Last Japji Sahib Intensive for the Year: Boulder, Colorado

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh.

Sat Nam and blessings.

It's been such a wonderful time traveling to various communities this year and hosting intensive workshops on Guru Nanak's Japji Sahib: The Song of the Soul. The last one for 2008 will be held this July in Boulder, Colorado, and the next course will not be until Florida at the end of January in 2009. If you've been thinking about coming this year - now's the chance! Would love to see you there.

This event is Friday night and all day Saturday. Discussion about the universal wisdom in Guru Nanak's Japji Sahib, along with chanting, meditation, yoga, and good spiritual company. It promises to be a very cozy time.

Boulder, Colorado

July 18-19th

Nanak's Nook

3840 Baseline Road

(303) 544-0141 or email NanaksNook@aol.com

Friday, July 18 from 7 pm to 9 pm

Saturday, July 19 from 9 am to 5:30 pm

$108 Advance Registration by July 5th

$128 at the door

It is said that Guru Hargobind told his Sikhs that all of life's problems can be cleared and liberation attained by meditating upon and understanding Guru Nanak's Japji Sahib. We'll do our best to see how much we can learn together.

Hope to see you there and to see you soon!

With Divine Light and Love,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

On the Train

On the train from Connecticut to Massachusetts, I remember. A childhood growing up in the Northeast. Rows of houses remodeled again and again since Colonial Times. Trees lining the streets, marking the seasons with their distinct shades of dress. Sometimes green, sometimes orange, sometimes nothing at all.

That priceless time– where it seemed, somehow, one could be 8 years old, or 10 years old, or 12 years old forever.

Looking out the window, breathing in the nostalgia, I watch my thoughts slip into another direction. Yes – this is all familiar to me. Even after so many years living in the Southwest – the Northeast still feels like home. But not everything is the same as I remember. And as the train keeps rolling, there are other scenes my eyes register, making it difficult for me to inhale deeply, to catch my breath.

Pieces of automobiles, plastic bottles, debris from houses scatter themselves around the trees. Like zombies – the living dead – they are no longer needed, no longer wanted but are incapable of truly decaying. The earth supports them and the trees look down – waiting, waiting for Mother Nature to absorb them into the earth, into an organic, primal existence where they can be re-organized into new and luscious life. But the debris just sits there – abandoned, mournful. Unable to surrender and rejoin the cycle of life. And the trees stand there watching, confused, wondering what to do with the extra weight on their roots.

It is my habit to look for messages in everything that surrounds me. And there, in the urban landscape, I find my lesson. What we create around us comes from within. Seeing the trees with their awkward and wasted compatriots, I can feel the nervous system inside myself. Inside of us all. And I make the connection.

There it is – the undigested pain, the clumped anger, the insistent desires clinging haphazardly to my own neuro-transmitters – an ecology of emotional garbage that does nothing and contributes nothing. Absorbing energy, prana, breath, life as it reminds me that it’s there, and that it doesn’t have a place to go.

Brain damage. On the most subtle level, we are all of us in some way brain damaged. We cannot handle our own sensitivity, so we numb it with alcohol or drugs, melodramatic relationships, too much sugar, too many fantasies from soap operas, movies, books, living vicariously through Reality TV. All because we can’t handle the inner debris that has attached itself to our own memory, to our own awareness. That is damaging our roots – the nerves in our bodies that create the subtle core of our consciousness. And in that brain damage, we are loosing. Loosing much more than this moment. We are loosing the future.

Our subconscious minds create around us that pattern of the internal pain. So even though every human rationally knows we cannot survive without water, the water around us is too polluted to drink. And though we know that the breath of life keeps us going every second, the air in some places has become too polluted to breath. And it doesn’t have anything to do with government or business, commerce or globalization. It has to do with the inner sickness in me, the inner sickness in you and what that sickness creates together.

It begins, the Guru tells us, with the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether. These elements give rise to the five poisons of lust, anger, greed, pride and attachment. And these are poisons – why? Because they create an inner pollution. Bio-chemical junk in the ecology of the nervous system. They release hormones that dissolve brain tissue. Chemicals that interrupt and decay the delicate web of neuro-transmitters running through the spine, the brain and the body. These poisons sabotage our own sight. In the rush of feeling that anger causes, or lust, or greed, or pride, or attachment – we loose sight of our own delicacy, of the delicacy of the other person. How sensitive we are. How easily hurt. How much we all long for love, affection and connection. That sensitivity, given to us as a gift so that we can perceive the Divine in everything, gets damaged. We become blind to so many things. And over time, like rivers and forests filled with debris, the inner-ecology of our own psyche becomes too polluted for our own Spirit to live. These poisons compromise our ability to think clearly, to see intuitively, to act with strength, power and excellence.

Riding on the train, I look at the garbage, and the beauty it diminishes. And I see myself. I see all of us – our pain, our difficulties, our struggles to rise above these poisons and just simply live.

________________________________________

Bhareeai hath pair tan dayh paanee dhotai utras khay
Moot paleetee kapar ho-I day saaboon la-ee-ai oho dho-i
Bharee-ai mat paapaa kai sang oho dhopai naavai kai rang

When the hands, the feet,
The whole body
Becomes dirty,
Water
Washes it all away.

When clothes are
Stained with urine,
Soap and water
Removes the stain.

But when
Our own psyches
Are polluted with the dirt
That comes from
The errors and pain
We inflict on others,

Only our True Selves
Can restore us
To our Original Color.
(Japji Sahib, Pauree 19 – Guru Nanak Dev Ji)


For the last several weeks, I have been meditating on how to finish this vignette. And these lines from Guru Nanak keep running through my mind. There is dirt. It’s part of life. Dirty socks, dirty shirts, dirty overalls from working in the garden. There’s something that happens just because we are alive. We live, we act and from those actions, we sweat. We take in food and it goes through us. It happens – it’s natural. In our sensitivity, we feel that clean clothes allow us to live today in a fresh way. Clean homes and work spaces give our minds a sense of ease. It’s hard-wired into the human psyche that the process of living creates a by-product we call dirt. Well – what is it, really? That dirt? That garbage? It’s the remains of what we did yesterday that have no place in our tomorrow. We want each day to have its own chance at success. So we find ways to clean up before we start again. To look neat, to dress nicely, to wash our bodies, to have organized and pleasing spaces. It’s a sign of being human.

The same thing happens with the mind. We interact with each other. We communicate. We do things together. And we learn through experience how to handle the extraordinarily complex dance of mutuality in relationships. Sometimes, the experience comes at a price. We hurt someone, someone hurts us – and the memory of that creates a pain inside. A pain so powerful it reminds us, “Don’t do that again.” And sometimes we can get lost in that pain.

Paap. The word in Gurmukhi is “Paap.” “Sin” is a mistranslation, really. Sin is something you do against God, that blackens the soul. But in Gurmukhi, the Inner Being is always there, always Pure. Your Inner Self is always innocent and always light. It's the mind that gets clouded with these painful memories - memories that are the natural result of our human experience. The five poisons that are the shadow of the five elements. The pain, the poisons, the memories cause us to forget who we are. Cause us to forget how to be our selves, our genuine selves, on the earth.

We know the physical dirt is there – the normal wear and tear of daily living. And we clean it up because it’s outside of us. But sometimes we forget that the mental dirt is there, as well. Day after day. The accumulated memory of what went wrong and what almost went right. How well we behaved. How much we missed the mark. The mental dirt needs to be cleansed, too. So that we can start each day fresh, anew.


Jinee naam dhiaaiaa gaay masakat ghaal
Naanak tay much ujakay kaytee chhutee naal.

Those
Who meditate
In the core
Of their being

Who earn themselves
Through their hard work –

Naanak,
Their faces are radiant and beautiful
And so very many who are connected with them
Are liberated, too.
(Japji Sahib, Shalok, by Guru Nanak)

Meditation, Guru Nanak tells us, is hard work. Meditation doesn’t mean ignoring life, or becoming spaced out. Meditation is the process of going inside and consciously cleaning out the accumulated mental dirt that's part of life. We go inside and face it - the pain, the shame, the guilt, the anger, the confusion. And then, finding the sacred waters inside of ourselves we clean it up. (Japji Sahib, Pauree 21). We allow the Love within us to heal it. To shift it. To re-align those neuro-patterns. And in this way, we learn to consciously rise above the challenges and the karmas, and let our originality prevail. There’s grace there. Forgiveness. Peace. Whatever you want to call it. But technically, it is a process through which our breath and our inner being create the biochemical medicine that washes away the damage and pain to the nervous system caused by the normal wear and tear of earthly life.

This is one thing that the Guru has helped me understand more and more the older I get. I used to have a fantasy that somehow, someday, there would come a moment when the pain would never happen again. Or the poisons would be totally gone. But I realize what a joke that is. Life is experience. And experience has everything in it. Good and bad. Grace and insult. Victory and falling on your butt. There’s no one side for the pendulum to swing without it eventually swinging to the other side. Experience is all that we have – and experience includes everything. The day the poisons go away is the day that the body dies.

But what is possible is to develop some kind of discipline. In the Amrit Veyla, in the still hours before sunrise, to consciously face ourselves, our own memory, our own assessment of how we have lived in the last 24 hours or 24 lifetimes. It’s not pleasant. It’s not fun. We get to see how ugly we are, how mean, how petty, unpleasant and damaged. But at least we have a chance to say – here is the garbage of my own mind. Let me take out the trash so that what is pure in me, Divine in me, true in me has a chance to prevail. By God’s grace, let me face my tomorrow with a clean slate.

That is meditation. It’s hard work. But those who do the work, whose Light within shines, the Guru tells us their presence becomes a power to serve and elevate others.

There is so much trash in the world. Under the trees. On the sides of the streets. In the rivers and streams. And we turn a blind eye to it, we pretend not to see it – because what is to be done? But there is so much garbage, inside, as well. And that, at least, we have a chance to heal. We have a chance.

May you be blessed to find the dirt within you, and use the tools that the Guru has given, to clear it out, clean it up and give yourself a chance to live a new tomorrow.

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh

With Divine Light and Love,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

Japji Sahib Weekend Intensive: Crestone, Colorado

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh.

Sat Nam and many blessings to you.

For those of you have are curious and interested, the Crestone Healing Arts Center in Crestone, CO will be hosting a Japji Sahib intensive weekend May 9-11.

Details are:

$108 for the course. Lunch and snacks will be provided. For those who need it, lodging is available at the Center for $25 a night. Dates and times are

• Friday May 9, 2008 (7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
• Saturday May 10, 2008 (9:00 am to 4:30 pm)
• Sunday May 11, 2008 (9:00 am to Noon)

Pre-register with Sue or Dan Retuta by calling 719.256.4036 or via Email at
retuta@crestonehac.com.

We had a great time in New York City and in Millis, MA. Hope to post pictures of those courses soon. Come if you can make it. It will be a wonderful time - to just be together, meditate and do our best to understand the practical wisdom of Guru Nanak.

Hoping to see you there.

With Divine Light and many blessings,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

The Pull of Karma

In my meditation this morning, I had a chance to see something about karma. One could say that after experimenting with a lot of different types of spiritual practices over the years, I never really understood karma until this morning. Though God knows, in theory, all of the different practices, with different teachers and different perspectives that I used to explore were aimed at one thing: to clear my karma.

But what does that mean, exactly? To clear one’s karma?

When I was younger, karma was the Eastern equivalent to the good/bad sin/redemption polarity I had grown up with. Only karma gave you a lot of lifetimes to work it out. There was a sense of something being “right” and something being “wrong.” And the consequences of doing the wrong thing or the benefits of doing the right thing – that was karma. In my mind’s eye, those definitions of “right” and “wrong” were written on a wall somewhere in heaven. If I could just memorize the list and put as many stars in the “right” column as possible, then God would love me and I would be protected and taken care of somehow.

What I saw in my meditation this morning was very different but deeply moving. Yogi Bhajan talks about the “you within you.” And the more I meditate on Gurbani and try my inadequate best to translate into English, I’ve found that “Naam” is really the experience of the You within you. The Divine Identity that lives within the heart. The Soul-Being that has come and gone through so many cycles of birth and death. And that the Naam and the mind are very different experiences within oneself. The mind has a pull. It pulls the being this way and that way – with its thoughts and desires, dreams and hopes, fears and fantasies. But the mind is not who we are. It’s a temporary identity gives to us in time and space. For this lifetime, for whatever brief purpose the Inner Being has come to the earth for.

But that Inner Being, that Divine Identity, that Naam, that You within you – has its own purpose. Its own reality and destination. And karma isn’t when you break a rule of what’s right and wrong written in some seventh heaven somewhere. Karma is inside of us, in the here and now. It’s a simple issue. The breath of life has been given to each of us as a gift. With this breath – are we delivering what the Inner Being has comes here to experience? Or not?

Gurbani talks about how the hand of the One guides everything. So how can we call anyone good or bad? When we get caught up in the judgements we might have with each other, we loose sight of our own inner judgment. It doesn’t matter what another person does. We have no control over each other, really. We can attempt to manipulate and influence. Cajole or threaten. But there’s no guarantee it’s going to work. Every human being is absolutely sovereign ultimately. And it’s a waste of breath to judge or control – though God knows it’s a very powerful habit that we can sometimes get into with each other.

But with every breath, through a meditative mind cultivated by the Guru’s words, we can judge ourselves. Am I living this moment in alignment with my spiritual Identity? Am I acting in this moment in a way that reflects the reality of my own dignity and Divinity? Am I applying the gifts of my body and the talents of my mind to deliver the journey that my soul took birth to take? Am I remembering that Deathless Light within myself? Or am I forgetting?

This is karma from what I have seen and experienced today. Those breaths, those moments, when we forget our Inner Divinity, our Inner Being and Light. And we let the pull of desire take us away from doing those things that the Spirit came here for. It’s hard because as a child, I never learned that God lives in me. Much less that the purpose of human life was to experience that. I was taught a lot of other nonsense that has never served me. It just created a lot of confusion. But when through the Guru’s teachings, we can find and touch the Naam within us – and we can know – hey – this is who I really am – then karma is simply the account we keep inside of us of when we have lived according to our Inner Divinity, or when we have betrayed ourselves -when we have betrayed our own Inner Truth. And in the name of balancing that account, we come back again and again.

I don’t have any conclusions to offer here. But what I am grateful for is to see today that this whole karma business – this whole business of coming and going – it’s between Me and me. Its between the Divine Identity that has existed since beginingless time and will continue unto Infinity – and the temporary “me” – this body, this mind that definitely had a beginning and will definitely have an end. The karma is whether or not I am capable of keeping my agreements with my Innermost Self – or whether I turn my back on that and get lost in the games of Maya. Its OK – karma happens. But I am grateful to see that its contained within me, and to know that the Guru promises that by meditating on Gurbani the balance between the mind and the Naam can happen. Everything can be put back into proper balance. And in that way, the karmas of lifetimes can fall away and the cycle of betraying my own Self can end.

May you be blessed to find the Light of the Divine within you, and to share that Light wherever you go.

Happy Valentines’ Day

All Love in the Divine,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

Japji Sahib: The Song of the Soul: Intensive Weekends: Update!

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh.

We had a wonderful time at YogaYoga in Austin this last weekend. There was a great group of really dedicated students who came for the Japji Sahib course. Inspiring and heart-opening for all of us.

No pictures, though. Unfortunately...

A dear friend has asked me to post more details about some of the upcoming intensive weekends - so here it is - an update of the upcoming courses in February and March.

PLEASE NOTE: There is an additional workshop in New York City on Sunday afternoon that is an intro to Guru Amar Das' Anand Sahib.

Japji Sahib: The Song of the Soul by Guru Nanak
Feb. 29, March 1 and 2
New York City, NY

Friday, Feb. 29: 7 pm to 9 pm
Saturday, March 1: Noon to six with a snack in the afternoon
Sunday, March 2: 9:30 to 12:30

Location: Guru Ram Das Ashram in Brooklyn

473 13th Street. Between Prospect Park West
and 8th Avenue. Near the 15th street stop on the F-Train.

$108 advance registration

$125 at the door

Call for lodging options.

Register by calling: (718) 369-6674 or email sjsgrd@juno.com


The Spiritual Psychology of Bliss: An Introduction to Guru Amar Das' Anand Sahib
New York City, NY

Sunday, March 2
4:00 - 6:00 pm

Location: Kundalini Yoga East

The Kundalini Yoga East studio is in Suite 614, at 873 Broadway in Manhattan. Between 18th and 19th street directly across from ABC Carpets Giant Home Store.

http://www.kundaliniyogaeast.com/

To register: email kundaliniyogaeast@earthlink.net or call (212) 982-5959.


Japji Sahib: The Song of the Soul by Guru Nanak
Macrh 8, 9 and 10th
Millis, MA

Friday, March 8: 7 to 9 pm
Saturday, March 9: 9 to 4:30 pm
Sunday, March 10: 9 am to 1:30 pm (includes Gurdwara)

Location: Guru Ram Das Ashram
368 Village Street in Millis, MA

http://www.kundaliniyogane.com/

$151 for the weekend

$40 for people 18 and under

Call for lodging options

To register, please call (508)376-4525 or email Holly@kundaliniyogane.com

And don't forget, Crestone Colorado in May...

If you can make it, it'll be wonderful to see you there.

So here's a promise. Next time I post to my blog - it'll be an essay. I'm missing writing....


With Divine Light, Love and many blessings,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

Japji Sahib: The Song of the Soul. Intensive Weekends: 2008

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh.

Sat Nam and Divine Blessings.

In the first half of 2008, four different centers will be hosting a Japji Sahib weekend in their areas. The weekends will focus on meditation, chanting, a little bit of yoga and much conversation and discussion about the steps that Guru Naanak gives us in Japji Sahib to heal ourselves and find the Love that lives within us.

If it’s possible for you to be there, I would love to see you. Come join me with the sangat, and give yourself the time and space to go deeply into the universal teachings that started the Sikh tradition.

Austin, Texas
February 1-3, 2008
Yoga Yoga North
512.380.9800 or info@yogayoga.com

Brooklyn, New York
February 29 – March 2
Guru Ram Das Ashram
718.369.6674 or sjsgrd@juno.com

Millis, Massachusetts
March 8-10, 2008
Kundalini Yoga Northeast
508.376.4525 or holly@kundaliniyogane.com

Crestone, Colorado
May 9 -11, 2008
Crestone Healing Arts Center and the Siri Singh Sahib Memorial Temple of Crestone
719.256.4036 or retuta@crestonehac.com

Looking forward to seeing you there!

All Light and Love in the Divine,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

Metals of Earth

Plays of Light. Earth. Metals of earth. What we bond with through our mind. Through the plays of space and time. What we miss. What we forget….

*********************************************************

The beach at Surfside, Texas Saturday before last was picturesque and perfect. October skies – the color of blue that only comes in autumn when every particle of the heavens radiates light from within itself. The sun cast its smiling glow on everything. And the ocean waters – just warm enough, just gentle enough (without being too tame) to enjoy.

Standing in the surf, mud and tiny tiny clams squished beneath my feet. The waves massaged my body, with the subtle currents pulling me one way, then pushing another.

I have had this love affair with the ocean since I was a child. It is a like a long-time friend who knows me, who I know. Every time we are alone together, I whisper secrets to it. It holds my secrets, year after year, decade after decade. With kindness and a gentle, rhythmic understanding.

This year, I said, “You have known me since I was a little girl. Look how much older I’ve become. But you look the same now as you did then.” And I could see in my mind’s eye what I might look like at 80. Frail, thin, wrinkled skin, wiry, silver hair, squinting eyes. In a black bathing suit. Standing in the ocean up to my waist. Remembering.

******************************************************

Since the beginning of September, I have felt Guru Nanak in my arc line telling me to write about the time he and Lehna took a walk into the forest. I keep trying to write, but I am failing at it miserably. I don’t want to see it from a psychological perspective because of what it says about human nature. But here we are. Somehow, I need to get past my own resistance, and write the story as my own heart sees it.

One day when Guru Nanak was getting along in years, a yogi came to visit him. Talking with the Guru, seeing his surroundings, the devotion with which he was served, the spiritual environments, and the community of disciples, the yogi said to Guru Nanak, “Well done. You must be pleased with this spiritual life you’ve created. So many people studying with you, being your students, walking the path of self-liberation.”

Guru Nanak looked at the yogi. “Forget it,” he said. “Let me show you how many students I really have.”

So the Guru in his wisdom sent word to his followers that he was going on a walk, and that he desired his Sikhs to walk with him. In anticipation of being in the presence of their Teacher, the Sikhs gathered around his door at the appointed time. But rather than greeting the crowd warmly and fatherly, Guru Nanak stormed out his front door preceded by two huge, snarling, frightening dogs. Brandishing a large knife, his own clothes tattered, his eyes wide and terrible, Guru Nanak yelled for the Sikhs to follow him. Then, he set off at a strong pace along the road.

When he appeared in the doorway looking wild and scary, many of the Sikhs fell back at the sight. The way the Guru looked frightened them. His behavior was strange and unfamiliar. So rather than follow him, concerned for their safety and wanting to feel protected, they turned away and walked home.

However, a good many took courage and decided to follow the Guru – out of curiosity, if nothing else. After some time of walking along behind their knife-branding, wild-acting Teacher, the people began to notice bronze coins scattered on the path.

Seeing the bronze coins, some of the Sikhs stopped. They gathered as many bronze coins as they could. Pockets full, hands full, feeling lucky and happy, they turned their back on Guru Nanak, left the company of the others and went home.

Further down the road, the bronze coins disappeared. But then silver coins began to appear in their place. Excited at their good fortune, many who did not stop for the bronze stopped for the silver, instead. Expressing their joy aloud, the gathered as many silver coins as they could.

Filling their pockets, using the cloth of their clothing to create bundles, they filled themselves with silver. Happy, appreciate, grateful, content – they stopped following the Guru and returned home.

By this time the number of people walking with Guru Nanak had fallen considerably. As the party advanced down the road, the silver coins disappeared. And gold coins took their place. The remaining party almost went mad with delight. Exuberant, exhilarated, praising and exclaiming their unbelievable fortune, they stopped and gathered the gold coins. They congratulated themselves and congratulated each other for having gone so far with the Guru. For having traveled such a distance. And look how the Guru rewarded them. With pure gold! They filled their pockets, made bundles from the clothes of their body, used anything and everything available to them to collect the gold. And then they went home.

But Guru Nanak, never a backward glance, kept walking. The road was becoming wilder and wilder, and he entered into a forest. By this time he had only 4 companions. His servant Lehna, the yogi and 2 other Sikhs.

There is more to this story, More tests in the forest, But I have to stop here. Stop at this place – looking back down the empty road – where bronze, silver and gold had swept all but three of Guru Nanak’s followers away.

It is a truth that is difficult to acknowledge. Why do people follow a Teacher? Why pray? Why belong to a religion at all? All of the Masters teach about Love, about the power of the Spirit, how to find the Divine inside of oneself, how to conquer the experience and illusion of death. But for so many, for most of us, really, when the test comes, our basic animal instinct for security and comfort has more power.

What do we love? God? No. Divinity? No. What we really love is the image of our own comfort. We love our own convenience. Most religious rituals and practices, if we are honest, are done to secure for ourselves that image of comfort and convenience. We love the Earth and what is of the Earth. Because we believe the Earth is what provides our security.

Isn’t it human? Isn’t it natural? Don’t we want success, status, money and the power, the influence that comes with it? Doesn’t it give us a sense of security? Of validation? Even a sense of purpose? So in some ways we tell ourselves stories about why we follow one path or another. We deceive ourselves a little about why we are spiritual. Sometimes, gold is the real God. The God of the Americans. The God of the Indians. Even the God of the Sikhs. We claim to follow the Guru because we want to merge with the Divine. But when gold is our secret devotion, our subconscious destination, our real image of deathlessness and Divinity – then we can get a little stuck. The Guru has no problem leading us down a road where we find all the earthly wealth we could ever ask for or imagine. The problem is – gold is not HIS ultimate destination.

Bronze, silver and gold come from metals buried in the earth. It is our animal impulse, our animal instinct that sees the earth and what it is of the earth as true security. But we are not just animals. We are something different – we are blend of animal, angel and human. We have a mind, a consciousness given to us to perceive the Divine. So when those metals of the earth overpower and distract the mind, it is because we have created an internal image and belief that they are the highest power. Though there is nothing in them inherently that has any power at all.

The Guru wants to take us to a different type of experience entirely.

The spiritual path that the Guru has given to the Sikhs is to find the Deathless Reality of the Divine Light buried inside our own bodies. And to know this Deathless Light as the only Power that truly matters. It spans the cycles of birth and death. It bathes us in pure pure Love. What an amazing potential the human birth offers – to break through the blocks of our own subconscious mind and find that Infinite, Ever-Present, Loving Reality in our own hearts. Waiting to embrace us and take us home.

The security we feel when we can touch the Naam within us, the Divine Identity inside of us, is real and everlasting. It doesn’t depend on the earth – though it has the capacity to enjoy the earth, unattached. To follow the Guru to the end is to find our Selves. And when we find our Selves, then we become the living Light of the Divine on the earth – enjoying whatever the Creator brings to us without ever loosing sight of the Deathless Divinity in all.

This is something, the Guru tells us, that no money can buy. But it is the answer to the most secret longing of every soul.

Guru Nanak continued into the forest. After traveling deep into its depths, the party came across what looked like a corpse lying next to a funeral pyre. A cloth was draped over the decayed and rotting body, and the stench that arose was gut-wrenching and terrible. Guru Nanak looked at Lehna and the other two Sikhs.

“Go and eat that dead corpse,” he said.

The two Sikhs, disgusted, horrified, distraught turned and left him.

Lehna bowed. “Shall I start at the head or the feet?” he asked with humility.

“Start in the middle,” said Guru Nanak.

In the forest, we leave the realms of social reality completely behind. And the types of tests that the Guru creates – there is no psychology to explain them. What the senses perceive, what the mind reacts to. In these realms where the soul has transcended earthly attachments and enticements – still – there are issues to resolve. These are tests to go through.

But that dimension is not something one can create for oneself. That dimension requires such trust, such love, such a deep state of surrender that it can only come through grace. What the Guru was testing in that moment was his own grace. It’s difficult to describe this, impossible to put it into words. But the test was not of those who followed him into the forest. Rather, Guru Nanak was testing to see upon whom his own grace had fallen. Upon whom his own grace had been received.

Lehna went to the corpse and sat in the middle. He lifted the cloth off of the body when something miraculous happened. The corpse transformed into a beautiful langar. Taking some of the food, he offered it first to Guru Nanak. The yogi was impressed.

“This man is one with you – he is of you,” the yogi said to Guru Nanak.

Guru Nanak agreed. “He is of me, he is my very limb – that is why he shall be known as Angad. He is my own true image.”

The state of grace is a total mystery. It can take us past our senses, past our intellect and rationality, past our fear of pain and death. Who has the words to describe and explain it? Grace can cause us to do what we ourselves could never do on our own. And when that grace prevails in a person, the Heavens themselves remember.

It has been said that Guru Nanak only had one true Sikh - Lehna who became Angad. And that Guru Gobind Singh only had five – the Panj Piaray. They didn’t choose who these Sikhs were. They didn’t decide it. But when the time came, and the test was given – what the Guru was truly testing was the reality and expression of his own grace.

How can we enter into that dimension? How do we have a prayer of accessing that state of consciousness that pulls us past the animal instinct for security and convenience, the mental reaction to what the senses perceive? The gift of Amrit is the gift given by the Light of Nanak in the body of Guru Gobind Singh to give us that chance for the Guru’s grace to prevail in our lives - in the face of absolutely impossible and insurmountable odds.

May you be blessed to experience the grace of the Guru in your own life and to let it carry you far beyond what your body and mind could ever do on its own.

All Love in the Divine.

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

Guest Translation

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh.

One of the most beautiful aspects of studying Gurbani is to share ideas with other people who study it, as well. And to see all the different ways that the various souls relate to and express their understanding of the Guru's wisdom.

Inni Kaur, who many of you may know as the editor of Nishaan Magazine, recently shared her own translation of a shabad from Bhagat Namdev with me. I've posted it here for you all to enjoy.

All Love in the Divine,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

______________________________


To the seekers of Truth
I offer this translation of Bhagat Namdev’s Shabad.

Ang 485 of Siri Guru Granth Sahib Ji

Bhagat Namdev says:

My mind
Measures the
Ultimate
Destination.

My tongue
Chanting
Cuts
My sins.

The
Noose of Death
Hangs
No more.

Lineage
Caste
Gender
Meaningless.

Days
Nights
Absorbed
In the One.

I stitch
I sew.
Dyed
In Truth.

Simran
The golden needle
Truthful Living
The silver thread
Attaches me
To the One.

Inni Kaur

Anand Karaj: Lavaan: The Sikh Marriage Ceremony

There is a search that every human being goes through in life. It is a search so primal, so instinctual in us that endless songs have been sung about it. Plays written. Paintings painted. Philosophies expounded. It is an urge so strong that we are willing to lay down our lives for a taste of it. To leave the known completely behind and plunge into turbulence and chaos for it.

It is the search for Love.

And if there is one experience that can create bitterness, hatred, disappointment, or vengeance stronger than any other experience – it is when what we thought was Love disappoints us. Betrays us. Plays a game with us. I have written this before in other essays. And I write it again now. If there is ever a nuclear war, the moment that the first button for the first warhead gets pushed, the real cause behind it will be a person whose heart was simply so broken that life meant nothing anymore. And all the politics to justify it will just be the excuse.

This search for love that we play out with each other is one of the most powerful forces on earth. And yet we spend more time and energy learning how to drive an automobile than we do understanding how to manage and harness the longing for love, the pursuit of it, and the fulfillment of it.

Thank God Guru Ram Das showed us a way.

In the Engagement Shabads, Guru Ram Das gives us a way to prepare ourselves for marriage. Both the earthly marriage of husband and wife, and the heavenly marriage of the soul with the Divine One.

In the Lavaan, Guru Ram Das continues the lessons. Giving us practical instructions on the attitude one needs to have towards marriage. On the gifts that can come when the marriage is based on following the teachings of the Shabad Guru. And, by the Fourth Round, expressing the tremendous ecstasy that happens when, through marriage, we learn to merge into Love.

For the last couple of months, I have slowly been working on a translation of the Lavaan. Which is not perfect – but which I am grateful to share with you today.

What did working on this translation show me?

That society is based on the family. And if we truly want to have a peaceful, loving society, that begins with purity in the relationships between men and women. It isn’t possible that the connection and communication between men and women can be unkind, deceptive, confused, exploitive, game-playing – and then somehow there will be peace in the world. What happens at the global level is an amplification of what happens each and every day between the smallest pieces, so to speak. The simple and humble relationships that we cherish and hold most dear.

The fundamental reality that the Guru teaches is that the Light of the One dwells in all. We need to recognize it in ourselves first, and then recognize it in each other. And when our mating rituals take place in that Truth, in that Reality, then the frequency of peace and awareness it creates can bring the Divine down from the Heavens. Can cause Heaven and Earth to merge into One.

Marriage is not about what we desire. It’s not a promise that life will unfold according to our dreams, to what we want, to what we hope for. The Sikh marriage is a commitment to work out our karmas together under the Guru’s guidance, protection and instruction. That is the work that brings us to Anand – to bliss – to the state where every action reflects the reality of the soul. Not that we should be rich or not rich, have status or not, be successful in the world or not, have children or not. It’s a total surrender. We give ourselves to the Guru, we clear our karmas together, and in that process, our awareness changes, our consciousness changes, and the Love of the One is born within us. Together we merge into that Love, that One. That is where marriage can take us, if we commit to each other and to the path and teachings of the Shabad Guru.

The Anand Karaj and the Anand Sahib are also very related. Marriage is the work by which the adults realize the state of Anand. And the Anand Sahib is the guidance given by Guru Amar Das to the child about how to live life from the purity of the self. Parents and children together, as a family, as a unit, pursuing this study of how to live in the world from the reality of their own Spirit. If successful, that family unit would become so complete, so satisfied – there would be nothing outside of itself that it needed. These souls, at the Guru’s feet, clearing their karmas, building a life of truth, compassion, service and understanding. What a world would come from such a family.

What a world once came from those kinds of families.

Maybe I am idealizing a bit. I know I have a tendency to do that. But maybe for me, and for the countless people in the world who wished their upbringing could have been a little more peaceful…maybe this vision of a family developing Anand as a central part of their life…maybe that just seems like a promise of hope….for the future…

Marriage to create the security for the family that here, in this house, the Guru reigns and the blossoming of the soul’s destiny is the highest priority.

This translation is so pale and paltry compared to the original Gurmukhi. Guru Ram Das’s words are so powerful and mystical. There is so much happening in just a few words. And also between the lines – how they relate to each other and reference each other. It’s difficult to capture all that is being conveyed in translation. It’s as if Guru Ram Das is writing a ceremony of initiation into a totally different mystical reality. So please forgive if this reads too weak in places. There was no way to capture all that’s there in the original.

Here, for better or for worse, is my own humble attempt to translate the indescribably beautiful instructions of Guru Ram Das’s Lavaan.

Guru Ram Das’s Lavaan
Siri Guru Granth Sahib
Page 773-774

Oh Divine One
Within all

In this First Round
Of the marriage ceremony

We completely commit
To living a life
Filled with worldly duties
And obligations.

Darling One
Who created
The balance and union
Of the Sun
And the Moon.

The Divine Frequency
Reflected and captured in scripture
Says
Commit to Dharma –
To the path of compassionate
Truthful living.

This will allow you
To turn your back
On those habits of mind
Which bring pain
To yourself and to others.

Darling One
Who created
The balance and union
Of the Sun
And the Moon.

Commit completely
To Dharma –
To the path of compassionate,
Truthful living.

Meditate
On the Divine
Within everything

And the Divine Identity
Within yourself.

The sacred books
Say

Commit
To your Divine Identity.

The Sound of Wisdom
That takes you to Truth
Is the perfect Guide
And Teacher.

Have reverence for this Sound.
Respect and meditate on it
Always.

The painful memories
In your subconscious mind
Created from the mistakes
You’ve made,
And the harm
You’ve done
Will be destroyed.

Your life will flow
With ease.

And your inner reality
And outer reality
Will merge
In endless bliss.

By tremendous good fortune
The mind
Has become attached
To the sweetness
Of the Divine Essence
Continually present
In all.

Servant Naanak says
In the First Round
We have begun
To create
This sacred life work. (1)

Oh Divine One
Within all

In this Second Round
Of the marriage ceremony

We intermingle our being
With the Sat Guru –
The Sound of Wisdom
That guides us to Truth

And we acknowledge
This Sound of Wisdom
As our perfect protector.

Darling One
Who created
The balance and union
Of the Sun
And the Moon.

The fear in our mind
Gives into
The Fearless One

Destroying our egocentricity
Which creates so much filth
Inside us.

Darling One
Who created
The balance and union
Of the Sun
And the Moon.

Unpolluted fear
Arises

(The fear of the Inner Being
To not reach
Its destination).

We sing,
Celebrating the qualities
Of the Divine Essence
Within all.

We see
The Divine Essence
Within all

And this happens
By being in the
Presence
Of the Power
That balances and unites
The Sun
And the Moon

The Lover
And her Beloved.

The Divine Identity
Inside me
Sees that Power
In all my surroundings.

The Master of Creation
Resides complete and full
In all.

Within
And without

We intermingle our being
With that One
Infinite Lord.

As servants
Of the Divine
We sing
With absolute happiness.

Servant Naanak,
By walking
The Second Round

The Unstruck Sound
That cuts through the ego
Resounds. (2)

Oh Divine One
Within all

In the Third Round
Of the marriage ceremony

The mind
Transcends its attachments
And becomes filled
With light and love.

Darling One
Who created
The balance and union
Of the Sun
And the Moon.

The saintly servants
Intermingle their being
With the Divine

And by tremendous fortune
Come to receive
The Divine Essence
Inside themselves.

Darling One
Who created
The balance and union
Of the Sun
And the Moon.

Through the experience
Of the Divine Essence
We find
Our own purity.

Singing of the
Virtues and qualities
Of the Divine

Our own mouths speak
In the Divine Frequency.

By tremendous fortune
The saintly servants
Receive this experience
And they talk about
The Infinite, Indescribable story.

Within my heart
The Divine beats
Continuously.

The melody
Of Infinity
Grows within us

By meditatively repeating
Har
The Essence of the Divine
Within.

What an amazing destiny
Is on our foreheads
Oh Beloved One.

Servant Naanak
Declares
That in this
Third Round

The experience
Of the Divine Essence
Takes root
Inside of us,
Oh my Beloved,

And the mind
Becomes free. (3)


Oh Divine One
Within all

In the Fourth Round
Of the marriage ceremony

Through the experience
Of the Divine Essence
Inside of ourselves

The mind
Has surrendered
To the Universal Flow
And lives in ease.

Darling One
Who created
The balance and union
Of the Sun
And the Moon.

The one who flows
With the integrity
Of the Teacher’s words

Intermixes her being
Easily
With that Divine Essence.

By fixing her attention
On the Divine

Her mind and body
Are made sweet.

Darling One
Who created
The balance and union
Of the Sun
And the Moon.

Fixing her attention
On the Divine Essence
Within the Creation
Sweetness comes.

My Lord and Master
Is pleased.

Night and day
I live totally attuned
To the Divine Essence
Through Love.

The thoughts
Of the mind
Have realized
The fruit –

The Master of Creation.

The Divine
Causes
Its Identity within me
To play the music
Of the Infinite
Stronger and stronger.

The Divine Essence in all,
The Transcendent Lord,
The Coordination Consciousness

They are the One
Doing
All of this work.

The wealth
Of absolute happiness
Comes into my heart
Through the Divine Spirit
Within me.

Naanak declares
In the Fourth Round

By receiving the experience
Of the Divine Essence

We find union with
Our Invincible
Undying Lord. (4)

Personal Message in Memory of Yogi Bhajan, the Siri Singh Sahib

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh.

Sat Nam.

In the days since Yogi Bhajan, also known as the Siri Singh Sahib left his body, I've watched our community struggle and grow into the responsibility that he left on our shoulders collectively. It has and continues to be a very human process. Each person sorting through their own memories of him and the teachings he left behind, striving to come to some conclusions about what we are without his physical presence here to guide us. And what we can reasonably expect to become.

Out of love, devotion and reverence for the amazing gift that he was to us, I have often heard in the last few years, "There will never be another person like him." "We'll have to collectively become 10 times greater than him - no one person will be able to do what he did." "How can there ever be another?" And in those voices, I hear the grief and the longing. Students honoring a unique soul - a Powerful Light - who came to the earth for such a brief period of time and who spread the technology of Kundalini Yoga and the practice of Sikh Dharma to every continent in the world.

Yet, as a student, it has not sat well with me - these protestations. I remember the Siri Singh Sahib saying over and over again that the minimum requirement of a student was to become ten times greater than the teacher. He never said "collectively." He said, "minimum requirement." And in the private conversations that have no public record, the memory of how great he was has, perhaps, created in us a fear. A fear of how daunting it would be to even try to become ten times greater. And how easy it is to resort to the human habit of looking at a great soul as some kind of god, as some kind of deity - who was special, who was different, and who no one else could ever hope to match.

It is, in its own way, a challenge to our psyche as we cross this thresh-hold from Pisces to Aquarius. That we in our grief and mourning deify the man, and proclaim that there shall never be another equal to him. Even though it goes against the very grain of his teachings. Where he said that he was not special, that he was not different, that any of us could realize what he realized. That it was our destiny to become that great. And in retrospect, when we honor him by saying, "No one will ever match him," somewhere deep inside my heart I wonder if in reality that's not the greatest insult, the greatest slap in the face we could give?

1000 days after his passing, in my meditation this morning, something opened up and I saw the trick behind it. The rub, as Shakespeare would say. It's difficult sometimes to put these visions into words. But in honor of him, let me have at least a little bit of courage to try.

I remember the Siri Singh Sahib saying so many times that whatever he did had nothing to do with him at all. It wasn't by his own will or his own ego, by his own machinations or own desires that he became what he became. He gave himself to the Divine - and that Divine Hand took his life and created something magnificent out of it. Something awe-inspiring and wonderful. All he had to do was to surrender to it - and keep surrendering, stay surrendered and allow that Power to guide and create it all.

The Guru says that the Divine has no limits. So when we say there will never be another like him, we are really cursing ourselves. Saying that the Divine has a limit. That the Divine could never do better than him. That the Divine could only make a life like that once a century or once an age.

But Guru says the Divine has no limits. So if we in purity of heart - each one of us - give ourselves to the Divine completely in that same state of surrender; if we follow the words of the Guru, "Man, tan, dhan - sabh tayraa." "Mind, body and earthly possessions - they all belong to Thee;" then what limit is there in what the Creator can create with our lives? What limit is there in what we can each of us become individually? Why not collectively be a billion times greater than him? Why are we limiting that Unlimited God - when everything he taught us, everything he sacrificed in order to teach us - was to give us the chance to realize that Unlimited God within ourselves?

It isn't that by our own ego we can become anything. Or by our own manipulations and machinations we can achieve anything. We can't. But we can surrender ourselves completely to the Unlimited One and in that way - 100 people, 1000 people, a million people could become 10 times, 100 times, a billion times greater than him. In the Will of the Divine.

Isn't that what's needed right now in the world? A nation of people who can do what he did - and more?

It's the prayer I hold for all of us as we cross this threshold of the 1000 days. That we experience and realize the Unlimited One within ourselves and within each other. That we let ourselves speak, project, pray, act and serve so that we do not live in the shadow of a memory of a great man. But rather - like a million suns, trust the Guru's teachings and burst into the experience of our own Light - to be a guiding force for love, healing and peace in a dark and frightening world.

May you find the Unlimited One within your own heart and allow it to create you to become whatever It chooses you to become.

All Love in the Divine,

Sardarni Sahiba Ek Ong Kaar Kaur Khalsa
July 2, 2007

(July 2, 2007 marks the 1000th day since the Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji's Light merged with the Supreme Light. The number 1,000 symbolizes both completion and mastery. As we mark July 2, 2007, the 1,000th day since the Siri Singh Sahib’s passing, we honor the experience of completion and we also honor new beginnings. This occasion of 1,000 days marks the completion of our cycle of integration as a spiritual family. It is the completion of our group karmas and the beginning of the universal destiny in which each person exists as a subtle embodiment of the consciousness of the Dharma. - Dr. Gurucharan Singh Khalsa and Guruka Singh Khalsa.)

Engagement Shabads of Guru Ram Das

Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa, Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh.

It's been a long time coming. This particular translation. Not because it took a very long time to do. But just because it took a very very very long time to find out that this even existed. Lifetimes, probably, when you get right down to it.

In the last year, there have been a few people who have asked if I had translated the Lavaan yet. Because they wanted to use the translation for their wedding. Once you've heard a request three times from three entirely different people - you begin to get the feeling that the Universe is trying to tell you something.

Whenever embarking on a new translation project, I like to discuss the subject with my Gurbani teacher, Dr. Balkar Singh. When I asked him about the Lavaan, what he told me was that I couldn't translate the Lavaan first. What he taught me was that there are four Shabads right before the Lavaan in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib. (Starting on page 772). These shabads are written by Guru Ram Das. And they are the called the Engagement Shabads.

"You have to understand the Engagement Shabads before you can translate the Lavaan," he told me.

That was almost a year ago.

Finally, this last month, at the kind and insistent request of a friend to have the Lavaan translated for her upcoming wedding, I took a deep breath and began to read through the Engagement Shabads. Even reading other translations of them brought me to tears. They brought me to tears because in four simple stanzas, Guru Ram Das outlines the consciousness we need in order to be ready to marry. Or perhaps - more profoundly - to be able to give, receive and merge into Love. And that consciousness has nothing to do with being young and sexually desireable, or being successful and clever, or being rich and famous. The consciousness to give, receive and merge into Love has to do with stability of spirit, with surrender to the Guru's teachings, and with a profound peace in knowing that the time of these events are written for us before we're even born. There's a Hand guiding our lives - and that Hand - when we let it guide us - will guide us to merge into Love. When the time is right.

For me, passages like these Engagement Shabads work on two levels at the same time. They describe the relationship between the soul and the Divine. But they also describe the relationship between a man and a woman. Because when the relationship between a man and a woman is right, it mirrors the relationship between the soul and the One. That's why we look for completion through a partner, in my humble view of it. Not that we lack anything inside of ourselves. We don't. But somewhere inside there's a spiritual knowing that when two become one - both loose an individual identity - but gain something far greater than either could have on their own - in return.

So for better or for worse, here is my humble attempt to translate the Engagement Shabads of Guru Ram Das. It's different in places than what is traditional. Especially in the translation of the line "Bal Raam Jio." But that's maybe an essay for another time.

Guru Ram Das's Engagement Shabads

Siri Guru Granth Sahib

Page 772-773

One Spirit Beyond
Moves within the Creation –
Coordinating
Consolidating
Continually
Creating.

This understanding
Shall come to you
As a sweet blessing
As a gift
Through the Sound of Wisdom
That guides you
To Truth.

Coming under
The perfect protection
Of the Living Wisdom
That guides me
To Truth

All my defects
And vices
Have been sold

And You adorn me
With virtues.

Darling One,
Who embodies the Power
Of the Balance and Union
Between the Sun
And the Moon.

Meditating on
The continual creativity
Of Divinity
And Your Spirit
Within me


I constantly
Constantly speak
In the frequency
Of that
Divine Guiding Wisdom.

Darling One,
Who embodies the Power
Of the Balance and Union
Between the Sun
And the Moon.

The frequency
Of the Divine Guiding
Wisdom

Is always sweet.

Be attached
To that sweetness.

It destroys
The defects of the mind.

It destroys
Defects in action.

The disease
Of ego
Goes.

Fear runs away.

And the state
Of balanced
Equipoise

Of flowing ease

Mingles
Within my being.

My body
Has become
A bed

For the Sound Current
That cuts the ego

Taking me
From my Inner Darkness
To Light.

It is so
Luxuriously comfortable –

The essence
Of wisdom.

It brings me
Total pleasure.

Night and day
I constantly enjoy
Peace
Intermixing
In my being.

Naanak,
Union
Was pre-ordained
From the beginning
Of time. (1)

With love
The Father of the bride
Comes

Bringing gifts
Of Truth
And deep contentment
To arrange His daughter’s
Engagement.

Darling One,
Who embodies the Power
Of the Balance and Union
Between the Sun
And the Moon.

Meeting with
The saintly people
The families sing
In the frequency
Of the Divine
Guiding Wisdom.

Darling One,
Who embodies the Power
Of the Balance and Union
Between the Sun
And the Moon.

Singing
In the frequency
Of the Divine
Guiding Wisdom

One comes into
The most exalted
State.

Meeting with those who
In their purity
Have recognized
Their essential Union
With the Divine

One becomes
Beautiful
To behold.

Anger and
False identity
Flee
From the body.

Hypocrisy and
Doubt
Are destroyed.

The pain of ego
Departs.

Peace
Comes in.

And the body
Becomes healthy
Free of all
Sickness and
Pain.

Through the sweet gift
Of the Divine Teacher

We recognize
The Transcendent Master,
Oh Naanak,
Who is a storehouse
Of virtue. (2)

Those who follow
Their own thoughts

Are separated
From Love
By such a great
Distance.

Burning
In their own desires
They do not obtain
The Palace.

Darling One,
Who embodies the Power
Of the Balance and Union
Between the Sun
And the Moon.

Within them
Is the shell
Of the false self

Steeped in
Deception
Where the life is
Disconnected
From the soul’s reality.

Buying deception.
Taking in deception.

Darling One,
Who embodies the Power
Of the Balance and Union
Between the Sun
And the Moon.

Earning
A hypocritical existence

They suffer
So intensely.

Without the
Divine Sound of Wisdom
That leads
To the Ultimate Reality

They never find
The path.

Scattered
Dispersed

A fool
On the
Destructive road
Of doubt
And illusion

They are pulled
One way

Then pulled
Another

And their lives
Are completely ruined.

By Your own
Kindness,
Transcendent One
Who gives to all,

The Sound of Wisdom
That guides us to Truth

Brings Your perfect protection
As It intermingles
Within us.

After so many lifetimes
Of being separated
From Love

Your slave
Finally meets with You.

Naanak,
Then life becomes
Filled with ease
And blessed
With profound
Good fortune. (3)

According to the
Divine calculation

It is time
For Love
To come.

Abundance
Blessings and
Unrestrained joy
Fill the heart.

Darling One,
Who embodies the Power
Of the Balance and Union
Between the Sun
And the Moon.

The learned ones and
The teachers
Have come forward.

They sit
And study
The time
Of the Husband’s arrival.

Studying
The time
Of the Husband’s arrival

The mind
Plays in tune
With the Divine
Frequency
Of the Spirit.

And that
Song
Grows

When she hears
That her best friend
And Lover
Has come home.

The elders
Of virtue and wisdom
Sit in council

And give their blessing
That this
Perfect Marriage
Be performed.

In alignment
With the essence
Of wisdom

She receives
Her Husband Spouse

The Perfect Protector

Whose Light
Cannot be
Chased and caught

Whose vastness
Is far beyond
The reach
Of her senses.

He is always new

This Beloved Friend
Of her childhood.

Naanak,
When the kindness and compassion
Of the Divine
Comes in

These Lovers
Intermingle their beings

And those who were
Once separate

Shall never separate
Again. (4)


All Love in the Divine,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

Anand Sahib: Paurees 36-40

You!
Eyes of mine!

The Creator placed
The Divine Light
Inside of you.

There is
Nothing else
For you to see
But Divinity.

There is nothing else
For you to see
But Divinity.

And when the
Divine One
Looks back at you

And you see
The Divine Essence
In all around you

Then you have truly
Seen something!

This poisonous world
That you behold

Is really simply
The Divine
In form.

It is just
The Divine in form.

Let yourself see it
This way.

Through the blessing
And gift
Of the Divine Teacher

You will
Understand this
In the depth of your being.

Then
All that you see
Will be
The Energy
Of the One.

There is nothing else
But Divinity.

Says Naanak,
These eyes were blind.

Yet by
Intermixing and intermingling
My being
With the
True Sound of Wisdom

They became bright
With Divine Sight. (36)


You!
Ears of mine!

You were sent here
To listen deeply
To the Ultimate Reality.

You were sent here
To listen deeply
To the Ultimate Reality.

Attached to the body

Listen.
Listen
With all of your being
To that frequency
And vibration
Which expresses
The Truth.

Those who deeply listen

Their minds and bodies
Become fresh and lush
Renewed,
Healed,
Every-growing,

And their tongues
Merge with
The Essential Taste.

The Ultimate Reality
Which is
Beyond mental comprehension

To experience it
Is so awesome.

For those who are
In this state

They can't even
Talk about it.

Says Naanak,
Deeply listen
And remember
The Deathless Identity
Inside you.

Then you will be
In your
Original Purity.

Deeply listening
To the Ultimate Reality
Is what you
Have been sent here
To do. (37)


Divine One,
After you placed
The being
In the cave
Of the body

The breath
Was played
Like a musical instrument.

And as the breath
Was played
Like a musical instrument

The nine doors
Of the body
(Eyes, ears,
Nose, mouth
And the lower functions)

Opened.

But the Tenth Door

The mystical crown
Where the heavens
And earthly reality
Meet

Was kept secret.
Concealed.

Those who
Attach themselves
With trust
To the Door
Of the Teacher

For some of them,
The Tenth Door
Shall be shown.

There, the Infinite Forms
Of the Divine Spirit
Reveal themselves

And you will see
The nine treasures
As forms of the One.

There is no end
To it.

The Divine
In all Its forms
Is Limitless.

Says Naanak,
Beloved Ones,
After the Creator
Placed
The being
In the cave
Of the body

The breath
Was played
Like a musical instrument. (38)


Sing this
Wisdom Song
Of the Ultimate Reality

In the family home
Where Such Truth lives.

Sing this
Wisdom Song
In the family home
Where Such Truth lives

And there
Meditate always
On the Formless One
In all the forms.

Those who you
Rely upon,
Divine One,
They meditate
On this Ultimate Reality.

By flowing
With the Sound of Wisdom
They understand it
In the depth of their being.

This Ultimate Reality
Is the Husband
Of all.

And for those
Who are extraordinarily blessed,

They obtain Him.

Says Naanak,
Sing this
Wisdom Song
Of the Ultimate Reality

In the family home
Where Such Truth lives. (39)


Listening Deeply
To this Wisdom Song

The consciousness
Of living every breath
In tune with
The reality of the Spirit

Has appeared.

We are so
Blessed and lucky!

All of our
Wishes, hopes
And intentions
Are fulfilled.

The Great Transcendent
Lord and Master
Has been received

And we cross over
All sorrows, agony,
And afflictions.

We cross over
Suffering
Sickness
And pain

By deeply listening
To the frequency and vibration
That opens us
To the experience
Of the Formless One
In all.

The realized souls
Have adorned themselves
In their finest.

Brothers and sisters
Celebrate.

Everything is
Fulfilled and completed
Through the knowledge
That the Teacher’s
Sound of Wisdom
Brings.

Those who
Deeply Listen
To this Sound
Become Pure.

Those who speak
From that consciousness
Become Pure.

Abiding with
The True Sound of Wisdom
Everything is
Perfected.

Naanak makes
One humble request.

Attach me
To the feet
Of the Teacher

And let that Teacher
Play me
As a musical instrument

Vibrating
The subtle, silent frequency
Of the Divine. (40)


All Love in the Divine,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

Anand Sahib Translation: Paurees 31-35

Oh my business-minded mind,
Trade in the wealth
Of the Divine Essence.

Oh my business-minded mind
Trade in the wealth
Of the Divine Essence.

Through the True Sound of Wisdom
You will know
This wealth.

Let all beings
Continually meditate
And repeat
Har…Har…
The Essence of the Divine
In all.

You will earn
A profit
From doing this
Every day.

By the destiny given
By the Divine

This wealth
Comes to those
And intermixes
In their being.

Says Naanak,
Oh my business-minded mind,
Let it happen.
Trade in the wealth
Of the Divine Essence. (31)


Tongue!

No matter
What tastes
You sample

Your thirst
Is not going to go.

Your thirst
Is not going to go.

There is no other taste
Anywhere
That will satisfy you

So long as
You do not possess
The sweet taste
Of the Divine Essence
Inside you.

When you possess
That sweet taste
Of the Divine
Inside you

Drink it in.

Drink in the taste
Of your Inner Divinity.

After that,
No earthly desires
Will bind you
Again.

When the soul
Is ripe enough
For grace
To prevail

And the
True Sound of Wisdom
Intermixes
In your being

Then the sweet taste
Of the Divine
Comes.

Says Naanak,
All other tastes
Are completely
Forgotten

When the Divine
Comes
To live
In the mind. (32)

Body of mine!

The Creator put
The Divine Light
Inside you

And then you came
Into the world.

The Creator put
The Divine Light
Inside you

And then you came
Into the world.

That Divine Essence
Is Herself
The Mother

And Himself
The Father.

Through that Power
A being takes form
And the physical world
Becomes visible.

By the blessing
And gift
Of the Sound of Wisdom

You will understand this
In the depth of your being.

And then you
Will be able to go along
With the changes and turns of life -

Like a river
Flowing into
The ocean.

Going along
With the changes
And turns of life

You will come
To see
The Divine
In everything.

Says Naanak,
The foundation
Of the earth
Was fashioned

And the Divine Light
Placed inside it.

And then you
(Body of mine)
Came into
The world. (33)


When I heard
That my Beloved Lord and Master
Was on His way

My mind became filled
With a deep longing
To see Him.

Oh my dear girlfriends,
Sing happy happy songs
Of the Divine

Who has made
My home
A sacred place.

Sing
And keep singing
Joyous songs
Of the Divine
My sweet girl-friends.

Grief and pain
No longer
Have any power
Over me.

Attached
To the feet
Of the Teacher

Those days
Are blessed
With such good fortune

When my own
Beloved Husband
Appears to me.

Through the Shabad –
The Sound Current
That cuts the ego

Given by
The Sound of Wisdom

I have come to know

The subtle
Silent
Language
Of the Divine.

How I enjoy
That Creative Lord
Who dwells
Within me
As my own Spirit.

How I enjoy
The sweet taste
Of that One.

Says Naanak,
My Lord and Master
Himself
Arranges the meeting.

He is the cause
And He – the effect –
Of that Yoga

That Union

Of the Beloved
With her One True Love. (34)

Body of mine!

After coming
Into the world

What are you doing?

What consequences
Are you creating
With your actions?

What are you doing?

What consequences
Are you creating
With your actions??

You, Body,
Who has come
Into the world?

The Divine Energy
Which created
And fashioned you

The Essence of that Divinity
Does not live
In your mind.

Through the blessing
And gift
Of the Sound of Wisdom

The Divine Essence
Comes to live
In the mind.

Then,
Your latent potential
Wakes up and
Becomes manifest

And what was written
For you
As your destiny

You receive.

Says Naanak,
This body
Becomes successful

For those
Whose awareness
Remains absorbed
With the True Sound of Wisdom. (35)

All Love in the Divine,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur

Anand Sahib Translation: Paurees 26-30

After creating
The polarities
Of male and female

And through
the interaction
Of those energies,
Oh Love,

Your bring the Creation
Into a useful existence
Guided
By Your own command.

You bring the Creation
Into a useful existence
Guided
By Your own command

And You, Yourself,
Behold it.

Someone who flows
With the Sound of Wisdom

Comes to experience this
So deeply
They understand it
In the depth of their being.

To break out
Of the prison
That confines you

And become
Spiritually free

Let the Sound Current
That cuts the ego

Make Its home
In your mind.

This happens
For those who,
By Your Hand,
Divine One,
Flow
With the
Sound of Wisdom.

They are attuned
And attached
With devotion
To Thee.

Says Naanak,
You, Yourself,
Are the Hand
That creates
The Creation.

You, Yourself,
Cause us to understand
The Guiding Command
Behind it. (26)

There are so many
Books
Discussing
What is right
And what is wrong,

But they do not
Create realized people
Who know the Essence
Of the Game.

They do not
Create realized people
Who know the Essence
Of the Game.

Without the
Sound of Wisdom,
The Essence of the Game
Cannot be known.

Caught in the world
Of illusion and doubt,

Bound by the
Three qualities of
Earthiness, Fire
And Ether

They sleep.

And sleeping,
The night of their life
Passes away.

When the Teacher
Touches you
With kindness

Then you wake.

For those
Who have been awakened,
The Divine Essence
Makes Its home
In their minds.

And they speak
In the frequency
And vibration
Of remembering
Their own
Deathless Spirit.

Says Naanak,
This Essence
Comes to those who,
Day and night.
Are bound in love
Attuned to the Divine.

They wake up
And the darkness
Of their night
Passes away. (27)

Divine One,
You gave us
Your protection
When we were
In the womb
Of our mothers.

Oh my mind,
Why ever forget this?

Oh mind,
Why ever forget
Such a great Giver
Who brought us the food
To keep us alive
In the fire
Of the womb?

Nothing can touch
The one who,
Through her own
Spiritual Self-Identity
Stays attuned to Thee
Through love.

You, Yourself,
Are the Attunement.

You, Yourself,
Are the ties
That bind us to You.

The one who flows
With the Sound of Wisdom
Is always protected
And held
By Thee.

Says Naanak,
Oh mind,
Why ever forget
Such a great
Giver? (28)

As is
The fire
Inside the womb

So is the life
When we come out.

The fire
Of the Creative Play
Is one
And the same

And through it
The hand of the Creator
Fashions the games.

By Your own inclination,
Oh Love,
You come into form

And You love
Being in the midst
Of Your beautiful family.

But the devotional love
Of the soul slips away
And we become bound
By our own desires.

This happens
Under the pressures
Of the world around us.

And in this
Creative Play
We forget
The Essence of the Divine.

Infatuation arises.

And we focus on loving
Other people
Other things.

Says Naanak,
Those who are blessed
By the Sound of Wisdom

Become bound by love
Attuned to the Divine.

They live
With devotion

Even in the midst
Of the world. (29)


The Divine Essence
That lives inside of me
And inside
Everything around me

Is beyond price.

There is no power
Or wealth
That can purchase
The experience of it.

No person exists
Who has the power
Or wealth
To buy it.

Trying and failing
The world
Weeps in anguish-
Defeated.

In this state of defeat,
If you meet
The Teacher of Truth

Surrender your head
-Your intellect
-Your concept.

From within yourself
Let your ego
Go.

The One who
Owns you,
Dear,

Intermingle and
Abide
With that One.

The Divine Essence
Will come
And make Its home
In your mind.

The Divine Essence
That lives inside me
And inside
Everything around me

Is beyond price.

They are so very fortunate,
Naanak,
Who have come under
The protective Ownership
Of the Divine. (30)

All Love in the Divine,

Ek Ong Kaar Kaur