boring job

QN:

 

Re: Psychic question /// Harjit
Posted by: "Jerica Summers" jericasummers@ymail.com   jericasummers@ymail.com
Sat May 15, 2010 5:49 pm (PDT)

Hi Harjit,
Thank you for such a long insightful answer. From what I've read the psychic stuff is not a way to measure spiritual progress, it's attained and improved my using it.

I don't believe that rats who get to run on a wheel in a cage are spiritually impaired for wanting something better. If you get a bag of product in bulk and are asked to separate, bag and
price it into smaller groups and this was all you did wouldn't you want more?

Nirvana is samsara. If I'm here permanently in different ways I should be able to find some way of supporting myself with work that's fulfilling (and I know there's ultimately neither here nor there but emptiness is also a concept and so there is a here and there after all). I'm not asking for a mansion, cadillac and a big boat. IMO. Spiritual progress isn't about denying the world nor is it about thinking that things are real.

Geez I'm bored.

 

REPLY:

 

SatNaam Jerica,

 

Guru Nanak Dev ji sat serving people grain when he worked in the storehouse.  Pretty boring wasn't it?

But when the time came Guru Nanak Dev ji got up and walked in all four directions to reach out to souls.  Pretty exciting - travel the world,

meeting great yogis, saints, sinners, create a community and so on.

 

From your perspective, would you think that Guru Nanak was sitting serving the grain thinking "this is really boring God,

I've got much more to do with my life than this?"  And then do you think, he made a plan to do something more fulfilling with his life -

to spread the word?

 

That is the way we in the world think - from perspective of what makes "me" happy, what "I" want, what "I" dont want. 

 

I=ego =haumai

want=desire =trishna,

 

Guru Nanak Dev ji writes, get out of both of them 

 

So we can see that Guru Nanak Dev ji was doing that seeimingly pretty boring job (to us) of selling grain without ego and wants i.e. without complaints and without false dreams of making a better future for himself.  so what was he doing to contain the restlesess and wandering mind, he was in love with the Truth - SatNaam.  With every pouring of grain, with every moment he was absorbed in SatNaam. so much so, that once he was counting out portions, and when he got to the thirteenth portion, which is TERA in punjabi, he went into a rapture - TERA TERA TERA TERA - which also means YOURS YOURS YOURS in punjabi.    Then his co-workers complained that Nanak was giving grain away without charging (He was so in love with SatNaam, he no longer bothered about charging and became 100% giver), ,but when the boss checked the accounts were correct.

 

And then what made Guru Nanak get up and spread the word in all 4 directions for the next 40 years?  Not his own want, not his own dissatisfaction, not his own plan to make a better life.  But God's Want, which is called HUKAM, which is when SatNaam works through you to help others with the blessings of God;s Name and Humbleness. 

 

Guru Nanak Dev ji promoted the most boring of tasks combined with doing your SatNaam SatNaam rememberance (simran) into a pathway for spiritual union.  So if you see Gurdwaras, they are full of people cooking, cleaning, preparing food, wiping, washing, serving, hoovering - all the mundane tasks that most people hate doing, but when you surrender and do it for the love of your Guru, with Satnaam on your lips and service on your fingertips, then it all becomes divine - peace of mind, love, light and contentment in Truth.

 

When you pray to God and say, "However you keep me is what I am happy with, please just keep me in your service doing simran,"  then you will find the peace of mind you are looking for.   Then your ego and desires will cool down, then nothing is boring, nothing is unfullfilling.  In surrendering your ego and wants you find the Truth, in chasing your desires to fulfill your ego, you well get short term satisfaction if you get what you want, or you will get more frustrations and hatred in your workplace if you cant get out.

 

Its not about what job we are doing in life, its about seeing God in that time and place - tell me is there any place or job that God is not in?

Its just an illusion that we think we will find God doing something else.  When you say to God, "If you keep me in this job for the next 10 years or next 100 lifetimes, that is fine with me - just keep me in your service, keep me in your simran."  Then you surrender.  And what will happen?  You have leanred your lesson, your consciousness has gone up to the next level.  And things will happen to move you onto your next chapter in life - as per your karma and as per the blessings received.

 

We hope this makes sense.  Its not about what you are doing, it about your attitude and your love, trust and complete surrender that Satnaam SatGuru is doing what iss best for you.

 

Dust of your feet

Harjit