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.

Happiness has seven steps, and nobody can be happy without these seven steps.  It doesn't matter what you study and how you educate yourself.  The first step of happiness is commitment.  When you are testing, then you are doubting.  When you are doubting, then you have duality.  When you have duality, you cannot have trust.  If you cannot have trust, you cannot commit.

So you have a commitment.  What does commitment do?  Commitment gives you character.  What is the caliber of that character?  It's not anybody's problem, but you will have an absolute character.  Character will give you dignity because your trust will gain others’ trust.

We have forgotten that God has made us and unto God we have to go.  We have forgotten that God has sent us.  We have forgotten that God has nurtured us and we go to God.  That is the main problem.

What is a Khalsa?  The purity which you have to exercise is that here you represent God.  And when you represent God, you represent both sides - negative and positive, right and wrong.

Some people love to be wrong.  I once saw some people doing kirtan and they were in ecstasy.  I saw some other people dancing and drinking later that night.  They were in ecstasy too.  And somebody said to me, "I wish all those people could have been at the kirtan."  I said, "No.  These people are doing kirtan, they are in ecstasy.  God wants this ecstasy.  There is equal ecstasy in this dance.  Drinking and dancing, to them that's ecstasy.  Who are we to judge it?"

In our subconscious character, we have a faculty of self-destruction.  It starts with all those who love us, we start testing them… even God.  Therefore we cannot trust God.  And when we cannot trust our own Maker- our own reality, our own infinity - then we do three things.  Either we isolate, or we become hookers, or we become crooks.  Without God three characters have to be formed.  You want to fish for people.  And you disguise your hook with bait and call it love, or call it affection, or intelligence, or reason, or logic, or a philosophy, or an idea.  If there is a one God, there is ONE idea that is that there is One God.  There's no more 'philosophy' about it.  There's no more 'reality' about it.  There's no faculty for it.

I am trying to make you understand that are already 17 years into the Age of Aquarius.  Four more we have to go in.  (now, in 2008) Whoever of us survives must understand what Nanak said: In the identity, Naam, I have established myself.  And my identity is God.  Minus Atma (soul) there's nothing in me.  I'm a dead body which will disintegrate or which will be put on a pyre or put in a graveyard.  Beyond that... so long...

The wick of God in you, as in the light of a candle, is the breath of life.  And all breathe the same way.  Some short, some long, some big, some hold it and some don't.  But so long as the breath is between us, we are alive.

You must understand that Guru Ram Das is a Lord of Miracles and His house stands as a crown on this earth.  And those who are the servants of that crown, shall serve.  You'll be tested, tortured and mocked.  It's not your fault.  It happens.  But let you all be understanding this: when you go and serve in the Name of Guru Ram Das, the Lord of the Miracles.  All miracles shall happen.

Dnu Dnu rwmdws guru ijin isirAw iqnY svwirAw ]

pUrI hoeI krwmwiq Awip isrjxhwrY DwirAw ]

Blessed, blessed is Guru Ram Das, the Lord who created Thee,  He alone has embellished Thee. Complete is Thy miracle.  The Creator Himself has installed Thee on the throne.

- Swayas in praise of Guru Ram Das, uttered by Rai Balwand & Satta, the drummer, Ang.  968

Those who shall act in the Name of Guru Ram Das, God shall embody Himself to fulfill the act of performance.  All I can do is to testify to it myself.  All you can do is test it yourself, and we shall ask nothing in return.

If once in lifetime when you don't have the answer, just call on Guru Ram Das and let Him take over.  Make it a habit.  I know your ego cannot take it.  "Why should not we do it ourselves?"  I'm saying, "Do what you can do, but when there's nothing to do, then give Him a chance."  There's nothing wrong in that.

Sooner or later this Panth must carry the load for the world, and you must remain united.  You have to use this miraculous power which is around you for the sake of humanity.  I see it.  Also I have experienced that they have mocked us.  And they will keep on mocking and keep on dying.  It is so written.  Malech.  They have become malechas.

These are the words of your Father, Guru Gobind Singh.

So, as a Panth we are self-cleansing, self-rinsing and self-purifying.  And so long as anyone mocks us, so long as they make jokes about us, as long as they think they are the majority and we are the minority, we are safe; because the world is drunk with ego and arrogance.  But out of all this a New Age is sprouting up - the Age of Aquarius - where there shall be knowledge and interlocking connection for each human being.