3Ds of (Bhagti)Worship - Devotion, Determination, Discipline

ik oankar satnaam satgurprasad||

 

 

dandauth bandhana ji

 

 

Devotion

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there is so much love in the Guru's sweet words, they melt your heart,

there is nothing like gurbani and taking it into your heart.

When you sing gurbani with love the Guru sitting within you is sculpting you into Himself.

Gurbani builds the devotion within us, the urge to put our hands together infront of the Sadhu,

to dip our head in humility, to lie flat at their feet in total surrender,

 

Guru Ram Das Ji says to us with utmost kindness:

 

Kar sadhu anjuli pun vada heh.

Kar dandauth pun vada heh.

 

Its a virtuous deed to greet the saint with pressed palms,

lie flat at their feet, its a greatly virtuous deed.

 

Let us pray to God Guru for sangat of the sadhu so that we may press our forehead on their feet.

So they may bless us to sing God's praises and wipe away countless sins.

 

Guru Arjun Dev Ji creates the following devotional desire within us:

 

Sant Janaa mil Har jas gaaioo

Kot janam kay dukh gavaaiaa

 

Meet the Sant Devotee and sing God's praises

Countless lifetimess pains are wiped away.

 

I was feeling quite lonely being away from sat sangat over the last month or so.

So was praying to God by singing these beautiful verses.

Pouring my heart into itday in day out, then had a feeling to call my cousin, he said his Sant - a Brahmgiani from India was around his house.

Next day we went to get his blessings.   Greeted him with pressed palms (anjuli), lay flat at his lotus feet (dandauth).

Told him about our struggles with the 5 thieves, and he smiled upon us and said "dont worry , your darkness will be removed and there will be light upon light, continuous light always and forever."

 

My cousin was trying to put me off from meeting "his " brahmgiani as he said "he mediates on Waheguru" and you on "Satnaam" (However, my cousin also told me that his Sant's Sant meditated on "IkOnkar" and gave that as the naam).  But it didn't matter to me, because Baba Ji has taught us that the Sants run Sach Khand, they hold the key of gurprasadi naam in their hands.  My job is not to judge anyone, especially a Sant, my job is only to meet these devotees, sing God's praises with them and lie flat at their feet so they wipe my countless karma clouds away and let the sunshine in again.  The first thing this Sant ji told us after sitting us down was "Sikhs have gone wrong because they dont accept a living Satguru.  The living Satguru gives us the Naam, without that the whole Sikh Panth has gone wrong."  As you can guess, the Sant wears orange robes and orage turban, all his belongings are in a cloth bag, he has no other wordly possessions, he is what are known as "Nirmala Sants"  - Pure Saints going back to the times of the ten Gurus with one living Sant-Guru passing on the Naam to the disciples and so on till now.

 

Next few weeks felt much lighter and brighter and with Guru ji's kirpa went to B Ji's house for sat sangat, felt so much love and light.  Even D veer ji a new person at the sangat said he that as I was talking to him about the Naam, everything else disappeared and all he could see was bright white light around my head and body.  Said it was all Guru ji's kindness, God was showing him that I was telling him the Truth.

 

 

Determination

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Dont give up, no matter how many times you fall to the five thieves, dont give up.

Get up, put your hands together and pray such a prayer that God-guru will turn the whole world upside down for you to complete your Bhagti.

Dont get complacent that you have reached somewhere, no, just know that I am doing so many misdeeds under the 5 thieves and in the love of Moh-Maya that 

I keep praying for forgiveness and for blessings.

 

Dassan Das Ji gave us this prayer "I am very lustful , full of anger, incredibly greedy, so attached and full of selfishness, I drwoing in worldly desires, hopes and wishes, I am a great sinner and hypocrite, a liar and untrustworthy, my dear satguru ji, I fully accept all of my misdeeds, please forgive me and bless me with singing Your prasies and remembeing SatNAam."

 

Discipline

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Alot of times of the last couple of years when things have got too stressful at home I have found it easier to resort to my bad habits of long hours of TV and overeating and wasting time.  But there is no peace in that either.  Never give up, stay on track, pray to Guru ji, always and forever to hold us by the arm, pick us up out of the scum of maya , wipe us clean and give us another chance.  Every night we die, every morning we are born anew, fresh and blessed with another chance to do bhagti if we accept our misdeeds and ask for it.

 

The greatest thing is to keep our discipline, get up early , again in the evening and again before going to sleep, sticking to the daily routine for singing Gods praises and remembering the Naam works wonders.  Losing my discipline over the last few years, and losing my connection to gurbani only sent me adrift into the ocean of maya.

 

God Bless you with these 3Ds of Bhagti.

dust of your feet

 

Harjit

 

www.satnaam.info

 

Dealing with doubts

..this was sent to a penji who was battling with her doubts...

 

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satnaam penji, dandauth bandhana ji,

 

Dassan Das Ji has given you all the blessings and all the wisdom.

 

You are doing the right thing by addressing your doubts.  They only hold us back.  Took me a good few years to get rid of them and until I met Baba Ji and Dassan DasJi they didnt go,  but every now and again when something negative happened and I was tested again then the doubts would flare up again, but then finally one day I just had to jump in with a leap of faith, like baba ji said to me once, "I am jumping into the Ocean of You, ferry me across or drown me, its upto You, but I am jumping in now."  Then dont look back.   Living a life of doubts is like driving with the handbrakes on, and I know you feel that you are not flying, but your soul knows it could be, but our minds conditioning doesnt release us from its grip.  In this day and age most people have nothing to believe in and live empty lifes, never feeling fulfilled no matter what they achieve in the world.   No one trusts anyone else, because no one really trusts themselves - deep down we know we are losers to the five thieves and find it hard to believe anyone else is a winner.   We have to believe in something, beliving in satguru allows the love in us to be nurtured, that love blossoms into love for God.

 

The whole battle is with your own mind. Nothing else exits outside except the "story" we put on it.   Look inside at the state of your own mind, you feel like crying and I felt that too from your email, because your soul wants to break free.  What is this path ?  A path to MUKTI - freedom.  Freedom from what?  Freedom from your own mind.  You just have to get to a point where your mind and soul are in sync.  And that can be as personal to you as you like, religion is like "one size fits all", but really you can pick and choose all the great things you have experienced and put them all together under Guru ji's grace and make your life and your spiritual path as beautiful as you choose too.   That is what i have realised.  When i was in the relgious mindset that was everything , then i jumped into this path and brought my relgious mindset with it, so this became everything in the sense i felt i had to choose, and having to choose means the mind thinks one way was right and the other is wrong.  But if the other is right the former is wrong.  And that is why you are confused.  Just realise that the biggest conditioning we have had from family and relgion is that we have to choose?  Why?  Why cant we have it all?   Why cant I take the best bits of relgion and the best bits of this and put them all together and create a beautiful path with all the best bits together?

 

So thats what i have done and i feel great because my mind and soul are in sync again.  

I love gurbani and kirtan so i listen to that and learn that.  I dont have to give it up and Dassan Das Ji and Baba Ji have only ever said that Gurbani is the GYAN GURU ...pothi parmesar ka thaan and it contains pooran brahmgian says kabir ji.   And alongside that is the SAT GURU ..the living light of SAT (God) as the GURU in the heart of the brahmgiani.

 

So take the love you have for Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and for kirtan and for all the bhagats and all the guru sahibs and nurture it.   Take inspiration from the love  the shaheeds had for their Satguru and Shabad Guru and sacrifice your mind, body wealth at the feet of your Satguru and Shabad Guru in your time and place.

 

Take the great things from AKJ like healthy vegetarian food, no smoking, no drinking and discipline.  And bring that into your life , stay healthy and do simran and bhagti with discipline.

 

Take the great things from satsangat like friendship, somewhere to discuss your ups and downs, and somewher to ask for blessings.

 

Take the great lessons from the Gurdwara where people share food and serve each other, wipe each others shoes and help the elderly and children and keep doing that, and keep expanding that into all aspects of your life.

 

Baba Ji told me the greates thing ever when he said that he has no desire to make a dera, an organisation, he said his dera is Dassan Das Ji - a walking talking living light of God - the human Gurdwara.  And that is what we all need to become a living Gur-dwara.  So take the best of everything you have experinced and make yourself into something your soul is happy with and present yourself like a bouquet of naam at the feet of your satguru satnaam.

 

If you want to do waheguru waheguru, then do it with so much love ..wondrous guru wondrous guru..and when you feel like doing satnaam satnaam do it with so much love, and when you sing gurbani do it with so much love.  Whatever you sing do it without doubts ..only with love.  In this way you will realise the Lord, realise the Truth, always pray to stay under the feet of the Guru, that is home, that is where the hot wind of maya does not blow, that is what no -one can ever take away from you, that is everything.

 

dust of your feet

Harjit

English Cricket, Monty and Gurprasad!

satnaam ji

dandauth bandhana ji

 

 

Someone close to me was saying yesterday that he gets so proud when he sees Monty (Panesar) playing for England's cricket team.

He said that since Monty joinded the England team, England have been winning and that is thanks to the Gur Prasad (God-Gurus Blessing) that

Monty as a Sikh has brought to them.

 

I then asked, "Well how come England just lost to South Africa? What happened to the Gur Prasad?"

 

He replied, "But Monty took two wickets , he played well, the others let the team down."

 

Then the commentator said, "Monty didn't play very well."

 

 

Then with God's Grace I explained that Gur Prasad has nothing to do with winning a losing, with suffering or joy, nor with profit or loss.

Gur Prasad is to do with how your mind remained during those events.

 

If Monty remained unaffected that his team lost and he played badly because he was holding onto the God-Guru's feet, the holy Naam in his heart, then he had the Gur Prasad.  Otherwise not.   I didn't see him crying, unlike his captain - Vaughan he was visibly distrurbed and distraught as he announced he was quitting the captaincy "after 5 and half years of giving his mind and soul to England Captaincy."   That looked to me like a definite sign of a mind and heart lacking in GurPRasad and drowning in maya.

 

GurPrasad is how you remain stable through the ups and downs in your life.

It isn't to do with profit or loss, winning or losing, pain or pleasure.

 

God Bless You Monty - shre the Gurprasad with the resto f the team!!

 

Dust of Your Feet

 

Harjit

With Satnaam in your heart

satnaam ji

dandauth bandhana ji

 

 

After attending the blessed satsangat at Namjeevan Ji's and Jaspal Ji's house a few weeks ago and then having a big backlash from someone who doesnt want me to go there and giving in to them, I was blessed with a dream  - felt like God-Guru was talking to me and saying

 

"With Satnaam in your heart

you can go North, South, East and West.

With Satnaam in your heart

you can go anywhere

without FEAR."

 

Pls pray for me so this can come true for me.

 

Also by the end of the meditation at the satsangat could feel alot of love as the mantra "Ik Onkar Sat Naam Sat Gurprasad" was repeating within.

This is Dassan Das Ji's blessed verse thathe uses in his emails.  I have to admit I normally give it a quck cursory glance, but in the meditation

I could feel so much love in that phrase ..divine love that I had forgotten.

 

Any mantra we get from anywhere has in it the potential to create the feelings in you that it was born out of.

 

It is like a seed that can become the plant it came from if it given the right conditions, love and patience.

 

We are blessed with Satnaam blessed by Baba Ji and Dassan Das Ji, it takes us back to where it came from - from the heart of the Sant - Satguru where it was forged in love and light.

 

dust of your feet

 

Harjit