You are Born to Represent God
Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan
Man jeetai jag jeet.
--Guru Nanak,
By conquering your mind, you can conquer the world.
You want to conquer the world, ‘jag’, conquer your own mind and the world will be conquered.
If you have all the world and all the possibility and royalty and respect, what does it matter? It doesn’t matter. Your weaknesses do not matter. Your handicaps do not matter. Your calamities and tragedies do not matter. There’s one word in Sikh Dharma, that is called ‘Swaya:’ one plus a quarter. One is you -- bad, sick, wrong, dead, blind, cripple -- that’s you. But that one quarter belongs to the world. That you must share.
When he said, "Vandh Chhako," that is what it meant. "Hey, take your chapati and distribute," and you think you are the greatest person. No. Give one fourth of your positive to the world for the good of the world, and He promised God will serve you.
Directly God is non-existent. His existence is me and that is why Nanak said to me, "You are Akaal Moorat, Ajoonee, Saibhang."
And I said, "How I got it?"
He said, "Gurprasaad. I gave it to you."
I said, "How I can maintain it?"
He gave one command order, "Jap. Repeat it!"
It is you and you alone who have been given this privilege. Not by anybody, but your own earned right. You have paid for it.
"Gur sevaa te bhagat kamaa-ee. Tab eh maanas dehee paa-ee. Is dehee ka-ho simareh dev. So dehee bha-ho har kee sev."
Through the Guru’s service the Lord’s loving adoration is practiced. Then alone is obtained the fruit of this human body. Even the Gods long for this body. So through that body of thine, think of rendering service unto God. --Bhagat Kabir
You are born to represent God, and in that divinity there should be no duality. Your reality does not exist if it does not have royalty. If I know all the truth, and I am not in a position to express it, that is a dead truth. And if all I do is for myself, then it is myself in my own grave. What is not shared is shredded in one’s own ego.
Mission has no commission. But it has a joy. Hurdles, calamities, misfortune, all of that is only to those who are lucky. Because they are chosen, they are considered to be chosen, they are most wonderful, they are tested out. Time and space want to test them for that misdeed, misfortune of the existence of the space. They are chosen to be tested.
Honee naal jo laande mathaa
Sikh akhaavan so-ee.
Ka-ee vaar has ke ronee
Ant na honee rohee.
--Siri Singh Sahib
Those who fight misfortune and calamity are called Sikhs.
Many times the calamity smiles with its victory, but in the
end it always loses.
Aren’t you beautiful, bountiful, and blissful that you are chosen in a certain time and a space to be disgraced, and your grace is tested out to be grace, and you win it? Isn’t that Fateh? Isn’t that victory? Isn’t that exalting Guru Gobind Singh, your Father? Is it not your tradition? Is it not your faculty and tradition forever? Is it not from time memorial to immemorial time that humans are always praising and exalting God. God cannot be exalted without you.
We have to overcome the hurdles. Remember one simple formula: Never acknowledge a hurdle. It is so touchy, it’ll go away. When a hurdle, calamity, misfortune comes and you don’t acknowledge it, it finds some place else. It’s the most egomaniac thing in the world, and if a person does not acknowledge it?
You have something to offer to God. Give your sins, your degradations, your low-gradeness, your everything which you don’t like, give it to Him. Isn’t ego your God? Give it to Him. Give your hurdles, your misfortunes. Count them, really, count them. Count them. And say, "Here I go. Have them." Because they are yours. When we say, "Surrender to God," that means only, "Give up your all nonsense to Him so you can make sense." You go out and make sense and give your nonsense to God and Guru. They are enough. They will chew it, digest it and take care of it. That’s why one has the Guru. What is it, Guru is just to have a picture and say, "Heh, heh, heh, heh." That’s not for Guru? You have a living relationship.
"Guru Guru Guru, I am just messed up. Take care of me." That’s what He’s for. That’s what Guru is.
These Brahmins have told you, "Worship him. Put him on the damn seventh sky and look around and have a stiff neck." That’s not worship, and it’s not also worship stand on the head and legs up and look the world upside down. Relationship with man and God is direct. Relationship with a Sikh and Guru is perfectly together.
Good and bad, we belong to Thee.
--Guru Arjan Dev
Good and bad, we belong to you God, and take no faculty. Good and bad are His.
You have difficulties, I agree. It is your faculty to recognize difficulties. It’s your faculty to recognize handicap. It’s your faculty, because you are the worst of the world. You want sympathy. You are the worst God. Sometime you isolate and desolate your total personality toward sympathy. You are supposed to sympathize those who have apathy and you are asking for sympathy? How it will work? It won’t work. It is sociologically a wrong thing to do. You are supposed to be beautiful and bountiful and blissful. You are not. Well, who cares you are not or you are? Put Guru Ram Das into it. Let Him take care of it. It’s His problem.
The virtue which has been bestowed on you as Khalsa, the symbol of purity and piety is your virtue, and it’s your value. Give it as much as you can. Bless all you can. Prevail everywhere you can, and God shall cover you. Law of vacuum is there’s no vacuum. Law of vacuum is it can’t exist when you share your values, share your virtues, and you prevail.
You know, one of the funniest things which I enjoy, I enjoy a God working for me. And when it’s the toughest challenge all I say, "Okay, Ji. Have it." Then I say, "Well, You created it. You know, this is the worst. I can’t handle it. You handle it. You created it. You think I’m competent; I think You’re Super-Competent." That’s the dialogue between a Sikh and Guru. It’s a direct co-existence. It’s a most congenial direct co-existence, beyond virtue, beyond time, beyond value, beyond space. It’s a unisonness. It’s an acknowledged unisonness.
Well Khalsaji, this is how it is. This is all yours now, and you have to carry it. And you have to carry it unto Infinity whether you like it or you don’t. You have two choices. Either drop dead or keep going. You have a responsibility of twenty two million Sikhs. You have been created here, nurtured here, matured here, and you have built these things which are going to be built now. You are already familiar with problems. Therefore, victory and virtue should be your essence.
And you must go out and uplift. You must go out and work as a forklift. You must put things in order. This is an order. Order is:
Khalsaa mero satgur pooraa.
Khalsa is my True Guru.
--Guru Gobind Singh
Nobody understands it. You must understand. You are true, perfect Guru. He said it, you must believe it, and you must live it, and you must do it. There’s nothing else. He bestowed on you and nobody can take away from you, and you should not take away from you, either. Live, move, to be true Guru. True Guru. ‘Khalsaa mero satgur poora,. You are my True Perfect Guru' He said it. "He became the disciple and He made you True Perfect Guru." From Gobind Rai you made him Guru Gobind Singh. He exalted you so He can be ever exalted. Please don’t let Him down now.
We are the holy of the holiest. We are the joy of the joy. We are future of the future. It’s nothing being said here to promote you or to console you, and I’m not giving you lollipops. I’m just popping up your ego. This is going to happen with you or without you. Damn it, listen to me or don’t listen to me. In the virtue of the reality so this earth will rotate. In the magnetic electro-psyche of the cosmos, in the consciousness of the molecules and that of the atomic energy, the sun and moon and the magnet will rotate itself to the highest point, and the Age of Aquarius will demand for a man to follow the words of Nanak. And there’ll be no solution without that. And those who administer, share and bless and share the feelings and serve shall be exalted to the knighthood of the Lordship of the God.
Don’t want to do it? You lost the chance. There are two ways, my best ones: either hustle or meditate. Hustle -- go and get it. Meditate -- let it come to you and grab it. Both ways.
There is no way that the Age of Aquarius will be followed by any other flag but yours. There’s no caliber which can match you. There’s no time which will forget you. There’s no calamity which shall not test you. There’s no misfortune which will not show at your door. But you must know the reality, what to welcome and what not to.
Let us remember each other, that on this day, at this place we sat down as the council of purity and piety, in His Name. Let us leave a record for our generations to follow. Let us be the pioneer of the purity and power to serve the mankind in their difficult moment. Humanity in another five years are going to hit the walls. In another ten years they are going to hit between themselves. Your presence will work. Your touch will exalt. Your words will uplift. Give a chance to yourself and give a chance to your children. Give them the unending, unlimited strength, and be yourself the children with unlimited, unending strength. When you cannot share, still spare yourself. You cannot be, be yourself. Don’t let down the Guru with denial. Only through service you can serve your Lord. Only through your good deeds and service, God will remember your Master. Your values will never be exhausted, because you are meant to be exalted. How can that be not true?
But just remember, you all represent more than what you are. Don’t forget that. If you are not to represent then there is no Siri Guru Granth, there is no Guru Gobind Singh, and there is no Guru Nanak. All that there is, is you and you alone. And excuse me, everyone will look at you. You utter a word, they catch your word. You make a turn, they catch your turn. They see you and they see you to see something. It’s time for you to understand. I’m grateful you gave me the subject to speak on.
It can’t touch us. Misery cannot make us miserable. Calamity cannot change our climate. Misfortune cannot take away our fortune. We are born to be Khalsas and we shall die as Khalsas, to relive in the court of our Lord. And we leave behind a trail, a pathway, and a way in which a nation shall walk, safe and secure, with fulfilled happiness.