What Guru NANAK Taught Me About RELIGION
Nanak Naam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LskTeJa6cDU

Transkript (automatisch erstellt)

0:00 from my understanding Gad G opposed materialistic and physical objects that represent religion like Jan how do you think the five Kars are different from
0:10 other religious article of faith so the question is Guru nanak d
0:19 g seems to oppose religious symbols like the ones from various traditions of the time why do we wear the 5Ks what is the
0:34 significance of those within the sick tradition the question is rooted around the idea that there must be something
0:43 special about our religious symbols maybe all the other ones from all the other Traditions are wrong but surely our one is
0:57 right but gurun nanak's wisdom is always was and always has been for the whole of
1:08 humanity whether you wear the religious symbols or not the wisdom is applicable to you so the question is not
1:17 around whether gurun nanak opposed those religious symbols or not the question is despite the ultimate truth that regardless of what religious clothing
1:27 you wear there is a higher way to live and that is the what you're being measured against are you living up to the
1:37 standards that the guru has laid out regardless of the religious symbols so that's not the question the question is do the religious
1:46 symbols have any meaning at all do they have any symbolism do they have any impact on our spiritual path and for that we really
1:58 need to think about other forms of symbolism and other things in our life where we also do something
2:11 similar when my Elder son was about 11 years old he was enrolled into the local Junior Army Cadets so he was about 11 at the time
2:29 and and what was very interesting for a young boy to go through
2:38 was this transformation as he started to become more involved with his local Army group and we as parents we saw
2:47 it I saw very quickly his attitude towards life change his attitude towards himself change now I'm sure that's because of
3:00 the values that his army training was instilling in him but you would see some immediate effect on the days of the week where he
3:11 had to go and put his army uniform on and the way he walked changed the way he stood changed his mannerisms changed and that got me to understand a
3:24 little bit about why religious Masters sometimes give you a new identity a new form because it
3:38 becomes not just a symbol for the world it becomes a reminder for yourself first and foremost these religious symbols are for
3:51 you they are reminders for you they are for you to ask yourself am I living up to the highest ideals when my son puts on
4:03 his army uniform he's no longer just representing himself he's no longer just representing his family he represents a greater organization that stand for
4:14 something and so he knows that he's part of that bigger picture and when I saw that in my son it made me understand a little bit more about what we do in in
4:25 in spiritual Traditions or religious Traditions but having said said that the uniform alone means nothing if you yourself don't have those values within
4:38 you so values come first the symbolism comes after that gurun nanak d g didn't come and say I have a a hugely beneficial wisdom to
4:51 teach you but before I teach you you need to wear this he didn't do it that way around did he he told taught us the wisdom first he
5:01 said go try this live this practice this and those who lived it enough decided that this is something that I want to dedicate my life
5:12 towards what we've unfortunately made the mistake of doing now what we've done is we now judge people on the symbolism and not on the
5:25 values we look at you and we look at others and we say oh you're not as good at practicing your faith as I am because look I wear more of the stuff or
5:37 you're not doing all the religious protocol I'm doing more of that we even judge ourselves on how much religious stuff we do are we waking up
5:49 at the right time are we doing this are we wearing this are we saying all the right words but none of those things are what the Masters really came to teach
5:57 you they came to teach you the values for first that is the underlying Essence the symbolism is then for you to
6:08 then constantly remind yourself when my son looks in the mirror he doesn't just see a young boy he sees a young man standing up for values that he believes
6:19 in when you look in the mirror what do you see ask yourself when I look in the mirror what is reflected back at me is
6:26 my ego being reflected back on me or is my Master being reflected that's a question for you whose reflection do you want to have the
6:36 one of your ego or the one of your master then you will decide for yourself what those symbols mean for you why do so many people think they're
6:47 not enough how do you make that feeling go away that's something that I see sometimes than me or I can talk to some people that know that that feel as well
6:56 so I love to hear your answer on this one so the question is why does the feeling of being not enough yeah they're not enough and how do you make that
7:06 feeling go away there's a very simple answer to that
7:13 question ask yourself when will it be enough when will I feel enough that's it and when you begin to ask that very
7:29 difficult question you will realize this big long list that your mind has oh you'll be better when you look like this you'll be better when you lose some
7:38 weight and you'll be better when you get a better salary and you'll be better when you're in a relationship that everyone says that you should be in and
7:45 you'll be better if you do this and do that and maybe if you drive a better car or you're improving your family situation when will it be
7:56 enough once you start to recognize this un ending list then you will begin to realize what you've done to
8:08 yourself and then you will begin to see that maybe this is not the right approach for my life my life isn't about achieving more and more and more because
8:19 guess what even if you've got all of those things you think your mind will stop or you think your mind will come up with new things that it hadn't thought
8:29 of before ah but you haven't got this it's literally what the meaning of the phrase is the grass is always greener on the other side that's what it
8:38 means you're always going to be able to look somewhere else look outside so when will it be enough is a very simple question you ask yourself
8:48 the question when will it be enough now when you learn to quieten those thoughts those intrusive thoughts
8:57 that are always coming in your mind that I need to do do this and I haven't done this then you will go into a deeper space within
9:08 yourself when you're listening to your mind you're not actually listening to your mind you're listening to everybody else that's been in your life you're
9:15 listening to the the voice of your parents when you were young they were telling you you haven't done this or you haven't done that you're listening to
9:22 the voice of your school teacher you're listening to the voice of your managers and your previous employers you're listening to the voice
9:30 of your celebrities that you follow on social media you're listening to all of those voices and they're the ones that are always telling you buy my product do
9:39 this succeed gain more money wear this brand and then you'll feel like me that's the voices that you're listening to but when you go
9:47 quiet within yourself there's another voice and that voice will tell you you are more than enough life has given you so much more
10:00 than you are appreciating rather than counting all of the things that you don't have start counting all the things that you do have
10:09 and then you will be shocked how sufficient you are how much you really have in your life uh hi sing first my name is IM core
10:22 maybe I'll Stand yeah thank you I just want to say thank you first of all um I've listened to the jup side podcast twice over and I still need to listen
10:29 into it again because there's so much wisdom and I started the anun podcast so uh yeah thank you um and it's also been a huge inspiration for my own podcast
10:38 which is exploring like mental health and the holistic wisdom within Buddhism and siki so I call myself a Buddhist sick so I was just curious whether
10:47 you've explored Buddhism and what your thoughts are on it and how it integrates with siki or doesn't integrate so the question is around are
10:56 there any crossovers similarities between between Buddhism and siki when you begin to study these various
11:06 Traditions you do find a lot of crossover there's a lot of similar words certainly from spiritual Traditions that originate from
11:15 India the Hindu tradition the Buddhist tradition the Jane traditions and siki itself so there's a lot of common language and terminology that they're
11:26 using and one of the things that I've always felt about these various Traditions is there are ultimately different paths climbing to
11:37 the summit of the same Mountain they will all lead you to the very top of the mountain if you go deeper into each
11:47 tradition one of the things I'm not in favor of is a mix and match approach so I'm going to disagree with you slightly when you say that you're a
11:56 Buddhist sick because Buddhism is a phenomenal tradition I can't stress highly how
12:07 amazing the wisdom is but it is its own unique path and the analogy that I think works well
12:18 is if you want to succeed in a particular field in life let's say you want to become an athlete you want to reach the peak you want to be an Olympic
12:27 champion you can't have four different trainers all the trainers individually can get you to that Peak to Peak Performance but they'll all have
12:38 slightly different ways of achieving it now none of them are wrong but if one of your coaches is saying practice like this and the other
12:47 one says no don't do that practice like this then you're going to be stuck at a very low level because you're you're mixing and matching you're trying a
12:53 little bit of everything but if you take one path and take it to its Final Destination you will reach the
13:03 summit so your question was around is there any similarity between the two in the Buddhist tradition as I've understood it and I don't claim to have
13:12 studied it in in any great detail but certainly from from what I know the experience of Stillness and silence is
13:23 of profound importance that which you may call samadi the state of being
13:36 dissolved there is a specific word that is generally equated to Buddhism which is Nirvana and interestingly the gurus also
13:48 use that terminology the word nban Nirvana appears in gurug gr Saj but you have to know what the Buddhist meant by that terminology and that word
13:59 means the experience of a candle being blown out when the candle is blown out it dissolves it dissipates so the
14:11 experience of the candle being blown out is nirvana what the Buddhists have focused on is not something different to siki it
14:23 is the other side of the coin there is one side of the coin which is about pure Stillness pure emptiness the Zen Buddhist tradition really
14:33 focuses on the absolute nothingness of it all the other side of the coin is the fullness of of spirituality the
14:43 somethingness rather than the nothingness so in the Buddhist tradition they will go deeper and deeper and deeper until you are
14:51 nothing the spiritual masters of the sick tradition said go deeper and deeper and deeper you are nothing but that doesn't mean that nothing is here
14:59 something is here so the sick tradition focuses on the somethingness of life and they give it a name any name that reminds you that
15:09 ultimately behind everything there is a something the Buddhists say that but that something has no attributes so we call it
15:18 nothing so which path are you going to go down the path of gurun nanak is to celebrate the somethingness of Life by giving it a word it says that I can't
15:27 describe you you have no no shape you have no form but that doesn't mean that you're not there you are there and I feel your presence within
15:37 me yeah so which path do you want to follow that's that's a question for you thank you so much hello hi hi everyone sikal I want to do some buttering
15:47 because my question consists of six lines so I've been following nanak Nam for Last 5 Years I want to say that my perspective of looking at this ver has
15:58 been completely changed uh what I have a graphs from nanak that your whole motto is to look everyone as it as one as Divine however it's very
16:09 difficult to see uh our loved ones as one so my question is if Sub goind sub goind does this mean Cal cro L moar is also goind if answer is yes does this
16:26 mean any species in this world world have no control at all if answer is no how much percentage control we have on ourself externally and internally and
16:40 who is controlling why is controlling and where is the controller that's it that is about six questions by the
16:50 way so the question is around is if everything is God then is literally everything God all of our negative
17:01 mindset and then how do we control it do we even control it do we have any control at
17:09 all when you read gurbani you're getting every perspective and gurbani speaks to you at every
17:19 level it speaks to every person no matter what stage of their spiritual path they're on which is why when you read gbani you're hearing multiple
17:28 different messages and it becomes confusing because on one side it says you have to make a lot of effort make sure you're doing this this
17:39 this and this why aren't you doing it why are you being lazy and on the other side it says you have no control so which one is it our
17:49 analytical mind tells us that the answer must be one or the other but the truth is that all of the things that comes out of the guru's
17:58 mouth is Ultimate truth they're all true the question is where are you looking when I was a child there was a beautiful story that I heard which has
18:09 always stayed with me and it is the story of six Blind Men Walking In the Jungle and they come across an
18:19 elephant and they all reach out their hands and feel the elephant and every person depending on where they're standing and which part of
18:29 the elephant they're holding are describing it in different ways so somebody's holding the trunk and say it's very long and it's flexible and
18:39 somebody else is holding the leg and saying no it's very wide and it doesn't move at all and somebody's holding the tail and saying it's very thin and
18:48 somebody's holding the Tusk and saying it's very strong and it's only when a wise man walks by and realizes what's going on he
18:58 sees this picture he says you're all blind you can only know that one bit that you're holding on to that one angle that you're coming from but none of you
19:10 are wrong because they ask the wise man okay he'll tell us let's see which one of us is right but they're all right depending on where they're coming from
19:20 so go back to your question is C cro lankar is my ego my lust my greed is that also part of God but your quote that you originally gave
19:32 was saind the there is God in all places and all things so you know the answer to the question is yes what your mind doesn't
19:41 know is well how can how can these things be God and there's a very simple way to answer that question which is if they're not part of God then what are
19:51 they a part of is there anything that is outside of God this is where it becomes a little bit
20:00 difficult because we've created God into a person God is a guy who lives in the sky like the one who lives up there you
20:13 know the one that you the direction that you look when you're doing your Adas yeah up there God Opa but God is not
20:23 opala God is everywhere in all things but because we've created this character called God and we've given God a personality we think that it lives
20:34 somewhere it is something different to us I know who I am and I know the thoughts that are going on in my mind these can't be God's thoughts because
20:43 God is all perfect so what I encourage people to do in order to understand God is to stop using the word
20:52 God now an easier question is the universe everywhere you'll say yes the universe is everywhere does the universe contain
21:04 all things good and all things bad they'll say yes the universe contains all things good and all things bad is my mind part of the
21:15 universe yes are my negative thoughts part of the universe yes are all the positive things that happen in the world part of the universe
21:27 yes so simple now let's take another word life am I a part of life yes is life everywhere yes are my negative thoughts
21:36 are part of life yes so where is life is it somewhere else no it's here is it in me yes am I in life yes is the life that's in me the same as the life that's
21:49 in you yes now where is God you see your understanding of God is of something else
22:00 so the question is is all of this part of God yes God is all things good and all things bad when I look at sa one of the
22:12 lines that stands out for me is shant I bow down to the creator of chaos I bow down to the embodiment of
22:25 Peace God is peace and God is chaos God is thunder and lightning and God is sunshine that is your starting point
22:37 this is why gurun nanak d g begins this wisdom with there is one ikar first understand that fundamental principle that there is only one not one guy who
22:49 you're going to call God all of this is one all of this is Oneness the second part of your question well then what do I control who am
23:00 I you control as long as you are here question is are you here you say yes I'm here is God here that's where it becomes
23:15 tricky if I ask you is God sitting here you'll say in theory I've heard that God is sitting here but in my experience I don't experience God I experience me as
23:27 long as you experience you you're in control now the question is will you control these things are you going to control these
23:38 things so that you can know that you're not sitting here this is where it becomes philosophical this is where I start to
23:49 lose you and I don't want to lose you stay with me I want you to understand that God is here God is here here but there is a barrier the barrier is but I
24:03 am here also all of your spiritual practice all of the restrictions that you think your religions are placing on
24:11 you is to Simply get you to understand right now you believe you're here but that's not the truth it's the way we explain things to
24:23 Children you explain to Children yeah you're right yeah the Tooth Fairy is coming
24:30 yeah you are going to get your Christmas presents don't worry Santa Claus is coming be a good boy go to sleep this is the way the child is ex
24:40 being spoken to will he get his presence yes he will was it Santa Claus for him it was was it the Tooth Fairy yes for the child it was
24:51 the tooth fairy but as the child grows older they let go of some of these ideas they learn the higher truths as you spend more time
25:01 with your spiritual Masters you'll let go of your ego you'll learn the higher truth so while you haven't let go you control you need to control these things
25:11 I want to add something buy for chaos I was listening to some mkin and they were talking about how we think today is a world there's like we'll practice
25:19 spirituality at different date but when today world is very chaotic or my life is very chaotic but he talks about if you look at Krishna he was born in in
25:28 like a guala life where he was from there and so is Buddha Buddha was born in castles Gand went to jail like you recent one of the Instagram post or gur
25:37 Goin Singh G all of them went through chaos but they practice spirituality whereas we going for manmat yeah in gurug it
25:48 says but if a husband cheats then the woman still has to live with her cheating husband as I believe gurug gr S as if I do believe in gurug gr Saj but
26:00 mentally I don't feel like being around the person can't be who can be trusted and who can be looked up as a pillar of your
26:15 life when you enter a spiritual
26:23 path you hear many conflating opinions conflicting ideas not from people who mean
26:35 to pull you astray but from people who mean well but may be
26:44 misguided the question says in the gurug gr sa G I'm told that I'm not allowed to divorce my cheating husband I know that that's P this person
26:56 hasn't read that from Guru gr G but they've heard it from some elder or some person who must know maybe their mother or their grandmother or someone
27:06 and they look at them and they say well they do part every day surely they know the answer if they're reading the prayers
27:12 every day they know the answer and if they're telling me then it must be true there is no restriction in Guru Saj in the wisdom
27:25 in the spiritual text in the teachings that tell you to spend time with those who are toxic in your life in fact the complete opposite is
27:35 the wisdom stay away from those people who are toxic in your life try and spend your time with those
27:43 who will Elevate you so the people who are telling you oh it's written in the religious rules that you're not allowed to do
27:53 this they know that you haven't read it and they themselves haven't understood it they're simply part passing down what they've been told and they believe read
28:01 the wisdom yourself open gurug gr G it's there for you it's available for you you can download it on your phone you can read
28:10 it in your own language you don't have to worry about not being able to understand the original text it's there it's translated for
28:18 you what you're being told is more around cultural attitudes how will you get married again look at the shame that you will bring
28:29 upon yourself look at the shame that you'll bring upon your family that's what you're being told now I want to caveat that answer
28:39 with something else there is a reason why there was a restriction that the cultures gave you there's a reason why the culture
28:51 tells you don't get divorced because today people don't want to put the same level of effort in as our ancestors
29:02 did it's far too easy today to just get up and walk away it's much harder to stay and work on it to work on the marriage to work on staying together
29:12 that's hard that's difficult it's not an easy situation to be in especially when you have a
29:20 difficult scenario like your partner cheating on you notice I don't want to advise you one way or the other it's your life you're going to make that
29:29 decision for yourself I'm not telling you that it's right I'm not telling you that it's wrong I'm simply trying to give you a
29:37 fuller picture to say number one there is no restriction if you need to move away from a toxic relationship you should if
29:47 the circumstances allow it and again you're going to have to assess all of these circumstances what does it mean for where I'm going to live what does it
29:55 mean for my kids or if there are other dependents that are involved if you need to move away move away but understand why your parents
30:03 will not give you that as the first option because there is real value in sticking it through if you can if you can keep fighting to make
30:16 that relationship work and and it's a two-way streak surely it needs both of you to work on it together but if you can there is a lot of value that comes
30:25 in staying together working to keep this marriage alive for yourself for the others but that's not a a rule please don't let somebody else decide
30:37 ultimately it has to be something that you decide you can take the advice from other people but ultimately you know
30:44 your own scenario you have to decide what's right for you hi everyone uh I'll start with the w and Nam to you uh I treat you as my uh
30:58 Guru from dark to light so nam nam to you as I Nam to my Divine my question goes in same lines with many other questions people have asked when you see
31:08 Oneness in everything sorry when you see Oneness in everything in your five wies in your things around you and relationships and
31:19 everywhere how does some of the lines fit in from gbani I'm going to read one verse uh so I don't uh say wrong I'm going to read it
31:39 it's the reason I'm asking this is again goes back to oness concept but as I'm working in my backyard as I'm going through all this
31:49 weed killing process I'm going through all this I'm like look everywhere there's if you if you are seeing everything this is kind of like you're
31:59 killing your five vies but you're also seeing other there's life in those my wife sitting right here she's got a bug phobia she's like wherever she she sees
32:10 something oh they I'm sorry but I mean uh you're going to have a difficult ride
32:19 home the amount of spiders I've killed from a wife I'm for sure going to hell so the question is if God is everywhere then why should we even hurt
32:31 a single fly or pluck a single plant thank you for that question it's a beautiful
32:46 verse when we look at gurbani it's very important to try to understand who was the message being said to at that time
33:00 in that particular verse it refers to a metaphorical Gardener and it says oh Gardener why are you plucking the
33:12 plants and tearing the flowers and the leaves within each and every leaf there is the
33:20 Divine but the context is around those people who would take flowers from aard Garden string them together and put them together in a
33:30 nice bouquet and present them to an idol to a god to a stone that is carved in the shape of a deity look this is my offering to
33:44 you bat Kabir G is saying oh Gardener oh foolish Gardener you are breaking something that is alive and presenting it to something
33:56 that is dead it you it says so that stone God that you think is a God is a lifeless Stone that's just been carved into the shape of a
34:07 deity don't you know that God is alive all around you so that is the message there that you don't need to pluck a flower and
34:18 present it you simply need to be able to see the god that is all around you but you can take that to to the to the next
34:29 level well if God is everywhere should I not even eat a plant or a vegetable because I'm killing God and that's where you have to take a little step back and
34:39 you have to think about it the Divine is everything Divine is not just all the good things the Divine is all creation
34:51 and all destruction the reason you're alive today is you've had to kill many things in order to sit here in order to just
35:00 feed yourself there is a beautiful teaching in the wisdom that says
35:06 G life feeds on life that is God's system that is the system of life whether you eat a plant or an animal is is
35:17 immaterial you are not here without consuming life without killing other plants and other animals that is how it works if you need to prune your garden
35:26 prune your garden it's okay recognize that that is the play of
35:35 God what you haven't done in your search for God and seeing that God is everywhere you've forgotten One Step God is here
35:45 also you are not killing God God is killing God once you're okay with that then it becomes a lot easier to
35:57 understand how to navigate this because you're saying should I kill God and you've broken gurun nanak's mathematical form formula gurun nanak's wisdom is
36:07 there is only one there is only one everything is one that's his mathematical formula 1 equals one but you've introduced yourself in there am I
36:17 killing God if there is a me and there is a God then you will not know what God is one of my most favorite learnings from this wisdom
36:33 is as long as I was there I did not know what God was now that I know what God is I know that I'm not
36:42 there so it's okay let God prune the trees meanwhile we take the second question next question from this side just want to add to that bu is just a
36:52 lot of subject to interpretation comes in as well and I think maybe in beginning of your search on this path uh you might be reading one Shabbat then
37:01 you go back to other Shabbat like oh this Shabbat is conflicting this Shabbat or this visdom is conflicting this wisdom so it it is a balance and and
37:09 probably a self-discovery journey where you'll read one shab and you'll be like okay this is I'm whatever I've heard or whatever read before is totally I need
37:16 to go back Circle down again so that's just part of I think the journey itself and it's the part of learning because we don't actually do that most people don't
37:27 even even do that spend time understanding the wisdom how else are you going to learn it without actually giving yourself the opportunity to learn
37:34 it to see the apparent contradictions to then go away and spend the time thinking about it well maybe it's not contradicting you're going to have to
37:42 this is a process of learning you yourself have to come up with the solutions then you go and ask a couple of people hey what do you think how do
37:49 you interpret how do you interpret it and don't be afraid to realize that after time your own understandings will change so you might say I used to think
37:58 like this but then after a while I Now understand it like this tomorrow a new understanding might come that's all part of The Learning Journey okay hello hi my
38:08 name is co vinder and uh I guess I wanted to thank you and Echo some of the comments that came from this side of the room if I'll jump to my question um if
38:19 Oneness is everywhere and you raised a point about once you stop being in control then things change or they're not in
38:32 your control anymore I guess my question is around that very popular question about why good things bad things happen to good people I've listened to your
38:42 podcast and you've enlightened me so much but I guess my question is I sort of understand that part but we're just suffering come in so lots of suffering
38:54 happened with covid after covid because of covid and and many other health reasons but why does even if you look at an incapacitated person when that one is
39:05 no longer in control why does why Guru Let Them Suffer that's a very important question thank you for that so the question is
39:16 around why is there suffering in the world and it's a greater question than why do bad things happen to good people it's a more
39:27 significant question why do bad things happen at all why if God is everywhere why does he allow
39:40 suffering what you call suffering may not be suffering we have created a very unrealistic way of looking at life
39:57 our way of looking at life is that everyone should be happy and well and prosperous all the
40:07 time yet when we look at the world we see that that's not the way of the world life isn't like that
40:17 suffering is merely down to one thing your inability to accept life as it is
40:29 what you see as suffering when you see the world when you see people going through difficult scenarios what you're really saying is
40:40 if that was happening to me I would not like it I would be struggling if that was happening to me you then project that idea of struggling onto other
40:50 people and it could be true that the other people that you're looking at are also suffering but the fundamental truth truth is always the same suffering is
40:59 simply an inability to accept life for what life is doing right now and in order to teach this lesson the Masters had to do something very
41:11 drastic the Masters had to show you that what you call suffering they can tolerate within the sick tradition this
41:24 was demonstrated by the Guru Guru Arjun Dev G I've asked myself this question why did a guru have to go through
41:35 torture so for those of you who don't know the fifth Guru within the sik tradition was captured by the governing forces at the
41:47 time charges were laid against him they found him guilty and they didn't just sentence him to death they sentenced him to to torture and death and the most
42:00 excruciating torture he was made to sit on a hot iron plate that was burning with fire underneath and he was made to
42:11 sit on there he was made to endure what we would call real suffering even at the time some of his Saints would visit him
42:25 during his torture and they said Guru please tell us what we can do tell us should we fight this we can get you out of here we can do things to try and
42:38 get get you out of this suffering and he's his teaching was I'm not suffering he said I'm in Bliss even while he was being
42:49 tortured and that the reason he had to go through that was to show you whatever you're going through in life is nothing compared to what your human potential is
43:00 the human potential the highest form of a human being is one that can tolerate and enjoy life no matter what life throws at it that is what is the reality
43:14 of your potential being but because you don't know that you don't know that within yourself you only know comfort you know that you
43:23 enjoy comfort and you can't tolerate pain so you project that on to others God is not some guy sitting in the sky
43:33 deciding who should get the good things in life and who should get the bad things I worry that we've made God into Santa
43:43 Claus sky daddy you say yeah Sky daddy well we what do we teach about Santa Claus you better watch out you better not cry you better not pout I'm telling
43:55 you why he sees when you're sleeping he knows when you're awake he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness
44:03 sake that's what we say about Santa Claus and the reality is that's what you've done to God you've made God into some person in the sky who sees you when
44:12 you're sleeping and knows when you're awake and knows if you've been bad or good so if you do the good things God will give you good things if you do bad
44:21 things God will give you bad things but that's just simply not reality our biggest confusion has come is because we cannot let go of the idea
44:31 that God is some person sitting in the clouds please let go of that idea get rid of that God that is not God God
44:42 is one infinite life force permeating throughout all things and that life force is a
44:52 spectrum if you want a life without suffering it's simply as un realistic as somebody who wants a sunrise but doesn't want the sunset the very reason Sunrise
45:02 happens is because the sun had to set before that good and bad are ying and yang they're happening all the time they're simply your labels there is
45:12 really no such thing as good and bad and this is the a very difficult lesson that the Masters teach us there is no good and there is no bad there is only things
45:21 that your ego can take and your ego doesn't want to take but the Masters are able to see it for what life really is everything is simply Happening Now does
45:31 that mean that if you see someone struggling that you don't help them you just say hey it's all God I don't have to do anything about it no if you see
45:41 someone suffering if your heart calls out to help them help them but don't judge God for what he's doing that you can't
45:51 understand does that TI t uh when we say in jaab or reading jais so do we see it as as that suffering is helping us Evol or connect back to the
46:06 foundation Oneness there's a beautiful teaching in the wisdom that
46:17 says pain is a medicine and pleasure is a disease and what you've just beautifully articulated pain is a reason for us to
46:35 snap out of our ego it's when you ask questions like this why is this happening what is going on it's you questioning the Matrix of
46:46 Life what's going on life is not working the way I thought it should be working unfortunately what we do with that is we then say is life doing
46:55 something wrong what you should be doing is have I understood life wrong the Masters are telling you you're not going to be able to fix the world
47:05 there is never going to be a time when there is not pain and suffering in the world and there has never been a time when there is not pain
47:13 and suffering in the world as long as there is life as long as the system exists the way it does there is going to be the ups and downs
47:22 of Life the question is as life goes up and as life goes down do you go up and down with it or are are you able to rise above and just float and observe life
47:35 and accept life for what it is and at some moments you may have to go in step in and help and at some moments you can step back and do nothing but at no point
47:44 should you judge God based on your understanding of God you don't ask God to change you ask your own mind to change hello okay s
47:54 call Uncle G if I can call you Uncle G um I oh stand up oh okay like said I have a question for you so your teaching of hookum has really really help me when
48:05 you talk about it being reality my question for you though is if I am on this spiritual journey and I am you know I feel like my heart and soul
48:17 are connected with what we call God why am but my mind doesn't feel at ease with that or vice versa what do we do in that sense do we continue to do prayer like I
48:30 I'm just kind of looking for some wisdom in that so so just clarify that for me again yeah absolutely so I feel like um when like I feel like you know when I'm
48:40 trying to accept something for reality right or I feel like things are aligned like I feel like I understand the teachings right of of of Bonnie or you
48:50 know of god of what we're learning um I feel like my heart and my soul feel connected to it but my mind doesn't always comprehend it or vice versa I
48:59 feel like my mind comprehends it but it's not aligned with like my B my body and soul so my question for you is is the answers for that to continue to do
49:07 prayer like what like what do we do on when we don't feel everything is align the nature of the mind is to always question
49:19 things the nature of the mind is to always analyze life based on what will be beneficial to the mind that's what the ego is doing all the
49:30 time so there are times when you feel I can accept it I understand it there's a higher purpose to this and then your mind has this little noise that says no
49:40 it's not what about me what about this what about that the monkey mind is that the what we don't talk like label it as yeah when that's happening again and
49:51 again your mind is simply showing you where it is is at in life and this is where we need to learn sometimes the mind will just carry
50:04 on making noise but we know that we don't need to give our attention to that mind you don't have to get to a point where your mind is happy all the time
50:14 the purpose of your mind is to look after you the mind is always trying to say do I like this person do I not is that safe
50:22 is that not should I eat this should I not eat this yeah is this going to be good for me or not in fact it's a beautiful tool in that way it's being
50:30 created to always look out for you and always look out for itself and in doing that it's going to question everything question life should it should is that
50:39 good yeah I know the wisdom tells you but shall we double check it ourselves yeah so you're you're not always going to be able to get your mind to agree
50:50 with something that you know in your heart and that's when you can sometimes just be okay with the fact that the mind is constantly going to question that's
50:58 its role I like to think that expecting your mind to be silent is like expecting your heart to stop
51:08 beating you wouldn't want your heart to stop beating in the same way we don't want our mind to be silent all the time we don't need an empty
51:16 mind so you appreciate the mind for what it does but sometimes you need to just say okay I know I've I've heard your opinion thank you but I'm not going to
51:26 listen to you in this moment I'm going to listen to my heart that's when you begin spirituality when you're able to create a little bit of distance between
51:35 you and the thoughts otherwise what what ends up happening is you are constantly believing the mind everything that the mind says you believe should be true
51:43 when you start to create a little bit of distance you say ah there's my mind talking again it's useful nine nine times out of 10 it's useful this time
51:52 I'm not going to listen to it so you create that little bit of Gap that space between you and the mind because ultimately this is a path of rising
51:59 above the mind not silencing the Mind Rising above it despite the fact that the mind is going to carry on doing what he doing just wanted to add to that p uh
52:09 maybe you can just reflect on a little bit I was uh listening or or someone Joe dispenza he's a he's a neuros like scientist he connects like meditation
52:19 and whatnot so he was talking about let's say if we are able to control our mind once okay mind keep quiet you're not right our new neurons that are able
52:27 to control that are now fighting together so next time you will be better prepared to close that thought before it top takes you somewhere else and
52:37 neurologically we are training our mind to fire the positive neurons or the negative neurons so I think just training our mind is coming back to now
52:46 science is recognizing that training the Mind comes back to bringing us more peace yeah and sometimes that's a very good that's a very good answer which is
52:54 it's around this concept of neurons that fire fire together neurons that wire together fire together and so what that simply means is that every time you look
53:05 at the same thing and you have the same thought eventually the object and the thought become wired together that's why whenever you know the same person walks
53:15 into the room even 5 10 15 years later you haven't seen them the same old thoughts come back up again because that person or that object and that thought
53:23 were wired together and so what this wisdom is teaching you is that then you actively overwrite that thought you actively create something new which is
53:31 really what manj is all about which is reciting a man which is now relabeling the same old labels that you used to give you're now giving that a
53:40 new label so you're breaking the the connection between the object and the thought that automatically comes when you see that
53:48 object what does gurbani meaning terms like example oras this sounds like some there is someone external to us like Sky Daddy I
54:10 need his grace mercy kindness in order to be enlightened gbani is clear that Sky daddy does not exist so who is giving this Grace what it is and how
54:23 does that work and P I know you did a video on a similar like Shabad like mad from anant got by an has very famous Shabad mad and a similar kind of concept
54:34 of someone outside not inside so that's the question so this is an interesting question which is
54:42 around certain verses within the tradition are calling out to God and saying please give me your kindness please be kind to me please Grace me
54:51 please bless me and the wisdom also talks that there is no one up in the clouds God is not far away God is near to you in fact it is everywhere it is
55:02 the essence of everything so who are we calling out to how does this system work where God gives you Grace when there isn't some other God somewhere
55:13 else this is really where the guru's teachings are so Superior that we're not able to even understand what the guru is doing
55:26 and at times the guru's wisdom talk to us like a master talking to a student at other times the guru's teachings are put in the language of the
55:36 student so the guru speaks for us and says this is how you think this is you asking oh God please bless me so the guru's wisdom speaks in many
55:49 different personalities because it in the hope that one of them will stick with you one of them will speak to you and say oh
55:58 that's me that sounds like me that sounds like the question I have so there are many different voices that are used tones of voices and different
56:06 terminologies that are used so in this particular question it's asking how can there be a prayer that goes out to God when in other lessons it says that God
56:17 is not far from us it's everywhere as long as you have no idea what God is as long as you do not experience God you
56:29 will always think of God As far away now the guru can't just constantly give you the same Lessing every time and said no God is not far
56:38 away because sometimes when the teacher gives the same lesson to the student and the student doesn't understand the teacher thinks maybe I should try a
56:47 different lesson a different way to explain so it says go and ask God for help try that lesson cuz the first lesson
56:59 that there is no God that's separate from you doesn't seem to be working for you try this lesson every day ask God so that for the grace that I can see
57:13 you oh God please bless me give me this wisdom that I can always meditate on you so the teach is now
57:26 telling the student try this lesson of just asking God every day for help see how that changes your life what are you asking for that's the
57:36 key thing in this prayer you're not asking oh God please give me a new Mercedes that's not what you're asking for the prayer is oh God I can't see you
57:48 please bless me that I may remember you and see you all the time what do you think is going to happen to your life if that became your prayer every morning
57:55 and every evening it's like so we are basically always asking for theine connection and nothing else
58:05 ask and as when we're like hi I want uh this like this new garment and it doesn't work out I'm like I don't like the god anymore that's it what is what
58:13 is going to happen to you when you begin to ask this and that becomes your heartfelt prayer every day you're eventually going to start
58:21 feeling it you're going to start seeing it and eventually you're going to get to the point where you say ah I can see God I can see God everywhere I can see God
58:30 in Me I can see God in you because I I made that my prayer I made that the manifestation I made that the the central priority of my life and
58:40 ultimately you will come to the same position ah God is everywhere so this question around how can God give you Grace is assuming that
58:50 God is not giving you Grace and sometimes if you ask nicely then you'll give it but if you continue on this journey of trying to experience God at
59:00 all times and in all moments in all places you will realize God's grace is happening all the time it was your ego that was blocking the way it was your
59:10 idea that I exist that was blocking your connection to to seeing God's grace God's Grace isn't something that is switched on and Switched Off The Very
59:18 fact that you're breathing is God's grace have you found that spiritual teachings are great to learn but not always easy to apply to your own
59:28 life sometimes we all need a bit of support and guidance from people who know what we're going through and can help us find some answers the nanak
59:37 namam Facebook group helps you do just that it's an online community where you can ask any questions about life and get answers from other members of the group
59:48 search for nanak namam community support and join our free Facebook group today my name is PRI and and um my qu I do have a couple of questions that might be
1:00:00 rookie questions because I just started my spiritual Jour Journey um by understanding the um meaning of japji sah uh and I'm very um I consider my U
1:00:10 myself to be very fortunate to be able to ask you this question face to face um so my first question is so right now I'm at Sun part
1:00:20 sun and the uh words that kind of stuck with me was Amna which are so my first question is how important is it for somebody to get up at 5: in the morning
1:00:33 um who who's just um starting their spiritual journey can we so what's the significance of Amrit there can somebody not just quickly pray for like 5 minutes
1:00:45 at 7 versus 4 in the morning like what difference would that make and it is a genuine question um and the second question was um um somewhere in the
1:00:58 explanation you suggested that uh look into the mirror and say this might be the day that I could die today so I did that to myself for I could only do it
1:01:10 for two days versus a week because isn't that you manifesting your own death so just um it's just a genuine question
1:01:20 into are we manifesting or surrendering ourselves so but I would like to know more about about the am like um thank you before you answer I have same
1:01:30 question from the audience as well so L of people not want to get up at 2:30 for sure uh and uh so yeah just everyone says am is the best time to do Nam Jaa
1:01:40 and I am not clear what time is amilla starts as sometimes I get up at 1:32 o00 or what's the right time to do morning nith
1:01:50 name so the question around what is the value of waking up early what is the right
1:01:58 time I'm going to give you an answer that is not going to be the standard answer that you get I'm just giving you that as a
1:02:07 disclaimer and my answer is this and this is my understanding having looked at it and tried to interpret it in my own way there is no magic
1:02:17 hour there is no time where the energy is higher there is no time where your prayers somehow
1:02:29 magically get more bonus points now what does that mean for Amit amva
1:02:43 means that there is a time where your experience of life is like drinking the nectar of Life Amit vaa you're drinking the the ultimate
1:02:56 juice of life and the wisdom has recommended that wake up early in the morning in order to experience this Amrit
1:03:09 Villa most people who look at this wisdom see it as an impractical suggestion but allow me to present why
1:03:19 it is the most practical thing you only have to just notice for a couple of
1:03:28 days stop waking up at Amit wake up at the normal time that you think is what ordinary everyday people need to wake up whatever that time is for you let's call
1:03:38 it 6:00 wake up at 6:00 notice what your mind
1:03:46 does when you wake up when life needs to start notice what your mind does as a parent my mind immediately goes did the kids
1:03:57 wake up are they going to get ready for school or the kids late do I have to jump out of bed and wake them up have we got in everything in in the
1:04:06 fridge or do I need to go to the grocery store do I have any meetings today let me check my emails that's what your mind will do be honest with yourself try it
1:04:16 out just try waking up at at whatever time you think life needs to start now at that time try and meditate for 5
1:04:27 minutes see how effective it is have you ever tried it where you have a list of priorities of all the things that you need to do but you say I can
1:04:36 squeeze in a 3 minute meditation and you try and sit down for meditation you can't even do it for one minute because your mind has already
1:04:43 kicked in it's already there to remind you of all the things that you haven't done this is why this wisdom is so
1:04:53 practical it says before your day is meant to start wake up slightly earlier than that now for some people they mention
1:05:01 1:00 or 2:30 again they're being very prescriptive oh is it what's the magic time is it 1 to 3 or is it 2 to 5 what's the magic time there's no magic
1:05:12 time if you work a night shift what's your if your work starts at 11:00 p.m. and you don't get off to work till 8:00
1:05:21 a.m. what's your um Villa you have to decide what time does your life start
1:05:31 what time does the Mind kick in what time are all the noises of the mind going to kick in that's natural you want to try and meditate at
1:05:39 that time it's like trying to get a seat on a train at the busiest Rush Hour you can't so you have a choice are you going to try and get a seat and complain why
1:05:48 is the train so busy or wake up earlier and catch an earlier train you'll get a seat wake up earlier and see when your mind
1:05:58 is not so busy and you know this if you ever wake up in the middle of the night 2:00 3:00 in the morning you don't
1:06:08 want to even get out of bed cuz you're like what am I going to do with my day I've got nothing to do right now so you stay in bed and you just lie there and
1:06:16 you look at the ceiling and you just your mind goes in all the different things not because it's busy because it's just it's
1:06:23 free or you pick up your phone and you start looking at Instagram or whatever it is but there is real value in waking up
1:06:33 before Life Starts Now if you're finding that difficult so I don't have 2 hours to wake up in the morning try 5 minutes
1:06:42 earlier if you set your alarm at 6:00 try setting your alarm 5 minutes earlier and dedicate those 5 minutes knowing my life doesn't start till 6: am. I don't
1:06:51 need to get out of bed I don't have to wake up the kids I don't have to go make their lunch boxes I don't have to look at my
1:06:57 emails notice the quality of your meditation a few minutes earlier and if it works add a bit more time add a bit more time to that but don't assume that
1:07:07 there's some sort of magic time because if we do that then we start bringing guilt in our life oh I didn't wake up at this time well I'm just not
1:07:15 going to do any meditation I'll start again tomorrow it's a bit like me and my diet I I can I connect with this way but maybe like again if you want to start a
1:07:24 beginner guide is like you say okay I'm in a company I'm clocking in my mind is clocking at 6:00 a.m. let's get 5:45 uh that's our time mind you stay just chill
1:07:33 on the side you're going to be busy all day just six o'clock is when you start II I have two questions it'll be very quick um how do you maintain a Divine
1:07:42 State of Mind when people around you associate with are in a lower State of Mind constantly that's the first question second one is expectations of
1:07:50 spouse and family having expectations is part of your ego but being married Mar or having a family I think everyone should have some sort of expectation of
1:07:59 that significant other um how do you deal with that and how do you possibly detach from that or what are your guidance on
1:08:05 that so the first question was around um the Divine State of Mind how do you deal with people who are around you that are in a lower State of Mind constantly so
1:08:15 they might be spewing negativity towards you or hearing negativity how do you stay in that elevated State of Mind for yourself the question around how do you
1:08:25 stay in a in an elevated State of Mind when all the people around you are in their lower mind in negativity in Gossip in all those sorts of
1:08:36 things the wisdom is very clear do not spend time with those people who drag you down it's very harsh in some of the wording that it
1:08:47 uses it categorically calls them animals people behave like animals like beasts like demons it even calls
1:08:58 them now that's not for you to call those people that that's your Guru telling you this is the impact that they're having on your life otherwise
1:09:06 you create a spiritual ego I'm not like that look at you people you are of a lower mind I of a higher mind that's your
1:09:14 ego but the wisdom is very clear you need to be able to make some difficult choices in life that says you know what I'm not going to do this anymore now let
1:09:24 me give you some Comfort you've already known how to do this when you were in your teenage years in your late teens in your early 20s we
1:09:35 had lots of friends people that we wanted to hang around with even the ones that were annoying it felt good to be in part of a big group it felt good to be
1:09:43 part of a community of some sort but as you Grew Older and you spent more time with them you began to slowly slowly break away from some people and say you
1:09:51 know what this these people I don't actually jail with them I don't know why I hang around with them any anymore you've already known how to walk away
1:09:58 from some of these things now the difficulty comes where you can't walk away from some people because they're in your life they're in your homes they're
1:10:05 in your offices that's where the wisdom actually has to really kick into hyperdrive that's where you have to now realize okay I can't change this
1:10:14 scenario because the simple answer is just try and spend time with the right people but in certain scenarios you can't do
1:10:22 that there is a beautiful teaching that that says when you see negative people around you they should not create negativity
1:10:35 within you if one is creating Havoc chaos a toxic environment you yourself maintain your higher level that's where it's going
1:10:48 into the idea of battling your own mind because you know how it is when your manager walks in and and just is very rude to you or a colleague or someone
1:10:57 there are people in your life where you're you just wish they weren't there but they're there your lower mind usually kicks in how dare they say that
1:11:06 I'll show him who does he think he is right that's what your lower mind does and then your low mind goes home and it has a gossip and says you can't believe
1:11:14 what Brian said to me today right or you're saying that to your colleagues at work you try and actually build little sort of alliances with other people say
1:11:22 oh you don't like Brian either I don't like Brian right Instagram Cote P say when I'm good I'm good when I'm bad I'm worse and people
1:11:30 like there's millions of likes on it because you connect as your mind like yeah that that resonates with me I can be bad like if but where spiritual Gat
1:11:38 is saying that when someone is bad you be on the higher side that's it so you have to then avoid your lower mind's reactions your immediate responses try
1:11:49 and live in that higher mind so for me that's that's a particular quote that really speaks to me I I wouldn't say that you're being a
1:11:58 pushover I would say that you're being deeply tolerant so much so that ultimately when you realize that you can't change the
1:12:07 other person the only change is within yourself can you be a beacon of light for someone else one of the hardest things is
1:12:15 actually to see someone who is in negativity and actually feel sympathy for them and actually say what is it that's
1:12:23 going on in your life that makes you like this no pray for them pray for their well-being knowing that I know I would
1:12:33 never act that way what must have gone on in this person's life that they act in this particular way so I don't think that's a pushover at
1:12:41 all just to there's a similar question from the audience I'll just write read it so that saves time uh how come how to come in terms with grief when a
1:12:49 long-term partner of 25 years has not been able to spiritually grow amongst other things alongside me I've grown closer to vuru and then he uh then they
1:13:01 have always resisted but have uh but have been growing away from me too it's in it's the end of our relationship now and I feel grief but also a sense of
1:13:12 Peace of what happened it's very hard sometimes to deal with the guilt and shame over this breakdown so I think we did talk about a little bit about
1:13:20 divorce I think your question comes closer if you have spouse or someone that like let's say in terms of that so I'm just trying to pull this question
1:13:27 together if they are not PS then you can definitely so the questions coming from some of the interpretations that I've given which is about not having
1:13:38 expectations of Life rise above that so that as life happens you're okay with it no matter what it does and you rightly ask the question but surely within a
1:13:48 relationship we need to have expectations of each other just a simple scenario in order for a family to get together everyone has to pull their
1:13:55 weight in order for two parents to raise children successfully you both have to be in alignment so when I say don't have expectations I don't mean that you don't
1:14:06 create a partnership with other people in order to get a job done you absolutely need to do that and you know the best example is actually working
1:14:15 with someone and trying to run a business together if the two of you are equal partners and one person is not pulling their weight you can't step back
1:14:23 and say well I I have no expectations of you you just do whatever you want because the project demands that both of us actually pull our weight both of us
1:14:32 actually do what's needed to so when I say don't have expectations it's not about not even creating a sense of working togetherness when I say don't
1:14:42 Place expectations on others it's don't place your happiness on that other person succeeding and that's what I mean by
1:14:51 that don't create your happiness as a dependency you can create an expectation even to run an event like this today my
1:15:02 expectation was that the the the colleagues that we're all high well the the colleagues that we're working with that everyone has to kind of do their do
1:15:10 their jobs but the the higher wisdom is around will I be disappointed if they don't do their jobs that's about you that's not
1:15:20 actually about the other person you should Place expectations on everyone else to work together but do you place that happiness on them
1:15:29 or do you control your happiness do you place your happiness within your tight grasp and that's something where you realize actually it's nothing to do with
1:15:37 them it's more to do with me is someone but a similar like someone says that your TV remote which is your mind should be in your hands don't give anyone else
1:15:47 the remote of your TV that this person gets me mad or this person is like I can't even see his face yeah is that giving your your remote to some else
1:15:55 yeah that's giving your emotions away to someone else why would you let somebody else decide your emotions nobody actually decides your emotions you
1:16:03 decide all of your own emotions and that's one of the hardest lessons is that we think I'm upset because of this person it's because of what they did no
1:16:12 this person did something you chose sadness as your response you chose frustration as your response they cannot give you frustration they can do
1:16:22 something frustration comes out of you you see the difference between what somebody does and how you respond there's a gap there's a difference
1:16:31 between that the phrase that I love that's resonated with me is my response is my responsibility srial paji srial everyone
1:16:44 uh it's a blessing to have you here and uh uh I must say that your uh videos are also a blessing uh I'm battling with cancer these days and uh your videos
1:16:56 have been like more than a blast blessing I have found more lot many answers on those videos but now my question is uh what will be your words
1:17:06 of wisdom to give strength to a person like me whose clock is ticking of course the clock is ticking for everyone but uh I hope you understand the perspective of
1:17:16 Life totally changes right so what would be something that gives me strength for rest of my life
1:17:28 you used a very interesting phrase what would you say to me knowing that my clock is
1:17:38 ticking let me give you some words of comfort all our clocks are ticking and my clock could stop ticking well before
1:17:50 yours the guru's wisdom around death is one of the most profound that I've seen amongst various spiritual Traditions the amount of focus that the guru gives on
1:18:01 death is greater than many other spiritual Traditions it is almost as though the guru is saying for you to know God first
1:18:11 no death the guru has very clearly said first your first lesson is know that you're going to
1:18:32 die and I'm no longer just speaking to you I'm speaking to everyone your first spiritual lesson is no that you are going to die then you're
1:18:43 ready to step into this school of wisdom because this is a wisdom of being willing to die this is a wisdom of being willing to
1:18:57 die notice that within yourself within all of us is a very strong resistance to
1:19:07 dying the guru is saying your First lesson is know that you are going to die the second lesson is that the reason you must know
1:19:20 you're going to die is because you can know that you are not this body you were alive long before this body came and long after this body goes you
1:19:32 will still be alive because you are not bound by this body you are not this body just like when you're driving a car
1:19:50 and somebody hits into the side of your car you don't say I am hurt because you know I am not this car if the car is damaged too much I'll
1:20:01 get rid of this car and I'll buy a new car death is simply you shedding this body and moving to another state recognize that you are the
1:20:13 infinite undying God now I don't want that to be flowery words for you and I don't want that to be flowery words for anyone else because
1:20:23 for those of us who are not facing immediate death we can use words like that oh I'm the undying Spirit of the universe but for someone facing death
1:20:32 they say I don't know that as my experience that is not my experience right now and maybe I'm running out of time this takes no amount of
1:20:46 time it is just a reality that is true right now deep within you you are not
1:20:56 dying because this body is the only thing that can die you cannot die and that is the most important
1:21:08 lesson but what will die for all of us this body will die this name will die the name that Society has given us these memories will
1:21:23 die when you can begin to realize that even if you didn't have cancer the guru would still expect you to kill all these things kill your own name kill your own
1:21:37 identity let go of your addiction to your body because that's all it is we all have an addiction to our body we all want it to stay the same we
1:21:49 all want it to stay healthy the guru is saying you cannot this body is definitely dying the truth of the matter is all of
1:21:59 those around you may die before you you don't know when you're going to die you don't but is this a sense of I that's dying then or like my inner like ego or
1:22:11 my all those things are dying is that what you see from spiritual perspective death is that is what death is it is all the things that were always going to die
1:22:21 are actually now starting to happen so the guru has fast-tracked your Enlightenment for everyone else they have to wait until death comes the guru
1:22:33 is saying here's a lesson for you these things that were never yours they were borrowed are now going to be given back and let me remind you you know how to do
1:22:45 this when you go on holiday and you rent a car you enjoy the car but at the back of your mind you always know at the end of this week I
1:22:56 have to give it back when you book a hotel room you enjoy the hotel room you enjoy the catering you enjoy the swimming pool you enjoy the great view
1:23:07 but you know at the back of your mind this is temporary the fools have forgotten that all of this is
1:23:16 on rent the spiritual Masters have reminded us that this is on rent you are going to give this back and you don't don't know when you're going to give it
1:23:26 back but you're definitely going to give it back so this is a beautiful teaching from the guru thank you that you are reminding me that all of these things
1:23:34 are going to be given back and when all of these things are given back can I stay with you don't let me float somewhere else away from you my only
1:23:43 desire is that I remain with you but not after I die now put all of your focus not on what is going to happen and what's going to happen to my children
1:23:53 and what about my spouse and what about this and what about that because that's what everybody else does place your focus on deep
1:24:04 gratitude thank you for allowing me to have a spouse thank you for allowing me to enjoy this holiday thank you for allowing me to enjoy the view thank you
1:24:13 for allowing me to enjoy the rental car but once I give it back I know that there's something greater there's something higher place all of your
1:24:22 attention on that grab gratitude is going to save every single one of you deep gratitude for life and deep gratitude for the ultimate lesson that
1:24:33 life must be returned it's uh they say what's the when a child is born what's the most like confident thing I can say that this child's going to die that's
1:24:42 the only truth that I can say I can't say this child will be a doctor engineer or a photographer or a spiritual teacher doing YouTube work uh it's just that
1:24:51 this child or this life is going to go at one day do we have Guardian Angels or Spirit guides guiding us and protecting us as mentioned in a lot of spiritual
1:25:00 books does gurug grb have any mention of these Concepts so the question is do we have Guardian Angels guiding us
1:25:11 yeah the wisdom of gurun nanak is only about one thing and that is the ultimate
1:25:22 truth there may be Guardian Angels there may be Spirit guides there may be angels that look after you but that is not your
1:25:33 focus this is the path of letting go of all things that are temporary and focusing your attention on the ultimate truth the wisdom says even if there are
1:25:44 angels even they desire to connect to God even they are not at the Pinnacle s
1:25:57 even they are hoping for that connection that nectar soay and the guru is giving you that
1:26:04 ultimate connection so if you have Guardian Angels what are you going to do with them tell them to sit next to you
1:26:13 meditate you need to you need to meditate just as much as I do s my name is tanir first off thank you so much for
1:26:23 today's session and all the online content it has really transformed my life and coming to my question it's around self-respect versus ego or self
1:26:34 love versus ego gurbani has many verses or many sh on H or ego but my question is uh what does gbani say about self selflove or self respect and second
1:26:50 question following that is when do you you know that self-love or self-respect has turned in the form of an ego now thank you that's a wonderful question
1:27:03 such a good question thank you I have a similar question around that do you want me to read that now or yeah if it's yeah related yeah and one of the your videos
1:27:10 you mentioned the pain comes from not accepting hookum and as humans we experience wider of emotions like sadness disappointment especially when
1:27:18 things are do not go as expected such as not getting a job I hoped for how do I reconcile this concept of hookum and apply in life
1:27:29 so the question around what does the guru teach about self-love versus destroying your ego and how do you know when
1:27:39 selflove has turned into ego selflove is always your ego because what is your definition of
1:27:53 yourself self which self are you going to love are you going to love your ego self when we use these words it's very
1:28:04 important that we get time to understand what do we mean by these things your question is how do I know when self-love turns to Ego means that
1:28:16 you have defined yourself as different from your ego it means that I have a self and then I have an ego ego ego is the bad part of
1:28:26 me it's the negative selfish part of me that's your definition of self and ego that's not the guru's definition of self and
1:28:35 ego the guru uses the word which you mentioned H what is the translation of H it's not ego the word h means me me
1:28:49 H the closest word in English that I've been able to translate to H is myself me me myself it doesn't say your ego is the
1:29:00 problem it doesn't say your selfishness is the problem it says your myself is the problem now which one are you going to
1:29:08 give self- Lov to there is no such thing as ego love you can't love your ego well you can but it's not a good thing Society
1:29:20 has just given you a confusing term called selflove the guru says no there's no such thing it's called ego love ego doesn't mean my bad self ego
1:29:32 means I believe I am driving I believe I am here that is the problem it's a very very important definition that you must
1:29:45 understand you believe you are here whether you're a good person or a bad person is immaterial do you believe you you are
1:29:54 here you say yes I believe I'm here that's the problem the guru is teaching you are not there God is
1:30:04 there and as soon as we say that your mind kicks in and you're able to hear your mind say no it's not God's not here I'm
1:30:13 here your mind doesn't want to get up and leave I think about it like two people can't drive the same
1:30:24 car at the same time either you're driving or you get up and let someone else Drive either you drive or God
1:30:33 drives that is not what most people want from their life most people want to drive and they want God to sit in the passenger
1:30:42 seat they want to have their own life and a little bit of God on the side skip all the red lights for God's job and you drive
1:30:52 and you don't want want God to drive your life you want to drive and God is not there to be a passenger in your life either you drive
1:31:04 or God drives so there is no such thing as ego versus the self understand the myself that I think is a good person I think I'm kind I
1:31:17 think I'm generous I think I'm pretty loving but every now and then I have a little bit of ego I must deal with my ego
1:31:27 no real self love is when you get rid of the ego self and you begin to recognize this is the Divine self the amount of love that comes from
1:31:41 that that this is the Divine that is real selflove because then you're not just loving this small limited version of
1:31:50 yourself you are part of the infinite the question is are you willing to get up and let God drive if you are the amount of self love
1:32:02 that you will experience will be overwhelming I think buddy this is so opposite of like what marketing teams or
1:32:12 these advertisements or Instagram handles or Zen uh way of like the new I would say Wellness is like oh like give some self love come every Sunday and
1:32:22 this power and that's great to spend time and whatever you want to do but I think there's very little talk about diminishing your ego and and connecting
1:32:30 like just self Lov is only seen in a way of like okay just pamper yourself in external ways not internal ways to that much yeah it it's the hijacking of of
1:32:39 spiritual language for marketing purposes it works really well though yeah hi my name is tajinder and um not Norm's doing a tremendous job and may it
1:32:49 take good globally as you're doing so so fantastic job my question's on control particularly around pre-ordained Destiny um I have read it in the guru
1:32:59 Grans read a lot on the guru on the guru when he States the pre-ordained destiny I just want to understand what that means particularly when where I'm
1:33:08 slightly conflicted is when we have chip and G also rotting our actions on a pre-ordained situation so how does this hookum this
1:33:17 pre-ordained how does that work when we know at the end we do have a a day of judgment that's a that's that's coming for
1:33:26 us the question around hookum what is pre-ordained what is still to be decided I know there are some some similar questions around
1:33:38 hookum as well and Free Will and those sorts of things I'm very encouraging for people to read
1:33:48 gbani and even if they don't understand the language to read the English translations until you come across where the English
1:33:57 translations fall short and words like pre-ordained don't easily map with what the guru is actually trying to say so let me help
1:34:09 with some of the language when we say that is everything pre-ordained or is life being decided right now what is already in my destiny
1:34:21 and what is yet to be decided that kind of language doesn't really fit with the guru's model the idea that there is some Book
1:34:32 of Life where everybody's story has been written and you're simply acting out your part like you're playing in a show or a play and you're just a character in
1:34:43 a play and all the lines that you were ever going to say in life have already been decided and scripted that is not how I understand the guru's teachings
1:34:54 the guru's teachings say something very amazing in the it says subna vam it says that everyone's story is
1:35:08 being written right now with an Ever flowing pen very poetic language so let's break that down a little bit how I interpret
1:35:19 that is that life is being written as we speak what that means is my next word or my next a
1:35:29 action hasn't been decided it is going to be decided it is unfolding as we speak
1:35:40 but what I say or do is a direct result of all the things that have already happened to me does that make sense if you ask me a
1:35:50 question what does my mind do it goes back into its memory bank and it tries to figure out what have you heard before what's your answer what have you what
1:35:58 how have you answered this question before and it brings all it knows I can only give you everything that has already happened to me is now
1:36:07 culminating in the words that I'm saying to you so that is my previous actions that are now impacting this current moment and if you study your own life
1:36:17 you will notice that that's what happens all the time if anybody asks you for help the first thing you do okay do I know the
1:36:24 answer to this oh I've already done this before I've done something similar so I can try and help you the best way I know how based on what my experience already
1:36:33 is so that pre-written is really just talking about your experience all the experiences that you've had in life have led you to this moment but that doesn't
1:36:43 mean the next thing that's going to happen has definitely been decided but it's massively shaped by all of your previous actions this is how I
1:36:52 understand this concept of pitch my previous actions people have somehow placed that in my past life I don't know anything about my past life but I know
1:37:02 that if I'm going to answer a question or if I'm going to do something most likely I'm going to act based on how all the things that have happened already
1:37:09 the kinds of influences that I've had what my what my peers what my family members have told me so even if I don't know the answer I might think about oh
1:37:18 well this is a conversation I already had maybe that's the right answer you see how how your past impacts your current it doesn't mean that everything
1:37:27 else is already decided otherwise what an what a boring mundane life I imagine that even God is getting bored of a play that he's already written but how
1:37:37 exciting for God to sit there and watch the play as is getting unfolded and say I wonder what he does
1:37:45 next I think buy uh you talked about studying gurbani right and when you started this evening today at afternoon today sorry morning to me I'm losing
1:37:54 track of time uh you said I feel myself not as wise to be here but I have studied GMAT and kind of come to this so I think that gives us power and everyone
1:38:05 sitting in this room can believe that if they invest that time to read gbani themselves or wisdom from whichever sources they're coming from or whether
1:38:14 it be Hinduism like Buddhism or Islam wherever you whatever your belief is if you read the spiritual wisdom that could be another person you
1:38:24 become a beacon of light and that kind of goes forward so studying gurbani there's a question similar to that what is your best advice for someone who's
1:38:31 interested in studying gur Grant sahb I have read and deeply understood jabis but rest of the scripture feels a little intermediating for for many reasons for
1:38:41 the approach uh what approach do you suggest and how can you break down the study into more of an actionable plan that's must be an engineer too
1:38:51 so or a project manager yeah something like that the question is around how do I approach studying
1:39:01 gbani and what are the steps that I can take I can only share with you what my journey has been and how it
1:39:14 has worked for me for me I say that learning gurbani is almost like learning a new language you have to be willing to invest the time to
1:39:29 see how that language flows how it works and spend enough time understanding some of the nuances of the language I remember
1:39:41 when my father told me about in the 70s when he moved to a brand new country he qualified in his qualifications in India and he traveled to a country in Europe
1:39:52 uh Denmark specifically and he was going to live there for a while and and begin working but clearly he didn't speak the
1:40:00 language and so he would go to work in the daytime and in the evenings he would go to adult learning classes to try and learn the language and his teacher would
1:40:14 teach him in the classroom but what his teacher used to say was if you really want to know how to speak Danish you're not going to learn it in the classroom
1:40:22 he said you're going to learn it in the pub so he says learn here but afterwards when I take you to the pub you'll notice how the language is really being used
1:40:34 you have to spend time with the actual people who are using the language there's only so much you can learn in a classroom and through textbooks so going
1:40:42 back to the question how would you learn gurbani is there is an element of you going in there and learning the language trying to understand the meanings of the
1:40:50 words but then spend time with other people people who are really sort of familiar with it as well I always say the best thing when you want to master a
1:40:59 skill is just find a mentor find somebody who is already a few steps ahead of you because they will tell you some of the mistakes that they made so
1:41:10 having another partner who is also going down the same path you know sometimes now even on these fitness apps when you're trying to lose weight or you're
1:41:18 trying to do a certain amount of exercises a day you can actually nominate another person and the other person is also doing the
1:41:26 same Fitness routine as you or the same diet routine as you and that way there's an accountability so studying the wisdom and then spending time with other people
1:41:36 who are also studying the wisdom is massively beneficial for you now what I did for me I didn't grow up learning Punjabi I didn't grow up speaking that
1:41:46 that wasn't my first language my first language was English I think in English so I had to go and actually figure out how do you understand understand these
1:41:54 teachings and for me what I used to do was and when I began learning this sort of in my early 20s is when I would go to the office at work I would start my day
1:42:07 in front of the computer screen and instead of opening up my work emails the first thing I would do is I would open uh the hookama of the day which for
1:42:14 those of you who are not familiar is is sort of the spiritual reading of the text and it's one particular verse that's sort of sent around the world and
1:42:21 everybody can read that one verse of the day and what I would do is I would try and string the sentences together in in Punjabi the best way that I could learn
1:42:31 it you know based on my UDA era classes as a child and so that would give me a little bit of practice of reading it and then what I would do is is a word
1:42:39 mapping exercise I would read the English translations and I would try and map the words that I knew so this word there I know means this English word
1:42:47 there and this word there I know means that and very slowly over time you start to build your vocabulary and so this kind of goes back to the
1:42:55 previous question where ultimately you do need to actually start going into the deeper language learn the actual wisdom learn the actual spiritual language
1:43:04 that's being used there because you can you can learn very well around the spiritual text in English in your in in in the language that makes sense to you
1:43:12 but then taking it further and trying to learn the the original language the guki is going to be very beneficial to you that's one part of it the other thing
1:43:22 that I want to say is do not treat this as some sort of textbook if you're only going to read this as a philosophy book so that you
1:43:31 can just learn the wisdom it's going to get you nowhere it's like reading a book on how to swim it doesn't matter how many times
1:43:40 you read that book if you don't get in the swimming pool and actually start flapping your arms and legs about you will have no idea you could do a PhD on
1:43:48 how to swim and you could sit in every debate class and you can argue everyone about the science and the physics of it and
1:43:56 all and the the ergonomics of it all and the biology and physiology of it all but hey can you actually swim no I don't think I need to get in the
1:44:05 pool you have to practice this wisdom and there are unfortunately a lot of people who are very well- read on this but they don't sit within
1:44:15 themselves they don't know their inner Stillness they haven't gone in and done the work to actually say what what is my mind doing this book this wisdom this
1:44:25 text is all about the mind what do I actually know about my mind do I recognize when my mind goes into its ego do I recognize when anger comes or do I
1:44:34 just get lost in my anger do I know something deeper more profound more divine within me if I don't there's no point just reading it
1:44:43 you've got to take that extra step of learning it as well so it's it's really well and good that you want to learn the language and you want to learn but
1:44:53 really you don't have to read the entire G gr it's not structured like a textbook it's not structured in chapters it's just verses of Truth the
1:45:03 way it's structured is you could open any page and start reading and you will get ultimate truth Divine truth that's actually how it's structured and very
1:45:12 different to many other spiritual scriptures you don't know many other scriptures where you can literally flip to any page and just immediately get
1:45:20 immersed in in ultimate truth each shab is a complete lesson in Divine truth I'm not saying don't read all of it what I'm saying is don't treat it like a textbook
1:45:31 that you've just got to get from from start to finish it's really a Divine truth scripture so it's part of practicing it learning it checking with
1:45:40 other people hey this is how I'm understanding it do you understand it slightly different oh okay thank you very much I didn't think see it that way
1:45:47 I saw it this way and then going back now now does my practice change it is really this perfect combination of wisdom of interpretation and practice
1:45:58 that's how you you develop in this just to aha moment P was other day we were having dinner and P said I didn't grow up speaking Punjabi I was
1:46:08 speaking to pun English to my parents so if a lot of us like my age say I don't know Punjabi or I I gab is very far taught for me to read from and if we put
1:46:18 an effort to build the vocabulary we can overcome a lot of like we don't have to go like okay we need to do this a it's just a
1:46:28 step by step you it's just more of like paji could do it then all of us should also believe that believe me if I can do it you can do it there's nothing special
1:46:36 about me trust me if you enjoy learning spiritual teachings and you're looking to deepen your understanding the most effective way is to learn with a group
1:46:45 of friends right now you can set up your very own nanik meetup group from the comfort of your own home gather your friends family members or
1:46:56 colleagues and start your very own wisdom Group by visiting living with wisdom. org there you'll find a range of nanam courses designed specifically for
1:47:07 groups that you can watch together and discuss a growing number of people have already started their very own wisdom groups and it's having a huge positive
1:47:17 impact on their lives find out how easy it is to start your own wisdom Group by visiting living with wisd.org
1:47:26 Hello uh so often times in gbani we hear that the N is the solution but what actually is n does that mean consciously repeating a
1:47:37 word and if it is then sometimes in my experience uh it doesn't work in the extreme situations for example if you just have heard about if some some of
1:47:48 some of your Lov uh your loved one died and then you sit down and try to to meditate to make your s normal uh then but your awareness uh
1:48:01 is not in your control that the the there's a continuous mind is attacking you with the continuous thoughts and you are not able to control your
1:48:11 awareness it's a very important question the question around what is nam and how do you use it in different
1:48:21 difficult scenarios this really is probably the most profound question what is
1:48:34 nam nam in its most simplest form means the Divine name but it means so much more than that in the tradition of gurun
1:48:51 nanak Nam is the same as the flow of Life the flow of life is God's
1:49:01 name let me repeat that the flow of life is the name of God if you can take time to try and understand the flow of life as life is
1:49:18 Flowing that is the way it's meant to flow if you are able to become comfortable with the flow of
1:49:28 life you will start to experience n most of us are swimming against the flow of life life is doing one thing but our mind thinks that life should do
1:49:41 something else that is when you are not in Divine awareness you're not aware of God's plan in fact you try to tell God what your
1:49:52 plan are they say that if you want to make God laugh tell him your
1:49:59 plans your idea of what life should be like is not of any importance your ability to watch life as it's happening and to be okay with life
1:50:12 as it's happening including in difficult scenarios that is n now if you're able to take a word that reminds you about the flow of life that
1:50:26 is nam siman or Nam to remember the Divine name or to repeat the Divine name remember God has no name no name is enough to describe what this
1:50:40 thing is so whatever word works for you use that name as a way to Kickstart your
1:50:51 awareness what is the word that works for you that allows you to step away from your conflicted mind cuz that's what we all have a conflicted mind a
1:51:01 mind that thinks that it knows best a mind that doesn't seem to be happy with even the smallest situations in life the mind
1:51:08 that says well that shouldn't be happening why isn't this happening that's the conflict that your mind is always in is there a trigger word for
1:51:16 you that snaps you out of it and says life is Flowing the way it's meant to flow and okay with
1:51:29 it whatever you do I'm okay with I'm only asking that I can repeat your name notice the connection the Divine name is let me be happy with whatever you're
1:51:43 doing let me be happy with whatever you're doing that is your name most of us have separated God's name from God's
1:51:55 plan we think that we have to just live our life and then somehow we have to take time out of our life to repeat God's name and one thing I'm very clear
1:52:04 on is nam Simon is not God calling you're not here simply calling God like you're trying to make a connection and say okay I keep dialing
1:52:16 the number but sometimes I connect and sometimes I don't connect you're not connecting with something else you're conect connecting with the flow of life
1:52:24 you can't know God let me be clear you will never know God the only way for you to know God is to know the flow of God's God's
1:52:35 plan you can know hookum you can't know God God is this infinite INF Untouchable thing what is it going to look like for
1:52:45 you to know God what is that experience what do you do when you're doing God calling what are you waiting for
1:52:53 God is happening in front of you right now have a name that reminds you to see life as God that is nam Simon and when your Simon your meditation your
1:53:07 spiritual practice is tied in with the flow of life then that's where it will work every single time no matter how difficult life becomes you have a
1:53:17 trigger word that allows you to say ah this is not something that my mind needs to be in conflict with this is something
1:53:26 that my mind needs to recognize as the flow of life when you relax into the flow of life and let life happens that is nam
1:53:40 siman let this Treasure of name be the thing that you give me you bless me with that whatever you do life will seem sweet to me Nam is hook be very very
1:53:52 clear on that there is no such thing as hookum separate from nam nam is hookum hookum is nam I love the aspect or the beautiful
1:54:02 part of our practi is that this name the snap word that you said that you can connect with could be diff was different for pagat Kabir was different for pagat
1:54:11 namdev was different for gadv G so all those like Mystic Saints could have a different word of connecting as long as you're basically the path is to the same
1:54:24 Final Destination your word could be different and there's no judgment to it yeah because they're all connecting to the same name the UN unnamable name of
1:54:34 God they're all connecting to that but what word they use is whatever works for you the gurug Grans is full of names of God there are so many names of God in
1:54:45 gurug Grans I say try all of them which one is going to stick which one's going to work for you um hi sth Paul my name is Ava and I
1:54:56 wanted to raise a question about fate and Free Will you've kind of touched on this already with the pre-ordained question but um my question is worded a
1:55:05 little bit differently so I'm going to let it rip and um the core question is what do the seek teachings have to say about the role of fate and Free Will in
1:55:17 our individual human lives so I'm not exactly see seeking like a black and white explanation of like dethroning one perspective over the other instead what
1:55:29 I'm seeking is to hear your thoughts on what do you feel best describes what the teachings and especially the gurus how did they relate to the topics of fate
1:55:41 and Free Will so if they were alive in flesh today how would they speak about these things with us today and um before I give it over to you to share your
1:55:50 thoughts um in my experience with this topic and studying gbani and meditating on Nam what I found is the teachings have a
1:56:01 traditional or one might say ancient not in a bad way perspective that is more aligned with fate that is to say not fate in a bad way again that there is a
1:56:14 sequential order in life um where some things are experienced as predetermined that's how defining fate and with that understanding that's kind of how I found
1:56:27 the siky to speak to me and I've also come across a YouTube video where you argued there is no free will so all these pieces laid out what do you have
1:56:38 to say I wish I had dramatic music in the back can I actually ask I'll start by saying that you've asked an impossible
1:56:51 question because you've asked me to answer as the gurus would answer and I cannot answer as the gurus would answer if you want to
1:56:59 know the guru's answer you have to read the guru's answers you have to read it they've laid it all out for you I can only answer in my limited
1:57:09 understanding yeah let me be clear I don't sit here as a guru I don't sit here as a wise Elder I don't sit here as anyone who knows any more than you I sit
1:57:19 here as someone who is so inspired by this wisdom that I'm compelled to sing and Sh shout about it in whatever way that I can
1:57:29 because it's so lifechanging for me I'm hoping that it can be life-changing for other people as well but that doesn't mean that I can answer from the guru's
1:57:37 perspective so it seems that you've looked into this question quite a lot for me I do not see having studied the text
1:57:51 in what my own limited capacity I do not see room for free will I do not see the gurus talk about your own free will but that is not to say that the
1:58:04 gurus do not encourage you to act the guru speak to you and say hey why do you think like this why don't you do this why are you wasting your life in these
1:58:14 things why don't you actually get up and do something more productive something more meaningful in your life are they speaking to your free will Poss possibly
1:58:23 I think they're actually speaking to your ego's delusion of free will notice what I'm saying the ego's delusion of free
1:58:35 will now does Free Will exist for your ego it does exist that doesn't mean that it does exist for me there is absolute Clarity
1:58:49 you cannot be free to have your own will because you're not free from God the only way for you to have free will is if you're free from God that's what the
1:58:59 word free there means I am free from God I am separate to God I am different I am unique I stand on my own to feat I allow God to do some things and there are some
1:59:13 things I don't allow God to do I'll do them myself what does the word Free Will mean I am free from God I am free from God's
1:59:21 will and what does iunar tell you you're not free from God you you have never
1:59:30 been the very fact that you think you are alive and separate is the ultimate problem your separation from God is the
1:59:43 problem the guru is there to remind you that you have never been separate from God you cannot be separate from God you're simp simply deluded in the idea
1:59:54 that you're separate from God and as long as you're deluded in the idea that you're separate from God you're deluded in many other ways to think that I'm
2:00:01 free to think however I want and I know where this question is coming from it's like in my own head I can think whatever I want there's no God there's nobody
2:00:10 else here there's just me I can come up with any ideas I can say whatever I want I'm completely free but let
2:00:19 me ask you this question in a different way can you be free from your past can you be free from all the things that have
2:00:28 led to this moment you can in your ignorance you believe
2:00:37 so you cannot so this question comes up again and again and you may have seen how I
2:00:45 answered this question but I'll try it one more time okay if you have free will tell me what your
2:00:56 next thought is going to be in fact all of you try it see if you can see what is your next thought going to
2:01:08 be do you know what your next thought is going to be that you create or do you simply sit there and wait for your next thought to pop into your
2:01:18 head you wait so are you the the creator of your thoughts go ahead create a thought you
2:01:30 cannot that is one of the most profound learnings that I have taken from this to sit there and say go on then create a thought and you try and you recognize
2:01:42 that all you have the ability to do is wait and you wait and a thought comes in the thought could be planning your next Holiday The Thought could be a jam
2:01:52 sandwich the thought could be something about your past or an idea about the future or a person that you haven't thought about for 20 years you have no
2:01:59 idea what your next thought is going to be but what the ego does is when that thought arises the ego goes I did
2:02:11 that go home today and try a very simple experiment you sit and you ask yourself what is my next thought going to be do I know what my next thought is
2:02:21 is going to be if you are blessed with the understanding that you have not ever been able to create a single thought it will destroy your idea of
2:02:32 Free Will straight away because all your actions are based on your thoughts and if you never created your thoughts then you never created the actions that came
2:02:40 after those thoughts then you sit back and you go I really don't have an ego God really is controlling every moment of my life so much so that I
2:02:49 don't even know the next thought that's going to come into my head God is not something that's happening to you God is something that's happening
2:02:58 through you so the question is is there an illusion of agency to abide by the higher will so as though there's a pred
2:03:11 decided idea of what's going to happen and then the ability to decide whether you're going to go with that or not and again it comes down to simple things and
2:03:20 again this is an experiment that I that I do quite often and maybe we can do that now just something interesting yeah so sit up
2:03:29 straight and close your eyes and I'm going to throw options at you and I want you to pick one I don't
2:03:40 want you to over thick it I just want you to pick whichever option seems to be the right one red or blue don't overthink it just
2:03:50 pick one apple or orange don't overthink just pick
2:03:58 one no context pen or
2:04:08 pencil summer or winter up or down
2:04:25 okay now we're going to try the same thing again this time rather than focusing on the answer I want you to think about how does that answer get
2:04:38 selected Pisces or Capricorn cucumber or tomato
2:04:55 wood or plastic left or
2:05:05 right okay open your eyes what do you notice about how those choices get made I didn't give you any
2:05:16 context I just told you to pick from two random things how do you pick between apple or orange how does that choice get
2:05:26 made it was just an Impulse in that moment where's the agency and sometimes there's certain choices that I give where the impulse
2:05:40 you might know oh I definitely don't like peanuts I definitely like chocolate because that's based on all of your past experiences oh I might be allergic to
2:05:48 this or that or whatever left or right well I'm left-handed so I'm going to say left so sometimes decisions are made based on your previous
2:05:55 experiences where is the question of agency you might think that oh I've picked that that's what I'm saying that the delusion of ownership that I made
2:06:07 that choice that's literally what the ego is the idea that you somehow have agency is
2:06:17 actually now scientifically proven as an afterthought the scientists have now they they've done experiments where they do something
2:06:26 very similar where they say press a button either a red button or a blue button and they've got you hooked up to all of these sort of wires and what the
2:06:36 scientists have just discovered is before you're going to make a decision they all they're able to already see which decision you're going to make
2:06:45 because they're tapping in at a far deeper level and they're looking at the sort of impulses going on in the brain and this say oh he's going to press
2:06:53 red so they know before your conscious mind even knows the answer there's something deeper that just says yeah let's go for the red the Mind later then
2:07:05 says I made that choice that's literally what the ego is is this idea that I am somehow doing something and notice when the wisdom is
2:07:15 constantly telling you about your ego there's a part of you that does not want to let it go does not want to let go of the idea that I am nothing I'm
2:07:25 irrelevant I'm insignificant the very idea that I am is an illusion it's a God created illusion it's something that's just
2:07:35 spontaneously erupted through Evolution it's just this idea that I am and that one thing is what the Masters have come down and said this is
2:07:44 what's going on we've looked at human evolution and we've seen that somewhere in that entire process this thing popped up called I am and that's the cause of
2:07:52 your misery if you can let go of something which isn't actually tangible and real you will let go of all the things
2:08:01 that are causing you pain and grief in your life it's literally just that the ego is the cause of your misery not the circumstances of Life the thing that
2:08:10 wants life to go in its in its favor when you let go of the ego you let go of any desire for life to go your way and if you're happy for life to go in
2:08:20 whichever way it's going to go where's the suffering God is the only one that has agency I use this word lightly I hope
2:08:29 you realize that when I use the word God I'm not talking about a guy in the sky I'm talking about life itself the spirit of life I think out of all your like
2:08:38 videos I've like learned that you try not to use God in a lot but today we end up using a lot so I love you clarified that and another aspect of it is that
2:08:47 Divine is getting things done through you so sometimes I hear like some spiritual being they're like like s said like God got it done from through me and
2:08:57 that's just where we switch the button that I did not do it God through me did it for for the universe and neam here thank you so much for coming and
2:09:07 blessing us um my question actually just actually very ironically is about ego and also another word that a lot of people have started talking about which
2:09:17 is surrender and my understanding of ego if you could expand on this if you think I'm on the right track is um when we're little children we're just born little
2:09:28 babies there's no ego they are the closest to God and the closest thing to wuru and as we as parents see our children growing up we see them
2:09:37 developing this ego and obviously at this age we definitely have an ego and my understanding of surrender is how um wuru has given us ego we have ego for a
2:09:50 reason and this is because we are on this journey on this human journey to learn how to surrender to our ego to come back to God to understand what we
2:10:03 were when we were just born is that the correct understanding the idea that we surrender to our
2:10:16 ego is an interesting one but it's a slightly Danger dangerous one because the idea is that I'm okay with the ego as it
2:10:30 is and so we have to be careful what do we mean by surrender cuz surrender could mean I am okay with the fact an ego was created I understand it I accept that
2:10:41 it's there but then where do you draw the line with if I accept that it's there then I'm also
2:10:49 just perfectly comfortable with it being there so we have to again look at what do we mean by ego this is probably one of the most important things do we mean
2:10:59 ego as my selfish negative self or do we mean it as myself the idea that I am which ego are we talking about
2:11:12 because the ego must be understood remember how the ego is being described in the in the tradition
2:11:25 the ego the myself is the ultimate disease and the medicine it's a beautiful teaching the ego the myself is the ultimate
2:11:36 disease but the medicine also lies within it if you are lucky to learn the guru's wisdom if you learn the the guru Shabad
2:11:52 he will show you how to look at your ego how to know the self so let's be clear the word ego does not mean my selfish self it means the
2:12:03 idea that I am here I am something I am an I am a fully living breathing self independently thinking little part of the universe that's what the ego means
2:12:14 that I am independently here yes I was created by life but I am now I have a sense of independence of my my own I have free will that's what ego
2:12:24 means what are you surrendering to that is the thing that's the delusion and the way that the wisdom explains it it's like the wave who thinks he's separate
2:12:34 from the ocean I love that analogy because when you look at the waves in the ocean it's ludicrous to think that the wave is separate from the ocean and
2:12:43 that's what the gurus are saying yeah you're ludicrous for you to think that you're separate from God is an absolute fallacy
2:12:51 so what are you surrendering to rather than surrendering to Your Ego the guru says surrender to the Divine ignore your ego forget your ego H
2:13:03 this is something that we haven't actually covered today what is the mechanism by which the ego
2:13:10 survives what is the thing that is keeping our ego alive it is the voice in your head it's the voice in your head that says I need
2:13:19 to do this I need to do that I'm so important I can't believe this hasn't happened in my life that that that it's it's this what I call me thinking me
2:13:28 thinking is the ego I hope I'm trying to make it as simple as possible what is your ego your ego is this constant noise in your head that goes me me me me me
2:13:39 are you going to surrender to that are you going to is that what you're you're you're surrendering to the guru is saying this is what your mind is doing
2:13:46 anyway your mind is meditating on the Mantra all day every day and the Mantra is me me me and the guru says if your mind is going to be saying that all day
2:13:58 and that's the cause of your misery then rather than saying me me me I'm going to give you a different word and he takes away this word me this me
2:14:08 thinking and he replaces it with you and rather than making your entire life about me me me me me you switch everything and you label everything as
2:14:17 you you you you you oh Divine this is you this is you this is you this is you this scenario is you this traffic today is you when I opened the jar and there
2:14:26 was no Jam left that's you and when I go to the grocery store and there's a big line and I have to wait at the back of the queue that's you notice that your
2:14:36 mind doesn't do that your mind is constantly oh I can't believe this person finished the jam I can't believe there's such a long line why don't they
2:14:43 open more tills like your mind is always trying to do that and that's the way that your ego survives so the guru says say if you can relabel everything rather
2:14:53 than thinking about me relabel everything as the act of God can you see the hand of God and then surrender that is what surrender means that I
2:15:03 Surrender the idea that life has to go my way and I just see the hand of God in everything yeah but just a profound thing that I noticed is another thing
2:15:15 that let's say if you read just one line you say we would read that and we like yeah this is is it if you don't go to the next line that just changes the
2:15:24 interpretation completely so I think that's one thing where we have failed that because we haven't read gurug grantab ourselves we're basically going
2:15:32 to understand it based on just one line like Tak up say we're reading that but we're not reading the the next line that you have to be at that Divine level like
2:15:43 to connect to that Divine level to be getting all less so I think that's just a really such a deep deep part of our or
2:15:51 this yeah we take the context that makes sense for our ego and that's it we stick with that yeah another thing paji that my question might add in is that
2:15:58 religious could also be in a form of religious ego or in a part of other egos in different sex and and one of the places I read or from a Kaka inded is
2:16:07 that religious ego is the highest form of ego so I know some people that have done like they they've been doing parts and they've been they've done 100s and
2:16:16 I've done like this much or what not but there's still ego in them you can see that I have done this or or whatnot so how do you like when you sometimes we
2:16:26 see some people who are older they might have that and and in our institutions as well how do you like as a if I'm another and how do you calm your mind on that
2:16:36 situation I learned a a wonderful lesson which is when you see people act acting negatively thank them because that's a lesson for you showing you how you
2:16:47 shouldn't be otherwise what we naturally do is we judge them and the guru's wisdom is very
2:16:59 clear on being vigilant against judgment it says be very careful never judge anyone because when you see someone who's not acting in the right
2:17:10 way your mind judges them what you're really saying is at least I'm not like that and so your is making it like yourself bigger subconsciously that I
2:17:22 would never do that at least I'm not like that I'm not like that so then you're saying I am better that's what nyia is that I they're doing this but I
2:17:29 would never do yeah so we don't recognize that bit we think we're rightly just calling out people who are being who are acting in the wrong way so
2:17:37 look how terrible that person is but the guru is saying don't ever do that because you yourself then are subconsciously lifting your own ego up
2:17:45 so it says always put yourself low put yourself low I'm I'm nothing I'm no one like work your entire process is around this idea that I am someone
2:17:57 special it says no that's that's the thing and remember why I I really want to be clear on why we're talking about ego so much because ego is the thing
2:18:07 that has caused you more misery than anything else in life your ego is the cause of your misery it's because you don't know that
2:18:17 you are Divine you don't know who you really are otherwise this just becomes a nice kind of philosophical discussion oh the
2:18:26 ego Divine do we have free will all those things no this is real this has real practical implications your misery is caused by this one thing
2:18:37 myself that's the ultimate truth that is why it is a cancer in your life it is a disease in your life the ultimate disease we're all diseased with this
2:18:47 thing called ego the worst disease is the thing that is called myself but we don't see ourselves as a disease we don't see this as
2:18:58 disease we think oh I quite like my ego oh I'm better than that person that's why judgment is is so important to to be clear on but you might be able to
2:19:07 confirm this but what what I heard from one of the mkin G had this in this Kata that all the gurus all in in gurab itself nothing is talked more other than
2:19:18 ego in in context of like gurus have gurus and and Kabir and and everyone have talked about ego consistently throughout gurug grantab is that true or
2:19:27 yeah and and it and it uses the word mind quite a lot to mean the ego mind so our gurab is teaching that mind that's is the biggest core and that's just what
2:19:35 been Tau it really is a manual of the Mind the gur grantab really is a manual of the Mind
2:19:46 [Music]