Singh: Mone (cut hair Sikhs) versus Singh (long hair Sikhs). Many Singhs don’t like Mone and many Mone don’t like Singhs. Mone say that Singhs are hypocrites and in the guise of Dharam get up to x, y, and z. While Singhs say that Mone have sold out to fashion and vanity, and have abandoned their Dharam (….a Nihang Baba Ji..) said to my Mona friend that he has a clean-heart, but that should then sprout into long hair.
Preeto: Dassan Dass ji said that the first mistake people make when calling others as “mone” and themselves as “Singhs”, is they have judged by outside appearances, which is the complete opposite of the Guru’s teachings in which we are only to judge ourself against the benchmark of Truth.
“This is your mistake in calling someone a “mona” and regarding yourself as a Sikh. In Guru Gobind Singh ji’s Darbar (royal court), there were people of all backgounds. Even all the demi-gods (Hindu devi-devtas) used to sit there (in astral form). So why in the Gurdwara’s are they preaching “I am a Sikh, he is a Hindu that is a Muslim” and so on?” – Dassan Dass.
Most Sikh preachers nowadays have this obsession with linking uncut hair with spirituality. My friend’s family invited a famous Sikh preacher to their house. They cooked for him and served him with utmost humbleness, seeking his blessings. He said to my friend about his uncut hair with a very sweet voice which he has developed for his profession, but laced with judgements, “just like a car with broken window doesn’t look nice, neither does a Sikh with cut hair.” He took for granted their qualities of humbleness and service of the holy, and just focused on the externals and made the mistake of judging.
Another youth preacher approached my brother once at an all-night kirtan programme, and started lecturing him about trimming his beard. At that time we were also very orthodox with our long hair, turban and Bana (Sikh uniform) and proud we were representing the tenth Guru and we found ourself agreeing with the youth preacher. Afterwards our brother was furious saying “he doesn’t even know me, he just judged me by my looks, who does he think he is?” It opened our eyes and made us realise how judgemental we had become with this sangat of proud Sikhs. We realised Baba Nanak ji never judged anyone and also had never had a problem with our brother our or friends from all communities whilst growing up. Only after stepping into this sangat of proud young Sikhs we had started judging others. Now over a decade after stepping away from that group of religious preachers we too have cut hair and all we can say is that God has shown us :
Hair today gone tomorrow; when they burn your body, all that goes with you is your deeds.
“Naam binna sabh mithya
Without naam all is done in vain.”
God Bless All.
Singh: You’re right, cutting the kesh (hair) is a deed, so vainly trying to stop the kesh growing by cutting them all the time, is devoid of naam.
Preeto: You are saying that for you, you see cutting the hair is an act of vanity, but for another person it is no different from cutting the grass, or cutting their nails. One person may wear religious garb with pride, another person may wear it humbly. One religion says cutting hair is a sin, for another religion cutting the hair is a sign of discarding the world. All outer expression is just that – on the outside and has come about as the time and place required. But without surrendering to your Guru and absorbing yourself in the Naam they give you, ALL IS VAIN – even keeping hair and wearing religious dress.
Without the Lord’s Name, all is vanity and all that one practises is vain.
(Dhanasri Chhant, M. 1, 3)
And the one thing that Gurbani stresses again and again is that nothing on the outside is going to please God :-
a) not dress,
You wear two loin cloths, and keep your head covered.
If you know God and the nature of karma,
you know that all these rituals and beliefs are useless.
Says Nanak, meditate on the Lord with faith.
Without the True Guru, no one finds the Way. ||1||
SGGS 1353-8
b) not turbans,
Purify what is impure, and let the Lord’s Presence be your religious tradition.
Let total awareness of God be the turban on your head. ||12||
SGGS 1084-9
c) not hair,
Kabeer, when you are in love with the One Lord, duality and alienation depart.
You may have long hair, or you may shave your head bald. ||25||
SGGS 1365-15
d) not pilgrimages to holy places wether its Mecca, Hardwar or even Harmandir Sahib (Golden temple)
Whosoever controls the mind,
He is a Haji (true pilgrim).
(Guru V, Maru Rag)
e) not holy baths (even at Harmandir Sahib or other Sikh Shrines),
Those are not pure,
Who sit down after taking a bath;
Only those are pure,
In whose heart He dwells.
(Guru I, Asa Rag)
f) nor special diets,
Let good conduct,
Be thy fasting.
(Guru I, Majh Rag)
g) not even the 5Ks of the Sikhs. Please read “The Spiritual Ks That Please God.”
Only your deeds such as mercy, compassion, kindness, extreme humbleness, selfless service, done under the blessings of the holy (Sants) and then falling to their feet, cherishing their feet in your heart, earning their blessings and through the Grace of God receiving the Naam from them is valued as the truest of the true divine virtues, divine deeds.
The Naam is the Essence of all deeds, for, without the Naam,
one is afflicted by Pain and Death.
(Ramkali M. 1, Siddha Gosht)
Then being divinely in love with Naam everything you do is acceptable because with Naam everything is from the heart only.
The Master’s Naam gives sustenance to the mind.
The Naam is its life breath, and I repeat it ever.
The Naam is my caste,
the Naam my honour,
the Naam is my kindred.
The Naam is ever my company,
the Naam is the emancipator of me.
The pleasures of senses are many,
but not one goes along with me.
The choice-object of my worship is the Lord’s Naam, my mate;
the Naam also is my treasure.
(Todi, M. 5)
Gurbani is only about inner spiritual progress. Outer dress and form and symbols and hair, etc. is for another reason – identity, uniform, preserving the religion, but it has nothing to do with the inner spiritual journey.
We have nothing against the ones who want to follow the externals as part of their beliefs and religion, but understand from Gurbani that the externals have NO – ZERO – ZILCH spiritual value. Actually, nowadays 300 years after the tenth Guru ji, the externals have just become superstitious and ritualistic beliefs for many, many Sikhs. This may seem offensive to practising Sikhs to call their beliefs superstitious, but we used to follow all of these instructions as well and am talking from experience. What is a superstition, how does it come into being? We may laugh at someone who thinks it is bad luck if a cat crosses your path. But, if you go back far enough, there was a practical reason for that belief. In the past, people who lived near forests and saw a wild cat cross the road some distance ahead of them would stop for some time or change their route, why? Because they knew it was the habit of the wild cat to cross back over the road at sometime and if they continued walking it WOULD BE THEIR BAD LUCK to be eaten by the wild cat as it returned! So the whole village taught their children if a cat crosses your path cross the road go a different way. But hundreds of years later it makes no sense living in towns and cities when a domestic cat crosses your path to still believe that it is bad luck. The same thing happened at the Guru’s times when they saw religious Hindus or Muslims or Jains practising age old ceremonies and wearing of religious dress, like the Janyoo ceremony when Baba Nanak ji rejected wearing of the cotton thread saying how can it protect me when it cant even protect itself (it will break after washing etc). And to focus on earning the inner quality of COMPASSION rather than the distraction of external ceremonies and symbols.
And the same thing has happened with the religious symbols and dress that is worn by Sikhs nowadays. Take for example the Kirpan, this used to be a three foot sword worn by the Sikh warriors. The Kacherra (shorts) were made of coarse and very wide at waist material so it made lots of folds and extended down over the knees as they doubled as comfortable and protective saddle-pants when riding the horses. They were very practical for the Warrior Sikhs. But after the British ruled India they wanted to take the power of the warrior Sikhs away and banned three foot long swords. So now three hundred years later you have most Sikh religious people wearing a small blunt dagger under their shirt with no idea how to use it and a Kacherra that is like a boxer shorts so its comfortable under their trousers. On top of that, they are told these 5Ks are part of their body so cannot be taken off at anytime – even during bathing or flights, so it causes all kinds of problems nowdays – just to uphold beliefs that have no practical purpose anymore. But in order to make people still wear them, they cannot say they are for practical purposes, so instead say they are for spiritual and symbolic purpose only. This is how something that was never meant to be spirutal nor symbolic, has been redefined over the centuries. Please read the following for a fuller list of superstitious beliefs many Sikhs are being told to follow nowadays (as we were told as well) by the religious elders, “Freedom From Religious Superstitions.”
Only “gun” – divine virtues, are going to be of any use for inner spiritual progress. Baba Nanak ji says in JapJi Sahib which you read everyday, as to what is really important :
“Bin gun keetay bhagat na hoi
Without divine virtues there is no bhagti.”
God Bless All.
Singh: We cut down the forests of Mother Earth, and we cut that Shakti (power) of life when we cut down the forest of our body. It’s like me getting a lion and cutting off its mane or whiskers. It just doesn’t look right. Inner and outer are IK (One).
Sargun Nirgun Nirankar Sun Samadhi Ap.
Form and Formless are One. Word and Form are One.
Naam doesnt not exist it in outer space, it all exists in Form, one is literally the word, one is the human body, that is created in the image of God. God’s image is also Her name.
Preeto: A few points:
1) You know the story of Samson and how he lost his power when his hair was cut, would the same happen to a person who kept their hair for spiritual reasons, but due to disease or an attack they lost their hair? Would they lose all their power too? Would the life force inside them diminish? If that was true then Bhai Taru Singh Ji who was scalped alive should have been a spiritual wreck, no he was a divine soul showing the power of Naam, of Puran Sat – complete Truth, with which he was 100% merged made him unshakeable, permanent and forever stable in Truth (ATAL AVASTHA), no matter what happened to his physical body.
The same is true for the other divine souls who were tortured and cut joint by joint like Bhai Mati Das ji, or boiled alive or wrapped in cotton wool and slowly burnt alive in front of the ninth Guru, who himself stayed absorbed in ATAL AVASTHA whilst giving his own head. All these stories of these divine souls are now twisted by the religion to promote “they gave their heads but not their outer religion.”
We went to a Sikh youth camp and the young Sikhs were told in very strong terms that these divine souls died to preserve the Sikh religion, died for us, and how did we repay them? Just by forgetting their sacrifices and cutting hair without a care. This type of preaching is misusing the great sacrifices of these divine souls in order to use guilt and fear of being punished by God to bring people into the Sikh religion and wear the externals with some sense that they are the only true ones who are preserving the memories of the past divine souls.
The Truth is that these divine souls had completely surrendered their mind, body and wealth to their SatGuru. In the course of their own inner bhagti they had already sacrificed their ego and only Naam – Puran Sat, was running them. And then as per the Hukam, Divine order for them in their time and place, giving their physical body or scalp or joints was in order to show the power of Puran Sat as they did not scream or run and blame God or question him “why me?”. Their sacrifices should show the whole world the power of Puran Sat, of the Naam, the power of God that is within all of us and can be realised through Guru’s Eternal blessings.
Dassan Dass ji said, “That is the biggest mistake in preaching at Gurdwaras, that they think the Gurus and Sikhs made sacrifices for the sake of their future generations, for the seva of keeping the Gurdwaras going. So people now are told to follow Sikhism as they owe something for the past sacrifices that were made for them. The Guru Jis made sacrifice for the seva of God, they followed the Hukam that came to them for the seva of complete Truth (Puran Sat). When Guru Arjun Dev ji sat on the hot plate, God was showing through him, that there is so much POWER in Puran Sat that not even a hot plate can do anything.”
But, because many Sikhs nowadays are not merged in the Naam, but only identifying with the stories and externals of the past divine souls, then if their externals were lost or hair was cut, then what would definitely happen is that their mind and emotions would be severely disturbed as their sense of self is deeply rooted in the externals (and that is where you are speaking from when you say “doesn’t look right”).
But, you forget that your life force is forever stable, that’s why it is called the Truth, and that’s why Gurbani tells us to merge our consciousness into the TRUTH part of our self (NAAM SIMRAN). Only then we can never lose our power (Infinite Divine Power of Naam). We can never become unstable no matter what happens on the outside. Only then we have truly honoured the memory of the past divine souls by becoming like them on the inside, not just a hollow photocopy – looking like them on the outside but empty inside of Naam and good deeds.
Gurbani says that Naam is such thing that a thief cant steal it from us, that water cant drown it, that fire cant burn it.
I’ve assembled in my heart the capital of the Lord’s Name.
O God, whomsoever Thou bless with it, is emancipated.
This treasure is neither burnt nor stolen, nor drowned nor punished.
(Maru, M. 1)
When we are stable in Naam, we can lose our whole body, lose our hair, lose our religious dress, lose our respect in society, lose our religion too, but we are not a loser, because our consciousness is absorbed in TRUTH, that is what NAAM does. That is what has happened to us since leaving the Sangat of religious Sikhs, we have cut our hair – not out of vanity, but just to remove the external identity, that meant we lost our respect in the Sikh community and our family, we went hhrough all of the mental and emotional upheavals, but the SAT GURU Ji’s GRACE, SAT NAAM SAT GURU’S LOTUS FEET have saturated our Hirdha (heart centre).
2) “Sargun Nirgun Nirankar Sun Samadhi Ap.” – Guru Arjun Dev Ji.
Please read “Astpadi 21: Mahima of Sargun Nirgun” by Dassan Dass ji for a deep, divine explanation. But briefly, Sargun is the form of God around us including our body and mind, but running under the net of Maya. Nirgun is God beyond Maya, the Formless One – Nirankar. When you meditate upon the Guru’s feet who gave you Naam, then you also go beyond Maya’s net and experience Samadhi and ultimately Sunn Samadhi, which is just Him Himself (Sunn Samadhi Aap) – no sense of ME & GOD, just One Formless God.
At the deepest part of you is your soul, called the nothingness (SUNN KLAA – complete silence), that is where God Himself is absorbed in deepest meditation SUNN SAMADHI. That is a completely different dimension that a normal person has no access to. That is the Realm of Truth (SACH KHAND) contained within your own HIRDHA, spiritual heart. Around that is the ASTAL (ENERGY) BODY (Sukhshum Sareer/Dehi), the MENTAL BODY, THE EMOTIONAL BODY and the PHYSICAL BODY (Sareer/Dehi).
As a person we have a sense of self, and we spend most of our time either involved in those four bodies. When you are concerned with things of the physical body – looks (including religious looks like long hair, beautiful beard), dress (including 5Ks, blue uniform), diets (including religious vegetarian or avoiding halal and eating only chatka), body-building (including wanting to be warrior Sikh), etc. etc. then that is where your consciousness is stuck.
It is the same for the other BODIES too. Everyone is stuck in some consciousness or the other regardless if it is under the guise of religion or the world. When you are discussing what to eat or not, it only effects your physical body. When you discuss what to wear or not; or hair to keep or not, still it is only the level of the physical body.
When we live in anger, greed or attachments or fears or hatred then that is level of the emotional body. When we listen to audio Kirtan and stories of the past Gurus and they move us inside – still it is only the level of the emotional body. When you study the religious texts and become a scholar and know what is wrong and right and can debate all day and night, you are at the level of the mental body.
Still these are all part of MAYA and no further than DHARAM KHAND – first realm on the path to spiritual union (please read “Journey To Sach Khand”) . Only when you meet a Sant-Guru as per your great good -fortune as blessed by God Himself then He places the Naam in your astral body.
Bhaag hoa gur sant milaayaa.
Prabh abinaasee ghar meh paaiaa.
By great good fortune I met the Sant-Guru
and I realised the indestructible Lord
within my own house (inside your hirdha / heart centre).
Guru Ram Das ji
Your astral body is where the accumulation of all your deeds is, like black stains on a white cloth. Gurbani calls it
janam janam key mayl
The karmic filth of lifetime upon lifetime.
This karmic filth manifests as Dukh (physical pain and mental suffering) in our current lifetime. Which is why Guru Nanak Dev ji says:
aapay beej aapay he kao.
You reap what you sow.
But, if we are blessed then our pain and suffering, our Dukhs can lead us to the Sangat of the holy who bless us with the Naam. That is why Baba Nanak ji says:
Dukh daru such rog bhaaya, ja such tum na hoi
Suffering is the medicine, pleasures had become the disease.
Whilst there were pleasures YOU were not there.
When you focus on Naam by doing Simran and praising God under the blessings of the Sants, you are cleaning up your astral body
Sant jana mil har jas gaaio, kot janam kay dukh gavaaio
Meeting the Sants sing the praises, countless lifetimes’ pain is erased.
– Guru Arjun Dev ji.
Whose sin is washed not off, if they utter the Naam?
For, every sinner is purified by the mere utterance of the Naam of my God.
(Todi Bhagat Nam Dev)
Your consciousness resides more and more at this level and comes out of the body, mind and emotions that is has been completely saturated in.
Kaam krodh lobh moh munn leenaa.
Bandhaan kaat mukat gur keena.
The mind was completely absorbed in lust, anger, greed, attachments,
cutting these entanglements the Guru has freed me.
– Guru Arjun Dev ji.
When your efforts in Naam Simran and complete surrender at your Sant-Guru’s feet are accepted, your astral body shines like a golden Buddha (Kanchin sovinaa), you will be saturated in in the inner Amrit (life-force/divine energy), your chakras and energy pathways are open, the SHAKTI (power of God) flows through from the soul part into your ASTRAL BODY and overflows into your physical body which others see as light (MUKH UJALAY) around your body, which others feel as energy (NAAM AMRIT) emanating from you.
har amrit bhinnae loeinaa man praem rathanaa raam raajae ||
man raam kasavattee laaeiaa kanchan sovinnaa ||
guramukh rang chalooliaa maeraa man thano bhinnaa ||
jan naanak musak jhakoliaa sabh janam dhhan dhhannaa ||1||
My eyes are wet with the Nectar of the Lord, and my mind is imbued with His Love, O Lord King.
The Lord applied His touch-stone to my mind, and found it one hundred per cent gold.
As Gurmukh, I am dyed in the deep red of the poppy,
and my mind and body are drenched with His Love.
Servant Nanak is drenched with His Fragrance;
blessed, blessed (Dhan Dhan) is his entire life. ||1||
The outer form, the outer religion, the outer kirtan and katha and sangat is all helpful in the beginning to get us disciplined , to get us out of our MAYA saturated MIND, but until we get the Grace of God through the Sant-Guru He is manifested in, get the SANT PARSAAD, and get the seed of NAAM planted in our astral body, our inner journey has not even begun.
The Lord hath created myriads of species,
But he alone meets the Guru on whom is the Lord’s Grace;
His sins are washed off and he is made pure,
And at the True Door, he is made Beauteous by Naam.
(Guru III, Majh Rag)
God Bless All.
Singh: Sounds brilliant, but you make it seem as if the ten Guru’s had a crew cut and were beardless, and didn’t have an outward expression of the inner naam and were not artists. The Guru’s had logic they also had art and they expressed the ineffable One through the Sikh form. You also make it seem that the Tenth Guru did not command his Sikhs to keep kesh, which he did. If I apply your logic about kesh to naam itself, then if someone forgets naam would they die, no they obviously are still alive, the same applies to kesh.
Also stop being so hard on Maya – Maya is in the mind, Maya is not the Universe. We are not Yogi’s looking for mukti, we are lovers being in the one stream or hukam of the Divine One. The world and universe is the face of God, as are all people and life forms. Ik Oankar – Uni – Verse -Sati Nam . This completeness is symbolised by the beautiful uncut streaming kesh of the Khalsa. Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa Vahiguru ji ki fateh!
Preeto: Veer ji,
1) We have not said anything about how the Dhan Dhan Guru Sahibs or the Bhagats looked and dressed, we have only said what is their teachings in Gurbani. And Gurbani is the same Truth, the same core all of the Gurus and Bhagats and Saints since then have also had, regardless of what their outer expression was. Truth is the same within all, but outer expression is different as per the time and place, language, culture and situation that each of the Sants, Guru, Bhagats were in. Even though we are surrounded by pictures of Dhan Baba Nanak Ji wearing a turban and religious garbs, these are all artist impressions created centuries after Baba Nanak left his earthly body. Baba Nanak actually writes he had no particular religious garb, and there are stories that Baba Nanak ji would dress as the people of the place he visited e.g. as a Muslim when he entered Mecca otherwise they wouldn’t have let him in. All that mattered for him was NAAM:
I know of no other contemplation nor wisdom,
nor wear any garbs,
nor force my will,
for the Lord’s Name that abides the eternal Truth, I’ve seized upon.
(Bilawal, M. 1)
What Guru Gobind Singh Ji did at his time and place, in the language and culture and belief systems at his time and place was also Dhan Dhan. As was what Baba Nanak ji did, as what Jesus did , as what the wide and varied 15 different Bhagats in Gurbani did. And also as what Sants, Gurus, Bhagats, and others are doing right now in the world in whichever situation they find themself. The Truth within when it manifests in their heart is the same ONE, and it is that which is called SAT and it that which is the GURU that reaches others through the body in the time and place it is in.
Har Jug Jug Bhagt upaaiyaa paij rakhdaa aaiyaa ram rajay.
God sends his Bhagats in each and every Age and protects their honour.”
Guru Ram Das Ji
In this Dark Age (Kali Yug) the Lord’s Name is unmanifest,
(even though) the Lord fills all hearts.
The Jewel of the Name becomes manifest
to those who surrender to the refuge of the Guru.
(Prabhati, M. 3)
2) You said :” if someone forgets naam would they die, no they obviously are still alive,” In Gurbani, Dhan Baba Nanak ji
Akha jeeva visray mar jao, akhan aukh sacha nao.
Remembering the Naam I live, forgetting it I die.
It is hard to remember the name of Truth.
Baba Nanak Ji.
It is not written if I keep my hair I live, if I cut it I die. According to Gurbani the whole world is dying without Naam, everyone’s life force (AMRIT) is being drained by the five thieves, that is why they are called thieves, they steal your AMRIT. It is a slow death, sickness of mind (Mansik Rog – negativity, complaints, desires, religious pride, etc. etc. eats away inside). Without Naam everyone is dying this slow death, with Naam one becomes rejuvenated
Nanak naam milay ta jeeva tunn munn teevay hariaa.
Nanak says reciting the Naam I LIVE and my mind and body become rejuvinated.
Baba Nanak Ji.
3) You said: “Maya is in the mind, Maya is not the Universe” – Maya is the energy that runs the mind through its three parts – rajo, sato and tamo. These three parts of Maya also run the universe – Brahma , Shiva, Vishnu energies. The whole physical creation, including the physical body, the mind and emotions is all part of MAYA. God is beyond Maya – Niranjan – means beyond Maya. Baba Nanak Ji says that God created Maya and gave birth to the three energies Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu from which the whole creation is running/sustaining/dying at every moment.
Ika maaee jugat viaaee tin chele parvaan.
Ik sansaree ik bandhari ik lae deeban.
The One and Maya united to create three accepted disciples.
One is the creator, one the destroyer and one the sustainer.
Baba Nanak Ji – Jap Ji.
You also said, “stop being so hard on Maya”. Fighting with Maya is the ONLY fight that Gurbani wants us to win. Defeating your own ego is the only priority, including defeating pride of your religion. Only the one who has done that is called a warrior by Gurbani.
Focusing your energies on fighting with the world for the sake of saving the name and memory and dress of Guru Gobind Singh ji is not what any of the Gurus asked any of us to do. They said “koee nao na janay mera – may no one know my name.”
So in order to truly honour the Gurus, do what they said, put Gurbani into pracise and don’t make your spiritual path merely about fighting for their honour. They don’t need us to fight for their honour. God Himself protects the honour of his Bhagats “payj rakhday aaiyaa raam rajay.” The Guru’s honour is in delivering our soul to God because we honoured their teachings, earned them and defeated Maya within ourself. Please read this article by Dassan Dass Ji – “Bandagi – Waging War Against Maya.”
4) “We are not Yogi’s looking for mukti, we are lovers being in the one stream or hukam of the Divine One.” Agreed – Guru Arjun Dev ji says
Amrita Priya bachan tuharay.
Raj na chau mukat na chau man preet charan kamalaray.
Your Divine words are saturated in Amrit my Beloved.
I seek not kingdoms nor liberation, only the love of your lotus feet.
We are not looking for mukti through yogic techniques or penances or long stubborn meditations or ritualist practises. But through our love for the Lotus feet (divine words and Naam as well as physical feet) of our Satguru, we merge in the Truth and Mukti comes as well. Because all Mukti means is freedom from the three parts of Maya that are running our mind. When you defeat Maya within yourself, you go into the heart of God, the soul part.
5) “The world and universe is the face of God, as are all people and life forms.” Yes this is true for the SANT, for the one who realised the Truth within themself, they dont see this or state it, they live it, breathe it feel it as a connection of oneness inside them with everything around them. But for everyone running under three parts of Maya, they will not experience that. That is why Guru Arjun Dev ji writes that the diseased one (mansik rog) sees all as diseased, the one in pleasure thinks all are enjoying pleasures, but neither knows the Truth.
That is why in beginning of Asa-Dee-Var Baba Nanak ji writes that everything is false – wife is false, king is false, because when your mind is saturated in Maya, then when you get the Gian first you start seeing that everything is all false, so you start waking up. “Jag re mun tu jaganhaaraa ..o mind wake up, you are capable of waking up.”
Shalok, First Mehl:
False is the king, false are the subjects; false is the whole world.
False is the mansion, false are the skyscrapers; false are those who live in them.
False is gold, and false is silver; false are those who wear them.
False is the body, false are the clothes; false is incomparable beauty.
False is the husband, false is the wife; they mourn and waste away.
The false ones love falsehood, and forget their Creator.
With whom should I become friends, if all the world shall pass away?
False is sweetness, false is honey; through falsehood, boat-loads of men have drowned.
Nanak speaks this prayer: without You, Lord, everything is totally false. ||1||
But when you have have received His Eternal Blessings, the Gurparsaad, and then earned the Naam and realised the Truth within , only then can you truly understand it when Baba Nanak ji says in Asa-Dee-Var later on that everything is now true.
Shalok, First Mehl:
True are Your worlds, True are Your solar Systems.
True are Your realms, True is Your creation.
True are Your actions, and all Your deliberations.
True is Your Command, and True is Your Court.
True is the Command of Your Will, True is Your Order.
True is Your Mercy, True is Your Insignia.
Hundreds of thousands and millions call You True.
In the True Lord is all power, in the True Lord is all might.
True is Your Praise, True is Your Adoration.
True is Your almighty creative power, True King.
O Nanak, true are those who meditate on the True One.
Those who are subject to birth and death are totally false. ||1||
And who realises the Truth?
Sach ta par jaaniyaa je sachaay naal pyaar,
nao sunn mun rahseeaa tao pao mokh duar.
Only those realise the Truth who love the True One,
absorbed in His Naam they obtain the door to salvation.”
Baba Nanak Ji in Asa-Dee-Var.
6) You wrote “This completeness is symbolised by the beautiful uncut streaming kesh of the Khalsa”. We agree that the long hair and beard of the Sikhs is very beautiful, what Guru Gobind Singh ji did was very beautiful, but you are only looking at outer beauty again and we all know of beautiful people who are ugly inside. What was beautiful to the Gurus is what you are inside.
God is neither pleased by making music, nor by recitation of the Vedas;
Nor through Yoga, nor by becoming all-knowing,
Nor by abiding ever in sadness;
Nor through beauty, possessions and revelries;
Nor by wandering naked at the pilgrim-stations,
Nor by offering alms in charity,
Nor by sitting out, alone, in wilderness,
Nor by dying as a warrior on the battle-field,
Nor by rolling in dust.
God takes only that into account that one loves with the whole mind,
And if one is imbued with the true Name (of God).
(Var of Sarang, M. 4)
“Pooran jyot jagay ghat meh tab khaalis tahi nikhaalis janaay.
The one who who the perfect divine light manifested in their heart,
that one is KHALSA (PURE DIVINE LIGHT), otherwise NO ONE IS KHALSA.”
Guru Gobind Singh Ji.
It is not good trying to look like the past Guru’s and to copy their external lifestyle – clothes, diet, riding on horses, carrying of weapons and so on, but not having conquered your five thieves and desires i.e. Maya. That doesn’t fool God who is only looking at you from the inside of your heart, there will be no manifestion of divine Light in a heart like that. External dress and diet in the name of copying the past Guru’s may only fool the ones who look at you from the outside. Baba Nanak ji wasn’t impressed with religious copycats.
Inwardly our hearts are dark but outwardly we appear bright;
We pretend to copy those who wait on the Lord at His gate,
And are absorbed in the Lord, enjoying the utmost bliss.
Guru I, Sri Rag
God Bless all.
Singh: Nanak naam mila ta jeeva, tan man theevey haria. Mind and body blossom.
Preeto: ”Mind and body blossom.” – yes, when you have blessings of naam, and do your naam simran, your inner amrit starts flowing through your seven chakras and energy channels and flows into your mind and body, to heal you, refresh you, bring you into peace.
Singh: Gurmukh rom rom har dhiaveh.
Preeto: Yes rom rom is each and every atom and cell of your body (not just hair as it gets commonly translated), everything pulsating in Naam, and the Gurmukh experiences that, the Gurmukh is the one who has defeated Maya.
Singh: Gurmukh, literally Guru face………..with the inner and outer face to and of the Guru, who is Guru Nanak Gobind Granth Panth Sahib. Who cannot hide but stands as a lion in a world of sheepishness.
Preeto: Veer ji,
1) “Gurmukh, literally Guru face”, actually the language of Gurbani is called “Gurmukhi”, and Dhan Guru Amar Das ji says that the one in whom there is no difference between what gurbani says and what they do, is the Gurmukh.
The Gurmukh is the walking , talking, living breathing manifestation of GURBANI. Only the one who has killed their ego by surrendering to the Guru’s divine word (Shabad Maraay) can be called Gurmukh – only they have defeated their five thieves and escaped Maya’s net, and only Naam saturates them.
It is by dying, through the Guru’s Word, while yet alive that the Lord’s
Name abides in the mind.
(Sri Rag, M. 3)
2) “Bana is the outer freedom” – actually it is the exact opposite. A wild animal is running completely free, naked, in the hukam. A person who is told what to wear and what not to wear, what colours to wear, what colours not to wear, etc. is not free at all. And when creating an Army, that’s what you want – control, complete control, limited personal choice. God bless All.
Singh: Bana and Bani are the two wings on the bird. Bani is inner freedom, bana is the outer freedom. They allow us to fly through physical and spiritual realms. The bana is also naam, wearing it changes us inside…..as the one whose form it was, Guru Gobind Singh is naam, vaho vaho gobind singh ape gur chela.
“Atam ras jo janhi soi khalas dev prabh mai mohi mai tas mai ranchak nahi bhev.”
Between Vahiguru, Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh is no difference.
Hence why Gareeb niwaz kalgidhar, took amrit from Panj Khalsa, panch parvaan panch pardhan, panch kakkar.
Which the Tenth Nanak says,
“na mai ranch mittia bhakhi, Parbrahm Gur Nanak sakhi,
on forming Khalsa I, Guru Gobind Singh, have not made this Khalsa up,
this was ordained by Parbrahm Guru Nanak.
Preeto: Veer ji,
1) “Bana and bani are the two wings on the bird.” we have heard that many times too, its not in Bani though, just a common saying. Actually Bani is from the Hirdha (heart chakra) of the Sant-Gurus – from the Nothingness – “dhur kee bani aaee.” It is not a wing, it is complete Truth – Puran Sat all in itself, it is complete and perfect in itself and the one who follows it, surrenders to it, absorbs themself into it, merges into the Formless One it came from – Waho waho bani nirankaar ha.
2) Bana is just the outer wrapping. Gurbani has come through the Hirdha of 15 different Bhagats in Gurbani and 6 different Guru’s who all had different Bana’s (outer dress/garbs) as they were from different times and places and languages and even they have said their outer garb is meaningless if you are sinful inside.
O Farid, on thy shoulder is the prayer-mat, on thy body a Sufi’s garb,
in thy mouth honey, and daggers in thy heart !
You see light from without, but I see thy heart is utter Dark !
(Shlokas of Farid)
Farid: Black is thy dress and black thy grown,
But sinful is thy within: and yet they call thee a God’s man !
(Shlokas of Farid)
3) “The bana is also naam” – this is not written anywhere by the Gurus or Bhagts in Gurbani. No outer thing is classed as Naam. Naam is part and parcel of God Himself, the One who never dies, Naam also never dies, never perishes. How can something that is perishable – BANA – then be Naam?
4) “Guru Gobind Singh is naam, vaho vaho gobind singh ape gur chela.”
There is an important thing to understand and that is SAT is the NAAM, SAT is the GURU. So the SAT that was manifested inside the hirdha of Dhan Guru Gobind Singh was the Naam. The Naam was not the body of Guru Gobind Singh Ji and not the name Guru Gobind Singh ji. When they left their earthly body, they left their worldy name as well. They merged back into SAT. When you do as they instruct and do simran on the Naam, you are automatically remembering all of the ones that SAT has manifested as.
But, if you start remembering and worshipping the earthly body and worldly name of any Guru, then you ARE NOT remembering the One God Named Truth anymore. You are focusing on the one that was sent. And that is no different from the ones who are worshipping countless demi-gods as well as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. They all got themselves worshipped INSTEAD of the One God who sent them. This has become a big thing in most religions that they have started worshipping their founder, rather than the NAAM that was inside them. This is why the Guru’s themselves have said in Gurbani
Tudh agay ardas hamaree
Jeeo pind sabh tera.
Kahu nanak sabh teree vadaaaee,
koee nao na janaay mera.
Infront of you Lord I offer this prayer,
This body and soul are yours.
Nanak says all is Your glory,
(so) may no one know my name.”
And Guru Gobind Singh ji himself wrote that anyone who calls me as God will go to hell.
“Those who call me God, will fall into the deep pit of hell.
Regard me as one of his slaves and have no doubt whatever about it.
I am a servant of the Supreme Being;
and have come to behold the wonderful drama of life.”
But, in Gurbani it also says in many place that the Divine Guru is Supreme God, e.g.
“Gurdev satgur parbrahm parmesar
gurdev nanak har namaskara.
The Divine Guru is the SAT Guru
is the SUPREME TRANSCENDENT LORD,
Nanak bows to the DIVINE GURU.”
This is referring to the manifested NAAM, the SAT part that is the actual GURU, and not the physical body, wrapped in physical Bana and identified by a physical name that the SAT GURU had.
In simple terms, to understand this, God beyond Creation is Supreme, but when God manifests in the heart inside the Creation, He is the Lowest of All come here only to serve his creation. Baba Ji explained to us that the Supreme God, Creator of the Universe, is known as SAT PARBRAHM – TRUTH the SUPREME GOD, and the manifested God inside the Hirdha in the creation is always known as SAT RAM DAS –TRUTH the slave of God.
That is why all of the Sat Guru’s only called themself as lowest of the low, slave of Truth, slave of the slave’s of God. The SAT part of the GURUs is the manifested Naam. And being part and parcel of God, it is formless, nameless, colourless, without garb, without any physical mark. Guru Gobind Singh ji wrote it himself in the Jaap Sahib you read everyday,
God is without any mark, quoit, colour, caste or creed.
No one can give any explanation of His form, dress, outline and complexion.
God’s form is stable, He is self-illuminated, with immeasurable power.
God is the king of millions of kings, and the King of kings of gods.
God is the Lord of three worlds (land, air, water) not only gods, men and demons,
but the whole vegetable world announces that none is equal and alike God.
None can utter all of Your names.
Only the wise call you by your blessed Naam.
When they left their physical body, they left everything that wrapped the body (bana, 5Ks, long hair etc), they merged back into the SAT that they were part and parcel of.
When you recite SAT NAAM you are honouring all of the Guru’s and Bhagats and saints who have ever manifested SAT in this creation in their heart. Then you identify your consciousness with TRUTH and go into BLISS OF TRUTH CONSCIOUSNESS (SAT CHIT ANAND). But, if instead of identifying with Naam, if you just identify with the physical things of the Guru and wrongly call them the Naam, then you have made them into God and will trap yourself in lower realms of consciousness – hell.
“Those who call me God, will fall into the deep pit of hell.
Regard me as one of his slaves and have no doubt whatever about it.
5)
“Atam ras jo janhi soi khalas dev prabh mai mohi mai tas mai ranchak nahi bhev.
Between God, Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh is no difference”
Yes there is no difference in the LIGHT of GOD , inside God, Guru and the Khalsa (one who has light of God manifested in them – pooran jyot).
The one who experiences ATAM RUS – SOUL BLISS – SAT CHIT ANAND is the KHALSA. That is the One Dhan Dhan Guru Gobind Singh ji is saying there is no difference between him, them and God. NO DIFFERENCE INSIDE – ONE JYOT ONE LIGHT. If you are using these quotes to justify being the same as Guru Gobind Snigh ji on the outside, then that is not the right interpretation.
Each person, Sant, Guru, Bhagat will be different on the outside because everyone has different karma and life experiences, but when the Divine Light, the Truth manifests inside, then that is the one and the same TRUTH – SAT. That is the IK that unifies us all, not the outer looking the same as each other and looking the same as our Guru.
What Dhan Dhan Guru Gobind Singh ji did was create an Army as was his Hukam from God to do so and gave army rules, army uniform and army discipline because that is how you control masses of people going into battle. It has nothing to do with their inner spiritual state.
Khalsa akal Purakh Kee Fauj.
Khalsa Parmathma Kee Mauj.
Khalsa is Imortal God’s Army.
Khalsa is Supreme God’s pleasure.
God bless all.
Singh:
Nothing is born nothing perishes, you’re quoting from Adi Guru Granth Sahib, if you took Dasam Granth Sahib, and Sarbloh Granth sahib into account, you would think differently. Mysticism and spiritulity is a lot more than an objective view that everything external is a barrier to naam. Guru Nanak did not condemn rituals or outer garb, but those that are empty of naam.
Sometimes rituals can take us into inner awareness. The Guru who gave me mulmantra and gurmantra and naam, also gave me bani and bana. It works for me, I love it. I love my beard and hair, and see it as a gift. You might not, and may feel its a burden, or unimportant. To me it is the Gurus mohar (stamp), one that many died to keep, including his sons. In the machine and science age, its even more necessary. The whole world has been educated into english and “pent shirt suit boot” and cutting of hair. I even though the dust of all your feet, will not be enslaved in the passive aggressive colonial monster. I’m free and my kesh and kirpan show it. Peace.
Preeto: Veer ji, “Guru Nanak did not condemn rituals or outer garb, but those that are empty of naam.” – Yes, “naam binna sabh mithya – without naam all is temporary.” And with Naam everything you do as Gurmukh is dhan dhan – blessed, blessed.
Burnt be those rituals and formalities,
Whereby I forget my Beloved Lord.
Man practices rituals in order to control his body,
Yet his mind wanders in all directions.
(Guru III, Vadhans Rag)
So what did Baba Nanak ji see around him – mostly ancient religions that had lost the core of Naam and just the empty shell of rituals , supersitions, man-made belief systems, identification with religion which in turn led to animosity, hatred and so on. So he placed the Naam back at the core of people’s hearts through his Eternal Blessings – GurParsaad. He served one and all as lowest of the low –
Nanak dassan dass ka dass
Nanak is the slave of the slave of God’s slave.
He lifted people out of rituals and lower consciousness and into Truth consciousness through Naam Simran.
Rises then the Devotee above ritual, above the domain of mind,
And is awake to the knowledge that the Lord Knows all.
(Sri Rag M. 1)
Being the highest in God’s Realm, He served as the lowest in this Earth realm
Eeha ka neech dargah ka ooch.
Lowest here is highest in God’s court.
Guru Arjun Dev ji.
Dhan Baba Nanak ji never even called himself as anything but low eg,
Hau dadee ka neech jaat hor utam jaat saddiyaaday.
I am a low caste singer, only others claim to be something high class.
Dhan Baba Nanak ji served the Truth wherever He went on the dish of humility. His love, supreme love won over even the stone-hearted murderers (Sajjan Tug) and cannibals (Kauda Rakash) and selfish kings (Raja Shivnabh). You know the stories. The reason we are mentioning it is because along with NAAM extreme HUMILITY is the key to God’s court – Dargah, within your own heart.
Baba Nanak ji says it as well:
Meetath neevay nanka gunn chungaayaa tat.
Staying lowly/humble is sweet, it is the essence of all divine virtues.
The ones who merge into the NAAM through their extreme humbleness, gareebee ves hirdha, become Pargatyo Jyot – God’s Divine Light manifests within them. Guru Arjun Dev ji says :
Charan kamal ridhay antar dharay, pargatio jyot milay raam pyare.”
Cherishing the Guru’s feet in your heart,
the Divine Light manifests inside these extremely beloved ones of God.
That Divine Light is called the TRUTH – SAT, that is the NAAM that is then distributed through the SAT GURU’s ETERNAL BLESSINGS – GURPARSAAD.
God manifested in the heart of the Bhagats and Gurus is the SANT GURU. The heart is the SANT. And all of Gurbani is in praise of the PARGATYO JYOTs wether they are called SANT, HAR JAN, BRAHMGIANI OR KHALSA. Guru Gobind Singh ji wrote :
Pooran jyot jagay ghat meh tab khaalas tahi nikhaalas jaanay.
The one within whose heart the DIVINE LIGHT MANIFESTS is the KHALSA
otherwise recognise no one else as KHALSA.”
Guru Arjun Dev ji writes that everything of his belongs to these SANTS –
Tunn santan ka munn santan ka dhan santan ka
Body is the Sants, mind is the Sants, wealth is the Sants.
And so much more in gurbani in praise of SANT HIRDHAS (read Sukhmani Bani) – these are the ones within whom GOD is the SANT, the manifested Divine Light is within their heart, Gurbani has come true for them and only them. Their heart is pure as God itself, that is what is Khalsa.
And skip forwards to Dhan Guru Gobind Singh ji who wrote that he has come into the world to “protect the SANTS and destroy the TYRANTS.” And we understand the spirit you are writing with to stand up against the falseness we see all around us and stand for something that is TRUE and beyond that. But look around at the falseness it is at the heart of the religion now. Everyone knows it but still goes through the motions of the religious rituals at the religious places. Do you see the Naam, the Eternally blessed Naam radiating from many faces nowadays? Or do you see another religion that has gone the way of the ancient religions that Baba Nanak saw around him? Do you see even the religious Sikhs “protecting the Sants” or have they become more like the tyrants that are anti anyone who becomes PARGATYO JYOT because they don’t look or act like what they think a Sikh should be like e.g. has cut hair, or people bow to them, or they give Naam without any need for initiation ceremonies or religious elders?
We never said it was a burden to wear the external bana, we wore them like you do for a long time, with the same spirit you have. But, the burden was to realise that what Dhan Baba Nanak ji to Guru Gobind Singh ji’s effort to create SANT HIRDHAS and to protect SANT HIRDHAS from all backgrounds, has gone mostly to waste nowadays, because now the so called religious ones think humility is a sign of weakness, that any Pargatyo Jyot must be a fake and must be attacked and destroyed in order to PROTECT THE (manmade) RELIGION. In the course or writing these replies to you we also received aggressive responses from a penji who thinks we are attacking her religion and then responds with hatred. She is just one of thousands who have this mindset within modern day Sikhsim. She was not born with any hatred, but given an identity and then the false need to protect the religion and it turns into hatred of anyone she sees is not like her, and only limited superficial “love” for only those who are part of her like-minded religious group.
That is why we stepped away from the externals, because they identified us with a group of people that no longer are living to the ideals of the Guru’s teaching to protect the SANTS, to make SANTS and to surrender to the SANTS. Who keep saying that only Guru Granth Sahib ji is their Guru but then don’t actually do 100% what Gurbani is saying, because they keep hatred in their heart and justify it by thinking they are warriors of the tenth Guru protecting the religion.
We never stepped away from the ten Gurus or Bhagats of Gurbani, we only strived to go deeper into their divine Gurbani – the light in this world –
Gurbani iss jag meh chanan ha.
Gurbani is the Light in this (Dark) world.
What most Sikhs are wearing and doing and behaving as now, is not a reflection of Guru Gobind Singh Ji because Sikhs nowadays have never met him in person so have no idea really and that is why they still argue about who’s group is following the right way. What majority of Sikhs of doing now is just a reflection of all the Sikhs that they have met or read about and are surrounding them now. And all the in-fighting is always about external items – eg what to eat and what to wear (turban, bana, 5Ks), how long is the mool mantra, what technique to use when reciting the Gurmantr, how many pages in Guru Granth Sahib, who is giving the “real” initiation ceremony, who is following the “real” rehats (outer rules) of the tenth Guru? All is ego arguing with ego and has blinded those ones from the Truth that is sitting quietly inside Guru Granth Sahib ji, which we have strived to bring out and share with one and all in a simple way in a language everyone understands nowadays.
Singh: If u wanna believe in God be a mona . If u wanna experience God become a Singh full stop.
Preeto: Please look inside and ask yourself if what you have said has come true for you. Everything we have written is NOT our beliefs it is what has come true for us under the Eternal Blessings of our Sant Guru Sat Naam Baba Ji and Dassan Dass Ji and all Ten Gurus and Bhagats. The title of this topic “mona” vs “singh” is AGAINST the teaching of Guru Granth Sahib ji, and also in Guru Gobind Singh ji’s Darbar all walks of life were welcome, as is also symbolised by the four doors of Harmandir Sahib, as is the reason for including 15 (non-sikh / non – SINGH) bhagtas in Gurbani. Be a Singh for the right reasons, be a Light in the world where all are welcome, be open minded, that is the first step of being Gurmukh.
But, for all the Truth we have told with His blessings, you still don’t understand, or don’t want to understand. Baba Ji explained that without GurParsaad, Guru’s Eternal Blessings, no one can understand SatNaam.
The egotist is Blind; for his Conscience is Awakened not.
He is the Killer of himself and so also the Killer of the world.
(Majh M. 3)
Please read the following by Dassan Dass ji with an open mind : Discussion with a Sikh elder.
God bless all.