are the birthrights of everybody on the planet. We have been bestowed with knowledge since ages, but the tragedy is that we don’t know our own tradition. In Tamil Nadu, nobody knows about the sacrifice of the ten Gurus. The kids have studied a little about Sri Guru Nanak Dev and Sri Guru Gobind Singh in their school curriculum. Similarly, nobody here knows that there were 63 great saints in Tamil Nadu. There have been so many sages in so many countries. Five years ago, we held an exhibition about ten Gurus and that brought awareness. What is our heritage? What are our roots? Self-knowledge is the very base of our ancient tradition. The very basis of science is spirituality, the ancient knowledge of our Scriptures.
Corruption has reached all fields. This is a burning issue that requires to be given attention. What society do we want to leave for the coming generation? If we do not give them a society better than ours, we will miss to fulfill our responsibility.
Sat sriakal, honoring the truth that is beyond time and honoring the treasure that is within each one of us, is one of the best greetings in the world. When you identify the treasure within, worldly prosperity automatically follows. The inner richness is anyway there, but that treasure is to be identified. There is a science behind the sound of Omkar. Scientists have found that the frequency of the Earth rotating around its axis is the same as that of Om. The graph plotted for the two frequencies is the same. So, whenever we chant Om, our vibes match with that of the Earth’s natural frequency, the natural law.
The same is said by our ancient Rishis as well. Maharishi Patanjali has said, “If you want to get rid of sorrow, contemplate on that one Divine principle/God. Think of that ultimate bliss called the Divine. Japji Sahib starts with that – Ek Omkar, The one Omkar. All sorrow diminishes, doubts shatter and you gain health cherishing that one principle. That is why in Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism and in Hinduism, ‘Om’ has got a special place. The same is true for Taoism and Shintoism. Even in Islam and Christianity, we see a glimpse of ‘Om’ in Ameen and Amen.
So, now we chant ‘Om’ for three times and we will enjoy the divine kirtan, immersing ourselves in the ocean of Divine music.
We will talk more, but let us do some meditation first.
(After meditation)
How are you feeling now? How many of you got rid of any body aches?
(Many in the audience raised their hands.)
When you are content and not bombarded with your own needs, you gain the ability to bless, and we need to learn that skill of being content. This can only happen through meditation. We have this beautiful tradition where we go to seek blessings of our elderly in all functions or occasions. This is very scientific. Ideally, elder ones are expected to be content, and hence they should have the ability to bless. Yet today that is missing somewhere. And contentment does not mean being lethargic or not working, and also one is not to wait till getting old to feel contented. There should spring a wave of contentment in the mind. Keep on doing your work but have a sense of satisfaction in mind. Sometime in life, one should reach this stage of feeling, “I am contented.” Without contentment, that power does not wake up within you. Many people who have done the Blessing course have this experience that whatever good they wish for others, it gets accomplished. How many of you have this experience? (Again many hands in the air.) Spend your life celebrating and enjoying doing Sadhana, Seva and Satsang. Be happy and make others happy!
