Gurdwara - Big and Small

 
Date:
July 14, 1988
Location:
Espanola, NM
 
 
 
 

There is a one word which sometime you may remember, it will come in reciting the Siri GuruGuru That which takes us from ignorance to knowledge; from darkness, gu, to light, ru. It can be a person, a teaching, or in its most subtle form - the Word. GranthGranth Literally: knot: book. –vadda. Vadda means big, huge and the opposite of is chota means small. God is considered big; how big? There is no definition of that. It's so big that as you want to know him you will find him it's bigger than that bigness you have reached. It is exactly like that that you stand somewhere on the place and you look at the horizon and you see the sky and the earth is meeting and then you go little higher, you see the horizon is widening, you go little more higher and you will be surprisingly see the horizon is widening. Higher you go wider is the horizon, that is a human experience. Exactly as in consciousnessConsciousness The nature of the self and being. In the realm of nature, awareness becomes consciousness. It is from the being itself. Being is expressed in consciousness through contrasts and sensations, in awareness through merger, clarity, and reality. person goes higher and higher and looks at life from the higher altitude of life, from higher values, from deeper committed characteristic of the character, life becomes like infinite.

Experience which very few people can enjoy, humans are very earthlings, very limited because when we are born unfortunately our parents tell us to survive, live. Nobody tells you at the time of the birth that you are infinite by your own nature, that AtmaAtma The soul or finite form of the Infinite in consciousness. It is transcendental in nature, not a product of the mind but a part of pure awareness. It is a witness of everything and can only be revealed through itself. amar hai, the soul is infinite, it will never die. What you will drop is just a booster, a body. Beyond that, there is nothing more to die. But we have been told all along, the life is in body, whereas actually, life is without body. If anybody today says that, Aristotle, let us not talk of the religious people, let us talk a philosopher, a Greek philosopher who came out on the planet, Aristotle, is dead, no. He lives because of his work. Shakespeare lives because of his work. Exactly Christ lives because of his work. What they represent to the mankind as a guidance. The fellow which present something to the mankind to follow up is called leader, leader leads, leader never controls. Leader never directs; when you are in the direction yourself, then you are the leader.

The God is not what we think, the concept of God has been given to us so wrong we can't believe it and so the concept of the God's man. Spiritual man. To us spirit is limited, so is the spiritual man is limited. So is the God limited. I have seen many religious people doing prayer, they say, "In the grace of my God." So God has been divided into be a Christian God, a Jewish God, a Muslim God.

There were two people who were fighting a pitch battle in the war. On one side was the Christian commander, the other side was a Muslim commander, the Turk and the Christian commander called on the Turk commander, he said, "Let us have a ceasefire today."

The Turk commander replied, "Why?"

He said, "It's Christmas. And my God told me that today is the day of rejoicing, peace, tranquility."

The Muslim commander replied, "Allah didn't tell me that, so if you want to have ceasefire, you ask your forces to ceasefire and I ask my forces to attack." Now where is the ceasefire.

The concept of God, men of God is very difficult. When you believe in God you have to believe in the vastness, the Infinity, the horizon, the value, the depth. It is my personal experience, actively of last fifty years, spiritual people are more limited, they lie too much, they are obnoxious, they are shallow, they are cruel and they are more damaging than a ordinary simple person because religion has one of its most dangerous side, dirty side, ugly side, much uglier than the ugliness itself, much dirtier than the dirtiness itself. Much ungraceful than the disgrace one can face and that is fanaticism.

A fanatic person in the religious world, not only is damaging to the religion but is limiting to himself because his horizon never expands, his conception never exceeds, his understanding of God is limited. It is very insulting and disgraceful that you are called yourself a man of God or a religious person and then you are very limited. Your tolerance is limited, your kindness is limited, your compassion is limited, your attitude and your attribute to other human beings is limited. Therefore, please remember spiritual world has a very powerful overtone. A ordinary person may be very spiritual and you may not do it or you may not know it or you may not recognize it but once you as a spiritual person are recognized, therefore you have to act responsible.

What is spirituality? Spirituality is, if somebody knows more scripture than the other person, spirituality is that somebody can create miracles and other can't, is spirituality is the one can bless you and fulfill your wishes, it is all earth. Whatever happens here is earth and if there is no balance in heavens and earth, there is no balance in life. Religion has divided the planet and its population to very watertight compartments. I tell you, when we decided to celebrate years of the peace, it took me about ten years of constant work to work with Pope Paul the fifth and then John Paul the second to brought(bring) that function of the Assisi, I initiated it. My initiation was I asked his holiness the Pope Paul that now the governments are gone, you are no more a Papa, why not you become a religious Papa and work for the peace so the world can live in peace. Words said and done in that thirty-five or forty-five minutes conversation was recorded. Vatican acted on it, it took Vatican ten years to come through with that word assembly for peace, all it happened is once. There was no second repetition of it.

What I am trying to explain to you, a religious man takes lot of heat to proceed into any common work, because religion is based on the congregation, congregation is based on the people and their mood, how they feel, what they want and every person who is alive today has been trained in one way-secure yourself; that is the ugliest word we have learned. It means we recognize that we are insecure and we have to recognize that we are secure.

Unfortunately the Sikh religion totally defers here. Sikh religion believes, practices and preaches the God is with you, it teaches you that you are secure to begin with. The problem is that sometime we have come from other religions and there is a tremendous impact which we cannot get rid of, therefore guilt, insecurity, shortsightedness, limit, fanaticism, irresponsible behavior, disbelief in God in the name of God, distrust in the God, in the name of God, lying in the name of God, speaking untruth in the name of God is a very common practice.

Vadda is vadda and higher you go, higher He becomes, bigger He becomes, wider He becomes. The concept of God is unlimited, it is beyond than the beyond that, it is Paramatma, AtmaAtma The soul or finite form of the Infinite in consciousness. It is transcendental in nature, not a product of the mind but a part of pure awareness. It is a witness of everything and can only be revealed through itself. , Paramatma, Para Paar Brahm Paramatma. There is no limit.

I was very surprised once I went to India, I went to a place of the saint, a very well recognized and well respected. There are certain things which I saw there I learnt. I saw there comes people from all walks of life, they demand all sorts of things. What I saw that place is a commotional turmoil of people with inferiority, inferior concept, wishfulness, demand and desire to the extent that it was unbelievable and the answer to that was, whosoever come should be served, should be given a hope, may be uplifted, may be counseled, may be talked to, but when we two satSat Existence; what is; the subtle essence of Infinity itself. together and we were conversing, I told that saintly man. I said, "Is there a end to demand or request in human life?"

And his answer was very beautiful. He said, "As God was is unlimited so our desires." He said, "Actually we desire these things in the name of God, we are not direct, we are not direct with God, we are indirect."

And then he gave me a very beautiful example. He said, "We have spent so much money to built this GurdwaraGurdwara Literally the door of the Guru; traditional place where Sikh worship services are held. and we have taken so many years, do you know the purpose of it," because I knew where I was coming to.

I said, "Why don't you explain in your words why so?"

He said, "So that people have people always have a desire to look to something, something serene, something majestic, something glamorous, something forever, something real, pious, clean."

It is always the theory of the altar that altar has no alternative. When people built their GurdwaraGurdwara Literally the door of the Guru; traditional place where Sikh worship services are held. they want to built in such a way that there shall be nothing more beautiful than that, why so? Because it is a place where they feel they should automatically get reverence. Exactly in your life if you make yourself a altar and give yourself the reverence, God shall seek you, you don't have to seek God, God shall praise you, you don't have to praise the God, the cycle can reverse. Because when human becomes the altar of reverence then God comes on that altar and praise. If you ever want to ask this question why that great God created this universe. The great God wanted an altar to sit and pray like me and you. As they say (?) as there is above, so is below.

I just want to tell you, after my fifty years of religious experience, meeting with the religious people, I am very surprised that religion has taught more shallowness than depth. I am very surprised people of the same religion fighting together, I am very shocked to see people in the same religion jealous, territorial, aggressive, uncommunicative, deceitful and they lie and this is all done in the name God, it is all done in the name of religion, it is all done in the name of to secure yourself against the insecurity you have been told.

Actually none is religious, all of you are totally bogusly religious if you don't understand the basic principle of the religion, religion means you are you are and your reality is you are you are. Actions and reactions, KarmaKarma The law of cause and effect applied to mental, moral, and physical actions. Ego attaches us to and identifies us with objects, feelings, and thoughts. These attachments create a bias toward certain lines of action. Instead of acting you begin reacting. Karmas are the conditions required in order to balance or complete these tendencies. Though necessary, karma is not dictatorial or fatalistic. It is the mechanism that allows the finite experience of existence to maintain and stabilize itself. We all have free will and can take actions to re-direct the momentum of a karma. We can transform it or neutralize it using meditation, jappa, good deeds, or intuition that remove your sense of ego and the identification with that past line of action. and DharmaDharma A path of righteous living. It is both an ideal of virtue and a path of action that is infused with clear awareness and comprised of actions that are the soul in total synchrony with the universe. It is action without reaction or karma. , all these things are around you but basically if you want to practice religion you can only practice if you are basically you are. If you are not you are, then whatever you pretending, practicing, projecting, creating is not going to be real because you are not in it. Such a tragedy about religion, such a bogosity about religion, through religion we are trying to find security. Reality is, through religion we should give security. Religion is security, religion teaches only one reality, you are God's part and God is your part, it does not make any difference. If religion has not given you security to share with others, you have not touched the religion. And I will just be sharing with you just few words to tell you.

There was a very young boy and a very young beautiful girl, they both fall in love and they wanted to marry. Their parents said no, so they didn't know what to do. So they went to the priest of the town and requested him, if he can bless their marriage.

Priest said, "No."

They said, "Why?"

He said, "I am priest, I am priest of the village, these people, your parents both sides are very powerful people, they will throw me out, I don't I want to get insecure."

They were shocked, they went around asking that this priest, the symbol of spirituality, the religion, a direct link to God, the man with a Morse code between God and the common congregation has no guts, he is a coward. We have gone to him in good faith and trust and because of political reason or social reason and personal reason he has refused to marry us, what should we do. Somebody suggested outside the town limit, there are few fakirs, Dervish, Sufis, you go to them, perhaps they can help. There were four Dervishs in that area where these young people went and they say, "Oh men of God, we two are in love, we went to the city priest, he refused, we went to the justice of the town, he refused our parents are not in agreement, we are in love, we want to be married."

These four Dervish said, "Yes, you can get married, your love is real, we will perform the marriage."

So they performed the marriage, they took some food which was collected by begging in the city and they distributed among self and gave this couple also some leftover bread with them and then one Sufi came and he said, "You shall have half of the kingdom to rule."

The other said, "You will have four sons who shall be conqueror of the universe."

Third said, "You will have plenty to give in knowledge and in food, so none shall reach to the stage of mind physically or otherwise in the pain where you are today."

The fourth said, "It should happen soon."

The girl asked the boy, "What are they saying?"

They said, "They are blessing us, they are giving us half of the kingdom."

He said, "These guys don't have even food, they don't have clothes, I mean, what they are giving us, half of the kingdom. I don't understand it."

The body said, "These are Sufis, they live outside the town. They live outside the realm of the ordinary man, they live outside of the jurisdiction of this untruthful, interconnected human ego. We have come here, don't you understand, the family priest, the town priest knows us so well and he refused, don't you understand nobody is accepting us, these people are Alaloks, they are for God. We have come here in the name of God, they have accepted us in the name of God, they have married us in the name of God and they have blessed us in the name of God, accept it."

One Sufi fakir saw this. He said, "Couple, don't worry."

He tied some food and some sweet candy and put it together and in a very shaggy cloth he tie it up. And he said, "This may be for your voyage and now you both cannot stay here, you go tonight in this direction and God shall be with you and you shall be very happy and extremely comfortable."

Poor little girl in inertia and love of life, for love of this man started with this guy; both came from very rich family, never anybody had ever walked even that much of distance. So when they walked little bit, little bit, little bit, little bit, it became darker and darker and darker and it was a pitch dark, then dark clouds came. Then heavy storm came and then storm and rain and hail and cold, you can't believe it.

She said, "Wow, God shall be with us, journey shall be comfortable, we shall be wonderful." She said, "Why not we take shelter?"

He said, "No. Those guys told me keep going, those Dervish, those Sufis, told me going, let us be going."

She said, "My dear sweet husband, going to death? I can't even walk."

He said, "Don't worry."

He put her on his shoulders. He said, "Well, it is a custom to carry the wife anyway, so why not I perform that custom."

There was nothing but mud and they were walking and walking, finally he fell and she fell in the big pool of mud, so they started searching around why he fell and he saw there is a body of a person, they immediately lifted that person up, clean him up, gave little water they had, gave little food they had and revived that young, beautiful man, he was not in a good health and good condition. All he said is the name of the next city and then he fainted again.

Now both carried it, both carried that one man and they stared walking in that darkness in that cloud to that city.

In the early ambrosial hour they knocked at the door of the city and you know, in those days city (?), nobody opens the door, they knocked and knocked, finally the man behind those big huge gates said, "Who are you?"

He said, "We are nobody but we have somebody who is dying and we have brought him and if he is not taken into the city now by the morning he will be dead, we are no enemies."

He said, "Do you know the rule, the gates of the city open on the sun dawn."

He said, "That is true but this is an emergency, if you don't open the door now, this man will die."

He said, "Are you that party which has gone to find our prince?"

The both looked at each other whether we should no lie or not.

(Students' laughter)

YB: So they found in-between.

They said, "May be."

(Students' laughter)

SIDE B

"Who is with you this person, is it a prince?"

He said, "May be?"

"Why you are answering like that?"

He said, "You should look at it, we don't know. We have found a man in the middle of the mud, we have brought him here and he gave the name of this city."

Finally the gate opened and the in charge of the guard recognized he is prince, then what? You know, then everything was fine and dandy and they took them to hot bath and then rose water bath and then massage and special clothes and God knows what. By about ten o'clock these two people with the prince well fed with a heavy breakfast, (?) and everything put before the king and the king said, "You have brought my son to me, I promise whosever will bring my child alive, I have, I will give him half of my kingdom. So whichever side you have come is your kingdom and this side of the city shall be his kingdom, you are installed so be it."

The boy looked at the girl. He said, "Hi, how are you?"

(Students' laughter)

She said, "Strange."

"Why?"

She said, "I thought I have married a crazy man, you are the one who carried on, I would stopped."

He said, "How you feel now?"

She said, "Very warm and comfortable."

And all those four things which those fakirs said, happened. They had four sons which were the great warriors, they started charity, gave in the name of God and gave comforts to the world as it was said and promised and that happened now in the sense before the dawn of the next day he was the king.

'Khin mey raho rangko kar hi raoh rankh kar darey.'

In a second He can make a king a beggar and a beggar a king. God is too big, too huge, too comfortable, too uncomfortable. There is no such thing comfort and uncomfort. There is no such thing lie or truth. There is no such thing security or insecurity, question is where is my horizon? At what height I am looking at things. Some people they cannot look beyond their room. Some people cannot look beyond their home. Some people cannot look beyond the city. Some people have never gone away from their county but there are some, sky is the limit.

Shocking is, when you believe in God and everything is your limit, most shocking. Have you ever thought that way? You do not want to suffer, is that true or not, suffering is a limit, why? Why you are not willing to unlimitedly suffer? You don't want to lie, your lying is limit. Lie, till you cannot lie and then you will realize there is nothing to lie, what is you are lying for because what you cannot face and confront, you are gaining time. Why you are so kind and mannerful because you want to slip in something which otherwise you can't, it's called diplomatic mood.

So basically human behavior is very unsaintly, basically I am giving you tonight my fifty years life experience what I have gone through. And when I was born I could not say at that day I know it but I definitely know when I was about eight and half year old, I got baptized from that onwards I know, so I am fifty eight and a half year old or fifty nine going to be. I am giving you my these years of experiencing, I was shocked and puzzled then, I am shocked and puzzled today and I am shocked about one thing-why limit, why to believe to know to feel, ask for the unlimited God and then we limit our self. Do you understand this puzzle which we have created?

Therefore, please remember, if you really want to enjoy the realm of consciousnessConsciousness The nature of the self and being. In the realm of nature, awareness becomes consciousness. It is from the being itself. Being is expressed in consciousness through contrasts and sensations, in awareness through merger, clarity, and reality. and love and affection, stop nowhere. When you cannot come through your God shall and that is Sikh Sikh Dharma A living experience of values as taught in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib. DharmaSikh Dharma A living experience of values as taught in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib. Dharma A path of righteous living. It is both an ideal of virtue and a path of action that is infused with clear awareness and comprised of actions that are the soul in total synchrony with the universe. It is action without reaction or karma. and that is Ang Sang Wahe Wahe Guru , Whaa-hay Guroo A mantra of ecstasy and dwelling in God. It is the Infinite teacher of the soul. Also called the gur mantra. GuruWahe Guru , Whaa-hay Guroo A mantra of ecstasy and dwelling in God. It is the Infinite teacher of the soul. Also called the gur mantra. Guru That which takes us from ignorance to knowledge; from darkness, gu, to light, ru. It can be a person, a teaching, or in its most subtle form - the Word. means. Have faith, move in, don't worry. When you will fail, God will carry you, when you fail you cannot carry yourself, it is a known phenomena but when you fail, God carries you, you cannot fail and that is a religion, that is a reality and that is what GuruGuru That which takes us from ignorance to knowledge; from darkness, gu, to light, ru. It can be a person, a teaching, or in its most subtle form - the Word. Guru Nanak First Guru of the Sikhs. NanakGuru Nanak First Guru of the Sikhs. taught us, that is what we were singing that day, Asankh chor, what was that we were saying, Jo Akhak Jor, is that, Akhan jor, chupe na jor, neither there is a power in saying, you don't have enough power that you can say it out and neither you have a power enough that you can be silent at all. Akhan jor, chupe na jor; neither there is a power in you that you can beg, ask, get, nor there is a power that you can give. Jor na mangan, dhen, dhen means giving, that is also not, you don't have that infinite power.

'Akhan chor chupe na jor, jor na mangan dena jor, jor na jeevan,'

There is no power that you can live forever or never and neither there is a power that you can die also. If you feel, some of you might be sitting here feeling that you can die, I tell you the story of death, I might have told you before.

Somebody wanted to die, he decided he is definitely going to die, so he brought all the tools to die. You know what he did? He took a quarter pound of opium and swallowed it. That should kill any normal person, then he put a rope around his neck like a hangman's rope, then he put it over the tree and tied it to the log and then he made a gun and tied the trigger with another rope so that when he will sit at the log and log will move, gun will fire and kill him, rope will hang him, he doesn't know how to swim, river will drown him, there is no way that he can live. He made all the arrangement. When all was complete, he let that big log boat move naturally at a certain stage that thing put the pressure, the gun fired, gun fired instead of killing him, blew up that rope in his neck, he was tossed over into the river, he didn't know how to swim and he drowned, water went in and water threw away that quarter pound of opium, he had a stomach flush. As he was going away these fishermen threw the net, he came into the net, they pull him out, they thought it is a big fish and when they found here is this guy. They took him out, they wanted immediately to take water out. He said, "Stop, I have tried everything to kill myself, that didn't work, this won't work, don't worry, I am going to be all right."

(Students' laughter)

'Jor na jeevan, mar na jor, jor na raj, maal, mansoar.'

Not there is inner power that you can become the total king and nor there is power that you can get everything what you want.

'Jor na raj maal, jor na suthi, gian vichar.'

Knowledge has a compassionate balance, that is called vichar, vichar is when you bring, come down to the balance of things, reality is a balance of thing. Debate is, this discussion is to make a point but vichar is when you come to the reality of balance. You cannot concentrate that you can totally balance the universe. Why? Because universe is already balanced.

'Jor na surthi, jor na jugthi chutey sansar.'

There is no power that you can manipulate diplomatically or through certain method that this world will leave you alone.

If anybody of you have that kind of ego, now I am going to try please try.

'Nanak Utam Neech na khoye.'

God is still higher than the higher than the higher, there is no shallowness.

What I am tying to explain to you today is, 'Vadde kiya Vadiyayiya,' big has, big has, big things about it, there is no shallowness about it, shallow people are those who deny God, deep and beautiful are those who have accepted God. This is not for judgment, this is for guidance.

Blessed are those who walk on the path of religion, understand the reality and reality is limitless. I shall be very grateful to you if you continue what you are doing, because of the health reason I shall not be in a position to participate with you this evening, for which I ask my forgiveness but I was duty bound to come and say few words, whatever GuruGuru That which takes us from ignorance to knowledge; from darkness, gu, to light, ru. It can be a person, a teaching, or in its most subtle form - the Word. and God has guided me to say and share with you, I have done so but what I have said right now is right from my inner heart. I was shocked then, I am shocked now, when I see people practicing religion in any religion or every religion when I find them very shallow and limited.

Religion only tells you unlimited, it is the unlimited which shall merge with the unlimited and that is Mukti, that is salvation, that is redemption, now how it is practical. When you believe that you are unlimited, then God acts as (?). The unlimited act of prosperity of Divinity is manifested through the energetic reinforcement of the electromagnetic field through the neurons processing and processing in a passage of life through what all elementary realities are coordinated and worked out in balance, in that creativity when a human balance is beam to the effectiveness of that of the spread of timelessness, timelessness and beyond the time, the creator of time and space merges and come to rescue the condition whatever it may have been caused, without any apprehension, doubt or (?) which is called Karamat, miracle.

'Dhan Dhan Ram Das GuruGuru That which takes us from ignorance to knowledge; from darkness, gu, to light, ru. It can be a person, a teaching, or in its most subtle form - the Word. ,jinn Sariya, taney savariya, puri huyi karamat, aap sarjan haare tariya.'

Those who believe in GuruGuru That which takes us from ignorance to knowledge; from darkness, gu, to light, ru. It can be a person, a teaching, or in its most subtle form - the Word. Guru Ram Das Fourth Guru of the Sikhs. Ram DasGuru Ram Das Fourth Guru of the Sikhs. must understand his miracles, his hand are vaster, longer, stronger and beautiful than anything. If you believe then stop for nothing, all goodness has God in it, you can spell God without knowing that when you spell good you have to spell God first. So I am asking you in the name of goodness, tranquility, peace, you have come long way in this DharmaDharma A path of righteous living. It is both an ideal of virtue and a path of action that is infused with clear awareness and comprised of actions that are the soul in total synchrony with the universe. It is action without reaction or karma. , you have come long way to be in this DharmaDharma A path of righteous living. It is both an ideal of virtue and a path of action that is infused with clear awareness and comprised of actions that are the soul in total synchrony with the universe. It is action without reaction or karma. and take one more step, stop being shallow and limited.

Unlimited is my God, unlimited are His gift, unlimited is His grace, unlimited is His light. God never sends you bill for sunshine or rain, God is not a town house. God has no meter, those who will built on the (?) of God shall never face poverty. You will always enjoy prosperity. The very concept of prosperity is when you can spend without limit, when you can give without limit,

'Deinda dey leindey tak paa, juga jugattar, khayi kha, hokume hokum chalaye raah, Nanak vipsay...'

So please may this day when you have decided to sit whole night and praise that great one, that creator to sing to praise, to pray in harmony, bring you the initiation of Infinity.

Wahe Wahe Guru , Whaa-hay Guroo A mantra of ecstasy and dwelling in God. It is the Infinite teacher of the soul. Also called the gur mantra. GuruWahe Guru , Whaa-hay Guroo A mantra of ecstasy and dwelling in God. It is the Infinite teacher of the soul. Also called the gur mantra. Guru That which takes us from ignorance to knowledge; from darkness, gu, to light, ru. It can be a person, a teaching, or in its most subtle form - the Word. JiJi Soul; used as an endearment or sign of respect. Ka Khalsa, Wahe Wahe Guru , Whaa-hay Guroo A mantra of ecstasy and dwelling in God. It is the Infinite teacher of the soul. Also called the gur mantra. GuruWahe Guru , Whaa-hay Guroo A mantra of ecstasy and dwelling in God. It is the Infinite teacher of the soul. Also called the gur mantra. Guru That which takes us from ignorance to knowledge; from darkness, gu, to light, ru. It can be a person, a teaching, or in its most subtle form - the Word. JiJi Soul; used as an endearment or sign of respect. Ki Fateh.

(Class Sings)

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