Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Why chant Vaheguru Mantra - Sikhs Vaheguru Simran GurMantar

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh

Today specifically, I want to focus on what in Sikhi is called the "Gurmantar" and that is Vaheguru

How is this a Gurmantar?

Well, we hear from Bhai Gurdas ji

who is a Sikh historian and a poet and also somebody who stayed with a lot of the Gurus and

He's given the honor by Guru Arjan Dev Ji

of his works being called the "key" to Guru Granth Sahib ji the "kunji" (key).

Bhai Gurdas ji tells us that

"Vaheguru gurmantar hai, Jap Haumai khoe"

He says the Vaheguru, the word, is the Gurmantar

It could be called the Gurshabad

or it could be called the Gurmantar

By doing Naam Japna or Naam Simran of this Gurmantar,

you will lose your "haumai" (ego).

They were trying to become one with the Creator

and "haumai" (ego) is the biggest illness inside us

keeping us separate from our Creator

and that really is the point of Sikhi

is to get you away from the sense of separateness from your divine.

Now I don't want to get into the debate

about whether you can say Vaheguru before you take Amrit or not.

I know I said it before I took Amrit

And I know that other people, when I go to the Gurdwara, in Simran time

people who are not Amrithari are also doing Simran.

The key thing is that this is the Mantra given to us and it is not hidden.

One of the easiest ways to understand the chanting of Gurmantar

is from Sukhmani Sahib which says quite clearly

"Baarng Baar Baar Prabh Japiea, Pi Amrit Ehu Man Tan dhrapiea"

Again, again and again

"Baarng Baar Baar Prabh Japiea "

"Jap" which is to chant upon Vaheguru

again and again and again

Now one way to understand Naam Simran

would be to imagine, we're basically on this side of a wall

and the other side of the wall is the Creator

The ultimate reality and here's where we are within illusion.

So what Guru Sahib is saying is

effectively poke a hole in that wall

and then make it bigger

And Naam Simran and that connection with the divine is designed to make you do that.

From Gurbani there's also some lines that talk about how the mind itself

is filthy and needs to be washed.

Sukhmani Sahib it says

"Prabh ke Simran man ki mal jaae, Amrit Naam ridh mahe samaae"

So by doing Simran of Vaheguru of our "Prabh" (God),

the dirt of our mind gets washed away

The experience that we can't talk about which is strange

because I'm doing a little talk about it, right?

But having that mystical experience that Guru Sahib was talking about is

intrinsically linked to your "Dasam Duaar".

When I say the "Dasam" that means a tenth door

and "Dasam Duaar" being the point the top of the head

Simplistically, it could be called a door into your body

If you look at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eighth and ninth are down there

And then the final one is your "Dasam Duaar" up here.

Now in other faiths they have different names for this specific spot.

In Buddhism, it could be called the flowering spot of the thousand petal lotus.

In yoga, they call this the seventh chakra

Within this video we're gonna talk about

five ways of doing Naam Simran.

Some people do it one way, some people do it another way

This video is just trying to give a sample of five different ways

and any one of those could work for you.

There's no specifically one right way.

So let's do the first one.

So one way of saying Vaheguru

Is to say "Vahe - guru"

So we're saying "Vow-guru"

Now we're basically splitting up Vaheguru into two words

Vahe and Guru or Vaah-Guru

and Guru being our teacher being enlightener

and by this

what we're saying is the Guru is "wow"!

Yeah, not just Guru Nanak Dev ji as well

of course Guru Nanak Dev ji and all the Gurus are "wow"

but also Vaheguru is great.

So it's like a expression of "wow".

The second way of saying Vaheguru, is there are four syllables in there

"Va-he-Gu-ru"

So we're saying oh "Wow" with the first one "Va"

and then "he" is a very personal

Hey, you!

in nearly every language the word "He" is almost like calling someone.

Then "Gu" is darkness and "Ru" is light

So by saying Vaheguru, the four syllables very slowly and very separately,

you're basically describing a process.

You're saying "wow! When I meet you I go from darkness to light."

Similar to the one previously

but slightly different because you're not saying "wow" or "Vahe",

you're saying "Va-he-Gu-ru"

"Va-he-Gu-ru"

"Va-he-Gu-ru"

and just you're going through that.

So you're being enlightened by that process.

You're doing slowly and very "Sehaj Dhaj"

with each letter having a separate strength.

The third way of saying Vaheguru

is similar to the other one

But this time each syllable takes on a slightly different meaning.

This is the end for Bhai Gurdas ji when he talks about the four syllables of Vaheguru

First one starting with "vava" in punjabi then "haha"and then "gaga" and then "rara"

So these four syllables all correspond to a different age

The four ages Guru ji is talking about is such "Sat jug", "Treta", "Daupur" "Kal jug"

So we're in "Kal jug" right now, which is kind of the worst age to be ineffectively

It's the age of darkness

Guru Sahib is describing the situation where you've got a table with four legs.

When it's got four legs it's very stable

and at that point that's "Sat jug", the age of truth.

Everybody's enlightened.

Then the legs start breaking off.

You've got a "Treta" with three legs, bit unstable

and then the "Duapur" with two legs and now "Kal jug" has only got one leg

And Guru Sahib is saying this is the age we're in now.

So in "Sat jug" the word used by Vasudev

who was a Satguru at that time

and he gives everybody the mantra of Vishnu.

Then Bhai Gurdas ji says that in "Treta",

the Satguru was HarKrishan and he gave everybody in the Mantra of Hari

So this word "haha", Hari comes from there

Then he says that in Duapur

Ramji was the Satguru and he gave everybody the Mantra of Ram.

So "rara"

Then he says that in Kal Jug,

Guru Nanak is Satguru

and Guru Nanak gave everybody Govind.

This is "gaga"

He goes on to say that basically

combining all these four syllables into one Mantra,

is like a supreme Mantra effectively,

the one that covers all the four ages

Guru Sahib gives us this Vaheguru Mantra.

So what we're saying now is Va- He- Gu- Ru

We're stretching it out a little bit and it depends on the speed for you how you want to do it

By stretching it out what you're saying is each one

like a sound which is vibrating through your very being

and by tuning your mind to that sound that frequency,

you're effectively tuning into Vaheguru.

So we say Va-He-Gu-Ru

Va-He-Gu-Ru

and you can almost imagine this Mantra going through all the four ages

and each syllable corresponding to one age.

The fourth way of saying Vaheguru is to do it with your breath.

This is basically "Suaas Suaas Simran" and people have different ways of doing it.

Some people say Vahe on the in-breath and Guru on the out-breath

or some people say Vahe

on the out-breath and Guru on the in-breath.

Well if some Gudwara has a Naam Simran programme,

normally they do them early in the morning.

These formats as I've shown now,

people go through each one of them at different times

So sometimes it might go into Vahe-Guru Vahe-Guru Vahe-Guru

which is the fourth one, breath meditation.

And other times people might doing it very slowly and therefore saying

Vahe - Guru

Vahe - Guru

And the the fifth one which is kind of like a combination of these four

But basically it refers to calling someone

So at this point you're not thinking about using it as a Mantra with different meanings

All you're thinking about is calling your beloved.

So like Guru Gobind Singh ji in Akaal Ustat start saying Tuhi Tuhi Tuhi

Then he goes Tu Tu Tu Tu

This is the same thing when you're saying you you you

you're saying Vaheguru Vaheguru

Vaheguru Vaheguru Vaheguru Vaheguru Vaheguru

You're calling someone, it is your beloved.

It's the person who made you,

it's your father or your mother

It's your true love,

it's your true other half.

These are all names and attributes that we place upon Vaheguru.

We're just using this word to say them.

We're just calling out our beloved

If you look at even the Sikh greeting you say

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh

And so that word stops becoming only just Mantra

It becomes a name, so Naam

and that Naam has got a "ji" at the end.

Then you see other Mantras that say

Sat Naam Sri Vaheguru Sahib ji

So now Vaheguru has also become the name for Vaheguru

So for us is it's all those five things

There's no one right way of saying Vaheguru.

The key thing is that we connect to our creator

And then we actually try to become one with that creator

People have different opinions of what Nam is

But we also know that Naam is very very important to us

And even if you look at Guru Granth Sahib ji

the second word that comes to Guru Granth Sahib Ji

is Sat Naam and that Naam is very important.

Then if you look at the end of Jap Ji Sahib

It says, clearly again

"Jinni Naam Dhiaeaa, gea mas'kat ghaal"

So those people who do Naam,

who have concentrated and earned this Naam

they've actually achieved something and

their faces are bright when they go from this earth.

Then right at the end of Guru Granth Sahib ji again,

we know when Guru Granth Sahib ji is putting Mondavi, which is like a royal seal

and it says very clearly again that

you've got these three things in here

"Thaal vich tin vestu peio, Sat Santokh Vicharu, Amrit Naam takur ka peio, jis ka sabas adharo"

That Amrit Naam of the creator

is holding it all together

The last bit says

"Nanak Naam milei ta Jeeva, tan man thivei haria"

If I have this Naam then I live

and my whole mind and my body blossoms

Like we see barren earth and then it becomes green

and how beautiful that looks

compared to how it was before.

Naam is like this water which is life-giving to us

and then it also in Rehras Sahib

We see Guru ji saying

"Akha Jiva Viseri Mar Jaoo"

when I remember you that's when I'm alive, when I forget you I'm dead.

So connecting to that One is the real cake of Sikhi

That's the connection.

Then the icing on the cake might be the Roop and the Rehit and all these things.

And they're designed to help you actually to get a really lovely cake.

And what we're trying to do as a Sikh

is that obviously we have our "Saant Sipahi" ideal

So we're trying to save the world and do all the right things,

and stand up for justice and freedom.

It's very hard to do all these things,

if your inside is not also strong

and it's not also pointing the right way.

So your compass is facing towards Guru ji

and that's what effectively a Gurmukh is.

A Gurmukh has got his face towards his Guru

and it's not got his face towards the rest of the world

In Asa Di Vaar, it says,

"Nao Tera Nirankaar Hai, Naae Laeiae narak na Jaaiea"

This Naam is formless.

It is indescribable.

By saying this Naam then we won't go to hell

It's another way of looking at it.

There's a positive experience of it.

The love, the merging with the One.

But also if you don't, effectively you've wasted this jewel for human life.

Guru Teg Bahadur ji

says in Salok Mahala 9

"Man Maaeaa mai Fadh Reheo, Bisereo Gobind Naam"

So your mind is trapped in this Maya and in that Maya is forgotten the name of Vaheguru

It's forgotten that and then Guru ji says

"Kahu Nanak Bin Har Bhajan, Jeevan Kaunae Kaam"

If you are not singing the praises of the One,

if you're not connecting to this One

what's the point of your life?

So there's many ways of connecting in Sikhi.

Seva is a form of connecting;

Simran is a form of connecting;

listen to kirtan is also a form of connecting

and then putting Paat is also a form of connecting.

Within that obviously you have to build your character

and fight off against the people that will steal all this earnings of you.

The people who are going to steal it of you

are inside you and inside me

They are the Kaam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh, Ahankar - your real enemies

They are going to rob you

while you're awake and you're still looking around.

They've robbed you already.

They're your enemies.

Then also is the fact you trying to build this character

This character ethics.

So you get rid of these five to build up your character.

In this talk, obviously I've made lots of mistakes my apologies for that.

As I said at the beginning of these videos

I'm not a saint

You don't want to make me your Guru

You want to make Guru ji your Guru

And Sikhi is really what I'm trying to follow and which all the people I know

are trying to follow the same truth

The mistakes that I make are obviously all mine

And all greatness is Guru's

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh