RE: So Purkh for gay men - wordly wants a better way

QUESTION:

 

Re: So Purkh for gay men
Posted by: "Ezekiel" spikycork@yahoo.com   spikycork
Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:03 pm (PST)

Harjit,

Thanks for your response. That makes sense. It seems to me the ultimate challenge of the
householder is how to integrate "spiritual" and "worldly" aspirations.

What do you think of all the techniques given by Yogi Bhajan to fulfill "worldly" desires - such
as meditations for abundance, beauty, even health? There was also a discussion of chanting
mangala saaj bhaya to find your soulmate here on the earth plane. Is that not also a "worldly"
desire?

 

I spent a long time, when I first got into kundalini yoga, really focusing on myself and
my connection with spirit, not seeking an outside relationship, because it felt irrelevant to my
happiness and spiritual path. Then I realised that my soul had a deep desire to share love
with another in a special relationship. I understand there may be aspects of ego in this, but
it is also a longing for self expression, similar to being a musician (which I am also) longing
to play my instrument - and even using it to facilitate healing for others (I have played during
yoga classes, and people have come up to me deeply moved, expressing how my playing
enhanced their yoga experience). Anyway, I understand your very sober ideas about getting
spiritual wisdom mixed up in worldly goals. . . but I'm curious what you think about all this.

Ezekiel

 

REPLY:

 

Satnaam Satguru Satsangat - I bow to you.

 

Dear Ezekiel Ji,

 

you have asked a very valid question.  On a spiritual path how do we fulfill our worldy aspirations? And if we follow the spiritual path to the letter then we also know that there is no place for worldy desires.  Because in all the teachings of the Guru's and Saints there is no mention of reciting certain verses in order to fufill a particular want.  Bhai Gurdas Ji (Enlightened soul at the time of the earlier Gurus) wrote that Guru Nanak Ji's coming into the world "saved people from the clutches of the Atharva Veda" (Var 1 Verse 38).  When I read this I wondered what was so terrible about the Atharva Veda and I found this translation.   Its basically a prayer book to get any and every want fulfilled.   Bhai Gurdas Ji wrote that Guru Nanak Ji saved people from this ignorance with light of Guru's word.

 

"With Bani (the Celestial Word), Guru Nanak enlightened, wiping out the darkness of ignorance.
Knowledgeable discourses always followed the music from inner soul.
The prayers at dusk and meditation at ambrosial hours dominated.
And saved his pious ones from the ponderous hymns of Atharva Veda."

 

So when we see the enormous efforts Guru Nanak Dev Ji went to to get people out of praying for worldy wants, then it is quite sad to see that 500 years on , the business of fulfilling wordly wants now involves the very verses of Bani (Guru's words) that condemn it. Every religious place seems to be in the business of fulfilling wordly wants.   From going to India I have been astounded by the Gurdwaras that have popped up, whatever the want is, there seems to be a Gurdwara to fulfill it.  From the one offering mothers the blessing of the birth of a boy, to the one for the illiterate to be able to read, to one for farmers to donate rice pudding so their cows will give milk.  Whatever the want there is a holy man, a temple and a technique involving reciting a verse from gurbani plus a few other tricks (wrap up the verse in a cloth around your neck, or do x , y and z).   And these places are overflowing with innocent people being mislead by the ones who have been mislead by their own teachers.  But actually, how innocent are these followers?

 

A blessed soul summed it up nicely, he said for 20 years he went and served visiting holy men and singers at the Gurdwara in Canada, but he never progressed spiritually until he met Baba Ji who gave him the blessing of Naam.  He then wondered why it had taken him so long to get the blessings of Naam?  He realised with God's grace that in each of those 20 years he had many wordly wants, and he seemed to have attracted the holy men who were operating at the level to give him some verses and techniques to fulfill those wants.

We basically attract people of the same consciousness.  If we have wordly wants, then we will attract people in the wordly want business.  And that is where we stay until we say to God-Guru, "Dear Guru ji, so many years have passed and I am still so far from You, now I fall at your feet, nothing has happened as I wanted, nothing is in my hands, now I only want You, Your Naam and the dust of Your saints feet."   Then with God's grace we meet the one who is going to bless us with the priceless diamond "Naam".

 

So what happens if we really give up everything of our wordly wants and focus purely on what Bani says to us?  Will we stay lonely, will we be poor in the streets, will we never have a boy child, will our illness not heal, will we not be beautiful and balanced, heathy and happy?   The Truth Baba Ji explained to me was that we receive what is in our karma.    Wether we pray or not we get what we have sown earlier in this life and in past lives.   One person says they went to the holy man at the Gurdwara and was blessed with a son, my wife went (due to her conditioning) and was blessed with a girl.  On asking the holy man how could this be, he snapped, "Well if you dont want her we will take her in" - not really answering the question.  When a real holy person would have said to my wife, you can only receive what is in your karma. 

 

People obtain that which they are pre-ordained to receive.

SGGS 283

 

But how can karma be changed?  There is only one way and that is through the blessings of the real holy person, the divne soul - God's devotee - the one who is the same as God. 

 

There is no difference between the Lord and the humble servant of the Lord;
O Nanak, know this as true. ||29||

SGGS 1428

 

Just as the fifth Guru, Guru Arjun Dev ji did not give himself the blessings of a son when his wife asked.  A true saint never asks for anything but the pain and suffering of everyone to come to them and peace to go to everyone else.  He sent his wife Mata Gujri to the nearest holiest person, Baba budha Ji who blessed her with the soul of a warrior - Guru - the sixth Guru.

 

 (God says : ) "The devotee can release anyone from my bondage,
but I cannot release anyone from his."

SGGS 1252

 

But dont even have that as a desire in your mind, to go to a really divine soul to get your worldy tasks arranged.   There is only one way on this path, and that is to give up all hopes of living, give up the fear of death, pray for God and God alone, and God comes to us through the nearest divine soul to bless us with the Naam.  When we have the Naam under Guru's Grace then everything else is taken care of.  Everything happens at the right time for the best, and everything we do under the Graceful Naam helps us go closer to God.  Wereas everything done under influence of wordly wants, takes us into maya and that always bites.

 

God is power, intellect, understanding, the breath of life,
wealth, and everything for the Saints.
May I never forget Him from my mind, even for an instant –
this is Nanak's prayer (ARDAS). ||8||2||

 

SGGS 1017

 

When we give everything to God and Guru, God and Guru give EVERYTHING to us. Absolutely EVERYTHING.  So why are we worried about asking for the small stuff?

 

dust of your feet

 

Harjit