Vaheguru ji ka Khalsa, Vaheguru ji ki Fateh.
People have tried to divide Sikhs into two different categories:
Practicing and the Non practicing.
I've just tried to come up with something slightly different here.
But this is something that I was thinking about quite a lot,
and I thought how about depending upon how they see Guru ji.
Now you say well, there's only one Guru.
Yes, there's only one Guru.
The one light of all the Nanaks is now in Guru Granth Sahib ji.
My apologies that this is such a basic diagram
I'm not very good with graphics.
It's just pure power point
But imagine there's two ways of looking at Guru ji.
The one is we see Guru ji's wisdom
Guru ji is wisdom.
Guru ji is full of wisdom.
You know pearls of wisdom that He's sharing with us.
And in that way we see Him as a teacher:
Jagad Guru, full of wisdom for us.
And then there's another end of the spectrum,
where we can still keep that wisdom of Guru ji,
but now you're saying Guru ji is Sat Guru.
Sat Guru being he is the embodiment of the truth.
He is true in the sense that everything He is teaching us about the world, about how to live,
is true.
But also he's a being of power who can give us GurPrasad
So it's going back to that "Ik onkar Sat Gur Prasad".
So that Guru is the person who is able to bless us.
He has the grace.
What I am trying to say is that people coming to Sikhi,
seeing Guru ji as that wisdom and beautiful truth.
But over time some of that knowledge that Guru ji has given us, we put into practice.
We start reading Gurbani,
We start doing Simran,
we start hanging out with people that are following that Sangat,
and slowly slowly,
you know,
We realize the power of our Guru.
We see the Gur Prasad working in our life.
We see the power of Guru ji to it uplift us, to enlighten us.
You know, there's two things that are on this.
Faith and Rehat.
Rehat is the way you live your life.
In Sikhi, the Rehat is how Guru Ji tells you to live your life
i.e. your daily prayers, your daily way of living your life.
That means how much Paat you do,
that means how good your actions are,
how much you fight your Kaam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh, Ahnkaar.
How good the things that you take on.
How fearless you are!
That's your Rehat.
Basically, when we start off in Sikhi, our Rehat is not so big.
We start following a little bit of Paat,
a little bit of Kirtan,
and then hopefully you trying to extend that
so we can do our Paat properly,
so we can do our Simran properly
and we can start really looking inside ourselves and fighting all those Panj Chor.
But also there is this other side, Faith.
Now the reason I put that separately is because,
there's a lot of people out there and we know them
they've got a turban,
they've got a beard,
they do their prayers,
but actually when you question them,
they haven't got that Faith.
They're not willing to put their head on Gurus feet and say do what you like.
If tomorrow there was a attack upon a Gurudwara,
a lot of the people that would come out,
in defense of Gursikhi,
and prepared to put their life on the line and really come with the head on their palm of their hands.
There'd be a lot of these Punjabi Munday that walk around clean shaven,
they've got a lot of heart for Sikhi,
they've got a lot of love for Sikhi,
they've got their faith.
There's a lot of people that would die for Sikhi within the Sikh Panth.
But unfortunately there's not a lot of people that would live for Sikhi
and this Rehat is a living for Sikhi,
and the Faith is a dying for Sikhi.
I am not saying you should die,
but you have that
pure love for your Guru,
that you would give everything for your Guru.
And these two things go hand in hand.
You have to have both.
But also,
they're tied together by something, which is very important, experience.
As you have like vicious circles
that get worse and worse.
You also have virtuous circles.
Experience is a virtuous circle.
The more you experience,
by doing Paat how powerful Gurbani is,
by singing Kirtan how powerful Gurbani is,
by doing Simran how powerful the Gurmantra is,
by hanging out with Sadh Sangat you see how powerful the Sadh Sangat is.
The more your belief in your Guru's way increases,
your experience increases
and so your Faith and your Rehat also increase.
The Gurprasad really comes in the experience as well.
Guru ji blesses you with that experience.
So this diagram
and this way of looking at Sikhi,
is just to say where are you on this path.
Don't ask me where I am on this path
but I'm trying to get on this path and move along it as well
and we're all on this path
and this is not a diagram where,
I'm just giving it to you guys
We know we're all on this Paath
and we're all trying to increase our Rehat and our Faith.
And also we're trying to have that experience
Gurprasad is what we're aiming for.
But at that point,
there's the act of giving your head.
You actually give your head to your Guru,
as it comes in Sukhmani Sahib,
Man Beichei Satgur ke paas
tis sevak ke kaaraj raas
So the person who sells their mind to their Guru,
that person's work comes to profit.
Guru is saying, "sell your mind to me, I'm the true trader."
I'm the person who can actually make your life useful.
"Sell me your mind", Guru is saying.
and Gurus
Not me,
sell Guru your mind.
At that point,
your work will come to fruition.
So giving your head is actually an essential part of this path.
and it doesn't mean taking Amrit.
I mean taking Amrit is not the same thing as giving your head.
People take Amrit, but don't give their head
That's the reason I am saying that.
Giving your head means up you make taking Amrit,
but actually you're giving your head first.
An important point to note here is that the Punj Pyare,
when they went up to take Amrit,
they didn't go after taking Amrit.
They went to give their head.
Guru Gobind Singh Ji was standing up there with a big sword,
and saying I want a head.
And five people dared to give their head to the Guru
I don't think that those five people,
went up there to where the Punj Kakaar
and put on a Dastaar
and say "I am a Khalsa."
What they went up to do,
was to end their life because Guru ji demanded it.
Really Dhan the Punj Pyaare
for having that bravery and for showing us how it's done.
That comes back to that line,
Man Beichei Satgur ke paas,
We're selling ourselves to our Guru.
That line is really what we're trying to cross.
We are trying to cross over this barrier.
When we see Guru,
no longer as just wisdom
but actually as Sat Guru.
The person who deserves us to give our head to him.
And he has a Gurprasad to bless us with afterwards.
The reason this line of giving your head is not at the far end is because
after giving your head, you still got a lot of work to do.
And everybody who's Amritdhari, knows that.
There's a lot more work to do in fact,
after you've taken Amrit, than before.
Because now you've committed to this path
and you actually have to sort yourself out.
I might've made many mistakes in this,
and it's really just an analogy
This is not a prescribed way .
The mistakes I've made in this, I apologize for.
Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh.
