Tranquility
Synopsis, Yogi Bhajan Class Lecture 10/30/00
Tranquility is the essence of life. Prosperity, relationships and strength grow from tranquility. Tranquility is God. By being aggressive and living in imagination, fear and insecurity, we lose tranquility.
Some days ago I called a friend to wish him happy Diwali (Hindu Festival of Lights). He was miserable, saying his relatives were torturing him. I said, “Their karma is to disturb your life. Your karma is to keep going.” If I had not had a treacherous and torturous life, I never would have become a confirmed yogi. A confirmed yogi in my own mind—I have to satisfy me, see me with me, let my ego go, and keep my tranquility.
When things attack you from the outside, you think you are worthless. But you are full of worth! Otherwise there is no reason for you to be tested. No one takes a graduation examination if they have not been to college. Your life has the karma of many incarnations. Pay your karma and follow dharma (spiritual path). Every breath of life is more precious than all preciousness. Every hardship gives you endurance. “Whatever You do, my Lord, is my pleasure.” As you see road signs, there are signs in the life which you must know. Read them and obey. Pay karma and walk the path of dharma with determination in your hand, in your heart and in your head, while maintaining tranquility. If you see something bad, be grateful you will not walk into it. If you see something very good, enjoy it as a lesson and role model.
There was a devotee of Krishna named Sada who used to worship Him. When her last moment came, Krishna was there, massaging her feet and comforting her. She said, “Oh blessed man, your hands are very divine, but I wanted to see Krishna. Please tell him I died wanting to see him.” Our fears make us chant and meditate so we can produce God but, without tranquility, we cannot recognize Him.
We need maturity, tranquility, peace, and grace to see that we are as good in soul and consciousness as everyone else. Are we mature enough to bring respect and grace to our relationships? Can our love be infinite? Can we cut through our boundaries? With Guru’s blessing we were given a human body and sent to this garden to smell the fragrance, have fun and enjoy. But we started destroying the garden and building a wall, saying, “This part of the garden is mine.”
You can do anything and everything, but if you do not have tranquility, you cannot merge in God’s infinite tranquility. If your value is not your tranquility, but your ego, you cannot be. Without tranquility there is no reality. Without reality there is no prosperity. Without prosperity you cannot give. Without giving you are not God. Guru Nanak says, “Work hard, earn by the sweat of your brow, then give.”
MEDITATION
Break the Cocoon of Ego
Position: Sit straight in a cross-legged position. Hold your hands in Sarab Gyan Mudra in front of the heart — fingers interlocked with the index fingers extended pointing up and thumbs crossed. Eyes are closed. Mantra: Chant from the navel with Har Har Har Har Gobinday by Nirinjan Kaur*. Continue for 3 minutes. To end, inhale deeply, hold, and listen to the mantra you have chanted. The sound is still in the air; catch it. Exhale. Repeat 2 more times. Relax. Comments: If you chant this 8 part mantra for 11 minutes, 31 minutes or 2-1/2 hours, and then recollect the sound, whenever you are working, talking, moving, sitting, or sleeping, this sound will be with you. It will not leave you because each word of the mantra opens up a chakra and feeds the soul, giving the feeling of deathlessness. This meditation breaks through the cocoon of our ego and cuts through the organism of destruction.
